PAN: A young girl was raped in Raghistan district of Badakhshan province. 17-year old Razia claimed that 40-year old Altaf Al-Rahman had raped her several times three days back. She told PAN that she wanted justice and the punishment of the rapist but didn’t give any further details.      Full news...

AFP: Hundreds of protesters took to streets in eastern Afghanistan on Monday after a father and son were allegedly killed by gunfire from US-led soldiers, a governor and witnesses said. Around 200 people demonstrated in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province.      Full news...

PAN: More than a dozen protestors suffered injuries as police fired to disrupt a peaceful demonstration against NATO operations in the southeastern province of Paktia, residents and officials said on Saturday.      Full news...

Hundreds of families of the war victims in a show off protest in front of the UN office called upon president Hamid Karzai and the UN to bring to justice those responsible for three decades long war in the country killing millions of innocent people. Referring to the Paris conference they said hundreds of millions of aid is poured into Afghanistan, but no considerable progress can be seen in the reconstruction of the country.      Full news...

HRW: The Afghan government and international donors should place human rights issues including freedom of expression in the war-ravaged country at the centre of discussions at the donors' conference in Paris tomorrow, Human Rights Watch said today.      Full news...

Amnesty International: The international community and the Afghan government have not met their pledge to provide the Afghan people, particularly women and girls, with better security, more responsive governance, and sustainable economic development, Amnesty International said today in a briefing paper issued ahead of the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan being held on 12 June in Paris.      Full news...

Chicago Tribune: Faced with skyrocketing food prices and no job, Mohammad Daud decided he had suffered enough. The 27-year-old swallowed 100 sleeping pills and died. His decision late last month reflects panic in this war-torn country over the price of food, especially wheat, the staple of the Afghan diet. Afghanistan, landlocked and drought-ridden, depends on aid and food imports to survive, and the world's food crisis has hit hard.      Full news...

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...