BBC News Online: World: South Asia

Afghan jobs project begins

The United Nations Development programme has launched a new scheme in Afghanistan aimed at providing some 20,000 new jobs over the next six months.

The first work project has already begun, with a rebuilding of a primary school for boys and girls in a village Chehelsotune some 5km outside Kabul.

It marks the start of a $3m project funded by Japan, which will include road repairs, sanitation and water supplies, the building of schools and hospitals, and the removal of rubble.

Workers will be paid an average of $2 a day.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service