Myanmar's military government has arrested two more local journalists, the army-owned television reported on Saturday, in the latest in a sweeping crackdown on the media since a Feb. 1 coup.

More than 7,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar, an official from the Gulf state said Saturday, as thousands scrambled to leave Kabul via chaotic evacuation operations.

Spiritual head of the Ajmer dargah in India, Syed Jainul Abedin, today said that Taliban is “maligning” Islam through terror activities in the name of “sharia”.

Uzbekistan has accepted about 400 more refugees from Afghanistan and put them up in temporary accommodation near the Afghan border, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

Afghan government employees in Kabul were blocked by Talibans from returning to work on Saturday, the first day of the working week.

Fourteen people were arrested in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam for alleged social media posts supporting Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan, police said today.

A suicide bomber in Pakistan attacked a motorcade of Chinese personnel on Friday, killing one Chinese national and two local children, the Chinese embassy said on Saturday.

China will now allow couples to legally have a third child as it seeks to hold off a demographic crisis that could threaten its hopes of increased prosperity and global influence.

The Taliban’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kabul on Saturday for talks with fellow members of the group and other politicians on establishing a new Afghan government.

The Taliban will be accountable for its actions and will investigate reports of reprisals and atrocities carried out by members, an official of the Islamist militant group told Reuters on Saturday.

When armed members of the Afghan Taliban knocked on the door of their Kabul apartment, the family of 16 inside had crammed into the bathroom, turned off the lights and mobile phones and covered the children's mouths to keep them quiet.

President Joe Biden, rejecting criticism of his handling of the chaotic U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, warned on Friday that the operation to evacuate thousands through Kabul airport carries risks and promised Americans there that "we will get you home."

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said time has come for all opposition parties to rise above their different compulsions and "plan systematically" and unitedly for the 2024 parliamentary election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party.

More than 18,000 people have been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan's capital, a NATO official said on Friday, pledging to redouble evacuation efforts as criticism of the West's handling of the crisis intensified.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Taliban barring at least two female journalists from their jobs in Afghanistan and attacking at least two members of the press covering a protest in the country were “ominous signs” that the militant outfit have no intention of respecting women’s rights or the media.

After remaining closed for night viewing for more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra will reopen tomorrow for visitors who want to enjoy the magic of the white marble monument soaked in moonlight, officials said today.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have shot and killed a relative of a Deutsche Welle journalist while hunting for him, the German public broadcaster said.

From the surging crowd of people outside Kabul airport, a small girl is lifted up over the high perimeter wall and passed into the hands of an American soldier.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday the Taliban's desire for international recognition is the Security Council's only leverage to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.

Protests against the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan have spread to more cities, including the capital Kabul, while the militant group called on the country’s imams to urge unity at Friday prayers, the first since they seized control.