The post Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities but classrooms will be gender-segregated appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, laid out the new policies at a news conference, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an all-male government.
The world has been watching closely to see to what extent the Taliban might act differently from their first time in power, in the late 1990s. During that era, girls and women were denied an education, and were excluded from public life.
The Taliban have suggested they have changed, including in their attitudes toward women. However, they have used violence in recent days against women protesters demanding equal rights.
Haqqani said the Taliban did not want to turn the clock back 20 years. “We will start building on what exists today,” he said.
However, female university students will face restrictions under the Taliban, including a compulsory dress code. Haqqani said hijabs will be mandatory but did not specify if this meant compulsory headscarves or also compulsory face coverings.
Gender segregation will also be enforced, he said. “We will not allow boys and girls to study together,” he said. “We will not allow co-education.”
Haqqani said the subjects being taught in universities would also be reviewed but did not elaborate. The Taliban, who subscribe to a harsh interpretation of Islam, have banned music and art during their previous time in power.
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]]>The post Queensland avoids lockdown after it detected zero COVID-19 infections appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The state on Saturday reported five cases of COVID-19, with state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warning that a lockdown could be needed to stop the spread of the virus.
However, the state said testing had yet to detect any further cases, avoiding the need such a measure.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, but this is the best result we could have hoped for at this point in the outbreak,” Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles told reporters in Brisbane.
The result is a boost for Australia’s A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy, which is at risk of slipping into its second recession in as many years as a result of lockdowns of the country’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales.
Victoria on Sunday recorded 392 COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, down slightly from the 450 cases recorded in the state a day earlier.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Edge Media staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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]]>The post Japan detects submarine believed to be Chinese appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The submarine remained submerged, but the ministry said in a statement that it believes the submarine is Chinese because a Chinese Luyang III-class guided missile destroyer is near the submarine.
The submarine moved northwest off the eastern coast of the Amamioshima Island, about 700 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of the disputed East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by Beijing, the ministry said.
The submarine on Sunday morning was heading west in the East China Sea.
Neither the submarine or the ship entered Japanese territorial water. Under international law, submarines passing off the coast of another country are required to surface and show a national flag inside territorial waters.
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force sent three reconnaissance aircraft and two destroyers to the area for early warning and information gathering to analyze China’s intentions.
A submarine believed to be Chinese also was spotted in the area in June 2020.
China has defended its maritime activities and says it has the right to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.
Japan, alarmed by China’s growing naval activities in the East and South China seas, has been stepping up defense in the country’s southwestern regions and islands north of the disputed islands.
Tokyo says it opposes China’s unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the region, and regularly protests the Chinese coast guard’s growing presence near the disputed islands. Japanese officials say Chinese vessels routinely violate Japanese territorial waters around the islands, sometimes threatening fishing boats.
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]]>The post UAE lifts restrictions on entry for residents from India and other countries appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>It has also allowed residents from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Namibia, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, Nigeria and Afghanistan as well to fly into the UAE from September 12.
Dubai is due to open the Expo 2020 World Fair on October 1, for which it has been preparing for almost a decade, after a year-long delay due to the pandemic. The nation which is a regional business and tourism hub is relying on Expo 2020 World Fair to give its economy a boost.
The organisers said they expected that the remaining flight restrictions imposed by the government will be lifted in time for Expo 2020. The UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority on Twitter however said that approval needs to be sought from the government and various PCR tests will be conducted before entering the country.
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]]>The post Singapore currently ranks seventh in the world for vaccination appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>So far, they haven’t blinked — even as local infections surpass numbers reached when Singapore implemented its “circuit-breaker” shutdown in April 2020 and pushed cases so low that it became one of the stars of the Covid Zero approach to the pandemic. Previously, infection spikes like this were met with stringent restrictions like bans on indoor dining and closing gyms.
The country reported 450 cases of local infection on Thursday, while those who are seriously ill or in intensive care ticked up to 33 people, according to data by the health ministry.
A high rate of vaccination, Singapore is currently ranked seventh in the world, has helped contain hospitalizations and deaths. But those numbers are likely to climb in the weeks to come, as some early infections turn deadly.
Whether or not Singapore keeps to its reopening and normalization plan as the pathogen starts to circulate more widely will determine the future of the financial and business hub that has been considered a key entry point into Asia.
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]]>The post Russia will not take part in Taliban’s inauguration ceremony appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said earlier this week that Russia would be represented at the inauguration by ambassador-level officials, the RIA news agency reported.
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]]>The post Two hundred Americans and other foreigners set to depart from Kabul appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the Taliban seized the capital in mid-August, triggering the chaotic U.S.-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.
