As if Afghanistan didn't have enough problems, the Taliban have spawned yet another: an epidemic of ransom kidnappings. Such crimes used to be rare, and the perpetrators were usually common thugs who stuck close to Kabul. That's changed in the last couple of years, as the Taliban learned to abduct foreigners and Afghan business people instead of killing them.**********
Since then, kidnapping has become one of the guerrillas' main revenue sources, second only to facilitating and protecting the country's $4 billion-a-year narcotics trade.
UPDATE: The capricious and unknowable...
..."Will of Allah."
Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide car bomb attack has killed two Afghan doctors working for the United Nations.*
The two doctors worked for the United Nations World Health Organization and were traveling to Spin Boldak to vaccinate people against polio.