Headline

Drivers Mount Handmade Cooling System On Top Of Taxi To Replace AC

Published

2 months ago

August 9, 2025

Due to the fact that car air conditioning systems break down too often as a result of excessive heat and repairs are too expensive, taxi cab drivers in Afghanistan often turn to handmade roof-mounted rudimentary systems in order to cool the inside of their vehicles.

Driving through Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, you’re likely to see taxi cabs with large rectangular boxes mounted on the roof and large tubes extending from them and into the vehicles, through a rear window or through a hole cut into the roof.

Blue taxi cabs were mostly seen with what they cobbled together and strapped to the roof with exhaust hoses delivering the cool air through the passenger windows of the cabs.

According to the Agence France Presse (AFP), they are handmade cooling devices meant to replace the cars’ built-in air-conditioning systems, which used to always break down when they are most needed and cost a fortune to repair.

According to the report, similar to industrial evaporative air cooling installations, these boxes can lower temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius through water evaporation. They are less noisy than air conditioning systems and consume way less power.

With temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in the country during the summer months, taxi cab drivers have to get creative to keep passengers cool and these evaporative air coolers have proven very reliable and cheap for them to maintain.

One of the drivers was seen using sticky tape to attach the cooler’s exhaust vent onto the taxi cab’s window, while his assistant climbed the roof of the cab to fix the body of the unit to it and there is always the need to manually refill water in the unit twice a day in order to ensure continued cooling.

One of the drivers who carried out the idea was quoted as saying: “These cars’ AC systems didn’t work, and repairs were too expensive. So I went to a technician and had a custom cooler made. This works better than air conditioning. The ACs in our cars only cool the front. This handmade cooler spreads air throughout the car.”

In short, taxi cab drivers have cobbled together a creative solution to spare them and their passengers from the sweltering heat.
(TRIBUNE)

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

22 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP