International - The Purbottar

20 Sep

India To Resume Export, Donations Of Surplus Covid Vaccines Next Month

editor0 CommentsCovid-19, India, International

The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on September 20 said the government will resume exports of COVID-19 vaccine under the Vaccine Maitri initiative from October. Mandaviya told the media that India will resume vaccine exports to fulfil the country's commitment towards the world in the collective fight against COVID. This announcement has come just a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US where the issue of vaccine export was likely going to be raised by US President, Joe Biden. Addressing the media, Mandaviya said that this is an effort to restart the 'Vaccine…

18 Sep

Taliban replace women’s ministry with Ministry of Virtue and Vice, employees locked out

editor0 CommentsInternationalAfghanistan, Women’s safety

The Taliban have replaced the country’s ministry for women with an office for what is known as the group’s moral police, residents of Kabul have said, as videos showed female former employees of the department apparently locked out of the building. Workers in Kabul were photographed on Friday replacing the sign on the women’s ministry building with a new one, which read, in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, “Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”. The Taliban has earlier carried out anti-human rights activities in Afghanistan during its rule between 1996 to…

16 Sep

India, UK aim to start FTA talks by November 1

editor0 CommentsBusiness, India, International

India and the United Kingdom plan to launch negotiations on a trade deal between the two nations by 1 November 2021, the commerce and industry said on Tuesday.Both nations are looking at an interim trade deal by March next year, which will be followed by a comprehensive FTA. The interim deal will involve early concessions on certain key high-priority products and services related to tariffs or market access Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that an interim trade agreement is the first step towards an FTA that would allow both nations to immensely benefit from the early gains of…

14 Sep

India willing to stand by Afghan people as it did in the past: Jaishankar

editor0 CommentsIndia, InternationalAfghanistan, S Jaishankar

With a grave humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, India on Monday said it is willing to stand by Afghans and called for unimpeded access to aid providers to the country as also a "non-discriminatory" distribution of relief supplies across all sections of the society. “Today, I wish to underline that in the face of a grave emerging situation, India is willing to stand by the Afghan people, just as in the past,” he added. The world community must come together to create the “best possible enabling environment” for helping the Afghan people and addressing challenges such as efficient logistics in…

12 Sep

Afghan women rally in support of the Taliban

editor0 CommentsInternationalAfghans, Taliban

Afghan women wearing full face veils sat in rows at a Kabul university lecture theatre Saturday, pledging commitment to the Taliban's hardline policies on gender segregation. About 300 women -- covered head-to-toe in accordance with strict new dress policies for education -- waved Taliban flags as speakers railed against the West and expressed support for the Islamists' policies.A handful wore blue burqas, which have only a small mesh window to see from, but most wore black niqabs covering most of the face apart from the eyes. The women attended an event at a university, in which women speakers spoke in…

09 Sep

Pakistan bans teachers from wearing jeans and t-shirts, no tights for women staffers

editor0 CommentsInternationalPAKISTAN

Pakistan's Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has issued a notification asking women teachers not to wear jeans and tights. The same notification goes on to prohibit male teachers from wearing jeans and t-shirts. A letter in this regard was sent to the principals of schools and colleges by the director of academics on Monday, reported Dawn. The letter asked principals to ensure that each staff member "observes reasonably good measures in their physical appearance and personal hygiene". It goes even further to describe such good measures as a regular haircut, beard trimming, nail cutting, shower and use of deodorant or…

06 Sep

Former France Defender Jean-Pierre Adams Dies After Almost 40 Years In Coma

editor0 CommentsInternational, Sports

The former France defender Jean-Pierre Adams has died at the age of 73, almost 40 years after falling into a coma as a result of a medical error, his former clubs, Paris St-Germain and Nîmes, said on Monday. In 1982, Adams was administered a near fatal dose of anaesthetic before a routine knee operation, which caused brain damage. The Dakar-born Adams won 22 caps for Les Bleus in the 1970s, forming with Marius Tresor what was known as ‘the Black Guard’. He played for Nîmes from 1970-73 and for PSG from 1977-79 after joining from Nice. Since the accident, Adams…

04 Sep

Google locks Afghan government accounts as Taliban seek emails: Source

editor0 CommentsInternationalAfghanistan, Google

Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter, as fears grow over the digital paper trail left by former officials and their international partners. In the weeks since the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan from a U.S.-backed government, reports have highlighted how biometric and Afghan payroll databases might be exploited by the new rulers to hunt their enemies. In a statement on Friday, Alphabet Inc's Google stopped short of confirming that Afghan government accounts were being locked down, saying that the company was monitoring the situation in…

01 Sep

Sri Lanka declares food emergency as forex crisis worsens

editor0 CommentsInternationalECONOMY

Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over food shortages as private banks ran out of foreign exchange to finance imports. With the country suffering a hard-hitting economic crisis, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he ordered emergency regulations to counter the hoarding of sugar, rice and other essential foods. Rajapaksa has named a top army officer as "Commissioner General of Essential Services to coordinate the supply of paddy, rice, sugar and other consumer goods". The move followed sharp price rises for sugar, rice, onions and potatoes, while long queues have formed outside stores because of shortages of milk powder,…

01 Sep

UNSC resolution addresses ‘key concerns’ on Afghanistan: India

editor0 CommentsIndia, InternationalAfghanistan, Taliban

Despite the abstention of two “P-5” countries, Russia and China, from the India-led United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2593, the Government of India said it was a “matter of satisfaction” that the resolution, addressed India's “key concerns” on Afghanistan. According official sources, the resolution, which called on the Taliban to keep its commitments on preventing terror groups in Afghanistan and urged them to assist the safe evacuations of all Afghan nationals wishing to leave the country, was the result of careful coordination and “high-level official contacts with UNSC members, including a call to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken,…