The Telegraph (UK): Afghanistan is seeing a boom in methamphetamine drug production, potentially providing a new revenue stream for the Taliban in a country already notorious for opium and heroin. The United Nations said Afghan seizures of the powerful stimulant drug had increased exponentially in the past five years and then “gone off the scale” in 2019. Click
Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani has ordered the release of Khalilullah Frozi, the ex-CEO of Kabul Bank, who is accused of having a key role in the collapse of the bank that once Afghanistan’s largest financial institution. In 2015, President Ghani ordered that Mr. Frozi should serve out his full 10 years in prison and
Press TV August 13, 2019 Iran’s minister of transportation says good progress has been made at construction activities for a strategic railway linking the port of Chabahar on the Sea of Oman to the city of Zahedan near the Iranian-Afghan border. Mohammad Eslami said on Saturday that at least 40 percent of the 580-kilometer railway,
By Ron Synovitz & Freshta Jalalzai Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 12, 2019 KABUL — Mohammad Wali was just 12 years old when his widowed mother began arranging his marriage to a 24-year-old woman from their village in Ghazni Province. “I don’t want to be married,” the young Afghan boy is said to have pleaded
1TV: Tourist arrivals in central Afghan province of Bamyan have declined 30 percent, local officials said. The decline is driven in large part by insecurity on Maidan Wardak-Bamyan and Ghorband Valley. Click here to read more (external link).
The Diplomat: Tashkent is set to become a dominant trade partner to Afghanistan as the two sides continue to negotiate on major projects. Uzbekistan has focused on fostering trade relations both globally and regionally. Tashkent has chased and negotiated various trade opportunities, and one country that stands out is Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external
TRT World: Aimal Hashoor, the spokesperson at the Central Bank of Afghanistan, confirmed to TRT World that they were aware that smuggling of the currency did take place on Iran’s borders, adding however, that they have little control over what goes on at the frontiers. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul VOA News July 21, 2019 ISLAMABAD – The World Bank estimated Sunday that Afghanistan’s economy grew by less than two percent (1.8 %) in 2018 primarily due to ongoing war, drought and political uncertainty, likely leading to further increases in poverty. In its latest assessment of the Afghan economy, the Bank noted that
Ariana: Pakistan opened its airspace for all civilian traffic including Afghan flights after over four months of closure on Tuesday. The Ministry of Transport says that though alternative ways were used for the flights from Afghanistan to India, Afghanistan lost 27 million dollars due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace. Click here to read more (external
FP: Wood smuggling is big business for the terrorist group. Small numbers of fighters for the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, the Afghan branch of the militant group, have been in Kunar since 2015. But the group’s new stronghold is in Kunar’s deep forests, inheriting a booming wood industry previously controlled by the Taliban that is now