Protesters have destroyed around a dozen military-owned communications towers in Myanmar, witnesses and reports said Wednesday, after the country's self-proclaimed shadow government issued a call for a "defensive war" against the junta.

The Taliban announced their new government yesterday, with a UN-blacklisted veteran of the hardline movement in the top role, after the group swept to power in a lightning offensive which toppled the US-backed president. 

The United Nations appealed for almost $200 million in extra funding for life-saving aid in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover sparked a host of new issues.

Universities in Kabul were almost empty on the first day of the Afghan school year, as professors and students wrestled with the Taliban’s restrictive new rules for the classroom.

Afghanistan: From Soviet occupation to Taliban takeover and US defeat

The Taliban named Mullah Hasan Akhund, an associate of the movement's late founder Mullah Omar, as the head of Afghanistan's new government on Tuesday, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the movement's political office, as deputy.

Afghanistan is facing the collapse of basic services and food and other aid is about to run out, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

The Taliban on Tuesday fired shots into the air to disperse crowds who had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in the capital, the latest protest since the hardline Islamist movement swept to power last month.

Universities in Kabul were almost empty on the first day of the Afghan school year on Monday, as professors and students wrestled with the Taliban's restrictive new rules for the classroom.

Myanmar's shadow government, formed by opponents of military rule, called for a revolt against the junta on Tuesday, setting out a strategy that included action by armed militias and ethnic forces and urging bureaucrats to leave their posts.

The Taliban yesterday claimed total control over Afghanistan, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last remaining holdout of resistance against their rule.

The Taliban claimed victory on Monday over opposition forces in the Panjshir valley northeast of Kabul, declaring that it completed the Islamist group's takeover of Afghanistan and promising to announce a new government soon.

Senior Taliban officials met in Kabul on Sunday with the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, who promised to maintain assistance for the Afghan people, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

About 1,000 people, including Americans, have been stuck in Afghanistan for days awaiting clearance for their charter flights to leave, an organizer told Reuters, blaming the delay on the US State Department.

Four Pakistani paramilitary guards were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in the

The Taliban said on Sunday their forces had fought their way into the provincial capital of the Panjshir valley, their latest claim of progress in fighting against opposition forces holding out in the area north of Kabul.

Angelina Jolie has expressed concern about the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Four Pakistani paramilitary guards were killed Sunday when a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.

Fighters of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which opposes the rule of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia), have killed about 600 Taliban combatants in the northern Afghan region of Panjshir on Saturday, Front spokesman Fahim Dashty wrote on Twitter.

Taliban and opposition forces battled on Saturday to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last Afghan province holding out against the militant group, as the top US general warned of a "civil war" if the Islamists failed to consolidate power.