Afghan soldiers attend a graduation ceremony of Afghan National Army soldiers in Shorabak district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, 26 April 2018. The Afghan army has been plagued by desertions in recent times as militants continue to inflict high casualties. Watan Yar / EPA
Afghan soldiers attend a graduation ceremony of Afghan National Army soldiers in Shorabak district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, 26 April 2018. The Afghan army has been plagued by desertions in recent times as militants continue to inflict high casualties. Watan Yar / EPA
Afghan soldiers attend a graduation ceremony of Afghan National Army soldiers in Shorabak district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, 26 April 2018. The Afghan army has been plagued by desertions in recent times as militants continue to inflict high casualties. Watan Yar / EPA
Afghan soldiers attend a graduation ceremony of Afghan National Army soldiers in Shorabak district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, 26 April 2018. The Afghan army has been plagued by desertions in re

Afghan security forces shrink as insurgent groups gain control


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The number of security forces in Afghanistan shrunk by nearly 11 per cent in the past year, a US government watchdog said on Tuesday, paving the way towards an increasingly precarious situation.

There are just under 30,000 forces in war-torn Afghanistan as of January 31, a meager number for a country that witnessed eight terrorist attacks in the capital alone this year.

According to Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Taliban and other insurgent groups exert control over 14.5 per cent of Afghanistan. This, says the watchdog, is the highest level since SIGAR began recording this type of data three years ago.

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Read more:

ISIS killed 10 of my colleagues today: Afghanistan reporter recounts bombing in Kabul

Taliban suicide bomber kills six in Helmand as spring offensive begins

Afghanistan launches leaflet drop to boost lacklustre voter registration

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The Taliban and ISIS have both stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and police, as well as civilians. SIGAR figures provided by US forces showed that more than 5,000 local troops were killed each year. This information was recently rendered classified by the Afghan government.

The government, meanwhile, controls 56.3 per cent of the districts, with the remainder considered "contested."

Last week the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, in a move that reiterated their rejection of an offer for peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani.

The announcement of the Al Khandaq campaign, named after the so-called Battle of the Trench, fought by the Prophet Mohammed to defend the city of Medina in the early days of Islam, marks the start of the fighting season.

Hundreds of people have died recently in a series of high-profile attacks in Kabul, while heavy fighting has been ongoing in different parts of the country, despite Mr Ghani's offer in February of peace talks "without preconditions".

The most recent attack in Kabul claimed the life of 25 people, including ten journalists, in the deadliest day for the country's media since 2001.

Fighters are targeting journalists in Afghanistan because they are weakened and want more news coverage in order to undermine the country's electoral process ahead of an expected vote in October, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis  said on Monday.

"We anticipated that they would do their best to try to bring bombs right into Kabul," he said in reference to insurgent groups.

Since responsibility for security began transitioning to the Afghan government in 2014, green on green attacks, in which ANDSF personnel are attacked from within their own ranks, often by an insurgent infiltrator, have been a consistently severe problem.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) attributed the majority of civilian casualties in 2017 (65 per cent) to anti-government groups which included civilian casualties caused by the Taliban (42 per cent), ISIS in Afghanistan (10 per cent), and unspecified anti-government groups (13 per cent).

Last week SIGAR faulted the World Bank and Afghanistan’s government for failing to shield billions of dollars in aid from potential waste or misuse, saying that long-identified weaknesses remain in a programme that provides 40 per cent of non-military expenditures in the country.

Billions of dollars of reconstruction cash are flowing into Afghanistan with limited accounting of where and how the funds are being spent. This is another sign of the troubles the US, its allies and President Ashraf Ghani’s government are having in improving governance while staving off advances by the Taliban and ISIS.

Non-oil%20trade
%3Cp%3ENon-oil%20trade%20between%20the%20UAE%20and%20Japan%20grew%20by%2034%20per%20cent%20over%20the%20past%20two%20years%2C%20according%20to%20data%20from%20the%20Federal%20Competitiveness%20and%20Statistics%20Centre.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIn%2010%20years%2C%20it%20has%20reached%20a%20total%20of%20Dh524.4%20billion.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ECars%20topped%20the%20list%20of%20the%20top%20five%20commodities%20re-exported%20to%20Japan%20in%202022%2C%20with%20a%20value%20of%20Dh1.3%20billion.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EJewellery%20and%20ornaments%20amounted%20to%20Dh150%20million%20while%20precious%20metal%20scraps%20amounted%20to%20Dh105%20million.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERaw%20aluminium%20was%20ranked%20first%20among%20the%20top%20five%20commodities%20exported%20to%20Japan.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETop%20of%20the%20list%20of%20commodities%20imported%20from%20Japan%20in%202022%20was%20cars%2C%20with%20a%20value%20of%20Dh20.08%20billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE BIO

Bio Box

Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul

Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader

Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Favorite food: seafood

Favorite place to travel: Lebanon

Favorite movie: Braveheart

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE

2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.

2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus

2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.

2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.

2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Scorebox

Dubai Hurricanes 31 Dubai Sports City Eagles 22

Hurricanes

Tries: Finck, Powell, Jordan, Roderick, Heathcote

Cons: Tredray 2, Powell

Eagles

Tries: O’Driscoll 2, Ives

Cons: Carey 2

Pens: Carey

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

HOW TO WATCH

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Company Profile 

Founder: Omar Onsi

Launched: 2018

Employees: 35

Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)

Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners

Saturday's results

West Ham 2-3 Tottenham
Arsenal 2-2 Southampton
Bournemouth 1-2 Wolves
Brighton 0-2 Leicester City
Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
Everton 0-2 Norwich City
Watford 0-3 Burnley

Manchester City v Chelsea, 9.30pm 

The Uefa Awards winners

Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)

Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League

Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)

Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)

Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona

AIDA%20RETURNS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECarol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAida%20Abboud%2C%20Carol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5.%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

Dust and sand storms compared

Sand storm

  • Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
  • Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
  • Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
  • Travel distance: Limited 
  • Source: Open desert areas with strong winds

Dust storm

  • Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
  • Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
  • Duration: Can linger for days
  • Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
  • Source: Can be carried from distant regions