CBS News
9 children dead after old land mine explodes in Afghanistan
An old land mine found by children in eastern Afghanistan exploded while they were playing with it, killing nine children, a Taliban spokesperson said Monday.
The mine, which the children found near their village in Gero district in Ghazni province, was from decades ago, said Hamidullah Nisar, director of the Taliban’s information and culture department in Ghazni.
He said the explosion Sunday killed five boys and four girls who were 5 to 10 years old.
“An unexploded mine left over from the time of the Russian invasion went off when they were playing with it,” Nisar said, according to AFP. “Unfortunately, it killed nine children.”
Also on Sunday, another child died and five more people were wounded when unexploded ordnance went off in Herat province, AFP reported, citing a social media post from local police.
Afghanistan has suffered from decades of war and remains highly dangerous for children who collect scrap metal to sell to support their families. Many are killed or maimed when they come across unexploded ordinance.
AP Photos/Allauddin Khan
Swathes of Afghanistan are littered with unexploded mines, grenades and mortars left over from those conflict periods, spanning the Soviet invasion in 1979, the civil war that followed and the 20-year Taliban insurgency against foreign-backed governments.
While violence has reduced dramatically since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, ending their insurgency, unexploded ordnance and mines still claim lives regularly, with the International Committee of the Red Cross saying children are the main victims.
Since 1989, about 44,000 Afghan civilians have been recorded to have been killed or injured by land mines and explosive remnants of war, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). A UNICEF report for 2022 documented around 700 children maimed or killed — almost 2 children per day — by explosive ordnance.
Agence France-Presse contributed reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Barry Enderwick is eating his way through history, one sandwich at a time. Every day from his home in San Jose, California, Enderwick posts a cooking video from a recipe that time forgot. From the 1905 British book “Salads, Sandwiches and Savouries,” Enderwick prepared the New York Sandwich.
The recipe called for 24 oysters, minced and mixed with mayonnaise, seasoned with lemon juice and pepper, and spread over buttered day-old French bread.
Rescuing recipes from the dustbin of history doesn’t always lead to culinary success. Sampling his New York Sandwich, Enderwick decried it as “a textural wasteland. No, thank you.” Into the trash bin it went!
But Enderwick’s efforts have yielded his own cookbook, a collection of some of the strangest – and sometimes unexpectedly delicious – historical recipes you’ve never heard of.
Harvard Common Press
He even has a traveling stage show: “Sandwiches of History Live.”
From the condiments to the sliced bread, this former Netflix executive has become something of a sandwich celebrity. “You can put just about anything in-between two slices of bread,” he said. “And it’s portable! In general, a sandwich is pretty easy fare. And so, they just have universal appeal.”
Though the sandwich gets its name famously from the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, the earliest sandwich Enderwick has eaten dates from 200 B.C.E. China, a seared beef sandwich called Rou Jia Mo.
He declared it delicious. “Between the onions, and all those spices and the soy sauce … oh my God! Oh man, this is so good!”
While Elvis was famous for his peanut butter and banana concoction, Enderwick says there’s another celebrity who should be more famous for his sandwich: Gene Kelly, who he says had “the greatest man sandwich in the world, which was basically mashed potatoes on bread. And it was delicious.”
Whether it’s a peanut and sardine sandwich (from “Blondie’s Cook Book” from 1947), or the parmesian radish sandwich (from 1909’s “The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book”), Enderwick tries to get a taste of who we were – good or gross – one recipe at a time.
RECIPE: A sophisticated club sandwich
Blogger Barry Enderwick, of Sandwiches of History, offers “Sunday Morning” viewers a 1958 recipe for a club sandwich that, he says, shouldn’t work, but actually does, really well!
MORE: “Sunday Morning” 2024 “Food Issue” recipe index
Delicious menu suggestions from top chefs, cookbook authors, food writers, restaurateurs, and the editors of Food & Wine magazine.
For more info:
Story produced by Anthony Laudato. Editor: Chad Cardin.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.