Briton, 79, describes ‘hell’ of Taliban prison

Briton, 79, describes ‘hell’ of Taliban prison
In this photograph taken on December 12, 2021, Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the office of the prisons administration in Jalalabad. (AFP)
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Updated 06 April 2025
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Briton, 79, describes ‘hell’ of Taliban prison

Briton, 79, describes ‘hell’ of Taliban prison
  • Peter Reynolds and his wife Barbie were arrested in February over flight permit issue
  • The couple have lived and worked in Afghanistan since 2007

LONDON: A 79-year-old Briton imprisoned in Afghanistan is living in “the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.”

Peter Reynolds and his wife Barbie were detained on Feb. 1 along with their Chinese-American friend Faye Hall and their interpreter Jaya in Bamiyan province.

The couple, who both hold Afghan passports, have lived in the country for 18 years, where they married in 1970 and run various educational projects.

They were arrested after flying to Bamiyan from Kabul in a small rented plane which they were later told lacked proper landing permission.

In a phone call, details of which were shared with the Sunday Times, Peter Reynolds described conditions in Pul-e-Charkhi prison as living in “a cage rather than a cell.”

He added: “I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man.”

Peter Reynolds said he receives only one meal a day, but he is in “VIP conditions” compared to his wife, who is being held in the women’s wing of the prison.

“The atmosphere is pretty shocking. I’m learning a lot about the underbelly of Afghanistan,” he said. “The prison guards shout all the time and beat people with a piece of piping. It’s a horrible atmosphere — the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.”

He added that the four were initially told they would shortly be released. However, their phones were confiscated and they were handed over to the Ministry of Interior in Kabul.

Officials there told him his house in Bamiyan had been raided, and 59 books “against Islam” had been found and confiscated.

“I asked, ‘Can you tell me any part of those books which is against Islam?’” Peter Reynolds said. “No one has been able to, so I think it’s an outrage.

“They’ve interrogated more than 30 people who worked with us in Yakawlang and Kabul, including our accountant and tax people, and we had to put our thumbprint on a nine-page-long CID (criminal investigation department) report and they said they could find no crime. That was three weeks ago but still they haven’t released us.”

He added: “These things are an utter disgrace and shame. The Taliban have made a mistake and need to face up to it.”

Hall was released last week after bounties worth $10 million placed on various Taliban figures, including Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, were lifted by the US.

Peter Reynolds told his family not to pay any ransoms demanded for the couple’s release. “No money should be paid in hush money or hostage money, it doesn’t solve anything if millions of dollars are paid,” he said.

“This government needs to face up to the fact it has made a mistake, it has done wrong. If money is paid there’s nothing to stop them arresting people again.”

He said although a lawyer working for the EU had delivered him medication last week, he has been denied all requests to see his wife.

Sarah Entwistle, the couple’s eldest daughter, told the Sunday Times: “The hardest part for mum and dad is this is the longest they have gone without speaking to each other since they became sweethearts in the 1960s.

“When they go to court, they are taken separately and can only see each other from behind the mesh and mouth, ‘I love you.’”

Peter Reynolds has appeared in court four times and his wife three times since their detention, but their case has not progressed.

In a phone call last week, she reassured her family that she was “in her element” and had started teaching fellow inmates English. 

“This is who my parents are, even in this dark place, trying to be a hope to people,” Entwistle said. “In the midst of all this, mum and dad are still true to themselves — loving people, keeping peace and creating solutions in one of the darkest, violent and most hopeless places in the world.”

She added: “They understand the power of the Taliban but are literally prepared to sacrifice their lives for the welfare of these people. We couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Peter Reynolds said despite his ordeal, he wants to keep working in Afghanistan. “I told the Ministry of Interior I don’t want to leave here saying how bad Afghanistan is, we want to be a friend of Afghanistan.”

The couple moved to Afghanistan from the UK in 2007. Their organization Rebuild was established to provide education and training, “dedicated to fostering healthy relationships in homes, workplaces and communities across Afghanistan.”

After the fall of the Western-backed government in 2021, they decided to stay in the country as they had experienced no issues with the Taliban in the past.

Barbie Reynolds even became the first woman in the country to receive a certificate of appreciation from the new regime.

Entwistle said she had met with UK Foreign Office officials, including Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer, who said they were “doing all they can” but it could take “a few more weeks” to make progress.

Relations between the UK and the Taliban are strained, with neither having an embassy in the other’s capital.

The Sunday Times reported that the Taliban is pushing for it to be allowed to have a diplomatic presence in London, with 200,000 Afghans currently living in the UK.


UK sanctions 25 in new strategy to deter migrant Channel crossings

UK sanctions 25 in new strategy to deter migrant Channel crossings
Updated 5 sec ago
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UK sanctions 25 in new strategy to deter migrant Channel crossings

UK sanctions 25 in new strategy to deter migrant Channel crossings
LONDON: The UK on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen people, groups and suppliers from China, the Middle East and Balkans accused of helping to smuggle migrants across the Channel, in what it called a “landmark” first use of new powers.
The move comes as Britain’s government faces growing domestic pressure to stem the migrant arrivals on small boats from northern France, as numbers hit record levels this year.
The asset freezes and travel bans announced target individuals and entities “driving irregular migration to the UK,” and include four “gangs” and “gangland bosses” operating in the Balkans, the Foreign Office said.
They also hit a small boat supplier in China, so-called “hawala” money movers in the Middle East, and seven alleged people-smugglers linked to Iraq.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy called it “a landmark moment in the government’s work to tackle organized immigration crime” impacting the UK.
“From Europe to Asia we are taking the fight to the people-smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world,” he added.
“My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account.”


Prime Minister Keir Starmer took power a year ago promising to curb the journeys by “smashing the gangs” facilitating the crossings, but has struggled to deliver on the pledge.
Nearly 24,000 migrants have made the perilous journey across the Channel so far in 2025, the highest ever tally at this point in a year.
The issue has become politically perilous in the UK, blamed for helping to fuel the rise of the far-right and violence at anti-migrant demonstrations.
Protests have erupted sporadically outside hotels believed to house asylum-seekers, with a recent demonstration outside one in Epping, east of London, descending into clashes that injured eight police officers.
The riots sparked by the Southport attacks in July 2024 also saw suspected asylum-seeker hotels attacked and anti-migrant sentiment on display.
Wednesday’s designations represent the UK’s first use of its new “Global Irregular Migration Sanctions Regime.”
It claims the regime is a “world first,” empowering the Foreign Office to target foreign financiers and companies as well as individuals allegedly involved in facilitating people-smuggling to the UK.
In all, it sanctioned 20 individuals, four gangs — two Balkan groups and two of North African origin operating in the Balkans — as well as the Chinese company.
Among those facing curbs was Bledar Lala, described as an Albanian controlling “the ‘Belgium operations’ of an organized criminal group” involved in the crossings.
The UK also targeted Alen Basil, a former police translator it accused of now leading a large smuggling network in Serbia, “terrorizing refugees, with the aid of corrupt policemen.”


London hit alleged “gangland boss” Mohammed Tetwani with sanctions, noting he was dubbed the “King of Horgos” over his brutal running of a migrant camp in the Serbian town Horgos.
Tetwani leads the Tetwani people-smuggling gang, which the UK branded “one of the Balkans’ most violent” and accused of holding migrants for ransom and sexually abusing women unable to pay the fees demanded.
The sanctions package targets three people accused of using the ancestral “hawala” banking system, which allows cash transfers without money actually moving, for irregular migration.
The sanctioned company in China — Weihai Yamar Outdoor Product Co. — has advertised its small boats online “explicitly for the purpose of people-smuggling,” according to the Foreign Office.
Tom Keatinge, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the sanctions were “a new front in the UK’s efforts to control a business model that brings profit to the enablers” and misery to victims.
“However, I would caution against overpromising,” he told AFP. “Talk of freezing assets and using sanctions to ‘smash the gangs’ seems far-fetched and remains to be seen.
“History suggests that such assertions hold governments hostage to fortune.”

