SocialistWorker.org: A U.S. Marine Corps general has decided not to bring criminal charges against two officers who led their unit on a March 2007 killing spree that left 19 Afghan civilians dead and 50 more wounded. By contrast, the U.S. media barely noticed. For its part, the New York Times featured an article on Afghanistan a few days later celebrating a "fierce battle" by a Marine unit that drove Taliban fighters outside of the southern town of Garmser. The article referenced last March's massacre--but not the Marines' decision not to press charges.      Full news...

PAN: An outspoken legislator was expelled from a session of the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament, for his strident criticism of proceedings and working of a committee, officials said here on Tuesday. Ramazan Bashar Dost, former minister planning minister, was ousted from a meeting of the Wolesi Jirga on grilling Emergency Committee members after he raised a series of objections to the absence of the bodys head, Vice-President Karim Khalili.      Full news...

Tolo TV: Some representatives of Helmand province in the Parliament say that military operations of the American forces have been taking place in this district in the past two weeks and the forces have also killed and imprisoned civilians. These representatives demanded serious attention from the government regarding the matter. The civilians in Garmsir District of Helmand Province are living in terrible conditions.      Full news...

PAN: An influential international rights watchdog Wednesday renewed its call for Afghan parliament to reinstate its outspoken member Malalai Joya, suspended a year ago. Human Rights Watch (HRW), hailing the youngest member of the Wolesi Jirga as a bold human rights activist, said the 29-year-old had publicly criticised warlords and drug barons in her country.      Full news...

World Socialist Web Site: A United Nations investigator released a preliminary report last week citing widespread civilian deaths in Afghanistan, often at the hands of unaccountable units led by the CIA or other foreign intelligence agencies. Alston focused on civilian killings by US and other international military forces, citing 200 reported deaths in the first four months of 2008.      Full news...

Reporters Without Borders: RWB calls on the authorities to do everything possible to protect women journalists, several of whom have been attacked or threatened since the start of the year. One, Niloufar Habibi, has continued to receive death threats since leaving hospital after being stabbed on 15 May in the northwestern city of Herat and has to change residence every day.      Full news...

Spiegel Online: A young Afghan has been sentenced to death for printing out a Web page in which Muhammad is described as a misogynistic prophet. The case will help to determine whether an Islamic country can open itself up to the West.      Full news...

The Earth Times: At least two people were killed and six others wounded when police opened fire on protesters blocking a highway linking eastern Afghanistan to Pakistan, witnesses said Saturday. Hundreds of protesters blocked the highway in Shinwar district of eastern Nangarhar province protesting against the alleged killing of civilians by US-led coalition forces on Friday night.      Full news...

PAN: A demonstration staged by hundreds of school students demanding pay raise for their teachers turned violent as they hurled stones at police and torched 45 vehicles here on Saturday.      Full news...

Toronto Star: Not a single authority in the nation, right up into the president's office, has the clout to oppose a powerful alignment of forces that are a law unto themselves: Warlords, ministers, parliamentarians, the military, police, tribal elders and wealthy entrepreneurs who are making a killing in the free-for-all of multi-billion-dollar international aid, a tsunami of cash that has made tycoons out of two-bit larcenists and filchers.      Full news...

AP: The United Nations on Saturday was investigating reports that a controlled explosion of old ordnance has caused more damage to one of the famed Bamiyan Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban seven year ago.      Full news...

PAN: Hundreds of teachers of 15 schools in Zaranj city capital of western Nimroz province went on protest on Saturday over the low salary and non-payment since last three months. Thousands of students were waiting in classes; however the teachers did not attend the classes.      Full news...

The Independent: The Independent's petition to save the Afghan student Sayed Pervez Kambaksh from the gallows has collected a staggering 100,000 signatures as the 23-year-old languishes in a cell in Kabul awaiting appeal.      Full news...

AFP: About 400 people demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday against skyrocketing food prices, witnesses said, in the country's first protest at food costs rising worldwide.      Full news...

