GHAZNI CITY (PAN): About 30,000 boys in the Maqour district of southern Ghazni province whose schools were closed for a year are now back in class after tribal elders held talks with the Taliban.
At the beginning of the academic year last March, schools were closed due to threats by some factions of the Taliban, but with the help of tribal elders and religious scholars, they reopened again in May.

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (PAN): Sayed Ahmad Yazdan Parast is blind, but the 22-year-old resident of Balkh province refuses to accept the definition, saying he lives a much fuller life than most people who can see.

SHIBARGHAN (PAN): Three Taliban factions are fighting over the collection of Oshar and Zakat -- mandatory religious donations -- in two districts of northern Jawzjan province, police and residents say. Villagers worry the dispute could lead to further violence in their once-peaceful area.

LASHKARGAH (PAN): Farmers in southern Helmand province claim that foreign troops sprayed chemical on their fields, destroying up to 90 percent of this years the poppy crops.

KABUL (PAN): In the hall that doubles as her kitchen in a small, rented house in Kabul City, Nolofar, 18, tailors clothes for her friends and neighbours.

KABUL  (PAN):  Many people in Kabul are critical of the way in which women's clothes are sold from hand carts on the side of the road, saying they should be sold in shops and by female shop assistants.