The move comes two days after the Taliban announced an interim government made up mainly of ethnic Pashtun men including wanted terror suspects and Islamist hardliners, dashing international hopes for a more moderate administration.
The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The official could not say whether the American civilians and other foreign nationals were among people stranded for days in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif because their private charters had not been allowed to depart.
The Taliban’s announcement of a new government on Tuesday was widely seen as a signal they were not looking to broaden their base and present a more tolerant face to the world, as they had suggested they would do before their military takeover.
Foreign countries greeted the interim government with caution and dismay on Wednesday. In Kabul, dozens of women took to the streets in protest.
Many critics called on the leadership to respect basic human rights and revive the economy, which faces collapse amid steep inflation, food shortages and the prospect of foreign aid being slashed as countries seek to isolate the Taliban.
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]]>The post Yevgeny Zinichev dies while saving a documentary maker appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>Yevgeny Zinichev, 55, who headed the high-profile emergencies ministry since 2018, was in the remote city of Norilsk to oversee large-scale drills in the region.
The ministry said in a statement he died while trying to save Alexander Melnik who had travelled to Norilsk to make a documentary about the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route.
It said Melnik had slipped on a wet rock and fallen.
“Yevgeny tried to grab Alexander and jumped after him, but unfortunately, they both died after falling from a high cliff into a mountainous river,” it said.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia’s RT television channel, commented separately on Twitter.
“There were a fair number of witnesses – no one even had time to think about what had happened when Zinichev threw himself into the water for the fallen person and crashed into a protruding rock,” she said.
The ministry had said in a statement earlier on Wednesday that Zinichev visited the construction site of a new fire station in Norilsk, as well as a search and rescue team in the region.
A biography carried by state-run media said Zinichev was born in St Petersburg and served in the state security services from 1987 to 2015 and was also involved in security for Putin.
He served as a bodyguard and personal aide to Putin, according to the RBC news site. Multiple photographs of Putin at public events dating over several years show Zinichev standing at Putin’s shoulder.
Zinichev later became deputy head of the Federal Security Service and served briefly as acting regional governor of Kaliningrad. The Kremlin said Putin had offered his condolences.
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]]>The post Taliban fired shots into air to disperse crowds at the protest appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The Taliban fired shots into the air to disperse crowds at the protest, news agency AFP reported.
Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is notorious for supporting terror groups against India, is believed to be working with the Taliban and laying the groundwork for a new government in the country where a US-led alliance fought a war against terror for 20 years.
“ISI stay away,” read a placard held up by a woman at the protest outside the Pakistani embassy in the Afghan capital.
“The Islamic government is shooting at our poor people,” one panic-stricken woman on the street says over sounds of gunfire in a video clip posted on Twitter by Asvaka news agency. “These people (Taliban) are very unjust, and they are not human at all.”
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]]>The post Toddler found after three days hunt appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>Police sent a helicopter with thermal imaging equipment but failed to spot the little boy in the hours after he was first reported missing on Friday morning at his family’s remote property in the eastern state of New South Wales, 150 kilometres (90 miles) northwest of Sydney.
Rescue workers and police, including some on horseback, searched through the weekend before finally spotting the boy, AJ Elfalak, during a helicopter sweep of the area on Monday.
“He is with us. He is safe and well and healthy. That is all that matters,” his mother Kelly Elfalak told television reporters Tuesday at the family home in the village of Putty.
“I want to thank everyone. I am so blessed,” she said.
AJ had a few scratches and bruises, the mother said. “Other than that he is perfect.”
Police said dense terrain complicated the search for the boy, who was spotted within a few hundred metres (yards) of his home.
“The young fellow was sitting in a small creek and was drinking water. He was able to catch the eye of the pilot and the crewman,” New South Wales Police superintendent Brad Monk told reporters after the rescue on Monday.
“There is no doubt emergency services during that search passed closely by the little boy who may have even been sleeping at the time. There is a lot of area there where he could have been hidden,” he added.
Video images taken from the police helicopter showed the child sitting in a pool of murky water in a rocky creek, wearing a light-coloured top and using his hands to scoop water to his mouth and face.
New South Wales Ambulance official Gerry Pyke said the boy’s spirits picked up after he was reunited with his parents. “All he wanted to do was eat, and he got stuck into about three slices of pizza and a banana so he’s pretty good.”
The hunt for the boy, who police said has autism and does not speak, grabbed the headlines across Australia.
“What a relief. I can’t imagine how traumatic this experience has been for AJ and his parents,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a message on Twitter Monday.
The boy was reportedly treated at the nearby Maitland Hospital before returning home. The hospital declined to comment.
A New South Wales Police spokesman said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the child’s disappearance.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Edge Media staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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