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The ninth anniversary of the martyrdom of Afghan national hero, Ahmad Shah Masoud, was marked in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday

Ahmad Shah Masoud, son of Dost Mohammad, was born in Jangalak village of Panjshir province in 1953.

When he was a student in Kabul Polytechnical Institute, he got acquainted with some political activists opposed to the ex-Afghan president, Mohammad Daud Khan, but he was arrested and later went to Pakistan to continue his political struggle.

During the nine years of Jihad against the former Soviet Union's invasion in Afghanistan, the Panjshir valley led by Masoud was the only area that did not come under Soviet control and the communist government forces were repeatedly defeated.

He entered Kabul with his forces in 1991 when the ex-Afghan president Dr Najibullah was forced to hand over power to the Mujahidden.

He served as defence minister during the 4 years of Mujahidden government led by Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani from 1992 to 1996.

Ahmad Shah Masoud was assassinated in a suicide attack by two Arabs posing as journalists in Khwaja Bahawoddin district of Takhar province in northern Afghanistan on September, 9, 2001 after years of struggle against the former Soviet Union's troops and later resisting against the Taliban.

Top US and foreign officials in the United States and Afghanistan slammed the decision by a church in Florida to burn the holy Koran

While attending Ramadan fast breaking meal, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, remarked that the decision is a disrespect and a showcase of hatred toward Muslim communities.

The real and true Islam is spread all over the United States of America, said Clinton.

"We sit down together for this meal on a day when the news is carrying reports that a pastor down in Gazelle Florida plans to burn the holy Koran on September eleventh. I am heartened by the clear unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful and disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths," she said.

The top US commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, also expressed concern on the decision.

"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan - and around the world - to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, speaking to TOLOnews, the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura remarked that doing such act is an offend to all the people around the world. Mr Staffan de Mistura urged the Florida pastor not to do so.

"I would like to convey to all of you and through you the deep concern and indeed the outrage of every member of the UN family in Afghanistan about the announcement by a small religious group abroad, about their intention to burn the holy book of Koran," said Mr de Mistura.

"Freedom of expression cannot mean offending millions and millions of Muslims who respect Islam and respect the Koran and by the way we too respect Islam and the Koran," he said.

"We want to add to concern outrage on our side in a firm request on behalf of every member of the International community present in Afghanistan to those who are planning to do so in next few days, not to do so," he added.

Concerns grows days after Kabul citizens staged a demonstration and called on the international community to stop the ‘Koran Burning'.

The Rasanaha (media) team won the Ramadan footsall championships in Kabul on Tuesday night

In the final matches that were held on Tuesday night, the Rasanaha footsall team played against the Sitara-i-Azadi team and the match ended equally, but in the penalties Rasanaha beat Sitara-i-Azadi 4-3.

Meanwhile, in the final round of the footsall Ramadan matches in Herat on Wednesday, Arash team will be playing against Kawsar footsall team.

In the semi-final matches of the tournament, Kawsar beat Milad 4-3 and Arash footsall team also beat Imam Fakhr 4-3.

The Solh-o-Dosti (Peace and Friendship) footsall tournament is also planned to be held in the province in the near future.

This championship match will be held with the presence of six teams and will last for one week.

The incident happened at 10:30am on Wednesday in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan province, Ahmad Jawid Basharat, a spokesman for the Police Chief of Baghlan told TOLOnews.

Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying three commanders of the village police force were killed in the blast.

Security has deteriorated in Baghlan in the past several months, and Taliban have recently warned civilians not to go to the polls.

Insecurity has remained the main challenge before the upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections set for September 18 this year.

"The two leaders discussed progress in implementing our shared strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and ways to further strengthen the international community's efforts," said a statement by the White House.

During the meeting, Mr Rasmussen was appreciated by President Obama for the significant NATO commitment to promote peace and stability around the world, particularly in Afghanistan.

Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary said NATO has a significant share of troops in forces on the ground in Afghanistan, a share that commanders at the time at ISAF believed would play a crucial role in our overall strategy.

