MAZAR-I SHARIF, Afghanistan -- Ruqia is painfully thin and weak, but her health has improved since Nikkei Asia met her in late October, when she was close to starvation. She manages a whispered greeting of "Salam aleikum" to her visitors as her parents Massouma and Hussein look on. Sitting upright on a blanket spread over a cement step, she warms herself in the sun, watching her 4-year-old brother chase an irritated chicken around the family's small yard.
