Cash airlifts planned to bypass Taliban, help Afghans
BRUSSELS: As desperate Afghans resort to selling their belongings to buy food, officials are preparing to fly in cash for the needy while avoiding financing the Taliban government, according to people familiar with the confidential plans. Planning for the cash airlifts is going ahead against the background of a rapidly collapsing economy where money is […]
Tensions with China highest in decades, says Taiwan minister
TAIPEI: Military tensions between China and Taiwan are at their highest in four decades, the island’s defence minister warned on Wednesday, adding Beijing would be in a position to launch a full-scale invasion in 2025. Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the self-ruled democratic island as its territory to […]
UN report warns of global water crisis amid climate change
GENEVA: More than five billion people could have difficulty accessing water in 2050, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, urging leaders to seize the initiative at the COP26 summit. Already in 2018, 3.6 billion people had inadequate access to water for at least one month per year, said a new report from the UN’s World […]
World leaders scramble to limit Pandora Papers damage
NEW YORK: World leaders were on the defensive on Monday after the release of millions of documents detailing how heads of state use offshore tax havens to stash assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Thirty five current and former leaders are featured in roughly 11.9 million documents leaked from financial services companies that include […]
Nine killed as cyclone lashes Oman, Iran
MUSCAT: At least nine people were killed in Oman and Iran on Sunday as tropical Cyclone Shaheen pummelled parts of their coastlines, authorities said. In Oman, two people died in a landslide and a child in flash flooding, officials said. Rescue teams pulled the bodies of two Asian workers from their home hit by a […]
Taliban raid IS hideout north of Kabul
KABUL: Taliban fighters raided a hideout of the militant Islamic State (IS) group north of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing and arresting an unspecified number of militants, a Taliban spokesman said. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, there has been an increase in attacks by IS militants targeting Taliban members. The Taliban […]
Taliban order fighters out of Afghan homes they took over
The Taliban on Thursday ordered their fighters to leave private homes they had taken over during last month’s blitz when the group seized control of Afghanistan, an apparent effort to impose order among Taliban ranks. Meanwhile, in the capital of Kabul, the Taliban fired shots to disperse a women’s rally demanding equal rights while the regional chief […]
Top Rohingya leader in Bangladesh shot dead
COX’S BAZAR: Unidentified assailants shot dead a top Rohingya community leader in a refugee camp in the Bangladesh resort district of Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. Mohibullah was talking with other refugee leaders outside his office after attending prayers when four assailants came to the spot and shot him dead, according to a police spokesman. “Four […]
Mother and son reunited in Bangladesh after 70 years
DHAKA: A Bangladeshi man in his 80s has been reunited with his nearly 100-year-old mother after about 70 years thanks to social media. Abdul Kuddus Munsi was sent to live with his uncle when he was about 10, but lost touch with his family after running away and being adopted by two sisters. “This is […]
China’s power crunch spreads, shutting plants, dimming growth outlook
BEIJING: Widening power shortages in China have halted production at numerous factories including many supplying Apple and Tesla, while some shops in the northeast operated by candlelight and malls shut early as the economic toll of the squeeze mounted. China is in the grip of a power crunch as a shortage of coal supplies, toughening […]