Taliban says detained British couple receiving medical care

Taliban says detained British couple receiving medical care
Updated 32 min ago
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Taliban says detained British couple receiving medical care

Taliban says detained British couple receiving medical care
  • Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 80-years-old and 75-years-old, had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years 
  • They were arrested in February, UN experts warn elderly couple face irreversible harm after months in detention

KABUL: An elderly British couple detained for months in Afghanistan are receiving medical care, the Taliban government’s top diplomat said Wednesday, after UN experts warned they were at risk of dying.

Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 80-years-old and 75-years-old, had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years when they were arrested in February along with Chinese-American friend Faye Hall, who has since been released, and an Afghan translator.

“All their human rights are being respected,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a news conference in the capital Kabul.

“They are being provided with medical care. They are in occasional contact with their families.”

Muttaqi said “efforts are underway to secure their release, but the process is not complete,” echoing similar comments by the government in April.

Independent United Nations experts warned on Monday of the “rapid deterioration” of their physical and mental health, stating that they “risk irreparable harm or even death.”

The couple, against whom no charges have been brought, were held “in a high-security facility for several months, then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred last week” to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to the UN.

The experts said Peter Reynolds requires heart medication following a stroke in 2023.

Since his detention, he has suffered two eye infections and intermittent tremors in his head and left arm.

His wife, who is anemic, is “weak and fragile” and has reported numbness in her feet, the experts said.

The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, had been running education programs in Afghanistan and held Afghan passports.

Taliban officials have refused to detail the reasons for their arrest but a source familiar with the case told AFP in April that the couple were in possession of several non-Islamic books.


Columbia University suspends, expels students who participated in pro-Palestine protests

Columbia University suspends, expels students who participated in pro-Palestine protests
Updated 46 min ago
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Columbia University suspends, expels students who participated in pro-Palestine protests

Columbia University suspends, expels students who participated in pro-Palestine protests
  • A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled
  • Sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement

NEW YORK: Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20 percent of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

Columbia was at the forefront of US campus protests over the war in spring 2024. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut funding to several top US universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.

The administration has also cracked down on individual student protesters. Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

He is now suing the Trump administration, alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite.


ICJ set to deliver historic opinion on states’ legal duty to prevent climate harm

ICJ set to deliver historic opinion on states’ legal duty to prevent climate harm
Updated 50 min 24 sec ago
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ICJ set to deliver historic opinion on states’ legal duty to prevent climate harm

ICJ set to deliver historic opinion on states’ legal duty to prevent climate harm
  • Opinion could establish legal foundations for climate reparations and accelerate fossil fuel phaseout
  • Small island nations led the push for the case, calling existing UN frameworks “inadequate”

THE HAGUE: The world’s top court will Wednesday deliver a seminal ruling laying out what legal obligations countries have to prevent climate change and whether polluters should pay up for the consequences.

It is the biggest case ever heard at the International Court of Justice and experts say the judges’ opinion could reshape climate justice, with major impacts on laws around the world.

“I think it will be a game-changer for the whole climate discourse we’re going through,” said Ralph Regenvanu, climate change minister of Vanuatu.

The Pacific island nation spearheaded the push for a court opinion amid growing frustration at sluggish progress in UN climate negotiations.

“We’ve been going through this for 30 years... It’ll shift the narrative, which is what we need to have,” Regenvanu told AFP.

The United Nations has tasked the 15 judges at the ICJ, a UN court that adjudicates disputes between nations, to answer two fundamental questions.

First: what must states do under international law to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions “for present and future generations“?

Second: what are the consequences for states whose emissions have caused environmental harm, especially to vulnerable low-lying island states?

ICJ advisory opinions are not binding upon states and critics say that top polluters will simply ignore what comes out of the court.

But others note the moral and legal clout enjoyed by the world’s highest court and hope the opinion will make a tangible difference to national climate change policies and ongoing legal battles.

