New UN report takes firm stand on women’s rights in Afghanistan

September 30th, 2009 NATO official agrees with Obama's Afghan approachWASHINGTON — NATO's secretary-general said Tuesday President Barack Obama is right to decide strategy first, then resources for Afghanistan and said he's confident that U.S. and allied troops will remain "as long as it takes." Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Obama met in the White House, addressing reporters afterward.

September 23rd, 2009 McCain: More troops needed in AfghanistanWASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain says more U.S.

September 7th, 2009 Secret pardon frees Afghan journalism studentKABUL — An Afghan journalism student who was jailed for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam has been freed after nearly two years, a media rights group said Monday. Activists have called Parwez Kambakhsh, who was convicted of blasphemy and originally sentenced to death, a victim of an Afghan justice system that panders to religious conservatives at the expense of individual freedoms.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Eight security guards at the US embassy in Kabul have been fired in a hazing scandal and two others have resigned, the US State Department said Friday. The State Department has asked the ArmorGroup, the private firm that employed the guards under a contract to protect the embassy, to replace its senior management team in Kabul, spokesman Ian Kelly said.

August 28th, 2009 NATO chief: mission to last 'as long as it takes'ANKARA, Turkey — NATO's mission in Afghanistan will last "as long as it takes" to ensure that the country is secure, the alliance's new leader said Friday during a visit to the Turkish capital. Thanks in part to an increase in the number of troops, the mission is making a difference in the war-ravaged and poverty stricken country, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

August 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A US general has recommended the release of around 400 prisoners from Pentagon's Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, the Online news agency reported Saturday. Major General Doug Stone had recently reviewed the facility at Bagram, which has been a source of growing public anger in Afghanistan.

July 8th, 2009 UN: Rape, sexual violence growing in AfghanistanUNITED NATIONS — Afghan women are increasingly the victims of violence, including rapes and acid-throwing attacks at the hands of anti-government elements and local chieftains, according to new U.N. report. The situation is further aggravated by impunity for perpetrators and the failure of authorities to protect woman's rights, the report states.

July 7th, 2009 NEW YORK - Dr Aafia Siddiqui has denied US allegations that she attempted to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents during her detention in Afghanistan.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - A mobile firm has come up with a novel way of finding an employee, it asks people to apply for a top job by text. All those applying for the job need to express themselves in only 40 words, to show they are right for the marketing post at content provider Teimlo.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will undergo surgery for her fractured right elbow, the State Department said. Clinton, 61, was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where doctors determined the break would require an operation, the New York Times quoted State Department spokesman P.

May 27th, 2009 OTTAWA - Afghans are losing hope in the future of their country as security deteriorates and women's rights erode, a member of Afghanistan's human rights commission has warned. Soraya Sobhrang, speaking by teleconference link from Kabul on Tuesday, said respect for the rights of women is regressing in her country and conditions are coming to resemble life under the Taliban, whose extremist regime was toppled in 2001.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has refused to rule out unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also said the United States cannot be successful in Afghanistan if large numbers of civilians keep getting killed during the conflict.

May 10th, 2009 Afghanistan suicide bombs kill, wound at least 20KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A double suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan has killed and wounded at least 20 police, soldiers and civilians. Helmand deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan says the attack began when a first suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a taxi stand in the town of Gereshk.

May 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The forthcoming trilateral talks between the US President Barack Obama and his Pakistan and Afghanistan counterparts may see the United States mounting pressure on Islamabad to allow India extend its business ties with Afghanistan through the Wagah border. "The US, which is eying a dominant role for India in the region, wants Pakistan to provide overland trade route for Indian exports to Afghanistan," the Dawn quoted a diplomatic source, as saying.

May 1st, 2009 OTTAWA - Fewer than 20 per cent of Afghan law-enforcement officials are aware it's illegal to torture someone accused of a crime in that country, a report by a Canadian government-supported human-rights watchdog says. The rights body's report, which surveyed 92 Afghan law-enforcement officials and 398 alleged victims of torture in detention, found that only 17.4 per cent of officials were aware of legal rights in Afghanistan affording the accused protection from torture.