An Afghan court has overturned the death sentences for four men convicted of taking part in the mob killing of a woman outside a Kabul shrine, a judge said.

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai suffered a new blow to his authority with the rejection by parliament of most of his cabinet nominees, further prolonging political crisis in the war-ravaged country.

WOMEN’S rights activists have claimed Afghan president Hamid Karzai has used a constitutional loophole to enact a law that allows minority Shi’ite Muslim husbands to refuse food and money to their wives if they deny them sex.

Fear of attack by Taliban-led rebels kept many candidates off the streets today as Afghanistan kicked off the official campaign period for landmark September 18 legislative elections, the war-torn country’s next step toward democracy.