The U.S. military has met its goal of reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 2,500 by Friday, a drawdown that appears to violate a last-minute congressional prohibition.   President Donald Trump, who ordered the reduction in November, said Thursday that troop levels in Afghanistan had reached a 19-year low, although he didRead more

Authorities in northwestern Pakistan have removed 12 police officers from service and penalized 45 others for not preventing an Islamist mob from setting ablaze and destroying a minority Hindu temple.    On December 30, about 2,000 activists of a religious party attacked the temple in the remote Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.     A high-powered investigationRead more

Asia’s chicken farmers are confronting the region’s worst bird flu outbreak in years, with the deadly virus affecting farms stretching from Japan to India, roiling some poultry prices and showing no signs of easing.More than 20 million chickens have been destroyed in South Korea and Japan since November. The highly pathogenic H5N8 virus last weekRead more

India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, traveled to Afghanistan Wednesday, where officials said he discussed with President Ashraf Ghani cooperation against terrorism and Afghan peace-building efforts.    Doval’s visit comes just days after India officially began its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the 15-nation United Nations Security Council, where it will chair threeRead more

In an unprecedented move, the head of the Afghan Taliban has restricted officials in the insurgent group from marrying more than once. Three Taliban officials who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said the move is aimed at easing financial burdens on the group, as officials have frequently sought money from the militant organizationRead more

The sun’s golden rays fall on Goa’s smooth, sandy beaches every evening, magical as ever but strangely quiet and lonely. This holiday season, few visitors are enjoying the celebrated sunsets in the Indian party hotspot. The unspoken fear of the coronavirus is sapping Goa’s vibrant beach shacks and noisy bars of their lifeblood. A PortugueseRead more

Pakistan is concluding its phase three human trials of a Chinese company’s coronavirus vaccine. Health officials say the test of CanSinoBio’s vaccine are nearly complete and show promise. Pakistan is one of seven countries testing the Chinese vaccine. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.Camera:  Malik Waqar Ahmed    …Read more

India’s Supreme Court has indefinitely placed on hold three controversial farm laws that have triggered the biggest farmers protest in decades and formed a committee to resolve the impasse between the government and the farmers.However, farm leaders spearheading the six-week long stir vowed not to call off the protest that has seen tens of thousandsRead more

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders on Monday, marking the first meeting since Russia brokered a peace deal that ended a six-week conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.   As he sat down for talks with the two leaders at the Kremlin, Putin said the truce has been successfully implemented, laying theRead more

Officials in Afghanistan say they are investigating last week’s counter militancy airstrike that reportedly killed at least 18 civilians, including women and children.The Afghan air force air conducted the raid on late Saturday in the Khashrod district of southwestern Nimruz province, which security officials claimed killed about some 14 Taliban insurgents.However, area residents and membersRead more

India will roll out an ambitious nationwide vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Saturday, aiming to inoculate 300 million people, or nearly one quarter of the population, by July.   Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that with the upcoming immunization drive, which would be the world’s largest such program, the country is entering into aRead more

Three Sri Lankan nationals are facing charges in the U.S. for supporting an Islamic State cell responsible for the 2019 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka that killed 268 people, including five U.S. citizens.     Mohamed Naufar, Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Riskan and Ahamed Milhan Hayathu Moahmed were charged last month in federal court in theRead more

Nationalist politician Sadyr Japarov won a landslide victory on Sunday in Kyrgyzstan’s snap presidential election, which was triggered by the collapse of the previous government. Japarov has won almost 80% of the vote in the Central Asian nation which is closely allied with Russia, preliminary results cited by Kyrgyzstan’s Central Election Commission showed, meaning there willRead more

A roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, early Sunday and a countermilitancy airstrike elsewhere in the war-ravaged country killed at least 15 people, including a government spokesman.    Officials said a “magnetic mine” targeted a vehicle that was transporting Zia Wadan, spokesman for the National Public Protection Force, in the country’s Interior Affairs Ministry.Read more

Voters headed to parliamentary polls in Kazakhstan on Sunday with the ruling party expected to score a big win and the oil-rich country’s only registered opposition force boycotting the ballot.President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 67, had pledged gradual political reform in the authoritarian Central Asian nation since being eased into his post by Nursultan Nazarbayev, who calledRead more

A massive electricity blackout overnight plunged much of Pakistan into darkness, though electricity was partially restored Sunday in parts of the country.The power breakdown in the country of around 220 million left all major cities, including the capital, Islamabad, and commercial hub, Karachi, without electricity for hours.Power Minister Omar Ayub Khan confirmed at a hurriedlyRead more

The Taliban warned Saturday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s resolve to remain in office until the completion of his tenure was detrimental to peace talks aimed at finding a negotiated end to four decades of war in Afghanistan.The insurgent group’s warning came on a day when its leaders held fresh discussions in Qatar with representativesRead more

Ten babies died Saturday in a maternity ward fire in western India.Seven babies were, however, rescued from the blaze at the Bhandara District Hospital in the state of Maharashtra.Agence France-Presse reports that the age range of the dead children was between a few days and 3 months.Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter that theRead more