Afghan sisters hurt in acid attack over rejected proposal.

REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The suitor was rejected. He took his revenge.

A young Afghan woman and her two sisters were the victims of an acid-throwing attack three days after her family declined a marriage proposal from an older man, according to authorities in Kunduz province, north of Kabul.

All three sisters -- including the eldest, a 17-year-old whose hand in marriage had been sought -- were hospitalized after the attack by an assailant who came to their home Tuesday night. He was believed to be the spurned groom, officials said.

“I visited them in the hospital myself -– their faces were all covered in bandages,” said Hamdullah Danishi, the acting governor of Kunduz.

Women’s rights groups expressed outrage over the attack. Danishi said an investigation was underway.

Acid attacks against women are not uncommon in Afghanistan, but many do not come to light, especially if they are the result of a private clan dispute. In a notorious case three years ago, a dozen schoolgirls in the southern city of Kandahar were splashed with acid by motorcycle-borne assailants who later said they were paid to carry out the attack by Taliban insurgents opposed to educating girls.

Arranged marriages are the norm in much of Afghanistan, and a woman generally cannot go against her family’s wishes, except by running away -- an offense that can result in a lengthy jail sentence. But the young woman in Kunduz apparently had the backing of her family in rejecting the match, officials said.

The Taliban, and the Pashtun ethnic group from which the movement is largely drawn, often take the harshest line against women who do not submit to forced marriages, but cultural norms are equally unforgiving among other ethnic groups.

In the Kunduz case, the rejected groom was described as a mujahedin, or a former anti-Taliban fighter.

Syria Syria troops have killed more than 250 children, UN report finds

Report to UN human rights council accuses Damascus of crimes against humanity and operating shoot-to-kill policy

Chairperson of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro, announces the findings of the report, in Geneva. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian security forces have committed "crimes against humanity" since widespread anti-government protests began in March, according to a damning UN report (pdf) that will add to the mounting pressure on the president, Bashar al-Assad.

It said that least 256 children had been killed by government forces.

The investigation by the UN's independent international commission found patterns of summary execution, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and torture, including sexual violence and abuse, some of it directed against children.

The UN report was published on a day that saw Syria lambast the Arab League for imposing unprecedented economic sanctions because of the refusal by Damascus to accept observers to protect civilians.

Further pressure came from France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, who said Assad's days were "numbered". Britain condemned the "horrific and shocking actions carried out by the Assad regime against its own civilian population".

The 39-page document includes testimony from defectors from the security forces, who described indiscriminate shooting at unarmed protesters and snipers targeting those using loudspeakers or carrying cameras and mobile phones. A defector described the shooting of a two-year-old girl by an officer who said he did not want her to grow up to be a demonstrator. The figure of 256 children killed up to 9 November was attributed only to unspecified "reliable sources".

The report was based on interviews with 223 victims and witnesses, but investigators were denied access to the country, despite repeated requests.

According to UN figures issued this month, at least 3,500 people have been killed in Syria since March. The regime gives a figure of around 600. It says many of those were security personnel who were the victims of "armed terrorist gangs".

The report says: "State forces shot indiscriminately at unarmed protestors. Most were shot in the upper body, including in the head." Defectors told the commission that they had received orders to shoot at unarmed protesters without warning.

"In some instances, however, commanders ordered protesters to disperse and issued warnings prior to opening fire. In some cases, non-lethal means were used prior to or at the same time as live ammunition."

Snipers, it says, were responsible for many casualties, including people who were trying to rescue the wounded and collect the bodies of demonstrators. Defectors witnessed the killing of comrades who refused to fire at civilians.

Torture and killings reportedly took place in the Homs military hospital by security personnnel dressed as doctors and allegedly acting with the complicity of medical staff. Torture was described as "rampant" at the detention facilities of the notorious air force intelligence branch at the Mazzeh airport near Damascus.

The commission said it was "particularly disturbed over the extensive reports of sexual violence, principally against men and boys, in places of detention". A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by three security officers.

The report recommends "prompt, independent and impartial investigations under both domestic and international law to end impunity, ensure accountability and bring perpetrators to justice".

