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Afghan Government Welcomes British Soldiers' Arrest
October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Afghan government has welcomed the arrest of seven British soldiers on suspicion of murder, calling it "a good measure to prevent civilian casualties" in the country.
The comment by Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zaher Azimi comes after Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that seven Royal Marines had been arrested on October 11 on suspicion of murder in relation to an incident in Afghanistan last year.
The ministry said the incident did not involve any civilians but followed "an engagement with an insurgent."
It also said the arrest didn't take place in Afghanistan.
Britain has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan -- the second largest foreign force after the United States -- based in the southern province of Helmand.
Based on reporting by AP Reuters, and dpa
Fears of backlash in Afghanistan rise after 7 Royal Marines arrested on suspicion of murder
By Danica Kirka, The Associated Press
LONDON - Seven British Royal Marines have been arrested on suspicion of murder — an unusual case that could cause a backlash from Afghans and further erode efforts to provide political stability to Afghanistan.
The arrests relate to an incident in Afghanistan last year, and the Defence Ministry said it involved an insurgent rather than a civilian. It comes at a time when relations between NATO forces and the Afghan government are at a low ebb as they to quash the resilient Taliban insurgency after more than a dozen years of war.
Military experts said Friday the case is rare, as the Royal Marines are known for having a high level of training that would include instruction on acting with restraint.
Michael Clarke of the Royal United Services Institute says the spirit of the unit usually prevents misbehaviour, and that having seven people involved in a single case will heighten the political embarrassment.
"This is a politically charged issue," he said. "It destroys so much work that has been done in the last months."
Though international officials are already starting to transfer full control of security to the Afghans, ethnic tensions still simmer and the government still does not have authority in all parts of the nation. Political leaders worry that the country could even fracture along ethnic lines once the foreign troops leave by the end of 2014, as it did after the Soviet exit from Afghanistan in February 1989.
The suggestion of murder is particularly unfortunate news at the moment — though no one has yet been charged. The incident is believed to be the first of this magnitude involving British Marines and an insurgent during the Afghan conflict, and the ministry said the arrests announced Thursday night underlined its commitment to making sure that British soldiers act in accordance with the rules of engagement.
Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said the Afghan government welcomed the arrests because it means that the law is being implemented.
The incident took place in Helmand province, which was the centerpiece of the U.S. surge that sent tens of thousands of U.S. Marines to join British Royal Marines there in 2010. They fought pitched battles against entrenched Taliban insurgents in the central Helmand River Valley before the pace of combat eased in 2011.
The brigade believed to be involved in the incident, 3 Commando, was in the thick of the fighting — which would have heightened tensions already soaring amid heat, fear and other strains of combat. The rules of engagement in general would allow them to fire on someone that is a threat or someone involved in a hostile act, like planting a bomb, Clarke said.
Eric Grove, director of Center for International Security and War Studies at the University of Salford, said the rules of engagement would spell out at what point the enemy is no longer a threat and when the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners takes effect.
"They are very much an elite force," he said of the British Marines. "They would normally be very good at showing restraint in action."
He said that the arrested Marines have "very much let the side down."
Past incidents involving abuses by coalition soldiers have sparked protests and riots in Afghanistan, damaging relations with the government of Hamid Karzai. Also eroding the relations have been a rising tide of attacks in which Afghan soldiers or police assault their international allies — endangering the partnership that is critical to training Afghan security forces and withdrawing international troops.
But while there have been some allegations of abuse against civilians, the case revealed Thursday is unusual in that it involves an insurgent.
However, allegations of British misconduct in general have been rare in Afghanistan, with some of the experts noting that Britain had learned its lessons from several appalling incidents in Iraq.
Britain's six-year military presence in southern Iraq spawned multiple allegations of torture and abuse. The most notorious case involved a hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, who died while in custody at a British base after being detained in a raid in Basra in September 2003. Britain's defence authorities later apologized for the mistreatment of Mousa and nine other Iraqis and paid a $4.8 million (3 million pound) settlement. Six soldiers were cleared of wrongdoing at a court martial, while another pleaded guilty and served a year in jail.
The government says abuse was committed by only a few soldiers, but lawyers for the alleged victims say it was systemic.
The Defence Ministry's terse statement Thursday suggested that the military was moving to control the incident, and trying to make certain the potentially lurid details were kept under wraps. The statement said the seven were arrested Thursday by Royal Military Police, but did not name the marines.
While the ministry said the marines were not arrested in Afghanistan, it would not specify where the arrests took place or give any further details on the alleged murder.
"The investigation will now be taken forward and dealt with by the Service Justice system," the ministry said in a statement, adding that "as with any serious incident of this nature, there will be an internal review to identify lessons learned."
Britain has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan — the second largest foreign force after the United States — based in the southern Helmand province.
About 500 troops will leave this year, ahead of the withdrawal of all international forces at the end of 2014.
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Associated Press Writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
9 Afghan civilians wounded in Ghazni
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Up to nine civilians, including three children, were wounded on Friday in a gun battle between security forces and Taliban militants in eastern Ghazni province, the police said.
"Armed Taliban insurgents launched attack against police checkpoints in Khak-e-Ghariban neighborhood, an area in western part of provincial capital Ghazni city at around 11 a.m. local time, but a Taliban mortar shell hit a house injuring nine innocent civilians," provincial police chief, Zarawar Zahid, told Xinhua.
The injured included six women and three children with a woman said to be in critical conditions in the province 100 km south of Kabul, he said.
The Taliban, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, launched in May this year a spring offensive against Afghan and NATO forces. They warned the civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants.
A total of 1,145 Afghan civilians were killed and 1,954 injured in conflicts in the first six months of 2012, according to a UN report released in capital Kabul on Aug. 8.
It attributed 80 percent of the civilian deaths to the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups but another 10 percent of the deaths were attributed to Afghan and NATO-led forces and 10 percent were unattributed in the first six months this year.
Georgian Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A Georgian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, bringing to 18 the number of Georgian service members killed in the country since the arrival of the Georgian military contingent there in 2009.
The Georgian Defense Ministry said on October 12 that Corporal Mindia Abashidze was killed while fulfilling a combat task under the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
No further information was available.
Based on reporting by Interfax and civil.ge
Several insurgents killed in N. Afghanistan operation: coalition
KABUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Several insurgents were killed Friday when security forces launched an operation in the country' s northern province of Sari Pul, the NATO-led coalition forces confirmed.
"An Afghan and coalition security force killed a number of armed insurgents during an operation in search of Taliban fighters in Sari Pul province today. The security force seized several assault rifles, shot guns, and grenades during the operation," the coalition said in statement, without giving the exact number of the killed.
Up to 10 armed Taliban insurgents were killed, and 38 others were detained in eight joint cleanup operations in Sari Pul, Wardak, Logar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Khost, Ghazni and Paktia provinces within a 24-hour period, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said in a statement earlier in the day.
Separately, "An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a number of suspected insurgents during an operation in search of a Taliban leader in southern Helmand province today. The Taliban leader is responsible for directing multiple attacks targeting Afghan and coalition forces throughout Helmand province," the coalition said in the statement.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not made comments yet.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan government and about 100,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country.
VP Debate: Biden, Ryan at each other on everything
Associated Press By DAVID ESPO 11/10/2012
DANVILLE, Ky. - At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy.
"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan later scolded his rival, referring to Democratic pressure on Biden to make up for President Barack Obama's listless performance in last week's debate with Mitt Romney.
There was nothing listless this time as the 69-year-old Biden sat next to the 42-year old Wisconsin congressman on a stage at Centre College in Kentucky.
Nearly 90 minutes after the initial disagreement over foreign policy, the two men were still at it, clashing sharply over rival approaches to reducing federal deficits.
"The president likes to say he has a plan," said Ryan, a seven-term congressman. But in fact "he gave a speech" and never backed it up with details.
Biden conceded Republicans indeed had a plan. But he said that if enacted it would have "eviscerated all the things the middle class care about," including cutting health care programs and education.
As Biden and Ryan well knew, last week's presidential debate has fueled a Republican comeback in opinion polls.
Republicans and Democrats alike have said in recent days the presidential race now approximates the competitive situation in place before the two political conventions. Obama and Romney are generally separated by a point or two in national public opinion polls and in several battleground states, while the president holds a slender lead in Ohio and Wisconsin.
With Democrats eager for Biden to show the spark the president lacked, he did so. He supplemented his criticism by periodically smiling mockingly, wagging his finger and raising his arms in mock disbelief as his rival spoke.
