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KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban will attend a U.N. climate conference for the first time since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the country’s national environment agency said Sunday. Matiul Haq Khalis, the agency’s head, said the delegation would use the conference to strengthen cooperation with the international community on environmental protection and climate change, share Afghanistan’s needs regarding access to existing financial mechanisms related to climate change, and discuss adaptation and mitigation efforts. Experts told The Associated Press that climate change has led to numerous and negative impacts on Afghanistan, creating serious challenges because of the country’s geographical location and weak climate policies. Professor Abid Arabzai, from Kabul University, said the climate conference would help to secure international assistance and funding to address Afghanistan’s climate challenges. “Afghanistan can clarify its climate actions and commitments to the global community, enhancing its international reputation,” Arabzai said.

Persons: Matiul Haq Khalis, ”, Hayatullah Mashwani, Abid Arabzai, ” Arabzai Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency, Associated Press, Kabul University Locations: KABUL, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Baku, Kabul

CNN —At least 30 people were killed and another 40 injured in two different explosions in Balochistan province on Wednesday, a day before Pakistan’s general elections. The blasts took place in the Killa Saifullah district outside an election office belonging to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and in the Pishin district near the office of an independent candidate. According to police, a large number of workers were in the office at the time of the explosion. Those injured in the Pishin blast have been taken to hospital, Medical Superintendent Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Dr. Habib Ur Rehman said. The blasts come amid rising tensions in Pakistan ahead of Thursday’s election.

Persons: Pakistan’s, Saifullah, Yasir Bazai, Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Abdul Wasay, Asfand Yar Kakar, Pishin, Dad Mandokhail, Habib Ur Rehman, Liz Throssell, Amaq Organizations: CNN, Jamiat Ulema, UN, Human Rights, Islamic, ISIS Locations: Balochistan, Saifullah, Jamiat, Pishin, Quetta, Pakistan, Islamic State Pakistan Province

☆ Pakistan's Civil, Military Leaders to Review Iran Standoff -Minister
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

By Asif ShahzadISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders will carry out a security review on Friday regarding the standoff with neighbouring Iran, the information minister said, following their strikes on each other with drones and missiles. Pakistan's Thursday strikes on separatist militants inside Iran were a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar will chair a meeting of the National Security Committee at which the review is to be done, with all the services chiefs in attendance. It aims at a "broad national security review in the aftermath of the Iran-Pakistan incidents," the minister, Murtaza Solangi, told Reuters by telephone. (Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Writing by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Persons: Asif Shahzad, Anwaar ul Haq, Murtaza Solangi, Sudipto Ganguly, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Caretaker, National Security, Reuters Locations: Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD, Iran, Tehran, Pakistan, Israel

☆ Israel-Hamas War Indonesia Calls for More Pressure on Israel After Deadly Hospital Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Sui-Lee Wee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Retno Marsudi, the Indonesian foreign minister, in Beijing this week. Indonesia’s foreign minister condemned on Tuesday an attack on a hospital in the Gaza Strip as a “violation of international humanitarian law” and called on other nations to step up pressure on Israel. The attack on the Indonesian Hospital killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens, according to two members of the hospital staff and the Gaza health ministry, which blamed Israel. The strike on the Indonesian Hospital dominated the front pages of the country’s newspapers and news sites on Tuesday. The Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, was built in response to the Gaza war of 2008.

Persons: Retno Marsudi, ”, Israel, Joko Widodo, Biden, Mr, Rofiul Haq, Reza Aldilla Kurniawan, Farid Zanzabil Al Ayubi, Sarbini Abdul Murad, Basem Naim, Retno, ” Hasya Nindita Organizations: Indonesian Hospital, Emergency, Indonesian, Israel Locations: Beijing, Gaza, Israel, Indonesia, Jakarta, Washington, United States, Beit Lahia, Malaysia

☆ Pakistan PM says expulsion of Afghans a response to Taliban non-cooperation
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Last month, Pakistan set a Nov. 1 start date for the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Kakar said 15 suicide bombings in recent months had been carried out by Afghans, and dozens of Afghans had been killed in clashes with Pakistani security forces. A spokesman for the Taliban administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There has been a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants in Pakistan since talks between Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistani state broke down in 2022. Kakar said that Pakistan had communicated to the Taliban administration that it had to "choose between Pakistan and the TTP".

