Antiwar.com: A "team of rivals" is how the Obama administration is being portrayed by the head-over-heels media, which started out by likening the new president to Lincoln and may end up comparing him – favorably – to God. Yet I'm not optimistic, for two very good reasons: Dennis Ross, whose appointment as plenipotentiary for Middle Eastern affairs seems to undercut what is likely to be the Mitchell approach, and Richard Holbrooke, whose dual domain of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be the focus of U.S. military action in the coming years. Specifically, more than 14 years – at least, that's what Holbrooke told us in a pre-election piece in Foreign Affairs magazine:...      Full news...

AFP: The United Nations said Monday that Afghanistan needs to more than double its midwife numbers to curb one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates despite a huge increase in practitioners. "In 2002 there were only 467 trained midwives in the entire country," World Health Organisation country representative Peter Graaff told a news conference. That number had increased to more than 2,100 by 2008, he said. But in a stark assessment of Afghanistan's needs, he said: "The total estimated requirement for midwives in the country is not 2,100 but 4,500... in order to cover the needs of 90 percent of the population."      Full news...

The New York Times: The outrage over civilian deaths swelled again over the weekend. Hundreds of angry villagers demonstrated here in Mehtarlam, the capital of Laghman Province, on Sunday after an American raid on a village in the province on Friday night. The raid killed at least 16 villagers, including 2 women and 3 children, according to a statement from President Hamid Karzai. They agreed that 13 civilians had been killed and 9 wounded when American commandos broke down doors and unleashed dogs without warning on Jan. 7 in the hunt for a known insurgent in Masamut, in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan. The residents were so enraged that they threatened to march on the American military base here.      Full news...

PAN: Public health officials of southeastern Paktika province informed there was no female doctor in provincial capital and in over 14 districts of the province while all residents of the province were suffering difficulties due to lack of staffs in health section. Dr. Toryali deputy health director of the lawless province addressing a bimonthly meeting of government departments said inhabitants of his province were suffering difficulties due to the lack professional doctors despite improvements in the province.      Full news...

The Times: The BBC said yesterday that it had received a number of complaints from servicemen about the shared wards at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, which was built at a cost of £10 million and opened in February last year. “A lot of people are getting injured out there and the last thing they want to see when they come round is the Taliban on the same ward,” one soldier told the BBC.      Full news...

South Asia News: US-led forces claimed Saturday they killed 15 rebels, including a female fighter, in eastern Afghanistan. However, a provincial lawmaker and local villagers said that 21 Afghan civilians were killed in the operation. Eleven militants were killed in the firefight, while four others were killed in an airstrike, it said, adding that a female fighter was killed 'while maneuvering on coalition forces and was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade.' However, Abdul Rahimzai, head of Laghman's provincial council, said that Friday night's attack killed 21 civilians and wounded several others.      Full news...

PAN: Locals and tribal elders Tuesday claimed the US-led coalition troops killed 25 civilians including five women; however coalition troops claim eliminating 18 militants during an operation in central Kapisa province. The sweep was conducted in Anzari Village of Tagab district in the central province late Monday night. Bai Jan, a resident of Anzari Village told Pajhwok Afghan News the US-led soldiers blew up five houses of ordinary people at approximately 2:00am.      Full news...

La Dépêche.fr: Fundamentalism and corruption could lead to the collapse of Afghanistan in the very near future – not to the democratic and peaceful country that the world promised to create seven years ago. In the past 11 months, more than 4,000 people, including civilians, Nato troops and aid workers, have been killed. The Afghan Minister of Defence has 65,000 troops but has said that he needs 500,000 to control Afghanistan.      Full news...

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Even as new figures point to gains in the battle against Afghanistan's drug problem, the issue remains deeply contentious for the government in Kabul and NATO-led forces. No one, however, is willing to assume ultimate responsibility or to say whether Afghanistan has turned a corner. It remains unclear how much of the decline in opium poppies is a result of government action and how much is owed to weather conditions like drought or cold. Afghan officials tend to emphasize the constraints under which they operate. The country's counternarcotics minister, Colonel General Khodaidad, complains that the drug trade is an "international problem" fueled by Western demand and that the Afghan government has insufficient resources at its disposal.      Full news...

BBC News: Nato's secretary general has said corrupt and inefficient government in Afghanistan is as much to blame as insurgents for the chronic instability. In the Washington Post newspaper, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the international community had paid enough, in blood and money, to demand government action. He said Afghans needed a government that deserved their loyalty and trust.      Full news...