Ryan, sitting on the national debate stage for the first time, settled on a smirk for parts of the debate. He sipped water and cleared his throat through many of Biden's answers.
Unprompted, Biden brought up the video in which Romney had said 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax, view themselves as victims and do not take responsibility for their own lives.
"It's about time they take responsibility" instead of signing pledges to avoid raising taxes, Biden said — of Romney, Ryan and the Republicans.
Ryan was ready with a response. "This is a man who gave 30 percent of his income to charity, more than the two of us combined," he said of the man at the top of the Republican ticket. "Mitt Romney's a good man. He cares about 100 percent of Americans in this country. And with respect to that quote, I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way."
The serial disagreements started immediately after the smiles and handshakes of the opening.
Ryan said in the debate's opening moments that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had been denied sufficient security by administration officials. Stevens died in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
"Not a single thing he said is accurate," Biden shot back.
Both the president and Romney campaigned in battleground states during the day before ceding the spotlight to their political partners for the evening.
"I thought Joe Biden was terrific tonight. I could not be prouder of him," Obama told reporters after watching the debate aboard Air Force One.
Likewise, Romney called Ryan and congratulated him on his performance, a campaign spokesman said.
Obama and Romney hold their next debate on Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y, then meet again on Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.
In Kentucky, Biden and Ryan seemed ready for a showdown from their opening moments on stage, and neither seemed willing to let the other have the final word. They interrupted each other repeatedly — and moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC as well.
With Democrats eager for Biden to show the spark the president lacked, he did so.
Ryan focused on dreary economic statistics — 23 million are struggling to work, he said, and 15 percent of the country is living in poverty. "This is not what a real recovery looks like."
Medicare was a flashpoint, as well. Ryan said Obama's health care plan had diverted $716 billion from the program for seniors and created a new board that could deny care to patients who need it.
Democrats "haven't put a credible solution on the table," he said. "They'll tell you about vouchers. They'll say all these things to try to scare people."
Biden quickly said that Ryan had authored not one but two proposals in which seniors would be given government payments that might not cover the entirety of their care. Otherwise, he said, the Romney-Ryan approach wouldn't achieve the savings they claimed.
Unlike Obama, Biden had no qualms about launching a personal attack on Romney.
After Ryan argued that Romney's plan would pay for reduced tax rates by eliminating tax loopholes for the wealthy, Biden noted that on a recent interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," Romney defended the 14 percent tax rate he pays on his $20 million income as fair, even though it's a lower rate than some lower income taxpayers pay.
"You think these guys are going to go out there and cut those loopholes?" Biden asked, addressing the national TV audience, his tone of voice indicating he did not.
But Ryan said he and Romney believe "taking 28 percent of families' and businesses' income is enough."
"What we're saying is lower tax rates across the board and close loopholes primarily on the higher income people," Ryan said. He said that instead of specifying what loopholes and other tax breaks would be eliminated, Romney preferred to lay out broad principles in hopes of reaching a bipartisan agreement.
Across 90 minutes, the two men agreed precisely once.
That was when Ryan, referring to the war in Afghanistan, said the calendar was the same each year. Biden agreed to that, but not to his rival's underlying point, which was that it was a mistake for Obama to have announced a date for the withdrawal of the remainder of the U.S. combat troops.
The fiercest clash over foreign policy came in the debate's opening moments, when Ryan cited events across the Middle East as well as Stevens' death in Libya as evidence that the administration's foreign policy was unraveling. The Republican also said the administration had failed to give Stevens the same level of protection as the U.S. ambassador in Paris receives.
Biden rebutted by saying that the budget that Ryan authored as chairman of the House Budget Committee had cut the administration's funding request for diplomatic security by $300 million.
On the nation's economy, both men were asked directly when his side could reduce unemployment to 6 percent from the current 7.8 percent. Both men sidestepped.
Biden repeated the president's contention that the nation is moving in the right direction, while Ryan stated the Republican view that economic struggle persists even though Democrats had control of both houses of Congress during the first two years of Obama's term.
"Where are the 5 million green jobs" we were told would be created? Ryan said to Biden.
Obama campaigned in Florida during the day. Mocking recent changes in Romney's rhetoric, he told a rally in Miami rally, "After running for more than a year in which he called himself severely conservative, Mitt Romney is trying to convince you that he was severely kidding."
Romney visited with 93-year-old Billy Graham in North Carolina before speaking to an evening rally in Asheville, N.C. "Prayer is the most helpful thing you can do for me," he told the evangelist.
For Biden, Thursday night's debate was his first since the 2008 campaign, when he shared a stage with Sarah Palin, then John McCain's running mate.
Ryan spars frequently with Democrats during debates on legislation on the House floor and in the House Budget Committee, which he chairs, but not in a one-on-one encounter covering 90 minutes and a virtually unlimited range of topics.
For all their differences, the two men shared a common objective, to advance the cause of their tickets in a close race for the presidency. And they appeared to avoid any gaffes that might forever seal their place in the history of debates.
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Kentucky, Ken Thomas in Florida and Kasie Hunt in North Carolina contributed. Espo reported from Washington.
Biden on Afghanistan: ‘We are leaving in 2014. Period’
Washington Post By Ernesto Londono October 11, 2012
Biden sounded almost exasperated as he declared the United States military would leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
“We are leaving,” he said. “We are leaving in 2014. Period,”
The remarks seemed to rule out keeping U.S. military trainers and advisers beyond 2014, which American generals have quietly lobbied for, fearing the government in Kabul could collapse quickly if it’s left to its own devises.
Ryan said his team agrees in principle with the 2014 exit timeline, but called the explicit time frame foolish.
“We don’t want to broadcast to the enemy, put a date on the calendar, so they wait us out and then come back,” Ryan said.
Biden shot back, arguing that a prolonged presence in a war zone makes the host nation spoiled.
“Unless you set a timeline, Baghdad and Kabul won’t step up,” the vice president said. “They’re happy to let us do the job.”
Pakistani Girl Taliban Targeted in 'Satisfactory' Condition
VOA News October 12, 2012
A Pakistani military spokesman say the 14-year-old schoolgirl who was shot this week by the Taliban is in "satisfactory" condition.
Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said Friday the next few days will be critical in the recovery of Malala Yousafzai who remains unconscious and on a ventilator.
She was shot in the head and neck Tuesday as she left school in the northwestern Swat Valley. The Taliban said the child was targeted for being pro-West.
Yousafzai was airlifted from a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, the country's top military hospital in Rawalpindi. Doctors have said Yousafzai has a 70 percent chance of surviving.
Pakistani officials say Yousufzai's attackers have been identified and a $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest. The attack has drawn domestic and international condemnation.
Yousufzai is internationally recognized for documenting Taliban atrocities in the area near her home. She wrote under a pseudonym - Gul Makai - in a blog published by the BBC.
In her blog, Yousufzai described life under the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, when militants carried out beheadings and other violence in the territory they controlled - large areas of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Afghanistan Expels Pakistani, Iranian Clerics
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 11, 2012
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan security officials say they have expelled 35 foreign Islamic clerics from southern Afghanistan.
The clerics, 31 from Pakistan and four from Iran, were removed from mosques in Dand district in southern Kandahar Province this week.
They were all accused of encouraging locals to wage a jihad, or holy struggle, against the Afghan government.
Ahmadullah Naziq, the head of the Dand district, told RFE/RL on October 11 that the Pakistani clerics had come from Pakistan's Balochistan Province.
Naziq said they were found with Pakistani identification cards and did not possess valid travel documents.
"We have questioned them and checked their properties in Muslim Bagh [district in Balochistan] they have Pakistani identity cards and do not carry Afghan ID cards," Naziq said.
"They have resettled in mosques in Afghan villages. They claim they are Afghans and they come from Kalat or Ghazni [Afghan cities] or other provinces."
Naziq added that four Iranian nationals were also expelled from Kandahar.
Foreign Influence Blamed
The arrests and expulsion of the clerics follow an investigation launched last month after the authorities received information that the clerics were propagating jihad against the government.
Naziq claims foreign Islamic clerics are still arriving from Pakistan. He said Kandahar authorities were preparing for a broader action against the illegal immigration of foreigners into southern Afghanistan.
The expulsion of the Pakistani clerics comes amid worsening relations between Kabul and Islamabad due to cross-border attacks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused the Pakistani Army of indiscriminately shelling Afghan villages in order to further destabilize the already restive regions.
