Taliban says Afghanistan the ‘best place for tourists now’

News Snapshot:

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was not part of the route that Tomás Mac an t-Saoir (29) had planned when he began a three-month cycling trip in India last November. But some seasoned travellers told Mac an t-Saoir that despite the militant and deeply conservative Taliban sweeping back to power in 2021, neighbouring Afghanistan was safe for foreigners “even on a bicycle”. Before new year, the Kerry native paid $100 for a tourist visa, “no questions asked”, at the Afghan consulate in Peshawar in western Pakistan. A police escort then followed him along the mountainous Khyber Pass to the Torkham crossing that leads...