Persons: Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Kakar, Gibran Peshimam, Alex Richardson Organizations: United Nations, Caretaker, Taliban, Thomson Locations: Afghan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Balochistan Province, Chaman, ISLAMABAD, Western, Islamabad, U.S, Tehreek, Taliban Pakistan, Pakistani

☆ Pakistan joins China's club of lunar base partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Pakistan has joined China's expanding club of partners in an ambitious project to build a research station on the moon's south pole. Jointly with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar witnessed the signing of an initial cooperation agreement in Beijing on Wednesday. The China National Space Administration said on Friday cooperation would cover areas including the engineering and operational aspects of the Chinese lunar base programme. China, which aims to become a major space power by 2030, has already secured cooperation from Russia, Venezuela and South Africa. It has fixed a target to land its astronauts on the moon by the end of this decade.

Persons: Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Ryan Woo, Deborah Kyvrikosaios Organizations: Chinese Premier, China National Space Administration, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, Pakistan, Beijing, China, Russia, Venezuela, South Africa, U.S

☆ China Ready to Boost Pakistan Ties but Urges Security Guarantee -Xi
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is willing to strengthen co-operation and promote solidarity with Pakistan but has urged it to guarantee the safety of Chinese organisations and personnel working there, China's foreign ministry said, quoting President Xi Jinping. China is a major ally and investor in Pakistan but both separatist and Islamist militants have attacked Chinese projects over recent years, killing Chinese personnel. "We hope the Pakistani side will guarantee the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan," the ministry cited Xi as telling Kakar. Separatist insurgents in Pakistan's resource-rich Balochistan province say China has ignored warnings not to enter deals with the Pakistani government. China has also warned of the danger or Islamist militants in Pakistan.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Kakar, countries.China, Liz Lee, Robert Birsel Organizations: Initiative, Wednesday Pakistan, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Separatist Locations: BEIJING, China, Pakistan, Beijing, Pakistani, Balochistan

Standing on top of a mound of sand, he locates his home – or rather, what little is left of it. “Obviously our current situation is visible.”He reveals that the deadly earthquake which struck Afghanistan on October 7 had taken more than his family home away from him. “The situation in Afghanistan was already extremely dire,” said Mawlawi Mutiul Haq Khales of the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Her seven children were killed in the earthquake. “I was sitting at home when the earthquake struck… and I dragged my children out of the house,” Rana said.

Persons: CNN — Zaher, ”, Ebrahim Noroozi, Mawlawi Mutiul Haq, Stephanie Sinclair, “, Fatima, …, Rana, ” Rana, ” Siddig Ibrahim, ” Ibrahim, Shah Bibi’s Organizations: CNN, “ Boys, Global, Red Crescent Society, “, UN, International, UNICEF Afghanistan’s, Field Locations: Afghanistan, Herat, It’s, Herat province, “ Afghanistan

[1/2] Lawyers, some of them look on television screen, dispaying the live broadcast of the proceeding from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, at the Sindh High Court Bar Association in Karachi, Pakistan September 18, 2023. The move marks the beginning of the tenure of new Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa as Pakistan's top judge. Isa's first move as the top judge was to open proceedings for live broadcast. "It is a majority consensus decision to telecast live," Isa said at the start of proceedings shown live by state-run broadcaster Pakistan Television. Previous attempts to broadcast proceedings live had been blocked by the court.

Persons: Akhtar Soomro, Qazi Faez Isa, Isa, Umar Ata Bandial, Isa's, Shehbaz Sharif, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Imran Khan, Faiz Hameed, Asif Shahzad, Mark Potter Organizations: Court Bar Association, REUTERS, Rights, Pakistan Television, Inter - Services Intelligence, Former, Thomson Locations: Pakistan, Sindh, Karachi, Rights ISLAMABAD

PESHAWAR/KABUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The main Afghanistan-Pakistan land border crossing reopened on Friday after being closed for nine days following firing between guards on both sides, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters. Thousands of travellers and hundreds of trucks laden with goods were left stranded last week by the closure the Torkham border crossing, at the western end of the fabled Khyber Pass. Spokespersons for Pakistan's foreign ministry and the Afghan authorities in Nangarhar province confirmed the reopening of the crossing. "The border closure was causing huge losses to traders and common people of the two neighbouring countries," Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. The Taliban foreign ministry criticised the closure of the crossing and said Pakistan security forces had fired on its border guards as they fixed an old security outpost.

Persons: It's, Abdul Nasir Khan, Torkham, Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Mushtaq Ali, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Gibran Peshimam, Tom Hogue, Gerry Doyle, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Reuters, Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Thomson Locations: PESHAWAR, KABUL, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Pakistan's Khyber, Nangarhar province, Pakistani, Peshawar, Jalalabad, Nangarhar, Kabul, Torkham

The renewed discussion hasn’t done much to revive the prospects of Japan’s own Communist Party, however. Mr. Saito is not a fan of the group, which he sees as well-meaning but stale. And even in rich nations, he does not call for people to give up their creature comforts. He recently moved into a three-story home in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo and drives a compact Toyota. Achieving degrowth communism, he believes, is less about personal choices and more about changing overarching political and economic structures.

