Break News: Suicide bombing at police check post in Afghan

Afghan police says 8 killed in suicide bombing at police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan security officials say a suicide bomber blew him up at a police checkpoint in the country’s east, killing eight people.

Police say the bomber walked up to the checkpoint in Ali Sher district along the Pakistan border in Khost province and detonated his explosives-rigged vest.

The police chief in Khost, Gen. Sardar Mohammad Zazia, says police were searching motorists’ vehicles at the time of the explosion.

He says two Afghan policemen and six civilians were killed and two other people were wounded in the Saturday blast.

Suicide bombings and other violence continue across Afghanistan as heads of state gather for a NATO summit in Chicago to discuss Afghan security.

NATO-Afghan raid victim childs, sparking protests

Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a NATO-Afghan raid blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. The demonstrators say the dead were villagers while the coalition says they were Taliban insurgents.
The protest was one of the first since a recent U.S.-Afghan deal on night raids mandated that Afghans were supposed to take the lead in such operations with U.S. forces taking a back seat. But many Afghans still blame the raids on the U.S. and NATO, and they've persisted as a point of disagreement.
Afghans say the raids, especially those carried out at night by American forces and their allies, cause needless civilian deaths and sow terror among the population. The U.S. military considers the raids critical to its operations.

NATO and residents offered competing narratives on what happened during the overnight raid in a village in Laghman province.
NATO said one of the men killed was a Taliban leader wanted for coordinating roadside bombings against coalition forces in the area. It said he and another man opened fire during the Afghan-led operation.
Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a NATO-Afghan raid blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. The demonstrators say the dead were villagers while the coalition says they were Taliban insurgents.

The protest was one of the first since a recent U.S.-Afghan deal on night raids mandated that Afghans were supposed to take the lead in such operations with U.S. forces taking a back seat. But many Afghans still blame the raids on the U.S. and NATO, and they've persisted as a point of disagreement.
Afghans say the raids, especially those carried out at night by American forces and their allies, cause needless civilian deaths and sow terror among the population. The U.S. military considers the raids critical to its operations.
NATO and residents offered competing narratives on what happened during the overnight raid in a village in Laghman province.
NATO said one of the men killed was a Taliban leader wanted for coordinating roadside bombings against coalition forces in the area. It said he and another man opened fire during the Afghan-led operation.
The alliance said several other insurgents were detained.
In the village of Bolan, Mohammad Aziz Khochi said soldiers stormed his house at about 2 a.m. Tuesday and that two of his nephews were killed in the raid.
"My sister thought that thieves had come to the house, and she started shouting," Khochi said. "One of her sons came out and the American forces shot him and killed him. Then her other son came out, and they killed him."
Khochi, who was in the house at the time of the raid, said the security forces detained seven other men. He said many of the people staying in his house were government workers and that one of his slain nephews was a member of the local district council.
Another villager who witnessed the raid, Abdul Malik Abdul Rahimzai, denied the victims were insurgents and insisted the soldiers "attacked innocent people" who were unarmed.
The villagers marched with the bodies of the slain men to a key road that leads from the capital, Kabul, to Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province. They said they would not bury the bodies until the coalition released all of those detained and explained what information spurred the raid.
"It is not acceptable that they are coming and conducting night raids on the homes of innocent civilians," said Quasimullah, a villager who goes by only one name. "We want the president to put a stop to night raids as soon as possible."
A spokesman for the coalition declined to comment further on Tuesday's operations, saying they were in the process of gathering more information.
Under the deal signed between the U.S. and Afghanistan in April, Afghan forces are now supposed to conduct home searches and U.S. forces are allowed to enter private compounds "only as required or requested."

Afghan president prospect of early elections

Hamid Karzai says he is thinking about holding presidential elections a year early, in 2013.

Afghanistan's president raised the prospect Thursday of holding presidential elections a year early to avoid a potentially deadly concurrence of a transition of power and a major drawdown of international forces in 2014.

The suggestion could mean that President Hamid Karzai is looking for a graceful exit ahead of what many Afghans predict is looming civil war, but it also could provide some hope for a peaceful democratic transition to a nation worried about falling apart as NATO troops leave.

Karzai — who has led Afghanistan for more than a decade — is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in the election currently  for March 2014.

In a news conference in Kabul, Hamid Karzai revealed he would either bring the transition forward or bring the .

 Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, speaks during a joint press conference with the NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, April 12, 2012. President Hamid Karzai said he is considering calling presidential elections a year early to lessen the strain on Afghanistan that could be caused by the departure of foreign combat troops at the same time as a national ballot.

Realistically, bringing forward the NATO withdrawal is not a decision Karzai can make.

Holding elections next year, however, would allow the government to make use of the and logistics that would be still available from NATO force

"I have been talking about this for a few months now," Karzai said in response to a question at a joint news conference with visiting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Karzai said he had discussed the possibility of holding elections in 2013 with his inner circle of advisers in a bid to reduce security risks and lessen the strain that could be caused by foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan at the same time as the elections. But he stressed no final decision has been made and it was not likely to happen quickly.

Karzai's rule has been tarnished by a lack of clout outside the capital and allegations of fraud surrounding his re-election in the last vote, but he also has managed to hold together rival ethnic groups and political factions through a combination of patronage and compromise deals — and a lot of help from international allies.

