Ukrainian University Honors Fahim

PUL-I-KHUMRI - The deputy head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in northern Baghlan province was sacked on Monday, an official said. Kabul-based IEC bosses had decided to remove Muhammad Daud Hunarmand and there was no other reason for his sacking, commission spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor told Pajhwok Afghan News. The decision was taken in Kabul, said the Baghlan IEC head, Muhammad Karim, who would not go into details. It is the first time that an IEC official has been removed from his post in Baghlan. In Nuristan, the IEC head resigned his post. About 100 IEC officials had been fired so far based on decisions of officials in Kabul, Noor explained. (Pajhwok)

KABUL - The United States said on Monday it was deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups, saying it in no way condoned acts of disrespect against Islam. “We strongly condemn the offensive messages, which are contrary to US government policy and deeply offensive to Muslims, especially during the month of Ramadan,” the US embassy in Kabul said. A statement from the embassy referred to the speech President Obama made on June 4, 2009 in Cairo. The US leader then said he considered it part of his responsibility as president to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they occurred. During his recent Iftar speech at the White House, Obama said: “Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.” The embassy added Americans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds rejected the offensive initiative by a small group in Florida. “A great number of American voices are protesting the hurtful statements made by this organisation.”On its blog, the Florida church said: “On 9/11/10 we are burning Qurans to raise awareness and warn. In a sense it is neither an act of love nor of hate. We see that Islam is a danger. We are using this act to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam.” (Pajhwok)

KABUL - A Taliban leader and several associates were detained by a combined Afghan National Security and NATO forces in southwest Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said on Monday. Multiple intelligence sources and tips from local inhabitants led to a coalition operation in central Helmand province. The target of the operation was a Taliban leader who was involved in planning, coordinating and conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. In addition, the Taliban leader is known to prepare improvised explosive devices for his and other insurgent groups in the area. He also provided with suicide bombers and vest for other local Taliban commanders. During the operation, four insurgents were killed after they attempted to engage Afghan and coalition security forces. Each building of the compound was cleared and secured along with 12 women and 33 children. Along the Taliban leader, several insurgents were detained during the search, including some that were found hiding among the women and children. (BNO)

NEW YORK - At the end of July The Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times published investigations based on thousands of secret military documents about the US conduct of the war in Afghanistan released by the website Wikileaks. The news organizations were each given a three-month headstart before Wikileaks released the data to the world. Here The Guardian’s Nick Davies reveals his part in the investigation which resulted in 14 pages of coverage in the print edition and extensive interactive content online.I’ve worked a lot harder to bring in stories which were much smaller than the Wikileaks Afghan war logs. It started in mid-June when I read short news stories about the Pentagon running a leaks inquiry into the apparent disclosure to Wikileaks of a mass of secret US material. They had arrested a young intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, and there was some online coverage of chatlogs in which somebody who may have been Manning talked about the sheer value of the political scandal contained in the disclosures.So I set out to find Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. He was lying low as a result of various threatening noises coming out of the US. I spent four days talking to people who seemed to be close to him in the hope that they would have some secure means of contacting him. Eventually, one of them called me late on Sunday night, June 20th, to tell me that Assange was going to try to fly into Brussels to keep an appointment to speak at the European Parliament. I called the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Ian Traynor, who agreed to try and find him and to persuade him to meet me. On Tuesday June 22nd, I met Assange in a cafe in Brussels. His opening shot was that he had the entire internal diary of US military activities in Afghanistan for the last six years and that he was preparing to post it on the Wikileaks site. I suggested he would get more impact and also make it politically more difficult for anybody to arrest him or to suppress Wikileaks, if he let the Guardian preview the material in order to find stories which could then be shared with other mainstream news organizations.We talked for six hours. He described the nature of the material he had. We discussed the lines of attack which Washington might use. He agreed in principle to the idea of the Guardian preview, but since the database was so huge and since we might have only days before somebody tried to stop us, we agreed it was better to bring other news organizations into the preview in order to be able to do the job quicker. I suggested that the New York Times was a natural partner, since it was highly unlikely that the Obama White House would launch any serious attack on them. He suggested Der Spiegel, where he had good contacts.At the end of the meeting, he agreed to set up an encrypted website on which he would post the Afghan logs. He used the commercial logo on the paper napkin in the cafe to construct a username and password. I headed back to London, with the napkin in my pocket, and briefed the Guardian editor, who called in his counterparts at the NYT and Der Spiegel and set up a research ‘bunker’ in a discreet part of the building. I headed out to Stockholm for a follow-up meeting with Assange, while reporters from all three news organizations sat down together to collaborate on researching the Afghan war logs. (Agencies)

