28 June 2011

Through spaces lush and arid, explosive and unhurried

Syracuse, N.Y., had record winter snows, has been saturated with rain, and throbbed green last week.

Parched Albuquerque, where I arrived yesterday, is hot, windy, with a few teasing clouds this afternoon. North of here, the Las Conchas wildfire, which consumed 44,000 acres in the first 24 hours and is uncontained, forced the evacuation of Los Alamos, N.M. the town of 12,000 that was created during World War II to develop the nation’s nuclear weaponry.

In Kabul, which I left a month ago, at least six militants “armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades” attacked the aging Intercontinental Hotel, which is often frequented by foreigners. Rockets fired from NATO helicopters killed three insurgents today and appear to have eliminated the four-hour siege, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. The attack took place on the eve of a conference about the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, the Guardian UK reported.

Sandwiched between leaving Kabul and arriving in Albuquerque, I spent the better part of three weeks in Italy and Croatia, mostly on the languid Adriatic coasts.

No comments:

Post a Comment