News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

KABUL - The next several weeks will be critical for the future of Afghanistan, which is awaiting the final outcome of last month’s presidential election and the formation of a new government, the top United Nations envoy to the country said today. “This is decision time in Afghanistan and for…

30 September 2009 - The UN's top envoy in Afghanistan has delivered his latest briefing to the United Nations Security Council. Download full speech pdf

30 September 2009 - I was dismayed to learn of yet another roadside blast yesterday in Maywand District, in Kandahar province. پشتو و دری The explosion resulted in the death of a high number of civilians, including women and children, as they travelled by bus to Kandahar city. This is the fourth…

30 September 2009 - A senior United Nations official in Afghanistan has appealed for an end to brutal attacks such as the one that killed a large number of civilians in Kandahar province, the fourth incident of its kind in as many weeks to claim innocent lives. At least 30 civilians – including…

1 October 2009 - Students in Takhar province have been calling for peace though a poetry and drawing competition. More than fifty provincial authorities, teachers and students, civil society representatives and media attended the drawing and poetry event for peace in Taloqan, the capital province of…

3 October 2009 - The latest weekly programme produced in Dari and Pashto by UNAMA Radio is now online to listen to. The show - "Afghanistan Today" - is broadcast every Saturday morning on Radio Afghanistan. All UNAMA Radio programmes are also available on iTunes.

5 October 2009 - The auditing of 358 suspicious ballot boxes from Afghanistan’s 20 August presidential elections began today. The Independent Election Commission (IEC), with oversight by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), started examining the ballot boxes at its headquarters in Kabul. The…

7 October 2009 - The Kabul Museum is celebrating a new exhibition which showcases thousands of years of Afghanistan’s archaeological history. One of the main attractions of the items on public display is that the collection is taken from more than two thousand artefacts originally looted from…

KABUL - Just over a hundred ballot boxes, containing presidential votes, remain to be examined in the audit process currently being conducted by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). Officials are expected to finish auditing all the 358 suspicious…

KABUL - The top United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has only ever sided with electoral institutions in the country’s recent presidential ballot, and never with any of the candidates, UN officials said today as they refuted allegations of bias. The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and…

8 October 2009 - I strongly condemn the suicide attack near the Indian Embassy in Kabul this morning, which is the fifth such explosion in the capital since August. I express my sincere condolences to the families of the victims. پشتو و دری

KABUL - Over the past days, the United Nations and I have endured repeated attacks in the media. The accusations range from being partial in this election process to ordering my staff to conceal fraud by allegedly asking them to suppress reports. Dari My silence is now being exploited, to a point…