The Journal: After NATO's invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, most people thought the world had finally remembered and rescued a country drowned in pain and sorrow. But despite the attention paid by the international community, today Afghanistan is one of the poorest, most under-developed countries in the world. RAWA believes that no other nation can liberate Afghan women, and it is their own responsibility to raise and fight for their rights. In this hard fight we need the support and solidarity of peace-loving and democratic-minded people of the world.      Full news...

Human Rights Watch: On October 1, 2008, the Department of Defense published a summary of a report by Brig. Gen. Michael Callan of its investigations into USairstrikes on the village of Azizabad in Herat province on August 21-22, 2008. Since that time, Human Rights Watch has conducted additional research into theevents surrounding the Azizabad airstrikes, reviewed the facts presented in the summary, and analyzed the Callan investigation’s methodology. “The weaknesses in the Callan investigation call into question the Defense Department’s commitment to avoid civiliancasualties,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.      Full news...

NPR: Air pollution in the Afghan capital of Kabul is so serious that President Hamid Karzai has declared a state of emergency. Many residents burn plastic and tires for warmth. Those lucky enough to own a car use leaded fuel. Plus, thousands of gas-burning generators in shops and homes across the city provide power that the government can't. Kabul has a population of 5 million people; it was designed for just 500,000. Most residents burn wood, coal and trash to keep warm during the cold winters. Raw sewage and dust add to the smog, as do factories that spew unfiltered smoke.      Full news...

Tolo T.V. (Translated by RAWA): The relatives of patients admitted in the Jamhooriat Hospital complain about the lack of hygienic equipments, necessary medicines and carelessness of the people in charge in the Ministry of Public Health. They say they even have to buy the important equipments of surgery from the bazaar. The head of the surgery department of the Jamhooriat Hospital confirmed the statements and said they have many problems and no steps have been taken by the Ministry of Public Health to solve the matters. A hospital worker said, “We buy all items, from the thread with which we sew the cuts to the substance with which the cut is washed.”      Full news...

PAN: Takhar police have arrested the husband of a young lady, along with three others, for murdering her in northern Takhar province. Brigadier general Ziauddin Mahmoodi Takhar police chief told pajhwok Afghan News that 18 years old victim was killed three days back by her husband with the help of three other people in Post Khor area of Taloqan city. Sufi Mohammad a neighbor of the victim said the couple used to quarrel, Anwar often used to beat her and we could hear her crying and shouting. He said that the very next morning of the night she died; he got information of her homicide but didnt know who exactly committed the crime.      Full news...

PAN: Four people were arrested in a rape case of a young girl in Baharak district of northeastern Badakhshan province, police said. Colonel Abdul Wadood, Baharak district chief told PAN on Sunday that these four men brought 14 year old Aziza to a house, raped her and later the girl was recovered from a barn. He said that two of the rapists were Badakhshan border police officials and the case has been submitted to the prosecution.      Full news...

The Earth Times: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday condemned the reported killing of 17 civilians, including women and children, in a US-led coalition operation in eastern Afghanistan, the presidential palace said in a statement. Several demonstration have been staged in Afghan cities and rural areas to condemn the killing of civilians by foreign forces. Unable to seek revenge independently, many Afghan men in southern and eastern Afghanistan have joined the Taliban ranks after losing members of their families in international military operations, according to Afghan officials.      Full news...

The Nation: President-elect Barack Obama not only had the good judgment to oppose the war in Iraq, he argued for the need "to end the mindset that took us into" that war. So it's troubling that he ramped up his rhetoric during the campaign about exiting Iraq in order to focus on what he calls the "central front in the war on terror"--Afghanistan. His plan now calls for an escalation of 20,000 to 30,000 additional American troops over the next year--nearly doubling the current 32,000. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman criticized the Dems' position on Afghanistan as ill-conceived "bumper sticker politics."      Full news...

IRIN: Maryam, 14, was raped by a man in the Yakawlang District of Bamyan Province, central Afghanistan, five months ago. Her mother and brother used razor blades to cut the girl open, take out the foetus, and bury it alive to hide the disgrace, according to Habiba Surabi, the governor of Bamyan. “The baby was alive when they took it from my body… and buried it as it was crying,” Maryam was quoted in the local media as saying.      Full news...

Sunday Herald: But just 30 miles from Kabul, it is Taliban country. Over the past year, the militants have established a stronghold in Wardak, which borders the capital to the south and west. As it reasserts control over large swathes of countryside, the Taliban has been installing a shadow government to answer civilian needs. In the absence of effective local governance, the militants have been arresting criminals, providing courts, dispensing justice, running prisons and organising public executions - all within an hour's drive of Kabul.      Full news...

