Kandahar-The Fighting Season is a new exhibit that is sure to garner a lot of attention from those with an interest in Afghanistan.

The exhibition at the War Museum features sixteen intense, some even haunting photographs taken between 2006 and 2001, during the war in Afghanistan.

Award-winning photographer Louie Palu accompanied Canadian soldiers to Kandahar Province in Southern Afghanistan. He captured their world of firefights and exhausting patrols in some of the most dangerous districts of Kandahar (said to be the heartland of the insurgency).

The Abraar School is celebrating another year of stellar performances on province-wide academic tests.

For the sixth year running, third and sixth grade students at Abraar School scored well above provincial averages on the standardized EQAO Test that measures performance in reading, writing and mathematics.

In the 2011-2012 school year report, Abraar Grade 3 students scored 22 percentage points higher than the provincial average in reading, 24 per cent higher in writing and 28 per cent higher in mathematics; with a perfect 100 per cent in writing.

Lively dance performances by a First Nations group and a Lebanese trio were among the highlights of Human Concern International's 32nd Annual Dinner.

Although the volume for the show was a little louder than some people would have liked, the event was enjoyed by most of those in attendance. HCI Events and Media Coordinator Mahmuda Khan says she received overwhelmingly positive feedback from many of the over 360 guests at the banquet. The majority were pleased with the opportunity to hear about new HCI initiatives from speakers at the event.

Abraar School has been ranked the best performing elementary school in the city.

The private Islamic school in Ottawa's west side was rated the best performing school for reading, writing and math scores by the Fraser Institute, a public policy think-tank. Abraar scored 9.4 points out 10, putting it in the top 50 schools among over 2,700 schools in Ontario. The provincial average was 6.0.

Critics are condemning the federal government's decision to shut down the independent office that served as the watchdog for Canada's spies.

A single line in a massive budget implementation bill tabled on Apr. 27 signalled the end of the Office of the Inspector General of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The office will be replaced by the spy agency's civilian oversight body, the Security Intelligence Review Committee which has a more distant relationship with CSIS.