Asia

The Taliban killed Rohullah Azizi, brother of former Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, Aamaj News reported on Friday. Sources told Aamaj that Azizi was arrested and shot on Thursday in Rokha district in Panjshir. His brother Saleh did not flee from the country like former President Ashraf Ghani. He …

The first international commercial flight under Afghanistan’s new Taliban interim government departed Kabul on Thursday carrying more than 100 foreigners, including some U.S. citizens left behind after last month’s chaotic Western airlift. The flight marked an important step in the Taliban’s efforts to create a functioning state after they seized …

US President Joe Biden spoke with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday amid growing frustration on the American side that high-level engagement between the two leaders’ top advisers has been largely unfruitful in the early going of the Biden presidency. Biden initiated the call with Xi, the second between the two …

The UN rights office on Friday said that the Taliban response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has been increasingly violent, with authorities using live ammunition, batons, and whips and causing the deaths of at least four protesters. Protests and demonstrations, often led by women, pose a challenge to the new …

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the Taliban and revealed that they were not allowing charter flights to evacuate US citizens and at-risk Afghans to depart the airport. The Taliban allowed a flight of foreigners, including American citizens, to finally depart Afghanistan on Thursday after the top …

Afghanistan’s Kabul Airport is about 90 percent ready for operations but its reopening is planned gradually, a Qatari official said speaking on the tarmac on Thursday. There would be a flight on Friday, another Qatari official said speaking to journalists, adding that a flight out from Kabul on Thursday was …

The death toll from a blaze that tore through an Indonesian jail has risen to 44, as authorities pledged to look at whether more inmates could receive rehabilitation for drug-related offences to ease chronic overcrowding in the prison system. Wednesday’s fire at the penitentiary in Tangerang, on the outskirts of …

Indonesia and Australia agreed to deepen security ties during a ministerial meeting on Thursday, with discussions underway towards enabling joint military training in Australia and participation in its defence academies. Agreements were signed over counter-terrorism, defence and cybersecurity, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said, plus another agreement on support for …

North Korea held a massive parade to celebrate 73 years since the state’s foundation, with soldiers and civilians alike seen marching in an elaborate procession, which omitted Pyongyang’s typical displays of major weapon systems. Held in Kim Il Sung Square in the nation’s capital on Wednesday night, the event saw …

Two hundred Americans and other foreigners who remain in Afghanistan are set to depart the war-ravaged country on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation, a U.S. official said. The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from …

North Korea appears to have staged a night-time military parade of a type it has used in the past to unveil new military hardware including large ballistic missiles, South Korea and other media focused on the country reported on Thursday. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the parade appeared to …

Panjshiri leader Ahmad Shah Massoud and former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh have not fled Afghanistan and their resistance forces are still fighting the Taliban, the ousted Afghan government’s ambassador to Tajikistan said on Wednesday. Zahir Aghbar, envoy to Dushanbe under the government of ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, told …

Two ferry boats have smashed into each other on India’s Brahmaputra River, with one of the boats capsizing immediately after the collision. The boats were reportedly carrying over 100 people, some of whom are feared missing. The accident occurred on Wednesday to the north of the city of Jorhat, located …

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday accepted his party’s nomination to run for vice president in next year’s election, forging ahead with a plan criticized by rivals as a cynical move to maintain his political power. The mercurial leader, 76, is barred by the constitution from seeking a second term …

Indian authorities are restricting major religious festivals that start this week and attract huge crowds, warning that a new COVID-19 wave had already begun in the financial capital Mumbai. State governments across the country of 1.3 billion people, which saw a devastating coronavirus surge in April-May, are clamping down on …

South Korea is drawing up a plan on how to live more normally with COVID-19, expecting 80 percent of adults to be fully vaccinated by late October, health authorities said on Wednesday. The country is in the middle of its worst wave of infections, but it has kept the number …

Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has apologized, saying he regretted “how it ended,” according to a statement released. “Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens. I …

Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that the US government-funded studies into coronavirus in bats in Wuhan long before the pandemic, with the proposal showing it was aware of the risk that researchers would be infected. More than 900 pages of material related to this research were published on the …

China has expressed concern about NATO’s assertions about an alleged nuclear threat from Beijing, stressing that the country is not involved in any arms race and its nuclear activities are for national security purposes. “China is gravely concerned about and firmly opposes the ‘China nuclear threat theory’ NATO has been …

Taliban gunmen fired into the air to disperse anti-Pakistan protestors in the capital of Afghanistan. Video clips on Tuesday showed people running as gunfire was heard. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Taliban forces open fire into a crowd during a peaceful demonstration protesting Taliban and Pakistani terrorism. https://t.co/WIRZ6XiK4n …