Kane Farabaugh's Kanestergram

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The kids on the side of the street come up to you and speak the three phrases of English that they know well. “"Hello Mister!"” one shouts from his rickety bicycle “"How are you?!”" another says as he gives me the thumbs up sign. Another kid selling black market CD’s makes a simple request “"Water!"” The elders sit back and watch them, breaking in every now and then to keep them in line by shouting “"Burru!"” which means, simply, go away. The streets are bustling in Kabul. The shops along Chicken Street, a popular shopping area in town, are filled with goods ranging from ancient muskets to the famous Afghan carpet. It seems like a typical scene out of a movie about the Middle East, complete with busy bazaars and bustling activity. Burquas (traditional Afghan shroud) and beards pass us as we make our way through the masses. But there’s a new element in the Kabuls scenery. On this day, a stationery store just off Chicken...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN - The first thing you notice when you step outside the tent in the morning is the sun. It's hot. Very hot. Bagram Air Base is also one of the dustiest places on the planet. But somehow each and every day thousands of soldiers survive the heat and the dirt (I'm hesitant to call it "sand") on one of the front lines of Operation Enduring Freedom. Both the pace and quality of life is picking up here in this former Soviet stronghold just north of Afghanistan's capital Kabul. It's now occupied by allied forces from more than ten different countries. While British forces are getting ready to pull out, more U.S. troops are deploying in. Each night, U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemasters filled with equipment and soldiers make their way to Bagram's pockmarked runway. We made our way into Afghanistan from Germany with reserve troops just activated from Pittsburgh. They're part of the 329th Combat Support Hospital going into Bagram ...

NEW YORK, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association (http://www.saja.org), will honor the winners of the 2002 SAJA Journalism Awards contest at its eighth annual dinner on Saturday, June 15, at Columbia University in New York. These annual awards recognize excellence in reporting about South Asia, as well as outstanding reporting by South Asian journalists and students in the U.S. and Canada. The Awards ceremony is part of the SAJA international convention, which takes place June 14-16 and is expected to draw 600 journalists and guests from the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Asia. The awards will be presented at Columbia by Steve Coll, managing editor of The Washington Post, who will deliver the keynote address that evening. In addition, Coll, a former South Asia bureau chief of the Post, will receive the SAJA Journalism Leader Award in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the field of journalism. He will receive the award from Jyoti Thot...