Taliban carry out second known public execution since seizing power in Afghanistan
Supreme Court sentenced man from Kabul to death for murdering five people last year
Execution carried out with assault rifle by the son of one of the five men killed by convict
Updated 21 June 2023
AP
ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers Tuesday carried out what is believed to be the second confirmed public execution since the religious group took power in 2021, according to the country's Supreme Court.
The court had sentenced to death a man identified only as Ajmal from the capital Kabul who was found guilty of murdering five people in two separate incidents last year.
The execution was carried out with an assault rifle by the son of Siad Wali, one of five men killed by Ajmal. It took place outside a mosque near the offices of the provincial governor in eastern Laghman province according to Islamic law, the high court said in a statement.
Relatives of the four other men who were killed by Ajmal witnessed the execution.
The latest public execution is likely to draw criticism from the international community. It comes just a month after the United Nations in a report strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power, and called on the country’s rulers to halt such practices.
In May, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in the past six months alone, 274 men, 58 women and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan.
The Taliban-run Supreme Court in Kabul said when the case against Ajmal was brought to the government's attention, it thoroughly examined and investigated and said three different courts eventually upheld the death sentence.
The court said the final approval for the execution was ordered by Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada after supervising a separate probe into the murder case.
Akhundzada was named the Taliban leader in 2016 after a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. It was the second known public execution since the Taliban takeover, even though rights groups and the international community have opposed such extreme punishments.
The first was in December last year, when Taliban authorities punished an Afghan convicted of murdering another man. The execution was carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials.
During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group regularly carried out public executions, floggings and stonings of people convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.
After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights. Instead, they later restricted rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade.
Indian military warns Pakistan against ceasefire violations
Pakistan called and sought ceasefire, Indian military says
Nuclear-armed neighbors blame each other for overnight violations
Residents in some border areas told not to return home just yet
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
NEW DELHI/ MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: T he Indian military sent a “hotline message” to Pakistan on Sunday about violations of a ceasefire agreed this week and informed it of New Delhi’s intent to respond if it was repeated, a top Indian army officer said, while the Pakistan military’s spokesman denied any violation of the ceasefire.
India’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) was speaking as a fragile 24-hour-old ceasefire appeared to be holding after both sides blamed the other for initial violations on Saturday night.
Pakistan’s military spokesman said, “No violation is being made by the Pakistan army or armed forces of the ceasefire,” during a press conference with representation from the country’s air force and navy.
The truce announced on Saturday followed four days of intense fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors. In the worst fighting in nearly three decades, they fired missiles and drones at each other’s military installations, killing almost 70 people.
Diplomacy and pressure from the United States helped secure the ceasefire deal when it seemed that the conflict was spiralling alarmingly. But within hours of its coming into force, artillery fire was witnessed in Indian Kashmir, the center of much of last week’s fighting.
Blasts from air-defense systems boomed in cities near the border under a blackout, similar to those heard during the previous two evenings, according to local authorities, residents and Reuters witnesses.
“Sometimes, these understandings take time to fructify, manifest on the ground,” Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the Indian DGMO, told a media briefing, referring to the truce. “The (Indian) armed forces were on a very very high alert (yesterday) and continue to be in that state.”
The Indian army chief had given a mandate to its commanders to deal with “violations of any kind” from across the borders in the best way they deem fit, Ghai added.
He said his Pakistani counterpart called him on Saturday afternoon and proposed the two countries “cease hostilities” and urgently requested a ceasefire.
Following India’s request for a call after carrying out military attacks in Pakistan between May 6 and 7, and on the intervention of international interlocutors, Pakistan responded on May 10 to the earlier made request, said Pakistan’s military spokesman.
Late on Saturday, the Pakistani foreign ministry had said that it was committed to the truce agreement and blamed India for the violations.
US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on Saturday, saying it was reached after talks mediated by Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said India and Pakistan had also agreed to start talks on “a broad set of issues at a neutral site.”
While Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating the ceasefire and welcomed Trump’s offer to mediate on the Kashmir dispute with India, New Delhi has not commented on US involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site.
Demonstrators carrying posters with portraits of Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir shout slogans as they participate in an anti-India protest in Lahore on May 11, 2025. (AFP)
India maintains that disputes with Pakistan have to be resolved directly by the two countries and rejects any third party involvement.