Diplomats said the Arab League could ask the UN security council to debate the abuses, though any referral to the international criminal court would require the support of Russia and China which is unlikely to be forthcoming.

The three members of the UN commission were Brazilian, Turkish and American.

Syria's embattled government seems unlikely to respond. The official media attacked the Arab League measures as a "conspiracy" and warned they would hurt ordinary people. The foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, said: "The Arabs don't want to admit the presence in Syria of groups of armed terrorists who are committing these crimes, abductions and attacks on public places."

Most Syrian assets had already been withdrawn from Arab countries in anticipation of the league's move, he said.

Analysts say that even without the full co-operation of Iraq and Lebanon, which did not back the measures, the sanctions are likely to have a severe impact on Syria's economy, especially in conjunction with EU ban on Syrian oil exports which came into force earlier in November. Turkey – not a member of the Arab League – is expected to announce its own sanctions.

"Despite diplomatic assertions that the sanctions are designed to avert recourse to overt foreign intervention in Syria, if they do not have an impact on the regime's behaviour, talk of more direct – perhaps military – measures is likely to increase," said David Hartwell of the IHS consultancy in London.

* Pakistan Pakistan border closure will have little effect on Nato's Afghanistan campaigNew supply lines via Tajikstan and Uzbekistan mean Islamabad will only be able to push up costs and inconvenience war effortNew supply lines via Tajikstan and Uzbekistan mean Islamabad will only be able to push up costs and inconvenience war effort * News * World news * Pakistan Pakistan border closure will have little effect on Nato's Afghanistan campaign

New supply lines via Tajikstan and Uzbekistan mean Islamabad will only be able to push up costs and inconvenience war effort

Lorries waiting to cross into Afghanistan tail back near the town of Tokham after Pakistan shut its border in protest at a US air strike that killed at 24 of its soldiers. Photograph: Khuram Parvez/Reuters

Pakistan's government once had the power to bring Nato's war machine to a shuddering halt through its control of a key route into landlocked Afghanistan. But today it can only aspire to cause inconvenience and slightly push up the cost of a war already running at $120bn a year.

As Washington's relationship with Islamabad soured in recent years, Nato's logistics chiefs tried to break their reliance on Pakistan for getting enough food, fuel and other vital supplies to their troops in Afghanistan.

Such goods used to arrive almost entirely through what is known as the southern distribution network, which runs from Pakistani container ports on the Arabian Sea over road and rail links to the border towns of Tokham and Chaman.

Those two crossing points are currently closed to Nato traffic following the killing of at least 24 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike on Saturday.

The supply line has also proved vulnerable to attack from insurgents inside Afghanistan, who have attacked convoys, blowing up dozens of fuel tankers at a time and looting goods intended for troops.

In 2008, Pakistani television showed shots of gleeful insurgents driving around in bullet proof Humvees that had literally fallen off the back of a truck. The vehicles had been en route to Afghan security forces.

Many of the lorry drivers currently stuck in Pakistan because of the closed borders have complained that they are vulnerable to Taliban attacks.

Pakistan has used its power to shut down the supply line before. Last year it did so for 10 days after Nato forces mistakenly killed three of its soldiers.

Today, however, only 30% of US supplies and less than half Nato's travel through Pakistan, the result of the opening of the northern distribution network - a far longer, more complicated and expensive route that starts in Europe. Supplies are put on lorries and railways and moved across most of the Eurasian landmass before entering Afghanistan through the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Forty percent of US supplies are shipped in from the north, and another 30% are flown in.

The northern route, combined with stockpiling of essential equipment, means Nato operations could continue unaffected for several months, according to a western military official.

The development of the new route relied on Russian blessing. Despite being troubled by the large US presence in central Asia, Moscow concluded it has no interest in a Taliban return to power. Top-ranking US generals including David Petraeus were also obliged to visit the region to court central Asian leaders like Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan, whose regime has been repeatedly criticised for human rights abuses, including torture.

The route through Uzbekistan is currently in question, however, after a key bridge near the Afghan border was damaged by an explosion 10 days ago and has been closed since.

Neither the US nor the Uzbeks have commented on the cause of the explosion, although there are fears it could be the work of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is allied to the Taliban.