Pentagon memo outlines how to deal with media on Afghanistan
A Defense Department memo obtained by CNN Monday outlines "consensus recommendations" on how the U.S. military should interact with members of the media in relation to the war in Afghanistan. FULL POST
The Jim Henson of Pakistan
Pakistan is a nation in constant political upheaval, with a new political scandal emerging seemingly every week. The latest scandal involves numerous parliamentarians with fake university degrees, a subject so tense the government has tried to silence the media from reporting it. Puppets on the other hand are harder to keep quiet. FULL POST
Report: Afghan civilian deaths up
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - Nearly six Afghan civilians a day were killed and eight wounded in "conflict-related incidents" through the first half of 2010, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor watchdog group said in a report Monday.
In total, 1,074 civilians were killed and more than 1,500 injured in armed violence, the group said. The totals represent a 1.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year. FULL POST
France honors fallen soldier
A ceremony honored a French soldier of the 13th engineering regiment in his hometown of Valdahon, in central eastern France, on Monday, with French Defense Minister Herve Morin (center above) in attendance. The soldier was killed in Afghanistan by a bomb during a reconnaissance operation north of Kabul last week. France has 3, 500 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, with 45 troops killed since their deployment in January 2002.
When women set themselves on fire
(Time.com) — Fawzia felt like she had no way out. Married off to her cousin at age 16, she had been beaten routinely by her husband and in-laws in their poor rural home in Paktia province for the first three years of her marriage. She complained bitterly to her parents, but no solution seemed imminent. Marriage had become too much for her to bear. Then, after she saw her brother-in-law strike his wife on the head with a gun, Fawzia finally did what she had threatened to do many times before: she doused herself in cooking fuel and struck a match.
The Ministry of Women's Affairs has documented a total of 103 women who set themselves on fire between March 2009 and March 2010. No one knows what the real numbers are, given the difficulty of collecting data in the country. "More than 80% [who try to kill themselves in this way] cannot be saved," says Dr. Ahmed Shah Wazir, who runs the burn unit at Kabul's Istiqlal Hospital, one of only two such specialized wards in Afghanistan.
Read more from Time magazine's Abigail Hauslohner at Time.com
