Donors have pledged more than $1.1 billion to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Islamist Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the spectre of a mass exodus.

Malaysia’s new government signed an agreement to cooperate with the opposition yesterday in exchange for a promise of reforms, a bid to bring stability after intense political turbulence.

The United Nations' human rights chief criticised on Monday the Taliban's record since seizing power in Afghanistan, saying stated commitments did not match realities on the ground such as the status of women.

Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was unable to appear at a court hearing on Monday for health reasons, a member of her legal team said, describing her condition as dizziness caused by motion sickness.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying a handful of passengers touched down at Kabul airport Monday, the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on August 15.

The United Nations is convening an aid conference in Geneva on Monday in an effort to raise more than $600 million for Afghanistan, warning of a humanitarian crisis there following the Taliban takeover.

At least 14 people were killed and another three injured when lightning struck two houses in northwestern Pakistan, officials said yesterday.

Afghan women will be allowed to attend university as long as they study separately from men, the Taliban’s new higher education minister said yesterday.

Habibullah Farzad, a Ph.D. scholar of the South Asian University, New Delhi and also a human rights activist, was beaten

US-trained Afghan pilots and other personnel who fled to Uzbekistan and were held in an Uzbek camp for about a month started departing the country on Sunday, a pilot told Reuters.

Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the higher education minister in the new Taliban government said Sunday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for an injection of cash into Afghanistan to avoid an economic meltdown that would spark a “catastrophic” situation for the Afghan people and be a “gift for terrorist groups.”

Afghanistan marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in muted fashion yesterday with the Taliban firmly in charge, two decades after being ousted for hosting the architects of the US attacks.

War-weary residents of Kabul expressed anger and feelings of betrayal by the United States on Saturday, as the world marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that prompted a U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of its Taliban rulers.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights from Islamabad to Kabul next week, a spokesman for the airline told AFP Saturday, becoming the first foreign commercial flight service to the Afghanistan capital since the Taliban seized power last month.

The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is at risk of “total breakdown” if the international community does not find a way to keep money flowing into Afghanistan despite concerns over the Taliban government.

Myanmar troops killed several members of a local “defence force” in a day of clashes, the junta said yesterday, with local residents and media reporting at least 10 dead.

At least 20 people have been killed in fighting between militias and Myanmar's ruling military, a witness and local media said on Friday, in the worst violence since opponents of the junta called this week for a "people's defensive war".

Afghan staff of the United Nations are being increasingly subjected to harassment and intimidation since the Taliban came to power last month, the UN special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons said on Thursday.

The Taliban was businesslike, "professional" and cooperative in facilitating the latest evacuation of US nationals from Afghanistan, the White House said Thursday.