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      Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 18:02

    Afghan regime’s return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ‘no one to hold them accountable’ for abuses, say activists

    The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

    Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.

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      Minister told to name sources in Afghan inquiry or face potential jail term

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 2 days ago - 08:30

    Johnny Mercer given 10 days to reveal source of claims British troops engaged in war crimes

    The minister for veterans’ affairs, Johnny Mercer, has been given 10 days to reveal the source of allegations British troops engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, or face a potential prison sentence.

    Mercer in effect admitted last month in front of the public inquiry into the claims that he believed members of the SAS had engaged in dozens of unlawful killings of Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2013.

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      Cricket Australia cancels men’s T20 against Afghanistan due to concern over women’s rights

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 19 March - 08:59

    • Australia postpones a second series in as many years
    • It comes amid fears conditions under Taliban are getting worse

    A second Australian men’s cricket series against Afghanistan in as many years has been postponed due to the country’s poor record on human rights for women and girls.

    Australia had already cancelled a one-day international series to be played in the United Arab Emirates in March 2023 due to “a marked deterioration” in the treatment of females in the country.

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      Global eradication of polio ‘tantalisingly close’ with UK urged to keep up funding

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 16 March - 13:00

    After no reported cases of wild polio for 19 weeks, vaccination efforts boosted at last endemic spots in Pakistan and Afghanistan

    The world is “tantalisingly close” to eradicating polio – with no confirmed cases of wild polio anywhere so far this year. But experts warn that vaccination efforts – and funding – must not falter if the world is to rid itself of a human infectious disease for the second time in history , after smallpox.

    There have been no reported cases of wild polio infection in people for the last 19 weeks. Figures from the World Health Organization reveal that the last confirmed cases were on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan in October and September 2023 respectively; these are the last nations on Earth where polio is endemic.

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      Five killed in attack on Pakistan military post near Afghan border

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 16 March - 10:39


    Unnamed militant group drove vehicle laden with explosives into post and detonated suicide bombs

    Militants have attacked a military post in Pakistan near Afghanistan using a vehicle laden with explosives, killing five security force members, Pakistan’s military said.

    The incident in north-west Pakistan was carried out by six attackers, the military’s media wing said in a statement, without naming the militant group responsible for the attack.

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      What the explosive testimony of a minister reveals about Britain’s war in Afghanistan – and its rogue special forces | Frank Ledwidge

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 12 March - 13:00

    The probe into 80 alleged SAS killings heard evidence from Johnny Mercer and highlighted the urgent need for oversight

    The Afghanistan inquiry is getting into gear at the Royal Courts of Justice. Led by the judge Charles Haddon-Cave, this public inquiry was convened to investigate about 80 killings allegedly committed by the SAS in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013. Proceedings took a dramatic turn last month when the minister for veterans’ affairs, Johnny Mercer, gave evidence .

    It was astonishing to watch. Mercer stated that he had heard from “trusted sources” shocking accounts of serial murder and attempted cover-ups by SAS personnel in Afghanistan. Once he became the minister for veterans (part of the Cabinet Office), he expressed his deep concerns about them to the then defence secretary, Ben Wallace, who asked him to get to the bottom of these well-publicised allegations. Mercer made great efforts to do so.

    Frank Ledwidge is a barrister and former military officer who served in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of Losing Small Wars and Investment in Blood

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      Afghan youth orchestra refused visas for tour of England days before first gig

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 4 March - 18:14

    Musicians in Breaking the Silence tour had been due to perform in London on Thursday and have already played in Europe

    A tour of England by the Afghan youth orchestra has been thrown into doubt days before it was due to begin because the Home Office has refused to grant visas to the musicians.

    The orchestra’s director, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, described the decision as “heart-breaking” and said his band of 47 exiled musicians aged between 14 and 22 had been working for months on their repertoire for the shows that were due to start at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday.

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      ‘They can’t grieve’: families in limbo as Channel boat victims left unidentified

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 1 March - 10:00

    French authorities accused of failing to investigate the fates of refugees who have gone missing at sea while trying to cross by boat to the UK, with families still waiting for news of loved ones

    Late in the evening of 14 December last year four friends made their way to a beach near Dunkirk. By midnight, they were sitting together in a sinking boat in the Channel, along with 66 other passengers.

    One passenger is known to have died that evening, but the fate of two of those four male friends – Hiva, 26, and Nima, 24 – has never been confirmed. They had arrived in France after fleeing from an increasingly authoritarian Iran and hoped to claim asylum in the UK.

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      Minister says he was angry with Ben Wallace over Afghanistan claims

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 21 February - 15:10

    Johnny Mercer tells inquiry his time working under then defence secretary was ‘very difficult’

    A minister has told an inquiry that he was angry with the former defence secretary Ben Wallace after discovering that UK special forces officers knew about Afghanistan death squad allegations before he described them as untrue in the House of Commons.

    Johnny Mercer wrote to Wallace in August 2020 shortly after emails surfaced in the Sunday Times that showed senior special forces officers expressed serious concerns about the killings of 33 people in 11 night raids in the war-torn nation in 2011.

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