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January 31, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
New Statesman: Malalai Joya: "We Afghans know well that the US and its allies occupied Afghanistan for their own strategic, economic and regional interests and don't care about the wishes of our people. So the "liberation" of Afghan women was never part of the real agenda. It is just a lie. The so-called freedom given by the US to Afghanistan is enjoyed mainly by the warlords and drug lords, who are free to commit their crimes and do their drug trafficking." Full news...
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January 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN (Translated by RAWA): The police say that they have arrested a Mullah Imam (a religious cleric who leads the prayers) in connection with the rape of two women in the Imam Sahib District of Kunduz Province. Police chief of Imam Sahib District, Abdul Qayum Ibrahimi stated the culprit’s name as Mullah Rahmatullah and told PAN that he was an Imam in the mosque of the Baika village and had been arrested two days back as he thought to be involved in the rape of two women. Full news...
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January 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Asia Times: One quiet, wintry night last year in the eastern Afghan town of Khost, a young government employee named Ismatullah simply vanished. He had last been seen in the town's bazaar with a group of friends. Family members scoured Khost's dust-doused streets for days. Village elders contacted Taliban commanders in the area who were wont to kidnap government workers, but they had never heard of the young man. Even the governor got involved, ordering his police to round up nettlesome criminal gangs that sometimes preyed on young bazaar-goers for ransom. Full news...
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January 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: After almost nine years of international military operations, billions of dollars in aid and thousands of Afghan and international lives, what Afghanistan needed was a new vision to deal with the complex set of problems. Instead, world leaders pledged £87m to woo the Taliban back into government. Bravo, President Karzai! Bravo, international leaders! Full news...
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January 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Channel 4 News: Women were promised greater protection after the invasion of Afghanistan, but Nima Elbagir finds an increasing number have forced to self-inflict injuries to escape abuse. When the Taliban were still in power the liberation of Afghanistan’s women was a cause celebre in the west - a moral justification for the invasion. Yet by the end of last year the United Nations was worriedly reporting that the number of violent incidents against women had risen to their highest since the fall of the Taliban. Full news...
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January 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Sky News Online: Young soldiers returning from Afghanistan are up to three times more likely to kill themselves than civilians of the same age, according to the Mental Health Foundation. Suicide, crime and alcohol problems are of particular risk to the under 24s, the charity says, and more needs to be done to look after the mental health of troops who have served in wars. The Mental Health Foundation believes that, while money matters, it is important to raise awareness of what help people need. Full news...
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January 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: “I was irrigating my land when I stepped on it… I heard a huge bang which knocked me over,” said Amanullah, a 26-year-old landmine victim from Nawzad District, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. Doctors managed to save his life but he lost both legs. “It makes me very sad when I think who is going to tend to my fields and feed my family,” he said. Mine blasts are common in volatile districts of Helmand where Taliban insurgents and pro-government forces have clashed fiercely in the past few years. Full news...
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January 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Huffington Post: One thing that remains consistent over the last 30 years in observing America's participation in Afghanistan is that mistakes and errors of judgment, no matter how egregious or self-defeating, never seem to get corrected. In fact, in its effort to rationalize a growing culture of war-making from Vietnam to Afghanistan, America has come around to embracing the insanity of the fictional Colonel Kurtz. Full news...
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January 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Nearly 80 percent of Germans oppose Berlin’s plans to hike the number of troops in Afghanistan, according to a poll released Wednesday on the eve of a major international conference. Four out of five Germans said they disagreed with a stronger military role for Berlin in Afghanistan, the survey by the independent polling institute Forsa indicated. Full news...
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January 26, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Geo TV: The suffering of Afghanistan’s people has reached "unbearable" levels as the conflict has intensified and spread across the country, a top international Red Cross official said Tuesday. Decades of conflict have impacted every family in the country, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told a news conference in Tokyo. Full news...
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January 25, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: Afghan drug lords are smuggling more heroin through Iran to Europe, easing the burden on a traditional trafficking route through ex-Soviet Central Asia, Tajikistan's drug control chief said in an interview. With a long, leaky border with Afghanistan and lawlessness inherited from a bloody 1992-1997 civil war, Tajikistan has long been a haven for drug smuggling out of Afghanistan which produces nearly all of the world's opium, used to make heroin. Full news...
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January 24, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN (Translated by RAWA): 17-year-old Amina of Chakhansoor District of Nimroz Province committed self-immolation and died because of a forced engagement to an old man. Habibullah, one of Amina’s relatives, told PAN that Dur Mohammad had engaged his daughter (Amina) to 55-year old Faiz Mohammad and in exchange had engaged Faiz’s 22-year old daughter to himself. Full news...
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January 23, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A father killed his 19-year-old daughter who refused to marry a 12-year-old boy in northern Sar-i-Pul province, the deputy governor said on Saturday. ... Maliha reportedly planned to tie the knot with her neighbour Hayatullah, who took here back to her house. Her father, Gul Muhammad, beat her to death after the man left. Full news...
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January 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
McClatchy Newspapers: Although the FBI has acknowledged it improperly obtained thousands of Americans' phone records for years, the Obama administration continues to assert that the bureau can obtain them without any formal legal process or court oversight. The FBI revealed this stance in a newly released report, troubling critics who'd hoped the bureau had been chastened enough by its own abuses to drop such a position. Full news...
