The Taliban’s morality police are contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation among Afghans, according to a UN report published Tuesday. Edicts and some of the methods used to enforce them constituted a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the report said.
The Taliban set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021.
Since then, the ministry has enforced decrees issued by the Taliban leadership that have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, like dress codes, segregated education and employment, and having a male guardian when they travel.
“The punishments attached to non-compliance with instructions and decrees are often arbitrary, severe and disproportionate,” said the report from the UN Mission in Afghanistan. “Sweeping bans with a discriminatory effect on women have been introduced. Human rights violations, as well as the unpredictability of enforcement measures, contribute to a climate of fear and intimidation among segments of the population.”
The mission said it documented at least 1,033 instances between August 2021 and March 2024 where ministry employees applied force during the implementation of orders, resulting in the violation of a person’s liberty, and physical and mental integrity.
“This includes the use of threats, arbitrary arrests and detentions, excessive use of force by de facto law enforcement officials and ill-treatment.” These instances mostly affected men, who were punished for allegedly violating Taliban orders or because their female relatives had breached them, according to the report.
It said the ministry’s role was expanding into other areas of public life, including media monitoring and eradicating drug addiction.
“Given the multiple issues outlined in the report, the position expressed by the de facto authorities that this oversight will be increasing and expanding gives cause for significant concern for all Afghans, especially women and girls,” said Fiona Frazer, the head of UNAMA’s Human Rights Service.
The ministry rejected the UN report, calling its findings false and contradictory.
“Decrees and relevant legal documents are issued to reform society and should have their implementation ensured,” the ministry said.
The mission’s report comes a week after a Taliban delegation traveled to Qatar to attend a UN-sponsored meeting on increasing engagement with Afghanistan amid the country’s economic challenges and humanitarian crises.
That meeting sparked anger from rights groups and activists because it excluded Afghan women and civil society.
UN: Taliban’s morality police contributing to a climate of fear among Afghans
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UN: Taliban’s morality police contributing to a climate of fear among Afghans
- Taliban set up a ministry for the ‘propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice’ after seizing power in 2021
- Ministry’s role expanding into other areas of public life, including media monitoring and eradicating drug addiction
Volcanic eruption in Indonesia forces evacuations and flight cancelations
LEMBATA, Indonesia: Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted with giant ash and smoke plumes again Wednesday after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali.
Several eruptions sent ash up to 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon. An eruption Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10,000 meters (about 32,800 feet) into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150 kilometers (nearly 93 miles) away.
The eruption alert was raised Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) from the crater.
Officers also evacuated from the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) from the crater to avoid falling gravel released in the eruption. No casualties have been reported.
Ash and debris fell in a number of places outside the danger zone, including the villages of Boru, Hewa and Watobuku. Some residents from Nurabelen village in Ile Bura subdistrict fled to evacuation sites in Konga to avoid the impact of the eruption, the National Disaster Management Agency said in a statement.
“Some residents have also evacuated to Nileknoheng village, which is 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) from the crater,” said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson.
Dozens of flights Wednesday were canceled, including those connecting Bali to cities in Australia, Malaysia, India and China, according to the website of Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Volcanic ash can pose a risk to plane engines.
Flights also were canceled to and from the international airport in Labuan Bajo another tourist destination in Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara province. The airport is still operating.
The cancelations and delays affected thousands of travelers. Australian carrier Jetstar, which flies daily between the tourist hotspot and several Australian cities, said the ash cloud was forecast to clear by late Wednesday and its services would be rescheduled.
Air New Zealand canceled one return trip to Auckland and would rebook customers on the next available service, the airline said in a statement Wednesday. Flights to New Delhi, Singapore and Pudong, China, were also canceled due to the volcano, according to information on the website for Denpasar airport in Bali.
The 1,584-meter (5,197-foot) Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the district of Flores Timur.
The volcano has had several eruptions, and its danger level and no-go zone have changed several times before being raised again to the highest level Tuesday.
An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki in November killed nine people and injured dozens. It also erupted in March.
Indonesia is an archipelago of 270 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
The nine countries that have nuclear weapons or are believed to have them
- Five original nuclear weapons states are United States, Russia, China, France and UK
- Israel, which hasn’t signed the NPT, has never acknowledged having nuclear weapons
Nine countries currently either say they have nuclear weapons or are believed to possess them.
The first to have nuclear arms were the five original nuclear weapons states — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.
All five are signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which commits countries that don’t have nuclear arms not to build or obtain them, and those that do to “pursue negotiations in good faith” aimed at nuclear disarmament.