AFP: An Afghan woman MP controversially expelled from parliament a year ago for causing "insult" to fellow lawmakers said Saturday she had filed a petition for reinstatement. The war-torn nation's legislature, dominated by former anti-Soviet Islamic warlords, kicked out Malalai Joya after she described fellow MPs as "worse than donkeys and cows" in a television interview last May.      Full news...

Internationalen Weekly: Undeterred by the “international community’s” political exigencies, the Afghan woman has not given up her struggle for peace, democracy, liberation as well as her right to education, health and work. Nowhere, perhaps nowhere in the world, one finds a woman as keen for education as an Afghan woman. And embodiment of this struggle is RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Woman of Afghanistan. Alerting the world since 1977 to the sufferings and struggle of Afghan woman, RAWA is the only woman, if not political, formation to have survived 30 years of Afghan war. An achievement in itself. ‘There is no organization on earth like it’, says John Pilger.      Full news...

PAN: At least 30 women lost their lives by committing self-immolation in Farah province this year. The figure is double as compared to last year. Lailuma Sediqi, head of women affairs department in the province told Pajhwok Afghan News during last two months 64 cases of women burnings, half of them were self immolation were registered in the department.      Full news...

Reuters: Around 200 Afghans demonstrated in the capital Kabul on Thursday against the death sentence passed against a reporter convicted of blasphemy. The case against 23-year-old Perwiz Kambakhsh, sentenced to death last week for mocking Islam and the Koran, has attracted international attention with the United States, the United Nations and right groups all expressing concern.      Full news...

PAN: A dejected young Afghan woman having a domestic dispute with her husband tried to take her life in Mehtarlam High Court on Wednesday, court officials said.      Full news...

Reuters: Nine police and two civilians were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, a provincial doctor said on Thursday, but the coalition said Taliban fighters had been killed.      Full news...

Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the pressure being placed on the authorities by conservative religious leaders in the case of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, a young journalist in the northern province of Balkh who has been detained since late October 2007 on charges of blasphemy and defaming Islam. The Council of Mullahs says he should be sentenced to death.      Full news...

Reuters: Dozens of Afghan journalists and activists on Saturday sought the release of a journalist detained by security officials for allegedly making blasphemous comments.      Full news...

Pajhwok Afghan News: Thousands in the eastern Kunar province took to the streets to demand removal of military bases from residential areas in face of mounting civilian casualties in attacks and clashes between militants and Afghan and foreign troops.      Full news...

CanWest News Service: Afghans shouting "Death to Canada" and other slogans blocked a main road in the hotly disputed Zhari District of Kandahar during a protest Wednesday against the rule of President Hamid Karzai and a house-to-house search operation by foreign forces that the demonstrators said had resulted in the death of two brothers who were mullahs.      Full news...

Reuters: Around 100 angry Afghan Sikhs carried a coffin to the United Nations headquarters in Kabul on Monday, accusing Muslims of stopping them cremating the dead man.      Full news...

The Ottawa Citizen: It's a growing debate: Six years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, as 9/11's anniversary falls for the first time on a Tuesday -- the day of the week it happened -- how much tribute is too much? How much is enough, and how much is not enough? In an indirect and yet profound way, tonight's season finale of PBS's Wide Angle provides the perfect answer.      Full news...

Pajhwok Afghan News: A global organisation working for safeguarding journalist rights has denounced the beating of on an Afghan television reporter covering the recent South Korean hostage crisis in the restive Ghazni province.      Full news...

AFP: More than 100 people, many of them widows, called for international help in identifying remains found in the latest mass grave to be uncovered in Afghanistan.      Full news...

The Daily Telegraph.au: THE United States is making a mockery of democracy and the war on terrorism by supporting corrupt Afghan MPs who are criminals and warlords, said an outspoken Afghan politician, who has been removed from parliament.      Full news...

The Times: The rendezvous is clandestine. A voice on the telephone instructs us to drive to a point beside a dusty highway cutting though the suburbs of Kabul. A dark-blue, four-wheel drive pulls up. Inside, a young gunman checks our identities before ordering us to follow. We drive through alleyways and stop beside the high gates of an anonymous compound.      Full news...