TNN:Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials intercepted consul general of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Zakia Wardak, at the Mumbai airport recently and recovered 25 kg of gold worth Rs 18.6 crore that she was allegedly trying to smuggle into India from Dubai.The incident occurred on April 25 and a case of gold smuggling under the Customs Act, 1962, has been registered.The gold has been seized under a panchnama.Wardak was not arrested as she enjoys diplomatic immunity, sources said. Under the law, if the amount of smuggled gold is valued above Rs 1 crore, the suspect is arrested and faces criminal prosecution.      Full news...

RAWA NEWS:The people of Farah have endured a myriad of social, economic, and cultural challenges for over four decades, and similar to the residents of other provinces, never enjoyed freedom, prosperity, and welfare. However, in the past couple of years, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban, these difficulties have escalated. The impoverished population, mostly daily wage laborers and farmers, are tackling a triple threat of hardships - psychological, economic, and drought - like three deadly misfortunes.      Full news...

CPJ:Taliban authorities should immediately and unconditionally release radio reporters Ismail Saadat, Wahidullah Masum, and Ehsanullah Tasal and stop harassing the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.On Monday, the provincial directorate of the Taliban-controlled Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in eastern Khost Province summoned and detained Saadat of Naz FM Radio, Masum of Iqra FM Radio, and Tasal of Wolas Ghag, according to the exiled Afghanistan Journalists Center watchdog group, the London-based news broadcaster Afghanistan International, and a person familiar with the case, who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.      Full news...

Feminist Majority: In times of conflict, political instability, and social unrest, women and children have always been the ones who face the most dire consequences compared to the rest of the population. It is nearly three years since the Taliban returned to power and their extremist views and restricting edicts against Afghan women has been one of the major human rights crises. Afghan women’s rights are under constant attack by the Taliban. However, the silent struggle that Afghan women are facing on top of the restrictions on their rights and existence is food insecurity and malnutrition.      Full news...

RAWA NEWS: On 19th November 2023 the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, with this title, proudly presents on its website funds of 4.5 million euros for 2022 specifically aimed for supporting Afghan women.In particular, they said the support is in favor of “Fawzia Koofi, the first vice-president of the Afghan Parliament, as well as former President of the Commission for women’s issues and human rights, who after the fall of Kabul into the hands of Taliban, continued to fight to promote the rights of Afghan women and girls. In June 2022, thanks to the support of the Women’s Peace Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), Fawzia Koofi traveled to Geneva to ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a debate on the women’s and girls’ rights crisis in Afghanistan. ...Fawzia Koofi’s denunciation activity would probably not have been possible without the contribution of the United Nations WPHF...”      Full news...

Khaama Press News:The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported on Friday, January 19th, citing the United Nations Office (UNAMA) that this cash is held in a dedicated account at a private bank and is not transferred to the Central Bank under the Taliban control. However, critics argue that the Taliban still influence how this money is spent. In June 2023, a reliable source at the Central Bank of Afghanistan under Taliban control confirmed that $40 million packages of humanitarian aid are being sent to Kabul, but the Taliban no longer publicizes this news through the media.      Full news...

Foreign Policy: For the Taliban, who’ve made so much money from other illicit trades, arms deals are just another source of income: The Taliban likely control and tax the new black market, said Asfandyar Mir, a South Asia expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. And as the Taliban (and allied terrorist groups) seek new recruits, few things talk more eloquently than fancy, deadly kit. Left-behind American assault rifles command a premium: an M4 in good condition can fetch up to $2,400, a status symbol with as much cachet in the Himalayan tribal belt as a luxury handbag in Manhattan.      Full news...

The New York Times: HERAT, Afghanistan — Amid the bustle of beggars and patients outside the crowded hospital here, there are sellers and buyers, casting wary eyes at one another: The poor, seeking cash for their vital organs, and the gravely ill or their surrogates, looking to buy.      Full news...

Foreign Policy: KABUL—Each year, as winter closes in on Afghanistan’s rugged mountainous region, Mohammad Bilal, a 45-year-old coal worker, readies himself for a busy few months. As temperatures drop, and without better sources for heat, the demand for coal will soar.This year, Bilal, who requested to go by a pseudonym for his safety, expects the winter months to be stressful for a different reason.      Full news...

BBC News: The incident happened after "thousands of people" gathered to request permits to Pakistan, a local spokesman said.The crowd had been redirected to a sports stadium instead of the usual visa centre in the city of Jalalabad. Visa applications to Pakistan have just resumed after a seven-month pause due to the pandemic.      Full news...

(Pajwaok): The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has spent above eight million afghanis additional amount purchasing medicines, medical equipment and health products at exorbitant rates for the Afghan-Japan Hospital, Pajhwok Afghan News learned reliably on Monday.According to available documents, one IV bag, the original price of which is 65 afs, has been purchased for over 260 afs. In comparison with the market price, the total IV bags consumed 4.2 million afs extra.      Full news...

(Pajhwok): The Afghanistan Embassy in the United States has reconstructed its boundary wall measuring 70 meters at a cost of around 1,825,839 US dollars after its reconstruction for $88,000 was rejected by the embassy, Pajhwok has learnt. According to information, the wall has been built 20.74 times higher cost than the initial company proposed and each meter-square cost 8,694 US dollars.      Full news...

The Guardian: Millions of people are being pushed towards hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, which could end up killing more people through lack of food than from the illness itself, Oxfam has warned.Closed borders, curfews and travel restrictions have disrupted food supplies and incomes in already fragile countries, forcing an extra million people closer to famine in Afghanistan and heightening the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, where two-thirds already live in hunger.      Full news...

