Tag Archives: around

MANILA (Reuters) – As Air Force One took off from Manila on Tuesday on the finish of the longest trip to Asia by an American president in more than quarter of a century, no less than two of the region’s leaders had good motive to feel glad.

Not so here in Jurm, a valley within the windswept mountainous province of Badakhshan, within the northeast. People here have taken charge for themselves — utilizing village councils and direct grants as part of an initiative referred to as the National Solidarity Program, launched by an Afghan ministry in 2003. Before then, this valley had no electricity or clear water, its important crop was poppy and almost one in 10 women died in childbirth, one of the highest maternal mortality rates on this planet. Today, many people have water faucets, fields grow wheat and it is now not thought of shameful for a …