Afghan parliament removes minister

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta received 141 no-confidence votes in the 249-member lower house of parliament on Saturday following a vote on Thursday that was just shy of the necessary majority.

Spanta will become the second government minister to step down this week over the refugee issue after politicians dismissed Mohammad Akbar Akbar, the refugee and repatriation minister, on Thursday.

Thousands of Afghans pushed out of Iran are living in the Afghan border province of Nimroz without shelter, angering politicians who said the ministers should have stood firm against the expulsions.

Spanta had been in the post of foreign minister just over a year following a cabinet reshuffle last spring.

Parliamentary opposition

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, said the vote will be major political headache for Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Spanta will now have to resign and Karzai has the option of putting forward a new name for the role or he can try and reappoint Spanta.

Bays said though the pretext for the no-confidence vote was the refugee crisis, some MPs also wanted to show their displeasure at Karzai's government and undermine him.

Police killed

A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying policemen in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing eight, the police said.

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