Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the Canadians, he said, who should be sorry for coming to Afghanistan as an occupying force.
During two decades of war in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters were mysterious, stealthy and deadly. They thought in lifetimes, not years, driven by a severe interpretation of Islam to accept death as a reward, and victory as certain.
One of the most mysterious of Taliban leaders had a name— Zabihullah Mujahid—but nobody was sure if it was real, or if he was real. He was the man whom journalists learned to call whenever they needed a comment from the Taliban.
The Americans were convinced there was more than one Zabihullah, that it was a made-up name used by multiple Taliban spokesmen.
And that’s the way it went for a decade until August 2021 when the Taliban rode into Kabul and the one and only Zabihullah Mujahid showed his face in public.
He kept his name but swapped titles—from the voice of the Taliban insurgency—to official spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
I met him in a freezing room at the Ministry of Information as he sat down for his fourth interview of the day. He was elegantly dressed and media savvy, no doubt from watching plenty of western television.
He was also the first person I’ve interviewed who said a short prayer before starting to talk. “In the name of God most gracious most merciful.”
Yes, he answered, running a country is difficult, though I asked him if it was more difficult than fighting a war. The Afghan economy has collapsed under economic sanctions, countless millions depend on the UN for food handouts to avoid starvation.
“It’s not an easy task. We are trying, and putting all our strength in action to keep running every sector of the government. Until now it’s going well. We are trying to make it better.”
Except it’s not going well if you talk to ordinary Afghans who are jobless, who stand in long lines to get visas to Iran and Pakistan. Or speak to women who are banned from working and going to university.
In fact by most measures, it seems to be going quite badly. Almost every person I met wants to leave the country and they all say the same thing: There’s no future in Afghanistan.
And what of the Canadian soldiers killed in Kandahar. How does the Taliban spokesman feel about that now.
“I am sorry that Canadians came to our country to fight. They shouldn’t have come.”
Sorry?
“Anyone who tries to invade Afghanistan will face similar consequences,” he added. “So I am not apologizing.”
It’s the Canadians, he said, who should be sorry for coming to Afghanistan as an occupying force.
He appeared to confirm that girls and young women will be allowed to go to school, answered however, with a fog of complicated explanations, uncertain timelines, and “economic” difficulties.
“We are trying in this regards,” he told me. “We need it for our own children’s future. It’s important.”
That sounds like a very explicit and positive answer, from the man who early on urged women to stay at home as protection against untrained militants who might hurt them.
What then of the millions of Afghans who depend on sacks of UN-provided rice for survival. And the young children at risk of starving to death over the winter. Not true, says the Taliban spokesman.
“Whoever created or circulated these rumours, it’s false. In Afghanistan people have mercy on each other. They won’t let others to die.”
The World Food Program says it needs to feed 23 million Afghans to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. That’s half the country’s population.
Mujahid smiled in disbelief when he heard such an astonishing number.
“Yes they are helping,” he said, “but it’s not for 20 million. It’s less than that.” He did use the word crisis, and he did admit that Afghanistan needs the help of other countries.
Even as he offered a questionable view of the life and death challenges his country faces this winter.
“No one will die of hunger. We will address this issue. It’s the responsibility of the government.”
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.