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.

The United States announces nearly $180 million in additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region.

Greece yesterday said it was temporarily hosting seven Afghan women MPs and their families who fled Afghanistan ahead of eventual resettlement in the United States.

A meeting of foreign ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries, slated to be held on Saturday in New York, has been cancelled.

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.

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.