Other sides to Kandahar

Stories from CP and AP that broaden the picture:

1) Making a difference for girls in Kandahar

Afghan-Canadian Community Centre helping women upgrade their skills, find employment

More at this post, viaTerry Glavin.

2) In southern Afghanistan, it will take more than war to dislodge hockey league at military base

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - "Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

No bombs nor rockets - just a spectator yelling during a tight game of the Kandahar Ball Hockey League, played Monday through Friday nights at NATO's biggest military base in southern Afghanistan.

There's no ice and no puck, but no matter. Canadian troops still get their ice hockey fix - even in the middle of a war.

Occasional rocket attacks, sudden deployments and other military operations don't stop the league, which is held twice a year to match six-month stints of Canadian troops who share the base with forces from the United States, Britain and other nations...

There are more than two dozen teams drawn from different units in the league's two divisions, some of them coed and most of them Canadian. The U.S. Marines used to have a team. The Slovaks have one. Some team names are flamboyant - "Dust Devils" and "Desert Dogs" - while others are less so. One is called "Maintenance," after the Canadian military unit that fixes equipment...

Military personnel watch hockey players from the CGHA (Canadian Forces Helicopter Afghanistan [more here and here]), in the black jerseys, playing against members of the FAF (French Air Force) in a concrete-floored rink during Kandahar Ball Hockey League the at the "Boardwalk" entertainment area of the Kandahar military base in Afghanistan [a post from Babbling, who's been on the boardwalk], Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010. Two dozen teams, mostly Canadian military servicemen, play a ball league to satisfy their love of ice hockey.(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Pier Paolo Cito)