KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government has banned mixed martial arts (MMA), believing it to be un-Islamic, its sports authority said in a statement on Wednesday. The order was passed down by Afghanistan’s morality police in the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice after an investigation into the sport’s compliance with Islamic law, or sharia, the statement and local media said. “It was found that the sport is problematic with respect to Sharia and it has many aspects which are contradictory to the teachings of Islam,” the Taliban government sports authority said in a statement sent to AFP.…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISTANBUL: A Brazilian Supreme Court judge warned Wednesday that social media platform X could be suspended if CEO Elon Musk does not appoint a new legal representative for Brazil operations within 24 hours. Earlier this month, Musk halted X’s business activities in Brazil but kept the platform accessible to users, accusing the judge of threatening the previous legal representative. Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has led efforts against disinformation in Brazil, issued the order on X. Failure to comply could result in the suspension of X’s operations in the country. Musk criticized Moraes, alleging that the judge is part of…
ISTANBUL: A top Hamas leader on Wednesday urged university students across the world to again start their protests to demand a halt to the US and international support to Israel, which continues to attack Gaza and launched a military operation in the West Bank on Wednesday. “With the return of the academic year and the approach of the first anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation (on Oct. 7), there must be a preparation at all fronts (…) to send a message to Washington and the world to stop the aggression on Gaza,” Khaled Mashal, the former head of Hamas’s political…
A lawyer for Telegram boss Pavel Durov, who is being investigated in France, said it was “totally absurd” to suggest the head of a social network was responsible for any criminal acts committed on the platform, French media said. A French judge put Durov under formal investigation on Wednesday, saying he was suspected of complicity in running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, images of child sex abuse and drug trafficking. He is also being investigated for alleged money laundering and the refusal to cooperate with judicial authorities. Durov, who spent four days in police custody following his arrest on Saturday…
TOKYO: At least three people were killed in southwestern Japan on Thursday as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall in Kagoshima prefecture, bringing heavy rain and very strong winds as well as snarling air traffic and knocking out power to over a quarter million households. Major automakers including Toyota and Nissan suspended operations in some or all of their domestic factories due to the storm. The typhoon, with gusts of up to 55 metres per second (198 km per hour/123 mph), made landfall near Satsumasendai city located in the country’s southwestern island of Kyushu on Thursday morning, the weather agency said. Authorities warned the…
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations General Assembly Tuesday unanimously decided that the long-running intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on restructuring the UN Security Council will continue during its upcoming 79th session, with Pakistan calling the process “the most appropriate platform” to pursue 15-member body’s reform. “We welcome the adoption of the oral decision today to ‘roll over’ the negotiations on Security Council reform within the IGN process,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 193-member Assembly after the vote. With the aim of “instilling new life” into the discussions on Security Council reform, the General Assembly…
MARYLAND: Russian President Vladimir Putin will mount a counteroffensive to try to retake territory in the Kursk region captured by Ukrainian troops, but Russian forces will encounter “a difficult fight,” Deputy CIA Director David Cohen said on Wednesday. Cohen told a national security industry conference that the significance of the Ukrainian incursion, which has overrun some 300 square miles (777 square km) of the Russian province, remained to be seen. Ukrainian forces crashed through Russia’s western border into the Kursk region on Aug. 6 in a surprise offensive that is continuing. While Kyiv has said it has no intention of annexing…
KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA STRIP: Israeli forces intensified their operations in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, pushing tanks further into Khan Younis and conducting airstrikes across the region. These actions resulted in the deaths of at least 34 Palestinians, according to medical sources. Residents reported that Israeli tanks made an unexpected incursion into central Khan Younis, while the military issued evacuation orders in the eastern parts of the city. Many families fled for safety, though some found themselves trapped inside their homes. In recent days, Israel has issued multiple evacuation orders throughout Gaza, more than at any other point during…
DAKAR: Africa has secured less than 10% of the estimated $245 million it needs to fight a surging mpox outbreak on the continent, a senior official from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Wednesday. The continent is under pressure to curb an outbreak of the potentially deadly infection that the World Health Organization declared to be a global health emergency in mid-August, after a new strain began proliferating from Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries. Africa CDC has pulled together a budget to determine the amount of money available for the mpox response…
Internet services across Pakistan are expected to remain slow until “early October,” according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). On Wednesday, the PTA announced that repairs on the submarine cable responsible for ongoing disruptions would likely be completed by then. Internet speeds have declined significantly in recent weeks, with users facing difficulties in sending or downloading media and voice notes on WhatsApp while using mobile data and experiencing slow browsing speeds even on broadband. The business community and internet service providers (ISPs) have blamed the slowdown on government efforts to monitor internet traffic, including implementing a so-called “firewall,” resulting in…
