Officials in Afghanistan said Monday at least 21 security forces have died in the latest Taliban attacks, and a planned prisoner swap with the insurgent group has been delayed again.
The deadliest violence occurred in northern Takhar province where Taliban fighters assaulted several government outposts in Khawja Ghar district Sunday night. A provincial government spokesman, Khalil Assir, told VOA the raid killed 14 Afghan forces and a civilian. Separately, the Defense Ministry has confirmed the death of six Afghan soldiers in overnight clashes with the Taliban in the Arghandab district of southern Zabul province. The ensuing clashes also “inflicted heavy casualties” on the assailants.
The Taliban did not immediately offer any comments on the incidents. At least four people were also wounded when a bomb attached to a small truck exploded early morning in the capital, Kabul. No one claimed credit for plotting the bombing. Prisoner swap delayed
The latest violence comes as a spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council confirmed that a long-awaited prisoner swap process, which was supposed to start on Tuesday, has been delayed.
“There is no prisoner release happening tomorrow. [The] Taliban agreed in the video conference yesterday to send a team to Kabul to hold further technical discussions with the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” said Javid Faisal.The two sides have been speaking to each other through videoconferences because of the looming coronavirus threat in Afghanistan. An understanding reached last week had required a Taliban delegation to travel to Bagram airbase north of Kabul and verify their inmates before Afghan authorities would set them free. The prisoner swap is one of the key provisions in the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed on Feb. 29, requiring Kabul to release up to 5,000 insurgent prisoners in exchange for 1,000 detainees, mostly Afghan security forces, in Taliban custody. According to the pact, the process will kickstart peace negotiations between Taliban leaders and an Afghan team of political groups and civil society on negotiating a sustainable cease-fire and power-sharing in Afghanistan. The dialogue, which was supposed to begin March 10 at a neutral venue has been derailed because of mutual differences on the prisoner swap process. The Taliban, citing its agreement with Washington, demands all its prisoners to be freed before it engages in peace talks. But the Afghan government insists on a gradual release of inmates in small batches, subject to the progress in the dialogue. For its part of the agreement with the Taliban, the U.S. has begun a “conditions-based” reduction in U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The accord requires Washington and allied troops to withdraw from the country in 14 months.
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Month: March 2020
Ukraine Parliament Approves Firing of Finance, Health Ministers
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the firing of Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy and Health Minister Illya Yemets just weeks into their mandates, but failed to approve new candidates to the posts.At an extraordinary session on March 30, lawmakers also failed to approve the first reading of a revised 2020 state budget that takes into account the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.Umanskiy and Yemets became ministers on March 4 when parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s cabinet shuffle.A reason for their firing was not given.Serhiy Marchenko was proposed as the new finance minister, but his approval fell three votes shy of the 226 needed in the legislature. The revised state budget for 2020 also failed by the same tally.The nomination of Maksym Stepanov as health minister also failed when he received 217 votes, nine short of what he needed.The budget draft will now return to lawmakers for revision.
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Kyrgyzstan Cancer Patients Make Face Masks to Fight COVID-19
A group of cancer patients in Kyrgyzstan is working to meet the demand for protective surgical masks while earning funds to help pay for their treatments.The group is organized by an association known as “Together for Life,” established in July 2019. Originally, the group made handbags and purses as a kind of therapy, as well as financial aid for women overcoming cancer.But once the demand for masks increased, the president of the group, Aigul Kydyrmysheva, told The Associated Press that they received permission from the Ministry of Health to switch to making the protective gear.Kydyrmysheva said they market their products through social media and that while bigger factories can produce masks faster, many customers have turned to them, understanding that their profits go to a good cause. The group works nearly round-the-clock, making as many as 1,000 masks a day, which earns them about $2,500 a month. In turn, they have been able to allocate about $770 a month to offset cancer treatment drugs.
