Da notare, in questa triste vicenda, che i talebani non hanno attaccato una scuola maschile ma una femminile.

Of the 90 girls from the Qazaam school admitted to hospital, at least five slipped briefly into comas, officials in Kapisa province, north-east of the capital, said. Six teachers and at least two other staff were also admitted.

It was the third such attack against a girls' school in Afghanistan in as many weeks, raising fears that the Taliban are resorting to increasingly vicious methods to terrorise young women out of education.

But the alleged poisoning comes just days after girls at a school in nearby Charikar, on the road north of Kabul, complained of similar symptoms.

Last November, men on motorbikes used water pistols to squirt acid in girls' faces as they walked to school on the outskirts of Kandahar. More than a dozen girls and several teachers at the Mirwais School for Girls had the acid thrown in their faces and one was so badly disfigured she had to go abroad for treatment. The attacks caused such distress and fear that many parents kept their girls at home for several weeks but most have since returned to school, vowing not to be intimidated.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/girls-targeted-in-taliban-gas-attack-1684028.html

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"All pupils, including immigrant girls, have the right to swimming lessons and to take part in physical and sexual education classes," Björklund and Sabuni argue in an opinion article in Dagens Nyheter on Sunday.

Liberal party leader and education minister, Jan Björklund, and integration minister, Nyamko Sabuni, write that the right to exemptions from these classes will be removed in a new legislative proposal to be circulated for consideration during the summer.

This situation can result in girls being denied the right to participate in physical and sexual education classes, something the ministers hope the new law will put a stop to.

Björklund and Sabuni argue that the figures indicate that the problem with "honour culture oppression" could be greater than previously apparent.

"Taken to its extreme the oppression is a direct threat to the child's life, but even if it does not go to such drastic lengths it almost always violates the child's fundamental rights."

http://www.thelocal.se/19778/20090531/

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The Taliban destroyed a girls’ school in Hangu on Monday, a private TV channel reported. According to the channel, the Taliban had planted explosives at the government school in Shahidkhel area in the wee hours of the morning, and the consequent blast destroyed the entire building.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\26\story_26-5-2009_pg7_6

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Uganda will pass a law banning female genital mutilation, which is rampant among pastoralist tribes in the country's eastern region, the president said in a statement on Friday.

"The way God made it, there is no part of a human body that is useless," President Yoweri Museveni told a gathering in the eastern Karamoja district.

"Now you people interfere with God's work. Some say it is culture. Yes, I support culture but you must support culture that is useful and based on scientific information," he added.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-03-uganda-to-outlaw-female-circumcision

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Gender equality work requires us to act here and now but also entails systematic and long-term work on attitudes. This Action Plan deals with the most important measures the Ministry wishes to implement to promote gender equality in kindergartens and primary and secondary education and training.

The overall objective for the Action Plan is that kindergartens and basic education shall contribute to an equal society where everybody has the opportunity to use their abilities and interests irrespective of gender, and that equality and equity between the sexes must form the foundation for all learning and pedagogical activities in kindergartens and basic education. To achieve this, three main objectives have been given priority:  

1. The learning environment in kindergarten and basic education shall promote equality between boys and girls. 
2. A better gender balance when it comes to choice of education and career – with special focus on vocational education and training and the recruitment of girls to sciences.  
3. A better gender balance among members of staff in kindergartens and basic education.

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/kd/Documents/Reports-and-actionplans/Actionplans/2008/action-plan-for-gender-equality.html?id=508110

http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/KD/Vedlegg/Barnehager/likestilling/Gender_Equality.pdf

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“We have seen time and time again that sex segregated programs are inherently unequal for both girls and boys and in some instances, can shut students out of the best classes in the school simply because of their sex," said Emily Martin, Deputy Director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project. “One of the strengths of public schools is the opportunity they provide for students to learn from those different from themselves. Sex segregation leaves students less prepared for success in a coeducational world. In fact, there is no consistent evidence that segregating students by sex improves learning for either boys or girls.”

The ACLU charges that mandatory sex segregation in public schools violates Title IX of the Education Amendments, the Equal Education Opportunities Act and the U.S. Constitution.

