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Bamboo is so tough and so plentiful it’s used for construction scaffolding all aver Asia. So why not use it to build bikes? It seemed like a good idea to design maestro Craig Calfee and to the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. The two have teamed up to build better bikes for poor Africans in rural areas and stimulate the local bicycle industry in a number of African countries. The NI talked to Bamboo Bike Project co-ordinator and Columbia scientist David Ho.

When it comes to the future, the car simply can't compete. Chris Webb charts the comeback of the people's best friend – the humble bicycle. And you can even make one out of bamboo.

Groups, contacts and resources.

A canny village woman talks to NI.

Abdul Basir on the missing aid billions.

Afghan views on WHAM – a key strategy of the coalition forces’ war against the Taliban. Pictures from AINA’s gallery.

Drama is helping victims, writes Hadi Ogal.

Human rights activist Horia Mosadiq takes her Government to task.

The basics, conflict, aid & social equality in Afghanistan.

Sex, dating and the struggle for modernity.

The fighting, the pain and the hunger for change

How to lose friends and alienate people, by Kabul defence journalist, Khabaryal.

And the West acting like it knows best... again. Isn’t it time we listened to Afghans, asks Vanessa Baird?

British aid agency ActionAid recently put in an application to demolish London’s famed St Paul’s Cathedral.

Human skulls and decomposing bodies dug up in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province show signs of torture.