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.

Questions are swirling in the air after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last week ending the rule of West-backed government of Ashraf Ghani. It took

Taliban leaders gathered in the Afghan capital yesterday to begin mapping out an “inclusive government”, as thousands scrambled to leave the country via a chaotic evacuation dubbed one of the most difficult airlifts in history.

The United States has evacuated 2,500 Americans from Kabul over the past week, senior US officials said on Saturday, adding that Washington is fighting against "time and space" to evacuate people from Afghanistan.

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.