Indian Sub-continent

DHAKA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on Thursday the country is to construct six more metro rail lines in the capital Dhaka by 2030.

He said a feasibility study is also conducted on the metro rail lines in Chattogram city, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka.

Quader revealed the plan at a press conference held a day after Bangladesh's first-ever metro began commercial operations on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Five people including three soldiers and two terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, a military statement said.

The intense gun battle took place in Kurram tribal district, following which military troops also recovered weapons and ammunition from the killed terrorists, the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement.

Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area, said the statement.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Major aid agencies on Thursday warned that Afghans will die because of the Taliban order banning women from working at nongovernmental groups, and stressed that female staff are crucial for the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance across war-battered Afghanistan.

The dire prediction came after the Economy Ministry last week said women can no longer work at international or domestic NGOs, allegedly because they are not wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly at their workplace.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 28 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday underscored the importance of continued international support and solidarity for Pakistan’s plans to build back better after devastating floods.

The prime minister held a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He invited President Erdogan to the international conference being co-hosted with the United Nations in Geneva on 9th January next year in the wake of the recent devastating floods in Pakistan, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Muhammad Salman, sales manager of Lahore-based United Chemicals had a busy day meeting new clients at the two-day Pak Pharma and Healthcare Expo recently held at the Pak-China Friendship Center here.

KATHMANDU, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese experts arrived in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on Tuesday for feasibility study of the China-Nepal cross-border railway, a move described by the Nepali side as a new step for the project.

The six-member team was greeted at the airport by Wang Xin, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, and Aman Chitrakar, spokesperson for Nepal's Department of Railways.

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, Dec 26 (NNN-ANA) – An explosion rocked Faizabad, the capital of northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, today, with casualties feared, an official said.

NEW DELHI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday said he sought India's help with implementing a "peace formula" in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The conversation comes at a time when India is seeking to strengthen trade relations with Moscow while Western nations introduce new measures to limit Russia's funding of the war.

KATHMANDU, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pushpa Kamal Dahal, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), took office as the country's new prime minister on Monday afternoon.

"President Bidya Devi Bhandari has administered the oath of office and secrecy to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal," Sagar Acharya, spokesperson for the President's Office in Kathmandu, told Xinhua.

"Three deputy prime ministers and four ministers also took the oath today," he said.

DHAKA, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Monday that Bangladesh does not want interference from any country in Bangladesh's internal affairs.

"We're a mature country. We're a sovereign country. We are an independent country," leading private news agency UNB quoted him as saying at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

The foreign minister said that other countries do not need to give prescriptions to Bangladesh on democracy and human rights as these are deeply rooted in Bangladesh's DNA.