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May 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: The two Afghan girls had every reason to expect the law would be on their side when a policeman at a checkpoint stopped the bus they were in. Disguised in boys’ clothes, the girls, ages 13 and 14, had been fleeing for two days along rutted roads and over mountain passes to escape their illegal, forced marriages to much older men, and now they had made it to relatively liberal Herat Province. Full news...
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May 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Huffington Post: On May 30, 2010, at 10:06 a.m, the direct cost of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan will hit $1 trillion. And in a few weeks, the House of Representatives will be asked to vote for $33 billion of additional “emergency” supplemental spending to continue the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. There will be the pretense of debate -- speeches on the floor of both chambers, stern requests for timetables or metrics or benchmarks -- but this war money will get tossed in the wood chipper without difficulty, requested by a president who ran on an anti-war platform. Full news...
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May 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: It’s near-impossible to find anyone in Afghanistan who doesn’t believe the US are funding the Taliban: and it’s the highly educated Afghan professionals, those employed by ISAF, USAID, international media organisations – and even advising US diplomats – who seem the most convinced.... The continuing violence between coalition forces and the Taliban is simple proof in itself. Full news...
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May 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Amnesty International: Afghan people continued to suffer widespread human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law more than seven years after the USA and its allies ousted the Taliban. Access to health care, education and humanitarian aid deteriorated, particularly in the south and south-east of the country, due to escalating armed conflict between Afghan and international forces and the Taliban and other armed groups. Conflict-related violations increased in northern and western Afghanistan, areas previously considered relatively safe. Full news...
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May 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A council of Afghan clerics has issued a fatwa, banning women from traveling without a father, brother or other approved escort, even during the Hajj. The ruling by the Herat Religious Council also said Islam prohibited women, engaged in activities out of home, from wearing makeup. Announcing the fatwa, tens of religious scholars asked the government to implement their advice. The clerics said they could not shut their eyes to the current situation. Full news...
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May 26, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Hundreds of families, fearing the resumption of clashes between Taliban and security forces, have fled troubled districts of Marja and Nad Ali in southern Helmand province. The fresh exodus of 400 families from the towns comes nearly three months after a massive counterinsurgency operation, involving thousands of Afghan and foreign troops. Full news...
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May 25, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Post: Speaking to graduating cadets at West Point on Saturday, President Obama noted the "ultimate sacrifice" of 78 of their predecessors who gave up their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he did not mention that just days before, five U.S. soldiers were killed in Kabul, bringing the toll of American dead in Afghanistan to over 1,000. Full news...
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May 24, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
philobiblon.co.uk: When I was running for the Green Party in the recent British general election, there was one issue on which I had no doubt how audiences at hustings and meetings would react positively – our call to withdraw British (and NATO) troops from Afghanistan. Surveys show around 70% of the public back that stance, and it was close to 100% of the audiences at hustings. Full news...
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May 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: A major reason for the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was the building of a pipeline through the country that would take natural gas from Turkmenistan to India and Pakistan. Canada and the other 44 Western countries occupying Afghanistan are supporting this U.S. objective by bolstering Washington’s military position in the country. Full news...
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May 20, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Radio Zamaneh: Hundreds of Afghan citizens staged a protest in Herat against the execution of political prisoners by the Islamic Republic burning posters of Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The demonstration was organized by Solidarity Party of Afghanistan and protesters chanted slogans against Iranian officials. They also carried images of political executions in Iran, and the death of Neda Agha-Soltan as well as pictures of numerous political prisoners in Iran. Full news...
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May 19, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: High unemployment and deteriorating security is forcing hundreds of Afghan youths to risk an often perilous journey with ruthless smugglers in the search of a better life. Some pay with their lives. Others, such as Sher Rahman, spend thousands of dollars for the journey only to find themselves right back in Afghanistan. Full news...
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May 18, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Christian Science Monitor: Afghan military investigators have accused Ahmed Wali Karzai, U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai’s controversial half-brother, of intervening to protect powerful allies who are squatting illegally on government property in southern Afghanistan... Investigators concluded that Ahmed Wali Karzai’s friends, allies and relatives were building offices, housing projects illegally on more than 1,000 acres of government land in and around Kandahar city. Full news...
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May 18, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: Farmers from the district of Marja, which since February has been the focus of the largest American-led military operation in Afghanistan, are fleeing the area, saying that the Taliban are terrorizing the population and that American troops cannot protect the civilians.... Over 150 families have fled Marja in the last two weeks, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Full news...
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May 17, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TIME: Local witnesses interviewed by TIME say the nighttime raid by U.S. forces killed eight residents of this sun-baked farming village in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military insists that the operation in Koshkaky targeted insurgents active in the area, including a Taliban sub-commander who was killed. But ordinary Afghans are more inclined to believe the worst. As word of the incident spread Friday morning, street protests erupted... Full news...
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May 16, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Afghans are calling for the removal of some candidates from a list of those standing in September’s parliamentary elections for being “violators of human rights”. Several people have come forward to say that allowing criminals or those who violate human rights to stand for parliament undermines the legitimacy of a democratic election. Full news...
