international

18 Sep

Taliban rename women’s ministry as department ‘for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice’

editor0 Commentsinternational

The Taliban have replaced the country’s ministry for women with an office for what is known as the group’s moral police, residents of Kabul have said, as videos showed female former employees of the department apparently locked out of the building. Workers in Kabul were photographed on Friday replacing the sign on the women’s ministry building with a new one, which read, in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, “Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”. The Taliban has earlier carried out anti-human rights activities in Afghanistan during its rule between 1996 to…

16 Sep

India and UK aims to launch the negotiations on FTA by November 1

editor0 CommentsBusiness, India, international

India and the United Kingdom plan to launch negotiations on a trade deal between the two nations by 1 November 2021, the commerce and industry said on Tuesday.Both nations are looking at an interim trade deal by March next year, which will be followed by a comprehensive FTA. The interim deal will involve early concessions on certain key high-priority products and services related to tariffs or market access Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that an interim trade agreement is the first step towards an FTA that would allow both nations to immensely benefit from the early gains of…

14 Sep

India willing to stand by Afghans: Jaishankar, calls for non-discriminatory distribution of humanitarian aid across Afghanistan

editor0 CommentsIndia, international

With a grave humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, India on Monday said it is willing to stand by Afghans and called for unimpeded access to aid providers to the country as also a "non-discriminatory" distribution of relief supplies across all sections of the society. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that as an immediate neighbour, India is monitoring developments in Afghanistan with "understandable concern", and noted that the issue of travel and safe passage that can emerge as an obstacle to humanitarian assistance should be immediately sorted out.In a brief virtual address at the UN high-level meeting on the humanitarian…

12 Sep

Veiled protest: Afghan women rally in support of the Taliban

editor0 Commentsinternational

Afghan women wearing full face veils sat in rows at a Kabul university lecture theatre Saturday, pledging commitment to the Taliban's hardline policies on gender segregation. About 300 women -- covered head-to-toe in accordance with strict new dress policies for education -- waved Taliban flags as speakers railed against the West and expressed support for the Islamists' policies.A handful wore blue burqas, which have only a small mesh window to see from, but most wore black niqabs covering most of the face apart from the eyes. The women attended an event at a university, in which women speakers spoke in…

09 Sep

Islamabad teachers banned from wearing jeans, some Pakistanis are calling it Talibani

editor0 CommentsEducation, international

Education authorities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi have issued a formal dress code and new restrictions on the teaching and non-teaching staff. The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which oversees more than 400 schools and colleges in Islamabad, has banned female teachers from wearing jeans and tights during office timings. According to a notification issued by FDE Director Academics and Quality Assurance Saadia Adnan, all subject staff have been asked to maintain a formal dress code while on the official workspace, institutional premises, during official gatherings and ceremonies and meetings alike. A letter in this regard was sent to the principals…

06 Sep

Former France, PSG defender Jean-Pierre Adams dies 40 years after falling into a coma

editor0 Commentsinternational, Sports

The former France defender Jean-Pierre Adams has died at the age of 73, almost 40 years after falling into a coma as a result of a medical error, his former clubs, Paris St-Germain and Nîmes, said on Monday. In 1982, Adams was administered a near fatal dose of anaesthetic before a routine knee operation, which caused brain damage. The Dakar-born Adams won 22 caps for Les Bleus in the 1970s, forming with Marius Tresor what was known as ‘the Black Guard’. He played for Nîmes from 1970-73 and for PSG from 1977-79 after joining from Nice. Since the accident, Adams…

04 Sep

Google locks Afghan govt accounts as Taliban seek access to emails: Source

editor0 Commentsinternational

Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter, as fears grow over the digital paper trail left by former officials and their international partners. In the weeks since the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan from a U.S.-backed government, reports have highlighted how biometric and Afghan payroll databases might be exploited by the new rulers to hunt their enemies. In a statement on Friday, Alphabet Inc's Google stopped short of confirming that Afghan government accounts were being locked down, saying that the company was monitoring the situation in…

30 Aug

Want to continue our political, trade ties with India: Taliban leader Stanekzai

editor0 CommentsBusiness, India, international

In what is being seen as a signal to India, a member of the Taliban leadership in Qatar has said that India is “very important for this subcontinent” and that his group wants to continue Afghanistan’s “cultural”, “economic”, “political” and “trade ties” with India “like in the past”. This overture was made by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, deputy head of Taliban’s office in Doha, in a carefully scripted statement that he read out in Pashto in a 46-minute video message broadcast Saturday on the group’s social media platforms and Afghanistan’s Milli Television. In a nearly 46-minute video posted on the…

27 Aug

Situation in Afghanistan ‘critical’, govt committed to full evacuation of Indians, says S Jaishankar

editor0 CommentsIndia, international

India's top priority at the moment is to evacuate all Indian personnel from Afghanistan, where the situation is "critical", said Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday at an all-party meeting.“Our focus is on evacuation and the government is doing everything to evacuate people," Jaishankar said. The government is committed to "full evacuation" of Indians from Afghanistan, where the situation is "critical", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday after briefing the leaders at an all-party meet on the Afghan situation. During the meeting, which lasted for about three and a half hours, Jaishankar said the government has…

25 Aug

Afghan nationals must enter India only using e-Visa: MHA

editor0 Commentsinternational

Owing to the present situation in Afghanistan, all Afghan nationals henceforth must travel to India only on e-visa, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday. "Keeping in view some reports that certain passports of Afghan nationals have been misplaced, the previously issued visas to all Afghan nationals who are presently not in India stand invalidated with immediate effect,” said an MHA statement. The Ministry said after streamlining of the visa process with the introduction of “e-Emergency X-Misc visa”, it had been decided that from now on all Afghan nationals must travel to India only on e-visa. Earlier, the…