Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Devaluation of the Pakistani rupee against the U.S. dollar continued as the greenback touched a historic high of 173.2 rupees in interbank trading on Monday.

The U.S. dollar closed at 171.18 rupees on Friday, and on Monday opened higher at 173.2 rupees, after the local currency nose-dived by 2.02 rupees, or about 1.2 percent, web-based financial data and analytics portals reported.

The Pakistani rupee has suffered depreciation by 13.75 percent against the greenback since May this year when it started surging from 152.27 rupees.

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A soldier was killed as terrorists attacked a military check post in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a Pakistani army statement said on Monday.

The terrorists opened fire at the post located in the Spinwam area of North Waziristan district of the province, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new Taliban rulers, the Taliban said Sunday.

The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of August.

The U.S. statement was less definitive, saying only that the two sides “discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.”

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Abdul Qadeer Khan, a controversial figure known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, died Sunday of COVID-19 following a lengthy illness, his family said. He was 85.

Khan, who launched Pakistan on the path to becoming a nuclear weapons power in the early 1970s, died in a hospital in the capital Islamabad, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said.

RAWALPINDI, Oct 09 (APP): The closing Ceremony of Exercise Druzhba-VI was held at Molkino Training Area, Krasnodar, Russia, where senior officials from Russia and Pakistan were present on the occasion.

The two weeks long exercise (28 September to 9 October) was aimed at learning from mutual experience in Counter Terrorism domain with a view to learn and adopt best practices, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) media release here received.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 9 (NNN-APP) – Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, met yesterday, with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, discussing Afghan affairs and bilateral ties, the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan said.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The world should urgently provide promised aid to Afghanistan, the U.N. refugee agency said on Saturday, warning that a lack of resources is hampering efforts to avert an economic crisis that could push fresh flows of refugees to its neighbours and beyond.

"The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan remains really dire," Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commmissioner for Refugees, said in an interview in Islamabad.

"The focus has to be inside Afghanistan to avoid and avert another refugee crisis."

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the U.S. to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives are to hold talks Saturday and Sunday about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, officials from both sides said.

It’s the first such meeting since U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence there, and the Taliban’s rise to power in the nation. The talks are to take place in Doha, the capital of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful earthquake collapsed at least one coal mine and dozens of mud houses in southwest Pakistan early Thursday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 200, an official said.

The death toll was expected to rise even further as crews searched in the remote mountainous area, said Suhail Anwar Shaheen, the local deputy commissioner.