Quotes by AFP

"This is a major problem," Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan's acting public health minister told a ceremony in Kabul to mark World Mental Health Day.

"More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems," she said...

"Extreme poverty, insecurity, violence and gender disparities are the major factors contributing to worsening mental health in Afghanistan," Dalil said.

Women and children are at particular risk from stress disorders and mental problems in a country which has suffered more than three decades of war and has an illiteracy rate of over 70 percent.

At the IAEA on Thursday, US envoy Glyn Davies described the inclusion of the Israel issue at the IAEA’s regular June board meeting as “untimely and uncalled-for.”

It was “distracting, divisive, pre-empting and prejudicial” to the 2012 conference, Davies told reporters.

“In order for that conference to succeed, all of the parties in the region need to come together voluntarily. By talking about this here in Vienna, we don’t help that process. In fact, what we do is undercut it.” Establishing a nuclear-free Middle East was “not going to happen if the countries in the region engage in name-calling,” Davies said