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July 28, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
World Policy Institute: Many of the 747,000 weapons the U.S. Department of Defense has given to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have not been properly labeled or accounted for, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The widespread mislabeling, duplicate labeling, and rudimentary tracking of weapons means that insurgents could easily get a hold of guns or other weapons. Full news...
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July 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Al Jazeera America: Before dawn on June 1, a group of U.S. special forces and Afghan army commandos arrived by helicopter to the east of Alizai, a farming hamlet in Andar district in Taliban-controlled territory in central Afghanistan. They moved from house to house, arresting any fighting-age men they found, while the local Taliban fighters, who had been sleeping in a mosque at the other end of the village, fled without a fight. Full news...
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July 26, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
WSWS.org: An important documentary, The Kill Team, opened in New York City and Toronto on July 25, and will play in other North American cities over the next several weeks and months. The WSWS reviewed the film as part of our coverage of the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival. This is a slightly edited version of that comment. Full news...
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July 25, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Al Jazeera and agencies: Suspected Taliban gunmen stopped two vehicles in central Afghanistan and shot dead 15 passengers at the side of the road, police in Ghor province have said. Only one man escaped after the gunmen held up two vehicles on a road in the province and shot dead 10 men, four women and one child, police said. Full news...
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July 24, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
VICE News: On the afternoon of September 7 last year, in the Watapur region of Afghanistan’s Kunar province, a farmer named Miya Jan heard a buzzing overhead. He looked up to see a drone, he told the Los Angeles Times, and minutes later, he heard an explosion. Reaching the site of the blast, he saw a mangled vehicle — which he soon realized belonged to his cousin. Among the bodies, he recognised his brother and his brother’s family. Full news...
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July 23, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Residents claim tens of thousands of afghanis, which are released by the education department in the name of teacher salaries, end up in pockets of a few individuals in the Maroof district of southern Kandahar province. Education department officials say there are a total of 40 schools in Maroof and eight of them have been closed due to insecurity, but residents reject the claim and say not a single school is operational in the town. Full news...
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July 22, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque, and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defense that it had been consensual sex. But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an “honor killing” in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead. Full news...
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July 20, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Breitbart: A five-year-old child in the Afghan city of Herat died this week after being the victim of a gang rape, from which he sustained fatal injuries. The incident has triggered another wave of outrage in the nation, which has struggled for centuries against cultural norms promoting rape. Full news...
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July 19, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: A Killid investigation reveals there is a mindboggling 30 to 80 percent corruption in customs in the western provinces. Millions of dollars are being embezzled, and jobs in customs offices are sold for between 10,000 and 100,000 USD. Full news...
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July 18, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Washington Examiner: Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it can certainly burn like them. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent 1.57 billion USD on nearly 2,000 buildings for the Afghan National Army — but as many as 1,600 are at risk of catching on fire, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Full news...
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July 17, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The governor of central Logar province has allegedly sold 20,000 litres of fuel, which was stolen from an Afghan National Army (ANA)’s battalion and recovered by police, a government official said on Thursday. The fuel had been stolen by ANA’s 7th battalion commander in Mohammad Agha district, Mohammad Hakim Tolo, on Saturday night. Full news...
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July 15, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a busy market and a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 89 people in the deadliest insurgent attack on civilians since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The blast destroyed numerous mud-brick shops, flipped cars over and stripped trees of their branches... Full news...
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July 10, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
WSWS.org: The announcement on Monday that preliminary results show that Ashraf Ghani won the June 14 presidential election in Afghanistan has provoked immediate conflict with the power base of rival candidate Abdullah Abdullah. Abdullah has denounced the election as rigged, the purported result as “a coup against the will of people,” and declared himself the victor. Full news...
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July 9, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: In a tragic tale, tribal law lessens the emotional blow to a family selling its daughters out of financial desperation. Yet the sanctioned sale of girls in traditional communities highlights how girls and women are still regarded as commodities in Afghanistan. Full news...
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July 7, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Hambastagi.org (Translated by RAWA): Poverty and hunger can be seen on 50-year-old Ghulam Rasool’s wrinkled face and dry lips from a distance. He lives in Dashte Barchi and is the only one who earns for his family of nine. One of his feet is crippled. He sells smokeless tobacco to feed his children. Full news...
