Who will be Afghanistan #39;s next president?
CNN #39;s Anna Coren looks at the top contenders in Afghanistan #39;s presidential race. Next PRESIDENT of Afghanistan ( Bekhair ) in an interview with CNN Ashraf Gh...
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Who will be Afghanistan's next president? - Video
Memorial on display in Hartford tributes men and women who died in Afghanistan
News 8 #39;s Keith Kountz reports.
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Memorial on display in Hartford tributes men and women who died in Afghanistan - Video
Ben calls from Afghanistan
By: drink your POISON, made by yourself, amen
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Ben calls from Afghanistan - Video
WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- Confidential assessments by the U.S. State Department indicate Afghanistan is not prepared to govern itself after the United States withdraws its troops.
The report by the U.S. Agency for International Development suggested billions of dollars of spending in Afghanistan has not yet created a sustainable civilian government and has often been diverted to corrupt politicians and to insurgents intent on destabilizing the country.
USAID officials said the corruption and waste in Afghanistan has long been known, noting that dramatic progress has been made in a country that had no stability only a dozen years ago.
The report, researched in 2012 and 2013 and known in foreign aid circles as Stage II Risk Assessment Reports, was obtained by the Washington Times, leading to questions regarding why they were not publicly released earlier.
USAID spokesman Matt Herrick said, We strongly reject all claims that we have improperly withheld information.
The documents focus on Afghan ministries overseeing the nations finance, mining, utilities, communications, education, health and agriculture sectors. Only in the Afghan Ministry of Finance did auditors conclude the systems was adequate to properly manage and account for money provided by Washington.
[Washington Times]
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Afghanistan not ready to govern on its own, State Dept. assessments say
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two security incidents within 24 hours involving Afghan government officials have taken some of the glimmer off of this months generally successful presidential election and renewed concerns about safety in Kabul.
Hours after unknown gunmen kidnapped a deputy minister in President Hamid Karzais government, a police officer engaged in an argument with a female member of parliament opened fire and wounded the lawmaker in the leg, officials said Wednesday.
The lawmaker, Maryam Koofi, was in stable condition at a local hospital, according to a statement from the Afghan Interior Ministry. The police officer was detained and is under investigation, officials said.
The shooting took place around 10 p.m. local time Tuesday near Koofis home in Arya City, a housing complex normally regarded as one of Kabuls safest. Hashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said the officer fired one or two bullets. The cause of the argument wasnt immediately known.
Koofi is a lawmaker from Takhar province, in northern Afghanistan, and is the older sister of the prominent lawmaker and womens rights activist Fawzia Koofi.
Earlier Tuesday, a group of gunmen abducted Ahmad Shah Wahid, the deputy minister of public works, as he was riding in his car on his way to work shortly after 7 a.m. The gunmen pulled his car off the road, pulled him into their vehicle and drove off, said Sohail Kakar, a spokesman for the Public Works Ministry.
Wahids driver was shot and injured when he tried to evade the kidnappers, Kakar said.
Officials said they did not know who was behind the kidnapping, and a spokesman for the Taliban said the group wasnt responsible.
Although abductions of high-ranking officials in Kabul are rare, government figures are routinely targeted for attacks by Taliban insurgents. The capital has been under tight security for much of the last several weeks due to the April 5 presidential election, which saw high voter turnout and no major Taliban attacks.
Ballots are still being counted but a preliminary tally released by election officials over the weekend showed a close race between former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.
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Afghanistan official shot, another kidnapped in Kabul