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Two Chicago women are on their way to making saffron the next big thingand empowering Afghani women and farmers in the process.

Spice girls: Chicago-based Rumi cofounders Kimberly Jung and Emily Miller hold the fruits of their labor: threads of Afghani saffron, which is harvested from saffron crocus flowers and transformed into products like Rumi spice blends and new saffron gummies.

While Kimberly Jung and Emily Miller were deployed with the US Army in Afghanistan defusing roadside bombs and performing night raids with Special Forces, respectivelythey couldnt escape the feeling that what they were doing wasnt working. We felt like we werent actually going to the root of the problem, which is economic empowerment, explains Jung. A few years later, while getting their MBAs at Harvard, the pair decided to do something about it and started Rumi Spice, a Chicago-based business selling Afghan saffron.

People think that only war and opium and the Taliban come from Afghanistan, admits Jung, but the nation also produces some of the highest quality saffron in the worldand until Rumi came along, it had been nearly impossible to obtain in unadulterated form. Now, nationally renowned restaurants like The French Laundry and Le Bernardin along with Chicago favorites Duseks, Naha, and GreenRiver are lining up to add Rumis productwhich this spring expands to include saffron butter, gummies, and moreto their menus. Were building bridges between Afghan farmers, who make up 80 percent of the population, and foodies, diners, and chefs around the world, Jung boasts, noting that Rumi now employs 384 Afghan women to harvest their saffron, has partnered with 94 different farmers, and is already responsible for five percent of Afghanistans annual saffron output. Now thats impact.

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How 2 Chicagoans Are Using Saffron to Empower Women in Afghanistan - Michigan Avenue Magazine

KABUL, Afghanistan A roadside bombing killed 11 people in eastern Afghanistan on Friday as they were traveling to a wedding in the country's east, a local official said.

Also Friday, five Afghan policemen were killed in fighting with the Taliban in eastern Kapisa province. Earlier, a policeman turned his rifle on his colleagues as they slept at an outpost in eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday night, killing five.

Those killed by the roadside bomb in Logar province -- five women, five children and a man -- were all from the same family, said Salim Salleh, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Logar.

In Kapisa, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint early Friday morning, killing five policemen, according to Qais Qaderi, the spokesman for the provincial governor. He said the assault took place in Tagab district, adding that 10 Taliban fighters were also killed, including two commanders.

In the Thursday night attack, district governor, Abdul Wahab Momand, said the policeman shot his colleagues at an outpost in the district of Ghanikhil.

After the shooting, the attacker, who was only identified by one name, Nasratullah, seized all the victims' firearms and fled the scene, the governor said.

IRAN VOTES IN FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SINCE NUCLEAR DEAL

Neither the Taliban nor the Islamic State group -- the two militant groups who operate in the area -- immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Nangarhar, a mountainous province that borders Pakistan.

There was also no claim of responsibility for the attack in Logar but Salleh, the spokesman, accused the Taliban of planting the roadside bomb.

Afghanistan has the highest number of mine victims in the world, which along with roadside bombs kill or wound an estimated 140 people every month. The Taliban have stepped up their attacks since announcing their spring offensive last month.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, another roadside bomb targeted a U.S. militarily convoy in northern Parwan province on Friday, the international mission's media officer, Doug High, said.

The explosion disabled an armored vehicle but caused no injuries, High said. After recovering the vehicle, the convoy continued on its mission, he added.

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Afghanistan attacks leave 21 people dead, including 10 police officers - Fox News

At 16 years, the war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, but it is a largely forgotten war.

There was virtually no mention of Afghanistan during the presidential campaign by either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The war resurfaced in Americas consciousness briefly when U.S. forces dropped the Mother of All Bombs in April on a bunker suspected of harboring ISIS fighters, but Afghanistan quickly vanished in the chaos of news emanating from the Trump White House.

Trumps tantrums, antics and constitutional violations will continue to hold the stage, but amid the swirl and talk of Watergate and impeachment came the news that the president is amenable to the militarys request to send an additional 3,000 to 5,000 American troops to Afghanistan to assist the 8,400 or so already serving there with Afghani forces.

Hundreds of New Hampshire residents, including many National Guard members, have served in Afghanistan. As of today, 15 Granite State residents are listed as having been killed during Operation Enduring Freedom, the code name for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. Another 72 were wounded in action.

