What Alternative i have???

19 people arrested in PRT bombing...

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Police had arrested 19 people for allegedly bombing Baghlan-based Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), which left two Dutch soldiers injured on Thursday.

Doutch Soldier Wounded BADLY!

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Yesterday on 26th May, two Dutch soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in the northern Baghlan province on Thursday. The bomb was planted on the Pul-i-Khumri -Kunduz Highway.

The wounded soldiers were part of the Provincial Re-construction Team (PRT) working under the NATO-led international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan.

Still ther is now clear news from this incident but eyewitnesses said they heard a big bang and saw the soldiers' vehicle aflame.

As far as Karzai had an speach to Afghan Official for forgiving the Taliban leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar + Gulbidin Hikamtiar ( a Islamic fundamentalist leader). Talian increased thier atacks in highways and remote areas even for innocent people, they call them guilty to have help with government.

Vote for the first Afghan blogger to win the Blog Awards!

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Vote for the first Afghan Blogger!
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An Afghan blogger who blogs from inside Afghanistan is selected to International competition of Freedom Blog Awards in RSF.

Reporters Without Borders is calling on Internet-users to vote online for award-winners from among 60 blogs defending freedom of expression. There are six categories: Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Iran and International: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=&lang=en

Blogs have become significant sources of news for millions of Internet-users. blogs can relay comments, articles and opinions that are not necessarily broadcasted by the major media. Although, weblogs are not a major medium of communication in Afghanistan but this demonstrates Afghans endeavor for freedom. Sohrab Kabuli (Pen name) http://kabuli.org has paid heavily for free expression.

Please take a moment and register your vote here:
To Vote: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=lang&id=4〈=en
To Vote: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=1〈=en

Select the "shared Pain"(http://www.kabuli.org); enter your E-mail address – it’s compulsory.

Each Internet-user may vote for only one blog in each category. Please note: your vote will only be counted if you click on the acknowledgement of receipt which will be sent by email. Voting closes on 1st June 2005 and the prize-winners will be announced two weeks later.

Related materials:
Afghan Journalists Awarded for their hard work towards free speech
Free Kambakhsh!
Eventi a cui ha partecipato Nasim Fekrat - Audio
Nasim in Val di Susa
Una mattina a Siena per la libertà in Afghanistan- Video+picture
Tactic: Afghan blogger wins free speech award

Why I am the Freedom of Expression Award Winner?

Afghan Lord awarded the freedom of expression blog awards in Reporters Without Borders.

Seven Afghan Killed in Highway

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Six Afghan aid workers were shot dead by suspected Taliban militants Thursday on the Kabul- Kandahar highway in the southern province of Zabul, when they were transporting a body of a man who was killed in neighbouring Helmand a day before.

Zabul governer said to media that this atack was from Taliban.
Officials have not as yet released the identity of the people killed in either incidents or the aid group they were working for.

The attack comes a day after three engineers, working for a US funded anti-drugs project in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, their driver and a policeman were ambushed and killed by suspected Taliban militia.

Officials added that the workers were involved in providing agricultural incentives to poppy farmer’s in the highest poppy yielding region in Afghanistan.
The bodies of the five people were transferred to hospital in Kalat city.