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May 15, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Daily Mail Times: Secretary of State Mrs. Hillary Rodham-Clinton has once again lied to Afghan women. She said that America will not abandon Afghan women. It already has. America has not kept its promises to the women of Afghanistan. The youngest woman in the Afghan parliament has used International Women’s Day to slam the “disastrous conditions” for women in her country and ask Australians to help bring change. Full news...
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May 14, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: As President Hamid Karzai prepares to host a peace conference later this month to discuss how to tackle the brutal Taliban insurgency, victims of the violence blighting Afghanistan complain their voice is not being heard. “I want peace in my country, but peace will only be possible if those who have brought death to our country are tried,” said Attayii, one of dozens of people who gathered at a mass grave on the outskirts of Kabul this week. Full news...
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May 14, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Hundreds of angry protesters staged a protest Friday in eastern Afghanistan, accusing NATO forces of killing a dozen civilians during an overnight raid. Around 300 protesters in the Surkh Rod district of Nangahar province chanted “Death to Shairzai (the provincial governor), (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai and the Americans” as they threw stones at the district administration offices. Full news...
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May 14, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
DailyCensored.com: America’s insatiable addiction to war not only destroys countless innocent lives abroad; it robs its own citizens from basic human needs at home. It robs them from envisioning a better world and an auspicious tomorrow. Since its amoral inception the so-called United States of America has steadily built a reputation antithetical to peace, justice, freedom and equality. Unfortunately, due to mass indoctrination, many Americans have no knowledge of this. Full news...
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May 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: Thousands of Afghans have protested in the eastern city of Jalalabad against the alleged executions of a number of Afghan refugees in Iran. Demonstrators rallied in front of the Iranian consulate, shouting slogans and throwing eggs. This is the fifth and largest anti-Iran protest in Afghanistan in a fortnight. Full news...
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May 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: US actors and liberal intellectuals joined a list to be published Friday of nearly 2,000 people accusing President Barack Obama of allowing human rights violations and war crimes. The statement, published as a paid advertisement, accuses Obama, who was elected in 2008 with the enthusiastic support of US liberals, of continuing Bush's controversial approach to human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in domestic security. Full news...
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May 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Stars and Stripes: While many government jobs in Afghanistan are handed out as prizes, no one is fighting over the post of Kharwar district sub-governor. Given the dingy shipping container that serves as both the sub-governor’s home and the district center for this rugged, volatile area high in the Hindu Kush mountains in eastern Afghanistan’s Logar province, it’s no surprise that the last appointee fled his job. Full news...
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May 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: The US airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan contains a facility for detainees that is distinct from its main prison, the Red Cross has confirmed to the BBC. Nine former prisoners have told the BBC that they were held in a separate building, and subjected to abuse. The US military says the main prison, now called the Detention Facility in Parwan, is the only detention facility on the base. Full news...
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May 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: Six schoolboys and four teachers were injured Tuesday in a bombing on a school in eastern Afghanistan, while 30 schoolgirls fell ill in a suspected poisoning in the north, officials said. The blast, triggered by a bomb hidden inside the building, occurred as students were entering Rohi High School in the Mandozai district of the south-eastern province of Khost, said Mubarez Zadran, spokesman for the provincial governor. Full news...
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May 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The US government is facing fresh questions on its oversight of war funding amid mounting evidence that a $2.16bn trucking contract is enriching Afghan warlords linked to the controversial half-brother of President Hamid Karzai. Investigators also suspect that some of the funds from the contract end up in the hands of the Taliban, either through bribes paid by sub-contractors or extortion rackets run by militia leaders colluding with insurgents. Full news...
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May 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
CAIVP: While the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have cost the United States over $1 trillion, 5,000 deaths, and 30,000 maimings, there is yet another painful cost that is rarely discussed by the American public. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is plaguing both active and retired members of the Armed Forces. Multiple, repeated deployments to intense war theaters are taking a serious psychological toll on soldiers (and their families), and the statistical trend continues to worsen. Full news...
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May 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: It is well known that the Taliban, local criminals and international drug cartels profit enormously from the drug trade; that corruption is rife; and that huge amounts of aid money are pouring into Afghanistan. Less clear is the effect of all this on government power and the rule of law on which humanitarian aid organizations depend to carry out their mandate. Full news...
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May 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
McClatchy Newspapers: Although the members of Afghanistan's elite new police force have been touted as the country's best and brightest, U.S. military strategists find that they're plagued by the same problems as Afghanistan's conventional police, who are widely considered corrupt, ineffective and inept. Full news...
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May 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Canwest News Service: A solid majority of Canadians believe prisoners detained by Canadian soldiers have been tortured after being transferred to Afghan authorities, a new Ipsos Reid poll suggests. A fat majority also say that if torture occurred, it was not only wrong but that they believe there was widespread knowledge of it within the Canadian government -- and that senior officials should lose their jobs, if that was the case. Full news...
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May 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Media Line: The Muslim world is full of violent, graphic and alarming stories of “honor killings”, in which young woman are killed by male family members for dishonoring the family. “Honor rape”, in which the gang rape of a woman is used as a tool of social punishment, is spoken of less. Almost unheard of is an “honor killing” or “honor rape” of a man. Full news...