AFGHANISTAN

BBC: Afghans' uranium levels spark alert
A small sample of Afghan civilians have shown "astonishing" levels of uranium in their urine, an independent scientist says
He said they had the same symptoms as some veterans of the 1991 Gulf war.
But he found no trace of the depleted uranium (DU) some scientists believe is implicated in Gulf War syndrome.
Other researchers suggest new types of radioactive weapons may have been used in Afghanistan
He told BBC News Online: "In Afghanistan there were no oil fires, no pesticides, nobody had been vaccinated - all explanations suggested for the Gulf veterans' condition.
"But people had exactly the same symptoms. I'm certainly not saying Afghanistan was a vast experiment with new uranium weapons. But use your common sense."