"Mandatory sex segregation in public schools is not only clearly against the law, it's also an empty promise for failing schools," said Katie Schwartzmann, Legal Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. "Inevitably, these experimental programs deny equal opportunity to girls and boys and distract much needed time and money from efforts that we know work like smaller classes, highly trained teachers, sufficient funding and involved parents."

http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/40956prs20090908.htm

l http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/womensrights/janedoevvermilionparish_complaint.pdf

 

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Suspected Taliban militants bombed a primary school on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday, underscoring the Islamist threat in northwest Pakistan despite a series of military offensives.

Militants planted explosives to destroy the small school, which educated girls alongside boys and likely provoked the ire of Islamists who oppose the education of women and frequently target girls' schools.

"The school building, which consisted of three rooms was destroyed in the blast on Tuesday," local police official Hamzullah Khan told AFP.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hF4mGNJ0BpgnduXdySz11IBLbszw

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/22-Sep-2009/Militants-bomb-primary-school-in-Peshawar-officials

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Islamist militants blew up a girls school in Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal district Sunday, destroying the building and wounding four people in neighbouring homes, officials said.

Two explosions ripped through the 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village and a boy who watched the premises is missing, possibly kidnapped by the militants, local administration officials said.

"The militants have blown up the school with two blasts and all rooms were demolished," said administration official Shafeer Ullah.

Islamist militants, who have carved out a strong presence in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years.

Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and bracing mountain air.

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUI3_jsG1_VI7A_IE2QlqD27VUgQ

 

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Taliban militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district on Tuesday, the third such attack in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan so far this month, officials said.

An intelligence official in the area said Taliban attacked the government-run school overnight when no one was at the property.

"The girls' middle school was badly damaged because of the explosion, now the school building is almost out of use. The classrooms, desks and chairs were also damaged," Farooq Khan, a local administrative official told AFP.

Islamist militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years.

Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and mountain air.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091117/wl_asia_afp/pakistanunrestnorthwesteducation

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Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.

"When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," he said. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

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Brava Grethe! Ho sempre apprezzato la generosità di animo, specie se diretta a cause giuste come l'educazione femminile. Con il suo gesto l'anziana signora sta portando speranza a tante ragazze afghane.

A Danish woman has donated 5 million kroner to found schools in Afghanistan with the aim of helping women play a more central role in the country's democratic development, according to Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

Grethe Stief, 93, has put the money towards the Danish People's Aid program for school construction in the Asian country.

On Wednesday, 1 million kroner of that money was used to inaugurate a women's college at Albironi University in the Kapisa province. The new college, located about three hours north of Kabul, will house 50 female students planning to move into its dormitories.

‘For me this is a day of great joy. I hope that the college will be a wonderful place to be and that you will be diligent so you can get an education that will have meaning for your lives,’ Stief said in a statement prepared for the students’ inauguration.

Besides the women's college at Kapisa, the donation will fund girls' schools in the provinces of Samangan and Nangahar.

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/international/89-international/47591-elderly-woman-gives-millions-to-afghanistan.html

 

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Sto perdendo il conto di quante volte stanno accadendo simili efferatezze.

Taliban militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district Monday, officials said, as two soldiers and seven insurgents were killed in clashes in the northwest tribal belt.

The pre-dawn school attack took place in Saddokhel town in northwest Khyber tribal district, where militants detonated explosives planted around the building, destroying all five school rooms but causing no injuries.

"They are Taliban. They are the same people who do not want children to get an education," senior administration official Rahim Gul Khattak told AFP.

Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce Sharia law.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1T_6wIygeZcvhY_waE7u1KWS3LQ

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Un grande passo in avanti.

Female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Uganda under a bill passed unanimously by the Parliament, lawmakers said.

Ugandans convicted of the practice, also known as female circumcision, face up to 10 years in prison. If a girl dies from the surgery, which involves cutting off the clitoris to reduce sexual feeling, convicted offenders would be sentenced to life in prison.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/12/12/Uganda-bans-female-genital-mutilation/UPI-25661260646788/

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Lawmakers in Bahrain have no plans to close a loophole that allows girls below the age of 15 to be married in the Gulf island state, despite legislation intended to ban the practice.

The government prompted a storm of controversy last year when it pushed through a law which set the minimum marriage age for girls at 15. Lawmakers from the largest opposition bloc in the Bahraini Parliament had opposed the legislation, saying it went against Islamic principles.

