CounterPunch: I’m really not sure what Bush, Obama, and McCain mean when they say they want to win in Afghanistan. And, I'm not sure they know either. It's probably just a public-relations gimmick to sound “tough on terror.” But, judging from what we've seen, they seem to think that “winning” means killing every last “terrorist” in Afghanistan. That sort of thinking is based on false assumptions and it's an unattainable goal.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In 35 schools of Sheikh Ali district of Parwan province almost half of 8000 students are forced in hard labor such as planting and harvesting wheat and potatoes, collecting harvested beans and irrigating the land.      Full news...

ANP: Suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are reaching epidemic proportions. More than 6,000 veterans took their lives in 2005 alone, according to a study by CBS News. By some estimates, veterans are attempting suicide 1,000 times a month. Marine Corporal James Jenkins of New Jersey was one of these unsung casualties of war.      Full news...

“Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Mohammed Naseer Fayyaz, the host of the programme Haqeeqat (The Truth) on privately-owned Ariana TV, who was arrested yesterday by members of the Directorate for National Security (DNS) at the government's behest." "The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Afghan television reporter Mohammad Naseer Fayyaz was detained one day after his television station aired a documentary that was critical of some cabinet members and their ministries.”      Full news...

A 3-year-old girl named Samira was raped by unknown men in the Shibirghan, the centre of Jozjan province. According to Mahboobullah, the spokesperson of Jozjan’s governor, the small girl was kidnapped two days ago and later freed in Shibirghan.      Full news...

RAWA News: Muhammad Naseer Fayyaz, an Afghan journalist, news anchor and the host and writer of the political show “Haqeeqat” (The Truth) in ATN TV channel was arrested on July 28 by Directorate for National Security (DNS, Afghan intelligence service) for assessing and criticizing the actions of the Afghan government under Hamid Karzai.      Full news...

SF Chronicle: Along a parched sandlot where sporadic bursts of wind kick up spinning clouds of blinding dust, Abdul Quiam wakes from an afternoon slumber. A tent constructed of bamboo poles and threadbare blankets is the weathered 75-year-old man's only defense from a scorching midday sun.      Full news...

Telegraph.co.uk: Thomas Schweich, who served as the State Department's most senior anti-drugs in official in Afghanistan until last month, said that Mr Karzai's overriding concern was to hold power. This had led him to protect 20 government officials, all linked to drug trafficking.      Full news...

New Statesman: Slaughters on this scale are common, and mostly unknown to the British public. I interviewed a woman who had lost eight members of her family, including six children. A 500lb US Mk82 bomb was dropped on her mud, stone and straw house. There was no "enemy" nearby. I interviewed a headmaster whose house disappeared in a fireball caused by another "precision" bomb.      Full news...

Democracy Now: Coming on the heels of Barack Obama’s highly publicized visit to Afghanistan—what he calls a central front in the so-called war on terror—we play an address by Pacifica radio host Sonali Kolhatkar, one of this country’s leading voices against the occupation of Afghanistan and co-author of the book Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords and the Propaganda of Silence.      Full news...

PAN: A female teacher along with her two children was kidnapped and missing since two weeks with no information of their whereabouts in the province of Farah.      Full news...

A 12-year old schoolgirl was gang-raped by five gunmen in Sarpul province in Northern Afghanistan. The girl and her family asked Hamid Karzai to prosecute the rapists and take their case seriously. They threatened that if they are not provided justice, the whole family will commit mass suicide to get rid of such life. They say, the local authorities keep silence on such cases and did not act to arrest those responsible.      Full news...

The Hindu: Each year since the parliamentary elections of 2005, Afghanistan has seen a spiralling toll of human lives. Initially, the resurgent Taliban burst out once again in the southern provinces, where they had their stronghold, engaging the international forces in conventional warfare. The escalated fighting was explained away by the military forces who said they were going into “new” areas, an admission that the initial operations against the Taliban in 2001 had a very limited mandate.      Full news...

The Canadian Press: Girls as young as 11 are considered just old enough for a husband. Their parents collect lucrative $10,000 dowries from wealthy grooms-to-be, and these pre-teens are sent off to become housewives and start raising families. Last year 60 Kandahar girls sought to escape their fate through suicide, provincial officials say. Like Sher, many wound up as hospital burn victims after dousing themselves with gasoline and setting themselves ablaze.      Full news...

Press TV: Tribal elders in Afghanistan's western Herat province have said dozens of civilians have been killed during aerial attacks by US forces. News of the fighting in Herat province came from tribal elders who reported dozens of casualties in the Zirko Valley in Shindan district.      Full news...

