Indian Sub-continent

ISLAMABAD, Dec 22 (NNN-APP) – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has allocated over 281 million U.S. dollars for Pakistan, to combat the diseases for the next three years, a spokesperson for the country’s health ministry said yesterday.

The Fund has helped Pakistan counter diseases and will continue it for the upcoming three years, Spokesperson for the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, Sajid Hussain Shah, said.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has begun randomly testing international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, the country’s health minister said Thursday, citing an increase in cases in neighboring China.

Mansukh Mandaviya announced the new rule in Parliament, where he also urged state governments to increase surveillance for any new coronavirus variants and send samples of all positive cases to genome sequencing laboratories.

Mandaviya also asked the public to wear masks and maintain social distancing, even though there are no official mandates for either.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Turkey and Saudi Arabia became the latest Muslim-majority countries to condemn a decision by Taliban authorities to bar women from universities, while about two dozen women staged a protest in the streets of Kabul on Thursday.

In another sign of domestic opposition, several Afghan cricketers condemned the university ban. Cricket is a hugely popular sport in Afghanistan, and players have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

Kanpur: Harvinder Singh Lord, president of the Gurudwara Committee here, has been allegedly accused of misappropriating the donations of the gurudwara for years.

The Income Tax department has begun an inquiry into this serious matter.

According to the news sources, more than a dozen properties in the city were bought with money donated to the Gurudwara.

The matter surfaced only after several complaints alleging misappropriation of Gurudwara money were brought in.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 21 (APP): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Tuesday discussed the flood-caused destruction in Pakistan and reconstruction of the affected areas.

During the conversation, Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Bhutto Zardari “shared their mutual hope for a productive International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in January and discussed the need for close coordination,” according to the US State Department.

NEW DELHI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Around 10 persons, including eight school children, died when the bus they were travelling in met with an accident in India's northeastern state of Manipur on Wednesday, confirmed a local senior cop.

The dead toll is feared to rise in the accident reported from Noney district of Manipur, according to media reports.

Many others were injured in the mishap. They have been admitted to a local government-owned hospital.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban security forces in the Afghan capital on Wednesday enforced a higher education ban for women by blocking their access to universities, with video obtained by The Associated Press showing women weeping and consoling each other outside one campus in Kabul.

The country’s Taliban rulers a day earlier ordered women nationwide to stop attending private and public universities effective immediately and until further notice. The Taliban-led administration has not given a reason for the ban or reacted to the fierce and swift global condemnation of it.

DHAKA, Dec 20 (NNN-BSS) – Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, yesterday, reiterated her call for boosting food production, to save the country from any possible trouble, amid the global economic recession.

“We have to increase our production and preserve them, so that our country must not plunge into any danger,” she was quoted as saying, by the United News of Bangladesh (UNB), adding that, the government had set up a number of modern silos to stock rice.

Kanpur:  A speeding truck driver hit the car strongly from behind fue to fog in Fatehpur. After the collision, the driver abandoned the truck and fled from the spot.

Injured are teacher Aditya Tiwari, 45, resident of Kashiram Colony, teacher Mithilesh Kumar, 48, resident of Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sarkandi, Pinki, and Shrikant Chaurasia, 38, resident of Purani Bindki.

Passers-by informed the police who reached the spot and admitted the three injured to the nearest CHC in 108 ambulances. Late they were referred to Hallet here.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Several Pakistani Taliban detainees overpowered their guards at a counter-terrorism center in northwestern Pakistan overnight, snatching police weapons, taking hostages and seizing control of the facility, officials said Monday.

The incident erupted late Sunday and quickly evolved into a standoff. Pakistani officials later confirmed that one counter-terrorism officer was killed during the takeover at the detention center in Bannu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region.