Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's former president Hamid Karzai on Sunday urged the U.S. administration to return his country's assets.

"Holding Afghanistan's money on any name is unfair and unjust. That money belongs to the people of Afghanistan ... I am calling on President Joe Biden to return the money to the people of Afghanistan," Karzai told a press conference here.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s former president on Sunday called a White House order to unfreeze $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the U.S. for families of 9/11 victims an atrocity against the Afghan people.

Former President Hamid Karzai at a packed news conference sought the help of Americans, particularly the families of the thousands killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to press President Joe Biden to rescind last week’s order. He called it “unjust and unfair,” saying Afghans have also been victims of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

KABUL, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's central bank on Saturday criticised Washington's plan to use half the bank's $7 billion in frozen assets on U.S. soil for humanitarian aid and set aside the rest to possibly satisfy lawsuits over the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

U.S. administration officials said on Friday they would work to ensure access to $3.5 billion of the assets would benefit the Afghan people, amid calls for the money to be used to address a deepening economic crisis since the Taliban seized power last year. 

KABUL, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Abdul Salam Rahimi, state minister for peace of the former government, has returned to Afghanistan, the Afghan caretaker government said on Saturday.

Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi along with several other senior officials welcomed Rahimi in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Saturday, the government said in a statement.

Many Afghan security forces and civil servants left Afghanistan following the takeover by the Taliban.

Kabul, Feb 12 (AP) The Taliban released two foreign journalists working with the U.N. refugee agency and several of the aid organization's Afghan staff on Friday, UNHCR said, hours after news broke about their detentions in the capital, Kabul.

The announcement followed a tweet by the Taliban-appointed deputy minister of culture and information, Zabihullah Mujahid, who said they were detained because they didn't have documents that properly identified them as UNHCR. Mujahid said they were freed after their identities were confirmed.

QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- One person has been confirmed dead and 14 others were injured after an explosive device went off in front of the main mosque in western Afghanistan, the provincial health chief Mohammad Asif Qanet said Friday.

Qanet said the dead and the 14 wounded, with one in critical condition, have been taken to hospital following the blast that took place at the main gate of the mosque in Qala-e-Naw city, capital of western Afghanistan's Badghis province.

Four children were among the injured, the official added.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Only five hospitals in Afghanistan still offer COVID-19 treatment, with 33 others having been forced to close in recent months for lack of doctors, medicines and even heat. This comes as the economically devastated nation is hit by a steep rise in the number of reported coronavirus cases.

06 Feb 2022; MEMO: Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss a variety of issues ranging from regional security to economic cooperation, Anadolu Agency reported.

This was the first meeting of the two leaders since Khan's visit to China in October 2019, said a statement from the Pakistani premier's office.

Khan travelled to China on Thursday to attend the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 74 children died following an outbreak of measles in Afghanistan's northern province of Badakhshan, a provincial official said Sunday.

"There had been pockets of measles cases across several Badakhshan districts, including Kuf Ab, Darwaz, Kohistan as well as provincial capital Faizabad city and its outskirts in the past two months. At least 74 children died after being infected with the disease in Kuf Ab and Kohistan districts," Maazudin Ahmadi, head of the provincial Information and Culture Directorate, told Xinhua.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Fifty affiliated militants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group surrendered in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, a provincial official said on Sunday.

"A total of 50 members of the IS group give up fighting and surrendered to intelligence authorities in Nangarhar on Sunday," Mohammad Bashir, head of the provincial intelligence office, told reporters.

He said the surrendered militants were active in Khogiani, Chaparhar, Shiwa, Rodat, Mumand Dara and Kot districts of Nangarhar, a known IS militants' stronghold.