Afghan enthusiasts wear a protective face mask as they perform yoga to mark International Yoga Day during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.
People read verses of the Quran in a mosque during Itikaf, the last ten days of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Itikaf is very important for many Musli...
An Afghan security officer carries a baby after gunmen attacked a maternity hospital, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed the hospital in the western part of Kabul on Tuesday, se...
A body of a militant killed during an attack lies on the ground at a maternity hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Militants stormed a maternity hospital in the western part of Kabul o...
A man cries after an attack in maternity hospital, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed the hospital in the western part of Kabul on Tuesday, setting off a shootout with the polic...
Afghan and foreign security personnel stand guard in front of a hospital after gunmen attacked, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in the western part of th...
A health worker checks the temperature of car passengers in an effort to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as they enter the city in the Paghman district of Kabul, Afghan...
Afghan special forces stand guard at the site of a suicide bomber attack on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. A suicide bomber targeted a base belonging to Afghan special forces...
A damaged vehicle is removed from the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kabul police said a sticky bomb attached to a vehicle detonated in the capital but caused no c...
Muslim men attend prayer despite concerns of the new coronavirus outbreak during the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan. Millions of M...
A man prepares allotments of free food donated by the Kabul Chamber of Industries and Mines for distribution to needy people during a quarantine for the coronavirus, in Kabul, Afgh...
Afghans present their national identification papers in order to receive free wheat donated by the Afghan government, ahead of the upcoming Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, du...
Daily-wage workers wait in line to receive free wheat donated by Afghan businessmen ahead of the upcoming holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan. Muslims across the wo...
Face masks used to curb the spread of the coronavirus are assembled at a factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.
An Afghan man walks near to tents of the first coronavirus quarantine camp for Afghan refugees crossing Torkham border from Pakistan to Afghanistan east of Kabul, Afghanistan.
A damaged vehicle is removed from the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan. A sticky bomb attached to the vehicle detonated, according to Firdaus Faramraz, spokesman for ...
Volunteers in protective suits spray disinfectant on storefronts to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in Kabul, Afghanistan. The government Friday ordered a three-week lock-d...
The municipality workers bury the body of coronavirus victim on the outskirts of Herat province western of Kabul, Afghanistan.
An Afghan Sikh man wounded in a gunmen attack is treated in a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed a religious gathering of Afghanistan's minority Sikhs in their place of...
An Afghan Sikh woman wounded in a gunmen attack lies in a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gunmen stormed a religious gathering of Afghanistan's minority Sikhs in their place of wor...
K.P. Nayar spells it out as the prime minister, Manmohan Singh prepares to visit Washington:
Notwithstanding New Delhi’s known opposition to bracketing India along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are many policy-makers in the Obama administration who believe that the US cannot win the war in Afghanistan unless they also push for a solution to Kashmir and that the problem of a failing state in Pakistan cannot be adequately addressed unless New Delhi and Islamabad are nudged towards a reconciliation...
...there is lack of comprehension now in New Delhi that the Obama administration intends to eventually legitimize the Taliban: what Washington is looking for is a way to put the best front on that eventuality and justify such an about-turn...
Read the full piece at the Telegraph
C. Raja Mohan adds:
...the cynical view of the prime minister’s visit to Washington is that it will be long on rhetoric but short on substance. But the unfolding developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too consequential for the national security of both India and the United States for their leaders to waste the opportunity for thinking at the highest levels about political cooperation on stabilising the north-western parts of the Subcontinent.
Read on at the Indian Express
Golnar Motevalli reports for Reuters:
Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.
The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.
More here
This is perhaps also an opportunity to put in the joke received on SMS today: "They said pigs would fly if a black man became President. Well, swine flu."