Islamabad, which denies the accusations, says its troops are responding to attacks by militants on the Afghan side of the border.
Successes and challenges in Afghan girls' education
BBC News By Andrew North BBC South Asia correspondent 11 October 2012
The fields of Bamyan province are dotted with people at this time of year, heads down digging in the earth.
It's potato harvest time and children are helping too - as they have done for centuries.
But one thing has changed: many of the young girls working with their families are also going to school for the first time.
In between dropping fist-sized potatoes into a bucket, 10-year-old Hamida says that, until last year, "I'd never been to school."
She is one of 3.2 million girls now getting an education in Afghanistan, according to Unicef.
It's a dramatic rise from 2001 when the US-led invasion brought to an end the Taliban ban on girls going to school.
The female literacy rate has tripled - but at around 13%, it is still one of the world's lowest, a sign of how far Afghan girls and women have fallen behind in the past three decades of conflict.
Conservative attitudes
Even before the Taliban took power, women's rights were squeezed.
And although Afghanistan's new constitution says men and women "have equal rights and duties before the law" in practice women remain a distant second to men in this patriarchal society.
Child marriages remain common, and stories of abuse keep coming to light.
One of the worst cases involved Gulnaz, who was raped by her cousin's husband then charged with adultery after she became pregnant.
She gave birth to her daughter while in jail before an international outcry led to President Hamid Karzai granting her a pardon last year.
He has come under fire himself from women's groups for not taking a stronger stand. They have accused him of keeping his wife in the palace and out of the media's reach - because of fears he will be criticized by conservative religious leaders.
Yet the changes for girls are clear on a visit to the Suriya school in Kabul.
Many of the girls here were born around the time American bombs were falling on Afghanistan in 2001, so they have no memory of the tough years before.
In the yard outside, the girls' cricket team is practising under the tutelage of a male coach - unimaginable under the Taliban - who only allowed women to venture out with a close male relative.
A UK charity, Afghan Connection, has been helping, providing equipment donated by British schools.
London's Marylebone Cricket Club is also giving support.
Inconsistency
Safe within the walls of their school, they are like children anywhere, curious about their visitors and keen to talk about themselves.
"I want to be a journalist too," says one 12-year-old, when they find out who these visitors are.
But outside Kabul and other big cities the changes are more patchy.
Most Afghans still live in rural areas, where poverty, conflict and conservative attitudes are more likely to keep girls and women at home.
Of the 4.2 million Afghan children not getting any education, Unicef estimates 60% are girls - and most live in rural districts and the southern and eastern provinces where Nato-Taliban clashes have been most fierce.
These are also the heartlands of the Pashtuns, the ethnic group from which the Taliban emerged and who have always had the most conservative views of a woman's role.
More schools are being built outside Afghan cities - but far less in this conflict belt. Even then, the Taliban have forced many to close again.
It's dangerous trying to be a teacher in southern Afghanistan.
US withdrawal
There's some anxiety too over whether the momentum of change for Afghan girls will last once the Americans pull out in 2014.
Afghanistan's Education Minister Farooq Wardak - a possible future presidential candidate - insists it will.
At an opening ceremony for a new school in much safer Bamyan, he says only when women feel they are "the owner of this nation... can we make Afghanistan".
Afghan Connection has funded the construction of more than 30 schools and is encouraging the focus on rural areas.
Director Dr Sarah Fayne says the key is winning acceptance, "making sure schools are close to where people live, so girls don't have to walk far and that they have female teachers".
But she's convinced the changes of the past decade are now permanent.
"I can't believe people who have let their kids go to school will allow that to be taken away."
Back in her Bamyan village, Hamida still has a lot of work to do in the family home, helping look after her younger siblings as well as in the fields.
But six days a week now, she makes the 2km walk uphill to her local school perched on a mountainside.
"There was no school in my time," says her mother - only 30 years old.
"My daughter wants to be a doctor. May God help us, so her dreams come true."
Hearing set in Wash. state in Afghan rampage case
Associated Press
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — A hearing for the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians has been set for Nov. 5 at an Army base in Washington state, with villagers expected to testify by video from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to appear at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the pretrial hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said. The second week of the hearing will be held in the evening so villagers can testify during daylight hours in Afghanistan.
Defense lawyer John Henry Browne plans to fly to Afghanistan to cross-examine the witnesses, while other members of the defense team remain at Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.
The hearing under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice will determine whether Bales, of Lake Tapps, Wash., faces court-martial.
Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder; six counts of attempted murder; seven counts of assault; and one count each of possessing steroids, using steroids, destroying a laptop, burning bodies and using alcohol. He's being held in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Investigators say Bales was armed with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher when he walked off his base in southern Afghanistan March 11 and went on a nighttime killing spree.
Brown told The Seattle Times (http://bit.ly/Qhykl2) more than 10 Afghans could be called as witnesses, and some have been difficult to round up. Brown said the hearing is important because it may be his only opportunity to question them.
Bales could face the death penalty if convicted.
Bales grew up in suburban Cincinnati where he attended high school, then went to Ohio State University from 1993 to 1996, though he didn't graduate. He joined the Army two months after 9/11, after a Florida investment business failed and after he had worked with a string of securities operations.
Bales deployed three times to Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan with the 3rd Stryker Brigade. He was at a Special Forces outpost at the time of the killings.
Afghan Filmmakers Fear for Cinematic History
AFP Thursday, 11 October 2012
Afghan director Siddiq Barmak remembers watching helplessly as reel upon reel of film footage was taken outside and burned in the street after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.
He also remembers the effort it took to save other films from destruction after the extremist forces marched into Kabul in 1996.
Barmak and other Afghan filmmakers this week warned that efforts to save Afghanistan's film history were being undermined by government inaction and concerns about security ahead of a planned 2014 withdrawal of US-led forces.
"What is worrying all of us now is that the Taliban, the people who tried to destroy our cinema, are being talked about again as becoming part of the government," said Barmak.
"We have seen what they can do and cannot forget this," he said.
Barmak was joined by director Latif Ahmadi and producer Ibrahim Arify, who heads the government-backed Afghan Film organization.
The filmmakers attended the Busan Film Festival in South Korea this week for a screening of an Afghanistan National Film Archive program.
The six films that comprise "The Rise from the Ashes" include examples of Barmak and Ahmadi's work, all of which were saved from the wrath of the Taliban.
But many more reels remain in need of urgent repair, they say, with time taking its toll on old film stock.
"The situation is critical," said Barmak, winner of a Golden Globe award in 2004 for "Osama."
"We need help or our country's film history, which is also the history of the country and its people, will be lost."
Barmak was working at Afghan Film, the state-backed company overseeing the national film industry and archive, when the Taliban began to implement its strict rule and attempted to destroy old film footage.
Cinemas across the country were closed and the screening of films banned under the Taliban's enforcement of Sharia law.
Were it not for the quick intervention of archive staff, the building's entire contents of feature films and more than 8,000 hours of newsreel footage dating back to before the Second World War would have been lost.
Saved by the dark
Usually light is needed to bring cinema to life, but in this case it was darkness that came to the rescue, said Barmak.
"After the Taliban came, Kabul was hit by power cuts. So staff told (the Taliban) that the floor where the archives were kept was being kept dark to save power," he explained.
"Then they boarded up the doors and sealed off the area. That saved everything we have left today but we still lost more than 5,000 hours of film."
Afghan Film began the laborious process of sorting through its archives and assessing the damage in 2003, after the Taliban were ousted by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
But a lack of support from the new government complicated efforts, the directors said.
While international aid has streamed into Afghanistan over the past decade, they claim little of it was channeled into the art, culture and film industries that would help reflect and curate the nation's history.
"Luckily some of the film was moved overseas and we have a restoration program ongoing with France's INA [the French national audiovisual institute]," said Arify.
"But we are facing a serious crisis as we have nowhere near enough money to restore and save all of what we have. That's why we are here in Busan asking for help, from anyone who will listen to us," he pleaded.
It soon might all be lost
Afghan cinema has a rich history dating back to the early 1900s when the country's then-royal family first brought projectors and newsreels back from their international travels.
The country's first feature film "Love and Friendship" was produced in 1946 and by the early 1960s, Afghan Film had begun to educate film students and support local productions.
Many young Afghan filmmakers of the time took up cinema studies in Russia, Iran and Pakistan, due to the lack of formal film education opportunities in their homeland.
Barmak was one, heading to Moscow where he studied cinema at the Moscow Film Institute.
He was in Moscow when Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979 but had returned to Kabul by the time the Taliban took power after the Soviet withdrawal.
