VIDEO: NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS KABUL, March 21 2007: Norouz is a traditional new year holiday celebrated by people in Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kurdistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, as well as in Iranian and Turkic communities in other parts of the world. Since Norouz marks the beginning of the spring and the rebirth of nature, residents of Kabul celebrate the holiday walking to green areas around the city. On Maranjan Hill, people fly kites and dance while families stroll around leisurely. Interestingly enough, all these activities were banned under the Taliban regime. In fact, the Taliban also banned Norouz itself, labeling an un-Islamic holiday. WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dbWnW9fpf8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dbWnW9fpf8shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1
VIDEO: INSIDE WEST KABUL KABUL, April 25 2007: Shelled mercilessly throughout the civil war, much of West Kabul still lays in ruins. But today these ruins pulse with life. Bombed out buildings host a wide range of small businesses, from bakeries to carpentry workshops, and also serve as playgrounds for children and grazing areas for herds of urban sheep. Kabul’s ever-rising number of heroin addicts lurks inside a massive complex that once hosted Soviet-style governmental institutions while, out in the streets, unlicensed food stands feed Kabul’s working class. A young vendor said: “Policemen do not disturb us these days but I hope they will not come after us in the future. The police must allow poor people to work.” WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dabAR8ki71whttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dabAR8ki71wshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1
KABUL, April 27 2007: The Technikom, the old Technical Institute of Kabul, is a complex of three bombed out buildings in the western outskirts of the Afghan capital. Classes here were suspended back in 1993, when a barrage of rockets hit the school as the militias loyal to the mujahid warlord Hekmetyar...READ ENTRYkabul-13.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0
PHOTOS: GLIMPSES OF KANDAHAR kandahar-10.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0
A PERILOUS JOURNEY KANDAHAR, APRIL 12 2007: In one of the many clandestine stations in the center of Kandahar, drivers wait for their minibuses to be jam-packed before embarking on the difficult journey towards the outer districts of Kandahar province. “Every time I take the bus, I fear for my life. Outside the city, the streets are very dangerous,” says Abdul Kabir, a farmer who lives in Spearwan, a small village in the Panjwayi district, some 40 kilometers away from the city center. A young man breaks into the conversation, eager to recount his own experience: “When I go to the village, at every roadblock someone points a gun at me. If I grow my beard, the soldiers say I’m a Taliban, and if I shave the Taliban say... READ ENTRY IN ENGLISH OR ITALIANO kandahar-11.htmlkandahar-11.htmlkandahar-12.htmlshapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1shapeimage_5_link_2
VIDEO: EARLY MORNING EXPLOSION KABUL, March 14 2007: At 6:45 AM, a massive explosion tore through a market in the Afghan capital, destroying dozens of shops and shattering windows hundreds of meters away. The blast was not a terrorist attack but a disastrous accident. Apparently, someone set alight a stock of gun powder in an alley lined with armories. A few minutes after the explosion, the smoke drifted away and the sun shed its rays on a scene of desolation and ruin, with firefighters rushing to extinguish the last flames and shopkeepers digging in the rubble with their bear hands. WATCH THIS VIDEO ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhjKrhwLvn0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhjKrhwLvn0shapeimage_6_link_0shapeimage_6_link_1
AMNESTY FOR WAR CRIMINALS IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL RECONCILIATION KABUL, March 10 2007: The Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed into law a revised version of a controversial bill granting amnesty to the people and groups that allegedly committed war crimes during the last 28 years of internal conflict, from the Soviet invasion of 1979 to the present. The initial version of the bill granted a blanket amnesty to all the mujahidin who participated in the resistance against the Soviet Union, as well as to those who fought in the civil war that followed the withdrawal of the Red Army. Subsequently, Karzai asked the Wolesi Jirga (the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament) to modify the bill, adding that the victims of war crimes have the right to seek justice. The new law grants amnesty to the fighters but allows individual citizens to sue the alleged war criminals and bring them to court. However, given the current climate of violence, clientelism and poverty, such initiatives appear to be highly improbable. In regards to war crimes committed after the fall of the Taliban regime, the new law states that the individuals and groups that oppose the government may benefit from the amnesty “if they abandon the resistance, join the process of national reconciliation, and respect and observe the constitution of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.” This formula excludes “those individuals who are being prosecuted for committing crimes against the internal and external security of this country,” a reference to the Taliban leader Mullah Omar and the rebel firebrand Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Karzai considers the amnesty to be a necessary evil to subdue the resistance and promote a climate of national reconciliation. After all, the authority of the Afghan government extends little beyond Kabul and the other provincial capitals, while ruthless fighting in the countryside impedes reconstruction efforts and fuels ethnic divisions. Moreover, the Afghan government never had any intention of prosecuting the war criminals in the first place given... READ ENTRY IN ENGLISH OR ITALIANO kabul-1.htmlkabul-1.htmlkabul-1.htmlkabul-2.htmlshapeimage_7_link_0shapeimage_7_link_1shapeimage_7_link_2shapeimage_7_link_3
