Donors have been ramping up aid to fragile states, raising fears about funds falling into corrupt hands. A global corruption survey released this week by Transparency International measures how the public perceive corruption in their own countries. The nongovernmental organization asked 114,000 people in 107 countries which institutions do they think are most corrupt. In Afghanistan, where corruption is a huge concern among donors, 60 percent of respondents think the judiciary is the most corrupt.

Football, contrary to many other banned fun activities and hobbies, was one of the most popular sports and was played all over the country even during Taliban government. The teams played nationally and regionally. After the collapse of Taliban rule, sport in general, but especially football, began to flourish and significant achievements in football were made both nationally and at international level.

With more than a hundred billion dollars in Western aid and private philanthropy sloshing around Afghanistan in the past dozen years, and thousands of groups trying to find ways to spend it, examples abound of efforts from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Munira Akhunzada and Shasmi Maqsoudi came to Southern California to study American law, as part of a U.S. State Department sponsored program with Afghanistan to send Afghan attorneys to American for more legal education and training.

Indonesia shared its experience with common developing countries at a South-South and Third Parties Cooperation Forum (SSTC) here on Wednesday, attended by among others, representatives from Palestine and Afghanistan. "This is part of our South-South and Third Parties cooperation programme aimed at sharing our experience particularly in sectors that we have been good at," the director general of information and public diplomacy of the ministry of foreign affairs, AM Fachir, said.

The State Department, still reeling from the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya last fall, on Sunday mourned a 25-year-old diplomat killed a day earlier on a mission with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan. Five other Americans were killed in the same attack. Elsewhere in the country, a U.S. civilian adviser and several insurgents were killed in a clash Saturday in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. Afghan officials said that battle was followed by a U.S. airstrike that claimed the lives of 11 Afghan children.