Taliban claim China to maintain embassy in Kabul, hail new Silk Road. US has no plans to release billions in Afghan assets, Treasury says.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday said in a surprise move he would step down, setting the stage for a new premier after a one-year tenure marred by an unpopular Covid-19 response and sinking public support.

A small group of Afghan women protested near the presidential palace in Kabul on Friday, demanding equal rights from the Taliban as Afghanistan’s new rulers work on forming a government and seeking international recognition.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead a new Afghan government set to be announced shortly, sources in the Islamist group said on Friday, as its fighters battled forces loyal to the vanquished republic in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul.

The European Union will engage with the Taliban, subject to strict conditions, but that does not mean the bloc is recognising a new Afghan government, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday he would step down, setting the stage for a new premier after a one-year tenure marred by an unpopular COVID-19 response and rapidly dwindling public support.

Visas of foreigners stuck in India due to the Covid-19 pandemic for around one and a half years have been extended free of cost till September 30 this year, the Indian Home Ministry said last night.

INS Savitri, an Indian Navy offshore patrol vessel, arrived in Chattogram yesterday to deliver two mobile oxygen plants (MOP) each with a capacity of generating 960 litres of oxygen per minute.

The Taliban said yesterday they were close to forming a new government, as dozens of women held a rare protest for the right to work under a new regime that faces enormous economic hurdles and deep public mistrust.

Under their previous reign, they shocked the world by brutally oppressing women and girls. Now, back in power 20 years after a US invasion ousted them, the Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule, pledging that women will be allowed to work.

India reported the biggest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases in two months yesterday, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most-affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season.

The course of true love never did run smooth, but after public controversy and a wedding delay, Japan’s Princess Mako is reportedly set to tie the knot and move to America.

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi has warned the United States that political tension between Beijing and Washington could undermine efforts by the world’s top two sources of greenhouse gas to co-operate in the fight against climate change.

Most Afghan allies seeking to flee with the US withdrawal were unable to do so, an official acknowledged Wednesday, as the United States began to wrestle with painful choices in the chaotic final days of the war.

Even in the final days of Washington’s chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers were preparing on Thursday to unveil their new government as the economy teetered on the edge of collapse more than two weeks after the Islamist militia captured Kabul and brought a chaotic end to 20 years of war.

Indian authorities cracked down on public movement and imposed a near-total communications blackout Thursday in disputed Kashmir after the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi.

North Korea has rejected roughly three million Covid-19 vaccine doses of China's Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O), saying they should be sent to severely affected countries, the UNICEF said on Wednesday.

They move from place to place at a moment’s notice in a desperate bid to evade the Taliban — girls whose lives are in danger simply because they chose to play a sport they loved.

The new, Taliban-appointed head of Afghanistan's central bank has sought to reassure banks the group wants a fully-functioning financial system, but has so far provided little detail on how it will supply funds to sustain it, said four bankers familiar with the matter.