January 1, 2000

Afghan opposition captures strategic town
In Afghanistan, there has been heavy fighting in the central province of Bamyan, with forces opposed to the ruling Taleban capturing a strategic town on the main road

Anti-Taleban forces contact Bush
A special envoy for the anti-Taleban forces in Afghanistan is heading for the United States today to make contact with the incoming Republican administration in Washington.

Protracted war plunges Afghanistan into medieval age
ISLAMABAD (NNI): Rampant starvation, widespread epidemics and prolonged civil war have plunged Afghanistan back into medieval age, reports VOG.

Hijack Afghans cost Britain £4m
LONDON (NNI): The dozens of Afghans who have stayed in Britain since their hijacked plane landed at Stansted in February have cost the taxpayer more than £4m, it emerged this weekend, The Times reported on Sunday.

AFGHAN HIJACK JET BILL '£5m'
By IAN HEPBURN
Crime Reporter
The Sun UK
THE Afghan plane hijack is likely to cost the British taxpayer a staggering £5MILLION, it was revealed yesterday.

Jihadis replacing state bodies, says US paper
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Dawn
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 31: The Jihadi groups in Pakistan are the most aggressive among a growing array of activists and organizations replacing or challenging the crumbling state institutions, says a US newspaper.

Afghan immigrants held in Iran
Iran says nearly 1.5 million Afghans remain
BBC News
Police in Iran have reportedly detained 207 illegal Afghan immigrants who were discovered crammed into two trucks in the central city of Bafq in Yazd Province.

Police arrest 207 Afghans in Yazd of Iran
Bafq, Yazd Prov., Dec 31, IRNA -- Police have impounded two lorries stuffed with 207 illegal Afghan immigrants in this central city on Saturday, Bafq Governor Masoud Shariati said here Sunday.

2-year-old illegal Afghan killed, 65 injured as truck turnturtles
Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan Prov., Dec 31, IRNA -- A lorry packed with 120 illegal Afghan immigrants overturned in this southeastern  border city, killing a two-year-old boy and injuring 65 others.

Three asylum-seekers killed in Berlin apartment
The Irish Times
Three Afghan asylum-seekers were killed in a Berlin apartment on New Year's Eve.
Initial inquiries showed the bodies of the two men and a woman had been stabbed and shot in the apartment in the southern Neukoelln district of the German capital