PAN: Locals of Sangin district of southern Helmand province Tuesday warned that majority of the residents were compelled to flee the area due to the airstrikes carried out by NATO-led ISAF forces without even informing the local security forces. Locals claimed that over 17 civilians most of them elders and children had been killed by ISAF soldiers during the last fortnight. The locals also criticized the irresponsible strikes of ISAF soldiers in a gathering participated by governor.      Full news...

PAN: Heavy casualties have been reported to locals in clashes between insurgents and ISAF soldiers in central insecure Uruzgan province.... Bari Dad who had barely transferred his injured kins in midnight dark to a hospital in central Uruzgan told this News Agency that due to heavy fighting people were unable to take their injured family members on time to health centers.      Full news...

Quqnoos: This year 173000 students could not go to schools, says Ministry of Education. The number of teachers and students killed in the past 10 months has nearly doubled the total casualties of last year, authorities in the ministry of education said. This year 651 schools were closed in southern provinces; 141 teachers and students were killed since beginning of the year; and 173000 students dropped off schools, spokesman for ministry of education said.      Full news...

IRIN: Azizullah's family left their home in the Sangin District of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, because of the worsening conflict, drought and food security situation. Their new home is a one-room mud-hut in the western outskirts of Kabul where over 4,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have established a makeshift camp. "We abandoned our home because of aerial strikes [by international forces] and brutalities by the Taliban," Azizullah told IRIN as his six bare-foot children huddled around him on a cold afternoon on 28 December.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): A 12-year old boy in Faryab province was raped. General Mohammad Sadiq, commander of the Commanding Security of Faryab, told PAN that the boy was named Farhad and had been kidnapped a day back. Two men in a Corolla car had kidnapped him from the city of Maimana to the Shireen Tugab District and raped him there. He added that after that the rapists had intoxicated him and freed him from a Corolla car in the Friday Bazaar in Maimanah (capital city of Faryab) and escaped from there.      Full news...

Associated Press: Two months ago, Mohammad Anwar recalls, the Taliban paraded accused thieves through his village, tarred their faces with oil and threw them in jail. The public punishment was a clear sign to villagers that the Taliban are now in charge. And the province they took over lies just 30 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul, right on the main highway. The Taliban has long operated its own shadow government in the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, but its power is now spreading north to the doorstep of Kabul, according to Associated Press interviews with a dozen government officials, analysts, Taliban commanders and Afghan villagers.      Full news...

Star-News Online: Nowhere is the scent of corruption so strong as in the Kabul neighborhood of Sherpur. Before 2001, it was a vacant patch of hillside that overlooked the stately neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan. Today it is the wealthiest enclave in the country, with gaudy, grandiose mansions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Afghans refer to them as “poppy houses.” Sherpur itself is often jokingly referred to as “Char-pur,” which literally means “City of Loot.” Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about Sherpur is that many of the homeowners are government officials, whose annual salaries would not otherwise enable them to live here for more than a few days.      Full news...

Midland Free Press: What will it take to convince the Harper government that Canada's military invasion of Afghanistan was an ill-conceived, monumental blunder and failure? As of Dec. 28, 2008 the lives of 106 Canadian soldiers in the flourishing stage of their youthful development have been killed in a war started by George W. Bush and his hawkish Republican Administration. The loss of one Canadian in Bush's war, or what could become Obama's war, is one too many. Further in this regard, Barack Obama's ostentatious saber rattling during his election campaign and his more recent pronouncements on the subject, is not an auspicious or favourable beginning for a newly-elected president of the USA.      Full news...

Quqnoos: Coordination Council 15th anniversary Fifteen years from today on Jadi 11, 1372 (December 31, 1993) the Afghan civil war began in Kabul. This day is remembered as one of the worst days in the recent history of Afghanistan, as some analyst recall, “Rockets and heavy missiles were being fired from every direction in Kabul". It was the starting date to change Kabul city from a typical capital to ruins,Countless dead bodies were on the streets of Kabul in the following days. Kabul hospitals became full of wounded people and there weren’t enough medicine for them, and people were dying on daily bases.      Full news...

Tolo TV (Translated by RAWA): Rape victims demand severe punishments for the people involved in the crime. Two girls, thirteen and twelve years old, were gang-raped by powerful men and regional commanders in Sar-e-Pul about four months back. They say that till now no measures have been taken against the people who had raped them. They demanded justice from the government and legal and judicial bodies. Increasing cases of rape, especially those of children, have greatly worried people in the country. Human rights organizations have also expressed concern over the terrible aftermath of the rapes.      Full news...