U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says if the Congress does not approve additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-April, without special conditions, the department will have to make cuts that could affect troop training and deployments. VOA’s Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon. Secretary Gates began …
Read More »Call to control drug export from Afghanistan
UNITED NATIONS, March 22: The United Nations drug Czar said on Wednesday that corruption must be stamped out and borders strengthened to run emerging Afghan drug cartels out of business, particularly in the new ‘Golden Triangle’ of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Read More »AFGHANISTAN: Record numbers enrol in new school year
Photo: IRIN Thousands of girls go to school in Kabul KABUL, 21 March 2007 (IRIN) – Schools in Afghanistan will open their doors to more than six million pupils at the start of the new academic year on 24 March – almost double the number of the past five years. …
Read More »Freed reporter tells of murder
Freed reporter tells of murder      Mastrogiacomo was met by his wife and children at Ciampino airport in Rome [AFP] Daniele Mastrogiacomo, the Italian journalist freed on Monday after being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan, has described how he was forced to watch his chauffeur …
Read More »india funds new power projects in Afghanistan
ndia is funding the construction and reconstruction of various power projects in Afghanistan. Some of these are: Construction of 220kV double circuit transmission line of 202 km from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul and a 220/110/20kV substation in Kabul, Afghanistan, at an estimated cost of Rs 478 crore. It involves the construction …
Read More »AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR increases cash grant for repatriation
Photo: IRIN Refugees arrive in Kabul in brightly coloured vehicles KABUL, 20 March 2007 (IRIN) – Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan will receive a six-fold increase in cash grants upon their return to Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). “We want to support the reintegration …
Read More »AFGHANISTAN: Floods and avalanches kill dozens and displace hundreds
Photo: WFP Destruction and damage left by flooding KABUL, 20 March 2007 (IRIN) – More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds displaced because of heavy rainfall, avalanches and floods over the past few days in Afghanistan’s southern and south-western provinces, officials say. In Uruzgan, Helmand, Badghis and Ghor …
Read More »Winning Afghan hearts and splitting hairs
KABUL – Amid political bickering in Washington and Brussels, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which assumed command of international military operations for Afghanistan last October, is struggling to assert a new image – one that Afghans can get their minds around. “We are determined to build the NATO brand …
Read More »Afghans admit doing deal with Taliban to free Italian hostage
The Afghan government admitted yesterday it had struck a deal with Taliban kidnappers to secure the freedom of an Italian hostage. An Italian aid agency said Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a journalist with La Repubblica newspaper, was freed only after five Taliban militants had been released from prison.President Hamid Karzai’s spokesmen admitted …
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