Reuters: NATO forces accidentally shot dead two boys during an operation in Afghanistan’s south, the alliance said on Saturday, in the latest in a series of incidents involving allegations of civilian deaths at the hands of international troops. The two boys were shot dead when they were mistaken for insurgents during an operation in the northwest of Uruzgan on February 28, ISAF commander, U.S. General Joseph Dunford, said in a statement.      Full news...

Digital Journal: Even though the Taliban government in Afghanistan fell more than ten years ago, the justice system is still discriminatory in its treatment of women as is the legal system. Al Jazeera reporter, Jennifer Glasse reports from Herat at a women’s jail. Many Afghan women are in jail for fleeing domestic abuse or violence.      Full news...

The Japan Times: A report just released by the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan states that there were 2,754 civilian deaths and 4,805 civilian injuries in that country during 2012. Unmentioned is a serious side effect of the conflict: the high number of opium-addicted children in Afghanistan. The number has increased systematically the past few years.      Full news...

The Sunday Times: Handing over security operations in Afghanistan to the Afghans is “proceeding very well”, Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said on a recent visit to Helmand. “The Afghans are developing capabilities faster than we expected.” He was echoing the unbridled optimism of many British and American officials. Having just returned from five weeks in Sangin — the most violent district in Afghanistan’s most violent province — I cannot see any reason for such optimism.      Full news...

Reuters: More than five hundred men marched through the capital of Afghanistan’s restive Wardak province on Tuesday in an outburst of anger against U.S. special forces accused of overseeing torture and killings in the area. Shouting “Death to America”, “Death to Obama” and “Death to special forces”, the protesters called for the immediate withdrawal of the American soldiers and threatened to join the Taliban if their demand was not met.      Full news...

The Guardian: In 2010, as WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating to the conduct of the US government, government defenders dismissively claimed that they revealed nothing new. Among the many documents disproving that claim were ones relating to a US policy in Iraq set forth in “Frago 242”, which ordered coalition troops not to stop or even investigate torture and other war crimes by the Iraqi forces they were training, but simply to “note” them.      Full news...

Deutsche Welle: While opium trade might be lucrative for some of those involved, many find themselves at the losing end. Daughters of farmers who find themselves desperate and indebted are used as little more than currency. To provide for their families, many Afghan farmers turn to the relatively lucrative practise of poppy cultivation.      Full news...

The Killid Group: In April 1987, Afghanistan ratified the UN Convention against Torture. But it did not stop either the government or its opponents from using the most cruel and inhuman methods to punish and extract information from political rivals. The crimes were never probed; the victims were never compensated.      Full news...

Pak Tribune: Combined force allegedly killed four civilians in Kunduz district, capital of northern Kunduz province on Thursday, local resident said. Afghan and foreign forces raided the house of a local resident, Saifur Rahman, at approximately 1:30 a.m. (local time), killing him, his two sons, Dilarwa and 18-year-old Hayatullah...      Full news...

Pluto Press: As Obama proclaims that the US adventure in Afghanistan will draw to a close over the next couple years, we may look at the balance sheet with respect to one of the occupation’s alleged justifications: the fight against Afghan heroin. The outcome has been a total failure.      Full news...

A man has murdered his wife with a razor blade after prolonged domestic quarrels arising from financial difficulties, Kabul Police officials said Thursday. “This heart-wrenching and tragic incident took place in Zone 7 of Kabul city. The people of the area informed us, and the police reached the area within a short time and arrested the man before he managed to escape,”...      Full news...

RT: Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is growing. A UN report says crimes against females jumped by 20 per cent last year, adding that the Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for 81 per cent of civilian casualties in 2012. The annual report on the Protection of Civilians in armed conflict, released Tuesday, said that more than 300 women and girls were killed in 2012 as a result of targeted killings by insurgents.      Full news...

Examiner.com: Hamid Karzai, president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, has endorsed the nation’s Ulema Council’s ruling in accordance with Islamic Sharia Law that approves of wife beating and the forced segregation of the sexes. As reported by the Associated Press via the Washington Post, Karzai’s endorsement is part of his national reconciliation outreach to the Taliban.      Full news...

The Killid Group: Mohammad Hasan says he had a good life before the breakout of war in the nineties. The fighting between mujahedin factions rendered him a pauper. Two decades have passed, he has not recovered. Before the war, Hasan, 67, was a motor mechanic in a village near Ghazni. “I was a popular mechanic, and I had a good life. I had 80 barrels of oil in my shop. I had a truck,” he says with great pride.      Full news...

PAN: A 30-year-old woman, a relative of a former Taliban governor, was publicly whipped by the rebels for having alleged sexual relations with a man who received 27 lashes before being expelled from western Ghor province, officials said on Monday. The whipping took place in Gurgin village of Charsada district late on Friday, a provincial high peace council member, Nasrullah, told Pajhwok Afghan News.      Full news...

