DHAKA: Bangladesh is suffering through its deadliest surge of the pandemic, but you wouldn’t know it looking at its factories, markets and malls. The South Asian nation home to 165 million people has done away with most virus restrictions, allowing businesses to reopen to enthusiastic crowds following weeks of strict measures put in place following the arrival of the highly …

KABUL: Gunmen flanked an Islamic scholar as he delivered a fiery speech on Friday to a packed Kabul mosque at the most important prayers of the week — the first since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan five days ago. The preacher rallied the faithful at the Abdul Rahman Mosque with a history lesson on how Afghans had beaten the …

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a call for experts to join a new advisory group its forming, in part to address the agency’s fraught attempts to investigate how the coronavirus pandemic started. In a statement on Friday, the UN health agency said the new scientific group would provide the WHO with an independent analysis of the work …

PARIS: The Panjshir Valley north of Afghanistan’s capital is the final major centre of resistance to the Taliban, but analysts say the fighters gathered there will struggle if the hardliners launch a full-scale attack. Surrounded by the high peaks of the Hindu Kush north of Kabul, the Panjshir has long had a reputation as a bastion of resistance — legendary …

BENGALURU: Afghanistan’s economy could shrink by as much as 20 per cent this year and its currency may slide further than it already has following the Taliban’s takeover, Fitch Solutions said on Friday. The Taliban seized power last weekend from a US-backed government, sending thousands fleeing and potentially heralding a return to the militants’ austere and autocratic rule of two …

ISLAMABAD: Visiting Afghan political leaders have called for an all-inclusive political settlement in their country through power sharing and a decentralised government. The Afghan leaders believe that any monopolistic setup was bound to fail. The visiting delegation comprised Mir Rehman Rehmani, Salahuddin Rabbani, Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, Ustad Mohammad Karim Khalili, Ahmad Zia Massoud, Ahmad Wali Massoud, Abdul Latif Pedram and …

MOSCOW: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their sharply different views of Russia’s treatment of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, democratic values and other major topics of dispute Friday, but vowed to maintain a dialogue. The talks, as Merkel prepares to step down following elections next month, coincided with the first anniversary of Navalny’s poisoning, an …

The Taliban will be accountable for its actions and will investigate reports of reprisals and atrocities carried out by members, an official of the group told Reuters on Saturday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the group planned to ready a new model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks. It has been just a week since …

WASHINGTON: The United States has said that it wants Pakistan and China to help evolve “some sort of political settlement” in Afghanistan even though the Taliban now effectively control the country. Asked at a Thursday afternoon news briefing what Washington wanted from Pakistan now, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States wanted all neighbouring states to help …

KARACHI: Protesting over what he called an “unjust” distribution of water by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday demanded that the federal government intervene in the matter and ensure distribution of water as per 10-daily allocations. “Sindh has faced 35 per cent water shortage in early Kharif; therefore, people of Sindh should …