Reuters’ Kabul sets international agenda with big beats on the key foreign policy story of the Obama administration.

When Taliban fighters attacked the centre of Kabul on January 18 in their biggest raid on the capital in nearly a year, Reuters was first with the key developments and constantly cited by broadcasters. Our photographs dominated newspapers around the globe, and our stories included exclusive details from the scene that explained the extent of the attacks and what they showed about security in the capital. Reuters broke news that Swedish diplomat Staffan di Mistura had turned down an offer of the post of head of the U.N. mission in Kabul, unraveling efforts to unveil a new team of civilian representatives for the international community at a conference in London. On January 24 we were first to report Afghanistan’s decision to postpone a parliamentary election by three months, an important step sought by Western donors who want to avoid a repeat of fraud in last year’s presidential vote. Other news organizations rushed to match the Reuters story. On the same day our Kabul bureau obtained the draft communique of the London conference, revealing plans for Afghans to take the lead in security in some provinces by early 2011, paving the way for U.S. troops to start withdrawing. Broadcasters broke into news bulletins to tell the story, once again citing Reuters.