KABUL, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Dwindling development aid as
the war winds down in Afghanistan means child labour in the
impoverished country is at risk of becoming more widespread, the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned on Tuesday.

Half of Afghanistan’s population of 30 million are under 15,
with almost two million children in full or part-time work,
UNICEF estimates of a country where war, poverty, unemployment
and pride in having large families have created a huge underage
labour market.

KABUL (Reuters) – A secret U.S. military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain’s Times of London newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document’s existence but said it was not a strategic assessment of operations.

KABUL (Reuters) – A secret U.S. military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document’s existence but said it was not a strategic assessment of operations.

KABUL (Reuters) – Germany this week returned an ancient pre-Islamic sculpture looted during Afghanistan’s civil war, giving hope to Kabul’s cultural mavens that the rest of its stolen treasures will also make their way home.

Eight figures, one missing a torso and others without noses, make up the 30-cm high (12 inches) limestone antiquity from the second century AD, a reminder of Afghanistan’s rich classical past as a confluence of cultures on the crossroads of Asia.

COMBAT OUTPOST ZEROK/JALALABAD (Reuters) – With snow past their ankles and their view of forbidding mountains blocked by low-slung cloud, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s restive east are taking advantage of a bitter winter to brace for fresh fighting in spring.

The extreme cold has forced a lull in fighting at rugged outpost Zerok in Paktika province, located 20 km (12 miles) from the porous, unruly border with Pakistan, which teems with insurgents linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

KABUL (Reuters) – A cache of ancient Jewish scrolls from northern Afghanistan that has only recently come to light is creating a storm among scholars who say the landmark find could reveal an undiscovered side of medieval Jewry.

The 150 or so documents, dated from the 11th century, were found in Afghanistan’s Samangan province and most likely smuggled out — a sorry but common fate for the impoverished and war-torn country’s antiquities.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers a day earlier, raising fears the militant group had managed to deepen its infiltration of the country’s struggling security forces.

The killings prompted France to threaten an early pullout from the NATO-led war.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers a day earlier, raising fears the militant group had managed to deepen its infiltration of the country’s struggling security forces.

The killings prompted France to threaten an early pullout from the NATO-led war.

KABUL (Reuters) – A cacophony ranging from Asian string instruments to the delicate cadences of classical piano pours out of a two-storey building in central Kabul.

Here, at Afghanistan’s sole music academy, students are taught music with the hope it will bring comfort in the face of war and poverty, bringing back cellos and violins to revive a rich musical legacy disrupted by decades of violence and suppression.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – In 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev said heroin was a threat to Russia’s national security. This year, Russia pledged to finance programs to reduce the harm done by drug use, including an HIV crisis that is one of the most severe in the world.

But even though the number of new HIV infections in Russia jumped 10 percent over 2011, health workers and global HIV authorities say Moscow has not honored that promise.