Afghanistan

Every day Afghanistan seems to bring bad news….this from the LA Times:

Insurgents massacred 36 workers at a road-construction encampment in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, provincial and company officials said, marking one of the most lethal assaults of its kind in recent years. The Talban and other insurgents sometimes target work crews on infrastructure projects, regarding the building companies as collaborators with the central government and foreign forces. But most such projects have substantial security contingents, and it is unusual for militants to be able to kill so many in a single strike. The construction company's owner, Noorullah Bidar, one of 20 people injured in the attack, said from his hospital bed that all those slain in the predawn attack in Paktia province were Afghans. Rohullah Samon, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the dead included laborers, technical personnel and security guards. Eight assailants died in the attack as well, he said. By Laura King, Los Angeles Times, May 20 2011

It’s so awful…yet on the other hand I did hear the female Head of the Health Ministry yesterday and, as she said, ten years ago she wouldn’t have been allowed in the ministry never mind being allowed to run it…so there is some progress to hold on to. But it is such a fine line between going forwards and backwards….