US General Stanley McChrystal said last week that there had been "enough fighting" in Afghanistan. And he said a political solution in the war-torn country was "inevitable". His remarks came as the top UN envoy in Kabul said it was time to talk to the militants. Afghan and Pakistani leaders are in Turkey to discuss tackling the Taliban-led insurgency in their countries.

Both Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, attended an international conference on Afghanistan in London last week. Gen McChrystal has said the arrival of the extra 30,000 US troops pledged by President Obama and the additional 7,000 troops promised by other Nato countries should deliver significant progress in 2010.

And he said that a political solution to the conflict was inevitable. Afghan President Karzai told the BBC last week of his desire for reconciliation. He did not rule out a role for the Taliban in a future Afghan government.

Susan Osman invites guests to discuss the U.S. role in Iraq and Afghanistan. What has China's perspective been? Was the US-led invasion of Iraq legal or illegal? What of post-war governance?

As we reported earlier this week, the news that US geologists have discovered vast mineral wealth in Afghanistan is being widely discussed here in China.

That's right. Pentagon officials say their find suggest Afghanistan could become one of the most lucrative mining areas in the world.

An estimated $1 trillion US dollars worth of untapped minerals have been discovered, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium.

This isn't just a big deal for Afghanistan and the US. It's also a big deal for China, which shares a border with the war-torn country. Let’s cross to the newsroom now where our researcher Quincy Hsiao has been following the online Chinese reaction to this news.

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The international outcry over the shooting dead of at least nine pro-Palestinian activists by Israeli commandos is being hotly debated online here in China.

The activists died when Israeli commandos raided the ship they were on early on Monday .Israel says its troops acted in self-defense, but campaigners deny this.

The incident has sparked widespread concern and led to calls for Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel has maintained control of Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, as well as most of its land borders, since withdrawing troops and settlers from the territory in 2005.

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The news that gunmen have kidnapped two Chinese engineers – along with four Afghans - in the northern Faryab province of Afghanistan has sparked a heated debate here in China. The engineers had been working on a road project in the area with a Chinese company when they were kidnapped on Saturday. The Taliban has since claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. This case has grabbed lots of attention from Chinese net users.