PAN: A woman was beheaded by unidentified men inside her house in the northern province of Jawzjan, officials said on Sunday. The incident occurred on Sunday morning soon after the husband of the 27-year-old left home, the administrative head of Khoshab district, Mohammad Zahir Nazari, told Pajhwok Afghan News.      Full news...

Khaama Press: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Afghan warlord and founder of Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party of Afghanistan) said around 1000 people were killed during the Afghan civil war and denied to agree with the current Afghan institution, democracy and freedom of speech. While speaking during an exclusive interiew with the 1TV Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said he sends out curse to the current democracy in Afghanistan.      Full news...

Khaama Press: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concerns regarding the working condition of Afghan journalists. According to the new report of CPJ there are no reports regarding the casualties of Afghan journalists from 2005, and Afghanistan is one of the dangerous place for the journalists.      Full news...

The Associated Press: A NATO airstrike struck two houses, killing 10 Afghan civilians and four insurgents near the Pakistani border, officials said Wednesday. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, the latest in a series of civilian casualty reports that have raised tensions between the Afghans and the U.S.-led foreign forces.      Full news...

IWPR: Teachers as well as pupils at schools in eastern Afghanistan are struggling to get to grips with a newly-introduced curriculum. Some of the textbooks are far too advanced, while others are riddled with mistakes, experts claim. Ninety million US dollars has been spent on compiling and publishing the new set of textbooks.All of them are too young to remember the primer that was used in schools by their own parents. Page one, in Pashto, taught the letter “T” (or te) of the alphabet for topak (“weapon”), and used as an example “My uncle has a weapon”. Page two went further: “J” (jim), for jihad, as in “Jihad is mandatory”, or “Jamil went to jihad” and “I too will go to jihad”. And go he did. (Photo: The Economist)      Full news...

PAN: Angry residents took to the streets on Tuesday against what they called civilian killings by foreign troops in southern Ghazni province. Dozens of dwellers of Aab Band district closed the Kabul-Kandahar highway, accusing NATO-led soldiers of killing two civilians and wounding as many others.      Full news...

PAN: More than a dozen Taliban fighters were killed during an operation in the Tagab district of central Kapisa province, officials claimed on Tuesday. But a resident alleged six civilians were among the dead. International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers on Tuesday opened fire on civilians, killing one and injuring three others in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said.      Full news...

The Killid Group: Farid Ahmad was a child when his father, badly injured in a rocket attack, stopped working. “When I was born the country was in the control of Russians. Then the parties (mujahedin groups) got power and nobody could go out of the house. The war among the parties was going on every day. Unarmed civilians were being killed. Kabul city looked like a graveyard,” said Farid Ahmad.      Full news...

AFP: They play badminton, kick a ball around and huddle over computer games just like normal children. Except that they are recovering drug addicts aged around three to 12, representing a growing proportion of drug users in war-torn Afghanistan. In response, increasing numbers of rehabilitation centers are weaning such children off their addiction and giving them a new appetite for life...      Full news...

Friday Magazine: High barricades and blast-proof walls are a common sight in Kabul, and it is impossible to travel through the Afghan capital without encountering a barrage of police and private security checkpoints. There is an overwhelming sense of unease every time you stop at each one, but these are just some of the precautions taken for security reasons...      Full news...

AFP: Rights campaigners voiced outrage on Sunday over a 13-year-old Afghan boy jailed for having sex with two adult men, urging the Western-backed Kabul government to release him and punish his abusers. The boy, accused of having sex with two men in a public park in the western province of Herat, was sentenced to one year in juvenile detention, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.      Full news...

PAN: Dozens of people coming all the way from southern Helmand province to this central capital on Saturday staged a protest demonstration, asking the government to resolve their problems regarding health, security and electricity. Participants of the rally gathered in front of parliament house and then started marching on road leading to the Ministry of Power and Energy.      Full news...

PAN: An urban court ordered 80 lashes to a man for drinking alcohol in western Herat province, an official said on Friday. The ruling came after the man had confessed to drinking the banned beverage, said Abdul Rassoul Mansoor, the judge who ordered the lashes. He told reporters in Herat City, the provincial capital, that similar sentences handed down to seven other men since last March.      Full news...

The Associated Press: The cost of corruption in Afghanistan rose sharply last year to 3.9 billion USD, and half of all Afghans bribed public officials for services, the U.N. said Thursday. The findings came despite repeated promises by President Hamid Karzai to clean up his government. The international community has long expressed concern about the problem of corruption in Afghanistan because it reduces confidence in the Western-backed government.      Full news...

The Guardian: Living in the shadow of terror and the threat of assassination around the clock, Hamid Karzai could be forgiven for indulging in a bit of relaxing comfort whenever he gets the chance. But to touch down in London and check into Claridge’s, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, the day he issued a decree back home to curtail government expenses is, at best, a sign that the Afghan president is prone to a touch of political frailty...      Full news...