Myanmar’s junta has said it was unlikely an Asean special envoy tasked with facilitating dialogue in the coup-hit country would be allowed to meet ousted pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nepal has introduced a third gender category in its census for the first time, a move the Himalayan nation’s LGBTQ community hopes will bring them greater rights.

Russia yesterday threatened to block YouTube and take other retaliatory measures, after the US video-sharing platform blocked the German-language channels of state broadcaster RT.

The Taliban on Wednesday warned of consequences if the United States did not stop flying drones over Afghan airspace.

Women will no longer be allowed to attend classes or work at Kabul University “until an Islamic environment is created,” the school’s new Taliban-appointed chancellor announced Monday, in the latest move excluding Afghanistan’s women from public life.

A 19-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist from Pakistani Punjab, captured in a massive army operation to stop infiltrations at Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri, has made big revelations to the army including details of his terror training in which the Pakistan Army was allegedly involved.

The UN General Assembly in New York was set to end yesterday but without speeches by those in power in Afghanistan and Myanmar, one of many quirks at this year’s diplomatic marathon that saw 100 leaders defy coronavirus fears to meet in person.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan must not be blamed for the outcome of the war in Afghanistan and for the losses of the United States, stressing on setting eyes on the future to avoid another conflict instead of continuing with a blame game.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in raised banning the eating of dogs in the country yesterday, his office said, a traditional practice that is becoming an international embarrassment.

Myanmar’s military launched air strikes at the weekend after clashes with fighters opposed to the junta in the Sagaing region, according to media and a militia member, as phone lines and the internet were also severed in some districts.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday said he was seeking approval to resume a war crimes investigation into Afghanistan, focusing on the actions of the Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) militia.

The US Treasury Department has issued licenses to facilitate humanitarian aid and financial assistance to the people of Afghanistan, while upholding sanctions on the Taliban.

Myanmar’s junta has denied suspending the internet in conflict-wracked regions, blaming a recent spate of data blackouts on anti-coup protesters who had destroyed military-owned communications towers.

The Taliban yesterday urged international airlines to resume flights to Kabul, saying all technical issues at the country’s main airport

Afghanistan is at risk of “imminent hunger” with winter approaching and services disrupted by the return to power of the Taliban, a UN official warned in an interview with AFP.

The Taliban hung the bodies of four kidnappers from cranes after killing them during a shootout in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat yesterday, a senior official said.

India and Pakistan clashed Friday at the United Nations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the rival of a “reign of terror” on Muslims and appealed to the world to work with Afghanistan’s triumphant Taliban, drawing a stern rebuke.

Taliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others, a local government official said on Saturday.

Myanmar is facing the alarming prospect of an escalating civil war as an uprising against the military junta widens, the UN’s human rights chief warned yesterday.

Pakistan’s government is proposing that the international community develop a road map that leads to diplomatic recognition of the Taliban — with incentives if they fulfill its requirements — and then sit down face to face and talk it out with the militia’s leaders.