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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

MA’SUM GHAR, Afghanistan — One of Afghanistan’s top field commanders wants Canada to provide his troops with better weapons to fight the Taliban. For the past year, Lt.-Col. Shereen Shah Kohbandi’s 2nd Kandak (battalion) has been roaring into battle in Ford Ranger pickup trucks while their Canadian brothers-in-arms ride in …

KABUL: Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old boy was oblivious to the infection running through his veins. But his father, a burly farmer, now a widower and father of four, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife, the boy’s mother, …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – The Taliban said on Sunday they had handed a kidnapped Italian journalist to tribal leaders, but added they would recapture him unless all their ransom demands were met by the Afghan government. confessed to spying for British troops, on Saturday extended a deadline to kill him …