On Sunday, Trump praised the leaders of both countries for agreeing to halt the aggression and said he would “substantially” increase trade with them.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan each rule a part of Kashmir but claim it in full, and have twice gone to war over the Himalayan region.
India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of the territory, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
Picking up the pieces
Among those most affected by the fighting were residents on either side of the border, many of whom fled their homes when the fighting began on Wednesday, two weeks after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir’s Pahalgam that India said was backed by Islamabad.
Pakistan denied the accusation.
In the Indian border city of Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple revered by Sikhs, people returned to the streets on Sunday morning after a siren sounded to signal a return to normal activities following the tension of recent days.
“Ever since the terrorists attacked people in Pahalgam, we have been shutting our shops very early and there was an uncertainty. I am happy that at least there will be no bloodshed on both sides,” said Satvir Singh Alhuwalia, 48, a shopkeeper in the city.
In some border areas, however, people were asked not to return home just yet. In the Indian Kashmir city of Baramulla, authorities warned residents to stay away due to the threat posed by unexploded munitions.
“People here are hosting us well but just as a bird feels at peace in its own nest, we also feel comfortable only in our own homes, even if they have been damaged,” said Azam Chaudhry, 55, who fled his home in the Pakistani town of Khuiratta and has now been told to wait until Monday before returning.
In Indian Kashmir’s Uri, a key power plant that was damaged in a Pakistani drone attack is still under repair.
“The project has suffered minor damage ... We have stopped generation as the transmission line has been damaged,” said an official from state-run NHPC, India’s biggest hydropower company, who did not want to be identified
Argentina’s Supreme Court finds archives linked to the Nazi regime
The president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, has ordered the preservation of the material and a thorough analysis
Updated 19 min ago
AP
BUENOS AIRES: The Argentine Supreme Court has found documentation associated with the Nazi regime among its archives including propaganda material that was used to spread Adolf Hitler’s ideology in the South American nation, a judicial authority from the Court told the Associated Press on Sunday.
The court came across the material when preparing for the creation of a museum with its historical documents, the source said. The official requested anonymity due to internal policies.
Among the documents, they found postcards, photographs, and propaganda material from the German regime.
Some of the material “intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler’s ideology in Argentina, in the midst of World War II,” the source said.
The boxes are believed to be related to the arrival of 83 packages in Buenos Aires on June 20, 1941, sent by the German embassy in Tokyo aboard the Japanese steamship “Nan-a-Maru.”
At the time, the German diplomatic mission in Argentina had requested the release of the material, claiming the boxes contained personal belongings, but the Customs and Ports Division retained it.
The president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, has ordered the preservation of the material and a thorough analysis.
UK prime minister, under pressure from Farage, tightens migration rules
Under Starmer government’s plan, skilled worker visas will be restricted to graduate-level applicants
Care sector firms barred from recruiting abroad; businesses required to increase training for local workers
Updated 12 May 2025
Reuters
LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a new salvo of measures to toughen up Britain’s migration system on Sunday, saying many immigrants would have to wait longer before getting the status they need to claim welfare.
Starmer’s government — which is due to publish plans for new legislation to reduce immigration on Monday — is under pressure to counter the rise in popularity of Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Over the weekend, interior minister Yvette Cooper announced plans to restrict skilled worker visas to graduate-level applicants, prevent care sector firms from recruiting abroad and require businesses to increase training for local workers.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” Starmer said in a statement. “Enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall.”
Under the changes, automatic settlement and citizenship for people who move to Britain will apply after 10 years, up from five years now, although highly skilled workers — such as nurses, doctors, engineers and AI experts — would be fast-tracked.
Migrants who are in the UK on visas are typically ineligible for welfare benefits and social housing.
The government also said it plans to raise English language requirements to include all adult dependents who will have to show a basic understanding of English. It said the change would help integration and reduce the risks of exploitation.
“This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right,” Starmer said.
“And when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language,” he said.
The number of European Union migrants to Britain fell sharply after Brexit but new visa rules, a rise in people arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong and higher net numbers of foreign students led to an overall surge in recent years.
Net migration — the number of people coming to Britain minus the number leaving — hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, up from 184,000 who arrived in the same period during 2019, when Britain was still in the EU.
