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ISFAHAN, Iran — A top military commander Saturday renewed Iran's promise to retaliate after an airstrike earlier this week widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran's Consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals.  General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran's joint chief of staff, told mourners gathered for the funeral of General Mohammad Reza Zahedi that Iran will decide when and how to stage an "operation" to take revenge. Zahedi was the highest-ranking commander slain in Monday's attack.  "The time, type, plan of the operation will be decided by us, in a way that makes Israel regret what it did," he said. "This will definitely be done."  The attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound was a significant escalation in a long-running shadow war between the two archenemies, and Israel has been bracing for an Iranian response.  In all, 12 people were killed in the strike: seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, four Syrians and a Hezbollah militia member.  On Friday, the commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, warned that "our brave men will punish the Zionist regime," escalating threats against Israel.  Tensions have flared against the backdrop of the six-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and raised renewed fears of a broader regional conflict. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 17 years, is one of Iran's proxies, along with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Yemen's Houthi rebels.  Both Hezbollah and the Houthis have carried out attacks along the fringes of the Gaza war, with Hezbollah engaging in daily cross-border exchanges with Israel and the Houthis frequently targeting Red Sea shipping.  Bagheri made the comments in Isfahan, Zahedi's hometown, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of the capital Tehran. 

Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo — Militia gunmen attacked a village in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 15 people, local officials and residents said. Scores of civilians have been killed this year in attacks blamed on the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) armed group, which rival groups accuse of mining gold in the region. The latest attack was on the village of Galay in Ituri province. "They just started firing on everybody," Innocent Matukadala, an administrative official for Banyali Kilo district, that includes the village, told AFP. Matukadala said there were at least 15 people dead, but the toll could rise as many people jumped into the Ituri River to escape the attack and were missing. One emergency services official who requested anonymity said 16 bodies had been brought to the village square, including seven women. The Action Against Hunger (ACF) aid group this week suspended its work in parts of the Ituri province because of increased attacks blamed on CODECO and other groups. The ACF director for DR Congo, Florian Monnerie, said the armed groups had threatened his workers. A United Nations peacekeeping force for DR Congo that is meant to leave by the end of the year still has hundreds of troops in Ituri seeking to prevent violence. CODECO has thousands of fighters with the declared aim of protecting the Lendu ethnic group from rivals among the Hema, but it has also fought the DR Congo army. A conflict between the two communities between 1999 and 2003 left thousands dead. After more than a decade of relative calm, fighting surged again in 2017. Thousands have died and more than 1.5 million people have fled their homes, according to the U.N.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The now-aging hippies who took over a derelict naval base in Copenhagen more than 50 years ago and turned it into a freewheeling community known as Christiania want to boot out criminals who control the community's lucrative market for hashish by ripping up the cobblestone street where it openly changes hands.  Over the years, there have been many attempts to halt the illegal hashish sales that have often ended in violent clashes between criminal gangs and police, with trading then quickly resuming. On Saturday, residents started digging up Pusher Street, after which they can receive government money earmarked for the area's renovation.  Just after 10 a.m., two children living in Christiania, Emilia and Sally, lifted the first cobblestone from the infamous street in a symbolic move. A large crowd gathered at the scene erupted in applause as the heavy stone was showed around.  Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, who was present at the ceremony, said he believes that the excavation of Pusher Street and the individual cobblestones has high symbolic value.  "For more than 40 years, Christiania and the illegal sale of drugs out here has been a huge thorn in the side of the established society," Hummelgaard told Danish broadcaster TV2. "But now we have reached the point where the Christianians have also had enough of the (criminal) gangs."  The plan is to create "a new Christiania without the criminal hashish market," said Mette Prag, coordinator of a new public housing project in the enclave. Prag, who has lived in Christiania for 37 years, likened it to "a village."  "We don't want the gangsters anymore," said Hulda Mader, who has lived in Christiania for 40 years. Once the illegal trade is gone, "there might be some people selling hashish afterward, but it's not going to be in the open."  After the cobblestones are removed, new water pipes and a new pavement will be laid on Pusher Street and nearby buildings will be renovated. That is the first step in an overall plan to turn the hippie oasis into an integrated part of the Danish capital area, although "the free state" spirit of creativity and community life is to be maintained.  Hippies create community For years, Danish authorities have been breathing down the necks of the downtown community.  In 1971, squatters took over the abandoned military facility and set up a neighborhood dedicated to the flower-power ideals popular at the time of free cannabis, limited government influence, no cars and no police. Since then, successive Danish governments have wanted to close Christiania because of the open sale of hashish, among other things, often leading to tense relations.  To begin with, the residents, called Christianites, disregarded laws by building houses without permits and often ignoring utility bills. Outsiders could only move into the community if they were related to someone already living there.  The residents eventually were given the right to use the land, but not to own it. After more than four decades of locking horns with authorities, they were given control over their homes in 2011, when the state sold the 84-acre (24-hectare) enclave for 125.4 million kroner ($18.2 million) to a foundation owned by its inhabitants. Currently, nearly 800 adults and about 200 children live there, according to Prag, with up to 25% of the residents above the age of 60.  The following year, it was decided to erect public housing for up to 300 people. Construction is expected to start in 2027.  Prag said they want "younger people, more families" to move in who are willing to participate in community activities to keep the spirit of Christiania alive, complete with buildings painted in psychedelic colors and stray dogs.  Area becomes tourist attraction Over the years, Christiania has become one of Copenhagen's biggest tourist attractions, a magnet for Danes as well as foreigners. Some come to be offended by the open sale of hashish — authorities for years tolerated the hashish trade on Pusher Street — and others to buy weed. Christiania banned hard drugs in 1980.  In 2004, police began cracking down on drug-related activities — worth millions according to police — controlled by the Hells Angels and the outlawed Loyal to Family. Even when police arrested dealers and fined customers, the illegal sales resumed soon afterward.  In August of last year, drug-related tensions escalated when a turf war apparently led to a shooting in which one man died and several people were wounded.  Residents have tried to stop the sales on Pusher Street themselves by tearing down the dealers' booths, but they mushroomed back. Residents blocked access to the street with huge shipping containers, but masked men removed them.  Residents drive out criminals Fed up with criminals, residents decided in August that something had to be done, knowing that the government had said that getting rid of the organized hashish sales was "an important prerequisite" before Christiania could get 14.3 million kroner ($2.1 million) earmarked for the renovation work.  Now, Christiania hopes that, by inviting ordinary people to come and help dig up Pusher Street, the sales will stop once and for all, and the community can remain an alternative yet legal part of Copenhagen without criminals.  "You can come and have a cobblestone" as a souvenir, Mader said with a smile. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Some U.S. voters were waiting for a third political party to announce its presidential ticket before they decided on the Democratic or Republican nominee. VOA Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti tells us what they will do now that the No Labels group dropped plans to post a unity ticket. Camera:  Adam Greenbaum

Moscow, Russia — Russia said Saturday it had evacuated 4,500 people in the Orenburg region, in the southern Urals near Kazakhstan, because of flooding after a dam burst.    Emergency services had been working through the night after a dam burst in the city of Orsk, near the border with Kazakhstan.       The press service of the Orenburg governor said 4,402 people, including 1,100 children had been evacuated and more than 6,000 homes were affected by the flooding after torrential rain.     President Vladimir Putin ordered Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov to the region, a Kremlin spokesman said late Saturday.   Authorities also opened a criminal case for "negligence and violation of construction safety rules" over the burst dam, which was built in 2014.   Orenburg regional governor Denis Pasler said specialists assessed that the dam was built "for a different weight" and that the level of rainfall was "exceptional." Authorities said the situation was difficult throughout the region, warning of a dangerous water level on the Ural River in the main city of Orenburg. The mayor of the city of half a million people, Sergei Salmin, said authorities would forcibly evacuate people from flooded zones if they refused orders to leave. He said the water level of the Ural River had risen to 855 centimeters (about 28 feet) and "will rise" farther. He named several districts of the city and nearby villages likely to be affected. "The situation leaves you no choice. At night, the river can reach a critical level," he said. "I call on everyone in the flooded zone to leave their houses immediately. "There is no time for convincing," he added, saying that "those who refuse to leave the danger zone voluntarily, we will forcibly evacuate with the help of police officers." Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the floods were one of the worst natural disasters in Kazakhstan in 80 years. He called for authorities in the Central Asian country to be ready to help those affected. Russian emergency services published images of rescue workers going through villages on boats and hovercrafts. Several regions in the Urals and western Siberia have been affected by floods since the start of spring.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NAZCA, Peru — Leandro Rivera says he chanced upon the cave in Peru's remote Nazca region that contained hundreds of pre-Hispanic artifacts – including human bodies with elongated heads and what appeared to be only three fingers on each hand.  The plateau is famous for the Nazca lines, incisions on the desert floor forming birds and other animals visible from the air. The ancient geoglyphs have long intrigued anthropologists and exert a powerful fascination over some believers in extraterrestrials.  Nazca is also known for salt flats that dehydrate and preserve human and animal remains, making it the site of important archeological finds that have deepened modern understanding of ancient cultures – and attracted grave robbers.  Rivera was convicted in 2022 of assault on public monuments for unearthing the artifacts. He received a four-year suspended sentence and was fined about 20,000 Peruvian soles ($5,190), short of the maximum penalty of an eight-year prison term.  His haul was thrust into the spotlight last year when two of the mummies ended up in Mexico as the centerpiece of congressional hearings on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan presented the bodies as a sign of life beyond Earth – a claim dismissed by scientists.  In an interview with Reuters, Rivera said he removed as many as 200 sets of remains from the cave, and some bodies had been smuggled out of Peru to France, Spain and Russia.  The presentation of bodies in Mexico – as well as Rivera's claims to have dozens more – have prompted some experts to ask whether Peru is losing the battle to stop the plunder of its archaeological sites to feed a lucrative black market for mummies and other pre-Hispanic artifacts.  "Peru has done a lot of work to try and control this trade," said Christopher Heaney, a Latin American history professor at Penn State University and author of a book on Peruvian mummies. "But this implies that these claims for government success need to be re-examined a bit if objects like (the bodies in Mexico) can leave the country."  Peru's Culture Ministry did not respond to questions about the effectiveness of its efforts to control trafficking.  Reuters was granted rare access to the ministry's anti-smuggling unit at Lima's international airport and spoke to four government officials who said stricter penalties, more resources and better coordination were needed to fight the looting.  Tomb raiders trade tips online  Archaeological materials including human remains command high prices on a black market controlled by well-organized criminal groups, experts said.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, trafficking in cultural goods has exploded around the world, according to UNESCO and the World Customs Organization (WCO).  Antiquities stores that had previously relied on in-person shopping turned to online sales to survive.  Black-market sellers took advantage of the greater privacy online or resorted to encrypted channels.  The shift to an online black market also allowed buyers to seek out illegal goods rather than wait for invitations to in-person events, as the trade was typically run pre-pandemic, a WCO official told Reuters.  And tomb raiders went online to share information about how to locate and raid vulnerable sites.  "Social networks have become spaces for the sale of works of art and antiques of illegal origin, and unfortunately this traffic has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Enrique Lopez-Hurtado, who was until recently the coordinator of the culture sector of UNESCO Peru.  The sheer volume of online sales — and the demands of pandemic safety protocols — presented challenges for customs officials inspecting shipments and trying to intercept illegal goods, the WCO official said.  Guido Lombardi, a medical doctor and anthropologist at the Peruvian University of Cayetano Heredia who specializes in mummy studies said he has received anonymous texts on WhatsApp offering looted objects for sale including terracotta figurines that are hundreds of years old.  Flavio Estrada, an archaeologist at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Lima who assisted in the 2017 investigation of Rivera, said smuggling networks also market fakes, constructed out of animal bones and papier-mache.  In some cases, alien enthusiasts exploit a lack of understanding of cranial remodeling, a documented social practice in Pre-Colombian times that involved binding a child's head to manipulate the shape, Lombardi said.  "There were no people who were born like this, as some of the theorists of 'ancestral aliens' also try to make us believe," he said. "There's a whole contemporary mythology around this topic, and that generates a market."  While cranial modification was a practice in some of Peru's ancient cultures, Estrada said it is likely that grave robbers altered the Nazca remains to make it look like they had only three fingers on their hands in a bid to appeal to those who subscribe to the notion of extraterrestrials.  Changing attitudes  In recent years, there has been a global change in attitudes toward displaying the remains of Indigenous people. Reputable museums have begun to repatriate bodies to their countries of origin.  But there is still demand for remains and other artifacts from private collectors in the United States and Europe looking for status symbols and alien enthusiasts, 10 experts interviewed by Reuters said.  The WCO official also cited a social media market for buying skeletons and scalps, which has been growing in popularity over the last 10 years.  Stopping looted items from leaving Peru is challenging. Peru shares borders with five countries and has 27 border crossings.  At Lima's international airport, experts from Peru's culture ministry monitor security checkpoints for suspected cultural material picked up by x-ray scanners.  Officials seize between four and 10 items a year, compared to 200 a month in 2008, said Rolando Mallaupoma an archeology analyst in the recovery unit of the culture ministry.  Mallaupoma attributes the decline to the ministry's work educating vendors in tourist areas on how to identify authentic culture goods.  "In most cases what they [tourists] are going to say is that they didn't know, and there will not be any criminal action," Mallaupoma said. The item will be confiscated and turned over to the ministry. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A rising challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mobilized tens of thousands of supporters in Hungary's capital Saturday, outlining a plan to unite the country and bring an end to the populist leader's 14-year hold on power. At the center of the demonstration, the latest in a recent series of protests against Orban's right-wing nationalist government, was political newcomer Peter Magyar, a former insider within Hungary's ruling Fidesz party who has shot to prominence in recent weeks through his allegations of entrenched corruption and cronyism among the country's leaders. Magyar addressed a crowd that filled the sprawling square near the parliament building in Budapest, announcing his creation of a new political community aimed at uniting both conservative and liberal Hungarians disillusioned by Orban's governance and the fragmented, ineffectual political opposition. “Step by step, brick by brick, we are taking back our homeland and building a new country, a sovereign, modern, European Hungary,” Magyar said, adding that the protest was “the biggest political demonstration in years.” Magyar, 43, was once a member of Orban's political circle and is the ex-husband of former justice minister and Orban ally Judit Varga. But he broke ranks in February in the wake of a political scandal that led to the resignation of his ex-wife and the president and has amassed a large following with frequent media appearances where he portrays Hungary's political life as having been taken over by a privileged group of oligarchs and anti-democratic elites. He has argued that Orban’s government operates as a “mafia,” and advocated for a moral, political and economic transformation of the country that would rein in corruption and create a more pluralistic political system. “More than 20 years have passed as our elected leaders have incited the Hungarian people against each other. Whether the fate of our country went well, or we were close to bankruptcy, we were pitted against each other instead of allowing us to band together,” Magyar said. “We will put an end to this now.” Hungary's government has dismissed Magyar as an opportunist seeking to forge a new career after his divorce with Varga and his loss of positions in several state companies. But his rise has compounded political headaches for Orban that have included the resignation of members of his government and a painful economic crisis. Last month, Magyar released an audio recording of a conversation between him and Varga that he said proved that top officials conspired to manipulate court records to cover up their involvement in a corruption case. He has called on Orban's government to resign and for a restoration of fair elections. Orban’s critics at home and in the European Union have long accused him of eroding Hungary’s democratic institutions, taking over large swaths of the media and altering the country’s election system to give his party an advantage. The EU has withheld billions in funding to Budapest over alleged democratic backsliding, misuse of EU funds and failure to guarantee minority rights. One demonstrator on Saturday, Zoltan Koszler, said he wanted a “complete change in the system, which is now completely unacceptable to me.” “I want to live in a normal, rule-of-law state where the principles of the rule of law are really adhered to, not only on paper, but in reality,” he said. Magyar has said he will establish a new party that will run in EU and municipal elections this summer.