He fled into Pakistan before returning to make the country's first post-Taliban film "Osama" — about a girl who disguises herself as a boy — in 2003.
Arify said there were many feature films in urgent need of repair, and that the nation risked losing crucial documentation of its history if newsreels belonging to Afghan Film were left to deteriorate.
"Everyone grew up watching these newsreels, they told the people's stories and the country's stories and they kept people informed about what had happened in the country."
Barmak said the Busan festival had given the group a chance to plead their case to the world ahead of the planned 2014 withdrawal of troops from the war against Taliban insurgents.
The United States has said it does not seek permanent bases in Afghanistan, but is expected to keep a small force in the country after 2014 for counter terrorism operations. Details have not yet been agreed.
"We know that when the people of the world think of Afghan people they think of warriors but we want the world to know about our culture and about our film culture," said Barmak.
"We want the world to know that it soon might all be lost."
The Busan festival closes on Saturday.
Religious Scholars Join Call for End to Child Marriage
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 11 October 2012
Religious scholars joined the call on International Day of the Girl Child to end child marriage, saying that mullahs should know that under-age marriage is prohibited in Islam.
The United Nations urged the international community to consider the "girl child" on October 11 as part of a global effort to end the practice of child marriage which poses a high risk to the child.
Scholars including Sayed Mohammad Hassan Sharif Balkhabi said Thursday that mullahs should give weight to the age of the two people getting married before declaring them husband and wife, adding that young teenage marriage was not allowed.
"The mullahs should meet the boys and girls before declaring them husband and wife and ask them if they agree to the wedding, otherwise it is prohibited in Islam," Balkhabi told TOLOnews.
According to UN statistics, as many as 40 percent of the girls married in Afghanistan are younger than 18, while 15 percent are under 15 years of age.
"Early marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and impacts all aspects of a girl's life," a group of UN organisations said in a statement to mark the day.
"Child marriage is defined as any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and physically prepared to bear children," the statement said.
"Girls aged 10-14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20-24," it added.
Afghanistan's maternal death rate is said to be 327 per 100,000 live births – one of the worst in the world.
Afghan women's rights activist Noor Zia Wahid on Thursday said that parents are not thinking about the future of their daughters when they force them to marry young.
"The families are only thinking how they can marry off their daughters for money – they never think of their futures," she told TOLOnews.
The US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton also expressed deep concern over the early marriage of young girls saying that forced and early marriage can bring serious threats and challenges to the life of the girls.
"Every year, 10 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides, many of them under the age of 16," Clinton said, at the US State Department gathering held to raise awareness on the issue. "Many of those girls are forced into early marriage which robs them of the opportunity to continue their education and it threatens their health and it traps them in lives of poverty. The evidence shows us, and common sense would show us as well, that education can delay and even prevent child marriage. It can raise incomes and it certainly can improve health."
Human Rights Watch researcher in Afghanistan Heather Barr told TOLOnews that ending child marriage should be enforced under the presidential decree approved in 2009 to end violence against women.
"The government has already taken an important step which is that in 2009 President Karzai signed the law of Elimination of Violence against women. This an important step but means nothing if the law is not actually enforced, and till now there is a real lack of effort to enforce this law," Barr said, adding that child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence including rape, and the selling of girls and women are all common forms of cruelty against women which the Elimination of Violence Against Women law was meant to prohibit.
In Afghanistan, many girls and women facing serious violence or threats of forced marriage from their families are turning more and more to "safe shelters", homes set up mostly by the government to protect them from the threats.
One of the girls in a shelter in Kabul told TOLOnews on Thursday: "In our area, for our families, they place more value on money, not their children."
Simorgh Alborz Defeats Maiwand Atalan in First APL Semi-Final
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 11 October 2012
Afghanistan's north zone football team Simorgh Alborz defeated south-western Maiwand Atalan 2:1 in the first semi-final of the Roshan Afghan Premier League, putting them through to the grand final next week.
When the pair played each other last week, the score was a draw 2:2. But Alborz dominated in Thursday's match at the Afghan Football Federation field in Kabul, taking home US$10,000 and a chance to be the champions of the country's first football league.
Alborz player Munirulhaq Nadim proved unstoppable throughout the match, scoring both goals for the team.
Nadim put the first one away in the 26th minute without much opposition from the Atalan team, travelling with the ball all the way from the mid-field to the box before booting it into the net.
At half time the match was 1:0.
Seven minutes into the second half Alborz's Nadim scored again, taking their lead to 2:0 and putting the screws on Atalan to change it tactics or fight harder.
Maiwand Atalan finally delivered to its fans in the 75th minute via the boot of Abdul Wahid Noorzai.
With the score at 2:1 and still 15 minutes left to play, Atalan's hopes soared.
But Alborz ultimately prevailed, maintaining its lead until the last minute,
Alborz will face the winner of tomorrow's semi-final match between De Spinghar Bazan and the undefeated Toofan Harirod in the grand final on October 19 in Kabul.
400 Displaced Families Seeking Refuge in Balkh Capital
TOLOnews.com By Arif Mousavi Thursday, 11 October 2012
The number of displaced persons is increasing in Afghanistan's north with more than 400 displaced families seeking refuge in the capital of northern Balkh province, local officials said Thursday.
Hundreds of people including women and children have come to Mazar-e-Sharif from Balkh's Chemtal district and neighbouring Sar-e Pul province in an attempt to flee instability and violence in their home towns, according to officials.
On Thursday alone, as many as 158 families received humanitarian aid from the provincial department of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, Balkh director Abdul Saboor Qaderi said.
The Afghan north traditionally has been viewed as the more peaceful part of the embattled country, but that has changed in recent years as insurgents spread from the troublesome south and east regions where the Nato-led forces have focused their crackdown on militants.
Qaderi said more than 500 families across the northern provinces have been displaced and more are expected to arrive in Mazar.
"We surveyed and identified more than 500 families displaced from districts and other provinces by the provincial Emergency Committee," he told TOLOnews.
According the United Nations agency for refugees UNHCR, it has given assistance to as many as 2000 displaced families so far this year.
"UNHCR has provided food and other emergency needs to more than 2,000 displaced families since the start of this year. The aid were given according to their needs," UNCHR spokesman in northern Afghanistan Fahim Hamdard told TOLOnews.
The officials are concerned that with the harsh winter season drawing closer, the challenge of providing for displaced families will be compounded.
This comes in the same week that the outgoing director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan said that the deteriorating security situation in the country could lead to a humanitarian crisis.
"With the armed conflict in Afghanistan's red zone, life for ordinary Afghans has taken a turn for the worst. I am filled with concern as I leave this country," Reto Stocker said at a press conference in Kabul on Monday. "Since I arrived here in 2005, local armed groups have proliferated, civilians have been caught between multiple armed actors and it has been extremely difficult for Afghans particularly in rural areas to obtain health care when injured or sick."
He added that the armed conflict also caused people to flee their homes and had led to an increase in displaced families. 400 Displaced Families Seeking Refuge in Balkh Capital
Construction of New Afghan Military Academy Begins
TOLOnews.com By Karimullah Amini Thursday, 11 October 2012
Construction of a new Afghan military academy has begun, with Afghan and foreign officials hailing it as a step towards better education of the armed forces and greater professionalism.
The new academy is backed by the UK as part of the Afghanistan-Britain strategic agreement signed earlier this year between President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"The benefit of this academy is that it will help increase educational competence among the Afghan National Army soldiers and it will also help us have a more professional leadership within the army," ANA Chief of Staff Shir Mohammad Karimi said Wednesday at the ground-breaking ceremony.
He adding that the country will have a strong army in the next decade if such training continues.
The standard, modern, and fully-equipped military academy will be built at a site west of Kabul near Lake Qargha.
Isaf Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw said that Nato member and partner nations will mentor the Afghan army officers to take over as instructors in the future.
"Nato and British instructors will act as mentors and advisors to those staff and instructors to assist where required. And beyond the period of mentoring, the academy will be run by and for the Afghans," Bradshaw said Wednesday.
The construction of the academy shows the commitment of the international community towards strengthening Afghan forces.
"The project is therefore entirely in keeping with many other initiatives which highlights the determination by the Isaf nations to help move forward towards a new prosperous time for the Afghan nation through the strengthening of Afghan National Security Forces," he added.
The academy will train 1,500 ANA officers annually and the construction cost is estimated to be $42 million. Construction is expected to be complete in one year.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Afghan government has welcomed the arrest of seven British soldiers on suspicion of murder, calling it "a good measure to prevent civilian casualties" in the country.