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July 5, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
WSWS.org: An investigation by journalist Jon Stephenson, broadcast on Maori Television on Monday, found that a raid on an Afghan village on August 22, 2010, involving New Zealand, US and Afghan soldiers, resulted in 21 casualties, all of them innocent civilians. Full news...
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July 3, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Khaama Press: At least 545 children were killed in 790 incidents in Afghanistan during the year 2013, according to a latest UN report. The 47-page-report reveals that the children casualties has grown by 30 percent last year in Afghanistan as compared to the year 2012. Full news...
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July 2, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: The cost of health care is throwing many poor Afghans into a cycle of debt. While most now have access to basic public health care, the quality is so low that many patients seek out private services at a higher cost than they can afford - driving some of them further into poverty. Full news...
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July 1, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Xinhua: It may not be true in urban cities in other parts of the world but children in this capital city of Afghanistan are forced to work instead of being in school. Mohammad Din, 10, is one of those poor Afghan children who are forced to work the whole day in a brick factory in Kabul to earn bread for their families. Full news...
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June 28, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The movements of illegal gunmen have increased in the capital of central Parwan province after the second round of presidential elections, locals complained on Saturday. Fardin Hakimi, who runs a shop in Charikar, said the growing movements of illegal armed men had raised concerns among the people. “Wearing plainclothes and caps, dozens of these gunmen can be seen daily in Charikar.” Full news...
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June 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Associated Press: The United Nations’ drug-fighting agency says global drug use appears to be stable, but increasing opium production in Afghanistan is a cause for concern. The Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in an annual report Thursday that between 162 and 324 million people used an illicit drug at least once in 2012, little changed from the previous year. Full news...
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June 26, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Participants of a protest demonstration on Thursday accused some Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials of having grabbed land allotted for public welfare projects in the central capital Kabul. More than 100 individuals took part in the protest rally held in Qargha area in the 5th police district before noon. Full news...
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June 24, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Human Rights Watch: The government of Afghanistan should adopt recommendations from United Nations member countries to abolish prosecution of women for so-called “moral crimes.” Afghanistan rejected the recommendations in its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Outcome Report issued on June 16, 2014 at the UN Human Rights Council. Other issues addressed include the death penalty, anti-gay discrimination, and impunity. Full news...
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June 21, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Iranian authorities have been excavating iron mine located in the border area between the two countries in western Herat Province, an official said. Farid Ahmad Ziartujai, administrative chief of the district, told Pajhwok Afghan News the mine resources were located in the Chab and Cha Shor localities of the district. Full news...
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June 20, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: An electoral watchdog member in northern Takhar province on Friday announced his resignation, accusing the panel of supporting a particular candidate in last week’s runoff vote. Barna Salehi linked his decision to the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IEC) failure to maintain neutrality and the affiliation of all observers with one specific group. Full news...
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June 19, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Telegraph: As the civil war in Iraq dominates headlines, it is no surprise that the world continued a seven-year-slide away from peacefulness over the last 12 months, as measured by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Syria displaced Afghanistan as the world’s least peaceful nation in its newly-released Global Peace Index, compiled before the latest upsurge in fighting in Iraq. Full news...
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June 17, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The Independent Election Complaints Commission (IECC) on Tuesday said 2,556 objections, most of them against election workers in the run-off vote, had been lodged. The deadline for filing complaints expired today, IECC spokesman Nader Mohseni told a news conference in Kabul. He said 991 complaints were lodged against election employees. Full news...
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June 17, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A resident of the Jalgai district in northern Baghlan province has accused police and government officials of cutting off his middle finger two days after he cast his vote for Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. Mohammad Dad told Pajhwok Afghan News he was on his way home on Sunday when three policemen and as many government officials attacked him. Full news...
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June 16, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
WSWS.org: No results have yet emerged from Afghanistan’s runoff presidential election last Saturday, with only partial results due to be released from July 2, and the final outcome on July 22. The protracted delay is partially due to the primitive state of the country’s infrastructure after nearly 13 years of US-led occupation. But it is also due to hundreds of complaints of electoral fraud, which could determine the expected close outcome of the contest. Full news...
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June 15, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Security officials on Sunday said about 49 civilians, 29 security officials and 176 militants have been killed during separate incidents of violence across the country on the election day (Saturday). Another at least 100 civilians, 74 security men and 93 insurgents were wounded in the violence, the officials said. Full news...