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If Coronavirus Hits Libyan Detention Centers It Would be a ‘Massacre’
While much of the world is under orders to practice social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus, there are certain places where such distance is impossible. Overcrowded migrant detention centers, particularly those in Libya, are among the places most at risk for an outbreak. With dozens of people sharing a room and little access to running water, these makeshift centers can be a breeding ground for disease in normal times. A highly contagious airborne virus like coronavirus could spread at lightning speed, say experts. “Once coronavirus will spread in these detention centers, we are going to witness a massacre,” Giulia Tranchina, a human rights lawyer based in London who represents asylum seekers, told VOA. Tranchina said most of the camps in Libya are former animal stables or hangars where migrants must sleep on the floor or on mattresses packed tightly together. She cited the example of the Dhar El-Jebel detention camp in the mountains south of Tripoli, where 22 migrants died in one year. “Because of the lack of food, water sanitation and lack of any medical care, so they all died of tuberculosis and starvation,” said Tranchina, who is in direct contact with some of the refugees in Libya. “So, we can imagine what will happen once coronavirus will spread in these detention centers.” ‘Torture camps run by traffickers’Figures about how many migrants are in Libya are difficult to come by. A study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated there are between 700,000 and 1 million migrants in the country. The U.N. estimated there are about 3,000 refugees and migrants in detention centers. Tranchina said the official numbers do not tell the whole story. Many migrants are held in even worse conditions than those in the official centers and are unaccounted for. “There are a lot of detention centers run by the militias and the [opposition] forces in the territories that they control,” she said. “And then there are hundreds of torture camps run by traffickers who are torturing people for ransom, raping them and enslaving them for many years. And we have no access to these people. No U.N. agency has access to these people.” Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is one organization on the ground giving medical care to migrants. But they are unable to meet the overwhelming need. In May 2019, doctors visited the Dhar El-Jebel detention center and called the conditions “catastrophic” saying the tuberculosis outbreak had been raging for months without treatment. “We’ve been calling repeatedly and continuously for the closure of these detention centers and the end of arbitrary detention,” Sacha Petiot, MSF head of mission in Libya told VOA. Petiot said a lasting solution would require an opening of temporary shelters where migrants could be safe. He also said there must be agreements by safe, third-party countries to resettle the migrants. To date, such agreements have been hard to get. “For the moment, these resettlement slots in the European and Western countries are very limited. We’re talking about 2,000 slots on average by the year,” Petiot said. “While the general population of registered refugees and asylum seekers is over 46,000, which means that there is a huge lag. There is a bottleneck.”
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UK’s Prince Charles, 71, Out of Self-Isolation, in Good Health
British heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who had tested positive for coronavirus, is out of self-isolation after seven days and is in good health, his spokesman said on Monday. Last week, his Clarence House office revealed that Charles, 71, had been tested after displaying mild symptoms of the virus and had been in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland where he had continued to work. After consultation with his doctor, he is now out of self-isolation, Clarence House said. He will resume meetings and take exercise in accordance with government and medical guidelines. However, his wife Camilla, who tested negative for coronavirus, will remain in self-isolation until the end of the week in case she too develops symptoms. Buckingham Palace has previously said Queen Elizabeth, who left London for Windsor Castle on March 19 along with her 98-year-old husband, Philip, is in good health.
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Group Stranded in Honduras Over Virus Concerns Back in WVa
Members of a church group gobbled fast food upon their return to West Virginia after becoming stuck in Honduras for two weeks during a mission trip.Sixteen members of the Morgantown Church of Christ arrived back home early Friday, The Dominion Post reported.”We all sat down and ate Wendy’s cheeseburgers when we got back to the airport,” church member Devinne Sparks said.The mission trip that was supposed to last a week turned into 14 days when the new coronavirus pandemic prompted the Honduran government to shut its borders.Church elder Richard Moore said the group learned Thursday that despite the Honduras border shutdown, empty United Airlines planes were being allowed to land to retrieve U.S. citizens.The group spent $20,000 for tickets, and “they doubled in price in just the time we were on the phone,” Moore said. “If we would have waited another three or four hours, it would have been over $45,000.”The church group boarded a plane Thursday afternoon. Moore said he was surprised no one mentioned checking the health of the group members, who will self-quarantine for 14 days.Sparks said the group plans to build its finances back up and return to Honduras.For now, the 22-year-old and her mother, Cynthia Shultz, have to spend even more time apart. “She’s in quarantine, but we saw each other through the door today,” Shultz said Friday. “I’m just so much happier today — so much more at peace.”
