Author: Niyoosha Sarbani

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are the talk of one Indiana neighborhood — and not for reasons one would likely expect! An Indiana Swiftie got creative when it came to the Halloween decorations for her home. Just as October kicked off, 12-foot skeletons of Swift, 33, and Kelce, also 33, went up outside Michael Owens’ home in Zionsville, Indiana. Owens spoke to CBS 4 Indianapolis on Saturday about how her “Skaylor Swift” creation is drawing in crowds. Standing roughly the height of two humans, the Swift-inspired huge skeleton is stylish. Draped over the bones is a two-piece metallic blue skirt and top meant to model one of…

The government of Bangladesh and the World Bank today signed a $300 million financing agreement to equip about 900,000 economically disengaged rural youths with skills and alternative education needed for employment and entrepreneurship. Out of the total number, about 60% would be women. In this regard, a loan agreement was signed today by Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Sharifa Khan and World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Abdoulaye Seck on behalf of the government and the World Bank respectively. The concessional credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and has a 30-year term, including a…

President Joe Biden honored 13 service members who died during an attack while the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan two years ago in a statement Saturday. A bomb by the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021, killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians. “Today, Jill and I remember and mourn these 13 brave American service members and the more than 100 innocent Afghan civilians who were killed in the horrific terrorist attack at Abbey Gate,” Biden said in the statement. “Many more were injured and will carry the impacts of their wounds and the…

This comes a week after the minister, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, visited the province and told officials and religious clerics that women haven’t been adhering to the correct way of wearing the hijab, asking security personnel to stop women from visiting the tourist hotspot. “Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” Hanafi said at the time. Ministry spokesman Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif shared a report of Hanafi’s remarks late Saturday night, including the use of security forces, clerics and elders to carry out Hanafi’s order. A recording of the minister’s speech in Bamiyan, aligning with Akif’s report, was shared on…

ISLAMABAD — Protests against soaring power prices continued in Pakistan for a fourth consecutive day Monday, with television footage showing enraged consumers at rallies burning their electricity bills.The power supply department in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province formally requested that police provide security for its staff and installations in the wake of threats of attacks by protesters.For safety purposes, the department also instructed its staff to remove the license plates from their official vehicles.The protests erupted on Friday and spread to many cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.The unrest over the increased electricity bills comes as the poverty-stricken South…

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani aims to convert Mumbai’s Dharavi slum into a modern city hub, while acknowledging that resettling its 1 million residents will be a challenging task. Here is a timeline of Dharavi’s development and previous failed efforts to remake the 594-acre (240-hectare) slum. 1800s: Dharavi’s growth coincides with migration into Bombay, now known as Mumbai. Potters, leather tanners, artisans and embroidery workers started trade and business in the region by the late 1800s. Slum dwellers squatted on these lands and built huts in a haphazard manner, authorities say. 1971-76: The state government of Maharashtra passes a law to…

Ties between India and the U.S., boosted in recent years by common geopolitical interests in the Indo-Pacific, have blossomed in outer space. In June, India became the 27th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, an American-led set of principles for the 21st century aimed at peaceful exploration of and cooperation in space. While India’s accession is certainly cause for celebration, long-term space policy alignment is not guaranteed by signing nonbinding principles. In addition to further expansion, the U.S. should use the accords as an intergovernmental forum and a tool of public diplomacy, moving from signatures to long-term engagement, as we get closer…

Pakistan’s parliament has been formally dissolved, but polls meant to be held within 90 days will likely be delayed. The electoral commission says electoral boundaries must be redrawn to reflect fresh census data, a months-long process. Last week, former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested and jailed, and then barred from politics for five years. He had openly challenged the powerful military establishment and claimed it was “petrified” of elections. With President Arif Alvi’s order on Wednesday to dissolve the National Assembly, a caretaker government will take charge. Outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government have been given three days to name…

The International Monetary Fund’s board approved a $3 billion bailout program for Pakistan which will immediately disburse about $1.2 billion to help stabilize the South Asian ailing economy, the lender said on Wednesday. Pakistan and the fund reached a staff level agreement last month, securing a short-term pact, which got more than expected funding for the country of 230 million people. The country has faced an acute balance of payments crisis with only enough central bank reserves to cover barely a month of controlled imports. The board’s approval was mandatory before disbursing the first tranche, with the rest to arrive later in…

Libya’s state-owned oil company, the National Oil Corporation (NOC), had established last month a new program office, but multiple foreign press reports claim that one of the staff running the office is embroiled in a major fraud case in Kazakhstan. Peter Sztyk, a Canadian lawyer and entrepreneur who also goes by the name “Petro”, has joined a group of foreign consultants who will manage the Office of Strategic Programs, which the NOC inaugurated in February 15 during a meeting with local oil industry executives in Benghazi. Who is Peter Sztyk? The Canadian lawyer graduated in 1993 from Concordia University with bachelor in…