Statistics like that, which are a tiny fraction of overall losses that include innocent Afghanis, give special urgency to the call by Concord resident, West Point graduate and Afghan war veteran Dan Vallone for Congress to debate the nations policy in Afghanistan before additional troops are committed.

Vallone, in a piece that appeared in these pages last week, wants Congress, if it decides further troops are worth putting at risk, to issue a formal Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a step short of a declaration of war.

For years, Congress has ducked its responsibility to determine military and foreign policy, which in a democracy should not be left to its chief executive and military leaders.

Gen. John Nicholson, the chief commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, calls the current situation a stalemate. That may be optimistic. The Taliban and its jihadist forces have increased the amount of territory they control and the Afghan government, which is led by a president and chief executive from rival parties, remains corrupt and marginally functional. The Afghan army, while much improved, is plagued by desertions and is said to be heavily infiltrated by Taliban members.

Past commitments of additional American troops, including the 26,000 sent in the 2009 surge under President Obama, led to only temporary improvements. Theres little reason to believe that sending one-fifth as many now will be any more successful. Its not for nothing that Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires. The British failed (three times) to conquer its tribal fighters as did the Soviet Union and, after 16 years of trying, the United States.

If America abandons its efforts in Afghanistan, that country could again become a refuge for extremists intent on attacking the West. But its also possible that continued American presence is creating, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, more terrorists than the war effort is killing.

Is there a step short of abandoning Afghanistan that could help prevent that? A more intense effort to help Afghanistan and its rival leaders learn to cooperate and govern for the good of their people rather than their own and their relatives pockets would help. So would an increased effort to assist the people of that nation, especially its oppressed girls and women.

Any solution will be political, not military.

We urge the members of New Hampshires congressional delegation to read Vallones piece and insist that an Authorization for the Use of Military Force be debated. Otherwise, this nation will continue to blunder along, and more lives and money that could be put to better use will be wasted.

Excerpt from:
Editorial: Reassessing the war in Afghanistan - Concord Monitor

By Samiullah Paiwand | GARDEZ, Afghanistan

GARDEZ, Afghanistan Gunmen stormed a bank in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday and opened fire, killing at least three people and wounding many more before being shot dead by security forces, officials said.

At least three attackers struck the bank in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, according to the provincial governor's office, and they were all killed at the scene. It said more than 10 people were also wounded in the assault.

An official at the city's hospital said they had received three dead bodies, including two police officers and one bank employee, and had treated 31 wounded people. It was not clear what had happened to the attackers' bodies.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the attackers' motives were not immediately known.

Insurgent groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State often carry out attacks in Afghanistan, including in the past on banks, where police, soldiers, and other government employees routinely collect their paychecks.

On Wednesday, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on an Afghan state television station that killed at least six people as well as the attackers and wounded 24 in the city of Jalalabad.

(Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Louise Heavens and Helen Popper)

DUBAI Iranians yearning for detente abroad and greater freedoms at home have handed President Hassan Rouhani a second term, but the hardline forces he defeated in elections on Friday will remain defiantly opposed to his plans.

HOMS, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian rebels started leaving the last opposition-held district of Homs city on Saturday in the final phase of an evacuation deal that will bring an early center of the uprising back under government control in the conflict's seventh year.

BEIRUT Islamic State militants killed nearly 20 people including two children in a village in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zor province, and captured fighters participating in a U.S.-backed operation against the jihadists, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

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Three killed, dozens wounded as gunmen storm bank in Afghanistan - Reuters

The Afghan vice-president, Abdul Rashid Dostum. Photograph: David Guttenfelder/AP

Afghanistans vice-president has left the country after a six-month standoff following allegations that he illegally detained a political rival and had him raped with an assault rifle.

Abdul Rashid Dostum flew to Turkey on Friday evening reportedly for medical treatment, according to sources in the Afghan government. Dostum is believed to have alcohol problems and claims to suffer from diabetes.

His departure for Turkey makes it unlikely that he will face trial, calling into question more than a decade of western efforts to instil the rule of law in Afghanistan and help build public trust in the government.

The allegations against the vice-president triggered a political crisis that has engulfed Afghanistan since last November when Dostum abducted Ahmad Ishchi, a politician from Dostums home province of Jowzjan, from a stadium in the northern part of the country. Ishchi was held for five days, during which time he says he was severely beaten and raped with the barrel of a rifle by nine of Dostums bodyguards.