AFGHAN JOURNALISTS PINCHED BETWEEN THE TALIBAN AND A HOSTILE PARLIAMENT KABUL, April 2 2007: These are hard times for Afghan journalists. Kidnappings at the hands of Taliban militants and a proposed law to restrict media freedoms threaten to reverse the communications revolution that swept through Afghanistan after the US-led invasion of 2001. Although the case of Daniele Mastrogiacomo proved that Afghan journalists are disposable items for both the Afghan government and the Taliban opposition, an even greater threat now looms on the media establishment. In a few weeks, the Afghan Parliament will start to debate a... READ ENTRYkabul-6.htmlkabul-6.htmlshapeimage_8_link_0shapeimage_8_link_1
PHOTOS: THE MARK OF 
A SUICIDE BOMBERkabul-5.htmlshapeimage_9_link_0
VIDEO: RADIO KANDAHAR KANDAHAR, April 8 2007: Afghan Independent Radio (AIR) broadcasts news, music, and programs dedicated to women, throughout Kandahar province. Director Mursal Ahkmadzai said social pressures within the family effectively silence many women but added that her radio station wants to change this custom and give a voice to all Kandahari women. While visiting the AIR studios, a breaking news report reveals that the Taliban have killed Adjmal Nashkbandi. A journalist airs the information immediately, citing a statement by the spokesman of Mili Amniat, the Afghan intelligence agency. WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rapb6Ct1DBwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rapb6Ct1DBwshapeimage_10_link_0shapeimage_10_link_1
THE TALIBAN FIND A NEW TARGET: AFGHAN JOURNALISTS KANDAHAR, April 9 2007: “From now on we will arrest all journalists, we will detain them, we will use them to exchange prisoners with the government and, if necessary, we will kill them.” The message of Shahabuddin Atal, one of the spokesmen of the Taliban movement, came from the loudspeaker of a cell phone during a journalist gathering held at the Noor Jahan Hotel in Kandahar. This is the first time the Taliban explicitly threaten Afghan journalists and the news spread rapidly in Kandahar and all over Afghanistan. A few hours after the after the announcement... READ ENTRY IN ENGLISH OR ITALIANO kandahar-8.htmlkandahar-8.htmlkandahar-9.htmlshapeimage_11_link_0shapeimage_11_link_1shapeimage_11_link_2
VIDEO: TALKING TO STUDENTS KABUL, April 20 2007: Over 13,000 students study at Kabul University. The campus is lush with vegetation and the university offers many modern facilities, from computer labs to an up-to-date library, yet students complain about rampant professors’ absenteeism and the lack of reputable post-graduate institutions within Afghanistan. Across the street from the university is the Teachers’ Training Institute. The students talk about their problems, their dreams for the future and the value of higher education. WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqdi7g3eX60http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqdi7g3eX60shapeimage_12_link_0shapeimage_12_link_1
POLITICAL SCIENCE IN HERAT HERAT: May 10, 2007: HERAT, May 10 2007: A professor of Political Science let me into his office in the University of Herat. As I entered, he peeked out of his door left and right, and then closed it. The professor asked me: “Are you going to cite my name in your article?” I glanced at a framed picture of Hamid Karzai hanging from the wall and answered that the interview would be anonymous. So the professor began to explain: “Karzai has very limited power. He can control the cities as long as he relies on marriages of convenience with local power brokers. But if the foreign troops leave, and if the foreign funds cease to flow, most of those power brokers will abandon him. Basically, Karzai depends on the United States and NATO. Without them... READ ENTRYherat_20.htmlherat_20.htmlshapeimage_13_link_0shapeimage_13_link_1
PHOTOS: BALKH PROVINCE MAZAR, May 6 2007: After the Afghan government eradicated their poppies, most farmers in Balkh province switched to wheat and cotton. Many of the farmers I spoke to complained that legal crops are not as profitable as opium and that now they cannot always manage to feed the family. For the time being, Balkh province remains one of the most stable and secure regions of Afghanistan. And of course, once the war is over, the ancient monuments of Balkh could attract tourists from all over the world. But peace continues to elude Afghanistan and, in fact, a new wave of popular upheavals may be boiling up in all northern provinces. Today Balkh stands precariously between war and peace and its people may decide to take it either way. VIEW PHOTOSbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlbalkh_18.htmlshapeimage_14_link_0shapeimage_14_link_1shapeimage_14_link_2shapeimage_14_link_3shapeimage_14_link_4shapeimage_14_link_5shapeimage_14_link_6shapeimage_14_link_7shapeimage_14_link_8shapeimage_14_link_9shapeimage_14_link_10shapeimage_14_link_11shapeimage_14_link_12shapeimage_14_link_13shapeimage_14_link_14shapeimage_14_link_15shapeimage_14_link_16shapeimage_14_link_17shapeimage_14_link_18shapeimage_14_link_19shapeimage_14_link_20
INTERVIEW WITH A WARLORD KABUL, May 2 2007: Malik Zarin is a warlord. He comes from Kunar, a small province of Afghanistan that shares a border with the self-ruled Pashtun enclaves of Pakistan. Zarin endured a lifetime of fighting. He took part in the resistance against the Soviet Union (1979-1989), attacked the Najibullah government in the convulsed years that followed the dissolution of the communist regime (1989-1992), defended the soft Islamist government of Rabbani and Masoud... READ IN ENGLISH OR ITALIANOkabul-15.htmlkabul-15.htmlkabul-16.htmlshapeimage_15_link_0shapeimage_15_link_1shapeimage_15_link_2
AFGHANISTAN Cycles of Never-Ending War ...
RETURNING REFUGEES IN A CITY OF RUINS kabul-13.htmlshapeimage_21_link_0