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IRINnews Asia: ISLAMABAD - The construction of five new bridges by the Aga Khan Foundation between the remote northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan and the southeastern Badakhshoni Khui province in Tajikistan, will help improve the food situation in extremely vulnerable areas, aid workers told IRIN on Thursday. Both provinces are very mountainous, difficult to reach and are geographically isolated in economic terms. 'The people are isolated in these areas and the bridges will give them access to much needed markets for access to basic supplies,' country director for the Aga Khan Development Network in Afghanistan, Najmi Kamji, in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told IRIN. 'The intention was to bring both countries closer together,' he added

BBC Monitoring Service - The US embassy in Tajikistan and the regional mission of the USAID presented a new three-year development programme via public cooperation in Central Asia in Dushanbe on 23 July. The programme is aimed at stepping up the participation of members of the community in planning and adopting decisions as well as at increasingemployment opportunities for women and young people. The programme will be carried out in Tajikistan by the Mercy Corps, the UNDP and the Aga Khan Foundation.

KABUL (Reuters) - War-battered Afghanistan, where using a cellphone is a frustratingly hit-and-miss affair, will get its second GSM network on Sunday, and the company providing it vows to make failed calls a thing of the past. TDCA Ltd, trading under the name Roshan, meaning 'light' in the Dari language, is owned by a consortium grouping the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, Monaco Telecom International (MTI), U.S.-based MCT Corp and French telecoms giant Alcatel.

According to the Managing Director of Serena Hotels, Mr Mahmud Jan Mohamed, the Serena hotel in Uganda will open for public use at the end of this month but will await the official opening by President Yoweri Museveni and His Highness the Aga Khan at the end of the year.