Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has gone down by a fifth as compared to last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported today. Thanks in part to good local leadership coupled with a drought, the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008 showed a 19 percent decrease in opium cultivation to 157,000 hectares, down from a record harvest of 193,000 in 2007.
Pakistani and Afghan political and ethnic tribal leaders meet in Islamabad on Monday to try to agree on ways to tackle rising militant violence including the possibility of opening talks with the Taliban.
Afghanistan defeated Russia 5-4 in the final of the 2008 Homeless World Cup in Melbourne on Sunday. The Homeless World Cup is an international football tournament supporting grass roots football programs in more than 60 nations engaging 30,000 players who are homeless all year round.
Iran said on Monday it had been invited by Group of Eight president Italy to an international meeting on Afghanistan, which is also expected to be attended by the United States. Italy wants to hold a conference bringing together the world's richest countries and Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, China, and Turkey among others to find ways of bringing stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry traveled to a place that offers a vision of a different future for Afghanistan, peaceful and prosperous: the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Governor Atta Mohammad is the man who is credited with making this entire province secure enough to prosper after he helped drive out the Taliban. He is one of […]
The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan today joined colleagues in releasing 21 doves ahead of the International Day of Peace for a country which has witnessed intensifying conflict over the past year.
There is honest debate now about whether the United States should commit more troops to Afghanistan, or withdraw them. But I was part of the NPR team that covered the war in Afghanistan eight years ago and saw saw the kind of society the Taliban made in Afghanistan -- a nightmare no people should live again.
Visit a new exhibition in Kabul and see a selection of some 2,000 Afghan artifacts which were illegally smuggled out of the country during three decades of conflict and civil war, treasures altogether weighing 3.5 tons.
Little by little, individuals and organizations are creating glimmers of hope across a country steeped in war that promise Afghanistan will once again flourish someday. Here are five things happening in Afghanistan that are helping its citizens get back on their feet, and what you can do to support those efforts.
Japan pledged this week to provide $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next five years to and to speed the delivery of $1 billion for economic assistance to Pakistan pledged in April. The $5 billion will cover reconstruction programs such as support to Afghan police forces, vocational training for former Taliban soldiers, and agriculture and rural development.
Even after U.S. forces have left Afghanistan, U.S. civilians will remain to help the country build its democratic institutions and restore its agricultural economy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee this week.
Several hundred women in Kabul, Afghanistan, many holding pictures of relatives killed by drug lords or Taliban militants, held a loud but nonviolent street protest today, demanding that President Hamid Karzai purge from his government anyone connected to corruption, war crimes or the Taliban.
Late last year, after eight months of service halfway around the world, I decided to take stock of myself. By a conventional definition of being connected to the modern world, informed and up-to-date, I was woefully ignorant. I was deployed in Afghanistan, and that combat sabbatical taught a completely different regimen of vital knowledge. This […]
A leading U.S. newspaper reports U.S. geologists have discovered nearly one trillion dollars' worth of untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan. The New York Times says U.S. officials believe the vast veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, lithium, and niobium could "fundamentally alter" the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war.
Goodwill messages from the men and women of the UK Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan were delivered to the England World Cup Squad in South Africa last week. The players have been watching the DVD compiled by troops with a mix of appreciation, humility and awe. "Looking at their surroundings makes me realize how lucky […]
Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday signed a landmark trade agreement that has been heavily promoted by the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in Pakistan for a two-day visit, looked on as the Pakistani and Afghan commerce ministers sealed the deal in Islamabad. The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, […]
From traditional instruments to rock guitars – the Afghan National Institute of Music gives disadvantaged children the chance to play a part in the resurgence of music in Afghanistan, which was widely banned under the Taliban regime as un-Islamic.
Thanks to a Food for Education program, the United States will donate 11,000 tons of rice, vegetable oil, yellow peas and lentils valued at more than $21 million for projects to help feed 390,000 children in Haiti and Afghanistan, it was announced Friday.
Hidden cameras have revealed the existence of a surprisingly healthy population of rare snow leopards living in the mountainous reaches of northeastern Afghanistan, according to a new study. The wonderful discovery gives hope to the world's most elusive big cat