Daily Times
July 15, 2021
No one could imagine the past four weeks to have happened in Afghanistan. The revival of the Taliban; the US and NATO scrambling for an exit; the Kabul Government in mental paralysis; the Afghan National Army in total disarray and the poor common Afghan in utter shock; unable to grasp what is to unfold. This is a sad story all over again. Panic is real and heavy. Anyone associated in any manner or form may it be enrolled, casual, listed or beneficiary with the provincial or central government fears for his life. Requests for visas and asylums are fast lining up at not just the US embassy, but even that of the EU, Turkey, the UAE and India. Those with foreign passports have mostly left. Those without one are now struggling to find a way out. Borders with Pakistan, Iran, and CARs are reportedly closed. Those travelling to Pakistan can only use the air route. The Indian variant Covid, which is now very prevalent in Kabul, has become another restriction to fre
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N NOVEMBER 2013, Nora von Achenbach, curator at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Germany, examined the catalogue for an upcoming auction by the Paris-based dealer Boisgirard-Antonini. The glossy pages offered a bevy of antiquities for sale: bronze figurines, jewellery and a statue from ancient Egypt estimated at more than â¬300,000. But von Achenbach was interested in a pale marble tablet, carved with arabesques, vines and Persian
script. Lot 104, an âimportant epigraphic panel with interlacings from the palace of Masâud IIIâ, was date to the 12th century, from the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, in what is today Afghanistan.
How One Looted Artifact Tells the Story of Modern Afghanistan nytimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nytimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.