Every Afghan citizen is entitled to a passport, the Taliban’s acting head of the passport office has said.
Alam Gul Haqqani told BBC World’s Matthew Amroliwala that they would issue passports to everyone who applied, but those seeking medical treatment abroad, sports personalities and people wanting to study abroad would be prioritised.
A lack of power and funding has limited the World Health Organization’s (WHO) capacity to deal with pandemics, the co-chair of a panel looking at the response to the coronavirus pandemic has said. Helen Clark, from the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, told BBC World News that the WHO was caught in the…
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg said it was “very unclear” whether she had been officially invited to the climate change summit in Glasgow. In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, she also spoke about how some countries were sending many delegates to COP26, while others were “under-represented”.
Belarus’s authoritarian leader says it is “absolutely possible” his forces helped migrants cross into Poland, but denies they were invited. Alexander Lukashenko has been accused by the EU of orchestrating the border crisis with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in recent months in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Belarus for its brutal crackdown on opponents who…
India has seen more Covid cases in the last seven days than any other country as it battles its second wave. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with relatives begging for beds and oxygen for loved ones – now crematoriums are also running out of space. One man who lost his wife and unborn child on the…
A plane bound for Lithuania has been forcibly diverted while flying in Belarusian airspace. Opposition journalist Roman Protasevich was on board the plane and was arrested when it landed in the country’s capital, Minsk. Franak Viacorka, adviser to Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and friend of Mr Protasevich, said it showed the risk of flying…
The sentencing of seven of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy campaigners for unlawful assembly will send a message not just to Hong Kong, but to Beijing and the rest of the world about whether there is still an independent judiciary, the former Democratic Party chairperson and legislator Emily Lau has said. “We would like to…
