Afghan refugees ride a truck carrying their belongings on the outskirts of Jabal us Saraj, some 60 km north of Kabul, October 27, 2001. Afghanistan in an extremely poor, landlocked country, highly dependent on farming and livestock raising. Economic considerations have played second fiddle to political and military upheavals during two decades of war, including the nearly 10-year Soviet military occupation. During that conflict one third of the population fled the country, with Pakistan and Iran sheltering a combined peak of more than 6 million refugees. —REUTERS