Extreme Tourism Ends Badly

KABUL, Afghanistan — A kidnapped British engineer
was found dead yesterday, and two bodies discovered in Afghanistan’s
southern desert were identified as missing Japanese tourists, raising
fears that elections later this month may be disrupted by militant violence.

The bodies of the two Japanese were found Thursday in the desert near a
road leading from Kandahar to the Pakistani border. They had been missing
since Aug. 8, when they crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan on holiday.

What is it about those wacky Japanese? They
have always had a magnificent, maniacal madness about the way they
go about
their business, and regularly do things that almost everyone else in
the world think is absolutely insane, like traipsing off to Afghanistan
for
vacation. Think of Kamikaze and Hari kari, both of which, apropos to
nothing, were
popular drinks in the dearly departed city of New Orleans.

from The
Associated Press