Saudi Gazette/ World/ Asia

World

1 - 10 from 2023 . In "World / Asia"

Indian paramilitary trooper fires tear smoke shells during clashes in Srinagar on Saturday. — AFP

June 17, 2018

India to resume military strikes on Kashmir militants

NEW DELHI — India said on Sunday it was resuming military operations against rebels in disputed Kashmir after a rare 30-day suspension for Ramadan expired, with a top minister blaming militant attacks.Army operations were halted on May 16 at the start of the Muslim fasting month, despite a months-long escalation of violence in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region.Troops would stop the pursuit of militants and door-to-door house searches but would still ...

This May 20, 2018 file photo shows discarded climbing equipment and rubbish scattered around Camp 4 of Mount Everest. — AFP

June 17, 2018

Mount Everest, the high-altitude rubbish dump

KATHMANDU — Decades of commercial mountaineering have turned Mount Everest into the world’s highest rubbish dump as an increasing number of big-spending climbers pay little attention to the ugly footprint they leave behind.Fluorescent tents, discarded climbing equipment, empty gas canisters and even human excrement litter the well-trodden route to the summit of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak.“It is disgusting, an eyesore,” Pemba Dorje Sherpa, who has summited Everest 18 times, said. ...

Afghan security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bombing that targeted the participants of a meeting between Taliban militants and the Governor of Nangarhar province, outside the Governor’s office in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on SUnday. — EPA

June 17, 2018

Taliban, roaming Afghan cities amid Eid euphoria, rule out ceasefire extension

KABUL — Taliban militants headed into cities across Afghanistan on Sunday as they celebrated their Eid ceasefire with feasts and selfies, raising questions about what happens when the ceasefire ends at midnight.President Ashraf Ghani said he would extend a government ceasefire on Saturday and urged the Taliban to do the same, garnering praise at home and international backing, but critics said such overtures have allowed the Taliban to pour into ...

Rohingya Muslims offer Eid Al-Fitr prayers at a camp mosque in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Saturday. — AFP

June 16, 2018

Rohingya refugees mark first Eid since Myanmar crackdown

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — As Muslims around the world celebrated Eid with feasting and gift-giving, Rohingya refugees in squalid Bangladesh camps marked the festival Saturday with a peaceful demonstration demanding justice and dignified repatriation.For the hundreds of thousands of the Muslim minority who have fled neighboring Myanmar since an army crackdown last August, this is the first Eid-Al-Fitr they have spent in the cramped tent cities.Rahim Uddin, a 35-year-old refugee, ...

People take a selfie with an alleged Taliban militant as a group of Taliban visit a bazaar to greet people as a goodwill gesture amid a three-day ceasefire on first day of Eid Al-Fitr, in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Saturday. — EPA

June 16, 2018

Hugs and selfies as Taliban enter Afghan capital to mark Eid ceasefire

KABUL — Dozens of unarmed Taliban militants entered the Afghan capital on Saturday to celebrate an unprecedented ceasefire marking the end of the Ramadan fasting season, as elsewhere soldiers and militants, in remarkable scenes, exchanged hugs and selfies.The Taliban announced a surprise three-day ceasefire over the Eid holiday, which began on Friday, except against foreign forces. It overlaps with an Afghan government ceasefire which lasts until Wednesday.Many people across the ...

June 15, 2018

Three Pakistani troops dead in militant shootout on the Afghan border

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — Three Pakistani soldiers were killed on Friday when militants launched an attack on army posts along the border with Afghanistan from across the frontier, military officials said.The shootout, which also left five insurgents dead, occurred in the Shawal area of North Waziristan tribal district, part of a semi-autonomous region where the army has been battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants for years.A statement from the Pakistan army ...

Wife of Syed Shujaat Bukhari, the editor-in-chief of local newspaper Rising Kashmir, who was killed by unidentified gunmen outside his office in Srinagar, mourns during his funeral in Kreeri, north of Srinagar, on Friday. — Reuters

June 15, 2018

Thousands throng funeral of slain Indian Kashmir editor

SRINAGAR, India — Thousands of mourners thronged on Friday the funeral of a veteran journalist shot dead by unidentified gunmen on a motorbike outside his office in the main city of Indian Kashmir.Shujaat Bukhari, a leading journalist and editor of the English-language daily Rising Kashmir, was leaving his office in Srinagar on Thursday evening when three assailants roared up and fired several shots from close range.Bukhari, 50, was rushed to ...

June 15, 2018

Peace for Eid as Afghanistan observes ceasefire

KABUL — Afghans greeted the beginning of Eid with prayers on Friday as the Muslim holiday dawned in peace for the first time since the 2001 US-led invasion, after the Taliban agreed to an unprecedented ceasefire.Flocking to mosques for special morning worship marking the first day of the festival, youngsters in the war-battered country expressed cautious optimism, following the suspension of fighting between Afghan security forces and the militants.“On almost ...

Mullah Fazlullah

June 15, 2018

Afghanistan says Pakistani Taliban leader killed in air strike near border

JALALABAD, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah has been killed in a US-Afghan air strike in Afghanistan, a senior Afghan Defense Ministry official said on Friday, a killing likely to ease tension between the United States and Pakistan.The US military said in Washington on Thursday it had carried out a strike aimed at a senior militant figure in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, which is on the ...

A man rides a bike on a dusty evening along the banks of Yamuna river in New Delhi, India, on Thursday. — Reuters

June 14, 2018

Delhi reels as summer haze catches Indian capital off guard

NEW DELHI — Air pollution soared in New Delhi on Thursday to hazardous levels rarely seen outside winter as sand blown from deserts enveloped the Indian capital in a once-in-a-decade phenomenon.Doctors warned the grit carried by hot summer winds posed serious health risks to the city of 20 million and there was little to do “but pray for rain”.Smog spikes during winter in Delhi, already one of the world’s most ...