Afghan provinces under taliban control

Video Player Close SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- In militancy-plagued Afghanistan, it is not easy for women to run their own businesses, but Malalai Mobariz is among a handful of women who confronted the challenges and opened a coffee shop in the country's northern Shiberghan city. "My prime objective of running the coffee shop is to display the ability of women from one hand, and from the other hand to provide job opportunities for women," Mobariz, 25, told Xinhua recently. Living in Shiberghan city, capital of the relatively peaceful Jawzjan province, 390 km north of Kabul, the female entrepreneur hoped to build her career as businessperson from running the coffee shop. Named as "Orange Cafe" and opened four months ago by Mobariz with a fund of 5,000 U.S. dollars, the coffee shop is gaining popularity. Expressing satisfaction over the income of her coffee shop, Mobariz said up to 80 customers including boys and girls, men and women visit Orange Cafe ... » Learn More about Feature: Afghan women runs coffee shop with “resilience, hard work and courage”

China unveiled detailed requirements and quantitative indicators to further tighten control over risks in relation to commercial banks' online lending business facilitated by their partners, the country's top banking and insurance regulator announced on Saturday. According to the new requirements, for a single online loan jointly offered by a commercial bank and a partner, the partner must provide no less than 30 percent of the loan fund. Currently, the partners are usually large internet platforms like Ant Group, an affiliate fintech company of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba. In addition, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission set the upper limit for the balance of online loans jointly offered by a commercial bank and a single partner at 25 percent of the bank's net tier 1 capital. The regulator also capped the balance of online loans jointly offered by a bank and all of its partners at 50 percent of the bank's outstanding loan balance. "By setting quantitative ... » Learn More about New requirements set to tighten control over online bank lending risks

The nation's tourism market saw a steady recovery during the Spring Festival holiday, pointing to a continued upturn after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The recovery is remarkable given that many people were encouraged to stay put over the holiday, industry insiders said. During the seven-day break, travelers made around 256 million trips to domestic destinations, a year-on-year rise of 15.7 percent from the same period in 2020 when the pandemic had just started, according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Thursday. The trips were equal to some 75.3 percent of those during the holiday in 2019, the statement said. Tourism-related revenue generated over the period was 301 billion yuan ($46.7 billion), up 8.2 percent year-on-year, and 58.6 percent of that in 2019, the ministry said. The tourism sector operated safely and smoothly during the holiday, according to the ministry. About 10,000 domestic attractions remained open, some 75 ... » Learn More about Uptick in tourism during holiday signals rebound

India on Sunday sent its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port in Iran, seen as a 'landmark' move to operationalise the new strategic transit route, bypassing Pakistan. The shipment was flagged off from the Kandla port in Gujarat with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani joining the ceremony through video conferencing. 'The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the Chabahar port as an alternate, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan,' the ministry of external affairs said in a statement. In June, India and Afghanistan had launched an air freight corridor between the two countries to boost trade as Pakistan has been refusing land transit access through its territory. "I am extremely delighted that today we have joined on a momentous occasion for the people of our three countries and the region," Swaraj said, terming the move as ... » Learn More about India sends first wheat shipment to Afghanistan via Chabahar port

There is a certain degree of change in civil-military relations in Pakistan that has brought the two establishments (at least the national government and the security establishment) on the same page on some issues such as tackling terror. There are differences too, for example in the manner in which the security establishment perceives the >joint statement between India and Pakistan in Ufa, Russia. But India should note the changing equations as well. As Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “walked the talk” across the long corridor of the conference hall in Ufa, Army chief General Raheel Sharif, along with his Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, was in Balochistan visiting the Headquarters of the Southern Command in Quetta. Not too long ago, the ISI had accused India’s Research and Analysis Wing of providing support to the Baloch separatists. Mr. Nawaz Sharif left for Ufa to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, after several rounds of talks with the ... » Learn More about Ufa and civil-military relations in Pakistan

The Modi government’s appalling inefficiency and lack of purpose stand exposed, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. M y archives on India-Iran relations include a clipping from DNA newspaper from Mumbai, going back to May last year. It is a Press Trust of India report, Iran’s Chabahar port to be operational by December 2016: Nitin Gadkari , based on an exclusive interview with the Union minister of transport, coinciding with his visit to Teheran to finalise the Chabahar project. Gadkari was quoted as saying, ‘Work has started on the Chabahar port. There is a joint venture of Kandla Port Trust and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust… We will start port activities in a year or a year-and-a-half… I have given the orders to bring out tenders for purchasing cranes for the port. An agreement will be signed within a month.’ Last week, however, when PTI took another exclusive interview with Gadkari, it transpired that the goal post has been shifted. Gadkari said : ‘The ... » Learn More about If India can’t build Chabahar, China will

The recent Indo-Iran deal to develop the strategic Chabahar Port is part of India's "larger geo-strategic calculations" to gain access to the Middle East and Central Asia and to counter Pakistan-China's plan to develop Gwadar port, a media report said in Beijing on Tuesday. "Actually, Chabahar is just the tip of the iceberg of India's geostrategic ambitions. Besides building new berths and upgrades to Chabahar, what interests New Delhi more is a comprehensive scheme that can reshape India's geopolitics to the northwest and extend its influence further into the Middle East, Central Asia and the Trans-Caucasus," an article in the state-run Global Times said on Tuesday. To this end, India has recently committed USD 400 million (Rs 26 hundred crore) in steel to construction of the railway connecting Chabahar and Zahedan, near Afghan border, the report said. "Although New Delhi ostensibly highlights economic considerations, such as facilitating trade along the ... » Learn More about India’s Chabahar port plan is to buffet China’s plans in Gwadar

Video Player Close U.S. military vehicle is seen passing through the Tal Tamr area in the countryside of Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria on Nov. 14, 2019. (Xinhua File photo) 22 Iraqi fighters supporting Syrian gov't forces killed in the strike. Such attacks will only spread chaos, destroy infrastructure in Syria, and play into the hands of terrorists in Syria, Syrian gov't says. DAMASCUS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the U.S. strikes that targeted positions in eastern Syria before Friday's daybreak, state news agency SANA reported. The U.S. strikes in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour near the Iraqi border killed 22 pro-Iran Iraqi fighters who were providing support for the Syrian government forces, according to the pro-rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The attack undermines the international legitimacy in resolving the Syrian crisis and is part of the repeated aggression by the United States, Israel ... » Learn More about Syrian gov’t condemns U.S. overnight deadly strike in eastern Syria

Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on Sept. 17, 2020 shows the Houhai area in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua) BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee met on Friday to discuss the draft 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, as well as the draft government work report. The documents will be submitted by the State Council to the upcoming annual session of the country's top legislature for lawmakers to review. After five years of continuous efforts, China successfully reached the main targets of the 13th five-year plan, made historic progress toward completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and secured a full victory in eradicating absolute poverty, according to the meeting presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the ... » Learn More about Update: CPC leadership meets to discuss draft 14th five-year plan, gov’t work report