NATO beefs up Afghan police training as 2014 looms

NATO will extend the length of its police training course across Afghanistan from October as it takes aim at staggeringly low literacy rates and corruption among the force before all security is handed over to the Afghans by the end of 2014.

The NATO-led alliance has been training members of the 126,000-strong Afghan National Police since 2009. Afghan police had long been viewed as inept and lagging behind the training of the army, which was the focus of foreign instruction efforts since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. (Reuters)