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India Today
11-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Taliban bans chess in Afghanistan, calls it against Sharia
The Taliban government has suspended chess in Afghanistan until further notice, citing concerns that the game may be linked to gambling, which is illegal under the country's strict interpretation of Islamic law. A sports official confirmed the suspension on action was taken by the sports directorate of the Taliban, who regulate all sports events in Afghanistan. Chess, in the view of Atal Mashwani, a government sports department spokesperson, is being treated as gambling according to Sharia law, which is strictly adhered to by the said, "Chess in sharia is considered a means of gambling, which is prohibited according to the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law announced last year." He added that religious concerns are at the heart of the decision. "There are religious considerations regarding the sport of chess," Mashwani said, stressing that until these concerns are resolved, chess would remain banned in WILL IT AFFECT LOCALS? Azizullah Gulzada owns a cafe in Kabul that has hosted informal chess competitions in recent years, but denied any gambling took place and noted chess was played in other Muslim-majority countries."Many other Islamic countries have players on an international level," he told said he would respect the suspension but that it would hurt his business and those who enjoyed the people don't have a lot of activities these days, so many came here everyday," he told AFP. 'They would have a cup of tea and challenge their friends to a game of chess.'Afghanistan's authorities have restricted other sports in recent years and women have been essentially barred from participating in sport altogether in the year, the authorities banned free fighting such as mixed martial arts (MMA) in professional competition, saying it was too "violent" and "problematic with respect to sharia".With inputs from AFPALSO READ: Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer caught on cam in alleged cocaine party? Here's the truth
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Hamas says no point in further Gaza truce talks
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A senior Hamas official said Tuesday the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel's " hunger war " against Gaza."There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip," Basem Naim told said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the "crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings" in comments by Naim, a Hamas political bureau member and former Gaza health minister, come a day after Israel's military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing "most" of its Monday Israel's security cabinet approved the military's plan for expanded operations, which an Israeli official said would entail "the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories".Nearly all of the territory's residents inhabitants have been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2 and faces a severe humanitarian military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in a radio interview on Tuesday called Israel's plan for a Gaza offensive "unacceptable", and said its government was "in violation of humanitarian law ".
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Church donation box goes digital in Greece
Live Events Devout regulars attending Athens's main Roman Catholic church that honours a first-century saint have discovered a 21st-century update: their donation box is now hooked up to a digital payments addition of the Point of Sale (POS) device in the Cathedral Basilica of St Dionysius the Areopagite is the first in a Greek church, even though their use is common elsewhere, including in was the stir created in Orthodox-dominated Greece that cameras from national broadcasters were on hand Sunday, trained on the POS's small screen -- even though it was not yet switched unit was expected to be working within a week, accepting card-tap donations as small as one cent, up to a limit of 1,000 euros ($1,130).It was sitting on a wooden furniture unit alongside prayer candles that could be exchanged for donations."The first church donation box with POS: Tourists requested it, the Church made it happen", said an article on the news cathedral's priest, Georgios Dangas, noted mildly that churches elsewhere in the Western world had been using POS units for decades."We have been asked to install a POS by tourists coming to Athens. Worshippers from all over the world who travel without cash want to give something for the church," he told added that the expenses of running the church, the salaries of the priests and the charity work are not paid by either the Greek state or the Vatican, so the contributions were mass in the church is frequently attended by women from the Philippines who work in the homes of the rich who live in nearby upscale POS device, which was hotly debated in Greece and on social media over the weekend, may find imitators in the Orthodox Church -- the most followed religion in Greece."The man who installed it told me that priests from Orthodox churches also contacted him. But they said let's see how it goes in the Catholic Church and then we'll see," the priest said.
