Indian Sub-continent

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Even in the final days of Washington’s chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind.

He was told to stay home and not worry, that they would be evacuated.

Late Monday, however, his heart sank as he heard that the final U.S. flights had left Kabul’s airport, followed by the blistering staccato sound of Taliban gunfire, celebrating what they saw as their victory over America.

Kanpur: This is the only place in the state where intranasal vaccine trials against Covidvirus are being done, as news reports said.

As many as 30 adult volunteers including doctors, their family members and others have administered the first dose of the intranasal vaccine. The second dose will be given after 28 days to the volunteers.

Another 20 people will be administered this vaccine over the next few days.

NEW DELHI, Sept 1 (NNN-PTI) – India established the first official contact with the Taliban, as India’s ambassador to Qatar held talks with a top Taliban leader yesterday, an official at India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said.

The meeting took place at the Taliban’s request, said the Ministry, in a written statement.

In the statement, the ministry said that, India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, met Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, head of the Taliban’s Political Office in Doha, at India’s embassy in Doha.

MANILA, Sept 1 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines crossed a grim milestone, as COVID-19 caseload topped two million today.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country surged to 2,003,955, after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 14,216 new daily infections today.

The DOH also reported 86 related deaths, raising the country’s death toll to 33,533.

“The relatively low number of cases today is due to lower laboratory output last Monday,” the DOH said in a statement, adding that, five laboratories failed to submit the data.

Sept 1 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers struggled to keep the country functioning on Wednesday after the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.

Two weeks since the Taliban's sweep into the capital Kabul brought a chaotic end to 20 years of warfare, the Islamist militant group has yet to name a new government or reveal how they intend to govern.

In an administrative vacuum, prices have soared and crowds have gathered at banks to withdraw cash.

Kanpur: There was a throng of the students outside the senior secondary school in the afternoon here. 

They were readying to return from school. Some of them even got on the four-wheeler, while others were mounting on the two-wheeler. A few were moving onward on their bicycles respectively.

As the road was not wider the gathering of a few students presented a view of the crowd. The moment vehicles passed there was ample space.

Kanpur:  Three persons, including an employee of the social welfare department, have been arrested by the Barra police here. They have been held in connection with the marriage scheme scam. They were allegedly found to be involved in the misappropriation of the funds.

According to the news reports, a clerk of the social welfare department and the in-charge of the marriage grant, a fake applicant and a middleman have been nabbed.

All of the three persons have been booked under the relevant sections of IPC and sent to the jail after being produced before the magistrate.

31 Aug 2021; MEMO: Almost 33,000 children have been killed and maimed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, an average of one child every five hours, Save the Children said as the last of the international military forces pulled out of Kabul today.

The aid organisation said the numbers were a devastating insight into the deadly cost of war on children.

New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) India's economic growth surged to 20.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, helped by a low base of the year-ago period, despite a devastating second wave of COVID-19.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by 24.4 per cent in the corresponding April-June quarter of 2020-21, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday.

The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has dramatically increased COVID-19 vaccination rates in its vast rural hinterland, where around 65% of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people live. But supply constraints remain for the world’s largest maker of vaccines and experts say it’s unlikely India will reach its target of vaccinating all adults by the end of the year.