TOLOnews.com (Translated by RAWA): Zahra, a woman who is currently admitted in Isteqlal Hospital (Kabul), claims that her husband first beat her severely and then poured acid on her face. This woman, who has four children, says that her husband had been violent towards her a number of times, but last Friday, he poured acid on her face in front of their children.      Full news...

IWPR: Officials in the north-western Afghan province of Badghis fear that poverty fuelled by an ongoing drought is leading to rising rates of child and forced marriage. The legal age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16, although it can be as low as 15 with parental consent. A joint report by the ministry of labour, social affairs, martyrs and disabled and UNICEF on child marriage, released in July 2018, showed that at least one family member was married before the age of 18 in 42 per cent of households across Afghanistan.      Full news...

The New York Times: On the television screen in a second-floor room in Kabul last month, Ahmad Ishchi watched it live: how justice in Afghanistan bends to the powerful. Instead of being taken away in handcuffs, those accused of heinous crimes in this country can be seen strolling a red carpet.      Full news...

BBC News: Two burka-clad men have killed 29 people and injured more than 80 in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Afghanistan, an official told the BBC. The men struck with guns and explosives as people were attending Friday prayers in the eastern city of Gardez, Paktia province spokesman Abdullah Asrat said. There are a number of children among the victims, he added.      Full news...

Khaama Press: A woman and her teenage daughter were shot to death by the Taliban militants in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan, the local security officials said. The officials further added that the incident took place in the vicinity of Kohistan district earlier today.      Full news...

The New York Times: The army will take over security in the eastern city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan officials said Tuesday, hours after attackers overran a government refugee office there, killing 15 people. It was at least the 10th such assault on civilian targets this year. The assault was part of a series of attacks attributed to the Islamic State against “soft targets” in or near the city of Jalalabad, where the extremists have been particularly active, mostly attacking civilians rather than confronting Afghan security forces.      Full news...

TOLOnews.com (Translated by RAWA): Local authorities of Badghis province have reported that a man in this province had killed his 9-year-old wife the previous night. Naqibullah Amini, the governor spokesman, said that the girl was named Samia and belonged to the Qadis district and had died as a result of domestic violence. According to him, Samia had been married to Sharafuddin two years back, when she was just seven, in return for 1,000,000 Afghanis. Sharafuddin is 35-years-old now.      Full news...

Ufuq News (Translated by RAWA): Local authorities in Daikundi province have said that a 14-year-old girl was hung to death in the Sang Takht o Bandar district of this province. Ali Akbar Naatiqi, spokesperson for the governor of Daikundi, told Ufuq News that the matter is under criminal investigation but the cause and motive is not yet clear.      Full news...

IWPR: A case in which a widow was beaten, humiliated and had her 12-year-old daughter sold off in marriage by her former in-laws has illustrated the extent of lawlessness in the southern province of Ghor. Although aware of the case, the district governor told IWPR that he was powerless to intervene because local militias had far more power than he did.      Full news...

VOA: The United Nations says the conflict in Afghanistan killed nearly 1,700 civilians in the first six months of 2018, the highest number recorded in any comparable time period over the last decade. The midyear report on civilian casualties released by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Sunday documented close to 3,500 injured civilians in the same period. However, overall civilian casualties declined 3 percent compared with the same period in 2017.      Full news...

Hambastagi.org (Translated by RAWA): Ashraf Ghani’s trip to Laghman province on July 2, 2018, ended up costing Salma her life. Salma, a 13-year-old girl, lived in Mahtarlaam city and came to the main city every day to sell yogurt and earn some money for her poor family. She was hit by a car from Ashraf Ghani’s motorcade.      Full news...

PAN: At least 20 civilians and 26 Taliban militants have been killed during hours long clashes and airstrike in Zurmat district of southeastern Paktia province, residents said on Friday. The ground and air offensive was carried out on Thursday and the following night in Sahak area, said Sherin Jan, a resident of nearby Shamolzai village.      Full news...

Hambastagi.org (Translated by RAWA): On July 8, 2018, a woman named Umriaa from the Chah Aab district of Takhar province, was beaten up by the local lord of the area, Mohammadullah. Mohammadullah had led one of Bashir Qanet’s (a Gulbuddini commander) gangs in the past. The painful photo of Umriaa with a bloodied mouth was circulated on the social media.      Full news...

The Washington Post: As Afghan President Ashraf Ghani seeks to build momentum for peace talks with Taliban insurgents, a violent threat Wednesday from supporters of a powerful exiled warlord raised concerns that the government still faces pressure from ethnic minority leaders that could undermine its authority. For a second consecutive day, thousands of people in northern Faryab province protested the arrest of a commander loyal to Abdurrashid Dostum, the exiled ethnic Uzbek strongman who is technically first vice president under Ghani but has fled the country amid charges of abusing a political rival.      Full news...

IWPR: Healthcare officials in Paktika are warning of a dire maternal mortality rate in the southeastern province, estimating that between 80 and 90 babies die during delivery each month. Afghanistan as a whole has one of the highest levels of maternal mortality in the world. According to the World Bank figures for 2011-2015, 396 out of every 10,000 pregnancies ended in the mother’s death.      Full news...

Independent: A suicide bombing that killed at least 19 people in Afghanistan has been claimed as an Isis attack. Many of the dead are thought to be members of the minority Sikh and Hindu communities after the attacker struck in the city of Jalalabad. A further 20 people are believed to have been injured.      Full news...

VOA: A new round of a polio immunization campaign went into action Monday in Afghanistan amid concerns insurgent bans could possibly deprive hundreds of thousands of children from receiving the vaccine. During the five-day campaign, officials say, about 52,000 Afghan vaccinators will visit 6.4 million children under the age of five.      Full news...

BBC News: Jamila (not her real name) attempted suicide after she felt abandoned and betrayed by her fiancé - who decided, after a six-year-engagement, that he no longer wanted to marry her because she was “not a young woman any more”. reJamila is 18 - and her family arranged her engagement when she was just 12. She was taken to a hospital in Herat by her mother and treated for poisoning last month.      Full news...

Foreign Policy: Despite the latest short-lived ceasefire between the Taliban and the Afghan government, civilians continue to experience the wrath of Taliban and Islamic State attacks. A suicide bombing killed at least 13 people in Kabul on June 11, and there has been a wave of attacks on public institutions in Jalalabad. The militant groups deliberately target public places during festivals and holidays.      Full news...

NBC News: A car bomb tore through an unprecedented cease-fire between Afghan forces and Taliban militants on Saturday, officials said, killing at least 20 in the eastern province of Nangarhar. The blast struck a gathering of Taliban and Afghan security officials held amid a cease-fire to mark the end of the Ramadan fasting season. It’s believed to have killed civilians, Afghan troops and members of the Taliban, according to the spokesman for the governor of the city of Jalalabad.      Full news...

IWPR: Residents of the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia are warning that a flourishing trade in women’s ID cards has sprung up ahead of the October elections, fuelling fears that corrupt candidates could exploit the stolen votes. Conservative traditions mean that most women in Paktia do not have ID cards, also known as tazkera, which are a prerequisite for registering to vote.      Full news...

Al Jazeera: After the Taliban’s fall from power, there was great hope that Afghanistan’s girls would finally get the chance to get an education. Yet 17 years on, most Afghan girls are still out of school, despite the international community donating billions of dollars in aid. Critics point to corruption within the country’s education system, lack of oversight by donors and social attitudes that remain deeply discriminatory against girls.      Full news...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has announced that in the past nine years, more than 64,000 civilians have been killed and injured in Afghanistan. Of this, more than 23,000 have been killed and 40,000 injured. With the publication of a report titled “Protecting the Rights of Victims of Armed Conflict and Terrorism”, Sima Samar, head of the AIHRC, said that the report recorded civilian casualties from March 21, 2009 to March 20, 2018.      Full news...

PAN: Nearly 3,000 people have been killed and injured in 205 attacks in Afghanistan in May, showing 42 percent increase in casualties happened in April. Pajhwok Afghan News reports show 1,220 people have been killed and 866 others injured in 173 different attacks in 28 provinces of the country in April. Reports based on different sources showed 1,762 people were killed and 1,190 others injured in 28 out of total 34 provinces of the country during May.      Full news...

Deutsche Welle: Afghanistan’s parliamentary and district council elections are scheduled for October 20 of this year, but attacks by militant Islamists have already raised concerns whether the elections will be held on time. Taliban and “Islamic State” (IS) continue to target voter registration centers in different parts of the strife-torn country. An IS-claimed attack at a voters’ office in Kabul last month killed 57 people, including women and children, underlining the fact that the participation in the election process comes with a huge risk for the Afghan people.      Full news...

VOA: The United Nations says the ongoing drought has gripped two-thirds of conflict-hit Afghanistan’s 34 provinces and has put more than 2 million people at risk of becoming severely food insecure. Water points and fountains across the country have dried up, and the lack of rain and snow melt has caused rivers to run low or dry up completely, according to a weekly report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.      Full news...

Euronews: The watchdog responsible for monitoring the U.S. government’s effort to rebuild Afghanistan says the 15-year, 5 billion USD effort hasn’t worked, according to a report released Thursday. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says the U.S. set unrealistic expectations for stabilizing Afghanistan on a short timeline, that the Obama administration lacked the political will to invest the necessary time and effort to stabilize the country, and that some efforts to bolster the Afghan government actually backfired.      Full news...

Al Jazeera: At least 16 people have been killed in southern Afghanistan when security forces tried to dispose of a container full of explosives in the city of Kandahar, officials said. Nematullah Barak, head of Mirwais hospital in Kandahar, said the latest figures “show 16 dead and 38 wounded people brought to the hospital”.      Full news...

UN News: Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record-high last year, leading to unprecedented levels of potential heroin on the world market, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a new report released on Monday. The report noted opium cultivation increased by 63 per cent; from 201,000 hectares in 2016 to an estimated 328,000 hectares in 2017.      Full news...

Reuters: Eight people have been killed and dozens more wounded by multiple explosions at a cricket match in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, officials said. The blasts occurred after evening prayers on Friday at a football stadium that was hosting a cricket match at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the provincial council, said.      Full news...