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25 Indian Family Members Contract COVID-19
Twenty-five members of an Indian family from Sangli in Maharashtra have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a Press Trust of India report. The account said four family members who had been in Saudi Arabia tested positive for the virus on March 23. A week later, 21 more family members, including a two-year-old boy also tested positive. India officials blame the quick transmission of the virus on the family’s tight living quarters. Collector Abhijeet Chaudhari told PTI, “These 25 patients belong to a big family living in a congested housing set up and because of that, they got infected.” Local authorities say there was no community transmission of the virus. Officials say the four who had been in Saudi Arabia came back to India through the Mumbai airport on March 12 before screening for the virus had begun. A list of Sangli residents who had recently returned from foreign locations did not include the names of the four family members, local officials said. I “These four people were traced during our own checking here,” C .S. Salunkhe, a district civil surgeon, told PTI. Last week India began a 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the densely populated South Asian nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the country for “forgiveness” for the lengthy shutdown during a radio address Sunday. “But these are special circumstances,” he said. “This is a battle for life and death.” India has 1,071 confirmed cases of the virus, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday.
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Britain on Emergency Footing for First Time Since WWII
Britain is on an emergency footing for the first time since World War II. The move means the British government is setting up what it calls strategic coordination centers across the U.K. to distribute supplies to citizens to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. There are more than 22,000 British confirmed cases of coronavirus – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles are among them. More than 1,200 have died. The government’s deputy chief medical officer says the lockdown could last as long as six months but says if people do as they’re told and conditions improve, the lockdown and other restrictions can start to be eased.Prince Charles tests positive for Coronavirus. Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Intelligence Agencies, visits the Headquarters of GCHQ, on July, 12, 2019.In Moscow, the lockdown is just getting started. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says beginning Monday, people will be allowed out of their homes only to shop for food and medicine, takeout the garbage, walk the dog, or for urgent medical care. Police will issue special passes to those who cannot work from home. Moscow reports 1,000 cases and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is telling worshippers to pray at home “before someone dies.” While the number of cases in Italy – the European epicenter – slowed slightly for the second straight day Sunday, Spain’s death toll rose 838 overnight Sunday – a record climb for that country which, like Italy, remains on total lockdown. In Asia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked that country’s poor to forgive him for the difficulties that country’s lockdown is causing them. He acknowledged the steps he ordered are harsh and knows people are angry with him. “But these tough measures were needed to win this battle,” he said Sunday. With a population of 1.3 billion, India’s lockdown is by far the world’s largest, leaving countless millions with no food or homes. Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is banning public gathering of more than two people. The state government says people should leave their homes only under “exceptional circumstances.” Australia’s nationwide death toll stands at 4,000.A nurse speaks with patients at the door of a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) clinic opening at Mount Barker Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, March 17, 2020.Syria Sunday reported its first confirmed coronavirus death, but human rights groups warn of a looming catastrophe, saying the country’s war-torn health care system is ill-equipped to handle an outbreak among refugees. Also Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has extended the government’s recommended guidelines for social distancing for another 30 days. The U.S. has the world’s biggest number of confirmed cases. Finally, in Brazil, a federal judge has banned the government’s social media campaign that downplayed the coronavirus threat. President Jair Bolsonaro’s “Brazil Can’t Stop” campaign said there was no need for most Brazilians to lock down inside their homes. “I’m sorry, some people will die, they will die, that’s life,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview.
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UK’s Prince Harry, Wife Meghan, do not Need US Help for Security Costs, Spokeswoman Says
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have no plans to ask the U.S. government for help with security costs, the couple said in a statement on Sunday in response to a tweet from President Donald Trump that the United States would not pay for their protection.In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties and according to media reports, recently relocated to Los Angeles. Earlier on Sunday, Trump tweeted: “Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”A spokeswoman for the couple said later in a statement: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”The duchess, Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry, the grandson of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, in 2018, criticized Trump during his 2016 election campaign as misogynistic and divisive.Last year, Trump, on being told of Meghan’s criticism, said: “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.” But he also wished her well in her new life as a British royal.The couple stunned the royal family in early January with an announcement they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals, in order to gain freedom from the intense media scrutiny that has followed them for several years.They had been living for several months with their son, Archie, on Vancouver Island in Canada.Britain’s Sun newspaper reported last week that the couple took a private flight to Los Angeles, but did not say when. Earlier this month, the United States and Canada agreed to close their border to non-essential travel at land crossings to ease the strain on health systems caused by the coronavirus.Meghan Markle was raised in the Los Angeles area and her mother, Doria, still lives there. Walt Disney Co said last week that Meghan had narrated a nature documentary that will be released on its Disney+ streaming platform on Friday.Last month, Canada said it would no longer provide security once the couple were no longer working members of the British royal family.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been assisting London’s Metropolitan Police with security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “intermittently” since November, when the couple began a six-week vacation in Canada, Reuters reported in February.
