22/09/2025

MONDAY | SEPT 22, 2025

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Rebel octogenarian nuns reclaim Austrian convent

Afghan officials reject Bagram demand KABUL: Afghan officials have rejected US threats to reclaim Bagram Air Base, emphasising that any attempt to reestablish a foreign military presence would be met with unyielding resistance. Mullah Tajmir Jawad, first deputy of the General Directorate of Intelligence, responded to calls for US retaking the strategic airfield by saying the Afghan government would preserve the current system. Echoing this resolve, Afghan Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said: “Our answer is, if you don’t leave and want bases, we are ready to fight you for another 20 years.” Zakir Jalaly, political director of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dismissed the notion of a US return, stating that Afghans have “never accepted foreign troops on their territory” and that any dialogue with Washington must exclude military reoccupation. The Bagram Air Base, located about 50km north of Kabul, served as the epicentre of US and Nato operations during the two-decade war. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan with “bad things” if it doesn’t “give Bagram Airbase back”. “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, bad things are going to happen!!!” the president wrote on his Truth Social account. The withdrawal of American forces in 2021 resulted in the current Afghan government taking control of the base. During his recent visit to Britain, Trump said that the United States is “trying to take back” the Bagram Airbase. On Saturday, Trump told reporters at the White House that the United States is in talks with Afghanistan regarding regaining control of the airbase, saying, “We want it back, and we want it back soon, right away. “If they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m gonna do.” – Bernama California tightens rules on ‘secret police’ LOS ANGELES: California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a Bill banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing masks during raids. The Bill is part of a broader package signed by the governor to “respond to federal overreach and push back against (President Donald) Trump and (White House deputy chief of staff for policy) Stephen Miller’s ‘secret police’ tactics in California,” Newsom’s office said. The package includes measures forcing immigration and other federal officials to be clearly identifiable – largely prohibiting the use of masks – as well as restricting their access to schools and non-public areas of hospitals. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, regulations that had previously largely exempted such facilities from immigration enforcement operations have been repealed. Newsom, a prominent Democrat and potential 2028 presidential contender, justified the new measures by saying they would ensure “schools and hospitals remain what they should be: places of care, not chaos”. “Trump and Stephen Miller’s immigration agenda is built on arbitrary quotas and few guardrails for fairness or due process,” his office said. “In California, their tactics have terrorised communities, traumatised students, disrupted businesses and endangered public safety for American citizens.” ICE has recently intensified operations against undocumented migrants in cities including Los Angeles and Washington. The agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is known for raids involving masked agents and has been criticised by rights groups over its tactics. – Bernama

o Trio want to reconcile with Catholic Church

ELSBETHAN: Three rebel nuns in their 80s have taken back their Austrian convent after fleeing from their care home, with supporters flocking to the nunnery on Saturday in a show of solidarity. Sisters Rita, 81, Regina, 86, and Bernadette, 88, have graced international headlines following their flight earlier this month from the care home the Catholic Church sent them to in late 2023 “against their will”. Before then, the three were the last remaining nuns at Goldenstein castle in Elsbethen, south of the city of Salzburg, which has housed both the towering nunnery and a private school for almost 150 years. Several of the nuns’ former students gathered at the majestic convent on Saturday to offer prayers. Other allies of the rogue sisterhood joined later, bearing food or just stopping by for a chat. The prayers’ calm offered a rare moment of respite amid the media whirlwind engulfing them in the aftermath of their unorthodox flight and battles with the church hierarchy over their right to remain in the nunnery. Former student Eva-Maria Seeber, 76, said she had come to support the trio and take a stand. “You can’t just relocate elderly people without asking them. It’s cruel,” she said, adding that two nuns were taken “straight from the hospital” to the nearby care home. Relations with Church officials, who insist the nuns had to be placed in a Catholic care home due to their ailing health, have spiralled in recent weeks. The trio’s superior, Provost Markus Grasl of the Reichersberg Abbey, has even accused them of violating their duties of obedience. With their flight, the sisters are “acting against the vows they voluntarily took”, said Grasl, whose abbey took charge of Goldenstein in 2022 together with the Archdiocese of Salzburg. While it remains unclear what the Catholic Church was planning to do with the convent, the nuns tell a different story. They say the Church cited “severe dementia” to have them transferred to a retirement home without even consulting them.

Sister Bernadette (right) and Sister Rita have a morning snack after mass on Saturday. – AFPPIC

our parents regain their health and spend time with their family, today is a day of tremendous joy and relief.” Qatar played a key role in helping to free the couple after mounting fears about their health. The couple were arrested in February as they were returning to their home in Bamiyan province, central Afghanistan. They were first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul. Afghan authorities have not explained why the pair were detained. The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens. – AFP The community, too, has seen the nuns’ faces light up since their return to the place where they had served for decades. “They’ve blossomed from the very first day they were back,” said Martina Krispler, who had brought lunch for the nuns and their helpers. “The sisters were always warm, loving and caring during our school days,” the 28-year old former student said. “We simply do not agree with the way the Church is treating them.” Looking ahead, the nuns hope to reconcile with the Church, and be allowed to stay in the convent “until the end of our lives” as the Church said they could. “They should keep their promises,” said Bernadette, the eldest sister, while leaning on her rolling walker. – AFP

But with the help of former students and other supporters, a group which now numbers up to 150 people, the nuns were able to reclaim their abandoned convent. More than two weeks ago, “our prayers were heard and we were picked up and brought to Goldenstein”, Sister Bernadette said. “A locksmith opened the door and we were able to return to our cells,” said the eldest nun, who first arrived at Goldenstein in 1948. What the nuns found, however, left them “in great shock”, as rooms had been cleared out, the stair lift dismantled and there was neither running water nor electricity. Mercifully for them, some of those issues were easily fixed. “We are finally back home in the convent. It feels heavenly,” said Sister Bernadette.

Freed British couple feared execution LONDON: An elderly British couple released by Afghan authorities after almost eight months in detention arrived back in the UK on “We are bewildered as to why any of this happened and are very happy that this ordeal is over,” he said.

For her part, Barbie said the toughest thing about the affair was “seeing my 80-year-old husband struggling to get into the back of a police truck with his hands and ankles chained”.

Saturday, telling the press that they feared “we would never be released”. Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie (pic) , 76, arrived on a flight from the Qatari capital Doha, where they had stayed for medical checks following their release on Friday. Barbie Reynolds smiled broadly as the couple walked out of the arrivals area at London’s Heathrow airport, accompanied by their daughter and British special representative to Afghanistan Richard Lindsay.

Their family has spoken of their “immense joy” on hearing that the Reynolds were released, and there were emotional scenes when they arrived in Doha on a flight from Kabul to be met by their daughter. “This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy and international cooperation,” their four children said in a joint statement on Friday. “While the road to recovery will be long as

After their return, Peter Reynolds told The Times that the couple had “begun to think that we would never be released, or that we were even being held until we were executed”.