Italian Woman Kidnapped In Kabul

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Still no sign of Italian relief worker kidnapped in Afghan capital
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Four armed men dragged an Italian woman working for CARE International from her car in the center of Afghanistan's capital on Monday in a bold kidnapping that reinforced fears that militants or criminals are copying tactics used in Iraq.
The kidnapping followed warnings from security agencies that foreigners might be targeted in response to the arrest of a suspect in the kidnappings of three U.N. election workers last year.
A group of "thieves" claimed responsibility for the abduction of aid worker Clementina Cantoni, 32, said Gen. Jamil Jumbesh, head of the Interior Ministry's anti-terror division. He declined to say whether the group had made demands or give other details.
"Four men carrying Kalashnikovs bashed in the window of her car and took her away. They told the driver not to move or he would be shot," said CARE's director, Paul Barker.
The driver had just dropped a Canadian former CARE employee at a house in Kabul's downtown Shahr-e-Naw district when the kidnappers driving a sedan cut off the vehicle and abducted the Italian at about 8:30 p.m., Barker said. The kidnappers then drove toward a nearby Christian cemetery, he said.
Afghan authorities, including President Hamid Karzai, were quickly alerted to the kidnapping after the Canadian woman made a panicked call to Barker, the director said. She made it safely into the house but heard the attackers banging on the car, he said.
Marco Formigoni, a family friend, spoke to reporters outside the Cantoni family home in an upscale Milan neighborhood, relaying the family's hope "that this affair ends quickly and well."
Security forces manning checkpoints through the night found no trace of Cantoni, Gen. Mahboubullah Amiri, a police commander in the Afghan Interior Ministry, said Tuesday.
"They are searching cars and asking the drivers for their documents, but there are no positive signs so far," Amiri said.
It was the second kidnapping of a CARE worker by suspected militants in recent months. Margaret Hassan, the British director of CARE International in Iraq, was kidnapped in Baghdad in October and believed killed, although no body was recovered.
In Kabul, security forces immediately sealed off all main roads leading out of Kabul, said Jamil Khan, head of the criminal investigation department for the city's police. Officers stopped and searched cars in the city center, checking trunks and under seats.
"Police are trying very hard to produce some good news," Khan said.
Cantoni has lived in Afghanistan since 2002, said CARE, one of the largest and most established international aid groups in the country. The organization issued a brief statement calling for her release.
In Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said a crisis unit that has handled past abductions of Italians abroad was working on the case, and that Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini was following the situation.
Relations between the United States and Italy have been strained over the March 4 shooting death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari — who had just helped free an Italian hostage — by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in Baghdad.
The abduction follows a string of warnings to the roughly 3,000 foreigners living in Kabul that they could be targeted in attacks, including kidnappings.
On May 7, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an Internet cafe in the same area as Monday's abduction, killing a U.N. worker from Myanmar. Last month, an American civilian was briefly abducted in Kabul but escaped by throwing himself from a moving car.
Kabul had been largely free of the fear of the kind of kidnappings rife in Iraq until October, when three U.N. election workers — one each from the Philippines, Northern Ireland and Kosovo — were seized at gunpoint in the city. They were released unharmed a month later.
A Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, though officials and diplomats have suggested criminals — possibly working for factions that oppose the growing authority of the U.S.-backed government — were responsible.
The kidnapping of Cantoni follows a series of violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan sparked by a report in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and had flushed one copy down the toilet to get detainees to talk.
The magazine said Monday it was retracting its report. Newsweek acknowledged Sunday there were errors in the story and said a government source told the magazine he could not now be sure that he saw an account of the toilet reference in a military report.
The report prompted demonstrations in dozens of Afghan cities, and about 15 people were killed in clashes with security forces. Protesters also attacked offices of the government, the United Nations and a string of foreign relief organizations.

By the Kabul River

Removing the Nave bar

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Hello! Finally i overcame to XML codes. I was trying to find out how to remove the Nave bar.

I really did not like to observe the Nave bar although i respect for Blogger service and did not remove the Blogger sign in the right side of my blog. If anyone need help for teachniclly to remove this things i hope to help him. (:

American Marines Killed

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Twenty-three combatants and two American Marines were killed in a fierce gun-battle in the eastern province of Laghman, the US military said on Monday.

The fatalities took place Sunday evening when the Marines - backed by warplanes - clashed with a group of 25 militants in a Laghman area, 50 kilometer northwest of Jalalabad, the military said in a press release issued here earlier.

US spokesman Col. James Yonts, without revealing as to how many suffered injuries in the intense fighting, put the death toll for the fighters at a dozen and said two Marines were also shot dead in the five-hour fight.

But a revised statement released to the media later in the day explained the Marines, after receiving intelligence, rushed to the area to flush out the rebels hiding there. As the soldiers maneuvered toward the insurgents, they came under attack with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

During the course of the fighting lasting five hours, the statement claimed, the fighters split into two groups - one fleeing to a nearby village and the other burrowing into a cave on a ridgeline.