KABUL - Heat over a Florida church’s plans to burn Korans on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is being felt as far away as Afghanistan.Gen. David Petraeus, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, warned that Florida pastor Terry Jones’ incendiary stunt could put American troops’ lives in danger and drum up support for terrorists. “It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort,” Petraeus told the newspaper. “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”The U.S. top commander in Afghanistan and other officials fear video footage of Korans being burned would be a PR gift for terrorist groups to incite more violence.On Monday, hundreds of Afghan protestors chanted “Death to America” as they protested the planned Koran burning by Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center through the streets of Kabul, the Associated Press reported.A cardboard effigy of Jones was burned, and several protestors told an AP reporter that they believe the pastor is acting with the blessing of President Obama and the U.S. government.The U.S. Embassy in Kabul released a statement condemning the Florida church’s plans.Though the church was denied a permit for its Saturday protest, Jones has vowed to go forward with the burning anyway.“Islam is a very oppressive religion, and the Koran is definitely a dangerous book,” Jones told the Houston Chronicle. “We want to send a clear message to radical Muslims.” (Agencies)

KABUL - South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA-Afghanistan); South Asian Media Commission (SAMC-Afghanistan); South Asian Women in Media (SAWM); Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) and Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists (CPAJ) strongly condemned the death of Afghan freelance journalist Mr. Sayed Hamid Noori by some unidentified persons. Sayed Hamid Noori, a young Afghan freelance journalist, Anchor and Deputy of Afghanistan National Journalists Union has been reportedly killed by some unknown people on September 6. 2010. It has been said that on 6th September night; Mr. Noori left home after receiving a phone and after sometime his death body was found near Makroyan swimming pool. It has not clear that whether that unknown person were accompanying him or blocked his way in Makroyan area, where they killed him by knife. So far, no one has been arrested regarding Noori’s murder but inquiry has been continued and media houses and journalists demand the urgent the justification. (PR)

KANDAHAR CITY - Officials in southern Kandahar province said on Sunday one policeman and 13 Taliban militants had been killed in separate operations. A statement from the governors office said the first operation was conducted in the Zherai district, where 13 fighters were killed. Extreme care was taken during the operation in the Mullayan village to prevent civilian casualties, according to the statement. The sweep is still underway in Zherai and Panjwai districts to ensure security in Kandahar City. Separately, a policeman was attacked and killed by unidentified armed on the way to his home town of Nakodak in Dand district. The policeman was posted at the Plano checkpoint in Dand. He had gone to his village for Eid holidays. In another incident of violence, one policeman was killed and four others wounded in a roadside mine blast in the Mir Bazaar area, west of the Kandahar City. The blast took place on Sunday afternoon. Kandahar police chief, Brig. Gen. Sardar Muhammad Zazai, said the policemen were on a routine patrol when their car struck the roadside bomb. Blaming opponents of the government for the attack, he said an investigation had been launched. An official at the Mirwais Hospital said four injured policemen had been admitted there. Their condition was stable, the source said. (Pajhwok)

KABUL - Taliban militants’ activities against NATO-led troops claimed the life of a soldier in the restive southern region of Afghanistan on Sunday, a press release of the alliance said. “An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan today,” the press release added. Since begining September this is the fourth NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The press release did not identify the nationality of the victim, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities. More than 490 NATO soldiers with majority of them Americans have been killed since the beginning of this year in Afghanistan. (Xinhua)

SHARAN - Two schoolchildren were killed and four others wounded in bomb blast in southeastern Paktika province, officials said on Sunday. The explosion took place close to a school Saturday afternoon when the students were going home, a witness told Pajhwok Afghan News. A schoolteacher, Ahmad Khan, said the victims were evacuated to Sharan hospital. However, he said nothing about the condition of the wounded children. Governor’s spokesman, Mukhles Afghan, confirmed the blast near the Al Jihad School in the provincial capital of Sharan. Two students were killed and four others wounded, he said, blaming the insurgents for the attack. He said Taliban militants had long been planting bombs on highways; the government always condemned such incidents.Officials at the Sharan Civil Hospital said four injured students had been brought to the hospital. Three of them, who were in critical condition, were taken to Aliabad Hospital in Kabul. (Pajhwok)

QUETTA - Gunmen attacked NATO supply containers in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, injuring a driver and abducting two others, police said.Two tankers were torched in the separate attacks taking place in Khuzdar and Mastung areas Wednesday night, according to police. In Khuzdar, unknown gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying logistic supplies for NATO and US forces stationed in neighboring Afghanistan, said a police officer, Nazir Ahmad. The attackers sprinkled petrol on a tanker and set it on fire before taking away the driver and cleaner with them, he said. Ahmad said a search operation was ongoing to rescue the kidnapped persons, but there was no immediate clue to the captives. The driver of a tanker was wounded when unknown gunmen attacked another convoy of trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in the Mastung area Wednesday night, police officer Hikmatullah said. He said the tanker was completely destroyed in the attack. Eight oil tankers have been destroyed and five drivers injured in attacks by unknown assailants in different parts of the province over the past one week, but no arrest had so far been made in this regard. (Pajhwok)