The comment by Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zaher Azimi comes after Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that seven Royal Marines had been arrested on October 11 on suspicion of murder in relation to an incident in Afghanistan last year.
The ministry said the incident did not involve any civilians but followed "an engagement with an insurgent."
It also said the arrest didn't take place in Afghanistan.
Britain has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan -- the second largest foreign force after the United States -- based in the southern province of Helmand.
Based on reporting by AP Reuters, and dpa
Fears of backlash in Afghanistan rise after 7 Royal Marines arrested on suspicion of murder
By Danica Kirka, The Associated Press
LONDON - Seven British Royal Marines have been arrested on suspicion of murder — an unusual case that could cause a backlash from Afghans and further erode efforts to provide political stability to Afghanistan.
The arrests relate to an incident in Afghanistan last year, and the Defence Ministry said it involved an insurgent rather than a civilian. It comes at a time when relations between NATO forces and the Afghan government are at a low ebb as they to quash the resilient Taliban insurgency after more than a dozen years of war.
Military experts said Friday the case is rare, as the Royal Marines are known for having a high level of training that would include instruction on acting with restraint.
Michael Clarke of the Royal United Services Institute says the spirit of the unit usually prevents misbehaviour, and that having seven people involved in a single case will heighten the political embarrassment.
"This is a politically charged issue," he said. "It destroys so much work that has been done in the last months."
Though international officials are already starting to transfer full control of security to the Afghans, ethnic tensions still simmer and the government still does not have authority in all parts of the nation. Political leaders worry that the country could even fracture along ethnic lines once the foreign troops leave by the end of 2014, as it did after the Soviet exit from Afghanistan in February 1989.
The suggestion of murder is particularly unfortunate news at the moment — though no one has yet been charged. The incident is believed to be the first of this magnitude involving British Marines and an insurgent during the Afghan conflict, and the ministry said the arrests announced Thursday night underlined its commitment to making sure that British soldiers act in accordance with the rules of engagement.
Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said the Afghan government welcomed the arrests because it means that the law is being implemented.
The incident took place in Helmand province, which was the centerpiece of the U.S. surge that sent tens of thousands of U.S. Marines to join British Royal Marines there in 2010. They fought pitched battles against entrenched Taliban insurgents in the central Helmand River Valley before the pace of combat eased in 2011.
The brigade believed to be involved in the incident, 3 Commando, was in the thick of the fighting — which would have heightened tensions already soaring amid heat, fear and other strains of combat. The rules of engagement in general would allow them to fire on someone that is a threat or someone involved in a hostile act, like planting a bomb, Clarke said.
Eric Grove, director of Center for International Security and War Studies at the University of Salford, said the rules of engagement would spell out at what point the enemy is no longer a threat and when the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners takes effect.
"They are very much an elite force," he said of the British Marines. "They would normally be very good at showing restraint in action."
He said that the arrested Marines have "very much let the side down."
Past incidents involving abuses by coalition soldiers have sparked protests and riots in Afghanistan, damaging relations with the government of Hamid Karzai. Also eroding the relations have been a rising tide of attacks in which Afghan soldiers or police assault their international allies — endangering the partnership that is critical to training Afghan security forces and withdrawing international troops.
But while there have been some allegations of abuse against civilians, the case revealed Thursday is unusual in that it involves an insurgent.
However, allegations of British misconduct in general have been rare in Afghanistan, with some of the experts noting that Britain had learned its lessons from several appalling incidents in Iraq.
Britain's six-year military presence in southern Iraq spawned multiple allegations of torture and abuse. The most notorious case involved a hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, who died while in custody at a British base after being detained in a raid in Basra in September 2003. Britain's defence authorities later apologized for the mistreatment of Mousa and nine other Iraqis and paid a $4.8 million (3 million pound) settlement. Six soldiers were cleared of wrongdoing at a court martial, while another pleaded guilty and served a year in jail.
The government says abuse was committed by only a few soldiers, but lawyers for the alleged victims say it was systemic.
The Defence Ministry's terse statement Thursday suggested that the military was moving to control the incident, and trying to make certain the potentially lurid details were kept under wraps. The statement said the seven were arrested Thursday by Royal Military Police, but did not name the marines.
While the ministry said the marines were not arrested in Afghanistan, it would not specify where the arrests took place or give any further details on the alleged murder.
"The investigation will now be taken forward and dealt with by the Service Justice system," the ministry said in a statement, adding that "as with any serious incident of this nature, there will be an internal review to identify lessons learned."
Britain has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan — the second largest foreign force after the United States — based in the southern Helmand province.
About 500 troops will leave this year, ahead of the withdrawal of all international forces at the end of 2014.
____
Associated Press Writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
9 Afghan civilians wounded in Ghazni
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Up to nine civilians, including three children, were wounded on Friday in a gun battle between security forces and Taliban militants in eastern Ghazni province, the police said.
"Armed Taliban insurgents launched attack against police checkpoints in Khak-e-Ghariban neighborhood, an area in western part of provincial capital Ghazni city at around 11 a.m. local time, but a Taliban mortar shell hit a house injuring nine innocent civilians," provincial police chief, Zarawar Zahid, told Xinhua.
The injured included six women and three children with a woman said to be in critical conditions in the province 100 km south of Kabul, he said.
The Taliban, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, launched in May this year a spring offensive against Afghan and NATO forces. They warned the civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants.
A total of 1,145 Afghan civilians were killed and 1,954 injured in conflicts in the first six months of 2012, according to a UN report released in capital Kabul on Aug. 8.
It attributed 80 percent of the civilian deaths to the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups but another 10 percent of the deaths were attributed to Afghan and NATO-led forces and 10 percent were unattributed in the first six months this year.
Georgian Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
October 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A Georgian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, bringing to 18 the number of Georgian service members killed in the country since the arrival of the Georgian military contingent there in 2009.
The Georgian Defense Ministry said on October 12 that Corporal Mindia Abashidze was killed while fulfilling a combat task under the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
No further information was available.
Based on reporting by Interfax and civil.ge
Several insurgents killed in N. Afghanistan operation: coalition
KABUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Several insurgents were killed Friday when security forces launched an operation in the country' s northern province of Sari Pul, the NATO-led coalition forces confirmed.
"An Afghan and coalition security force killed a number of armed insurgents during an operation in search of Taliban fighters in Sari Pul province today. The security force seized several assault rifles, shot guns, and grenades during the operation," the coalition said in statement, without giving the exact number of the killed.
Up to 10 armed Taliban insurgents were killed, and 38 others were detained in eight joint cleanup operations in Sari Pul, Wardak, Logar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Khost, Ghazni and Paktia provinces within a 24-hour period, the Afghan Ministry of Interior said in a statement earlier in the day.
Separately, "An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a number of suspected insurgents during an operation in search of a Taliban leader in southern Helmand province today. The Taliban leader is responsible for directing multiple attacks targeting Afghan and coalition forces throughout Helmand province," the coalition said in the statement.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not made comments yet.
The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan government and about 100,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country.
VP Debate: Biden, Ryan at each other on everything
Associated Press By DAVID ESPO 11/10/2012
DANVILLE, Ky. - At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy.
"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan later scolded his rival, referring to Democratic pressure on Biden to make up for President Barack Obama's listless performance in last week's debate with Mitt Romney.
There was nothing listless this time as the 69-year-old Biden sat next to the 42-year old Wisconsin congressman on a stage at Centre College in Kentucky.
Nearly 90 minutes after the initial disagreement over foreign policy, the two men were still at it, clashing sharply over rival approaches to reducing federal deficits.
"The president likes to say he has a plan," said Ryan, a seven-term congressman. But in fact "he gave a speech" and never backed it up with details.
Biden conceded Republicans indeed had a plan. But he said that if enacted it would have "eviscerated all the things the middle class care about," including cutting health care programs and education.
As Biden and Ryan well knew, last week's presidential debate has fueled a Republican comeback in opinion polls.
Republicans and Democrats alike have said in recent days the presidential race now approximates the competitive situation in place before the two political conventions. Obama and Romney are generally separated by a point or two in national public opinion polls and in several battleground states, while the president holds a slender lead in Ohio and Wisconsin.
With Democrats eager for Biden to show the spark the president lacked, he did so. He supplemented his criticism by periodically smiling mockingly, wagging his finger and raising his arms in mock disbelief as his rival spoke.
