Nearly two years after the Taliban’s ouster from Kabul, a resurgence in its activities and cross-border operations have posed a new threat to eastern and southern Afghanistan and a new diplomatic challenge in American dealings with Pakistan, Bush administration officials said this week. The officials said that they were hopeful that American military operations would push the Taliban back, and that an increase in economic assistance would pull people away from the Taliban. But they said those efforts would take time. Zalmay Khalilzad, recently confirmed as the United States ambassador to Afghanistan, said Tuesday that the Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai needed to provide “more services and more presence” in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s attacks are occurring. Full Story