July 18, 2000

Pakistan arrests Afghan commander after Taliban complaints
PESHAWAR, July 17 (AFP) - A former Afghan mujahedeen commander and outspoken critic of the ruling Taliban militia has been arrested, Pakistani police said Monday, following Taliban complaints about dissidents.

WFP to aid 1.6 million Afghans survive drought
ROME, July 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations' World Food Programme announced on Tuesday a major relief operation to help more than 1.6 million famine-threatened people survive the worst drought in Afghanistan in more than 30 years.

Afghan capital shaken by earthquake
KABUL, July 18 (Reuters) - A strong earthquake on Tuesday jolted the Afghan capital Kabul and its outskirts, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, witnesses said.

Sattar wishes success to Afghans working for restoration of peace
The News International (Pak. 7/18)
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar expressed his best wishes here Tuesday for success of the efforts being made by the eminent Afghan personalities for restoration of peace and unity in Afghanistan.

Chances of Loya Jirgaís success bleak
ISLAMABAD (NNI): The chances of the holding of traditional Afghan Loya Jirga seems bleak as the key Afghan groups, ruling Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance have expressed reservations about it.

PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN RESUME TRANSIT TRADE TALKS
ISLAMABAD, Jul 18, 2000 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- In a bid to remove anomalies in Pak-Afghan Transit Trade, Pakistan and Afghanistan have resumed talks on bilateral trade.

China-Iran axis grows in Central Asia and Afghanistan - The Nation 7/18
LAHORE-China has no option but to become a major player in Central Asia due to the rising tide of Uighur unrest in Xinjiang province, security threats along its long and porous borders with three Central Asian Republics and the flow of weapons, drugs and Islamic activism from Taliban controlled Afghanistan.

British businessmen strike deal to put Taliban on-line
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Two British businessmen are to install mobile telephones in Afghanistan - a mountainous, earthquake-prone country that is at war - and link Taliban to the Internet.

JI demands broad based govt in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed has demanded the formation of a broad based government in Afghanistan.

Afghan Taleban shave Pakistani players in shorts
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The religious police of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement arrested visiting Pakistani football players and shaved their heads because they were wearing shorts, Afghan and team officials said Monday.

A Taleban cut too far
Moral crimes are numerous in the eyes of the Taleban
By Kate Clark in Kabul - BBC - 7/18
An Afghan officer in charge of religious police who shaved the heads of 12 Pakistani footballers for wearing shorts has been sacked.
Under the Taleban's strict dress code, wearing shorts is banned.
Pakistan upset soccer players' heads shaved
KABUL, July 18 (Reuters) - A Pakistani diplomat on Tuesday criticised the arrest in Afghanistan of visiting Pakistani soccer players and the shaving of their heads because they were wearing shorts.

New Afghan generation at war
Lucian Kim
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
THE BAGHRAM FRONT, AFGHANISTAN
The young soldier leads the way to the front line, moving swiftly through a maze of baked mud walls. Ammunition clips strapped to his belt and his Kalashnikov at the ready, he pads like a panther past spent cartridges and pools of fresh blood.

Taliban POWs dream of exporting their brand of Islam
Lucian Kim
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
BAZARAK, AFGHANISTAN
In Afghanistan's long-running conflict, prisoners of war are often little more than pawns in a chess match - to be swapped, sacrificed, or paraded as evidence of the enemy's perfidy. A foreign diplomat involved in prisoner exchanges