Price Of A Deal
Musharraf may have bent backwards in a bid to make his country the standard bearer of the US in the region. Of course, there are financial rewards for Pakistan, but the fear of a fundamentalist backlash continues to keep the nation on tenterhooks.

Circle Of Death
Violence fuelled by bigotry and foreign money brought the Taliban to power. Now as things come full circle the Islamic militia may meet an equally brutal end.

Afghanistan 1978-2001
Its women once enjoyed social freedom, and there was joy and peace. It is now a country perverted by the missionaries of a grim utopia. A social history in pictures.

COVER STORY: WAR DIPLOMACY

OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM

	World's most powerful war machine with US supercarriers, bombers and copters
	F-15E EAGLE: Flies at up to 2.5 mach with a range of over 6,000 km. Carries precision bombs.
	CARRIER BATTLE GROUP: Comprises six warships with 80 fighters, bombers and helicopters on board.
	TOMAHAWK MISSILE: A hi-explosive cruise missile with 1,100-km range.
	F-16 FIGHTING FALCON: Multi-role fighter armed with missiles and precision bombs.
	F-117 A STEALTH FIGHTER: Carries a lethal punch of precision-guided missiles and bunker-busting bombs.
	B-1 BOMBER: Ground-attack aircraft armed with laser-guided bombs and beyond visual range (BVR) missiles.
	GBU-28 BOMB: A bomb that can penetrate 20 ft of concrete slabs.
	B-52 STRATOFORTRESS: World's largest bomber. Carries 25 tonnes of bombs and 20 cruise missiles with 14,000-km range.
	ATTACK SUBMARINES: Nuclear powered, armed with cruise missiles.
	F-18E SUPER HORNET: Carrier-based fighter armed with smart bombs and BVR missiles
	ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS: Used for ferrying troops to the battlefront.
	STINGER MISSILES: Short-range missile used against low-flying aircraft.
	With more than 3,000 crack troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, the US juggernaut is expected to steamroll the Taliban forces. General Winter may be the only opposition.

	Taliban's Soviet era arms are exceeded in vintage by its medieval ideology
	MIG-21 FISHBED: The backbone of Soviet supplied air forces. Armed with rockets and cannons and a 1,000-pound free-fall bomb. The Taliban has fewer than five of these 1950s vintage fighters.
	SUKHOI-22: Armed with free-fall bombs, cannons with 1,500-km range. The Taliban has nine such ground-attack aircraft.
	T-55 MAIN BATTLE TANK: Belongs to the 1950s. Armed with 100 mm gun with a 400-km range.
	T-62 TANK: Upgraded version ofT-55 TANK. The Taliban has a combined total of 500 tanks.
	SCUD 'B' MISSILES: Deliver a one-tonne payload over a range of 300 km. The Taliban has 25 such missiles.
	MI-35 ATTACK HELICOPTERS: Used for anti-personnel operations. The Taliban has five helicopters of doubtful service ability.
	ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS: Used for swift and safe troop deployment. The Taliban has nearly 50 of these.
	STINGER MISSILES: A US gift to the mujahideen during the 1980s.The Taliban has a few dozen of them.
	With its vintage tanks and guns, the Taliban lacks the capability in conventional warfare. But it can trouble the American forces through guerrilla warfare.

—Compiled by Sandeep Unnithan

MetroScape

Fort Of Arms
In the 16th century, a Portuguese governor fortified a strategically located house to defend ships in the harbour of an island on the west coast of India acquired from the Sultan of Gujarat. Mumbai grew first into a fort and then into a city from here.
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Looking Glass

Delhi Photography:
Pradeep Bhatia

Delhi Music Concert: Pandit Ram Chatur Mallick Dhrupad Foundation

Delhi Sculpture: Sculpter Hemi Bawa