PAN: U.S.-led coalition troops Thursday conceded that eight Afghan civilians have been killed in an air strike in the western province of Farah during a raid against suspected militants.      Full news...

IRIN News: High food prices, drought, unemployment and lack of socio-economic opportunities are pushing some women and young girls in northern Afghanistan into commercial sex work, women’s rights activists and several affected women told IRIN.      Full news...

The Afghan Victim Memorial: They were killed or wounded on Friday, July 4, 2008, on a road near Aranas village on the Waygal River in the district of Waigal (Waygal), Nuristan Province. The Province’s Governor himself, Tamim Nuristani, told various media including the AFP that 16 civilians were killed in an air strike as they were leaving an area after being told by security forces a military operation was about to occur. District governor Zia-ul-Rehman said that 22 civilians had died in the strike.      Full news...

World News Australia: A spokesman for Ghazni's governor, said the women, dressed in blue burqas, were shot and killed on Saturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. He called the two "innocent local people." Taliban fighters told AP Television News the two were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to US soldiers and other foreign contractors at a US base in Ghazni city.      Full news...

IRIN: Afghanistan has the highest fertility rate in Asia - 6.7 - which not only means the deaths of thousands of young mothers and infants every year but also poses long-term challenges, an expert of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned. “If the fertility rates are not reduced, Afghanistan’s population will more than double by 2050; from 47th most populous country, Afghanistan would become the 31st most populous country in the world,” Penumaka said.      Full news...

PAN: Officials in Nuristan province on Monday said almost 30 defenseless civilians have been reportedly killed during NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) airstrike in Want-Waigal district of the eastern province.      Full news...

Women's eNews: Drug addiction is mounting in Afghanistan as wives get hooked on the smoke their husbands exhale. A women-only treatment clinic opened last year in Kabul, where the clinic's director estimates about one-third of the women in the city are addicted. Addiction in Afghanistan has doubled over the last few years, according to United Nations figures, and drug money is helping fund the Taliban, which controls many of the smuggling routes.      Full news...

Times Online: An Afghan government investigation has concluded that 45 women and children and two men were killed when a US aircraft bombed a wedding party in eastern Afghanistan last Sunday. The nine-man investigation team appointed by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, found that only civilians were hit during the airstrike.      Full news...

US & News: The war in Afghanistan reached a wrenching milestone this summer: For the second month in a row, U.S. and coalition troop deaths in the country surpassed casualties in Iraq. This is driven in large part, U.S. officials point out, by simple cause and effect. Marines flowed into southern Afghanistan earlier this year to rout firmly entrenched Taliban fighters, prompting a spike in combat in territory where NATO forces previously didn't have the manpower to send troops. "We're doing something we haven't done in seven years, which is go after the Taliban where they're living," says a U.S. official.      Full news...

BBC: At least 250 Afghan civilians have been killed or wounded in insurgent attacks or military action in the past six days, the Red Cross says. It has called on all parties to the conflict to avoid civilian casualties.      Full news...

Reporters Without Borders: Hundreds of Afghan journalists and writers took part in demonstrations yesterday in 15 provinces to call for the release of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, a young journalist under sentence of death. This exemplary show of solidarity came as Kambakhsh’s appeal against his conviction has ground to a halt in Kabul and no date has been set for the next hearing.      Full news...

DPA: A powerful explosion killed at least 44 people and wounded scores of others in an apparent suicide attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul Monday, officials said. Sources in the Afghan interior ministry said at least 44 people were killed in the deadliest suicide bombing since fall of Taliban regime in 2001.      Full news...

MeriNews: Afghanistan has the highest rate of violence against women in the world. According to the ministry of Women’s Affairs, Afghan women lack their primary necessities and are subject to extreme violence. Girls are usually married before their legal age. During the last six months more than 2000 cases of violence have been registered throughout the country. It is said that most cases of violence against women are not reported due to the traditional and cultural complexities.      Full news...

PAN: A bride was among 23 people killed as US-led coalition forces bombarded a wedding party in the eastern Nangarhar province Sunday morning, officials and residents alleged. Twenty-two people died on the spot as a result of the latest imprecise air raid that came hours after President Karzai ordered a probe into the alleged killing of more than a dozen residents in a US airstrike on a remote village in the neighbouring Nuristan province.      Full news...

Reuters: Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led forces on Friday in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nuristan, an official said. The attack happened on a road in Want district while the noncombatants were travelling in two vehicles, the district chief, Zia-Ul Rahman, told reporters.      Full news...