The Sun Gazette

  An Afghan woman resisters her name to receive cash at a money distribution center, organized by the World Food Program in Kabul, Afghanistan.   The United States formally exempted on Wednesday US and UN officials doing permitted business with the Taliban from US sanctions to try to maintain  the flow of aid to Afghanistan as it sinks deeper into a humanitarian crisis . It was unclear, however, whether the move would pave the way for proposed UN payments of some $6 million to the Islamists for security. Reuters  on Tuesday exclusively reported a UN plan to subsidise next year the monthly wages of Taliban-run Interior Ministry personnel who guard UN facilities and to pay them monthly food allowances, a proposal that raised questions about whether the payments would violate US sanctions. The Treasury Department declined to say whether the new license would exempt the proposed UN payments from US sanctions on the Taliban. Having designated the Taliban as a terrori...

  IMAGE SOURCE, UKRAINE ARMY/REUTERS Image caption, The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has failed to take hold since it was agreed in July 2020 Russia and Ukraine have agreed to restore a 2020 ceasefire deal in eastern Ukraine, prompting a top official in Kyiv to say that the coming holidays "should be peaceful". Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak hailed the deal brokered by Europe's OSCE security organisation as a step towards de-escalation. The agreement coincides with heightened tensions in the region. Ukraine and the West say Russia has sent 100,000 troops near the border. Only this week Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened "adequate military-technical response measures" if what he called the West's aggressive line continued. The issue was expected to come up on Thursday during his lengthy annual press conference. Russian officials deny any plans for an invasion, however the defence ministry in Moscow said it was carrying out milita...