The KHAMA PRESS News Agency: Afghanistan; amid the rampant increase in the COVID-19 cases, faces off its all-weather foe, corruption. the 2018 Transparency International corruption index ranked Afghanistan the 3rd most corrupt country in the world. The shaky system, hit by decades-old war, is not in a position to regulate its retroactive intuitions to contain the pandemic and properly utilize the foreign slash.      Full news...

Los Angeles Times: When a suicide bomber targeted a wedding hall in the Afghan capital last week, killing at least 80 people, many of the bodies were brought to a dilapidated two-story block on the perimeter of Kabul. This is the Forensic Medicine Directorate, Criminal Techniques Department, the only functioning criminal forensic laboratory in Afghanistan, where a team of four molecular biologists juggles hundreds of cases a week, including victims of rape, drug overdoses, homicide, and bombings.      Full news...

Military.com: Attacks are increasing while the strength of Afghan security forces decreases. Schools are closing amid the violence, and no girls are being enrolled in many districts. Efforts to root out Afghan government corruption have either stalled, or never got off the ground.      Full news...

The Hill: America needs to reckon with the purpose of war and lives lost in Afghanistan. There is no reason that more American service members should lose their lives there. The real strategic mistake is not withdrawing too fast. It is remaining there or withdrawing slowly and painfully because of hubris or a sunk cost fallacy.      Full news...

Yogita Limaye: Afghanistan has been rocked by allegations of sexual harassment at the highest levels of government. Officials deny wrongdoing but a BBC investigation has heard from women who describe a culture of abuse. In a house near the foot of the dusty mountains that surround Kabul, I meet a former government employee. She asks to remain anonymous because she fears a backlash. But she wants the world to hear her story.      Full news...

The Diplomat: IClick, an online shopping company, based in Kabul, optimistically followed news on the peace talks between the United States and the Taliban group. The peace talks raised hopes for the end of the violence in Afghanistan — and the growth of iClick and other startups. But criminals, rather than terrorists, are now ruining hopes of business growth.      Full news...

The New York Times: One of the investigators of the American University in Afghanistan summed things up this way: If the United States government had paid to send every Afghan graduate to college in the United States, it would have spent less money than it did on financing a troubled, English-language university for them in the Afghan capital. The university graduated 1,281 Afghan degree students over the past decade, at a cost of 126,000 USD each to American taxpayers, or a total of 162 million USD.      Full news...

TOLOnews.com: The Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) survey shows that Afghanistan’s legal, judicial and educational institutions remain the “most corrupt” among government institutions. Based on the survey, after insecurity, unemployment and corruption are among the major concerns of the Afghan people.      Full news...

Telegraph: In a statement issued to the Telegraph on Wednesday, the AFF said it “vigorously rejects the false accusations recently made with regard to the women national team”, adding that “should the AFF receive specific factual information and/or evidence, it will not hesitate to initiate further investigations immediately.”      Full news...

The Guardian: Fifa is examining allegations that members of the Afghanistan national women’s team were sexually and physically abused by men from the country’s football federation, including its president, Keramuudin Karim. The claims have prompted the team’s principal sponsor, Hummel, to cut ties with the Afghan federation (AFF) and call for new leadership.      Full news...

The Globe and Mail: Billions of dollars in Western foreign aid to Afghanistan, including from Canada, has been lost to widespread waste, lax oversight and endemic corruption, a U.S. watchdog agency says. The U.S. Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report to Congress that aid money has gone to build medical clinics without electricity or water, schools without children and buildings that literally melted away in the rain.      Full news...

Xinhua: At least 28 people have been reportedly killed and 83 others wounded following consecutive violent incidents during the long-delayed Afghan parliamentary elections held over the weekend. Balloting started on Saturday as the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) initially planned to hold the polls in one day, but the IEC officials extended the voting to Sunday as scores of polling centers were not open or running on Saturday after long delays due to militants’ attacks, irregularities, and a low attendance of election workers.      Full news...

IWPR: Residents of the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia are warning that a flourishing trade in women’s ID cards has sprung up ahead of the October elections, fuelling fears that corrupt candidates could exploit the stolen votes. Conservative traditions mean that most women in Paktia do not have ID cards, also known as tazkera, which are a prerequisite for registering to vote.      Full news...

Deutsche Welle: Afghanistan’s parliamentary and district council elections are scheduled for October 20 of this year, but attacks by militant Islamists have already raised concerns whether the elections will be held on time. Taliban and “Islamic State” (IS) continue to target voter registration centers in different parts of the strife-torn country. An IS-claimed attack at a voters’ office in Kabul last month killed 57 people, including women and children, underlining the fact that the participation in the election process comes with a huge risk for the Afghan people.      Full news...

Euronews: The watchdog responsible for monitoring the U.S. government’s effort to rebuild Afghanistan says the 15-year, 5 billion USD effort hasn’t worked, according to a report released Thursday. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says the U.S. set unrealistic expectations for stabilizing Afghanistan on a short timeline, that the Obama administration lacked the political will to invest the necessary time and effort to stabilize the country, and that some efforts to bolster the Afghan government actually backfired.      Full news...

Motherboard: The United States has spent more than 800 billion USD on the never ending war in Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The bulk of that money was spent fighting the Taliban, but billions have also gone toward rebuilding the country and investing in its infrastructure. A lot of those projects haven’t gone well, and a 60 million USD power system in northeast Afghanistan that doesn’t provide any power is just the latest example.      Full news...

The Daily Caller: Some widows of Afghan National Security Force members killed in action were forced to perform sexual favors for officials before they could obtain pension benefits, U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko said Thursday. He said that the U.S. is “trying to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people,” but “first need to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan Security Forces.”      Full news...