A US military cargo plane, with the capacity to carry 150 people, evacuated some 640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday.

The United States must do more to ensure the safety of Afghan journalists as the county falls under the control of the Taliban, including facilitating safe passage out of the country and providing emergency visas, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

Malaysia's king met political party chiefs Tuesday as the hunt began for a new prime minister, a day after the last leader quit.

Taliban announced Tuesday an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule.

India today said it was pulling back its ambassador to Afghanistan and his Indian staff from Kabul as part of the emergency evacuation in view of the situation there.

Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul's airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the United States to pause evacuations, as President Joe Biden confronted mounting criticism over the US withdrawal.

The first of three German evacuation planes en route to Afghanistan has diverted to the Uzbek capital Tashkent after it could not land at Kabul airport, a German general said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia called on the Taliban and "all Afghan parties" on Monday to preserve lives and property, after the insurgents seized the capital Kabul.

Sri Lanka’s president yesterday demoted the health minister who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to battle Covid-19, as coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs.

The Indian government yesterday told the Supreme Court that there is “nothing to hide” in the Pegasus snooping allegations and it will constitute a committee of eminent experts to examine all aspects.

Kabul’s streets were deserted early yesterday, a day after Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital without a fight, but the airport was jammed with hundreds of civilians trying to flee.

A top doctor in China’s fight against the coronavirus is under investigation for plagiarism, weeks after making a social media post questioning the country’s zero-tolerance strategy to control the pandemic.

Malaysia’s Muhyiddin Yassin stepped down as prime minister yesterday after months of political turmoil culminated in the loss of his majority, but his resignation is likely to open another chapter of instability in the absence of any obvious successor.

The Taliban will offer support to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan more discreetly than during their first period in power when they openly embraced the terror network, analysts say.

Panic, chaos and confusion gripped Afghanistan yesterday after the Taliban took control of Kabul following a lightning offensive that saw the country fall to the insurgents virtually unopposed.  

Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi erupted yesterday, belching a cloud of ash into the air as red lava flowed down its crater.

Several charter flight companies have contacted Biman Bangladesh Airlines for its services to evacuate several thousand people, including Afghans who worked for the American troops, from war-torn Afghanistan. 

Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport Monday, so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said.

Russia's embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported.

Russia is in contact with Taliban officials via its embassy in Kabul, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan said on Monday, a day after the Afghan government collapsed and the capital fell to the Islamist insurgent group.