BUCHAREST, Romania — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of threats posed by right-wing populists Saturday as he addressed a gathering of center-left European parties ahead of elections for the European Parliament in June.  Scholz arrived in Romania's capital Bucharest for a conference of the Party of European Socialists, part of the Socialists and Democrats group, the second biggest in the Parliament. Voters in the 27 EU member states go to the polls June 6-9.  "Right-wing populists are running election campaigns against our united Europe," the German leader said at the Palace of the Parliament, which hosted the conference. "They are ready to destroy what we have built for the kids; they stir up sentiment against refugees and minorities."  Opinion polls indicate a significant shift to the right in the upcoming election, with the radical right Identity and Democracy group likely to gain enough seats to become the third-largest group in the legislature, mainly at the expense of the Greens and the centrist Renew Europe group.  Scholz said a prosperous EU capable of "getting things done" is "the best response to populism and autocrats." He also pledged continued support for Ukraine, saying it's "key to restoring peace in Europe."  Scholz leads an unpopular three-party coalition. Recent national polls have shown his center-left party far behind Germany's main center-right opposition bloc and at best roughly level with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.  The Socialists and Democrats President Iratxe Garcia Perez also addressed the issue of rising populism in the June elections, saying those parties "only pose a threat to our European project."  The meeting comes after the EU's largest political party, the center-right European People's Party, met in Bucharest last month, where representatives endorsed Ursula von der Leyen's bid for a second five-year term leading the bloc's powerful Commission. Jobs and Social Rights Commissioner Nicolas Schmit from Luxembourg was chosen as the Socialists and Democrats lead candidate for Brussels' top job. The next Commission chief will require approval from leaders of all EU's member states. Almost half of the EU's 27 national leaders are members of the European People's Party. 

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PENTAGON — Russian microchip company AO PKK Milandr continued to provide microchips to the Russian armed forces at least several months after Russia invaded Ukraine, despite public denials by company director Alexey Novoselov of any connection with Russia’s military. A formal letter obtained by VOA dated February 10, 2023, shows a sale request for 4,080 military grade microchips for the Russian military. The sale request was addressed from a deputy commander of the 546 military representation of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the commercial director of Russian manufacturer NPO Poisk to Milandr CEO S.V. Tarasenko for delivery by April 2023, more than a year into the war. The letter instructs Milandr to provide three types of microchip components to NPO Poisk, a well-established Russian defense manufacturer that makes detonators for weapons used by the Russian Armed Forces. “Each of these three circuits that you have in the table on the document, each one of them is classed as a military-grade component … and each of these is manufactured specifically by Milandr,” said Denys Karlovskyi, a research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. VOA shared the document with him to confirm its authenticity. In addition to Milandr CEO Tarasenko, the letter is addressed to a commander of the Russian Defense Ministry’s 514 military representation of the Russian Ministry of Defense named I.A. Shvid. Karlovskyi says this inclusion shows that Milandr, like Poisk, appears to have a Russian commander from the Defense Ministry’s oversight unit assigned to it — a clear indicator that a company is part of Russia’s defense industry. Milandr, headquartered near Moscow in an area known as “Soviet Silicon Valley,” was sanctioned by the United States in November 2022, for its illegal procurement of microelectronic components using front companies. In the statement announcing the 2022 sanctions against Milandr and more than three dozen other entities and individuals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “The United States will continue to expose and disrupt the Kremlin’s military supply chains and deny Russia the equipment and technology it needs to wage its illegal war against Ukraine.” Karlovskyi said that in Russia’s database of public contracts, Milandr is listed in more than 500 contracts, supplying numerous state-owned and military-grade enterprises, including Ural Optical Mechanical Plant, Concern Avtomatika and Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant, or IEMZ Kupol, which also have been sanctioned by the United States. “It clearly suggests that this entity is a crucial node in Russia’s military supply chain,” Karlovskyi told VOA. Novoselov, Milandr’s current director, told Bloomberg News last August that he was not aware of any connections to the Russian military. “I don’t know any military persons who would be interested in our product,” he told Bloomberg in a phone interview, adding that the company mostly produces electric power meters. The U.S. allegations are “like a fantasy,” he said. “The United States’ State Department, they suppose that every electronics business in Russia is focused on the military. I think that is funny.” But a U.S. defense official told VOA that helping Russia’s military kill tens of thousands of people in an illegal invasion “is no laughing matter.” “The company is fueling microchips for missiles and heavily armored vehicles that are used to continue the war in Ukraine,” said the defense official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities of discussing U.S. intelligence. Milandr’s co-founder Mikhail Pavlyuk was also sanctioned during the summer of 2022 for his involvement in microchip smuggling operations and was caught stealing from Milandr. Pavlyuk fled Russia and has claimed he was not involved. Officials estimate that 500,000 Ukrainian and Russian troops have been killed or injured in the war, with tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed in the fighting. “There are consequences to their actions, and the U.S. will persist to expose and disrupt the Kremlin’s supply chain,” the U.S. defense official said.