Habib Qaderi, Aryana and Sameer Ahmadi will be performing a live concert in Vancouver on Feb. 27th  2010. Information regarding the venue, the tickets and the contact details can be found in the poster. The event is sponsored by Sherzaad Entertainment Inc.

Click here to see the poster.

A little about the Artists

Habib Qaderi is a famous Afghan music producer, writer and  composer who has released many albums starting from his first Chadar-e-Gulnaar in 1994 which didn’t do that well commercially. The album that gained him notability was Aros-e-Gulha released in 1997 with a hit title song Aros-e-Gulha featuring Laila Forouhar, a famous Iranian singer. His fourth Album Golden Dream(2001) turned him in to an overnight superstar while his  later released albums For My people and Closer were  also commercially successful. He was Awarded Afghanistan’s most influential artist of the year in 2008, among other famous and influential artists such as Farhad Darya, Haidar Salim, Ehsan Aman and Najim Nawabi. His beautiful “Praise Allah” song was awarded for the best religious song of the year 2008 as well.

A list of his albums.

• 1994: Chadar-e-Gulnaar
• 1997: Aros-e-Gulha
• 1998: Sahil
• 1999: Golden Dream
• 2002: Mehmaan-e-Yaar
• 2006: For My People
• 2008: Closer

Aryana Sayeed is a British Asian singer born in Kabul with a unique style combination of RnB, Soul, Persian and Arabic. One of the new faces in the Afghan Music industry, Aryana has had only one dream ever since she can remember and that is  music has truly been her life. Leaving Afghanistan at the age of 8 because of war to chase her dreams in Switzerland and then later in England, her journey has not been very smooth. She set up a band in 2003 and completed her first album to be released but due to seperation from the Band the album was dropped and not released. The Artists that has inspired Aryana are Alicia keys, Maria carey, J-Lo, Christina Aguillera, Beyonce, Nancy Ajram, Sameera Saeed and more of middle eastern vocals.

Not much is known about Sameer Ahmadi but he has many songs uploaded to youtube. Please do check it out.

Ahmad Kamal, Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, and Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official who is now with the Asia Society, join Edie Magnus for a roundtable on AfPak. They discuss power-sharing with the Taliban, drone strikes along the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan and American foreign policy challenges in the region.

Monday’s Taliban assault on the Afghan capital has again ignited concerns NATO’s failing to combat terrorism there. After almost a decade of U.S. efforts to control the situation, locals say they’re too afraid of the militants to accept any help from Americans.

Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers have attacked buildings in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, setting off explosions and sparking gun battles. Fighting erupted near the Serena Hotel and the presidential palace, although Afghan President Hamid Karzai says security has now been restored. The Taliban said 20 of its fighters were involved.

Two civilians and three security personnel have been killed plus 71 others wounded, officials say. Seven attackers had also been killed, Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said. The city is now calm but there is concern that some of the attackers may still be at large. It is the latest in a series of increasingly brazen attacks on Kabul. A statement on a Taliban website said the raid had targeted government buildings and the hotel.

Images of the bomb blast

‘Under control’

A spokesman for the interior ministry told the BBC it believed seven suicide attackers were involved. Four attacked a shopping centre near the Serena Hotel and presidential palace. All were now dead and fighting there had ceased, the spokesman said. Three militants attacked a cinema about 400m away and two were killed there. At least two explosions were reported earlier. A statement from the president’s office said: “The Afghan president wants to assure the inhabitants of Kabul that the security situation is under control and order has once again been restored.”

It added: “The president condemns these terrorist attacks and has instructed the security entities to intensify security in the city and take action to arrest those responsible for these brutal and unpatriotic attacks.” The BBC’s Mark Dummett, who had been in the basement of the Serena Hotel during the attack, said the city was in lockdown, with hundreds of security officers patrolling the streets and a helicopter flying overhead. He said although the city appeared quiet, the discrepancy between the number of insurgents the Taliban said had taken part and the number given by officials suggested there could still be militants at large, and everyone remained on guard.

Speaking to BBC News from inside the ministry of finance, civil servant Emal Masood said he could see the Feroshgah-e-Afghan shopping centre was burned out. He said: “One of my friends has a shop there. He told me two men entered – insurgents, yes – and were yelling at people to get out of the building. He said he left his shop open and ran away. Police were coming in as he ran out.”

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