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☆ Afghanistan earthquakes kill 2,053, Taliban says, as death toll spikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-08 | by ( Mohammad Yunus Yawar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Amid the confusion, the death toll from Saturday's quakes spiked from 500 reported on Sunday morning by a Red Crescent spokesperson and 16 from Saturday night. The quakes hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one measuring 6.3 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. Mullah Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, told Reuters 2,053 people were dead, 9,240 injured and 1,329 houses damaged or destroyed. Bodies had been "taken to several places - military bases, hospitals," Danish said. Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by William Mallard and Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Mullah Janan Sayeeq, Danish, Naseema, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, William Mallard Organizations: Red Crescent, U.S . Geological Survey, Ministry, Reuters, Thomson Locations: KABUL, Afghanistan, Herat, U.S, Kabul

CNN —A series of powerful earthquakes struck western Afghanistan on Saturday killing at least 100 people and wounding more than 500 others, according to the UN’s humanitarian office, as the nation reels from another natural disaster at a time of deep economic crisis. The 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Herat city in the western Herat province – the third largest in Afghanistan. The initial quake was also felt in neighboring provinces of Badghis and Farah and was followed by multiple aftershocks. A deadly quake in March struck northeastern Afghanistan, sending residents fleeing from their homes as it brought down entire buildings and triggered devastating landslides. And a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on January 17, 2022 struck Badghis, another western province near Herat bordering Turkmenistan, killed more than 20 people and reduced hundreds of brick homes to rubble.

Persons: Farah, “, OCHA, Mohsen Karimi Organizations: CNN, UN Office, Humanitarian Affairs, UN, Getty, Bank Locations: Afghanistan, Herat, Herat province –, Badghis, Herat City, AFP, United States, freefall, New Delhi, Khost, Pakistan, Turkmenistan

☆ At least 15 dead in Afghanistan earthquakes, official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( Mohammad Yunus Yawar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KABUL, Oct 7 (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed and 40 injured after multiple earthquakes struck western Afghanistan on Saturday, a disaster management official told Reuters. The quake registered a magnitude of 6.3, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, with subsequent quakes striking 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat. The casualty figures are based on primary reports from the Zinda Jan district of Herat province, said Mullah Jan Sayeq, spokesperson for Afghanistan's ministry of disaster management. He added that the earthquakes had also shaken the provinces of Farah and Badghis, where there are reports of widespread damage to houses, but no details about casualties there yet. Emergency teams and volunteers are preparing to go Herat and help victims, Erfanullah Sharafzoi, spokesperson for the Afghan Red Crescent said.

Persons: Jan Sayeq, Erfanullah Sharafzoi, Crescent, Naseema, Rishabh, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Giban Peshimam, Edwina Gibbs, William Mallard Organizations: Reuters, U.S . Geological Survey, Afghan, Thomson Locations: KABUL, Afghanistan, U.S, Herat, Herat province, Farah, Badghis, Bengaluru, Kabul

☆ Over 300 killed in back-to-back earthquakes in Herat, Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ UN says Taliban carried out hundreds of extrajudicial killings after seizing power
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Taliban fighters have committed hundreds of extrajudicial killings since taking power in Afghanistan in 2021, despite a “general amnesty” meant to protect the previous government, according to the United Nations. International rights groups and bodies like the UN have accused the Taliban of unwinding progress in protecting human rights since seizing power. In interviews conducted with UN officials, individuals recounted beatings with pipes, cables, verbal threats and abuse at the hands of Taliban security force members. “Former government and security officials are entitled to the same human rights protections as all Afghans.”Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the Taliban to punish offenders. “Afghans were able to regain their country, freedom, government and will,” Taliban deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi previously told CNN.

Persons: “, ”, Volker Turk, Abdul Khaliq, ’, Alia Azizi, hasn’t, UNAMA, ” Turk, Amir al, Hibatullah Akhundzada, Bilal Karimi, Roza Otunbayeva, ” Otunbayeva Organizations: CNN, Taliban, United Nations, United Nations Assistance, Afghan National Army, police, National Directorate of Security, UN, Human Rights, NATO, Taliban’s Locations: Afghanistan, Kabul, Herat, Emirate

☆ The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh Ehsan Popalzai Antonio Jarne Lou Robinson | Eliza Mackintosh | Ehsan Popalzai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“Currently we don’t have security in Afghanistan at all, whenever we go out we don’t know if we will come home alive or not,” he added. Taliban security forces guard a checkpoint near the foreign ministry in Kabul on March 27, after an ISIS-K suicide bomber struck the site. The data, which is available in a live map, includes 367 pieces of open-source evidence — largely videos and images shared on social media — about 70 ISIS-K attacks since August 2021. As the Taliban try to minimize the threat ISIS-K poses, attacks on civilians continue. Taliban security forces have been waging ongoing operations and night raids against ISIS-K.

Life has become solitary confinement.” Some women went into hiding, fearing retribution after the Taliban seized power. When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, women were among the most profoundly affected. A Wrenching Change Afifa, 47, wishes more Afghan men would fight for women’s rights KABUL, Afghanistan — Walk around the capital, Kabul, and it often feels as if women have been airbrushed out of the city. When the Taliban seized power, girls’ schools remained open in a kind of limbo — neither officially sanctioned nor forbidden — for months. Zubaida, 20, teaches high school girls in secret “Regimes come and go all the time in Afghanistan.