Persons: Saito, Mahbub ul Haq Organizations: Communist Party, Chinese Communist Party, Toyota, United Nations Locations: Soviet Union, Tokyo, G.D.P

Children receive first aid after they were rescued from the stranded chairlift, in Battagram, Pakistan August 22, 2023. "I can't tell you what we experienced yesterday when one cable of the cable car suddenly snapped and we were stranded in the air," said Faraz, who at 20 years old was the only adult aboard, and the only person with a cell phone. The journey by cable car usually took just a matter of minutes, whereas travelling on the rough mountain roads and tracks takes hours. "Our first priority was to secure the children," caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar said, describing the feat as "near impossible". Those prayers were answered for Faraz and the children.

Persons: Gul Faraz, Faraz, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Kakar, Mushtaq Ali n, Asif Shahzad, Simon Cameron, Moore, Andrew Heavens Organizations: REUTERS Acquire, Commandos, Geo, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Battagram, Pakistan, PESHAWAR, Jhangri, Battangi, Karachi, Mushtaq Ali n Peshawar, Islamabad

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —Battling anxiety and nausea, they huddled together in the ruptured cable car, gripped by fear as they dangled precariously hundreds of feet in the air. A soldier slings down from a helicopter during a rescue mission to recover students stuck in a cable car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan on August 22. As they waited to be rescued, two of the students in the cable car were slipping in and out of consciousness, one of the passengers told Pakistani outlet Geo News. Battagram district, where the cable car is located, is deeply impoverished and lacks infrastructure and development. Last December, 12 children were rescued from another cable car in eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Persons: Tanveer Ur Rehman, “, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar Organizations: Pakistan CNN, AFP, Geo, Battagram, Twitter, Cable Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Batangi, Battagram, Battagram district

The two Christians were accused of blasphemy, he said, adding they and family members had fled their homes. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan and though no one has ever been executed for it, numerous accused people have been lynched by outraged crowds. A Christian leader, Akmal Bhatti, said the crowd had "torched" at least five churches and looted valuables from houses that had been abandoned by their owners. Several social media posts showed some churches, houses and belongings on fire as police stood by. The mob was made up of thousands of people led by local clerics, mainly from an Islamist political party called Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a government source said.

Persons: Naveed Ahmad, Shakil Masih, Usman Anwar, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Akmal Bhatti, Asif Shahzad, Angus MacSwan, Nick Macfie Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, REUTERS Acquire, Caretaker, Thomson Locations: LAHORE, Pakistan, Jaranwala, Faisalabad, Islamabad

☆ Taliban leader endorses Elon Musk's Twitter, accuses Mark Zuckerberg's Threads of having an 'intolerant' policy on free speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Haley Tenore | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Anas Haqqani, a Taliban official, said Twitter is more committed to "free speech" than its rivals. Haqqani's father founded the Haqqani Network, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. The Taliban was designated a terrorist group more than a decade earlier, following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "The Taliban wanted to counter their propaganda and that's why we too focused ourselves on Twitter," the Taliban member said. "Social media is a powerful tool to change public perception."

Persons: Anas Haqqani, Haqqani's, Haqqani, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, El Pais, Critics, Musk, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Hedayatullah Hedayat, Abdul Haq Hammad Organizations: Taliban, Twitter, Haqqani Network, Service, El, Haqqani, Radio Free, Radio Liberty, National Counterterrorism Center, Meta, Facebook, BBC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Turkey, India, Radio Free Europe, Afghanistan, WhatsApp

It is not the end of our relationship with the IMF though, as the SBA is a short-term bridging operation. GARETH LEATHER, SENIOR ASIA ECONOMIST AT CAPITAL ECONOMICS, LONDON"The agreement of a loan deal between Pakistan and the IMF should put the economy back on a more secure footing and limit the biggest downside risks. There is a strong risk that Pakistan reneges on the deal once the immediate crisis has passed. Our target shall be that the next IMF programme should be the last one and it would be a great opportunity to correct our fiscal account once and for all." "Things would have been much better if successive governments would have invested in completing the IMF programme.