In recent weeks, Taliban and their allies have stepped up attacks on Afghan army troops and US-led coalition forces in different parts of Afghanistan. Scores of combatants and 10 government soldiers were killed last week in fierce clashes in southern provinces, including a clash in Zabul.

Despite coalition forces' assertions that insurgents had been considerably weakened in the wake of crippling military operations, recent weeks have witnessed a palpable surge in violence.

Belying coalition claims, the fighters killed a US soldier in the central Uruzgan province on April 26 in a daring ambush, followed by two days of a high-casualty clash in Zabul.

Not having access to the Internet

Hello to all. I am sorry for not updating this page. I was not in Kabul and did not have access to the Internet. I went to remote area to visit a few friends who are working for a local radio station. I just opened this page now and realized, through page meter which counts numbers of visitors, that I have to regularly post things here, will do it regularly from now on.

Father killed his son

On Friday a father killed his 18-year old son in the northern province of Baghlan on when he was drunk.

Ghulam Dastageer, a senior police official in told to Media that 18-year old Gul Hussain died after he was seriously wounded by his father who shot him in the stomach. Hussain died at home after being brought home from the hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

"Evidence points to the fact that Shah Hussain, the father, a commander of the former armoured division no 20 was behind the killing." He didn’t elaborate but said they would investigate the case after traditional mourning ceremony was over.

Neighbors and friends of the boy who all refused to be quoted insisted that the father had killed the boy. However hospital officials in the capital of Pul e Khumri city quoted the father as saying that his son was mistakenly shot when he was cleaning his gun.
Shah Hussain still carries arms and is escorted by his personal body guards despite being disarmed by the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration process according to locals.

Such killings have not been unusual in Baghlan over the last three months. Three similar cases were reported, two of them the killing of fathers by their sons and the third the killing of a son by his father.

from Butchery in first days of the summer (in Kabul)

Having an Airport for the first time

The southeastern city of Gardiz, the capital of Paktia province will have its first airport for civilian and military flights within three months.

This Funded by the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS), the airport will be constructed at a cost of $370,000.

An airport terminal will be constructed and the road leading upto it will be widened from the current five meters to 10 metres to make space for the additional traffic

So far, most of the people who wanted to fly to Arab countries preferred Pakistan than Kabul due to many problems relating to flights from Kabul.

Warns of attacks

A top military commander of US-led coalition forces, claiming several senior Taliban leaders were in talks with them, warned on Saturday of a surge in militant attacks.

According to Barno, the moderate camp is willing to join the ongoing national reconciliation effort initiated by President Hamid Karzai - trying to map a route to stability in his country.

"In coming six to nine months, the radical Taliban will increase their militant activity to make their presence felt in the media," said the commander, who voiced optimism the former ruling militia would lose much of its strength in a year.

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Local police arrested an attacker who shot injured a man in this eastern provincial capital city yesterday.

The assailant, Ghulam Ahmad, pumped four bullets into Gul Saeed from Kunar at an intersection in Jalalabad the people who were witnessing the incident said this to media.

Dr. Almas Sherzad said Gul Saeed had been administered medical aid, and that he has received no serious injuries. "One of his kidneys has been hurt slightly."

Gas Project

Work on a three-way gas pipeline project, long delayed by security concerns, will get under way in December
Construction work on the $3.2 billion project, carrying Turkmenistan's natural gas to Pakistan via Afghanistan, would begin by the close of the current year, Mines Minister Eng. Mir Mohammad said yesterday in a press conference.

Completion of the project would take almost three years, he said, adding the meeting in Pakistan's capital city that concluded on Wednesday, discussed the security situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan's growing energy needs and Turkmenistan's willingness to export the gas.

Ministry advisor, the pipeline will have a length of 1700 kilometer and a diameter of 56 inches. About a 750-km portion of the pipeline will run cross Afghanistan.

Security problem in Afghanistan

Yesterday local news confirmed that Taliban had killed a senior irrigation department official, who was kidnapped one day earlier.
The person whom killed named Sirajuddin. He was kidnapped from his residence located outside of Mosa Qalal an area in the south.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Latif Hakimi said he was unaware of the kidnapping.

