KABUL, 10 October 2021, (TON): Girls in grades 7-12 in Balkh province are happy about the opening of their schools, saying that in Balkh province girls are now going to school from 1st to 12th grade and there are no obstacles in the path of their education.

Since the downfall of the former government, only girls from first to 6th grade are allowed to go to school in Kabul and most of the country, but now in Balkh all female students can attend.

Tamana, a student said “trust-building has been made to some extent, the number of students is increasing, and the process of learning is better now. We cannot say that everything is normal but when we look at the situation of the country, it’s good and we are satisfied.”

Fatema, a student said “the process of learning requires one to keep going, and our teachers are helping us; also when we come to school the security situation is good.”

Statistics from the department of education in Balkh indicate that in this province more than 600 male and female schools are active with over 500,000 students, half of which are girls.

Sohaila Wardak, a teacher said “there is no salary, there are no facilities. It has been 4 months that teachers and workers have not received their salaries.”

WASHINGTON, 10 October 2021, (TON): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on October 13 in separate bilateral meetings and then in a trilateral setting.

They will discuss progress made since the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, future opportunities for collaboration, and bilateral issues including regional security and stability.

Meanwhile, As Uganda celebrates the 59th anniversary of its independence, it is a pleasure to congratulate all Ugandans on behalf of the people of the United States.

Our two peoples benefit from the longstanding partnership between the United States and Uganda.

KABUL, 10 October 2021, (TON): Its foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said “the Taliban warned the United States not to "destabilise" the regime during their first face-to-face talks since the US withdrawal.”

Muttaqi's comments come as the Taliban attempt to re-establish their rule in Afghanistan, 20 years after the group was driven out by the US-led invasion.

Muttaqi told the Afghan state news agency Bakhtar after talks in the Qatari capital, Doha "we clearly told them that trying to destabilise the government in Afghanistan is good for no one."

He said, in a recorded statement translated by media "good relations with Afghanistan are good for everyone. Nothing should be done to weaken the existing government in Afghanistan which can lead to problems for the people.”

Muttaqi's remarks came on the first of two days of talks with a US team led by the State Department's Deputy Special Representative Tom West and top USAID humanitarian official Sarah Charles.

No immediate comment on the talks was available from the US side.

Muttaqi said "the delegation from US decided that they will cooperate with us in vaccination and will provide human cooperation.”

He added "it is being promised that states will have good relations with one another and have patience while Afghanistan is passing through a very tough time, so Afghanistan will come out of this condition with more strength."

Meanwhile, Muttaqi while speaking to The Express Tribune said they held discussion with US delegation comprising military and diplomatic officials on various issues.

ISLAMABAD, 10 October 2021, (TON): Pakistan strongly condemned the recent drone attack launched by Houthi militants on King Abdullah Airport in Jazan region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, causing injuries to people and damage to property.

Official media said “ten people were wounded in a drone attack on a civilian airport in the Saudi city of Jeddah that was blamed on Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.”

Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a press release “Pakistan reaffirms its full support and solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any threats to its security and territorial integrity.”

It was added “such attacks not only violated the international law but also threatened peace and security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region.”

NEW YORK, 10 October 2021, (TON): Only a third of the funds urgently sought for Afghanistan by the United Nations have been disbursed, the UN refugees chief said Friday, warning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe.

Filippo Grandi urged donor nations to honour their financial pledges swiftly, saying “can you please concretely pledge support where it is immediately necessary.”

“Pledges were made, so it’s a matter of disbursing them because we need those resources quickly,” Grandi, who visited Afghanistan after the August 15 takeover by the Taliban, told a news conference.

Mindful that winter, which is harsh in the mountanous and predominantly rural country, is approaching, he spoke of a “race against time to address humanitarian needs.”

He said “the meltdown of services, the banking system, the economy, really risks generating a much bigger humanitarian crisis.”

On September 17, just over a month after the fall of Kabul, a ministerial conference in Geneva chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saw donor countries pledge $1.2 billion in aid.

