Afg War News Snippets (Mar 15, 2015)

Kidnapped Afghans from Ghazi. It has been reported that ten (numbers are different depending on news source) Afghans were kidnapped from Jaghori district in Ghazni province on March 15th but they were later released (or at least 9 of the hostages). (Khaama Press, March 15, 2015).

Mission Accomplished or Mission Over? For the United Kingdom the long and costly conflict in Afghanistan is over. 453 UK servicemen and women died in that conflict. Some are now looking back to consider any lessons learned. Read an editorial by The Guardian published on March 13, 2015 entitled "The Guardian view on war in Afghanistan: not mission accomplished, only mission over".

Education. The increase in schools and students attending in Afghanistan over the past decade or more has been remarkable. Although there is still much more work to be done there are some good news stories about education in Afghanistan. One of them is "From Afghanistan's Rubble, A Teacher Builds a School of Ideas", NPR ED, March 15, 2015.

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) provided a summary of the work they are conducting in Afghanistan. Read "Summary of DFID's work in Afghanistan 2011-2016", DFID, February 2015.

IT Professionals. The World Bank is working with the Afghan Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to expand the pool of skilled and qualified IT professionals and to incubate business start-ups. Technology and telecommunications programs are helping Afghanistan to keep in step with rapidly changing technological advances. Read more in a World Bank article published on March 12, 2015 entitled "Keeping Pace With Technology: Youths Seek to Turn Dreams into Reality".

Mariam Ghani. The daughter of Afghanistan's President Ghani has lots of pursuits to include being an artist. Read more about here in "Afghanistan's far-flung 'first daughter', artist Mariam Ghani", France24.com, March 15, 2015.

This news article about the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron is about the job of moving Air Force bombs in into, out of, and around the combat zone.  The article describes the process delivering a bomb into theater so it can ultimately be attached to a plane for use. (Standard Examiner, March 15, 2015).

Pakistan Drones. According to the Popular Science website, Pakistan has successfully test-fired a laser-guided missile from its very own Pakistani-made drone. (March  13, 2015).

The founder of International Relief and Development (IRD), an implementing partner for USAID, is retired but not out of the limelight. His firm, which spent about $2.4 billion of the governments money, is under investigation. Read more about the Rev. Arthur B. Keys in this news article - "Founder of nonprofit retires to Washington County amid scrutiny", Tribune Live March 14, 2015.