However, a clause in the legislation means that parents are still able to marry their daughters younger, with the consent of the courts.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/579991-no-plan-to-close-child-bride-loophole--bahrain-minister

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Navigating the Media: A Think Tank for Parents of Teen Girls began with a multimedia presentation of the images that our teens are bombarded with daily. The presentation showed that not only are teens trying to live up to an unattainable ideal of beauty – sometimes at the expense of their health – but that they’re also processing print media’s frequently sexual and vulnerable depictions of women.

Following the panel, participants discussed possible settings and strategies for building the media literacy program out to a wider audience. Attendees walked away with powerful tools to help their daughters – and themselves – boost their media savvy.

http://www.jwi.org/site/c.okLWJ3MPKtH/b.5698235/k.AA5F/Helping_Teens_Navigate_the_Media8217s_Tricky_Terrain.htm

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Some 200 villagers in Malawi have ended their protests and agreed to leave their land to make way for a school being built by pop star Madonna.

Work is now expected to start soon on the Raising Malawi Girls Academy outside the capital, Lilongwe.

The AFP news agency says it is expected to be finished in two years' time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8513052.stm

 

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Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad.

Muslim men, who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents return to their homeland to wed a “child bride” in an arranged marriage in which a dowry is given to the girl’s parents. Officials said some of the brides can be 14 years old or younger and are “forced” to marry. The practice occurs in a host of countries including: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Lebanon.

William Hawke, of immigration’s Permanent Resident Unit, said the young brides won’t be allowed in Canada.

“Sponsorship applications submitted for a spouse under 16 will be refused,” he said.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/03/11/13201531.html

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Mentre invece le islamiche integraliste, tutte vestite col niqab nero, sostengono che sia perfettamente giusto che una bambina si sposi con un uomo adulto.

THOUSANDS of Yemeni women, their faces covered in religious veils, demonstrated outside the parliament on Sunday to oppose proposed legislation banning the marriage of girls under 17.

The protesters held up banners proclaiming 'don't ban what Allah made permissible,' or 'stop violating Islamic sharia law in the name of rights and freedoms,' an AFP correspondent said. Answering calls by Muslim clerics who oppose the proposal on grounds it goes against Islamic sharia law, the protesters arrived in organised buses.

A handful of women's rights activists outside the parliament were seen leaving after being outnumbered by the demonstrators. 'It is unreasonable to marry our daughters at the age of eight or nine. This is a serious problem,' said Houriya Mashhour, deputy director of Yemen's Women National Committee.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_504831.html

 

 

 

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The minimum age of 16 years to marry under the prevailing 1974 marriage law is not a sharia-binding regulation for Muslims, according to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) jurists.

The panel of sharia experts announced there was no age limitation for marriage under Islamic law.

They did not cite gender; but the law  states that women must be at least 16 to marry,  while the minimum age for men to marry is 18.

The experts said Muslim parents can marry off their underage children, but strongly appealed for marriages to only be carried out after the child has reached puberty.

“The majority of clerics are of the opinion that there is no minimum age limit in marriage under sharia law,” NU jurist Cholil Nafis told a press conference on the sidelines of the congress on Friday.

The edict to allow for underage marriages quickly sparked protests from human rights activists Friday.

“It’s a setback and contravenes the 2002 Child Protection Law,” National Commission for Child’s Protection (Komnas Anak) secretary general Arist Merdeka Sirait said.

  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/27/nu-rules-favor-underage-marriages.html

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A 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of injuries to her genitals four days after a family-arranged marriage, a human rights group said.

The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has drawn the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages. Legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry is in serious peril after strong opposition from some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders.

More than a quarter of Yemen's females marry before age 15, according to a report last year by the Social Affairs Ministry. Tribal custom also plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation.

Last month, a group of the country's highest Islamic authorities declared those supporting a ban on child marriages to be apostates.

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_child_bride

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At least 12 female students were hospitalised in Afghanistan on Wednesday after inhaling a poisonous substance sprayed at a school in northern Afghanistan.

The 12 students of the Fatima Zahra Girl School, and a teacher and an assistant were mysteriously poisoned, Hamayon Khamush, director of the hospital in Kunduz city, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.1.281862305

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At least 30 schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the third such attack on a girls' school in the city in less than a month, officials said. It is unclear who was behind the attacks.