U.S. Pays $50k Per Afghan Shooting Spree death Victim

The United States One- handed over a total of $860,000 to the families of those killed or draws blood or injured in Sgt. Robert Bales' shooting rampage: $50,000 for each person killed, and $10,000 for each human being or person wounded. Col. Gary Kolb, spokesperson for NATO's International Security Force, said the money was to help the victims and their families, and not compensation for Bales' actions.

Afghan villagers prays Saturday over the grave of The sixteen victims of a shooting the Panjwai district of Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan spree linked to U.S. soldier Robert Bales.

“The United States has paid $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in the shooting spree attributed to a U.S. soldier that’s Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, above, in southern Afghanistan.” According to the AP,

The sums, much larger than typical payments made by the U.S. to families of civilians killed in military operations in Afghanistan, come as the U.S. tries to mend relations following the killing rampage that has threatened to undermine the international effort here.

The U.S. has paid compensation for the victims of the massacre in southern Afghanistan attributed to a U.S. soldier.

A U.S. official confirms that there have been payments but would not discuss amounts.

It was not immediately clear if the word used to describe the payment had legal significance in Afghanistan, where "blood money" can replace a trial or punishment of a killer.

The Afghan population is still clamoring to have Bales tried in Afghanistan, but military officials have said he will be tried in the U.S. If convicted of the 17 counts of murder he's charged with, Bales could face the death penalty or punishment.

Wife Murders for Giving Birth to Girl in Afghan

Giving birth to a third daughter rather than An Afghan man killed his wife in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz.

The victim, 28, known by the one name of Storai, was strangled by her husband — a local militia member, and his mother bearing the couple’s third daughter three months ago in Mohasili village, police said. 

Nadera Geya, head of the Kunduz women's affairs department, called the killing one of the worst examples of violence against women she had encountered.

Violence against women is commonplace in Afghanistan. In late November in the same province, an Afghan family that refused to give their daughter in marriage to a man they considered irresponsible was attacked at home by assailants who poured acid over both parents and three children.

Police later arrested the rejected suitor and his three brothers for the attack

Police said they arrested the victim’s mother-in-law in connection with her death, but Storai’s husband was still at large, likely sheltered by heavily-armed militia colleagues.

“The existence of militiamen is a huge problem and therefore we face difficulty in arresting him,” said Kunduz police chief Sufi Habib. Nadera Geya, head of the Kunduz women’s affairs department, called the killing one of the worst examples of violence against women she had encountered. Violence against women is commonplace in Afghanistan.

In late November in the same province, an Afghan family that refused to give their daughter in marriage to a man they considered irresponsible was attacked at home by assailants who poured acid over both parents and three children. Police later arrested the rejected suitor and his three brothers for the attack.

In a truly awful act of violence, an Afghan man strangled his wife to death after she gave birth to a second daughter instead of the son he had wanted. The 22-year-old woman, whose name was Estorai, had previously told her family members that her husband was unhappy with the birth of their first daughter and had threatened to kill her if she gave birth to another Afghan Man Murders His Wife for Giving Birth to a Girl

In a truly awful act of violence, an Afghan man strangled his wife to death after she gave birth to a second daughter instead of the son he had wanted. The 22-year-old woman, whose name was Estorai, had previously told her family members that her husband was unhappy with the birth of their first daughter and had threatened to kill her if she gave birth to another girl,

Police later arrested the rejected suitor and his three brothers for the attack.

With foreign combat troops set to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and moves ongoing to kickstart a peace process involving the ultra-conservative Taliban, rights watchdogs inside and outside Afghanistan fear women's rights may be sacrificed.

"The rights of women cannot be relegated to the margins of international affairs, as this issue is at the core of our national security an She also sees it as a consequence of women across the country gaining greater awareness of their rights, which is leading both to a backlash from men and to more cases of violence being reported.

On top of that, the Afghan government's move toward peace and reconciliation talks with the Taliban has led many people to think that the current oppression of women will simply continue as it is, Mosadiq said.

 The security of people everywhere," the U.S. embassy in Kabul said in a statement on Monday.

Afghan rape victim Gulnaz freed from jail

Afghan woman who was jailed for adultery after being raped has been released from prison after President Hamid Karzai issued a pardon, her lawyer said to media yesterday.

Gulnaz was released on Tuesday night two years after she was jailed for a so-called "moral crime" when a relative raped her at her home, and almost two weeks after Mr Karzai ordered her to be freed. 

Afghan jaile forced adultery after a relative raped her, then pardoned following an international outcry over the case, has been released nearly two weeks after a judicial panel said she could go free, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

She was released last night, said lawyer Kimberley Motley. She's happy that she's in a safer place.

Sex outside marriage - even in cases of rape - is one of several "moral crimes" for which women are imprisoned in Afghanistan. Others include running away from an abusive husband or a forced marriage.

How Gulnaz will be able to re-assimilate into the life she once had remains a confusing question.

Her choices are stark. Women in her situation are often killed for the shame their ordeal has brought the community. She could still be at risk, some say, from her attacker's family.

Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.

Many Afghan women's rights activists say there must be an end to the culture of impunity and police must punish all those behind violence against women.

Ms Motley said that Gulnaz is now staying in an undisclosed location in Kabul with her child after being released overnight on Tuesday "for her own safety away from the blaze of publicity".
She is now free to lead a normal life without the threat of further legal action, she said.
I hope this historic case will set a legal precedent for other persecuted women in Afghanistan.

A rape victim jailed for 'adultery by force' has today been released into the care of a women's shelter after the President of Afghanistan personally pardoned her two weeks ago.