WORLD
Videos show Afghan civilians being tortured, murdered by Taliban
The Embassy said it has collected the recordings from several parts of Afghanistan, which have recently fallen back under Taliban control as Western forces withdraw from the conflict-hit nation. The deeply distressing videos show civilians being beaten, tortured and murdered.
UN Secretary General 'grieves' death of Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui
Guterres is "concerned" about "the increasing threat to journalists in Afghanistan", Haq said at his daily briefing on Friday. Siddiqui's death "is also an example of the particular problems that we're facing in Afghanistan right now", he said referring to the rise in Taliban attacks after President Joe Biden pulled US troops out of the country ending the 20-year presence there.
'Pandemic of the unvaccinated': US Covid cases rising in all 50 states
More than 160 million Americans are already vaccinated but Covid-19 is now surging in all 50 states, riding on the delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. Virus maps and models are awash in red. Emergency room physicians are wringing their hands over the mixed signals on masks earlier in the season.
Taliban fired mortars on Salma Dam, symbol of Afghan-India friendship
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam (Salma Dam) with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani at Chist-e-Sharif in Herat province in Western Afghanistan in June 2016. "Salma Dam will be destroyed if the militants continue to fire rockets," it said, adding that some of the rockets had landed near the dam, Afghanistan Times reported.
Anti-Indian violence was planned, says South Africa President
Protests broke out a day after Ramaphosa's predecessor Jacob Zuma, who wields support among the poor and loyalists in the governing African National Congress (ANC), began a 15-month jail term for refusing to testify to a corruption investigation. The agitations quickly turned into looting as crowds pillaged shopping malls and warehouses, hauling away goods even as the police stood by, seemingly powerless to act.
Taliban active in Pakistan too, retain links with Al Qaeda
Locals and eyewitnesses on the ground with knowledge of Taliban activities in Pakistan have confirmed to VOA that the militants enjoy sanctuaries in Pashtun areas of Balochistan province. The resident, who did not want to be named because he fears retaliation by the militants, said some residents of the town of Kuchlak are in the ranks of the Taliban.
WHO to fix 'errors' in its Covid origin probe report
The WHO had, in March, concluded in a report that a laboratory leak was "extremely unlikely". The report, which also carried details of early Covid patients in Wuhan, showed some errors. The official China National Genomics Data Center (NGDC) database says patient S01 began to exhibit symptoms on December 16, 2019, a week later than the December 8 onset recorded in the WHO report.
4 Afghan security personnel, 63 Taliban militants dead in recent violence
In Samangan province, four security forces were killed in a Taliban attack on the Rabatak security checkpoint on Thursday night, Reduction in Violence, a local independent monitoring group, said on social media. Also on Thursday night, the Afghan Air Force (AAF) targeted a Taliban gathering on the outskirts of Sari Pul city, capital of northern Sari Pul province,
UK Carrier Strike Group reaches Indian Ocean region
Following a series of successful engagements and operations in the Mediterranean, it is now sailing East across the Indian Ocean towards India. It will then meet with ships from the Indian Navy to conduct routine maritime exercises. The deployment represents the UK's commitment to deepening diplomatic, economic and security ties with India and in the Indo-Pacific region.
WHO raises alarm over surging Covid deaths in Africa
In a statement on Thursday, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said that the limited supply of oxygen and manpower in the already overwhelmed critical care facilities has fuelled the fatalities in the continent, reports Xinhua news agency. "Deaths have climbed steeply for the past five weeks. This is a clear warning sign that hospitals in the most impacted countries are reaching a breaking point," Moeti said.
Don't Miss
Advertisement