When the United States lifted its economic sanctions on Afghanistan recently, the Moscow economic journal Rossiiskaya Biznes-Gazeta called the move "the first harbinger of U.S. companies' intentions to rejoin the trans-Afghan gas consortium".
Siberian timber, Mongolian iron ore, Kazakh oil, Turkmen natural gas and Afghan copper are already channeled directly to China through a newly built East-bound network that is fueling the rapid development of the world's largest population.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Blood tests have confirmed that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls' schools across the country over the last two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, an Afghan official said Tuesday.
The humble facility, which was supposed to provide cheap natural gas to local Afghan drivers, cost $43 million to build — and the US Department of Defense footed the bill.
This will link new gas discoveries near the Afghan border, including South Yolotan-Osman which ranks among the largest in the world, with Caspian basin fields.
Converting a car to run on natural gas costs around $800; the average Afghan makes $690 per year.
The most essential of these projects are the as-yet unbuilt Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipelines.
A similar event took place late last month, also in Parwan, when dozens of girls were hospitalized after being sickened by what Afghan officials said were strong fumes or a possible poison gas cloud.
Still, a large proportion of this generation of Afghan girls is attending schools like this one, despite arson and gas attacks.
