NEWS
June 10, 2002
THE GOOD NEWS about politics in Afghanistan is that it is now actually possible for things to get worse. This week, 1,501 delegates to the loya jirga - or grand council - will get together in Kabul to form a government to run the country for the next two years. Beset by warlordism, drought, tardy aid donors, continued fighting against roving Taliban units, and the lack of an army to call its own, Afghanistan has nonetheless gotten this far and just might keep going. Hamid Karzai, the interim leader, wields no real power outside his capital, but has been able to persuade various regional strongmen that it is in their interests to go along with his program.
NEWS
May 3, 1992
The installation of a broad-based interim government in Kabul marks the end of the last hot war fought by Third World surrogates of superpowers in the Cold War. Whatever fighting continues is among the victors.Sibghatullah Mojaddidi, who took over as president of the interim council for two months, led the least formidable of the seven exiled political parties in Pakistan. He was chosen as a compromise by stronger rivals. Like most Islamic intellectuals of Afghanistan, he studied in Egypt.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Dan Fesperman and Dan Fesperman,Sun Staff | February 8, 2004
The Swallows of Kabul, by Yasmina Khadra. Doubleday. 208 pages. $18.95. Most people of Kabul never got used to the idea of the Taliban running their lives. Even after enduring two decades of war, they weren't ready for the brand of peace offered by ultra-conservative Islamic scolds from the sticks. Taliban severity reduced women to caged and silenced birds, subject to beatings for the slightest indiscretion. Men also lived in fear of punishment and execution, lest their piety be called into question.
NEWS
By LOS ANGELES TIMES | May 22, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide car bomber struck near a U.S. military base yesterday, killing at least two people, and a U.S. soldier was reported killed in fighting with insurgents in southern Afghanistan. A car accident apparently prevented the suicide bomber from reaching his intended target, believed to be a store frequented by foreigners on the outskirts of Kabul, said Yousuf Stanizai, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry. The target also might have been U.S. or NATO forces that have bases on the same road, Stanizai said.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service | June 17, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber driving a taxi set off his explosives near a convoy of American civilian contractors and accompanying soldiers yesterday morning, killing himself and four bystanders, the Kabul police said. One of his intended targets was wounded. Within hours, U.S. soldiers fired into a crowd of Afghans near the scene of the blast, accidentally killing one man and wounding another, according to a U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. David A. Accetta. "It was an unfortunate incident, and we are investigating the cause of the accidental discharge of a weapon," he said.
NEWS
By Liz Sly and Liz Sly,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | November 13, 2002
KABUL, Afghanistan - Helmeted riot police fired live ammunition to disperse student demonstrators yesterday during a second day of clashes over conditions at Kabul University, protests that point to some of the wider frustrations building within Afghan society a year after the collapse of the Taliban. No casualties were confirmed in the conflict yesterday, but as many as four students had been killed by police gunfire Monday night. The students attempted to take to the streets yesterday to protest the deadly shootings by police trying to quell an apparently impromptu demonstration Monday night.