Rumors Hit Afghan Drug Trade
19 August 2008
'', Financial Times, 19 August 2008
EXCERPT: "Traffickers on the Afghan-Pakistan border are dumping stocks of opium on rumours that the Taliban is preparing to crack down on poppy smuggling. Farmers in Helmand and Kandahar, the two southern provinces at the heart of Afghanistan's booming drugs industry, report hearing a similar rumour, that poppy cultivation will be stopped by the Taliban next year. This may...
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UN Renews Call For Food Aid Funding
19 August 2008
'UN Renews Call For Food Aid Funding', IRIN News, 19 August 2008
EXCERPT: "Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan Kai Eide has called on donors to respond quickly to a US$404 million appeal made a month ago to ease the impact of drought and high food prices. About five million vulnerable Afghans have been pushed into high-risk food insecurity over the past few months, according to aid agencies. The Afghan...
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British Army Suffering From Officer Shortfall
19 August 2008
'Army Suffering From Officer Shortfall As Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan Take Toll', The Telegraph, 19 August 2008
EXCERPT: "For the past three years the military academy at Sandhurst has been unable to attract enough recruits and has been short by about 20 out of the 250 cadets needed to keep up numbers each term, The Daily Telegraph has learned. It comes as the military is desperately short of troops, with 2,500 more people leaving the...
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Taliban Kill 10 French Paratroopers, Raid US Base
19 August 2008
'', The Associated Press, 19 August 2008
EXCERPT: "About 100 insurgents ambushed a group of French paratroopers as they climbed a mountain pass, killing 10 soldiers in a militant stronghold outside the capital. In a separate coordinated attack Tuesday [19 August 2008], a team of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The death...
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