Thousands have fled a town in west Myanmar after days of fighting between anti-junta dissidents and the military, during which soldiers bombed civilian homes, residents and local media said yesterday.

China will stop funding coal projects overseas, President Xi Jinping announced Tuesday, all but ending the flow of public aid for the dirty energy contributing to the climate crisis.

An informal meeting of foreign ministers of SAARC countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday was canceled as other member countries opposed Pakistan’s insistence on having a representative of the Taliban at the table.

The Taliban said yesterday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school “as soon as possible”, after their movement faced international fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from education and work.

On one hand, you’re raising fresh funds to avert a crisis and on the other hand money that is theirs -- belongs to them -- they cannot use. I think freezing the assets is not helping the situation. I would strongly urge the powers that be that they should revisit that policy and think of an unfreeze.”

Indian officials said on Tuesday they had seized nearly three tonnes of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated 200 billion rupees ($2.72 billion) amid the chaos following last month's takeover of the country by the Taliban.

Toppled Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has “no comment” on a declaration of war against the junta by a shadow government dominated by lawmakers from her party, her lawyer said yesterday.

The interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said many female city employees have been ordered to stay home by the country’s new Taliban rulers.

Myanmar anti-junta dissidents have carried out a bomb attack on security forces near Yangon, with several killed in an ensuing firefight, the military and media said.

Some Afghan girls returned to primary schools with gender-segregated classes on Saturday, but older girls faced an anxious wait with no clarity over if and when they would be able to resume their studies at the secondary school level.

Girls were excluded from returning to secondary school in Afghanistan yesterday, after the country’s new Taliban rulers ordered only boys and male teachers back to the classroom.

At least three people were killed and about 20 wounded in a series of blasts in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Saturday, two sources in the city said.

The U.S. military said on Friday that a drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many 10 civilians, including seven children, and it apologized for what the Pentagon said was a tragic mistake.

The third chartered flight bringing civilians from Afghanistan to Qatar since U.S. forces withdrew last month took off on Friday with around 170 passengers on board, including U.S. and European citizens as well as Afghans, a Qatari official said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said any suggestion the world body can solve Afghanistan’s problems is “a fantasy” and that its capacity to mediate for a more inclusive Taliban government is limited.

A group of Afghan diplomats from the deposed government in Kabul has issued a first-of-its-kind joint statement calling on world leaders to deny the Taliban formal recognition and chiding them for “leaving our people at the mercy of a terrorist group.”

The Taliban's abrupt return to power has left hundreds of Afghan diplomats overseas in limbo: running out of money to keep missions operating, fearful for families back home and desperate to secure refuge abroad.

Telenor said yesterday the Myanmar military junta had demanded it install equipment to intercept communications on the network the Norwegian firm operates in the country.

A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting problems, including economic crisis, infightings, as they seek to convert their lightning military victory into a durable peacetime government.

Both North Korea and South Korea test fired ballistic missiles yesterday, the latest volley in an arms race that has seen both countries develop increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts to get talks going on defusing tension prove fruitless.