WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his former political foe, Abdullah Abdullah, on Friday to discuss Washington’s support for Afghanistan as the last US troops pack up after 20 years of war and government forces struggle to repel Taliban advances. Biden, seated beside Ghani and Abdullah in the Oval Office, […]
KUNDUZ: Fear stalked Kunduz on Thursday as residents prepared for a lengthy siege, with Afghan forces patrolling the streets and Taliban surrounding the northern city. The Taliban have held the city twice in recent years — both times briefly — but have now captured the surrounding districts and the main border crossing with Tajikistan. “The […]
Suspected Taliban fighters fired a rocket into a hospital in Afghanistan on Wednesday, sparking a blaze that caused extensive damage and destroyed Covid-19 vaccines though there were no reports of casualties, government officials said. In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban captured the town of Shir Khan Bandar, a dry port on the border with Tajikistan, sending […]
YANGON: Four protesters and at least two officers were killed as Myanmar soldiers battled an anti-junta civilian militia with small arms and grenades in the country’s second city on Tuesday, authorities and military sources said. Fighting has flared across Myanmar since the February coup as people form “defence forces” to battle a brutal military crackdown […]
JAKARTA: Indonesia passed two million coronavirus cases on Monday as infection rates soar and hospitals are flooded with new patients, prompting warnings that the Southeast Asian nation’s health crisis could spiral out of control. The unwanted milestone came after daily case rates more than doubled in recent weeks and authorities identified the presence of highly […]
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden looks forward to welcoming Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, to the White House on June 25, the White House announced on Sunday. “The visit will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown […]
KABUL: The Covid-19 pandemic is spiralling out of control in Afghanistan, with cases rising 2,400 percent in the past month, hospitals filling up and medical resources quickly running out, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Thursday. More than a third of tests last week came back positive, the IFRC […]
Britain is looking at easing travel restrictions, including allowing those who are double vaccinated against Covid-19 to enjoy a foreign holiday without intrusive red tape, a step that indicates vaccine passports are firmly back on the agenda. Countries in the European Union (EU) last week agreed to an easing of travel restrictions over summer that will allow […]
Israeli aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes at sites in the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, the first such raids since a shaky ceasefire ended 11 days of violence last month. The airstrikes targeted facilities used by Hamas fighters for meetings to plan attacks, the Israeli military said, blaming the group for any act […]
ISTANBUL: Just a day before his first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will be the ‘only reliable’ country left to stabilise Afghanistan after the United States pulls out its troops from the landlocked country, indicating Washington can rely on its Nato ally. Erdogan also said […]