Rivals India and Pakistan, which haven’t signed the NPT, have built up their nuclear arsenals over the years. India was the first to conduct a nuclear test in 1974, followed by another in 1998.
Pakistan followed with its own nuclear tests just a few weeks later.
Israel, which also hasn’t signed the NPT, has never acknowledged having nuclear weapons but is widely believed to have them.
North Korea joined the NPT in 1985 but announced its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003, citing what it called US aggression. Since 2006, it has conducted a string of nuclear tests.
Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing the bomb now. But it has in recent years been enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
In an annual assessment released this week, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that the nine countries had the following stockpiles of military nuclear warheads as of January:
Russia: 4,309
United States: 3,700
China: 600
France: 290
United Kingdom: 225
India: 180
Pakistan: 170
Israel: 90
North Korea: 50
Australian mushroom murder suspect not on trial for lying: Defense
- Erin Patterson is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking their lunch with death cap mushrooms
- She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the lunch after a long stay in hospital
SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of killing three lunch guests with deadly mushrooms should not be judged guilty just because she lied after the meal, her defense lawyer said Wednesday.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking their beef Wellington lunch with death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the lunch after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has steadfastly maintained her innocence during a seven-week-long trial that has made headlines from New York to New Delhi.
As the trial came to its closing stages on Wednesday, defense lawyer Colin Mandy sought to explain Patterson’s behavior in the days following the deadly feast.
Patterson told police investigating the deaths that she did not own a food dehydrator, which was allegedly used to prepare the death cap mushrooms.
Security footage showed Patterson dumping a dehydrator at a nearby rubbish facility, and forensic tests found trace amounts of death cap mushrooms on the appliance.
“No one knows what they would have done in a similar situation,” Mandy told the trial.
“She is not on trial for being a liar.”
Mandy said there was nothing unusual about Patterson’s knowledge of death cap mushrooms.
She developed an interest in foraging for mushrooms during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, Mandy said, teaching herself which varieties were safe to eat.
It made “perfect sense” that Patterson would have become “aware of death cap mushrooms” during this period, Mandy said.
Patterson “loved” mushrooms, he added, because they were healthy and full of flavor.
This interest explained why Patterson visited a website listing locations of death cap mushrooms near where she lived, Mandy said.
Patterson originally invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the farming village of Leongatha in Victoria state.
But he turned down the invitation on the eve of the meal, saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard earlier.
The pair were long estranged but still legally married.
Simon Patterson’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch.
All three were dead within days. Heather Wilkinson’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but eventually recovered.
India grants license to Musk’s Starlink
- The launch of Starlink has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation
- Elon Musk has butted heads with Jio Platforms owner Mukesh Ambani over how the satellite spectrum should be awarded
NEW DELHI: New Delhi had granted a license to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet service, opening India’s “next frontier of connectivity,” according to the country’s communications minister.
The launch of Starlink, which provides high-speed Internet access to remote locations using low Earth orbit satellites, has sparked fierce debate in India over issues ranging from predatory pricing to spectrum allocation.
Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he held a “productive meeting” with Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Starlink owner SpaceX.
Shotwell “appreciated the license granted to Starlink, calling it a great start to the journey,” the minister said late Tuesday on Musk-owned social media platform X.
It follows two of India’s biggest telecom service providers – Jio Platforms and its rival Bharti Airtel – in March announcing deals with SpaceX to offer Starlink Internet to their customers.
SpaceX owner Musk has butted heads with Asia’s richest man and Jio Platforms owner Mukesh Ambani over how the satellite spectrum should be awarded.
While Musk’s business interests in India are currently limited to X, the tech mogul’s electric vehicle maker Tesla is preparing its entry into the country.
India regulator says no ‘major safety concerns’ on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet
- 24 of Air India’s 33 Boeing 787 aircraft had completed an ‘enhanced safety inspection’ it had ordered the airline to carry out
- The regulator raised concerns about recent maintenance-related issues reported by the airline
India’s aviation safety watchdog said on Tuesday surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns, days after one of its jets crashed, killing at least 271 people.
“The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London with 242 people on board crashed seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday hitting nearby buildings. All but one passenger on board was killed, along with about 30 people on the ground.
The DGCA also said 24 of Air India’s 33 Boeing 787 aircraft had completed an “enhanced safety inspection” it had ordered the airline to carry out.
The regulator, in a meeting with senior officials of Air India, raised concerns about recent maintenance-related issues reported by the airline.
It advised the carrier to “strictly adhere to regulations,” strengthen coordination across its businesses and ensure availability of adequate spares to mitigate passenger delays, it added.
The DGCA had met senior officials of Air India and Air India Express to review their operations amid increasing flight volumes.