 But it was unclear how much of this amount was going into the $606 million specifically requested by the UN to finance humanitarian aid for 11 million Afghans by the end of 2021.

MOSCOW, 10 October 2021, (TON): The joint Russian-Pakistani exercise “Friendship-2021”, which took place at the Molkino training ground in the Krasnodar Territory, ended with a landing from helicopters and an assault on the “city”, the press service of the Southern Military District (YuVO) reported.

The message said “in the Krasnodar Territory, at the Molkino training ground, the closing ceremony of the joint Russian-Pakistani military exercise” Friendship-2021 “was held.

About 200 servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan took part in the exercise. two countries to storm the conditional settlement “Egorovo” from the ground and from a helicopter.”

In addition, Russian we-apons and equipment were transferred to the Pakistani military. The exercise lasted from September 27.

The joint Russian-Pakistani military exercise “Friendship” has been held since 2016, both on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, 10 October 2021, (TON): Mexico detained more than 650 undocumented migrants, more than half of them children, traveling in refrigerated truck containers towards the border with the United States, authorities said.

The military and National Guard night “detected three tractor trailers with six long refrigerated containers transporting 652 migrants, of which 355 are minors.”

The government of northeastern Tamaulipas state said.

It said “most of the migrants were from Guatemala, and nearly 200 minors were traveling unaccompanied, it said in a statement. Four people transporting the migrants were arrested.”

The convoy was stopped at a military checkpoint in Hidalgo, Tamaulipas.

In the country’s northeast, the statement said “initial information indicates that the migrants came from the city of Puebla (in central Mexico), bound for Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.”

KHARTOUM, 10 October 2021, (TON): The UN’s emergency-response agency said “severe flooding since August has affected at least 623,000 people in South Sudan, forcing many to flee their homes with the situation further exacerbated by ongoing violence.”

Torrential rains have caused rivers to overflow, deluging homes and farms in eight of South Sudan’s ten states, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a briefing note.

The agency said “emergency workers are using canoes and boats to reach cut-off populations, with over two-thirds of the affected areas now facing the risk of hunger as food prices shoot up, recording a 15-percent jump since August.”

“Schools, homes, health facilities and water sources were inundated, impacting people’s access to basic services.”

Some families have been able to flee to the capital Juba, while others have set up makeshift camps along highways, grabbing what few possessions they could from the ruins of their flimsy thatched huts.

In some parts of the country, violence between rival communities has forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes while also complicating emergency workers’ efforts to help flood-battered communities.

WASHINGTON, 10 October 2021, (TON): Throngs of Trump supporters stormed the seat of Congress on January 6 to prevent certifying Democrat Biden's presidential victory.

The White House formally blocked an attempt by Donald Trump to withhold documents from Congress related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol when he was US president.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden had authorized the National Archives, a government agency that holds records from Trump's time in office, to turn over an initial batch of documents requested by the US House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the riot.

Psaki said “the president has determined an assertion of executive privilege isn't warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives.”

Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that protects the confidentiality of some communications between White House officials.

Trump said “the Biden administration was using the investigation to undercut his future political prospects.”

BEIRUT, 10 October 2021, (TON): Lebanon has been plunged into darkness by a power outage expected to last for several days after the country’s two largest power stations, al Zahrani and Deir Ammar, were forced to shut down, reportedly owing to fuel shortages.

The plants’ separation from the national grid saw energy production drop to below 200 megawatts, forcing a collapse, Independent reported on Saturday, citing local media.

State-run electricity firm, Electricite du Liban, is scrambling to rebuild the national grid manually, amid the absence of the national control centre which was destroyed by the Beirut port blast, broadcaster LBCI reported.

A government official told Reuters “the Lebanese power network completely stopped working at noon today, and it is unlikely that it will work until next Monday, or for several days.”

Lebanon has been wracked by a wave of crises impacting all aspects of daily life since its economy began to collapse in 2019, with poverty, unemployment and inflation soaring amid vast discontent at a political system long accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Supplies of fuel, electricity, water and medicines are among the necessities which have been affected in the crisis, which the World Bank describes as one of the worst economic collapses in modern history.