Ryan, sitting on the national debate stage for the first time, settled on a smirk for parts of the debate. He sipped water and cleared his throat through many of Biden's answers.
Unprompted, Biden brought up the video in which Romney had said 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax, view themselves as victims and do not take responsibility for their own lives.
"It's about time they take responsibility" instead of signing pledges to avoid raising taxes, Biden said — of Romney, Ryan and the Republicans.
Ryan was ready with a response. "This is a man who gave 30 percent of his income to charity, more than the two of us combined," he said of the man at the top of the Republican ticket. "Mitt Romney's a good man. He cares about 100 percent of Americans in this country. And with respect to that quote, I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way."
The serial disagreements started immediately after the smiles and handshakes of the opening.
Ryan said in the debate's opening moments that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had been denied sufficient security by administration officials. Stevens died in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
"Not a single thing he said is accurate," Biden shot back.
Both the president and Romney campaigned in battleground states during the day before ceding the spotlight to their political partners for the evening.
"I thought Joe Biden was terrific tonight. I could not be prouder of him," Obama told reporters after watching the debate aboard Air Force One.
Likewise, Romney called Ryan and congratulated him on his performance, a campaign spokesman said.
Obama and Romney hold their next debate on Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y, then meet again on Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.
In Kentucky, Biden and Ryan seemed ready for a showdown from their opening moments on stage, and neither seemed willing to let the other have the final word. They interrupted each other repeatedly — and moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC as well.
With Democrats eager for Biden to show the spark the president lacked, he did so.
Ryan focused on dreary economic statistics — 23 million are struggling to work, he said, and 15 percent of the country is living in poverty. "This is not what a real recovery looks like."
Medicare was a flashpoint, as well. Ryan said Obama's health care plan had diverted $716 billion from the program for seniors and created a new board that could deny care to patients who need it.
Democrats "haven't put a credible solution on the table," he said. "They'll tell you about vouchers. They'll say all these things to try to scare people."
Biden quickly said that Ryan had authored not one but two proposals in which seniors would be given government payments that might not cover the entirety of their care. Otherwise, he said, the Romney-Ryan approach wouldn't achieve the savings they claimed.
Unlike Obama, Biden had no qualms about launching a personal attack on Romney.
After Ryan argued that Romney's plan would pay for reduced tax rates by eliminating tax loopholes for the wealthy, Biden noted that on a recent interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," Romney defended the 14 percent tax rate he pays on his $20 million income as fair, even though it's a lower rate than some lower income taxpayers pay.
"You think these guys are going to go out there and cut those loopholes?" Biden asked, addressing the national TV audience, his tone of voice indicating he did not.
But Ryan said he and Romney believe "taking 28 percent of families' and businesses' income is enough."
"What we're saying is lower tax rates across the board and close loopholes primarily on the higher income people," Ryan said. He said that instead of specifying what loopholes and other tax breaks would be eliminated, Romney preferred to lay out broad principles in hopes of reaching a bipartisan agreement.
Across 90 minutes, the two men agreed precisely once.
That was when Ryan, referring to the war in Afghanistan, said the calendar was the same each year. Biden agreed to that, but not to his rival's underlying point, which was that it was a mistake for Obama to have announced a date for the withdrawal of the remainder of the U.S. combat troops.
The fiercest clash over foreign policy came in the debate's opening moments, when Ryan cited events across the Middle East as well as Stevens' death in Libya as evidence that the administration's foreign policy was unraveling. The Republican also said the administration had failed to give Stevens the same level of protection as the U.S. ambassador in Paris receives.
Biden rebutted by saying that the budget that Ryan authored as chairman of the House Budget Committee had cut the administration's funding request for diplomatic security by $300 million.
On the nation's economy, both men were asked directly when his side could reduce unemployment to 6 percent from the current 7.8 percent. Both men sidestepped.
Biden repeated the president's contention that the nation is moving in the right direction, while Ryan stated the Republican view that economic struggle persists even though Democrats had control of both houses of Congress during the first two years of Obama's term.
"Where are the 5 million green jobs" we were told would be created? Ryan said to Biden.
Obama campaigned in Florida during the day. Mocking recent changes in Romney's rhetoric, he told a rally in Miami rally, "After running for more than a year in which he called himself severely conservative, Mitt Romney is trying to convince you that he was severely kidding."
Romney visited with 93-year-old Billy Graham in North Carolina before speaking to an evening rally in Asheville, N.C. "Prayer is the most helpful thing you can do for me," he told the evangelist.
For Biden, Thursday night's debate was his first since the 2008 campaign, when he shared a stage with Sarah Palin, then John McCain's running mate.
Ryan spars frequently with Democrats during debates on legislation on the House floor and in the House Budget Committee, which he chairs, but not in a one-on-one encounter covering 90 minutes and a virtually unlimited range of topics.
For all their differences, the two men shared a common objective, to advance the cause of their tickets in a close race for the presidency. And they appeared to avoid any gaffes that might forever seal their place in the history of debates.
Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Kentucky, Ken Thomas in Florida and Kasie Hunt in North Carolina contributed. Espo reported from Washington.
Biden on Afghanistan: ‘We are leaving in 2014. Period’
Washington Post By Ernesto Londono October 11, 2012
Biden sounded almost exasperated as he declared the United States military would leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
“We are leaving,” he said. “We are leaving in 2014. Period,”
The remarks seemed to rule out keeping U.S. military trainers and advisers beyond 2014, which American generals have quietly lobbied for, fearing the government in Kabul could collapse quickly if it’s left to its own devises.
Ryan said his team agrees in principle with the 2014 exit timeline, but called the explicit time frame foolish.
“We don’t want to broadcast to the enemy, put a date on the calendar, so they wait us out and then come back,” Ryan said.
Biden shot back, arguing that a prolonged presence in a war zone makes the host nation spoiled.
“Unless you set a timeline, Baghdad and Kabul won’t step up,” the vice president said. “They’re happy to let us do the job.”
Pakistani Girl Taliban Targeted in 'Satisfactory' Condition
VOA News October 12, 2012
A Pakistani military spokesman say the 14-year-old schoolgirl who was shot this week by the Taliban is in "satisfactory" condition.
Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said Friday the next few days will be critical in the recovery of Malala Yousafzai who remains unconscious and on a ventilator.
She was shot in the head and neck Tuesday as she left school in the northwestern Swat Valley. The Taliban said the child was targeted for being pro-West.
Yousafzai was airlifted from a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, the country's top military hospital in Rawalpindi. Doctors have said Yousafzai has a 70 percent chance of surviving.
Pakistani officials say Yousufzai's attackers have been identified and a $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to their arrest. The attack has drawn domestic and international condemnation.
Yousufzai is internationally recognized for documenting Taliban atrocities in the area near her home. She wrote under a pseudonym - Gul Makai - in a blog published by the BBC.
In her blog, Yousufzai described life under the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, when militants carried out beheadings and other violence in the territory they controlled - large areas of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Afghanistan Expels Pakistani, Iranian Clerics
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 11, 2012
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan security officials say they have expelled 35 foreign Islamic clerics from southern Afghanistan.
The clerics, 31 from Pakistan and four from Iran, were removed from mosques in Dand district in southern Kandahar Province this week.
They were all accused of encouraging locals to wage a jihad, or holy struggle, against the Afghan government.
Ahmadullah Naziq, the head of the Dand district, told RFE/RL on October 11 that the Pakistani clerics had come from Pakistan's Balochistan Province.
Naziq said they were found with Pakistani identification cards and did not possess valid travel documents.
"We have questioned them and checked their properties in Muslim Bagh [district in Balochistan] they have Pakistani identity cards and do not carry Afghan ID cards," Naziq said.
"They have resettled in mosques in Afghan villages. They claim they are Afghans and they come from Kalat or Ghazni [Afghan cities] or other provinces."
Naziq added that four Iranian nationals were also expelled from Kandahar.
Foreign Influence Blamed
The arrests and expulsion of the clerics follow an investigation launched last month after the authorities received information that the clerics were propagating jihad against the government.
Naziq claims foreign Islamic clerics are still arriving from Pakistan. He said Kandahar authorities were preparing for a broader action against the illegal immigration of foreigners into southern Afghanistan.
The expulsion of the Pakistani clerics comes amid worsening relations between Kabul and Islamabad due to cross-border attacks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused the Pakistani Army of indiscriminately shelling Afghan villages in order to further destabilize the already restive regions.
Islamabad, which denies the accusations, says its troops are responding to attacks by militants on the Afghan side of the border.
