Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will head to China, where he will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. The visit comes amid worries about attacks targeting infrastructure projects under multibillion-dollar economic corridor

The St Petersburg forum, which once hosted Western CEOs and investment bankers, has changed significantly amid the Ukraine war, which has triggered a crisis in Russia’s relations with the West.

The March suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers near the border with Afghanistan. On Sunday, Pakistan officials said the arrested men belong to local Taliban group TTP.

A poetry reading in Afghanistan featured a male-only line-up, reading pro-Taliban verses; the government-organised event excluded female poets and banned women from attending.

Beijing has proposed investments in Afghanistan if Kabul could restrain the militants responsible for the attacks, analysts say.

Tourism in Afghanistan will be over if there is another attack soon, a tour agent says after terrorists kill Spanish tourists. Another says terror threat has always been there yet visitors have still come.

Friday’s attack was among the most serious targeting foreign citizens since foreign forces left and the Taliban took over in 2021.

The US$370 million project is key to New Delhi’s plans to ramp up trade with Central Asia and promote it as a counterweight to Beijing’s growing economic presence in the region.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar is on a visit to China where he is expected to push for progress in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

David McBride’s leaks to the media led to revelations about Australian soldiers’ involvement in the illegal killings of unarmed Afghan men and children.

Authorities and non-governmental groups have deployed rescuers and aid, warning that some areas have been cut off.

The suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan in March, killing six people.

Zakia Wardak, the Afghan consul-general for Mumbai, is accused of trying to bring 25 bricks of gold into India from Dubai.

The visit by John Bass to Islamabad comes a week after Iran and Pakistan held talks on restarting their long-delayed gas pipeline.

In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists. In 2022, that figure rose to 2,300. Last year, there were 7,000. The numbers aren’t huge – but there’s a buzz around Afghan tourism.

Within monthsof the Indian ban, Google rolled out YouTube Shorts and Instagram pushed out its Reels feature, mimicking short-form videos TikTok excelled at.

YouTube channels not only provide income, but also serve as a means for women to communicate their messages, experiences and aspirations, one analyst said.

A lightning strike killed a group of farmers harvesting wheat in one province. Heavy rains also caused dozens of houses to collapse in the northwest and east of the country.

Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, said Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

Investigators have uncovered evidence linking last month’s deadly attack on the Karakoram Highway to the same Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan cell that killed nine Chinese nationals in a 2021 bombing on the same road.

The pact will harden tighten border procedures and force all the nations in the bloc to share responsibility for migrants.

After attacks in Russia and Pakistan, analysts expect more focus on combating terrorism when China chairs the SCO in July.

The move to deport the Rohingya refugees happened just as India enacted a controversial new citizenship law.

Afghan carpets like watercolours, candles that tell the Palestinian story, a meshing of old and new – Arab Design Now is the centrepiece of a biennial in Doha that announces Qatar as a design destination.

Afghan women have been relying on their handicraft skills to feed their families, making products like dresses, carved furniture and jewellery to sell.

Using Afghanistan as a homebase, Isis cells have hit targets in Russia, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey this year. Baloch separatists have also stepped up their attacks on Chinese interests in South Asia.