"A masked man, dressed in black, came into the classroom and threw a small box at us. When we saw the box, we tried to run away, but I passed out. When I regained consciousness, I was in hospital," said 13-year-old Nafeesa, quoted by Pajhwork Afghan News.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.1.376249283

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A follow-up study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer-Sheva has determined that the once prevalent custom of female genital mutilation (FGM) among Israel's Bedouin population in the Negev has virtually disappeared.

In 1995, Prof. Belmaker studied the Bedouin of Southern Israel, a heterogeneous group of tribes for which FGM was a common practice. At the time, a large number of women said that they planned to continue this custom, which involved a ritual incision but no tissue removal, and would perform it on their daughters. This led the researchers to believe at the time that the process was already undergoing modification. 

Bedouins have become more westernized since Israel's independence in 1948. Israel's Bedouin demographic data shows that health care, school attendance, school years completed, and literacy have continued to improve over the last 15 years and may be associated with the long-term decrease in FGM since 1995. 

http://www.fgmnetwork.org/gonews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1238516569&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

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The American Academy of Pediatrics has rescinded a controversial policy statement raising the idea that doctors in some communities should be able to substitute demands for female genital cutting with a harmless clitoral "pricking" procedure.

"We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world," said AAP President Judith S. Palfrey.

"I cried and told them how grateful I am," said Soraya Mire, a Somali filmmaker and survivor of female genital cutting. "Thank you for understanding us survivors and hearing our voices."

Equality Now, an international advocacy group fighting to end female genital cutting, echoed a similarly appreciative response.

"We welcome the AAP's decision to withdraw its 2010 policy statement on FGM," said Lakshmi Anantnarayan, a spokeswoman at Equality Now. "This is a crucial step forward in the movement to raise awareness about female genital mutilation."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/27/AAP.retracts.female.genital.cutting/index.html

 

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A Nigerian federal court will hear a case over whether the West African nation's religious freedom and privacy laws allow a Muslim senator to marry a 13-year-old girl

The lawsuit filed by the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria on behalf of Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima challenges the country's child protection laws that ban women from marrying before age 18. The suit, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, claims that Yerima's constitutional rights are being trampled over the controversy surrounding his alleged marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.

The suit names the government's National Human Rights Commission, the Senate president and the speaker of the house as defendants. The Human Rights Commission has urged the police to investigate Yerima, while both chambers of the National Assembly have called for their own investigations.

Human rights groups say the 49-year-old lawmaker married the girl at the National Mosque in Abuja after paying her family a $100,000 dowry. Under child protection laws enforceable in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, a woman must be 18 before being able to consent to marriage. However, those laws aren't enacted in all of Nigeria's 36 states and activists say child brides have been married off in Muslim communities after their first period.

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLblNs3s4jk_xGFP5ut23lEMLphQD9G4H3L01

 

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Quanti coraggiosi pacifisti sarebbero pronti a partire per liberare o difendere queste povere ragazzine? Cosi'....giusto per chiedere....

n disturbing video images, a 14-year-old girl is purportedly being flogged. She is alleged to have run away from a forced marriage in a remote village. Just as disturbing to Dr. Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission? "The other sad part I have to say was the reaction of the people," she says. "The lack of sensitivity of the people." 

No one has an exact figure exactly how many girls are forced into marriage. Estimates vary as high as 60 percent or more and attitudes here are so engrained that one government minister was recently reported as saying shelters that try to help these girls and women are an evil.

At one shelter in Kabul, they deal with the fallout of these everyday attitudes about women.

"Since January alone we've had 115 cases of forced or underage marriages," says Manizha Naderi, with the Women for Afghan Women organization who runs the shelter. 

Sukaini is typical of the recent cases. She is 15 years old now but was 13 when her family forced her to marry her 45-year-old cousin.

 One of the newest arrivals is a 15-year-old girl who ran away from a forced marriages. Within hours of arriving at the shelter, several parliamentarians called the shelter to demand she sent back to her family. At the shelter, though, they fear if they do that, she'll be killed.

