Indian Sub-continent

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers reopened a key border crossing with Pakistan Thursday, allowing thousands of trucks carrying desperately needed food and other items to creep forward for the first time in days, officials said.

The jam at the Torkham crossing between the two nations began to ease after Islamabad sent a high-level delegation to Kabul to discuss a range of issues, including the Taliban’s closure of the border on Sunday.

22 Feb 2023; MEMO: Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration has set up a consortium of companies, including some in Russia, Iran and Pakistan, to create an investment plan focusing on power, mining and infrastructure, the acting Commerce Minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

NEW DELHI, February 22. /TASS/: The decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty will not be reversed any time soon because of the continuing rapid deterioration of US-Russia ties, basically, the treaty is moribund, Indian international relations expert and former Indian Ambassador to Russia Kanwal Sibal told TASS.

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Top financial leaders from the Group of 20 leading economies are gathering in the south Indian technology hub of Bengaluru this week to tackle myriad challenges to global growth and stability, including stubbornly high inflation and surging debt.

India is hosting the G-20 financial conclave for the first time in 20 years. Later in the year it will convene its first summit of G-20 economies. The meetings offer the world’s second most populous country a chance to showcase its ascent as an economic power and its status as a champion of developing nations.

Kanpur: Short circuit caused fire in the road- ways bus engine going to Delhi from city's Kidwai Nagar bus depot here on Wednesday.

According the news, the bus developed problem in engine near Sector 21 C Noida. The engine got so much heated that it began to spit out flames of fire.

Sensing the gravity of the situation the driver anyhow successfully parked the bus on one side of the road. 

He helped the passengers get down safely. The fire tender was called to douse the fire.

NEW DELHI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has announced a payment facility for in-bound foreign travelers by using mobile-based fast payment system "Unified Payments Interface (UPI)", with effect from Tuesday.

Two banks, namely the ICICI Bank and the IDFC First Bank, and two non-bank prepaid payment instrument issuers, namely the Pine Labs Private Limited and the Transcorp International Limited, have been engaged in issuing UPI-linked wallets for international travelers.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The main crossing on the Afghan-Pakistan border remained shut Tuesday for the third straight day, officials said, after Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers earlier this week closed the key trade route and exchanged fire with Pakistani border guards.

The closure has added to increasing tensions between the two neighboring countries and concerns for traders, for whom the Torkham crossing is a key commercial artery. Trucks carrying various items also travel to Central Asian countries from Pakistan, through Torkham crossing point and Afghanistan.

Kanpur: In a bizarre incident here, wives of two neighbours have accused each other's husbands of raping them.

An FIR has registered by a woman who has accused a man of raping her. The wife of the accused has also filed an FIR against the husband of the first complainant.

Thus, The two women filed complaints against each other's husbands, alleging rape, within 38 hours.

Notably, th second complainant's husband has been arrested, while the spouse of the first complainant has reportedly not yet arrested.

DHAKA, Feb 20 (NNN-BSS) – A devastating fire broke out at a multi-storey building in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, last night, with no death reported, so far.

At least seven fire engines were fighting the fire on the sixth floor of the 12-storey building, in Dhaka’s diplomatic area, Gulshan, which is sending thick black smoke into the air visible at least several km away.

The cause of the fire, which broke out around 7:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT), has not been ascertained, with the security officials yet to comment on the incident.

KABUL, Feb 20 (NNN-ANA) – The Afghan caretaker administration, has decided to change former U.S. military bases into economic zones, to bolster economic activities, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported, yesterday.

The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Economic Commission, with Deputy Prime Minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, on the chair, Bakhtar said in its report, adding that, the pilot project would begin from Kabul and Balkh, and expand to other parts of the country.