A United Nations human rights expert today condemned “in very strong terms” the reported public execution by Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime of an alleged murderer in Daikundi province.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Nations refugee agency have agreed on the closure of three refugee camps in Pakistan while pledging to step up their efforts to find solutions for 2.6 million Afghan refugees still left there.

Reacting to violence in Kabul apparently sparked by a road accident involving a United States convoy and local people, the United Nations operation in Afghanistan today urged calm in the face of what a spokesman for the world body termed a “tragedy.”

Responding to the plight of Afghanistan’s 8 million illiterate adults, more than 200 literacy teacher trainees, the vast majority women, have embarked upon tutor training programmes in three western provinces as part of a joint Government-United Nations effort to improve reading skills among the older generation.