A firefight broke out between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at the North Gate of Kabul airport on Monday, Germany's armed forces said, as thousands of Afghans and foreigners thronged the airport, seeking to flee Taliban rule.

The delay in resumption of flights between India and Bangladesh, under the bilateral air bubble agreement, has come as a big disappointment for leading hospitals and hospitality, tourism sectors in Kolkata and Chennai.

The Taliban on Sunday blamed the United States for the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from Kabul, one week after the hardline Islamist group returned to power in a rapid victory that stunned the world. 

Malaysia’s new prime minister yesterday called on his colleagues to end a months-long political crisis and come together to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, in his first speech as the country’s fourth premier in as many years.

Former Afghan government forces forming a resistance movement in a fortified valley are preparing for “long-term conflict”, but are also seeking to negotiate with the Taliban, their spokesman told AFP in an interview.

Five Bangladeshis were evacuated from Afghanistan yesterday -- three of them under UN and two under US arrangements -- in a development giving much relief since the Afghanistan fell to the Taliban on August 15.

The Taliban yesterday blamed the United States for the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from the capital, one week after the hardline Islamist group returned to power in a rapid victory that stunned the world.

Myanmar’s military government has arrested two more local journalists, army-owned television reported on Saturday, the latest among dozens of detentions in a sweeping crackdown on the media since a February 1 coup.

The son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was one of the main leaders of Afghanistan's anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, said he will not surrender areas under his control to the Taliban, Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel cited him as saying on Sunday.

A group of Afghan women too young to recall the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule are experiencing the same trauma once recounted by relatives after the group retook control of Afghanistan, leading thousands to flee the country.

Amidst the ongoing evacuation of its nationals and Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan post-Taliban takeover, a senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet today said this was why India enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act.

A panicked crush of people trying to enter Kabul’s international airport killed seven Afghan civilians in the crowds, the British military said Sunday, showing the danger still posed to those trying to flee the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

Austria's conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz opposes taking in any more people fleeing Afghanistan now that the Taliban have seized power, he said in remarks published on Sunday.

Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers imposed some order around chaotic Kabul airport on Sunday, making sure people formed orderly queues outside the main gates and not allowing crowds to gather at the perimeter, witnesses said.

The official websites of the Taliban, who swept to power in Afghanistan on the back of a lightning offensive last week, appeared

A suicide bomb attack in Pakistan on a motorcade carrying Chinese personnel injured one Chinese national and killed two local children,

Sri Lanka will issue captive elephants with their own biometric identity cards and ban their riders from drinking on the job under a wide-ranging new animal protection law.

A new Malaysian leader was sworn yesterday following the previous government’s collapse, reclaiming the premiership for his scandal-mired party without an election.

Government employees in Kabul were blocked by Taliban militants from returning to their offices yesterday, the first day of the Afghan working week.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi yesterday said time has come for all Indian 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.