Wall Street Journal, 24 September 2014 A platform has been build to protect visitors of the site of the destroyed giant buddha statues in Bamian – that awkwardly look like the statues’ feet. This had brought UNESCO to the scene and rekindled the debate about whether to rebuild the statues (which would be difficult in […]
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IWPR, 3 September 2014 For hundreds of years, people in Afghanistan have stockpiled winter snows in specially-dug pits so they can use it during the scorching summer months. Now, residents and officials in the mountainous southeasterb province of Khost say storing and selling snow could provide a viable alternative to the illegal logging which has […]
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AP, 3 September 2014 Good overview at the eve of the NATO summit in Wales (which still cannot decide about post-ISAF NATO deployments due to the ongoing lack of the BSA) about which ISAF troop contributors are still there and which are leaving. Also see NATO’s ISAF troop “placemat” here.
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ARTE, 2 September 2014 Extremely interesting documentary film about illicit diggings for and the international trafficking of cultural artifacts in Afghanistans, how it is smuggled abroad and also the ‘end users’, here mainly art dealers in downtown Brussels. The movie shows amazing pieces that should be in Afghan museums (52 min., available till 9 September 2014 […]
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Pajhwok Afghan News, 28 August 2014 Afghan mining watch organisatione Integrity Watch alleges that the contract for the Nuraba and Semti gold mines in the Chahab district of Takhar province has been awarded on the basis of favoritism and in a non-transparent manner. According to the organisation, the contract signed by former mining minister Wahidullah Shahrani and and […]
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Washington Post, 15 August 2014 Pam Constable about the strange, almost Taleban-style police raid against Kabul’s Art Cafe and Restaurant, a famous hangout for Kabul’s youth, during which young women and men were harassed and abused – and local protests against it. She points to social tensions as result of modernisation and quotes an Islamic scholar who […]
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Afghanistan Today, 11 August 2014 A striking reportage from the coal mines in Darra-ye Suf, Samangan province.
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Gandhara blog (RFE/RL), 8 August 2014 Gandhara authors Abubakar Siddique and Qasim Khan Mandokhel look at the “deepening blood feud between the clan of [Kandahar’s] powerful Afghan provincial security chief and the Taliban [that] has resulted in a series of assassinations in southwestern Pakistan.” They quote locals and politicians in Balochistan province saying that scores of […]
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BBC Radio 4, 4 August 2014 Link to the 28-minutes audio file of a radio feature about the PDPA government of Hafizullah Amin’s death list of political prisoners, a case against a former torturer in the Netherlands and post-2001 Afghanistan’s history of Western-abetted impunity. Featuring, among others, HRW’s (and AAN member) Patti Gossman and former AIHRC […]
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McClatchy newspapers, 4 August 2014 Residents and businesses in Kandahar could go without power when US subsidies for diesel fuel phase out next year, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The Pentagon will continue to provide subsidized fuel to the Afghan government, tapering the amount over the preceding months from […]
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Reuters, 1 August 2014 There seem to be discussions about whom to invite as Afghanistan’s representative to the5-6 September NATO summit in Britain: President Karzai’s constitional tenure is over – although he is still in office –, and the new president is still unknown. Unofficial voices from among ‘diplomats’ say the US do not want […]
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Tolonews, 30 July 2014 This op-ed for the Afghan media group seeks to clarify reports in the Afghan media that the election agreement brokered by the author between presidential contenders Abdullah and Ghani also contained an agreement to switch to a parliamentary system. After stating that “It’s not for outsiders to describe the contents of […]
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