Taliban

Since the Taliban returned to power, Afghan women have been barred from going on long trips, travelling by plane or entering government buildings unless they are accompanied by a man.

Under the Taliban government's austere interpretation of Islamic law, the "mahram" practice long rooted in Afghan society has become compulsory.

Roya carefully spoon-feeds her daughter fortified milk in a ward for malnourished children, praying the tiny infant will avoid a condition that stalks one in ten young children in Afghanistan after decades of conflict.

The nine-month-old had been hospitalised three times already in remote Badakhshan province because her mother had trouble breastfeeding.

Russia announced its efforts to remove the Taliban from its list of banned terrorist organizations. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Tuesday that there are crucial matters to address with Afghanistan's Taliban leadership, emphasizing the need for dialogue due to the Taliban's de facto authority in the country, Reuters reported.

Finland remained the world's happiest country for a seventh straight year in an annual U.N. sponsored World Happiness Report published on March 20.

And Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.

Compared to the previous year, Türkiye has climbed eight places in the list and is now ranked 98th.

PRAGUE - Former Czech President Milos Zeman has reiterated the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) as well as the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surrender of power to the Taliban were NATO's two fundamental mistakes.

In a chilling display of authority, the Taliban carried out a double public execution at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan, shocking thousands of spectators who witnessed the killing of two convicted individuals.

A Taliban official said journalists were committing "a major sin" by taking pictures, Afghan media reported yesterday.

Television and pictures of living things were banned under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been imposed since authorities took back power in Afghanistan in 2021.

A bomb targeting a polio protection team in northwestern Pakistan Monday killed at least five police officers, officials said.

"A police truck transporting around 25 policemen for anti-polio campaign duties was targeted by an IED (improvised explosive device)," Anwar ul Haq, a senior government official in Bajaur district, told AFP.

In a concerning trend, more than 3,000 Afghan nationals have been repatriated to Kabul from Turkey over the past 20 days, marking a significant uptick in deportation efforts, as reported by Afghan news agency Khaama Press. The head of the Ministry of Refugees' Legal Support Directorate shared this information, revealing that the deportees included seven families and seven children.

Poppy cultivation and opium production have plunged 95 percent in Afghanistan since Taliban authorities banned the crop, according to a U.N. report published Sunday.

Since returning to power in 2021, Taliban authorities have vowed to end illegal drug production in Afghanistan and in April 2022 banned the cultivation of the poppy plant, from which opium and heroin are made.