Recently Taliban moving around quickly to ignore the security in the region in one hand but In another hand Karzai and his Cabinet are trying to talk to Taliban to bring them back to government to give them rights and security. But, people among this deal are very scared and afraid to see the Taliban with their white turban in capital street. The Taliban who killed the innocent people and left an objectionable face to people.

In the other side, groups and parties are getting movement to tackle the Karzai government. That is very silly when Yonous Qanoni an opposites Karzai government pointed yesterday in Afghan TV that "Karzai's government is not successful to peace and security".
I do not know how can i say that Qanoni is a bloody guy which image his devil strategy among his funs. The person who was pointed his gun to innocent people and nowadays asking for help and support.

Anti-polio drive from 10th

A second phase of the nationwide polio campaign is scheduled to commence from April 10, a Health Ministry official said on Saturday.
Almost 6.6 million children of five years of age or below would be administered polio drops during the three-day drive in Afghanistan.

Afghan copter crash death toll rises to 18
read more here

World bids farewell to Pope
Thousands pour out hearts at funeral for one of the most celebrated popes
read more here

New Iraqi President Sworn In;

New Iraqi President Sworn In; Jaafari Is Named Prime Minister
Read more here

Inmate found with assistant warden's wife says he's 'hostage-taker'
Read more here

Why Afghanistan begs Bush not to move US envoy to Iraq?

US media have said Khalilzad, who has been Bush's special envoy to Kabul since late 2001 and was made US ambassador to Afghanistan in 2003, will be nominated for a similar mission in Iraq in coming months.
Khalilzad was widely credited with saving Afghanistan's first presidential election from disaster in October after opposition candidates threatened to boycott the results following allegations of fraud. Read more here

what Afghan President Hamid Karzai says???:
"The Afghan government... must be better informed about, and play its due role in, steering the development process."

"the ultimate body accountable to the Afghan people".

"The government must become the anchor for a more integrated, transparent and accountable development effort."

Election pledge
The three-day conference is focusing on spending strategy rather than aid pledges.
It began a day after the Afghan government announced its budget for the coming year, in which one-third of the $4.75bn sum is to be spent on security.
About 93% of the budget comes from foreign donations.
Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady said the government would address international concerns over the transparency of spending, but added: "I urge all of you to channel most of your resources through our budget." Read the complate article here

Afghan National Sport (Buzkashi)

Buzkashi, which literally translated means "goat grabbing" is the national sport of Afghanistan. Many historians believe that Buzkashi began with the Turkic-Mongol people, and it is indigenously shared by the people of Northern Afghanistan. There are two main types of Buzkashi, Tudabarai and Qarajai. Tudabarai is relatively simple compared with Qarajai, even though they share similar objectives.

In Buzkashi, a headless carcass is placed in the center of a circle and surrounded by the players of two opposing teams. The object of the game, is to get control of the carcass and bring it to the scoring area. Although it seems like a simple task, it is not. Only the most masterful players, (called chapandaz) ever even get close to the carcass. The competition is fierce, and the winner of a match receives prizes that have been donated by a sponsor. These prizes range from money, to fine turbans and clothes. In order for someone to become a chapandaz, one must undergo a tremendous amount of difficult training. In fact, the best chapandaz, are usually over the age of forty. Buzkashi, is definitely not a game for the weak.
The players are not the only ones who undergo arduous training; the horses that participate in buzkashi must train for five years before ever making it to the playing field. Buzkashi, is indeed a dangerous sport, but intensive training and excellent communication between the horse and rider can help minimize the risk of injury.
The different types of Buzkashi: Tudabarai & Qarajai
In Tudabarai, in order to score, the rider must obtain possession of the carcass and then carry it away from the starting circle in any direction. The rider must stay free and clear of the other riders.

In Qarajai, the task is much more complex. The player must carry the calf around a marker, and then return the carcass to the team's designated scoring circle.

In each version of the game, points are awarded for successfully completing the task of getting control of the carcass, and getting it to the proper scoring area. The winner of each match receives prizes which have been put up by a sponsor. The top prizes are usually money, or fine clothes.
To many Afghans, Buzkashi is not just a game, it is a way of life; a way in which teamwork and communication are essential to being successful.