☆ Taliban seeks economic self-sufficiency and foreign investment for Afghanistan, minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Mohammad Yunus Yawar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KABUL, Jan 2 (Reuters) - The Taliban administration will encourage self-sufficiency and wants international trade and investment, the acting commerce minister said, as Afghanistan faces isolation and suspension of some humanitarian operations over restrictions on women. Another part of their strategy was to boost trade and foreign investment, he said. He said that countries including Iran, Russia and China were interested in trade and investment. Already facing a lack of formal recognition and sanctions hampering the country's banking sector, investors are faced with growing security concerns after attacks on foreign targets in Kabul, claimed by the Islamic State. He added that foreign investors were showing interest in Afghanistan's mining sector, which has been valued at more than $1 trillion.

☆ Major aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan AS Taliban bar women
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four major international aid groups on Sunday suspended their operations in Afghanistan following a decision by the country’s Taliban rulers to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations. Excluding women from schools and NGO work in Afghanistan “can and will lead to catastrophic humanitarian consequences in the short to long term,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned. Half of Afghanistan’s population, or 24 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the group. The International Rescue Committee said it was dismayed by the Taliban decision, adding that more than 3,000 of its staff in Afghanistan are women. The Economy Ministry’s order comes days after the Taliban banned female students from attending universities across the country, triggering backlash overseas and demonstrations in major Afghan cities.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government on Saturday ordered all local and foreign nongovernmental organizations to prevent female employees from reporting to work, in the latest restrictive move against women’s rights and freedoms in the country. The order was made in a letter written in Persian by Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, Abdur Rahman Habib, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Economic Ministry, told NBC News. Afghan women protest against a new Taliban ban on women accessing university education on Thursday in Kabul, Afghanistan. Getty ImagesForeign governments, including Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Turkey, condemned the university ban, which also led to criticism and protests inside Afghanistan. In the western city of Herat on Saturday, Taliban forces used water cannons to disperse women protesting the ban on university education, Reuters reported.

☆ Taliban ban women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Taliban government on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to suspend employing women, allegedly because some female employees didn't wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women working at the NGOs. More details were not immediately available on the latest Taliban ban amid concerns that it could be a stepping-stone to more restrictive measures against women in Afghanistan. Also Saturday, Taliban security forces used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the ban on university education for women in the western city of Herat, eyewitnesses said. Afghan women have since demonstrated in major cities against the ban, a rare sign of domestic protest since the Taliban seized power last year.

☆ Taliban carry out first public execution since Afghan takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban authorities on Wednesday executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents took over Afghanistan last year, a spokesman said. The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban government spokesman. The executed man, identified as Tajmir from Herat province, was convicted of killing another man five years ago and stealing his motorcycle and mobile phone. Taliban security forces had arrested Tajmir after the victim’s family accused him of the crime, said a statement from Mujahid, the spokesman. During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.

☆ Taliban ban women from parks, morality ministry says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Afghan women will no longer be allowed in parks, a spokesperson for the Taliban's morality ministry said, in part because they had not been meeting its interpretation of Islamic attire during their visits. "Unfortunately, the owners of parks didn't co-operate with us very well, and also the women didn't observe hijab as was suggested. However, the Taliban have said women should wear long flowing clothes that cover their bodies and also cover their faces, such as the all-enveloping burqa. Some women in Kabul and other urban centres do not cover their faces in public and others wear a surgical face mask. The Taliban say they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Talibanii au preluat controlul asupra districtului Shenkai din sudul provinciei Zabul, după o săptămână de lupte grele şi un asediu asupra districtului, conform informaţiilor furnizate de consilierii locali Asadullah Kakar şi Abdul Rahman Hotak, potrivit dpa, citată de Agerpres. Militanţii talibani au reuşit să taie toate căile de aprovizionare înainte de a-l cuceri, au spus oficialii. De asemenea, districtul Gizab din sudul provinciei Uruzgan a intrat vineri sub controlul talibanilor după o luptă prelungită cu forţele de securitate, au spus membrii consiliului local din provincia învecinată Daikundi. Talibanii au capturat deja patru districte, inclusiv unul din apropierea capitalei Kabul, de la începutul lunii mai. Talibanii au intensificat atacurile asupra capitalelor provinciale, centrelor raionale şi a bazelor mai mari de securitate în urma retragerii forţelor internaţionale din Afganistan, proces început pe 1 mai.

Persons: Talibanii, Kakar, Abdul Rahman, Jan Mohammad, Ahmad Karokhi Organizations: Agerpres Locations: Shenkai, Zabul, Gizab, Uruzgan, Daikundi, Deh Yak, -, Farsi, Herat, ţării, Kabul, Afganistan

☆ Afghanistan is being overrun by crystal meth
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-07 | by ( Ali Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The US is leaving behind a flourishing, violent trade in heroin and crystal meth in Afghanistan. HERAT, Afghanistan — For weeks, Afghan police had been staking out a single-family house they believed was being used as a meth lab. Afghanistan's drug trade generates an estimated $35 million a month for the Taliban and drug gangs. A mysterious grassIn 2017, rumors circulated in western Afghanistan that a mysterious form of grass had been found to contain the key ingredient in crystal meth. "So long as this war continues, the drug trade will continue to grow bigger and bigger.

☆ Meet Afghanistan's fearless Gen Z influencers, who are blowing up on TikTok and have more Instagram followers than the president
▼ + stars: | 2021-03-05 | by ( Ali Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

A group of women in Afghanistan are breaking through as Gen Z influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. More Afghans are online, and dozens of Afghan women have 50,000 or more followers on at least one social platform. A generation of Afghan women in their 20s have mastered the art of living their lives on social media. The 26-year-old posts several times a day, and she has more followers on Instagram than the country's president, Ashraf Ghani. Ayeda Shadab photographed at the ancient Citadel in Herat, Afghanistan.

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