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The Taliban are ready to drop their ban on schooling girls in Afghanistan , the country's education minister  said on Friday, 14th January 2011. Farooq Wardak told the UK's Times Educational Supplement a "cultural change" meant the Taliban were "no more opposing girls' education". The Taliban - who are fighting the Kabul government - have made no public comment on the issue. Afghan women were not allowed to work or get an education under the Taliban regime overthrown in 2001. Mr Wardak made his comments during the Education World Forum in London. He told the TES: "What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education. "I hope, Inshallah (God willing), soon there will be a peaceful negotiation, a meaningful negotiation with our own opposition and that will not compromise at all the basic human rights and basic principles which have been guiding us to provi...

At least 10 people were killed in Afghanistan during election to the parliament of the country on Saturday. Taliban unleashed country wide attacks to disrupt a poll that is testing the credibility of the government and security forces. Voters appeared hesitant to go to polling stations after a series of rocket strikes across the country. In the worst attack, police said the Taliban killed one Afghan soldier and six pro-government militiamen in a raid on a security outpost next to a polling station in northern Baghlan province. Glenn Cowan, co-founder of U.S.-based observers Democracy International, said turnout felt "about the same" as 2009, when about 4 million Afghans cast valid votes. "It was about the same pace this time," he said an hour before polls were due to close. The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, an independent watchdog, estimated last year's turnout at around 35 percent. There are 11.4 million eligible voters this time. Signi...

People in Afghanistan are voting in crucial parliamentary elections amid threats from the Taliban, who have vowed to disrupt the vote. Besides, observers expressed apprehension of forgery & rigging in the election which to be cause for instability in near future in the war ravaged South Asian country.   The Taliban has already claimed responsibility for kidnapping two parliamentary candidates, 18 poll officials and campaign workers in the run-up to the elections. Hours before the polls opened, central Kabul was hit by a rocket attack. No casualties have been reported. More than 2,500 candidates are vying for 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, or Wolesi Jirga. The poll is seen as a test of credibility for President Hamid Karzai, after fraud marred elections last year. On Friday US special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said the vote was likely to be flawed, but it was significant that it was taking place at all. "We have had experience in our country with...