��������

DUBAI: The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, an official said, part of a wider effort to get their government recognized internationally years after taking power.
The case of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 75, underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s US-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive. The Reynolds had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an education and training organization in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that mediated talks between the US and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds. The couple left Afghanistan on Friday, a diplomat said. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations in the case.
The Reynolds’ family members in the United Kingdom repeatedly called for the couple’s release, saying they were being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban government or the UK Foreign Office about the couple’s release.
In July, United Nations human rights experts warned the couple’s physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death.
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalize relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released US citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
Afghanistan remains a focus of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, while visiting the UK, Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the idea.

PARIS: France’s interior ministry has ordered prefects to oppose the display of Palestinian flags on town halls and other public buildings next week when Paris is set to formally recognize the Palestinian state.
“The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays,” the interior ministry said in a telegram, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Friday.
Any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to courts, the interior ministry said.
Israel’s war on Gaza is a hot-button issue in France, and several French mayors have already announced their intention to display the Palestinian flag on their town halls next week.
On Monday, France is set to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly.
The warning from the interior ministry came after Socialist leader Olivier Faure called for the Palestinian flag to be flown on town halls on Monday, when Jewish worshippers also celebrate the Rosh Hashanah holiday, the Jewish New Year.
However, the telegram said any such display would amount to “taking sides in an international conflict.”
“It is therefore appropriate,” the telegram said, “to ask mayors who display such flags on their public buildings to cease doing so and, in the event of refusal or non-compliance” to refer those mayors’ decisions to administrative courts.
Israel has been under mounting pressure to wrap up its campaign in Gaza, where the war has created a humanitarian crisis and devastated much of the territory, and to bring home Israeli hostages held there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Macron of pursuing a policy of “appeasement” of the Hamas militants. Macron said Thursday that recognizing a Palestinian state would isolate Hamas.
Several other leaders have announced their intent to formally recognize the Palestinian state during the UN summit.