Modi wows Congress; calls US 'indespensable partner (Chayanika Saxena, South Asia Monitor)

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=inthenews&nid=17522

Despite setback, Taliban will force greater violence on Afghanistan (Chayanika Saxena, South Asia Monitor)

Taken down in a drone attack, the rehbar (leader) of Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour is reported to have been eliminated on the evening of May 21, 2016. Confirming his death, official sources placed in both the US Oval office and the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan are maintaining that Mansour was killed in the Pakistani town of Dalbandin while he was journeying back to Pakistan from Iran, ostensibly on a Pakistani passport in which he was recognized as Muhammad Wali

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=17172

Afghan cultural expressions: Resilience in the face of adversity (Chayanika Saxena, South Asia Monitor)

Inspired by an article that I recently read on the evolution of music of Afghanistan, I thought that maybe it is time to talk about how cultural expressions can become both the carriers of social, political and economic undercurrents in Afghanistan and also the very mediums to escape the turmoil that accompany them.

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=16675