KABUL, April 1 (Reuters) – Anita lifted the sky-blue burqa
from her face, revealing glazed eyes and cracked lips from years
of smoking opium, and touched her saggy belly, still round from
giving birth to her seventh child a month ago.

“I can’t give breast milk to my baby,” said the 32-year-old
Anita, who like other women interviewed for this story, declined
to give her full name. “I’m scared he’ll get addicted

KABUL, March 8 (Reuters) – Afghanistan opened its
first female-only internet cafe on Thursday, hoping to give
women a chance to connect to the world without verbal and sexual
harassment and free from the unwanted gazes of their countrymen.

Swarms of hijab-wearing young visitors poured into the small
cafe on a quiet street in central Kabul on International Women’s
Day in a country where women still face enormous struggles even
though the Taliban were toppled over a decade ago.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan risks giving up advances made in healthcare and humanitarian development as global attention and financial support wane ahead of the planned withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014, the Red Cross has warned.

Development aid is already dwindling in the impoverished and highly unstable country, putting at risk the hundreds of medical centres and schools that were set up following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

KABUL (Reuters) – The burning of Korans at a NATO base in Afghanistan advanced the Taliban’s cause and any repeat of similar “negligence” by Western forces would be disastrous, the Afghan army chief of staff has warned.

The destruction of the holy books, which the United States described as unintentional, triggered widespread protests and fatal attacks on U.S. troops by Afghan security forces and heavily strained ties between Kabul and Washington.

KABUL (Reuters) – The United Nations joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday in calling on the U.S. military to take disciplinary action against those who burned copies of the Koran at a NATO air base, calling the incident a “grave mistake”.

Despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama, the burning of the Muslim holy book at the Bagram base north of the capital ignited a wave of anti-Western fury across the country.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed nine people in an attack on a military airport in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, the latest bloodshed since copies of the Koran were burned at a NATO base last week.

There was no official indication the explosion at the gates of Jalalabad airport was linked to the deadly protests, but the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack as “revenge” for the Koran burnings.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed at least nine people in an attack on a military airport in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, the latest incident of violence and protests since copies of the Koran were inadvertently burned at a NATO base last week.

There was no official indication the explosion at the gates of Jalalabad airport was linked to other deadly protests and riots, although the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack as “revenge” for the Koran burning.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed at least nine people in an attack on a military airport in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, the latest incident of violence and protests since copies of the Koran were inadvertently burned at a NATO base last week.

There was no official indication the explosion at the gates of Jalalabad airport was linked to other deadly protests and riots, although the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack as “revenge” for the Koran burning.

KABUL (Reuters) – The odds were against them: Taliban suicide bombers laid siege to their rehearsal space and the search for actresses in ultra-conservative Afghanistan was long and arduous.

But come late May, a band of Afghan performers will be staging a play by William Shakespeare in their native Dari at London’s Globe Theatre, part of a cultural festival designed to lead up to the Olympics.

KABUL (Reuters) – Two American officers were shot dead inside Afghanistan’s interior ministry on Saturday while rage gripped the country for a fifth day over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.

NATO recalled all staff working at ministries in the Afghan capital Kabul following the attack, with its top commander in Afghanistan calling the killer a “coward”.