Dostum has evaded punishment by taking refuge in his mansion in central Kabul, guarded by armed militiamen. Nobody has been arrested or indicted, despite medical evidence backing up Ishchis claims.

Human rights defenders have called for Dostum and his guards to be prosecuted, but the Afghan government reportedly put him under pressure to leave the country instead. It was unclear who chartered the plane that took him on Friday.

After Ishchis allegations in November, the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, framed the case as his make-or-break moment to show that not even powerful warlords were above the law. Ghani told western diplomats he was fed up with Afghan strongmen breaking the law with impunity. Rule of law and accountability begins in the government itself and we are committed to it, his spokesman said publicly.

Donors promised Ghani their support if he took Dostum on. The EU called for an investigation into reports of gross human rights violations. In private, diplomats said the credibility of the Afghan government hinged on bringing Dostum to justice.

Now, some admit, their own credibility is at stake as well. President Ghani climbed up the highest tree, and we climbed with him, one European ambassador said.

Dislodging the Taliban from power was meant to create a safer country for Afghans. Instead, the country now sees strongmen, including top government officials, perpetrate violence and corruption with impunity.

Ishchi, a former governor of the northern Jowzjan province, was kidnapped in November while he was attending a traditional game of buzkashi, a type of polo where horse riders fight over a headless goat carcass.

He said that on his first day in captivity, Dostum and nine security guards beat him before stripping off his trousers. Dostum then attempted to rape him before commanding the bodyguards to sodomise him with a rifle, while a cameraman filmed the abuse.

Make sure he doesnt have any honour left, Ishchi recalled Dostum saying, in a recent interview with the Guardian. He was held for a total of five days.

Bashir Ahmad Tayanj, a spokesman for Dostum, denied all allegations, saying the men had in fact arrested Ishchi for collaborating with the Taliban. However, forensic evidence from medical treatment showed injuries corresponding to Ishchis allegations.

Dostum remained free, in loose house arrest at his mansion. He refused to appear for questioning, and police ignored an arrest order from the attorney general, probably out of fear of unrest from militiamen loyal to Dostum who commands large parts of the countrys 2 million ethnic Uzbeks.

The attorney generals office said it was investigating the case seriously but declined to say whether Dostum was personally under investigation.

To some, the standoff was proof of the reality of Afghan politics: since 2001, some Afghan powerbrokers have simply become too mighty to prosecute. Hussein Hasrat, an activist with the Afghan Civil Society and Human Rights Network, said: They know if they want to investigate properly, it could lead to ethnic divisions, and the conflict could get worse.

The Afghan government and donors are now caught up in the fundamental contradiction of these past 16 years, said Patricia Gossman, Afghanistan researcher with Human Rights Watch. You cant build a state that respects the rule of law while at the same time effectively endorsing impunity and turning a blind eye to rampant abuse.

Dostum is part of a roster of warlords who have never been formally indicted for alleged crimes. Earlier this month, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who shelled Kabul ferociously during the civil war, returned to Kabul as part of a peace deal granting him immunity. Last week, the UN committee against torture called for the notorious Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq to be prosecuted for torture and disappearances. In Afghanistan, few believe that will happen.

A veteran of three decades of conflict, Dostum has a long list of alleged atrocities to his name. In the 1990s, he ran his own mini state in the north where he printed money, drove an armoured Cadillac and indulged in a hedonistic lifestyle with alcohol.

At 63, he is believed to be ill and has regularly travelled to Turkey, a long-time patron, for treatment.

When Ghani included him on his election ticket in 2014, after previously calling him a known killer, he made Dostum apologise to the people who suffered from the violence and civil war in the country.

The former president Hamid Karzai, who also co-opted the Uzbek warlord, faced problems reminiscent of recent events.

In 2008, Dostum, then the army chief of staff, abducted another political rival, Akbar Bay, who had allegedly plotted to assassinate him and whom he allegedly also had raped. After a year-long standoff, Dostum went into exile in Turkey until Karzai called him back to tap into his voter base. According to cables released by WikiLeaks, the US ambassador leaned on the Turks, saying: Arresting him would cause problems.

Additional reporting by Mokhtar Amiri

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Vice-president leaves Afghanistan amid torture and rape claims - The Guardian