The Taliban have promised a more inclusive government this time after seizing power. However top posts of new government have been handed to veteran leaders who played key roles in their notoriously brutal 1996-2001 rule. While much remains opaque, here is what is known about their policies on key issues so far:

Two Afghan journalists were beaten in police custody this week after covering a protest by women in Kabul where they were detained by the Taliban, their editor said.

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 US official said.

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as Taliban forces reached the outskirts of the city last month, apologized on Wednesday for the abrupt fall of his government but denied that he had taken millions of dollars with him.

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.

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.

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.

World powers yesterday urged the Taliban to act on their promises, saying they are monitoring developments in Afghanistan after the Islamist group announced a hardline interim government drawn exclusively from its inner echelons.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday accepted his party’s nomination to run for vice president in next year’s election, pushing ahead with a plan criticised by rivals as an attempt to maintain his grip on power.

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 president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed on Wednesday to other humanitarian organisations to return to Afghanistan and for the World Bank to unlock funds to support the tottering healthcare system.

The European Union on Wednesday said the “caretaker” government unveiled by the Taliban in Afghanistan failed to honour vows from the new rulers to include different groups.

China's foreign minister Wang Yi said the United States and its allies have more of a duty to supply economic and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan than any other country, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.

A video of the Taliban’s Minister of Education Sheikh Molvi Noorullah Munir went viral online, questioning the relevance of higher education.

China on Wednesday banned private tutors from giving classes online or in unregistered venues such as residential buildings, hotels and coffee shops, ramping up its effort to stamp out all for-profit tutoring.

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

A fire tore through an overcrowded block in a jail in Indonesia's Banten province in the early hours of Wednesday, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens, a government spokeswoman and media reports said.

The Philippines yesterday reimposed a virus lockdown in the capital Manila, a day after announcing the lifting of stay-at-home orders for more than 13 million people.

A Vietnamese man has been sentenced to five years in jail for spreading Covid-19 after he breached home quarantine rules. Le

The United Nations appealed for almost $200 million in extra funding for life-saving aid in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover sparked a host of new issues.