The Iran-China 25-Year Cooperation Programme, signed in March in Tehran, was paid little attention by the mainstream media. The vague and broad text of the leaked draft agreement from the year prior and the absence of attention made it look like every other agreement for cultural cooperation between two countries. However, more careful analysis showed that this act gave tremendous […]

Russia test-fired around 10 new Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missiles from a frigate and two more from a submarine, Interfax news agency said on Friday citing northern fleet. Russian President Vladimir Putin has lauded the weapon as part of a new generation of unrivalled arms systems. Putin has called a missile test, conducted last week, “a big event in the […]

Afghanistan and Pakistan have negotiated a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) which will help strengthen existing economic and trade ties. The tax treaty was agreed to during negotiations between officials from the Afghan Ministry of Finance and Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials in Islamabad but still needs to be finalized. The Afghan ministry of finance said the main purpose […]

At least four people were killed and 15 others wounded in a blast in the center of Balochistan in Quetta city of Pakistan, local media outlets reported. Pakistani Dawn News agency reported that the explosion took place close to a college at the Jinnah Road area of the city on Thursday night. The blast was triggered by a remote-controlled device, […]

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health said 90 percent of foreign aid to the health sector has been cut, which has resulted in serious challenges. Addressing a press conference on Saturday in Kabul, Abdul Bari Omar, the deputy minister of health, said that despite the challenges, health centers are open across the country. “They (foreign organizations) skip all their commitments, a […]

Afghan and Chinese officials have met virtually for their first China-Afghanistan liaison mechanism meeting, at a working level, for humanitarian assistance and economic reconstruction, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said Sunday. Hafiz Zia Ahmad, a Deputy Spokesman for MoFA, stated that the meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Trade, Mines, and the Afghan Red Crescent […]

Pakistani security forces raided two militant hideouts in a former Taliban stronghold near Afghanistan, triggering shootings that killed four soldiers and two insurgents, the military said Friday. The first raid was carried our in the Tank district in the northwest, killing two militants, the statement said. The other strike was carried out in the North Waziristan district, capturing a militant […]

The suicide bomber who killed nearly 200 people, including 13 U.S. troops, had been freed from prison by the Taliban days before the attack. Four months after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed scores of people, including 13 American service members, outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, U.S. and foreign intelligence officials have pieced together a profile of the assailant. […]

Even as they appeal to the world to release frozen humanitarian aid funds and bank accounts, Taliban officials are taking new actions to restrict women’s freedoms and dismantle democratic institutions — defying the top two international concerns that have kept most foreign aid at bay as a cold winter looms for millions of destitute Afghans. Over the past week, the […]