WORLD

Afghans are capable of forming their own government, said acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi while addressing the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, adding that efforts were underway to increase inclusivity in the Taliban-led government.

In his address on Saturday, Muttaqi insisted that Afghanistan does not intend to be a country for conflicts of superpowers of the world.

"Foreign versions (of the government) and foreign ideology must not be imposed on Afghans. The former version of the (government) was tried but it did not succeed," TOLO News quoted the Minister as saying.

India once again asked China to complete the stalled troop disengagement at a friction point in eastern Ladakh as well as resolve the much bigger face-offs at Depsang and Demchok in a phased manner at top-level military talks on Friday.

There was no official word on the outcome of the 15th round of talks, led by the Leh-based 14 Corps commander Lt-General Anindya Sengupta and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Yang Lin, held on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point. The marathon meeting began at 10am and ended late on Friday night.

Top Pentagon officials have shown an understanding of India abstaining at the UN on resolutions against the Russian aggression against Ukraine but had a hard time pacifying many US lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on New Delhi’s repeated abstention at the world body in New York.

Several US lawmakers, including Indian-American Ro Khanna, questioned the Pentagon leadership as to why India did not vote along with the US and its allies at the UN during the Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on Wednesday. (Photo source: Reuters)© Provided by The Financial Express Several US lawmakers, including Indian-American Ro Khanna, questioned the Pentagon leadership as to why India did not vote along with the US and its allies at the UN during the Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on Wednesday. (Photo source: Reuters)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for "maximum restraint" in Ukraine and said China is "pained to see the flames of war reignited in Europe," state media reported, in his strongest statement to date on the conflict.

Xi, speaking at a virtual meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the three countries should jointly support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Xi described the situation in Ukraine as "worrying" and said the priority should be preventing it from escalating or "spinning out of control", CCTV cited him as saying.

Mainland China has logged its highest number of daily new local symptomatic COVID-19 infections in about two years, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant pressures its stringent policy to curb each outbreak quickly.

China reported 214 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Sunday, data from the National Health Commission showed on Monday.

Hong Kong logs over 31,000 COVID cases

Meanwhile, Hong Kong added 31,008 Covid cases and 153 deaths on Sunday. Although reported infection counts were less than 40,000 for the second straight day, after rising to more than 50,000 in the three days prior, officials said the decline could be due to unreported rapid testing results and because of the “weekend effect.”