Afghanistan's new nature park hopes to become tourist magnet

A series of deep-blue high-mountain lakes became Afghanistan’s first provisional national park today, as the violence-racked country took a first step toward protecting one of its finest natural treasures.

Coinciding with Earth Day, celebrated worldwide every year on April 22, officials in the Central Asian country signed a decree to create Band-e-Amir National Park, encompassing six mountain-fed lakes held back by natural calcified dams.