Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul's airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the United States to pause evacuations, as President Joe Biden confronted mounting criticism over the US withdrawal.

The first of three German evacuation planes en route to Afghanistan has diverted to the Uzbek capital Tashkent after it could not land at Kabul airport, a German general said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia called on the Taliban and "all Afghan parties" on Monday to preserve lives and property, after the insurgents seized the capital Kabul.

Panic, chaos and confusion gripped Afghanistan yesterday after the Taliban took control of Kabul following a lightning offensive that saw the country fall to the insurgents virtually unopposed.  

Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi erupted yesterday, belching a cloud of ash into the air as red lava flowed down its crater.

Several charter flight companies have contacted Biman Bangladesh Airlines for its services to evacuate several thousand people, including Afghans who worked for the American troops, from war-torn Afghanistan. 

Sri Lanka’s president yesterday demoted the health minister who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to battle Covid-19, as coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs.

The Indian government yesterday told the Supreme Court that there is “nothing to hide” in the Pegasus snooping allegations and it will constitute a committee of eminent experts to examine all aspects.

Kabul’s streets were deserted early yesterday, a day after Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital without a fight, but the airport was jammed with hundreds of civilians trying to flee.

A top doctor in China’s fight against the coronavirus is under investigation for plagiarism, weeks after making a social media post questioning the country’s zero-tolerance strategy to control the pandemic.

Malaysia’s Muhyiddin Yassin stepped down as prime minister yesterday after months of political turmoil culminated in the loss of his majority, but his resignation is likely to open another chapter of instability in the absence of any obvious successor.

The Taliban will offer support to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan more discreetly than during their first period in power when they openly embraced the terror network, analysts say.

Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport Monday, so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said.

Russia's embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported.

Russia is in contact with Taliban officials via its embassy in Kabul, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan said on Monday, a day after the Afghan government collapsed and the capital fell to the Islamist insurgent group.

A young Chinese woman says she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uyghurs, in what may be the first evidence that China is operating a so-called “black site” beyond its borders.

Malaysia's Muhyiddin Yassin stepped down as prime minister on Monday after months of political turmoil culminated in the loss of his majority, but his resignation is likely to open another chapter of instability in the absence of any obvious successor.

Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.

Bangladesh has urged all stakeholders in Afghanistan to maintain peace and calm, ensuring safety and security of all including foreign nationals.

At least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital, witnesses told Reuters.