TOLOnews 18 July 2012

Top news in this Bulletin:

Afghanistan's Minister of Higher Education Obaidullah Obaid criticised the curriculum and lesson plans of private higher education institutions on Wednesday, saying that they are not in accordance with the Ministry's guidelines.

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Obaid added that the ability of the private higher education institutions to pay professors higher salaries than the government-run education systems was proving a "major problem" for the government.

At least six Taliban insurgents were arrested on Tuesday night in eastern Kunar province by the Afghan National Army, local officials said.

The arrested insurgents tried to attack a military unit in Kunar's Dangam district but were detained, spokesman of 201 Silab military corps Numan Atifi said.

The Afghan government should lessen the sentence of the Afghan army soldier who killed four French troops earlier this year, International Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in an statement on Wednesday.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense on Monday sentenced Abdul Saboor, convicted of killing four French troops and wounding fifteen in January, to be hanged.