Persons: MURTAZA SYED, GARETH, Shehbaz Sharif, ABDUL ALEEM, SHERANI, SHAHBAZ ASHRAF, MAHA RAHMAN, ZAFAR MASUD, MUSTAFA PASHA, SHAHID HABIB, ARIF HABIB, ZULQARNAIN, MOHAMMED SOHAIL, AHFAZ MUSTAFA, ISMAIL IQBAL, SAJID AMIN JAVED, Ariba Shahid, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Monetary Fund, South, IMF, BANK OF PAKISTAN, SBA, State Bank, EFF, Capital, UL HAQ, OF PUNJAB, Pakistan, ARIF, Thomson Locations: Pakistan, ASIA, KARACHI, ISLAMABAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN

☆ India train crash: Family hopes DNA test will help claim for body
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Francis Mascarenhas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Four days after the disaster, Haq has found no trace of his brother, who was travelling with the boys. "We are left with no option but to do a DNA test to determine whose body it is. The whole process takes really long," a distraught Haq told Reuters at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), one of the main hospitals in Odisha's capital of Bhubaneswar. Authorities had taken DNA samples from all the dead bodies in hospitals across the state, senior police official Prateek Singh told reporters on Tuesday. "In cases where there are multiple claimants, we have taken DNA samples from family members and we will preserve the bodies until the DNA matches," Singh told local media.

Persons: Imam Ul Haq, Tavseer Ansari, Francis Mascarenhas, Mohammed Imam Ul Haq, Haq, Prateek Singh, Singh, Francis Mascerenhas, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Bernadette Baum, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, Francis Mascarenhas BHUBANESWAR, Reuters, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Authorities, Thomson Locations: Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, Odisha's, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

☆ Russian oil slashes OPEC's share of Indian market to 22-year low
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

OPEC's share shrank as India, which in the past rarely bought Russian oil due to high freight costs, is now the top oil client for Russian seaborne oil, rejected by Western nations following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. India's oil importsIndia shipped in about 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil in 2022/23, the data showed, about 23% of its overall 4.65 million bpd imports. Higher intake of Russian oil boosted the share of Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.) India's oil imports from various regionsIn March, India shipped in nearly 5 million bpd of oil, marginally higher than the previous month, with Russian oil accounting for about 36% of overall imports, the data showed. "OPEC's output cut decision is helping Russia as well," said Haq, adding the planned supply cut has lifted global oil prices and at the same time narrowed the discounts for Russian oil against Brent and Dubai benchmarks.

☆ The Taliban bought Twitter's $8 a month blue ticks. They appear to have been removed after outrage.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Twitter accounts of at least two Taliban officials were sporting blue ticks on Monday, per the BBC. That sparked an outrage and by Tuesday, the ticks appear to have been removed. The BBC reported Monday that the Twitter accounts of at least two Taliban officials and four well-known supporters of the regime were sporting the checkmarks. It's unclear if Twitter removed the blue badges from the Taliban-linked accounts, or if the account owners unsubscribed from the Twitter Blue service. Twitter Blue is a paid subscription service that charges users for a blue checkmark next to their account names and offers early access to certain features.

☆ Indonesia’s Mount Semeru erupts, burying homes in volcanic debris
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash nearly 5,000 feet into the sky Sunday. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported. Hundreds of rescuers were deployed Monday in the worst-hit villages of Sumberwuluh and Supiturang, where houses and mosques were buried to their rooftops by tons of volcanic debris. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone, including from Sumberwuluh village. People were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.

☆ Pakistan suicide blast targeting police kills 3, wounds 28
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta targeted a police patrol on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 28, police said. "A bomb blast that targeted a police patrol wounded more than 30 people, including 15 police," a police official, Abdul Haq, told Reuters. The patrol had been guarding a polio vaccination team at the time of the suicide blast, he added. Islamist militants in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams, in the belief that the immunisation effort is a Western tool to spy on them. Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where both Islamist and separatist insurgents operate.

☆ India's Iraqi oil imports fall to lowest in 20 months - trade sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

India's oil imports from No. India will continue to buy Russian oil as it benefits the South Asian nation, foreign minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday, days ahead of the U.S. Treasury Secretary's visit to New Delhi for talks on issues including a cap on Russian oil prices. West African oil is priced against Atlantic Basin benchmark dated Brent, whose values have narrowed against Middle East marker Dubai. In contrast, African grades accounted for about 12% of India's imports, rising from 7%. India's oil imports from various regionsIndia's oil imports from various regionsIndia's oil importsReporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India's October fuel demand rises on festive season boost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Consumption in October was 6.7% higher than the previous month, while also up 3.4% year-on-year at 18.37 million tonnes, the data showed. read moreIndian state fuel retailers' diesel sales also surged in October from the previous month, preliminary sales data showed last week, indicating a pickup in industrial activity. read moreSales of gasoline, or petrol, were up 8.8% from 2021 at 2.99 million tonnes, while diesel rose 5.5% at 6.98 million tonnes, the PPAC showed. Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales decreased 3.3% to 2.40 million tonnes, while naphtha sales fell 24% to 0.96 million tonnes. Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 11.4% lower, while fuel oil use edged up 1% in October.

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