Laura Bush visits Afghanistan

US FIRST Lady Laura Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to show support for the troubled nation as 16 people, including an Afghan journalist for the BBC, were killed in fresh violence.

Bush said she had wanted to see progress in Afghanistan ahead of a June 12 Paris conference, where Kabul will present a e50.1 billion (e31.8bn), five-year development plan for the country.

“I’ll be attending the donors’ conference in Paris later this week and so really want to take this opportunity to be here and to see how things have changed since I was last here,” she told reporters.

New Zealand troops in Bamiyan for the NATO-led force providing security across Afghanistan performed the famous haka for her, and she visited a US-funded police training centre and other projects before returning to Kabul.

Sixteen people were killed in a wave of unrest around the country yesterday, as authorities announced they had found the body of an Afghan reporter for the BBC a day after he was kidnapped in the volatile southern province of Helmand.

“He had been shot in the head,” the BBC said in a statement.