Andrew Raine, deputy director of the UN Environment Programme’s law division, said the ICJ should “clarify how international law applies to the climate crisis.”

“And that has ripple effects across national courts, legislative processes, and public debates,” he told AFP.

To help answer the two questions, ICJ judges have pored over tens of thousands of pages of submissions from countries and organizations around the world.

Analysts say Wednesday’s ruling is the most consequential of a string of recent rulings on climate change in international law as courts become a battleground for climate action.

Those bringing the cases are often from climate-vulnerable communities and countries, alarmed by the pace of progress toward curbing planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels.

The Paris Agreement struck through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has rallied a global response to the crisis, but not at the speed necessary to protect the world from dangerous overheating.

In December, the iconic Peace Palace in the Hague hosted the court’s biggest-ever hearings, with more than 100 nations and groups giving oral statements.

In what was billed a “David Vs Goliath” battle, the debate pitted major wealthy economies against smaller, less developed states most at the mercy of a warming planet.

Major polluters including the US and India warned the ICJ not to deliver a fresh legal blueprint for climate change, arguing the existing UNFCCC sufficed.

The US, which has since withdrawn from the Paris accord, said the UNFCCC contained legal provisions on climate change and urged the court to uphold this regime.

But smaller states said this framework was inadequate to mitigate climate change’s devastating effects and that the ICJ’s opinion should be broader.

These states also urged the ICJ to impose reparations on historic polluters.

“The cardinal principle is crystal clear. Responsible states are required to make full reparation for the injury they have caused,” said Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh representing Vanuatu.

These states demanded a commitment and timeline to phasing out fossil fuels, monetary compensation when appropriate, and an acknowledgement of past wrongs.

Representatives from island states, many wearing traditional dress as they addressed the court for the first time in their country’s history, made passionate pleas to the robed judges.

“Despite producing less than 0.01 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, on the current trajectory of GHG emissions, Tuvalu will disappear completely beneath the waves that have been lapping our shores for millennia,” said Eselealofa Apinelu from Tuvalu.

Vishal Prasad, director of a campaign by Pacific Island students that pushed the issue before the court, said climate change will become “catastrophic as the years go by, if we do not course-correct.”

“The urgency of the matter, the seriousness of why we’re here, and how important this is, is not lost upon all Pacific Islanders, all small island countries,” he told AFP

“That’s why we’re looking to the ICJ.”


Heavy storms in northern Vietnam leave 1 dead, as Wipha weakens into a tropical depression

Heavy storms in northern Vietnam leave 1 dead, as Wipha weakens into a tropical depression
Updated 23 July 2025
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Heavy storms in northern Vietnam leave 1 dead, as Wipha weakens into a tropical depression

Heavy storms in northern Vietnam leave 1 dead, as Wipha weakens into a tropical depression
  • Nearly 400 households were evacuated from the province's landslide-prone areas

HANOI: Heavy storms in northern Vietnam left one person dead and another missing, police said Wednesday, as Wipha weakened from a tropical storm into a depression.

A 59-year-old man was killed in Nghe An province when a tree fell on his house on Sunday before the storm made landfall, police said. Nghe An, which stretches from the coast to the mountainous Laos border, was among the areas hit hardest by heavy rain and floods. Another woman was swept away by floodwaters and remains missing. Four other people were injured.

Flooding damaged hundreds of homes, destroyed crops and cut off remote communities, officials said.

Nearly 400 households were evacuated from the province's landslide-prone areas, and several upland communities remain isolated without electricity or communication, officials said. Heavy rains triggered landslides that damaged roads, collapsed part of a school building and destroyed crops and forest.

The storm made landfall Tuesday morning with sustained winds of up to 102 kilometers per hour (63 mph) before weakening as it moved inland. It caused power outages, disrupted farming operations and forced temporary airport closures in northern provinces.

In neighboring Thailand, heavy rain from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning triggered flooding in several northern provinces, swelling rivers and inundating homes. Authorities said more than 350 people were affected, though no casualties have been reported. They warned of possible flash floods and landslides.