KABUL (AP) - The Afghan
government has blocked access to four Web sites with President Hamid
Karzai's name in the address that are critical of the Afghan leader or
have links to sites advertising locally taboo subjects such as online
dating and mail order brides.The shutdown order comes ahead of the
country's Aug. 20 presidential election. An Information Ministry
spokesman initially said the original complaint about two of the sites
came from the Karzai campaign. Karzai's campaign spokesman agreed, but
later called back to deny involvement.
Afghan coverage of the presidential race has been dominated by Karzai,
while his 40 opponents complain they've received scant attention in
state-run media, forcing them to campaign in person or on the Internet
in a country where daily travel can be deadly and few have home
computers.
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