One can say it has actually never entirely left the news during the past couple of decades. It has had a uniquely stormy past, and this legacy continues. Afghanistan is a landlocked country nestled between Iran, Pakistan, China and the former Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Summers are hot and dry.
It is where the Hindu Kush rises to become the mighty Himalayas in Pakistan, northern India and Nepal. The economy, or what is left of it after the Soviet occupation during the 1980s, is mostly agricultural. Afghanistan remains one of the world's most impoverished countries, poorer still because of the war that resulted from the Soviet occupation. The country has many natural resources, including gold, natural gas, coal, precious stones and more. Most of it is underdeveloped.