Afghanistan's departing president, Hamid Karzai, used his final speech to his cabinet and senior staff members to make a bitter swipe at the United States and some of its Western allies on Tuesday, blaming them for many of the country's ongoing problems. "America did not want peace for Afghanistan, because it had its own agendas and goals here," he said. "I have always said this: that if America and Pakistan want peace, it is possible to bring peace to Afghanistan."

It was the kind of dossier that the Taliban often publish, purporting to show the carnage inflicted during a raid by American forces: photographs of shattered houses and bloodied, broken bodies, and video images of anguish at a village funeral, all with gut-churning impact and no proof of authenticity.

Lashing out in anger at the rise of a virtual Taliban embassy in Qatar just a day before, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Wednesday broke off critical security talks with the United States and then scuttled a government peace delegation to the insurgents.

President Hamid Karzai has ordered Afghan forces to take control of the American-built Bagram Prison and accused American officials of violating an agreement to fully transfer the facility to the Afghans, according to a statement issued by his office on Monday.

Women visiting relatives at a notorious men s prison on the edge of Kabul have in recent weeks been subjected to invasive body-cavity searches at the order of the prison s commandant, who has told guards and American officials that the measure is needed to keep out contraband, Western and Afghan officials said.