KABUL, 21 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Five ex-commanders in Afghanistan's southwestern Paktya province voluntarily surrendered 15 mt of ammunition, as well as more than 30 light and heavy weapons, to the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme, officials from the UN-backed initiative announced on Tuesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.Full report

KABUL, 21 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Suspected Taliban militants have set fire to a school for some 1,500 boys in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, officials confirmed on Tuesday. Full report

KANDAHAR, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Zakera, a 40-year-old widow and mother of three, sits in a long queue of mostly female patients awaiting medicine at a tuberculosis (TB) control centre located in the Shar-e-Now district of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Full report

KABUL, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has begun a two-day visit to Pakistan where he will discuss the recent upsurge in violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan blamed on Taliban militants, which Kabul believes is being organised from across the border in Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday.Full report

HERAT, 13 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - A local Afghan rights body supporting free media in Afghanistan on Monday condemned the beating of two journalists by officials in the western province of Herat and called on the government to investigate the incident.Full report

KANDAHAR, 10 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Sitting in his neighbour's swirling field of poppy, wearing dusty clothes, farmer Abdul Qauom, 32, is keen to find an alternative crop that will earn him a living after his two hectares of opium fields were recently destroyed by state security forces, in line with government policy. Full report

KANDAHAR, 8 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Sitting in her windowless, smoke-blackened classroom, Zubaida, 15, a ninth grade student, is happy to attend school again after an arson attack destroyed her secondary school in southern Kandahar two weeks ago.Full report

KABUL, 8 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Civic groups in Afghanistan expressed varying reactions to a decision by the government on Tuesday to de-register some 1,600 NGOs in the post-conflict country. Full report

KANDAHAR, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - A suicide bomber killed 13 and wounded 13 others when he blew himself up at police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said on Tuesday.Full report

KABUL, 2 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The Afghan government looks set to have more control over aid worth US $10.5 billion pledged at the London donor conference for the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged country, officials said on Thursday.Full report

AFGHANISTAN: Year in Review 2005 - Fragile progress, insecurity remains

AFGHANISTAN: Year in Brief 2005 - Chronology of key events

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with chief electoral officer, Peter Erben

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on security prior to election

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with rural development minister

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with governor of isolated Nuristan province

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child soldiers