I welcome the Conference focus on the need to better integrate international military and civilian efforts across Afghanistan.

Australia considers a major civilian effort is critical to success in Afghanistan. In addition to our involvement in army and police training Australia is committed to building the capacity of the Afghan Government to manage its own affairs through our international development assistance program.

Australia will provide $21 million to

The function was held in Muzaffarabad under the auspices of Mr. Raja Zulqarnain Khan, the governor of the province, in the presence of Mrs. Noreen 'Aref, the Minister of Social Affairs in the province, who distributed the regular allowances to the orphans sponsored by Qatar Charity.

In a press release, Mr. Muhammad Wahy, the director of the Charity's Office in Pakistan, said: "There are

Today I attended the United Nations sponsored International Conference on Afghanistan in The Hague.

I welcome the Conference focus on the need to better integrate international military and civilian efforts across Afghanistan.

Australia considers a major civilian effort is critical to success in Afghanistan. In addition to our involvement in army and police training Australia is committed to building the capacity of the Afghan Government to manage its own affairs through our international development assistance program.

John Solecki, 49, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Baluchistan province, was kidnapped in the provincial capital, Quetta, on Feb. 2 when gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver.

A previously unknown militant group, the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), said it had kidnapped Solecki.

Saudi Public Assistance for Pakistan Earthquake Victims, (SPAPEV) Media Director, While collecting the cartons of special dates from Saudi Arabia, told newsmen that these packets of dates would be distributed among the quake affectees of AJK and NWFP.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's special

According to media reports, several people were killed and scores of others injured when militants attacked the facility in the city of Lahore, near Pakistan's border with India.

"He extends his sympathies to the families of those killed and to the injured," Mr. Ban's spokesperson, Michele Montas, told reporters in New York.

The practice of granting asylum to people fleeing persecution in foreign lands is one of the earliest hallmarks of civilization. References to it have been found in texts written 3,500 years ago, during the blossoming of the great early empires in the Middle East such as the Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians and ancient Egyptians.

Over three millennia later, protecting refugees was made the core mandate of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, which was founded in 1950. This booklet addresses some of the most commonly asked

National and global economic changes-inflationary oil prices and skyrocketing food prices-and national political uncertainty, compounded by deterioration in law and order present serious challenges for Pakistan's economy and its agricultural sector in particular. Growth has slowed, inflation has increased, and the trade deficit has widened. Stagnant wheat production and an unprecedented level of informal wheat trade to neighboring countries have made the food supply insecure. Pakistan's traditional, subsistence agriculture is becoming commercial, albeit slowly.

INTRODUCTION