An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude jolted Myanmar early today, with tremors being felt in parts of Bangladesh.

Girls have returned to some secondary schools in a northern province of Afghanistan, Taliban officials and teachers said yesterday, but they remain barred from classrooms in much of the country.

The Taliban said yesterday they had destroyed an Islamic State cell in the Afghan capital, hours after a suspected IS attack on a mosque killed five people.

Qatar and the EU’s top diplomats yesterday labelled a recent string of human rights abuses in Afghanistan “disappointing”, with Doha encouraging the Taliban to look to Qatar for how to run an Islamic system.

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

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said on Monday there might be a need to prohibit dog meat consumption amid debate over the controversial practice and growing awareness of animal rights.

One of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned of the risk of a “civil war” in Afghanistan if the Taliban is unable to form an inclusive government there.

Fears were mounting in Afghanistan yesterday as the Taliban tightened their grip on women’s rights, slashing access to work and denying girls the right to secondary school education.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has not ruled out seeking re-election to parliament within the next two years, he told Reuters in an interview, despite a corruption conviction that would block him from running.

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.

Workers in the Afghan capital Kabul replaced signs for the country’s women’s ministry with those for the Taliban’s moral police yesterday, as female former employees of the department said they had been locked out of the building.

Having had only six years of formal schooling, paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang, 94, believes strongly in helping needy students get an education.

The Taliban yesterday thanked the world for pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to Afghanistan, and urged the United States to show “heart” in future dealings. 

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is a shattering earthquake that will shape the Middle East for many years, a senior Gulf official has said, warning that – despite the group’s promises of moderation – the militant group is “essentially the same” as last time it was in power.

The Taliban co-founder and now deputy prime minister of Afghanistan released an audio statement yesterday saying he was alive and well after news of his supposed demise went viral on social media.

Expectations were building as the Taliban were taking time in announcing a government after taking over the country in a lightning offensive and decimating oppositions on the way.

Protesters have destroyed around a dozen military-owned communications towers in Myanmar, witnesses and reports said yesterday, after the country’s self-proclaimed shadow government issued a call for a “defensive war” against the junta.

The Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan includes two representatives from one of their most feared factions -- the Haqqani network. As expected, they have emerged as key players in the new setup, after the Taliban routed the US-backed Afghan military and captured Kabul on August 15.

Myanmar’s military rulers have agreed to an Asean call for a ceasefire until the end of the year to ensure distribution of humanitarian aid, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said, citing the envoy of the southeast Asian bloc to the crisis-torn nation.