News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

KUNAR - Provincial Council members and residents of eastern Kunar province have backed the proposed construction of a joint hydropower dam by Afghanistan and Pakistan on the Kunar River. On the eve of President Hamid Karzai’s visit to the neighbouring country last week, Afghan and Pakistani finance…

NURISTAN - Three doctors were released on Wednesday, a day after they were taken hostage by unidentified kidnappers in eastern Nuristan province, an official said. The doctors, who had come from Kabul, were abducted when they were travelling between Do Aab and Noorgram districts of the remote…

KABUL - More than 180 female judges from across Afghanistan discussed problems they face while going about their duties, at a four-day annual conference of an umbrella body of female judges which concluded in the capital, Kabul, today. The head of the Afghan Women Judges Association (AWJA), Anisa…

KABUL - Today H.E. Wais Ahmad Barmak – Minister of the Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) – together with senior government officials and members of the community, inaugurated the construction of a 2.6 kilometre asphalt road in Kabul city. The asphalt road, the construction of which will be…

KABUL - Despite some four million Afghans becoming literate since 2002, Afghanistan still has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world with about nine million illiterate adults, according to the Afghan Ministry of Education. Efforts are underway to lower this figure, with more than 700,000…

KABUL - The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomes the recent financial pledges by international donors which will cover the required budget for the country’s 2014 Presidential and Provincial Council elections. These financial contributions are timely and another key step…

PAKTYA - Health officials in in Paktya said they did not record any polio case in the entire region including Paktya, Khost, Ghazni and Paktika provinces this year. During a meeting with journalists, an official from the Public Health Department, Noor Ahmad Mohammadi, said no polio case was recorded…

KANDAHAR - A 15-day journalism workshop, for female journalists, started in Kandahar today.The workshop is organized by the provincial Information and Culture Department, which “aims to enhance the capacity of the female journalists.” “Female journalists are currently faced with scores of challenges…

KABUL - Six ministries of the Government of Afghanistan were the focus of a workshop on implementation of Gender-responsive Budgeting (GRB) that concluded, here today. The workshop was jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with support of the United Nations…

KABUL - Despite a 17 per cent decline in the total land area used for commercial cannabis cultivation in 2012, Afghanistan saw an eight per cent rise in the overall production of cannabis compared to 2011, according to a report released today by the United Nations drug and crime agency and the…

KHOST - A six-day workshop on community based dispute resolution was organized by Tribes Liaison Office, a civil society organization in Khost province, last week. The workshop to focus on ways to resolve disputes relating to improve judgment capacity and decision making power of the community…

KABUL - The Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UNODC 2012 Survey of Commercial Cannabis Cultivation and Production, covering 16 provinces where commercial cannabis cultivation had been observed or reported in past surveys, was released today in Kabul. Data shows that the total area under commercial…