AFGHANISTAN: The High-Wire Man

To the casual eye, the mountain-locked central Asian kingdom of Afghanistan still looks much as it must have centuries ago. Camel caravans still wind below mud-walled villages perched for safety on hilltops. In the boulder-strewn valleys, leathery men in loose pantaloons guard their flocks with homemade rifles. Most Afghan women, gypsy-eyed and adorned with necklaces of silver coins, still hide their faces when a stranger appears. But in the windswept capital city of Kabul last week, TIME Correspondent Donald Connery found evidences on every side of Afghanistan's awakening—an awakening that is creating a fresh danger spot for the West....

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