"Obviously the problems that we face with -- in Afghanistan and in Pakistan dealing with al-Qaeda and its extremist allies, their potential return, an environment that allows, if they were to return, unfettered planning for an additional terrorist attack -- that's not something that's simply in the interest of the United States in preventing. It's of international concern," said Mr Gibbs.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked for an extra $120 million for tents and other supplies for flood victims in Pakistan

The UN has warned that floods in Pakistan have also destroyed seeds and crops that will cause an increase in food prices in the country.

At least 8 million people reportedly rely on aid to survive, six weeks after monsoon rains caused a deluge in Pakistan.

About 7.9 million acres of land - 14 percent of Pakistan's entire cultivated land have been damaged due to heavy floods.

According to the United Nations, the heavy flood in Pakistan that hit the country after the Indus river burst its banks, has left more than 1,600 dead and more than 6 million homeless, affecting at least 17 million people in the country.

Meanwhile, while the country is troubled by flood crisis, 21 people were killed and 70 others were wounded yesteday in a bomb attack targeting police residential colony in Pakistan's Kohat area.

Pakistan's law enforcement personnel have cordoned off the entire area.

Militants have launched a series of attacks in the past week as Muslims mark the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.

At least 14 people were killed and 24 were wounded Wednesday morning when a passenger car slipped over the road in the southern Ghazni province

"The incident happened in Nani area of the province's Andar district when a passenger car was on its way from Ghazni to Kandahar," Ghulam Mohammad Rasikh, the province's traffic chief told TOLOnews.

The wounded were taken to Ghazni Central hospital.

Fifteen people were killed and 24 were wounded in the incident, Mohammad Ismail Ibrahimzai, head of the Ghazni Central hospital told TOLOnews reporter.

Women and children are also among the wounded, he added.

Afghan government officials have often cited overdriving as the main cause of traffic accidents, which result in heavy casualties.

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Officials in the Independent Election Commission (IEC) remarked on Tuesday that 81 other polling centres are to remain closed in eastern Nangarhar province

"Some 81 of 458 centres which were to be opened in Nangarhar, will remain closed during the elections. The security organisations think it would be impossible to open these centres," said head of the IEC, Mohammad Fazel Manawi.

Afghan security organisations have declared "more than 61 other centres under threat and this could be discussed somehow, but 81 centres are impossible to be opened", he said.

Sixty other polling centres in Nangarhar are also likely to be closed, said head of the IEC.

In total, 1019 polling centres have been closed all over the country.

With 114 centres to remain closed in it during the parliamentary elections, Nangarhar will be the province with the largest number of closed centres in the country.

Meanwhile, a number of supporters of a delisted parliamentary elections candidate demonstrated on Tuesday before the Electoral Complaints Commission's office.

The demonstrators called the delisting of this candidate an illegal act, but the Electoral Complaints Commission said he was removed from the list for not resigning from his governmental post ahead of the set deadline.

The Ministry said the projects are funded by the World Bank and some other donors.

According to the Ministry, with the allocation of this amount, 30 percent of the remaining rural areas in Afghanistan will be covered by the NSP.

In the next five years, all the villages in Afghanistan will be covered by the third phase of the Programme under which the previously implemented projects will be reviewed and new projects will be launched.

"The allocated amount will be used to cover 30 percent of the remaining villages, and half of the total number of villages in Afghanistan will be covered for the second time," said Tariq Asmati, executive director of NSP.

The NSP projects will focus on providing drinking water facilities, constructiion of health and educational centres, establishing hydro power plants, building roads, bridges and culverts, retaining walls and water canals.

On the other hand, the Government's media and information centre have announced that foreign troops and Afghan security forces have already plans on the ground to ensure security during the elections.

Security forces are on a hunt down of insurgents, but there are reports that the Taliban are freely moving around and plan their activities in the Baghlan province.

A Taliban commander said security forces are always on the look-out for their fighters, but they fail to detain them.

Meanwhile, residents in Baghlan province expressed concern about the warning made by the Taliban in the province.

"The situation is terrible, people are afraid of the Taliban," said a butcher in Baghlan province.

In the past, the Taliban had warned that presidential election would be interrupted, but they couldn't stop the election, said an official in the government's media centre.

The Taliban "will try to target ordinary people during the elections, but the government promises Afghan people to ensure their safety," said head of government media and information centre, Abdul Hakim Aasher.

In the last presidential election, the Taliban had made a similar warning, and voters were psychologically stressful.