Employers’ groups are worried that tightening the rules on foreign workers will make it harder for companies to fill vacancies.
“This major intervention in the labor market will leave many employers fearful that in tackling concerns about immigration, government goes after the wrong target,” Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), said.
Being open to skilled workers was essential for Britain “but so is a controlled, affordable and responsive immigration system that keeps investment flowing to the UK,” Carberry said.
Poland accuses Russia of ordering major fire in Warsaw last year
The fire in May 2024 has completely destroyed a large shopping center in the capital of Warsaw
Updated 11 May 2025
AFP
WARSAW: Polish authorities accused Russian intelligence services on Sunday of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a large shopping center last year in the capital of Warsaw.
Since Russia’s February 2022 offensive against Ukraine, Poland — a loyal ally of Kyiv — claims to be the target of sabotage attempts which they blame on Russia.
In May 2024, a fire completely destroyed a large shopping center in Warsaw and the 1,400 small businesses it housed, most of them owned by members of the Vietnamese community.
Authorities immediately launched an investigation but had until now refrained from blaming Moscow.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on X.
The justice and interior ministries said in a separate, joint statement Sunday that some of the alleged perpetrators were already in custody, while others had been identified but still at large.
“Their actions were organized and directed by a specific person residing in the Russian Federation,” the two ministries said, adding that they were cooperating with Lithuania, “where some of the perpetrators also carried out acts of diversion.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has detained and convicted several individuals suspected of sabotage on behalf of Russian intelligence services, accused of assaults, arson or attempted arson.
In May 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil, due to Moscow’s “involvement” in a “hybrid war.”
Five months later, Warsaw ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan, in western Poland, accusing Moscow of orchestrating “sabotage attempts.”
In December, Polish diplomacy said it was willing to close all Russian consulates in Poland if acts of “terrorism” continued.
Russia closed in January the Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in retaliation.
Bordering Ukraine, Poland — a NATO and European Union member — is one of the main countries through which Western nations supply weapons and ammunition to Kyiv to help Ukraine fight Russian troops.
First white South Africans board plane for US under Trump refugee plan
Trump’s offer of asylum to white South Africans coincides with heightened racial tensions over land and jobs
Trump said descendants of mostly Dutch early settlers, the Afrikaners, were 'victims of unjust racial discrimination'
Updated 11 May 2025
Reuters
The first white South Africans granted refugee status under a program initiated by US President Donald Trump boarded a plane to leave from the country’s main international airport in Johannesburg on Sunday.
A queue of white citizens with airport trolleys full of luggage, much of it wrapped in theft-proof cellophane, waited to have their passports stamped, a Reuters reporter saw, before they entered the departure lounge for their charter flight.
“One of the conditions of the permit was to ensure that they were vetted in case one of them has a criminal issue pending,” South African transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi told Reuters, adding that 49 passengers had been cleared.
Journalists were not granted access to those headed to the US Msibi said they were due to fly to Dulles Airport just outside Washington, D.C., and then on to Texas. They had boarded the plane but not yet left as 18:30 GMT.
Trump’s offer of asylum to white South Africans, especially Afrikaners — the group with the longest history in South Africa and who make up the bulk of whites — has been divisive in both countries. In the United States, it comes as the Trump administration has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world. In South Africa, it coincides with heightened racial tensions over land and jobs that have dogged domestic politics since the end of white minority rule.
Despite a wider freeze on refugees, Trump called on the US to prioritize resettling Afrikaners, descendants of mostly Dutch early settlers, saying they were “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
The granting of refugee status to white South Africans — who have remained by far the most privileged race since apartheid ended 30 years ago — has been met with a mixture of alarm and ridicule by South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic political issue it does not understand.
Three decades since Nelson Mandela ushered democracy into South Africa, the white minority that ruled it has managed to retain most of the wealth that was amassed under colonialism and apartheid. Whites still own three quarters of private land and about 20 times the wealth of the Black majority, according to the Review of Political Economy, an international academic journal. Whites are also the race least affected by joblessness. Yet the claim that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the Black majority has been repeated so often in online chatrooms that is has become orthodoxy for the far right, and has been echoed by Trump’s white South African-born ally Elon Musk.
