This video is called Free Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh.
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer:
Afghan Journalism Student Sentenced to 20 Years
Afghan Court Sentences Journalism Student to 20 Years in Prison for Blasphemy
KABUL, Afghanistan October 21, 2008
An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy and instead sentenced him Tuesday to 20 years in prison.
The death sentence against 24-year old Parwez Kambakhsh came to symbolize Afghanistan’s slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.
Prosecutors alleged that Kambakhsh disrupted classes by asking questions about women’s rights under Islam. They also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He also allegedly scribbled his own comments on the paper.
The head of Tuesday’s three-judge panel, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, struck down the lower court’s death penalty but still sentenced Kambakhsh to 20 years behind bars.
So much for George W. Bush’s talk about “bringing democracy” to “his” “new” Afghanistan. Like with Afghan women’s rights.
More Afghan journalists jailed: here.
Afghan refugees’ poverty: here.
What is behind US-Taliban talks? Here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
AFGHANISTAN
U.S. air strike kills 20 more civilians
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by foreign troops in operations against Taliban militants in Afghanistan this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-us-afghan-violence.html
U.S. protects biggest drug peddlers
[T]he White House favored a hands-off approach toward Ahmed Wali Karzai because of the political delicacy of the matter.
Escalation doomed to fail
The Soviet Union failed to control the country in the 1980s with more than 100,000 soldiers, and some U.S. military officials fear Afghans could see large-scale troop increases as a repeat of that occupation.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usafghan26-2008oct26,0,4379577.story
Resistance strategy
“The Taliban isn’t strong enough to take over the country. But they don’t have to be.”
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/10/07/in-afghanistan-us-forces-face-growing-challenges–and-a-rising-death-toll.html
Kabul under Taliban’s thumb
“When people saw the bad behaviour of the foreigners and government, the Taliban stood up to protect them. Day by day, their power increases.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081014.afghan-kabul131/BNStory/Afghanistan/home
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Russian lessons
“We abused human rights, including the use of aggressive bombardment. Now it’s the same, absolutely the same.”
Occupation kills 17 more civilians
With public anger running high over civilian deaths in airstrikes by Western troops, Afghan authorities said Friday that at least 17 civilians had been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan18-2008oct18,0,4750906.story
Resistance to occupation’s barbarity
“So long as there is just one 40-day-old boy remaining alive, Afghans will fight against the people who do this to us.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/16/afghanistan-nato
Antiwar protesters take to streets across Canada
Antiwar demonstrations in a dozen Canadian cities on Saturday protested the military mission in Afghanistan, beginning a weekend of action organizers hope will raise awareness of Canada’s involvement in the U.S.-led “War on Terror.”
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=b5349c1e-469d-4a00-aa07-389e1f988e0b
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Taliban killed Afghan asylum seekers that Australia sent back, report claims
* Matthew Weaver
* guardian.co.uk,
* Monday October 27 2008 11.51 GMT
The Australian government today said it would investigate reports that up to 20 rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan were killed after being sent back.
Under the former government of John Howard, about 400 asylum seekers were denied entry to Australia after it was deemed safe for them to return home.
Their fate was traced by the Edmund Rice Centre humanitarian agency, which says it has documentary evidence that nine were killed by the Taliban. The organisation estimates a further 11 people died.
The Australian immigration minister, Chris Evans, told the Sydney Morning Herald he was “taking the claims very seriously”.
Evans has asked for more information about the process of detaining asylum seekers on the Pacific island of Nauru. The so-called Pacific solution was scrapped after the Labor prime minister, Kevin Rudd, came to power in December.
The Edmund Rice Centre said other asylum seekers rejected under the policy had been forced into hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Its investigation is featured in a documentary entitled A Well-Founded Fear to be broadcast next month.
The documentary includes the story of Gholam Payador, who was sent back to Afghanistan in 2002.
Payador holds up a photograph, taken on Nauru, of himself and two other people, both of whom are now dead, according to the Herald.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/27/australia-afghanistan
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Angelina Jolie breaks down in Afghanistan
Angelina Jolie broke down in tears on her first visit to Afghanistan after witnessing the plight of refugees who’ve returned home.
The Changeling star spent last Wednesday and Thursday visiting poverty-hit families living in squalor in Nangarhar and Kabul.
Jolie said: ‘Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 more than five million Afghans have returned home. Afhanistan has been struggling to absorb these massive returns.
‘These families have been displaced for more than 30 years and many of them face difficulties including food, shelter and basic services such as healthcare and education.’
http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/278976/angelina-jolie-breaks-down-in-afghanistan.html
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