Kabul Bank Faces Receivership after IMF Visit
16 February 2011
EXCERPT: "An International Money Fund (IMF) report says Afghanistan's largest private bank, Kabul Bank, should be placed in receivership. Doing so would help the government's plan to stabilise the country's financial system, the IMF said. It came at the end of an 11-day visit to Kabul to examine the Afghan economy. Corruption, bad loans and mismanagement cost Kabul Bank hundreds of millions of dollars. When the scandal broke last year, Afghans sped...
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Remote Tool Could Be Used to Detonate IEDs in Afghanistan
16 February 2011
EXCERPT: "Soldiers in Afghanistan could detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with a remote tool created by researchers in Switzerland. The technology can activate homemade landmines at a distance of up to 25m by transmitting electromagnetic waves at a range of frequencies. This inducts a current in the devices and causes them to explode. Researchers from the Swiss technology institute EPFL have worked for two years with the universities of...
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Fear of Warlords' Return as Anti-Taliban Militias Clash
16 February 2011
EXCERPT: "The dramatic build up of a controversial anti-Taliban militia that many Afghans fear could revive the country's detested warlords has had to be suspended in a key district of Helmand amid outbreaks of fighting between different groups. The local defence programme, which is similar to others that have been heavily promoted by US supreme commander David Petraeus as essential to beating the Taliban, has also been put on hold amid concern that...
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Some Afghans Say Insecurity Persists Despite Surge
16 February 2011
EXCERPT: "Residents of the impoverished city of 800,000 people live in fear, even as they see heavily armed NATO troops patrolling the streets in armored vehicles every day and snarling traffic. There are 1,600 Afghan policemen in Kandahar - 800 more than last year. The Afghan police are partnered with 850 U.S. military police - up from 170 last summer. Still most Afghans are deeply suspicious of their police, they often see as corrupt. In a brazen...
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Spate of Kabul Suicide Bombs Blamed on Nearby Valley
16 February 2011
EXCERPT: "Two suicide bomb attacks in as many months on shoppers in Kabul, after a seven-month lull in serious violence in the city, have raised fears that insurgents are bolstering their strongholds on the outskirts of the capital. On Monday a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the Kabul City Centre shopping mall killing three people. The bomber was stopped by two private security guards manning the entrance of the compound that also...
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