Afghan civilian casualties soar to record high: UN

KABUL: Civilian casualties in Afghanistan soared to a record high in the first half of 2016, the UN said Monday, with children in particular paying a heavy price for growing insecurity as the conflict escalates.

The UN report, which comes days after the deadliest attack in Kabul since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, cited increasing ground combat around heavily populated areas as the leading cause of casualties.

Between January and June, 1,601 civilians were killed and 3,565 were wounded — a four percent increase in casualties compared to the same period last year, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

The casualties have reached their highest level since the UN began issuing its authoritative reports in 2009.

“Every single casualty documented in this report — people killed while praying, working, studying, fetching water, recovering in hospitals — every civilian casualty represents a failure of commitment and should be a call to action for parties to the conflict to take meaningful steps to reduce suffering,” UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto said.

The casualties include 1,509 children — roughly one-third of the total — a figure the UN described as “alarming and shameful”. It was the highest toll ever recorded by the UN over a WASHINGTON:THE Democratic convention to crown Hillary Clinton as nominee started on Monday under the shadow of leaked organisational emails that caused the resignation of the party’s chair.

The party moved swiftly to contain damage from the leaks that showed party officials sided against her major, and then the only, rival Bernie Sanders.

Russia’s intelligence agencies were accused of obtaining the emails by hacking into the Democratic party’s computer network, and releasing them to Wikileaks.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the nature and scope of the cyber intrusion, the agency said on Monday.

Clinton campaign manager Roby Mook cited “experts” to allege in multiple TV interviews that “this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping (Republican candidate) Donald Trump".

The Trump campaign pushed “absurd”, and tried to goad Sanders and his supporters into retaliating, which seemed unlikely to happen.

Sanders said in a television interview he was not surprised as he had long known the party machinery was working against him. He said he had demanded the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz a long time ago for the reason. And with her resignation, the issue stood resolved, he added.

Sanders has appeared satisfied with issues his campaign forced the Democratic party, and Clinton, to adopt, such as higher daily wages free college education and