March 2, 2000

Britain allows eight Afghan plane hostages to stay
Thursday, March 2 9:19 AM SGT
LONDON, March 1 (AFP) - Britain announced Wednesday that it was allowing eight of the passengers on board the hijacked Afghan airplane that landed at a London airport last month to stay in the country.

Afghan asylum seekers may appeal
BBC
Many of the hostages lodged asylum bids
Most of the passengers on board the hijacked Afghan airliner are expected to appeal against a decision to refuse them asylum.

Afghan Taliban clash with opposition north of Kabul
Thursday, March 2 3:50 AM SGT
ISLAMABAD, March 2 (AFP) - Fighting erupted on several fronts in Afghanistan Wednesday, with the ruling Taliban militia claiming it had seized a town on the Tajikistan border, cutting off a key opposition supply route.

Afghan Taleban denies sympathy for hijackers
KABUL, March 1 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taleban movement on Wednesday rejected an Indian charge that it was sympathetic to the hijackers of an Indian plane forced to land in the southern town of Kandahar in December.

Afghan hijack passengers refused asylum
BBC
Many of the hostages lodged asylum bids
UK Home Secretary Jack Straw has refused 27 claims for asylum from passengers from the hijacked Afghan jet which landed at Stansted Airport near London last month.

Afghanistan, Burma fail to get US drug certification
Thursday, March 2 4:12 AM SGT
WASHINGTON, March 1 (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday said Afghanistan and Burma had failed to take measures to control the international flow of narcotics and refused to certify them as cooperating in the fight on drugs.

US denies Afghanistan, Myanmar drug certification; Colombia, Mexico pass
Thursday, March 2 7:24 AM SGT
WASHINGTON, March 1 (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday renewed its designation of Afghanistan and Myanmar as uncooperative in the fight against drugs, but spared Colombia and Mexico, despite growing concerns about their

US links Taleban to drug trade
BBC
The US is supplied by at least 26 countries
By Washington correspondent Richard Lister
The United States has accused the Taleban authorities in Afghanistan of full complicity in opium production.
The comments from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright came as the Clinton administration published its annual

Afghanistan overtakes Myanmar in opium output
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Afghanistan overtook Myanmar as the world's biggest opium producer in 1999 because of good weather, high prices at planting and the connivance of the ruling Taleban, the State Department said on

Blast kills two Afghan boy refugees in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan, March 2 (Reuters) - Two Afghan refugee schoolboys were killed and two wounded on Thursday when a grenade they were playing with exploded in a classroom of their Islamic school in the Pakistani town of Quetta, police said

Water Shortage Causes Child Deaths in Afghanistan
Wednesday, March 01, 2000 12:02 PM EST
ISLAMABAD (March 1) XINHUA - More than 170,000 children under one year of age
die every year because of the shortage of potable water in Afghanistan,

Paris conference discusses Afghan conflict
ISLAMABAD (NNI): The Paris conference has discussed situation in Afghanistan with particular reference to narcotics and terrorism, reports VOA.

Kabul-Torkham highway construction work suspended
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Construction work on Kabul-Torkham Highway has been suspended due to Talibans economic problems, reports Radio Tehran.

Pak-Afghan talks on ATTA start
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Pakistan and Afghanistan Wednesday started talks on the disputes over the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA), an official in the Commerce Ministry said.