Flash flooding

In this security vacuum, the resurgent Taliban laid siege to the highway. Attacks on LBG road crews intensified — fueled in part, Afghan officials told me, by grievances over the company’s failure to hire local workers and consult tribal elders. In February 2004, militants shot down an LBG helicopter, killing the pilot and injuring three employees. Meanwhile, travelers were increasingly stopped at gunpoint and shaken down. State employees were often summarily executed on the roadside. The Taliban made a special effort to destroy fuel and supply trucks that serviced the main NATO military bases at Bagram and Kandahar. In one infamous 2008 attack in Ghazni province, a convoy of more than 40 trucks was blown up and left to burn. “The highway was a vehicle graveyard,” says the senior U.S. officer, who returned to Afghanistan after serving in Iraq. “We tried to send logistics guys to move all the carcasses of the dead trucks off the road as fast as … [Read more...] about Highway to Hell: A Trip Down Afghanistan’s Deadliest Road

There are early signs in Government data that number of people dying each day in London has turned a corner and started to decline in mid-January, with the daily average declining from 169 to 163 and falling for four days in a row between January 10 and 14 … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson will hold No10 press conference at 5pm today as up to 70 furious Tories demand ‘road map’ for lifting lockdown from March – amid fears he is ready to keep Covid restrictions in place until the SUMMER

And like many retired generals, Austin has served on corporate boards. He is a member of the board of directors of Raytheon Technologies, a prominent U.S. defense contractor -- but said during his confirmation hearing he would recuse himself from defense matters involving Raytheon Technologies for four years. … [Read more...] about Lloyd Austin: What to know about Biden administration’s Secretary of Defense

Through the run of the series, there was much talk among its characters of being on the island for a purpose. As it draws to a close, "Lost" has sustained the eerie feeling (eerie for TV, anyway) that it was on the air for a purpose -- a special purpose beyond selling products and filling time, or even entertainment. … [Read more...] about ‘Lost’ Addresses Years of Questions in Finale

"During one of the most complex and consequential eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information, 24/7. I could not be more proud of them," Brokaw said in a statement. … [Read more...] about Tom Brokaw retires after 55 years at NBC News