UN pulls back from Afghanistan

The UN refugee agency began pulling foreign staff out of large swathes of southern and eastern Afghanistan today in the wake of the killing of a French worker, a decision that could affect tens of thousands of Afghan returnees.

Some 30 foreign staff members were being withdrawn, and refugee centres in the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar were being closed, said Filippo Grandi, the chief of mission in Afghanistan at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.