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Resistance fighters in Afghanistan’s last anti-Taliban bastion say they are ready to fight if their homes in the mountainous Panjshir valley are threatened. The historic region is the last stronghold of resistance in the country. (Agence France Presse)
by David FOX Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Taliban fighters advanced deep into the last holdout province of Panjshir Sunday, as the top US general warned Afghanistan faces a wider civil war that would offer fertile ground for a resurgence of terrorism. Following their lightning fast rout of Afghanistan’s army last month — and celebrations when the last US troops flew out after 20 years of war on Monday — the Taliban […]
by David FOX Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban were expected to form a government as early as Friday with the new regime under intense international scrutiny over its vow to rule Afghanistan with greater tolerance, especially on women’s rights. The announcement of a new administration could be made after Friday afternoon prayers, two Taliban sources told AFP, as the Islamists shift gears from insurgent group to governing power, days after […]
by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA JAIPUR, India (AFP) — Faizuddin is still traumatized from the lightning strike that killed his three friends as they took selfies atop a 400-year-old fort in India, where climate change is making lethal strikes more common. Scores of people have met similarly gruesome ends this year in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where deaths caused by thunderstorms used to be uncommon. “I was hit by three thunderbolts, one after the other,” […]
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday he will not run for re-election as party leader this month, effectively ending his tenure after just one year, his party’s secretary general said. Suga announced his intention to resign at an emergency meeting of senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Toshihiro Nikai told reporters. “Today at the executive meeting, (party) president Suga said he wants to focus his efforts on anti-coronavirus measures and will not […]
Climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years disproportionately impacting poorer countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said on Wednesday. According to the agencies’ Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, from 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards accounted for 50 per cent of all disasters, 45 per cent of […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan received its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, a delivery organized by two tech giants and a charity because of diplomatic pressure from China. The 930,000 doses are the first of 15 million jabs acquired by Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as well as Buddhist charity Tzu Chi foundation, in deals with a China-based distributor after months of wrangling. Despite donations of several million doses from […]
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel reopened its schools Wednesday after the summer break but the coronavirus forced many students to stay home amid an infection surge fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Of the 2.4 million children due to attend educational institutions from kindergarten to high school, 250,000 were kept home on the first day of school, said the education ministry. Some 90,000 of them were infected with Covid or in quarantine, a ministry spokeswoman […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lankan government officials on Wednesday raided private warehouses to seize thousands of tonnes of sugar, a day after a state of emergency was declared over food shortages caused by a currency crisis. A military officer put in charge of efforts to bolster food stocks said at least 13,000 tonnes of white and brown sugar were found in the raids. “The objective is to prevent hoarding,” Major General Senarath Niwunhella, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Moderna said Wednesday that tainted batches of its Covid-19 vaccine sent to Japan were contaminated with stainless steel particles, but the company did not expect it posed “an undue risk to patient safety.” The US biotech firm is facing major setbacks in Japan, with hundreds of thousands of doses suspended following reports of foreign substances detected in vials. Authorities are also investigating the deaths of two men who received doses […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over food shortages as private banks ran out of foreign exchange to finance imports. With the country suffering a hard-hitting economic crisis, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he ordered emergency regulations to counter the hoarding of sugar, rice and other essential foods. Rajapaksa has named a top army officer as “Commissioner General of Essential Services to coordinate the supply of paddy, rice, […]
GUWAHATI, India (AFP) — Flood waters rose Monday across northeastern India, where hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the roofs of their homes or have fled to higher ground as more torrential rain fell. Incessant downpours for more than a week forced the Brahmaputra and other major rivers to burst their banks across Assam and Bihar states. Up to two metres (6.6 feet) of water has submerged many villages. Experts say annual floods […]
