Briefs: Afghanistan | Insurgents kill 9 police officers in separate attacks

Afghan officials say that nine police have been killed in two separate attacks in volatile parts of the country. Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor in eastern Logar province, says six police officers, including their commander, were killed in a suicide attack yesterday on police headquarters in the capital, Puli Alim. He says the suicide attacker was wearing a police uniform when he infiltrated the compound. A civilian was wounded, he says. In the second attack, three police officers were killed when a bomb carried on a motorbike exploded near their vehicle in Nangahar province, says Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, spokesman for the provincial police chief. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Logar attack.

India | Top court lifts ban on female makeup artists

India’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered the lifting of a ban on women working as makeup artists in the movie industry, ending a decades-long discriminatory practice. India’s film industry is among the most prolific in the world with nearly 1,500 films produced annually, most of them in Bollywood, as the Mumbai Hindi film industry is called. The Cine Costume Makeup Artists and Hair Dressers Association had an unofficial ban on women as makeup artists, though they could work as hairdressers to the stars. Judge Dipak Misra also struck down a regulation that people had to live in a particular city or town for five years to become a member of the association. The court order came on a petition by Charu Khurana, a female makeup artist who challenged the two clauses as being discriminatory. Her case was supported by the National Commission for Women, a state organization that protects women’s rights. The association said it was trying to ensure that male makeup artists were not deprived of work in the film industry.