Arab News
09-04-2025
- Arab News
Palestinian survivor recounts Israeli attack in Gaza that killed 15 aid workers
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Gaza medic Mundhir Abed feared for his life as Israeli forces opened fire on a convoy of rescuers near Rafah last month, killing 15 of his colleagues in a brazen 45, was the only survivor of the attack on March 23, in which medics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Gaza's civil defense agency were gunned down as they responded to urgent calls for help following an Israeli air strike.'I was terrified they would kill me,' Abed, a medic from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told had been in the first ambulance sent to the area after distress calls came in from residents. What followed, he said, was a sudden and violent visibly shaken, Abed recalled being with driver Mustafa Al-Khawaja and paramedic Ezzedine Shaat — both now dead — as their ambulance, sirens blaring and lights flashing, drove toward the strike site.'As soon as we reached the area, sudden and heavy gunfire from Israeli soldiers directly hit the vehicle,' he said.'I dropped to the floor in the back of the vehicle to shield myself. Then I heard no more sounds from my colleagues — only the rattle of death.'Abed said he panicked as the gunfire continued and was unable to use his phone. Then, he said, he heard voices speaking Hebrew.'The vehicle door was opened, and there were armed Israeli special forces in full military gear. They pulled me out of the vehicle,' Abed said.'They forced me to the ground, face down, stripped me completely, interrogated me, and beat me with their weapons on my back, chest and feet.'He said he caught a glimpse of fellow paramedic Asaad Al-Mansoura.'He was stripped of his clothes, kneeling, blindfolded,' Abed said. 'After that I didn't see him again and I don't know his fate.'Mansoura remains condemnationThe incident has sparked international condemnation and renewed scrutiny over the risks facing aid workers in Gaza, where war has raged since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered an Israeli military campaign.A military official told journalists that troops were firing at 'terrorists.'Two hours after the initial attack, the Israeli military said its forces received a report about a convoy 'moving in the dark in a suspicious way toward them' without headlights, prompting further fire from a distance.'They thought they had an encounter with terrorists,' the official the Red Crescent released mobile phone footage recovered from one of the slain medics that appeared to contradict the army's initial account. The video shows ambulances moving with headlights and emergency lights clearly switched said that when a second team from Gaza's civil defense arrived to assist after the initial strike, they too came under collecting his personal information, he said Israeli soldiers ordered him to assist them.'One of them untied my hands, gave me a vest and a pair of pants, and ordered me to help them,' he was taken to a group of displaced civilians nearby.'I saw Israeli tanks surrounding the area, and quadcopter drones flying overhead. The bombing was terrifying,' he ordered him to calm the civilians and separate them — men on one side, women and children on the Al-Mughayyir, head of logistics at the Gaza civil defense agency, said his team had rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call from Red Crescent staff whose vehicle had been 15 minutes, the civil defense agency lost contact with its own wasn't until March 27 that the first body, of Anwar Al-Attar who led the civil defense unit, was crews recovered the remaining bodies three days later. Some had been handcuffed and buried in the sand, according to the Red army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has ordered an internal inquiry, the military the outcome, Abed says he will never forget what he lived through.'It's a day I'll never forget because of the torment I witnessed and lived through,' he said.
Arab News
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Israeli West Bank offensives displace thousands: officials
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman, said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee campFaisal Salama, head of the camp's popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of the camp's 15,000 residents have been displacedRAMALLAH: Israeli military offensives in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said Tuesday, amid escalating violence in the occupied Israeli military describes its ongoing operations as 'counterterrorism' efforts aimed at rooting out Palestinian Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee Salama, head of the camp's popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of the camp's 15,000 residents have been Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures is challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.'The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,' Salama told said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on January 25.'The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.'Salama also reported that the violence has severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.'There is a shortage of water, no electricity, no communication and a lack of essential supplies such as milk for children, diapers, and medicine,' he has also been severe in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, where the military launched an intensive assault it dubbed 'Iron Wall' on January reported that 3,000 families — around 15,000 people — have fled Jenin refugee camp since December, initially when Palestinian security forces staged their own operation against militants and then later because of the Israeli has surged in recent days after the military assault inflicted further destruction on the Sunday, Israeli media and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces had demolished 20 buildings in a single coordinated detonation in the the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps are known strongholds of Palestinian militancy.A gunman attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the northern West Bank at Tayasir on Tuesday, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead, the military Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday that 70 people had been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, 38 of them in military says its forces had killed 'approximately 55 terrorists' across the West Bank in January, without specifying the West Bank operations intensified following a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip on January Palestinian health ministry says Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on October 7, the same period, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory, official Israeli figures show.
