Facing an unusually cold winter and heavy snowfalls in Afghanistan, leading to outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and pneumonia, road blockages and food shortages, United Nations agencies are using airdrops to get urgent supplies into some regions, where land convoys have been stuck for up to three weeks.

Since Afghanistan's Taliban Government fell in 2001, Afghan women have "made historic gains, with the support of the international community," but their participation in public life has been circumscribed by the continuing lack of security and reformers had to be careful not to stir up the traditional hostility to women's advancement, a new United Nations report says.

Despite some human rights improvements in Afghanistan such as the release of hundreds of prisoners, matters of concern still persist, including domestic violence against women, a deficient justice system, the deleterious impact of drugs and the dire conditions of prisons, according to a United Nations rights expert.