News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

KABUL - The top UN envoy in Afghanistan has urged the international community in the country to buy locally-produced products and promote Afghan goods and services. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide was speaking at a joint conference organized by the…

10 June 2009 - The main issues covered in the print and broadcast media in Afghanistan today are: regional summit on Afghanistan, reconstruction, security and upcoming presidential and provincial councils elections. Radios Radio Sada-e-Azadi (ISAF) The National Solidarity Programme completed 44…

11 June 2009 - Presidential and provincial candidates for the forthcoming elections were today given their positions on the ballot paper. Candidates or their representatives picked out chits with a given number from a box, in a ceremony that was conducted by the Independent Election Commission in…

11 June 2009 - The United Nations Children’s Fund in Afghanistan today committed itself to continue supporting efforts to stem the country’s continuing incidence of child labour. Early this year, the Government of Afghanistan signed the landmark International Labour Organization’s Convention 182…

KABUL - Today marks the one hundred day countdown by the United Nations to the International Day of Peace on 21 September 2009. In Afghanistan, Peace Day has been widely celebrated for the last two years with a huge campaign to mobilize people to call for peace under the theme “What are you doing…

KABUL - Nafissa, a 13-year-old Afghani girl, should ideally be spending her day playing with her friends, toys and dolls like most kids her age. Instead, she works at Torkham border, her back, now, bent from carrying the burden of heavy loads of scrap metal smuggled from Pakistan into Afghanistan…

KABUL - A major cultural and demining operation is taking place to protect ancient archaeological sites in Afghanistan’s historical province of Bamyan. The UN’s cultural organisation (UNESCO) and the Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA) are working together with the Ministry of…

KABUL - Until two years ago, Lona, a widow and mother of two, had no job, couldn’t send her daughter to school and had difficulties to make her ends meet. To add insult to injury, following her husband’s death, her in-laws kicked her out of home together with her small daughter. Fast forward to…

KABUL - Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission has announced the final list of candidates for the presidential and provincial council elections due to be held on 20 August. Election Commission President Azizullah Lodin said the final list of presidential hopefuls includes incumbent Hamid…

14 June 2009 - It was the perfect Mother’s Day for Qamar Popal. A mother of five children, two of whom still attend school, she spent the morning at Bagh-e-Zanana, Kabul’s only park reserved for women, stall-hopping at a three-day fair organized exclusively for this day. She said it was a special…

KABUL - “I appeal to candidates to campaign with dignity and fairness. It is the shared responsibility of all candidates to ensure that these elections strengthen Afghanistan’s democratic institutions and people’s confidence in the democratic process.” The top UN envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, made…

15 June 2009 - The top United Nations official in Afghanistan has stressed the need to ensure that the elections slated for August are credible and that their results are accepted by all, noting that the candidates can contribute to this by campaigning with “dignity and fairness.” Kai Eide, the…