At a campaign rally in York, Pa., Sunday, the vice president hammered Mitt Romney's foreign policy.

Democrats hope to draw contrasts with the Republican ticket, as the wars received little attention during the GOP convention.

Afghanistan is getting short shrift from both parties this election year, the country's former envoy to America told The Hill.

The Treasury Department will send a top official to Switzerland this week to discuss tightening sanctions against Syria. 

The effort comes as the administration faces criticism from Republicans that it is not doing enough to support forces rebelling against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Read more...

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wrote to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday blasting the country's blasphemy law following the arrest of a young Christian with an intellectual disability for allegedly burning pages of the Koran.

The senators write that the law's application to religious minorities violates their rights and called on Zardari's government to ensure their safety. The letter also asks for the girl, Rimsha Masih, to be released from jail; she could face life in prison or even the death penalty under Pakistani law.

“While we do not condone the destruction of any religious document or artifact or the defamation of any religion,” the letter states, “the application of Pakistan's blasphemy law undermines the State's obligation to protect the rights of all religious groups in Pakistan and in fact has repeatedly been used to harass and intimidate members of minority religious groups.” Read more...

Australia on Friday vowed to see its mission in Afghanistan through to its conclusion at the end of next year despite suffering its worst military losses since the Vietnam war, Agence France-Presse is reporting.

Three Australian troops were shot by an Afghan colleague in so-called “green-on-blue” violence and two others died in a helicopter crash within 24 hours this week. Defense Minister Stephen Smith, however, said the country would continue with its mission to progressively transfer power to Afghan forces in Uruzgan province, saying an immediate withdrawal would “increase the risk” of a Taliban resurgence.

“It doesn’t do anything to my resolve to stay the course,” Smith reportedly told reporters in Australia, “because staying the course is absolutely the right thing to do.”

Read more...

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds talks in the Cook Islands today as the most senior U.S. official ever to attend the Pacific Island Forum, as the United States re-engages with long-ignored countries as part of its “pivot to Asia.” [AFP]

Election Day: Voters in Angola are expected to allow president Jose Eduardo dos Santos to extend his 32-year rule when they go to the polls today.[BloombergBusinessweek]

The World Bank, citing a 10 percent hike in food prices in July, urged world governments on Thursday to burnish their support programs for the poor.

With stark droughts in both the U.S. and Eastern Europe, the bank said that the prices of wheat and maize both jumped by a quarter from June to July, while soybean prices rose by about a sixth.

In all, the bank’s food price index said world prices had grown by 6 percent since last July.

Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president, said that his organization was giving its most support to world agriculture in two decades, spending more than $9 billion in the fiscal year that finished at the end of June. 

Kim added that residents of Africa and the Middle East were most vulnerable, and that the World Bank is ready to go further, if necessary. But he also said governments needed to ensure their own safety nets were strong enough.

Gen. Martin Dempsey said bluntly that he does not want to be “complicit” if Israel chooses to attack Iran, as he put more distance between the United States and Israel over a potential attack.

Speaking to reporters in London, Dempsey reiterated the U.S. position that an Israeli attack on Iran would "clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran's nuclear program.”

“I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it,” Dempsey said, according to The Guardian.