Life Is Noisy

Taliban claims it killed Afghan governor, bodyguards (Full Story)

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — A roadside bomb detonated outside the home of a provincial governor in Afghanistan’s Kabul province Saturday, killing the governor and three of his bodyguards, officials said.

He was killed as he left his home to go to his office in Logar, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemaria Bashary.

The roadside bomb, which was remotely detonated, exploded about 300 yards from Wardak’s home, said Abdul Razaq, police chief of the Paghman district in Kabul province. Three of Wardak’s bodyguards, including one driving the vehicle carrying Wardak, were killed, Razaq said.

I discovered a way to search for news.  You may already know this.

Here is a search I did for — kabul taliban — just 2 words.  Click on the link below to see my results.  I believe it is sorted by date (or more likely time)

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&esrch=GoogleSuggestBeta&um=1&tab=wn&nolr=1&q=kabul+taliban&btnG=Search+News

You can do your own search.  Start here  http://news.google.com

Here is my example

Now take it a step further, get updates via email from Google News

Today the United States Department of State distributed this Travel Warning for Afghanistan.  I’m posting a few excerpts.  To read the entire advisory go here http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_2121.html

Please continue to pray for my safety.  Thank you.  (Mark)

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The Department of State continues to strongly warn U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan.  No part of Afghanistan should be considered immune from violence, and the potential exists throughout the country for hostile acts, either targeted or random, against American and other Western nationals at any time.

Kabul, in particular has seen a rise in militant attacks, including rocket attacks, vehicle borne IEDs, and suicide bombings.  The number of attacks in the south and southwestern areas of the country continues to be high as a result of insurgent and drug-related activity, but no part of the country is immune from attacks.  Over 100 attacks were reported in Kabul over the past year, although many additional attacks were thwarted by Afghan and coalition forces.  An additional 4,400 attacks occurred nationwide during the same timeframe.

Foreigners throughout the country continue to be targeted for violent attacks and kidnappings, whether motivated by terrorism or criminal activity.  In January, gunmen attacked the Serena Hotel and killed eight people, including an American contractor and a Norwegian journalist.  In April, an assassination attempt against Afghan President Karzai showed the continued desire of the insurgency to destabilize the Afghan government.  The July 2008 bombing of the Indian Embassy in downtown Kabul, near many western embassies and Afghan Government institutions, demonstrated the ability of the insurgents to undertake assaults within Kabul itself.  Rocket fire and rocket propelled grenade (RPG) attacks have occurred with increasing frequency.  In August, three female western non-governmental organization (NGO) employees, along with their male Afghan driver, were gunned down as they traveled south of Kabul.  An American NGO worker and her driver were kidnapped in Kandahar in January.  Other Americans were kidnapped in Afghanistan in February and August 2008.

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A gardener recently “mowed” the lawn at my house in Afghanistan.  I was surprised to watch him cut the grass with a sickle.  He chopped (I mean cut) small chunks of grass.  It took him a couple of hours.

This morning there was an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale in Hindu Kush, about 170 miles from the Kabul.

“There was a sudden jolt and we all rushed out of our houses as everything was swaying for a minute,” Sayed Bari said in Faizabad.

Thankfully there were no casualties.

Even though Sarah turns 16 today, she’s been there for the last couple of years.

Sarah, don’t rush to grow up.

It’s probably a normal feeling to wish she was still under 13 years old.  I wish our kids did not grow up so fast.

I created this video back in 2005.

I just downloaded Chrome, Google’s web browser.  It was recently released.  I love the clean look and feel.  It was built from scratch.  It’s not another version of Mozilla, Firefox or Internet Explorer.

First impressions –

Pro – I like the initial home page, when you first load the browser.  It shows your 9 most visited websites in a grid of 9 boxes (on one web page) with thumbnails of what the website looks like.  The theory is that most likely you are going to go to one of these sites as soon as you load the browser.

Con – The web pages seem to load slowler than Firefox and IE. 

This is a very early release.  Chrome/0.2.149.27 (I think this represents the version that I’m using)

Have you tried the browser yet?  If so, leave a comment as to your thoughts about the browser.  If not, here is a link where you can get the browser.   http://www.google.com/chrome