News of the Day for Sunday, July 13,2014

U.S Secretary of State John Kerry brokers a deal between the presidential candidates bringing about an apparently amicable end to the electoral crisis. Abdullah and Ghani agree on a 100% audit of the electoral tally. Says AFP, "Just days earlier the two men were barely speaking, as Abdullah vehemently accused Ghani of stealing victory by stuffing the ballots. But standing next to each other with Kerry late on Saturday before the world's cameras, they clasped hands, smiling, and raised them in the air. With that single dramatic show of unity, Kerry may well have helped guide Afghanistan's young democracy away from a return to the bloody ethnic civil war of the 1990s." We'll see.

Assault on a security post in Laghman province results in deaths of 6 police and 1 soldier, with 15 attackers claimed dead. Elsewhere, 2 attacks in Herat result in deaths of 4 police and 4 insurgents.

Three NATO troops are injured in a suicide attack on a convoy in Nangarhar.

Khaama reports 3 ANA soldiers killed by IEDs,  but the Defense Ministry offers no specific details. They do however say that an average of 20 police and soldiers have died each day in the past week, which is a great improvement in honesty compared to the daily barrage of BS from the Interior Ministry in which no government or civilian personnel are ever killed. However, it also means that the vast majority of these incidents go unreported, which means you don't read about them here. As I have said before, the true level of violence in Afghanistan is much greater than the impression you would get from reported incidents and government propaganda.

A radio reporter is murdered in Balkh province. The perpetrators are unknown.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, Parliament again fails to form a government. While the politicians squabble, the self-styled Islamic State recaptures Dhuluiya, which the government had retaken in June. Fighting continues, but the insurgents control City Hall and police headquarters.  The town is 70 km north of Baghdad. Gunmen enter a Baghdad brothel and kill 29 women. This appears to be a symptom of the increasing role of Shiite militias in the city, displacing the feckless government security forces and police. IS is looting and selling antiquities on a massive scale. And, to catch up on the week, Kurdistan has effectively seceded. Kurdish cabinet members have stopped participating int the interim government, government forces have murdered 255 Sunni prisoners, and government forces hold off an assault on Haditha. Fighting continues in Ramadi, Muqdadiya, and Jalawla where the Peshmerga are trying to expel militants.