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among dozens of people detained Saturday by police in The Hague as they removed protesters who were partially blocking a road in the Dutch city. Thunberg was seen flashing a victory sign as she sat in a bus used by police to take detained demonstrators from the scene of a protest of Dutch subsidies and tax breaks to companies linked to fossil fuel industries. The Extinction Rebellion campaign group said before the demonstration that the activists would block a main highway into The Hague, but a heavy police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented the activists from getting onto the road. A small group of people managed to sit down on another road and were detained after ignoring police orders to leave. Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked the highway that runs past the temporary home of the Dutch parliament more than 30 times to protest the subsidies. The demonstrators waved flags and chanted: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.” One held a banner reading: “This is a dead-end street.” In February, Thunberg, 21, was acquitted by a court in London of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference last year. Her activism has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change since she began staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018. She has repeatedly been fined in Sweden and the U.K. for civil disobedience in connection with protests.

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada urged his officials to set aside their differences and serve Afghanistan properly, according to a written statement released Saturday ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Public dissent within the Taliban is rare, but some senior figures have expressed their disagreement with the leadership's decision making, especially the bans on female education. Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar who almost never appears in public, rarely leaves the Taliban heartland in southern Kandahar province. He and his circle have been instrumental in imposing restrictions on women and girls that have sparked an international outcry and isolated the Taliban on the global stage. His message was distributed in seven languages including Uzbek and Turkmen — the Taliban are courting cash-rich Central Asian countries for investment and legitimacy — and it touched on diplomatic relations, the economy, justice, charity and the virtues of meritocracy. Akhundzada said Taliban officials should "live a brotherly life among themselves, avoid disagreements and selfishness." He said that the war against the Soviet invasion and communism failed due to disagreements within the Taliban and that they could not implement Shariah in Afghanistan due to these divisions. While he mentioned education, he said nothing about reopening schools and universities for girls and women. Nor did he refer to recent unconfirmed reports about him saying there would be a resumption of stoning Afghan women to death for adultery, a punishment previously carried out during the Taliban's first period of rule, in the late 1990s. Akhundzada in Saturday's message said security did not come from “being tough and killing more; rather, security is aligned with Shariah and justice." Hassan Abbas, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington and author of the “Return of the Taliban," said Akhundzada's message sounded “largely reasonable” and was focused on governance and anti-corruption matters. “I believe this message is carefully crafted to dispel the negative impression created by a recently released audio of his that gives a very dogmatic and regressive message, especially about public punishments and women rights,” Abbas told The Associated Press. “I think this new message is also intended as damage control.” Also Saturday, the Taliban-controlled Supreme Court said six people, including a woman, were publicly flogged on adultery charges in eastern Logar province.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan on Saturday denounced Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s “provocative remarks” threatening to enter Pakistan and kill suspects who escape over its border after carrying out terrorist attacks in India. Singh made the controversial remarks in an interview with an Indian TV news channel that aired Friday when asked for his reaction to a recent British media report accusing the Indian government of killing some 20 people in Pakistan since 2020. "India's assertion of its preparedness to extrajudicially execute more civilians, arbitrarily pronounced as ‘terrorists,' inside Pakistan constitutes a clear admission of culpability," said a Pakistani foreign ministry statement. It said the Indian minister’s claims backed Islamabad’s “irrefutable evidence” linking New Delhi to an alleged campaign of “extrajudicial and transnational assassinations” on Pakistani soil. Islamabad cautioned that Indian officials' “myopic and irresponsible behavior” could put regional peace at risk. Singh said in his interview that his government would give a “befitting reply” to “any terrorist from a neighboring country” who tries to disrupt peace or conducts "terrorist activities” in India. “If he escapes to Pakistan, we will go to Pakistan and kill him there,” he said. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported earlier this week, quoting interviews with Pakistani and Indian intelligence officials, that New Delhi had been plotting the assassinations of individuals in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate anti-India “terrorists living on foreign soil.” The newspaper said the killings were carried out by operatives of the Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian spy agency, which is directly controlled by the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is running for a third term in office in elections later this month. Last year, Canada and the United States accused India of killing or attempting to kill people in their respective territories. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that his government was pursuing “credible allegations” linking the Indian government to the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada. New Delhi rejected the charges as "absurd and motivated.” In November, Washington said it had thwarted an Indian plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader and announced charges against a person U.S. officials said had worked with India to orchestrate the attempted murder. New Delhi has pledged to investigate any information it receives on the matter. Pakistan’s traditionally troubled relations with India have deteriorated since a 2019 suicide bombing of a military convoy in the Indian-administered part of the disputed Kashmir region that killed 144 Indian soldiers. The attack was reportedly claimed by a Pakistan-based outlawed militant group, prompting India to carry out aerial strikes against what it said were militant bases in the Pakistani-administered portion of Kashmir. Islamabad rejected Indian claims of sheltering militants and denounced the Indian military attack. It then carried out retaliatory airstrikes against several targets in Indian-controlled Kashmir. During an ensuing skirmish, Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet and briefly held its pilot captive before returning him to India.

Washington — The past 2½ years have been “very tough” for 28-year-old Maryam Maroof Arvin, as she has been “deprived of all her rights” under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Arvin was a master’s degree student in a private university in Kabul in December 2022 when the Taliban, the de facto government of Afghanistan, barred women from universities. “It has created in me a feeling of depression. I am under mental and psychological pressure, and I feel very angry,” said Arvin who dreamed of becoming a politician to raise the voices for Afghan women. A U.N. report, released in September 2023, stated that under the Taliban, who seized power in 2021, the mental health of women in Afghanistan deteriorated. According to the report, more than two-thirds of women in Afghanistan reported “feelings of anxiety, isolation and depression” between April and June. “Women spoke of psychological issues, including depression, insomnia, loss of hope and motivation, anxiety, fear, aggression, isolation and increasingly isolationist behavior, and suicidal ideation,” the report stated. The Taliban have steadily imposed repressive measures against women in Afghanistan, banning them from the workplace, secondary and university education, long-distance traveling without a close male relative, beauty salons, gyms and public parks. Arvin said that she can’t believe that all her freedoms and two decades of gains in women’s rights were lost in the past 2½ years of the Taliban’s rule. “I wish it was a dream. And I could wake up and go back to the university,” she said. Before the Taliban’s takeover, about 3.5 million girls out of roughly 9 million students were going to school. Thirty-three percent of about 450,000 students enrolled in universities were young women. About 30% of the civil servants and 28% of parliamentarians in Afghanistan were women. Mawloda Tawana, an Afghan women’s rights activist, told VOA that the exclusion of women from the workplace and society adversely affected most women’s psychological and emotional well-being. “Women are locked up at home, and the unhappiness and frustration from this could promote domestic violence and suicide attempts,” said Tawana. Media outlets also reported a surge in suicides by women in Afghanistan. The Taliban have not published any data on suicide rates, and they have prohibited Afghan health officials from providing information on the topic. Sahar Fetrat, a researcher with the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, or HRW, told VOA that women’s mental health in Afghanistan has deteriorated because of the repressive restrictions imposed on them. “Women feel as if they have essentially been banned from participating in life. They have become stripped of basic rights, such as receiving health care,” said Fetrat. In a report released in February, HWR said the health care crisis in Afghanistan has “disproportionately” affected women. “The Taliban’s restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and employment with humanitarian and other organizations have gravely impeded women and girls’ access to health services, while bans on education for women and girls have blocked almost all training of future female health care workers in the country,” stated the HWR report. Fetrat said the international community should acknowledge and understand the gravity of the situation. She says the world must listen to the Afghan women and other individuals who have risked their lives to share their messages. “Women in Afghanistan are fighting for their basic rights,” said Arvin, urging the international community to stand behind them. Roshan Noorzai from VOA's Afghan Service contributed to this report, which originated in VOA's Afghan Service.