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/10/shelter-tries-to-help-abused-child-brides/?hpt=C2

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A significant number of girls and women in Iraqi Kurdistan suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) and its destructive after-effects, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report. The Kurdistan Regional Government should take immediate action to end FGM and develop a long term plan for its eradication, including passing a law to ban the practice, Human Rights Watch said.

"FGM violates women's and children's rights, including their rights to life, health, and bodily integrity," said Nadya Khalife, Middle East women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It's time for the regional government to step up to the plate and take concrete actions to eliminate this harmful practice because it simply won't go away on its own." 

Human Rights Watch researchers conducted interviews during May and June 2009, with 31 girls and women in four villages of northern Iraq and in the town of Halabja. Researchers also interviewed Muslim clerics, midwives, healthcare workers, and government officials. Local nongovernmental organizations say that FGM may also be practiced among other communities in the rest of Iraq, but there are no data on its prevalence outside the Kurdish region.

The prevalence of FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan is not fully known as the government does not routinely collect information on the practice. However, research conducted by local organizations indicates that the practice is widespread and affects a significant number of girls and women.

The evidence obtained by Human Rights Watch suggests that for many girls and women in Iraqi Kurdistan, FGM is an unavoidable procedure that they undergo sometimes between the ages of 3 and 12. In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, societal pressures also led adult women to undergo the procedure, sometimes as a precondition of marriage.

 The new government, elected in July 2009, has taken no steps to eradicate the practice.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/06/16/iraqi-kurdistan-girls-and-women-suffer-consequences-female-genital-mutilation

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/06/16/they-took-me-and-told-me-nothing-0

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Questo succede quando lo stato non è laico e le leggi sono soggette all'interpretazione delle religioni.

A Malaysian state's decision to allow child marriages caused an outcry on Wednesday, with rights groups condemning new rules that allow Muslim girls below 16 years to wed.

The decision by the Islamic religious council in southern Malacca state has been billed as an attempt to curb premarital sex and baby dumping, after a string of cases of newborns being abandoned.

"Child marriage amounts to paedophilia. We should not condone child marriages," said Ivy Josiah, executive director of leading activist group Women's Aid Organisation.

Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam reportedly said that marriages for Muslims below the current minimum age of 16 years for females and 18 for males would be allowed with the permission of parents and religious courts.

In Malaysia, Muslims make up about 60 per cent of the 28 million population and are subject to religious Sharia law which operates in parallel with the civil legal system.

Josiah said that Malaysia recognises those aged under 18 years as children, and that allowing them to marry early would deprive them of an education and the right to choose a partner.

"It is a knee-jerk reaction. It is really a regressive move. It is turning back the clock. This man (the chief minister) should resign," she said.

Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the minister for women, family and community development, said that underage marriage was "morally and socially unacceptable".

"Placing the heavy burden and responsibility of parenthood on children can deprive them of their rights to a full and harmonious development," she said.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1319257/Outcry-over-Malaysian-child-marriages

 

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Dozens of Kabul schoolgirls were admitted to hospital on Wednesday after a suspected poison gas attack on their school, officials said.

"Today at around 9.30am (0500 GMT, 1500 AEST) around 55 people, including nine teachers and 46 students at the Totya Girls' High School, following an apparent poisoning incident, were taken to hospital," education ministry spokesman Mohammed Asef Nang said.

"They are in stable condition," he said, adding that some had become dizzy and others lapsed into unconsciousness.

"This is not an accident. Similar incidents have happened in girls' schools before. We think there are groups who do not tolerate development and progress - their aim is to prevent girls from going to school," said Nang.

Fifteen-year-old Ruqia, who was hospitalised after the incident, said: "I smelled something very, very foul as I was sitting in my classroom. I saw my classmates falling down, my vision got blurred and I heard everyone screaming before I became unconscious."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/afghan-girls-in-suspected-gas-attack-20100825-13scc.html

The latest incident, this one at a high school, is the ninth such case involving the poisoning of schoolgirls, said Asif Nang, spokesman for the nation's education ministry.

Dr. Kabir Amiri said 59 students and 14 teachers were brought to the hospital, and were faring better.

"We don't have good equipment to verify the kind of gas that they were poisoned with, but we have taken their blood tests to send to Turkmenistan for verifying the type of gas" that was used, Amiri said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/25/afghanistan.girls.sick/#fbid=h-2CShfXYY9&wom=false

 

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