Update: Taliban Defends Arrests of Humanitarian Workers
Ignoring international outcry, Taliban rulers defended the arrest of 24 Shelter Now International (SNI) humanitarian workers yesterday. While it has been committing massive human rights abuses against women, minorities, and the Afghan population at large since it came into power in 1996, the Taliban has recently put increasing pressure on international aid workers. The arrests follow the detention of some 56 children accused of involvement with SNI, the ouster of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan from its Kabul offices in June, the imposition of Islamic law on non-Muslim foreigners, and a decree forbidding foreign women from driving cars in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Support Group, the main organization that coordinates all of the Afghan aid, including aid distributed through U.N. channels, has warned that the Taliban is risking almost all of the aid to Afghanistan with its increasingly restrictive policies.
6/18/2013 Supreme Court Strikes Down Proof of Citizenship Voter Requirements - On Monday, the United States Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed register to vote.
In an opinion written [PDF] by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Court ruled that the Arizona statute violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA, also known as the "Motor Voter Law") of 1993, which created a federal form that individuals can mail in to register to vote in federal elections. . . .
6/18/2013 Pakistani Women's University Bus, Hospital Bombed - A bus for a women's university in Pakistan and the hospital that treated victims from the blast were bombed on Saturday, killing 14 students and 24 others at the hospital.
The bus was transporting female students and teachers from Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta, located in the southwestern part of Pakistan. . . .
6/18/2013 Taliban Attack In Afghan Capital As NATO Transfers Power - Yesterday, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) transferred responsibility for the country's security forces to the Afghan government after a bomb blast targeting a political official left three civilians dead in Kabul. . . .
