BenArmani

Qatar’s efforts of bringing together Afghans from across the political spectrum and the Taliban have been successful, according to Dr Sultan Barakat, director of the Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. “This is the first time that the Taliban have come face to face with a wide range of individuals from Afghanistan,” the...

There is no option but to have a ceasefire in Afghanistan, Dr Ghairat Baheer, Afghanistan’s Hizb-e-Islami political in-charge, has said. “Unfortunately, we are losing 300 Afghan people, (who are killed) daily in Afghanistan. For that reason, ceasefire is a must,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Intra-Afghan Conference for Peace, which started yesterday in Doha. The two-day peace talks,...

Former central bank governor faced pressure from President Erdogan to lower interest rates to revive shrinking economy. Turkey has fired its central bank governor without giving an official reason, as policy differences between the government and the bank deepened in the face of an economic slump. Murat Cetinkaya, who had been serving as the governor since April 2016, was removed from the...

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd forecast a steep plunge in its second-quarter operating profit as the US-China trade war wreaks havoc in global chip and smartphone markets, although one-off gains helped it beat analyst expectations. The South Korean tech giant is on track to post year-on-year profit declines for a third consecutive quarter as chip prices fell due to a supply...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government yesterday proposed giving foreign investors a bigger role in India’s giant insurance and aviation sectors to help reverse weakening growth and investment that threatens to take the shine off its recent landslide election victory. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the proposals while presenting the budget for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020 to...

India raised the import duties on gold and other precious metals yesterday in a surprise move that industry officials say could dampen retail demand and boost smuggling in the world’s second-biggest bullion consumer. Lower demand from India could weigh on global prices that are trading near their highest level in six years. Jewellery trade associations have asked India’s government to...

The captain of detained migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3, Carola Rackete, will sue Matteo Salvini for defamation after a tirade of insults from Italy’s far-right interior minister, her lawyer said yesterday. “We have prepared the legal complaint against minister Salvini,” Alessandro Gamberini told Italian radio, saying that “it’s not easy to make a complete list of all the insults Salvini...

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that for the sake of future generations, the 10bn-Tree Tsunami Project of the government must be turned into a success. He took to Twitter, sharing a news story on the environment and planting trees. “Ours was the first party and government that understood this phenomenon in Pakistan, and started the Billion-Tree Tsunami. For the future...

The stepson of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak and co-founder of the Hollywood production firm behind the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, was yesterday charged with money laundering, state news agency Bernama reported. Riza Aziz was charged with five counts of money laundering for allegedly receiving unlawful proceeds totalling 1bn Malaysian ringgit ($248mn) in connection with state development...

A Hong Kong street artist was charged yesterday with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage, the first prosecution against an anti-government protester since the city was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations. Sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the city has witnessed three huge peaceful rallies as well as civil disobedience and violence from a hard...

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court yesterday suspended President Maithripala Sirisena’s moves to end a 43-year-old moratorium on capital punishment by hanging four drug convicts. The court banned any executions until it has ruled on a petition seeking a declaration that hanging breaches the country’s constitution. “The court will take up hearing the case on October 29 and in the meantime the prisons...

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Calling China and Bangladesh traditionally friendly neighbours, Xi said that “consolidating and developing the strategic partnership of co-operation between China and Bangladesh is not only in line with common interests of the two countries, but also conducive to the prosperity and stability...

The jungle was so thick that Emmanuel Olabode only found the elephants he was tracking when the great matriarch’s sniffing trunk reached out close enough to almost touch. “She flapped her ears, blocking us to guard her family, then left in peace,” recalls Olabode. “It was extraordinary.” The elusive elephants are just 100km (60 miles) from downtown Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital,...

Venezuela has freed 22 prisoners including the emblematic cases of judge Maria Afiuni and journalist Braulio Jatar, a senior UN official said yesterday. Twenty students were also among those freed on Thursday, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her office. The news came after the UN Human Rights Council held a debate on Bachelet’s report of...