Afghanistan

HERAT, Afghanistan, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Police have destroyed a drug processing lab in west Afghanistan's Herat province, provincial police spokesman Abdullah Insaf said Saturday.

Acting on a tip-off, police launched operations in the Gazara district, unearthed a drug processing lab along with objects used in manufacturing heroin, and smashed all on the spot, the official said.

No one was arrested, but efforts are underway to bring to justice anyone involved in running the drug lab, according to the official. 

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jul 3 (NNN-ANA) – Afghan police have arrested seven kidnappers and rescued an abducted man, in the southern Helmand province, officials said today.

“The provincial police personnel launched a series of special operations, arresting seven individuals involved in the abduction of a man, identified as Nimatullah, son of Gul Mohammad, in Musa Qala district of the province,” the provincial information and culture directorate said in a statement.

KABUL, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan people are optimistic about forging ties with China following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, said a recent commentary by Afghanistan's Bakhtar News Agency.

The commentary mooted several fields which are potentially collaborative between Afghanistan and China, including construction, agriculture and education.

"The Afghan people recognize that China can sincerely cooperate with them in various sectors and turn their long-standing dreams into reality," the news agency said.

KABUL, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan caretaker government's Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada said in a message on Sunday that Afghanistan wants good relations with the world but allows no one to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

"Afghanistan wants good political and economic relations with the rest of the world, especially with Islamic countries and has fulfilled its responsibility in this regard," the supreme leader's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid twitted while congratulating Muslims on the arrival of the Eid al-Adha festival.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Properties and goods worth more than 1 million U.S. dollars have been burned to ashes as a hotel caught fire in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, a provincial government official said Thursday.

Qurishi Badlon, a public relations officer of the provincial government, confirmed to Xinhua that the fire broke out in the Chardehi Hotel in Police District 1 of Jalalabad city on Wednesday afternoon, burned the goods and belongings to ashes within an hour.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jun 20 (NNN-ANA) – Afghanistan has reported five polio cases, after a child under five years old was diagnosed with the crippling disease, in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Afghanistan, said.

The case has been registered in Dur Baba district of Nangarhar province, Kamal Shah Sayed, head of the communications department of UNICEF Polio Eradication Programme in Afghanistan, told media.

SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Jun 20 (NNN-ANA) – Afghan police have destroyed around 80 acres of poppy farms and hashish, in Afghanistan’s northern Jawzjan province, over the past two months, an official said, today.

“Over the past two months, during a series of operations, we have destroyed 80 acres of poppy farms and hashish, in seven districts of Jawzjan province, including six acres of hashish farms,” provincial director of counter-narcotics, Mohammad Yunus Akhundzada, said.

TALUQAN, Afghanistan, June 19 (Xinhua) -- At least three commuters were killed and two others injured in two different road crashes in Afghanistan's northern Takhar province, traffic police official Mohammad Nadir said Monday.

In the first accident, a car overturned due to reckless driving in Cha Ab district of Takhar province on Sunday evening, leaving two dead on the spot and two others injured, while minutes later a car collided with another vehicle coming from the opposite direction in the same area, killing one on the spot, the official added.

MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan, Jun 18 (NNN-ANA) – One person was killed, as a mine left over from past wars, went off, in Afghanistan’s eastern Wardak province yesterday, a provincial police officer said, today.

Yesterday afternoon, an Afghan street worker was collecting garbage, on the streets of Maidan Shar city, capital of Wardak province, when an explosive device hidden among the trash exploded, killing the man on the spot, the official said.

A similar accident claimed the life of a child and injured two others in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province, last Monday.

HERAT, Afghanistan, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out at a big market, engulfing nearly 200 shops, in Afghanistan's western Herat province, Abdul Wadood Faizzada, the provincial head of craftsmen union said Saturday.

"The fire broke out at about 3 a.m. local time at Qasr-e-Herat market in 2nd Municipality District of the Herat city, engulfing 200 shops of different commodities, mostly clothes and cosmetics, costing 100 million Afghanis (about 1,163,000 U.S. dollars)," Faizzada told Xinhua.