Afghanistan’s GDP could contract 20 per cent within a year, the UN predicted in a new report on Wednesday, saying that the withdrawal of international aid after the Taliban’s return to power is an “unprecedented fiscal shock.” For decades now Afghanistan’s economy has been undermined by war and drought. But it was propped up by مزید پڑھیں

The Biden administration was blocked on Tuesday from enforcing two mandates requiring millions of American workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a key part of its strategy for controlling the spread of the coronavirus. US District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, temporarily blocked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing its مزید پڑھیں

Saudi Arabia has recorded the Gulf’s first confirmed case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a citizen returning from North Africa, a health ministry official said on Wednesday. The strain, which was first announced by South Africa but has since been discovered to have been present earlier in Europe, has prompted governments around مزید پڑھیں

Seven people, including a three-year-old, have died on Tanzania’s Pemba island after eating poisonous turtle meat. Three others are still in hospital. The meat is a common delicacy among those living on Tanzania’s islands and coastal areas but the authorities have now banned the consumption of turtles in the area. In rare cases turtle meat مزید پڑھیں

The World Bank is finalizing a proposal to deliver up to $500 million from a frozen Afghanistan aid fund to humanitarian agencies, people familiar with the plans but it leaves out tens of thousands of public sector workers and remains complicated by U.S. sanctions. According to Reuters, board members will meet informally on Tuesday to مزید پڑھیں

Security officials in one of China’s largest provinces have commissioned a surveillance system they say they want to use to track journalists and international students among other “suspicious people”, documents reviewed by Reuters showed. A July 29 tender document published on the Henan provincial government’s procurement website – reported in the media for the first مزید پڑھیں

The Taliban have asked for help in keeping Afghanistan’s airports running in weekend talks with European Union (EU) officials that also raised “grave concern” about the humanitarian situation in their country. Both sides sent senior officials to the Qatari capital Doha for the talks, which happened just ahead of two weeks of negotiations between the مزید پڑھیں

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron, terming them scientifically “unjustified”. Dozens of nations from Europe to Asia have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25. The flight مزید پڑھیں

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced Sunday that the Kingdom will now accept foreign pilgrims willing to perform Umrah in the Grand Mosque of Makkah under the updated coronavirus related restrictions. A statement issued by the official Twitter account for the publication of news related to the two holy mosques in Saudi Arabia مزید پڑھیں

Britain announced new measures on Saturday to try to slow the spread of the newly identified Omicron coronavirus variant and a top health official said there was a “reasonable chance” that vaccines could be less effective against it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said arrivals from all countries would have to self-isolate until receiving a negative مزید پڑھیں