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January 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Jerusalem Post: While Israeli soldiers can't fight in the war in Afghanistan, Israeli drones can. Starting next week, five NATO member countries will be operating unmanned aerial vehicles produced in the Jewish state in anti-Taliban operations in the Central Asian country. Next week, officials from the German military will arrive to take delivery of an undisclosed number of Heron UAVs, made by Israel Aerospace Industries. Full news...
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January 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Le Monde Diplomatique: In northern Afghanistan, far away from the Taliban’s heartland, freedom remains elusive for most women. Forced marriages of young girls are still common and sex attacks are on the rise. Many say life has deteriorated after the US-led invasion because the occupation ushered in a new era of lawlessness. At the offices of the Afghanistan Human Rights Organisation in Sheberghan, Jowzjan province, women from throughout the region arrive with tales of misery and horror. Full news...
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January 21, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Canadian Press: Pity the poor Kabul traffic police officer. Adding to the hazards of the job - dust, chaotic traffic and the occasional beatings from irate drivers - comes new insult to injury: No pay. The government just doesn't have the money right now, yet another sign of the precarious state of the country. Shafi Muhammad said he wasn't paid last month, but he's been promised he'll get his money at the end of this month. Full news...
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January 20, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
t r u t h o u t: Two reports coming out of Afghanistan illustrate the depth of hypocrisy and subterfuge characterizing the US/NATO intervention in that country. One could cite a myriad of such examples, so immoral and wrong is the US war there. "Self-immolation is being used by increasing numbers of Afghan women to escape their dire circumstances ...." Full news...
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January 19, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: Afghans paid $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in bribes over the past 12 months, or the equivalent of almost one quarter of legitimate GDP, a UN report suggests. Surveying 7,600 people, it found nearly 60% more concerned about corruption than insecurity or unemployment. More than half the population had to pay at least one bribe to a public official last year, the report adds. The findings contrast sharply with a recent BBC survey in which the economy appeared to top Afghan concerns. Full news...
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January 18, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Sirens sounded through the deserted streets as ambulances and fire engines sped towards the main fighting in Pashtunistan Square where Taliban militants laid siege to major buildings in the heart of the capital... The Taliban said it had sent 20 suicide bombers into the heart of the capital, its targets including the presidential palace and the central bank. Full news...
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January 17, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Boston Globe: While the White House has paid lip service to the importance of good governance in Afghanistan, the reality is that co-opting violent warlords is at the heart of a plan that will likely result in further instability. One of the warlords who may soon star in the new US efforts to rebrand fundamentalists as potential government partners is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a brutal Afghan insurgent commander... Full news...
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January 16, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Suicides in the US Army rose to a new record in 2009, with 160 soldiers taking their lives, the military said Friday, calling it a "painful year.""There's no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides," said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force. Full news...
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January 15, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: The lone bomber was spotted by a guard entering a money-changing market at lunchtime and detonated explosives attached to a waistcoat before he could be stopped. At least three children were among the dead. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Taliban regularly use suicide bombers in their insurgency against Hamid Karzai's internationally-backed regime. Full news...
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January 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for $33 billion in emergency war funding for a major U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan this year... The money, mainly for the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and other war costs in the current 2010 fiscal year, would come on top of Obama's expected request to increase the Pentagon's overall budget in fiscal 2011 to a record $708 billion... Full news...
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January 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Aljazeera: The number of civilians killed in war-related violence in Afghanistan touched 2,412 last year, the highest number since the 2001 US-led invasion, the UN has said. A report by the UN mission for Afghanistan pointed to the "intensification and spread of the armed conflict" in what was also the deadliest year for foreign forces, with 520 troops killed. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Ten people were killed and 25 others wounded as NATO-led soldiers opened fire on residents protesting civilian deaths and desecration of the Holy Quran in southern Helmand province on Tuesday. Dwellers of the restive Garmser district said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers raided the house of a tribal elder, killing three of his family members and torching copies of Quran in a local mosque. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A former Afghan president illegally ordered the sale of a state-run Ariana Airline aircraft, bought for 30 million US dollars from Russia in 1980, to Iran's Caspian Company at a throwaway price of $450,000. The shady deal involved a former diplomat, Engineer Abdu Rahim Syed Jan, who has now been named by President Hamid Karzai as his minister-designate of refugee affairs, reveal investigations conducted by Pajhwok Afghan News. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: Hundreds of families allegedly forced out of their homes in Kapisa Province, northeastern Afghanistan, by clashes between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces have sought refuge in the eastern outskirts of Kabul. “There is always fighting, bombing and insecurity in Nejrab and Alasaay,” said one displaced man referring to the two Kapisa districts affected. He said he had lost his 15-year-old son in the fighting. Full news...
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January 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Fox News: Between 2004 and 2008, USAID showered more than $330 million on an obscure United Nations agency known as UNOPS to carry out development aid projects in Afghanistan. What happened next wasn’t pretty. Among other things, USAID apparently overlooked a growing stack of U.N. audits and investigations that pointed to fraud, mismanagement and lack of internal financial controls by UNOPS in Afghanistan... Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: In Kabul, even a traffic jam can provoke a comment on this Islamic nation's dismal state, which most people here believe is at its bleakest since the U.S. invaded to topple the Taliban in 2001. It's a striking sentiment when you consider it comes after eight years of international intervention, $60 billion in foreign aid and the lives of thousands of foreign troops and Afghan civilians. Full news...