To watch video clip, please click here:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3057cGWusiw]

The amount which is expected to be spent by the US is about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins withdrawing troops in 2011.

The estimates of US spending through 2015, detailed in a NATO training mission document, are an acknowledgment that Afghanistan will remain largely dependent on the United States for its security.

Spending for training is projected to decrease from $11.6 billion next year to an average of $6.2 billion over the following four years.

The United States spent over $20 billion on training between 2003 and 2009 and expects to spend about the same this year and next alone.

Even head of the NATO training mission, Lt. General Bill Caldwell, has predicted that desertion and injury rates are so high among Afghan forces that NATO will have to recruit and train 141,000 people to ensure it has the 56,000 additional personnel needed next autumn.

Meanwhile, with most of the deaths from US, NATO officials voiced concern about a surge in foreign troops' fatalities in the country.

The Afghan youth cricket team won the championship cup of the Ramadan Cricket matches in Pakistan

The match was started by the Afghan team and set 159 runs in 20 overs for the Pakistan Blue Cricket Club.

The Pakistani team wasn't able to do the set suns successfully and the Afghan team was announced the winner
to get the championship cup.

More than 16 teams had participated in the matches in Karachi, including Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which started more than a week ago and finally ended yesterday evening.

At least 3 Afghan children were killed, and five more were wounded in the militants attack on a coalition outpost Monday in Paktika Province, said ISAF in a statement

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement, the incident happened yesterday in Yahya Khel district of Paktika province when militants attacked a coalition outpost, but foreign forces had not casualties.

No counter-fires were conducted, and coalition forces took the wounded children by air to coalition medical facilities to be treated. Three children died after reaching one of the medical facilities, adds the statement.

No groups have claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

According to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, 229 civilians have been killed in the past one month in the conflicts in Afghanistan.

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The sub-governor of Nahreen, a district in the northern Baghlan province was killed in a militants attack and one of his drivers were killed on Monday evening, said officials

"The incident happened at 5:30 yesterday evening in Baghlan - Kunduz highway when Mr Joshan Poor, district governor of Nahreen, was on his way to Kunduz. Militants attacked stopped his convoy on the highway killing him and his driver" said provincial officials.

No groups, including the Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

After the incident, police arrived and killed one of the militants, said a spokesman for Ministry of Interior Affairs, Zemaray Bashari.

Baghlan-Kunuz highway is considered one of the insecure routes in the north of the country.

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Taliban have warned that they will disrupt the upcoming parliamentary poll, and that security forces and polling personnel will also be targeted

In a contact from an undisclosed location, a spokesperson for the Taliban said that the Taliban fighters will attack polling centres on the day the election is held and also warned the Afghan people not to take part in the polling.

The Taliban have called the Afghan parliamentary polling a deceit and a fraudulent process.

"This is for the interest of foreigners and they want to save their presence in the country launching such a process. We believe that people will not  benefit from the process. Hereby we call on the Afghan people not to go to the polls," said a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior Affairs said that efforts are already underway to secure the polling.

In cooperation with other security organisations, a plan to secure the election has already been made and the Afghan people will be able to participate in the election facing no obstacles, Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) said.

"There will be threats, but its does not mean that the election will be interrupted and that there will be no election," said the spokesperson for MoI, Zemarai Bashari. "Security plans are made in order to avert security threats."

While there is a surge in insecurity, the warning is made by the Taliban twelve days ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Officials in the Afghan Ministry of Mines said on Monday that 400 tonnes of chromite is daily smuggled out of the country

The ministry also acknowledged that in addition to chromite, some other precious and semi-precious stones are also smuggled to one of the neigbouring countries.

In order to prevent smuggling of precious and semi-precious stones, the ministry of interior has expresssed support to provide 700 secuirty personnel for the mines all over the country, the Ministry of Mines said.

The security personnel provided by the MoI will also make sure that chromite, which can be used to produce steel, is no longer smuggled out of the country, it added.

"We expect the government to form a special security unit of 7000 personnel to esnsure mines security," said the Mines Minister, Wahidullah Shahrani.

The news comes some weeks after the work at Ainak copper mine in Logar province was halted by insecurity.

But the Ministry of Mine said the work has been resumed after 1500 security personnel were provided to ensure security of the Ainak copper mine.