DELHI: It is broadcasting for only a couple of hours every evening but it's a start. And for a country that has been wracked by war for as long as anyone can remember, it is having an impact.

Broadcasting in black and white out of the former stronghold of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime is Kandahar Television, Reuters news agency reports. Hampered by a nonexistent budget, Kandahar TV's few hours on air in the evenings includes a brief newscast, some public information, and recorded tapes from the Soviet rule in the 1980s.

There is a certain irony in the fact that these black and white images interspersed with scenes of the capital itself, its cars, buildings and bustling street life are eliciting nostalgia for Kabuls "golden days".