Successes and challenges in Afghan girls' education
BBC News By Andrew North BBC South Asia correspondent 11 October 2012
The fields of Bamyan province are dotted with people at this time of year, heads down digging in the earth.
It's potato harvest time and children are helping too - as they have done for centuries.
But one thing has changed: many of the young girls working with their families are also going to school for the first time.
In between dropping fist-sized potatoes into a bucket, 10-year-old Hamida says that, until last year, "I'd never been to school."
She is one of 3.2 million girls now getting an education in Afghanistan, according to Unicef.
It's a dramatic rise from 2001 when the US-led invasion brought to an end the Taliban ban on girls going to school.
The female literacy rate has tripled - but at around 13%, it is still one of the world's lowest, a sign of how far Afghan girls and women have fallen behind in the past three decades of conflict.
Conservative attitudes
Even before the Taliban took power, women's rights were squeezed.
And although Afghanistan's new constitution says men and women "have equal rights and duties before the law" in practice women remain a distant second to men in this patriarchal society.
Child marriages remain common, and stories of abuse keep coming to light.
One of the worst cases involved Gulnaz, who was raped by her cousin's husband then charged with adultery after she became pregnant.
She gave birth to her daughter while in jail before an international outcry led to President Hamid Karzai granting her a pardon last year.
He has come under fire himself from women's groups for not taking a stronger stand. They have accused him of keeping his wife in the palace and out of the media's reach - because of fears he will be criticized by conservative religious leaders.
Yet the changes for girls are clear on a visit to the Suriya school in Kabul.
Many of the girls here were born around the time American bombs were falling on Afghanistan in 2001, so they have no memory of the tough years before.
In the yard outside, the girls' cricket team is practising under the tutelage of a male coach - unimaginable under the Taliban - who only allowed women to venture out with a close male relative.
A UK charity, Afghan Connection, has been helping, providing equipment donated by British schools.
London's Marylebone Cricket Club is also giving support.
Inconsistency
Safe within the walls of their school, they are like children anywhere, curious about their visitors and keen to talk about themselves.
"I want to be a journalist too," says one 12-year-old, when they find out who these visitors are.
But outside Kabul and other big cities the changes are more patchy.
Most Afghans still live in rural areas, where poverty, conflict and conservative attitudes are more likely to keep girls and women at home.
Of the 4.2 million Afghan children not getting any education, Unicef estimates 60% are girls - and most live in rural districts and the southern and eastern provinces where Nato-Taliban clashes have been most fierce.
These are also the heartlands of the Pashtuns, the ethnic group from which the Taliban emerged and who have always had the most conservative views of a woman's role.
More schools are being built outside Afghan cities - but far less in this conflict belt. Even then, the Taliban have forced many to close again.
It's dangerous trying to be a teacher in southern Afghanistan.
US withdrawal
There's some anxiety too over whether the momentum of change for Afghan girls will last once the Americans pull out in 2014.
Afghanistan's Education Minister Farooq Wardak - a possible future presidential candidate - insists it will.
At an opening ceremony for a new school in much safer Bamyan, he says only when women feel they are "the owner of this nation... can we make Afghanistan".
Afghan Connection has funded the construction of more than 30 schools and is encouraging the focus on rural areas.
Director Dr Sarah Fayne says the key is winning acceptance, "making sure schools are close to where people live, so girls don't have to walk far and that they have female teachers".
But she's convinced the changes of the past decade are now permanent.
"I can't believe people who have let their kids go to school will allow that to be taken away."
Back in her Bamyan village, Hamida still has a lot of work to do in the family home, helping look after her younger siblings as well as in the fields.
But six days a week now, she makes the 2km walk uphill to her local school perched on a mountainside.
"There was no school in my time," says her mother - only 30 years old.
"My daughter wants to be a doctor. May God help us, so her dreams come true."
Hearing set in Wash. state in Afghan rampage case
Associated Press
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — A hearing for the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians has been set for Nov. 5 at an Army base in Washington state, with villagers expected to testify by video from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to appear at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the pretrial hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said. The second week of the hearing will be held in the evening so villagers can testify during daylight hours in Afghanistan.
Defense lawyer John Henry Browne plans to fly to Afghanistan to cross-examine the witnesses, while other members of the defense team remain at Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.
The hearing under Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice will determine whether Bales, of Lake Tapps, Wash., faces court-martial.
Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder; six counts of attempted murder; seven counts of assault; and one count each of possessing steroids, using steroids, destroying a laptop, burning bodies and using alcohol. He's being held in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Investigators say Bales was armed with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher when he walked off his base in southern Afghanistan March 11 and went on a nighttime killing spree.
Brown told The Seattle Times (http://bit.ly/Qhykl2) more than 10 Afghans could be called as witnesses, and some have been difficult to round up. Brown said the hearing is important because it may be his only opportunity to question them.
Bales could face the death penalty if convicted.
Bales grew up in suburban Cincinnati where he attended high school, then went to Ohio State University from 1993 to 1996, though he didn't graduate. He joined the Army two months after 9/11, after a Florida investment business failed and after he had worked with a string of securities operations.
Bales deployed three times to Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan with the 3rd Stryker Brigade. He was at a Special Forces outpost at the time of the killings.
Afghan Filmmakers Fear for Cinematic History
AFP Thursday, 11 October 2012
Afghan director Siddiq Barmak remembers watching helplessly as reel upon reel of film footage was taken outside and burned in the street after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.
He also remembers the effort it took to save other films from destruction after the extremist forces marched into Kabul in 1996.
Barmak and other Afghan filmmakers this week warned that efforts to save Afghanistan's film history were being undermined by government inaction and concerns about security ahead of a planned 2014 withdrawal of US-led forces.
"What is worrying all of us now is that the Taliban, the people who tried to destroy our cinema, are being talked about again as becoming part of the government," said Barmak.
"We have seen what they can do and cannot forget this," he said.
Barmak was joined by director Latif Ahmadi and producer Ibrahim Arify, who heads the government-backed Afghan Film organization.
The filmmakers attended the Busan Film Festival in South Korea this week for a screening of an Afghanistan National Film Archive program.
The six films that comprise "The Rise from the Ashes" include examples of Barmak and Ahmadi's work, all of which were saved from the wrath of the Taliban.
But many more reels remain in need of urgent repair, they say, with time taking its toll on old film stock.
"The situation is critical," said Barmak, winner of a Golden Globe award in 2004 for "Osama."
"We need help or our country's film history, which is also the history of the country and its people, will be lost."
Barmak was working at Afghan Film, the state-backed company overseeing the national film industry and archive, when the Taliban began to implement its strict rule and attempted to destroy old film footage.
Cinemas across the country were closed and the screening of films banned under the Taliban's enforcement of Sharia law.
Were it not for the quick intervention of archive staff, the building's entire contents of feature films and more than 8,000 hours of newsreel footage dating back to before the Second World War would have been lost.
Saved by the dark
Usually light is needed to bring cinema to life, but in this case it was darkness that came to the rescue, said Barmak.
"After the Taliban came, Kabul was hit by power cuts. So staff told (the Taliban) that the floor where the archives were kept was being kept dark to save power," he explained.
"Then they boarded up the doors and sealed off the area. That saved everything we have left today but we still lost more than 5,000 hours of film."
Afghan Film began the laborious process of sorting through its archives and assessing the damage in 2003, after the Taliban were ousted by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
But a lack of support from the new government complicated efforts, the directors said.
While international aid has streamed into Afghanistan over the past decade, they claim little of it was channeled into the art, culture and film industries that would help reflect and curate the nation's history.
"Luckily some of the film was moved overseas and we have a restoration program ongoing with France's INA [the French national audiovisual institute]," said Arify.
"But we are facing a serious crisis as we have nowhere near enough money to restore and save all of what we have. That's why we are here in Busan asking for help, from anyone who will listen to us," he pleaded.
It soon might all be lost
Afghan cinema has a rich history dating back to the early 1900s when the country's then-royal family first brought projectors and newsreels back from their international travels.
The country's first feature film "Love and Friendship" was produced in 1946 and by the early 1960s, Afghan Film had begun to educate film students and support local productions.
Many young Afghan filmmakers of the time took up cinema studies in Russia, Iran and Pakistan, due to the lack of formal film education opportunities in their homeland.
Barmak was one, heading to Moscow where he studied cinema at the Moscow Film Institute.
He was in Moscow when Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979 but had returned to Kabul by the time the Taliban took power after the Soviet withdrawal.
