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OTTAWA—A Senate committee says there's little evidence that a Canadian agency is carrying out the redevelopment work it's supposed to be doing in Afghanistan.

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"We simply have not been able to get any figures that demonstrate that aid is going into Kandahar. This concerns us a great deal," Kenny said. "We're concerned that CIDA cannot track where its funding is going. If it's going on, CIDA can't tell you about it. We've been looking now for a number of months."

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[ 06 October 2006: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

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Schools in Kabul — jittery from scores of arson attacks on schools around the country and an increasing number of Taliban bombings in the capital — have tightened security. Many now pat down even the youngest girls and boys, fearing militants could use an unwitting student to carry an explosive into class.

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More than 160 schools have been attacked around Afghanistan already this year, up from 146 during all of last year. Most have been nighttime arson attacks that hurt no one — a tactic aimed at undermining the reach of President Hamid Karzai's government, which reversed the fundamentalist Taliban's ban on girls' education.

Between 5 million and 6 million children, including about 2 million girls, now attend school in Afghanistan.

Growing insecurity, particularly in the south where the Taliban are strongest, and targeted killings of teachers have whittled away at that achievement. Last month, Karzai told the U.N. General Assembly that "200,000 of our students, who went to school two years ago, are no longer able to do so."

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Qassim Khan, a father of one 3rd-grade girl and one in 7th — said he thought it was possible a child could unknowingly carry a bomb. At first, he said the searches were good.

He later changed his mind.

"Even in the United States you would get angry having your kids searched. We are very upset." Khan said in his downtown Kabul carpet shop. "It's not good for the morale of the kids. It shows the weakness of our government."

"We have the international community here, more than 30 countries. They should bring security to the country," Khan said. "Why are we searching little girls?"

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