Asia

US tells citizens to avoid Kabul airport due to ‘security threats’

The United States on Saturday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates. The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on “counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group. Conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic amid the crush […]

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Viral footage of US Marine aiding baby captures Kabul chaos

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A heart-breaking video showing a US Marine lifting a baby over a razor wire-topped wall at Kabul’s airport caught global attention Friday, amid the chaos of thousands trying to flee Afghanistan newly controlled by the Taliban. The video, which shows the infant, its diaper slipping off, being pulled up by one arm high above a crowd of Afghans seeking to enter the airport, took over social media nearly one week […]

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US Afghan evacuations stall as receiving base overflows: Pentagon

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US officials confirmed that evacuation operations from Afghanistan stalled for several hours Friday because the receiving base in Qatar was overflowing and could not receive evacuees. US airlift flights out of the Kabul airport stopped for around seven hours as thousands of Afghans already flown to a US base in Qatar overwhelmed its capacity, said Major General Hank Taylor. That left thousands more Afghans already cleared to leave their […]

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Taliban revenge fears grow in Afghanistan

  by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban are going house-to-house searching for opponents and their families, according to an intelligence document for the UN that deepened fears Friday Afghanistan’s new rulers were reneging on pledges of tolerance. After routing government forces and taking over Kabul on Sunday to end two decades of war, the hardline Islamist movement’s leaders have repeatedly vowed a complete amnesty as part of a well-crafted PR blitz. Women […]

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Defiant Afghans wave flags amid fears of Taliban crackdown

by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Defiant protesters waved Afghan flags at scattered rallies Thursday to mark the country’s independence day, as a UN document suggests the Taliban are rounding up people placed on a blacklist for working with the Afghan government, or US-led forces. As the small-scale demonstrations unfolded, the son of the nation’s most famous resistance fighter vowed to take up arms against the Islamist hardliners, who are back in power after […]

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Kabul evacuees touch down in UAE on way to new life in UK

by Mohamad Ali Harissi DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Dozens of evacuees from Afghanistan waited nervously to board a Britain-bound Royal Air Force plane during a stopover in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday after fleeing the Taliban takeover. At Dubai’s Al-Maktoum airport, a steady stream of aircraft ferrying passengers from Kabul and onwards to Britain shuttled back and forth as London stepped up its evacuation efforts. Dozens of exhausted passengers waited at one […]

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Afghan woman news anchor stopped from working after Taliban takeover

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — An Afghan woman journalist has said she was barred from working at her TV station after the Taliban took control of the country, and pleaded for help in a video posted online. Wearing a hijab and showing her office card, well-known news anchor Shabnam Dawran said “our lives are under threat” in the clip on social media. Under the Taliban’s regime from 1996 to 2001, women were excluded from public life, […]

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Israel to begin Covid booster shots for over 40s

JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israelis aged 40 and over will be able to receive coronavirus vaccine booster shots starting this weekend, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Thursday, as the country battles a spike in infections. Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December via an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness. The inoculation campaign was hailed as […]

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Taliban pledge to be ‘different’, as Afghans flee

by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban have offered a pledge of reconciliation, vowing no revenge against opponents and to respect women’s rights in a “different” rule of Afghanistan from two decades ago. The announcements came on Tuesday night shortly after the return to Afghanistan of their co-founder, crowning the group’s astonishing comeback after being ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001. With huge concerns globally about the Taliban’s brutal human rights record […]

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Taiwan needs to be ‘stronger’ after US Afghanistan exit: president

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Afghanistan’s return to Taliban rule following the withdrawal of US forces shows Taiwan needs to be “stronger and more united” in ensuring its own defense, President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday. Democratic Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion from authoritarian Beijing which views the island as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize it. Washington remains Taiwan’s most important unofficial ally and is bound […]

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Israel tightens restrictions as virus cases leap

JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel on Wednesday, after the largely vaccinated country saw the highest daily infection rate since January. The measures, announced Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces, including restaurants and bars, cultural and sports venues, hotels and gyms, the health ministry said. The same applies to worshippers wishing to enter synagogues, mosques […]

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URGENT: Tsunami alert issued after 6.8-magnitude quake by Vanuatu: US monitors

A US monitor issued a tsunami alert Wednesday after a large 6.8-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Vanuatu. The earthquake was recorded at a depth of 91 kilometres and was about 340 kilometres (210 miles) northwest of the capital Port Vila, the US Geological Survey said. Hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 300 kilometres of the epicentre, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said in a preliminary assessment. © Agence France-Presse  

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