Afghanistan International: Afghanistan remains among the world’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which shows the country’s ranking worsening slightly in 2025 under Taliban rule. The report shows Afghanistan scored 16 out of 100, ranking 169th out of 182 countries. In 2024, the country scored 17 points, placing 165th out of 180 countries. Click here to read more (external link).
Pakistan defense minister makes rare admission on political motives behind Afghanistan wars
Khawaja Muhammad Asif
Amu: Speaking during a session of Pakistan’s National Assembly on Monday, Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Pakistan’s participation in wars linked to Afghanistan, beginning during the Cold War and continuing after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, was a strategic choice made to secure international support, particularly from the United States. “We did not enter these wars to defend Islam or for jihad,” Asif told lawmakers. “We entered them for political legitimacy and to secure the support of a superpower.” The defense minister said Pakistan failed to learn from the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal and again aligned itself with Washington after the 9/11 attacks, remaining involved in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan for nearly two decades. “For not one decade, but two decades, we rented ourselves out,” he said. “The only objective was to gain American support.” Click here to read more (external link).
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Tolo News in Dari – February 10, 2026
Rashid Khan: ‘Definitely’ want to see Afghanistan have a women’s team
Rashid Khan
ESPN: Rashid Khan has said he would “definitely,” like to see an Afghanistan women’s team in the future but the decision to ratify one is out of his hands. This is the first time Rashid has made a statement in support of a women’s team after previously pleading for women’s rights to education under the Taliban government, who have banned women from almost all areas of public life. Click here to read more (external link).
New semi-precious stone deposit found in Panjshir
Amu: Local Taliban officials said they have identified a new deposit of semi-precious green garnet stone in the central province of Panjshir, marking the first reported discovery of the mineral in the area. Mohammad Qasim Amiri, the Taliban’s head of mines and petroleum in Panjshir, said the deposit was located in Ab Dara village in Anaba district, according to a statement issued by the provincial mines department. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – February 9, 2026
Medicine Prices In Kabul Rise By Up To 40 Percent After Import Disruptions
Afghanistan International: Three months after the Taliban ordered a halt to pharmaceutical trade with Pakistan, medicine prices in Kabul have risen by as much as 40 precent, according to pharmacy owners and market sources. Formal medicine imports have largely stopped, and many drugs are now entering the market through smuggling routes. Click here to read more (external link).
UNAMA Reports Killings, Arrests, Public Punishments in Afghanistan
Khaama: UNAMA reports killings, arbitrary arrests, media restrictions and public punishments in Afghanistan during late 2025, raising concerns over human rights conditions nationwide. UNAMA’s quarterly report says 14 former Afghan security personnel were killed between October and December 2025, alongside 28 arbitrary detentions and seven cases of torture or mistreatment. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News in Dari – February 8, 2026
The US said a Marine could not adopt an Afghan girl. Records show officials helped him get her
AP: The judge wanted everyone in the courtroom to know that when he’d signed a war orphan over to an American Marine he thought it was an emergency — that the child injured on the battlefield in Afghanistan was on death’s door, with neither a family nor a country to claim her. A lawyer for the federal government stood up. “That is not what happened,” she told the judge: almost everything he’d believed about the baby was untrue. Click here to read more (external link).