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Belarus Does Not Give Up on Football
Football leagues around the world have canceled soccer games for the foreseeable future as one of the measures to slow a rapid COVID-19 spread. But soccer, or football, as it is called in much of the world, continues to be played in Belarus where the number of confirmed infections is still relatively low.The country’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the virus scare as overblown and has advised his people to continue business as usual, especially agriculture. Local media published photos of the Belarus president playing ice hockey.Top Belarusian football division, Vysheyshaya Liga, is run by the Belarusian Football Federation and currently includes 16 teams. The country has never excelled in soccer and has never qualified for the World Cup or the European football championships.But with sports fans around the world deprived of their favorite pastime, Belarus is getting attention and signing broadcasting contracts with a growing number of countries to carry their games. People in India and Israel, not just neighboring Russia, could soon become familiar with members of teams such as FC Minsk or Dinamo Minsk and their individual styles.Belarus soccer fans hope the exposure will inspire their teams to play better and qualify for the next UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) champions league. UEFA Championship is also known as the European Cup.The spokesman for the Belarus Football Federation Aleksandr Aleinik said the organization is respecting the recommendations by the Sports Ministry. “All those who are in contact with fans were given protective gloves,” he said. But images of fans from some of the games Saturday show very few wearing masks and some of them cheering without any shirts on.The outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has been especially deadly for the northern city of Bergamo. The unprecedented toll has been traced to a February football match in Milan. More than 2,000 fans traveled from Bergamo to Milan to watch the Atlanta vs. Valencia match at Milan’s San Siro Stadium February 19. As they chanted in the packed stadium it is believed they picked up the new coronavirus strain and took it home to Bergamo. Two days later, Italy confirmed the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19. Six weeks later, Italy reported that the number of deaths from the coronavirus had topped 10,000. Bergamo is struggling to bury and cremate the number of bodies after several hundred people sometimes die in one day. European football leagues have canceled local soccer matches until at least the end of April to help slow the rapid spread of COVID-19. The European championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021 because the domestic competition cannot be completed in time for this summer.Most European countries have locked their borders and ordered closures of schools and all but essential businesses. People are asked to stay at home, gather in very limited numbers, sometimes no more than two, and keep a distance from others when they have to go out. In some cases, governments have imposed strict measures such as curfews and mandatory quarantine. But measures vary from country to country. In Sweden, restaurants and bars in some cities seemed as lively this month as ever, with the government allowing people to choose how to protect themselves. Schools, day care centers, gyms and beauty salons remained open even as they closed in neighboring Denmark and Norway. The government announced tougher measures last week after the number of infections and COVID-19 deaths suddenly soared. But Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said you cannot legislate everything and that individuals also have to take responsibility.Some experts also say that it is counterproductive to impose measures that cannot be sustained for a long period of time. Meanwhile, ordinary people in countries hit by the virus may have to weigh daily the pros and cons of stepping out of the house for weeks or months yet to come.
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Брат ермака продает должности во власти зе-зе-зеленского. Коррупция зекоманды
Брат ермака продает должности во власти зе-зе-зеленского. Коррупция зекоманды.
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Брат главы Офиса президента Украины денис ермак продает должности в органах власти
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Венесуэльский облом: США вдарили по нефтяным костылям мокшандского кремля
Венесуэльский облом: США вдарили по нефтяным костылям мокшандского кремля.
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Российской сказочке о дружбе пукина с мадуро может скоро прийти конец. Как следствие, мокшандия потеряет один из главных каналов поставок нефти
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Опущенный карликовый кремль допилился: газпром в терминальной стадии
Опущенный карликовый кремль допилился: газпром в терминальной стадии
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Нова генпрокурор нищить справу Гандзюк, справи Майдану та захищає лисого дегенерата труханова
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Поговоримо про нового генпрокурора ірину венедіктову та її перші провальні кроки на посаді: спроби знищити справи Майдану та справу Гандзюк та домовленість з аваковим щоб ув’язнити мене
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Trump Says US Will not pay for Security Protection for Prince Harry
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would not pay for security protection for Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who, according to media reports, have settled in Los Angeles.Trump wrote on Twitter that “now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!” In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties.
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Ілля ємець – як діагноз президента зеленського. Нездоровий міністр здоров’я
Ілля ємець – як діагноз президента зеленського. Нездоровий міністр здоров’я
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