Here are 25 facts about Afghanistan that everyone ought to know. Maybe you have a few facts to add.
1. Afghanistan has about 33 million people, less than the state of California (36M).
2. Afghanistan is about the size of California and Oregon combined.
3. Afghanistan has about 1/4 of its people in the city (1/3rd of them in Kabul) and the rest in the countryside.
4. Kabul,the capital, (2.9million) by population is about the size of Chicago. This number does not make it in to the top 100 cities by population in the world.
5. Half of the people in Afghanistan speak Persian, 1/3rd speak Pashto, 1/10th speak Uzbek or Turkmen.
6. Afghanistan is 99% Muslim (84% Sunni/15 Shia).
7. Afghanistan’s life expectancy is 44.2 years (44.4-women) 44 for men. Nearly one in six children die at birth. Nearly half (45%) of the population is less than 14 years old. The average age is 17.6 years. Each woman bears 6+ children.
Afghanis
8. There is only one doctor per every 5,000+ people.
9. One in five women can read. One in two men can read. There is only 6 years of compulsory education.
10. Afghan is friends with Pakistan, India, Finland, Germany and Belgium - where the country exports to, and Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, United States and Germany - where the country imports from.
11. 70% of the country’s power comes by hydroelectric source and 30% by thermal sources.
12. There is only one radio for every 8 people.
13. There is only one telephone for every 333 people
14. There is only one television for every 85 people. (They aren’t missing anything.)
15. There are no internet hosts. (They are missing a lot.)
16. There is about one car for every 500 people and only 1/4th of all roads are paved.
17. Afghanistan is 90% dependent on aid as it rebuilds.
18. Only 2 in 5 schools in Afghanistan have buildings.
Afghan School
19. Some 92% of the world’s heroin comes from poppies grown in Afghanistan.
20. Afghanistan is landlocked by Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan
21. Afghanistan has natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones.
22. Afghanistan is limited in natural fresh water and has inadequate potable water, is overgrazed, deforested, desertified and suffers from air and water pollution as well as earthquakes.
23. There is no AIDS in Afghanistan.
24. Afghanistan is older than the United States -founded in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Please consider taking a moment to sign my Asia guestbook.
According to my stat counter I get visitors from all over Asia. I wonder out loud, here, who some of you are.
Please take a moment to sign in inthe comments, leave an email if you like, or not….I promise, I absolutely hate spam. You will NEVER be spammed by me and I will NEVER give your email address to someone else. Or you can just leave that part blank if you like.
In any event, I know where I have been in Asia - Japan, China, Korea, Guam, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Russia…. Where have you been? Where are you?
I wonder if I can find someone/s from all over the world who has been all over Asia.
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I am on a mission to know/learn/share more about the continent I write about.
Here are 15 funfacts about Asia.
1. Asia is the largest continent by landmass and human population. The area of Asia is larger than the land area of the moon. (44.6K sq km - 37k sq km respectively.)
2. Asia has a population of over 4 billion people or better than 60% of the world’s population. This many people standing side by side holding hands would reach around the world at the equator more than 100 times.
3. More than half of Asia’s population is in two countries in Asia - China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion). India is guestimated to take over China in about 20 years or so.
According to the website the Rank Card is going to be issued only to those candidates who have qualified in JMET 2009 Exam. In case the exam candidates do not receive their Rank Card by 20th Jan 09, they are requested to contact the GATE Office, IIT Kanpur, contact no (0512-2597412 ).
Pitch and conditions : The Chittagong Divisional Stadium pitch may favour the spinners, so both the team spinners have to do the bulk of the bowling
Quotes : - “I am just proud to have played for my country for so long.”We are focused on beating Bangladesh here and win the series 2-0. They played very well in Dhaka and I expect they will fight hard here as well.” Mahela jayawardene
The 3rd Cricket Test Match between Australia and South Africa will start from 3rd Jan-09, Saturday in Sydney. Start time 10.30am (23.30GMT)
South Africa has already won the 3 match test series by 2-0 giving Australia their first series defeat at home in 16 years. If S Africa can win this match they are going to be the official No 1 in the ICC test rankings. The no 1 Test ranking is up for grabs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Australia have not lost all the matches in a home series of three or more Tests. Australia have won 12 out of the past 14 Tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This match is going to be a Challenge for the Australians
For Australia Andrew McDonald and Doug Bollinger are set to make their debuts in place of Bret Lee and Andrew symonds respectively who are injured.
Australia 1. Matthew Hayden, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew McDonald, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Doug Bollinger.
South Africa has named the same squad which played in the 2nd test.
South Africa 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Neil McKenzie, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Paul Harris, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.
The second One day International cricket match between New Zealand and West Indies will begin on 3rd Jan at the AMI stadium , ChristChurch. This is day/night Match which is scheduled to begin at 14:00 local time (01:00 GMT)
The 1st ODI was abandoned due to rain in which West Indies batted first and scored 129/5 in 35 overs.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the star Windies batsman may miss this ODI due to hand injury. which will be big blow to the windies team.
New Zealand (probable 11 players): Brendon McCullum (wk), Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Daniel Flynn, Grant Elliott, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (capt), Tim Southee, Mark Gillespie, Kyle Mills.
Fire broke thru at ‘the Santika’ a high end jam packed 3 storied Bangkok nightclub killing at least 61 people and injured more than 200 after midnight on Thursday as people were celebrating the new year in the club, the police said.
Majority of the casualties and injuries were caused by a crazy stampede in the club after fire broke, the club has only one main entrance and was packed with around 1,000 people at the night,
The New Year’s Eve party was advertised as “Bad Boy Party” on the Santika club’s Web site. The party was also called as “Goodbye Santika,” because the owner had planed to move the club to a new location.
Among the people who died 38 were Thais and 1 Singaporean. Among the injured, 35 people were foreigners, includes people from Australia, Britain, Korea, Singapore and the USA.
Indian cricket Captain Mahendra Dhoni received 2nd threat letter at his residence, his security has been upgraded to Z category after he received an extortion threat letter of Rs 50 lakh (US$ 103,091) and then another letter threatening to blow up his house in Ranchi.
Dhoni’s house at Ranchi in Jharkhand has been provided with extra security and is been cordoned off , all visitors including friends, are being checked.
Both the letters were hand written and sent by a man claiming to be a member of Indias most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim gang. Dhoni will be guarded by 45 armed men round the clock.
"Some local Criminals are trying to create some nuisance. Everything will be clear soon," said Sudhir Mahto, Jharkhand’s Deputy Chief Minister.
When asked "Nothing has been brought to my notice but I am sure if any threat comes he will simply swipe it over the boundary line," said Indian Home Minister Chidambaram.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Agra is situated in the city of Taj Mahal. It was established on 1st July 1927 as Agra University. The university provides various Educational colleges and courses,
Sri Lanka will begin from Jan 3rd, Saturday in Chittagong ,Bangladesh,
due to rain in which West Indies batted first and scored 129/5 in 35 overs.
Indian cricket Captain Mahendra 
