Monday, November 26, 2001		Lens on IT

Younes Azizian, left, and Vahid Nourzad view a music video in their computer shop in the city of Herat, Afghanistan. In Herat city all music shops, closed by Taliban, reopened after it had been taken by Northern Alliance.

Chinese visitors chat with a robot during a French hi-technology exhibition in Beijing. Tariffs on many hi-tech products will be phased out and eliminated by 2005 following China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. 

Afghan men walk past satellite dishes that are handmade from old paint cans at Nadir Pashtun street in Kabul. Television was banned under the Taliban's hardline Islamic regime, though a few wealthy residents took the risk of watching foreign television channels via satellite dishes. 

Malaysian Muslim Hazliza Badri, 17, shows the words "Bismi Allahi Alrrahmani Alrraheemi", meaning "In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful", on a mobile phone in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia's top cellular firm, Maxis Communications, launched new features aimed at Muslim users in the month of Ramadan.

Nokia launched three new phones on including the pictured 7650, a colour-screen model with a built-in camera, as the world's top handset maker sought to regain momentum. The phones are seen helping to kick-start a sluggish mobile Internet services market in Europe. 

— Reuters photos