He fled into Pakistan before returning to make the country's first post-Taliban film "Osama" — about a girl who disguises herself as a boy — in 2003.
Arify said there were many feature films in urgent need of repair, and that the nation risked losing crucial documentation of its history if newsreels belonging to Afghan Film were left to deteriorate.
"Everyone grew up watching these newsreels, they told the people's stories and the country's stories and they kept people informed about what had happened in the country."
Barmak said the Busan festival had given the group a chance to plead their case to the world ahead of the planned 2014 withdrawal of troops from the war against Taliban insurgents.
The United States has said it does not seek permanent bases in Afghanistan, but is expected to keep a small force in the country after 2014 for counter terrorism operations. Details have not yet been agreed.
"We know that when the people of the world think of Afghan people they think of warriors but we want the world to know about our culture and about our film culture," said Barmak.
"We want the world to know that it soon might all be lost."
The Busan festival closes on Saturday.
Religious Scholars Join Call for End to Child Marriage
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Thursday, 11 October 2012
Religious scholars joined the call on International Day of the Girl Child to end child marriage, saying that mullahs should know that under-age marriage is prohibited in Islam.
The United Nations urged the international community to consider the "girl child" on October 11 as part of a global effort to end the practice of child marriage which poses a high risk to the child.
Scholars including Sayed Mohammad Hassan Sharif Balkhabi said Thursday that mullahs should give weight to the age of the two people getting married before declaring them husband and wife, adding that young teenage marriage was not allowed.
"The mullahs should meet the boys and girls before declaring them husband and wife and ask them if they agree to the wedding, otherwise it is prohibited in Islam," Balkhabi told TOLOnews.
According to UN statistics, as many as 40 percent of the girls married in Afghanistan are younger than 18, while 15 percent are under 15 years of age.
"Early marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and impacts all aspects of a girl's life," a group of UN organisations said in a statement to mark the day.
"Child marriage is defined as any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and physically prepared to bear children," the statement said.
"Girls aged 10-14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20-24," it added.
Afghanistan's maternal death rate is said to be 327 per 100,000 live births – one of the worst in the world.
Afghan women's rights activist Noor Zia Wahid on Thursday said that parents are not thinking about the future of their daughters when they force them to marry young.
"The families are only thinking how they can marry off their daughters for money – they never think of their futures," she told TOLOnews.
The US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton also expressed deep concern over the early marriage of young girls saying that forced and early marriage can bring serious threats and challenges to the life of the girls.
"Every year, 10 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides, many of them under the age of 16," Clinton said, at the US State Department gathering held to raise awareness on the issue. "Many of those girls are forced into early marriage which robs them of the opportunity to continue their education and it threatens their health and it traps them in lives of poverty. The evidence shows us, and common sense would show us as well, that education can delay and even prevent child marriage. It can raise incomes and it certainly can improve health."
Human Rights Watch researcher in Afghanistan Heather Barr told TOLOnews that ending child marriage should be enforced under the presidential decree approved in 2009 to end violence against women.
"The government has already taken an important step which is that in 2009 President Karzai signed the law of Elimination of Violence against women. This an important step but means nothing if the law is not actually enforced, and till now there is a real lack of effort to enforce this law," Barr said, adding that child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence including rape, and the selling of girls and women are all common forms of cruelty against women which the Elimination of Violence Against Women law was meant to prohibit.
In Afghanistan, many girls and women facing serious violence or threats of forced marriage from their families are turning more and more to "safe shelters", homes set up mostly by the government to protect them from the threats.
One of the girls in a shelter in Kabul told TOLOnews on Thursday: "In our area, for our families, they place more value on money, not their children."
Simorgh Alborz Defeats Maiwand Atalan in First APL Semi-Final
TOLOnews.com Thursday, 11 October 2012
Afghanistan's north zone football team Simorgh Alborz defeated south-western Maiwand Atalan 2:1 in the first semi-final of the Roshan Afghan Premier League, putting them through to the grand final next week.
When the pair played each other last week, the score was a draw 2:2. But Alborz dominated in Thursday's match at the Afghan Football Federation field in Kabul, taking home US$10,000 and a chance to be the champions of the country's first football league.
Alborz player Munirulhaq Nadim proved unstoppable throughout the match, scoring both goals for the team.
Nadim put the first one away in the 26th minute without much opposition from the Atalan team, travelling with the ball all the way from the mid-field to the box before booting it into the net.
At half time the match was 1:0.
Seven minutes into the second half Alborz's Nadim scored again, taking their lead to 2:0 and putting the screws on Atalan to change it tactics or fight harder.
Maiwand Atalan finally delivered to its fans in the 75th minute via the boot of Abdul Wahid Noorzai.
With the score at 2:1 and still 15 minutes left to play, Atalan's hopes soared.
But Alborz ultimately prevailed, maintaining its lead until the last minute,
Alborz will face the winner of tomorrow's semi-final match between De Spinghar Bazan and the undefeated Toofan Harirod in the grand final on October 19 in Kabul.
400 Displaced Families Seeking Refuge in Balkh Capital
TOLOnews.com By Arif Mousavi Thursday, 11 October 2012
The number of displaced persons is increasing in Afghanistan's north with more than 400 displaced families seeking refuge in the capital of northern Balkh province, local officials said Thursday.
Hundreds of people including women and children have come to Mazar-e-Sharif from Balkh's Chemtal district and neighbouring Sar-e Pul province in an attempt to flee instability and violence in their home towns, according to officials.
On Thursday alone, as many as 158 families received humanitarian aid from the provincial department of the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, Balkh director Abdul Saboor Qaderi said.
The Afghan north traditionally has been viewed as the more peaceful part of the embattled country, but that has changed in recent years as insurgents spread from the troublesome south and east regions where the Nato-led forces have focused their crackdown on militants.
Qaderi said more than 500 families across the northern provinces have been displaced and more are expected to arrive in Mazar.
"We surveyed and identified more than 500 families displaced from districts and other provinces by the provincial Emergency Committee," he told TOLOnews.
According the United Nations agency for refugees UNHCR, it has given assistance to as many as 2000 displaced families so far this year.
"UNHCR has provided food and other emergency needs to more than 2,000 displaced families since the start of this year. The aid were given according to their needs," UNCHR spokesman in northern Afghanistan Fahim Hamdard told TOLOnews.
The officials are concerned that with the harsh winter season drawing closer, the challenge of providing for displaced families will be compounded.
This comes in the same week that the outgoing director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan said that the deteriorating security situation in the country could lead to a humanitarian crisis.
"With the armed conflict in Afghanistan's red zone, life for ordinary Afghans has taken a turn for the worst. I am filled with concern as I leave this country," Reto Stocker said at a press conference in Kabul on Monday. "Since I arrived here in 2005, local armed groups have proliferated, civilians have been caught between multiple armed actors and it has been extremely difficult for Afghans particularly in rural areas to obtain health care when injured or sick."
He added that the armed conflict also caused people to flee their homes and had led to an increase in displaced families. 400 Displaced Families Seeking Refuge in Balkh Capital
Construction of New Afghan Military Academy Begins
TOLOnews.com By Karimullah Amini Thursday, 11 October 2012
Construction of a new Afghan military academy has begun, with Afghan and foreign officials hailing it as a step towards better education of the armed forces and greater professionalism.
The new academy is backed by the UK as part of the Afghanistan-Britain strategic agreement signed earlier this year between President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"The benefit of this academy is that it will help increase educational competence among the Afghan National Army soldiers and it will also help us have a more professional leadership within the army," ANA Chief of Staff Shir Mohammad Karimi said Wednesday at the ground-breaking ceremony.
He adding that the country will have a strong army in the next decade if such training continues.
The standard, modern, and fully-equipped military academy will be built at a site west of Kabul near Lake Qargha.
Isaf Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw said that Nato member and partner nations will mentor the Afghan army officers to take over as instructors in the future.
"Nato and British instructors will act as mentors and advisors to those staff and instructors to assist where required. And beyond the period of mentoring, the academy will be run by and for the Afghans," Bradshaw said Wednesday.
The construction of the academy shows the commitment of the international community towards strengthening Afghan forces.
"The project is therefore entirely in keeping with many other initiatives which highlights the determination by the Isaf nations to help move forward towards a new prosperous time for the Afghan nation through the strengthening of Afghan National Security Forces," he added.
The academy will train 1,500 ANA officers annually and the construction cost is estimated to be $42 million. Construction is expected to be complete in one year.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com