Taliban insurgents began entering Kabul yesterday after taking control of all of Afghanistan’s major cities apart from the capital. Following are some of the major milestones in the Islamist militant movement’s advance in recent months.

The Hong Kong protest coalition that organised record-breaking democracy rallies two years ago yesterday said it was disbanding in the face of China’s sweeping clampdown on dissent in the city.

South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military drills today, the South’s military said yesterday, amid North Korea’s

Japan will never wage war again, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged on Sunday, as he commemorated the end of World War Two while members of his cabinet visited a shrine seen by critics as a symbol of the country’s past militarism.

Malaysia’s embattled leader will offer his resignation to the king today, a minister said, potentially spelling an end to his 17-month-old government and plunging the country into fresh turmoil.  

Two of Afghanistan’s most notorious regional warlords fled on Saturday as the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban and security forces abandoned the city in a headlong rush up the highway to the safety of neighbouring Uzbekistan. 

The rout of Afghan forces as Taliban fighters take one provincial city after another provides a stark answer to anyone wondering about the success of two decades of US-led efforts to build a local army. 

Taliban insurgents entered Kabul unopposed and President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan yesterday, bringing the Islamist militants close to taking over the country two decades after they were overthrown by a US-led invasion. 

Chaos erupted at Kabul airport yesterday after thousands gathered there fleeing the Taliban came under fire. 

Rescuers in northwestern China yesterday worked to free 19 trapped coal miners, hours after their site was flooded by mud in an accident that has already killed one worker.

As the Taliban stormed into Kabul today, India has put in place contingency plans to evacuate hundreds of its officials and citizens from the Afghan capital.

Afghanistan's Taliban entered the capital Kabul on Sunday and Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani left the country, with the insurgents saying they were seeking complete power.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has left the capital Kabul for Tajikistan, a senior Afghan Interior Ministry official said on Sunday, reports Reuters.

 Iran said on Sunday it has prepared accommodation in three provinces bordering Afghanistan to provide temporary refuge to Afghans fleeing their country as Taliban insurgents enter the capital Kabul.

Japan marked the 76th anniversary of its World War II surrender on Sunday with a somber ceremony in which Prime Minister Yosihide Suga pledged for the tragedy of war to never be repeated but avoided apologizing for his country’s aggression.

Taliban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Sunday, an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

The Taliban on Sunday seized the last major city outside of Kabul held by the country’s increasingly isolated central government, cutting off the capital to the east and tightening their grip on the nation as tens of thousands fled their rapid advance.

Afghanistan’s beleaguered president yesterday vowed to prevent further bloodshed, as Taliban fighters closed in on Kabul after routing his armed forces over the past 10 days. 

Brac International is relocating 12 Bangladeshi and two other expatriate staff to safe locations outside Afghanistan amid escalating violence in the South Asian country where the Taliban is closing in to control the country.

“We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools -- let me emphasise: all the tools,” US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals.