Russia is interested in building a railway through Afghanistan as part of efforts to expand transport links with countries in the Global South, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said.
Iran has invited the Taliban’s labour and social affairs minister to Tehran to discuss expanding bilateral cooperation, including job creation, labour market access, vocational training and the management of migrant affairs.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the arrest of an Islamic State member in Pakistan was carried out based on intelligence provided by the Taliban, describing the group as a “sinister phenomenon” whose safe havens must be dismantled.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum says Indian investors have expressed interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mining sector, particularly in copper and iron extraction.
Iranian border authorities have confirmed that 10 Afghan migrants died from hypothermia while attempting to cross into Iran amid severe winter conditions.
Rapualla Ahmadze, an Afghan refugee, was sentenced on Tuesday to nine years in prison in Scotland after being convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl. Police said the attack took place in a park in Scotland in October last year.
Local sources say the Taliban’s Directorate for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Khost has ordered government press officers and spokespersons to stop giving video interviews to the media.
India has said it will meet Afghanistan’s pharmaceutical needs over the long term, signalling a move to reduce the country’s dependence on medicine imports from Pakistan.
An Iranian pharmaceutical industry official has warned that drug smuggling to neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan, is contributing to serious medicine shortages in Iran.
The Taliban Supreme Court says more than 1,000 people were sentenced to prison by its military courts over a three-month period this year.
Security sources told Afghanistan International on Monday that one of the suicide attackers involved in the assault on the Wana military college in South Waziristan, Pakistan, was an Afghan national identified as Janullah Ayubi.
A group of Pakistani clerics meeting under the banner of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam criticised the Afghan Taliban for denying girls access to education, saying the policy has no basis in Islamic law.
Germany has relocated a further 141 Afghan refugees from Pakistan, nearly four years after the fall of Kabul, as part of efforts to complete long-delayed admissions promised by a previous government.
Former Afghan interior minister Omar Dawoodzai has criticised comments by Pakistan’s army chief, saying the Taliban represent only a small fraction of Afghanistan’s population and should not be equated with the Afghan people.
Several government employees in Khost province say the Taliban have detained them for up to 24 hours and then dismissed them from their jobs for having what officials deem to be short beards.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Public Works says the Salang Pass, which had been closed due to storms and heavy snowfall, has reopened.
Taliban courts have publicly flogged at least 11 people in Kabul on drug-related charges, sentencing them to between 10 and 39 lashes and prison terms ranging from seven months to three years.
Opposition parties in Pakistan have voiced concern over deteriorating relations between Islamabad and the Afghan Taliban and called for disputes to be resolved through dialogue.
Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, has warned the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that no threat to Pakistan’s security and sovereignty will be tolerated, claiming that about 70 percent of the group’s fighters are Afghans.
The World Food Programme says malnutrition among women and children in Afghanistan is increasing, with growing numbers seeking treatment at health centres each day.
Iranian authorities say security forces have rescued more than 2,000 Afghan migrants who were stranded by heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures in border areas between Iran and Afghanistan.
The Taliban Supreme Court said 17 people were publicly flogged in Kunar province after being convicted on charges including drug use and same-sex relations between men.