The Afghanistan Cricket Board urged the Australian government "not to impose its policies on cricket boards" and "focus on supporting the development of cricket". But under the Taliban government's brand of Islamic rule, women are effectively barred from the game, as part of a raft of restrictions on women in...

Kabul, Afghanistan--Twenty-one people were killed and 38 injured on Sunday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province when a bus collided with an oil tanker and a motorbike, provincial officials said. Deadly traffic accidents are common in the country, due in part to poor roads, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of...

“Today’s frameworks to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment ring hollow in the face of the war on Gaza, which is killing Palestinian women and girls. Our commitment to the promotion and protection of women and girls worldwide must extend to them, too,” she adds.

The UN has extended an invitation to the Taliban authorities to participate in the Doha convention, following their exclusion from the first meeting in May. A senior diplomatic source told AFP the Taliban government had said it will only if they are the sole representative of Afghanistan at the convention...

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is expected to win the most seats in Thursday's vote, with analysts saying its 74-year-old founder Nawaz Sharif has won the blessing of the generals. Outside a polling station in Islamabad, 22-year-old psychology student Haleema Shafiq said she was determined to vote.

"The presence of US forces in our region has no justification," Raisi said in a Tehran ceremony ahead of the 45th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution on February 12.

Once flush with humanitarian aid following the US-led invasion of the country, funding to Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban returned to power in mid-2021, in part over the many restrictions imposed on women. The poorest are left with distressing choices: fall into debt, take their kids out of school...

Since 2021, France says it has handed over 15,000 visa to Afghans, "mostly women, rights defenders, journalists and magistrates". But Delphine Rouilleault, the head of the France Terre d'Asile ("France Land of Asylum") association, said that hardly anyone had landed in France over the past year.

Last month flydubai, another low-cost Emirati airline, became the first international carrier to resume flights to Afghanistan since the chaotic withdrawal of US forces in 2021. Apart from flydubai, Afghanistan's Kam Air and Ariana Afghan Airlines currently operate limited services from Kabul to destinations including Dubai, Moscow, Islamabad and Istanbul.

The agency said the funding would allow it to reach 17.3m children in need of measles vaccinations, 7.6m children with acute malnutrition, and 19.3m children lacking access to education. At the same time, the United Nations Population Fund called for $1.2bn in funding "to address the mounting crises affecting women...

Most foreign nations -- including India -- do not officially recognize Afghanistan's Taliban government but acknowledge them as the de facto ruling authority. This has left many Afghan embassies and consulates in limbo, with diplomats appointed by the former government refusing to cede control of embassy buildings and property to...

Commercial traffic ground to a halt Tuesday when Pakistan began requiring the crew of commercial vehicles to have passports and visas to enter, and Afghanistan responded by refusing to allow any trucks to pass. Long-fraught relations between Kabul and Islamabad have worsened since October, when Pakistan announced plans to deport...

In Geneva, the second-largest UN headquarters after New York, the UN flag on Monday flew at half-mast and none of the other flags of the 193 member countries were hoisted along the main alley of the compound.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said the explosion occurred in the capital's Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood -- an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community. The Islamic State (IS) group later claimed the attack -- its second targeting the Shiite neighborhood in a matter of weeks.

The UNODC warned of potential "humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities" due to the sudden contraction of Afghanistan's opium economy, as growers have had to turn to far less lucrative alternative crops. Farmers' incomes, estimated at $1.36 billion in 2022, have fallen by 92 percent to $110 million this...

According to the United States Geological Survey, the quake occurred at a shallow depth at around 05:10 am local time with its epicentre about 29 kms north of Herat. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.3, hit an area where about 1,000 people were killed after a series of similar...

Kashkak, Afghanistan--Afghan villagers and volunteers on Monday helped dig for survivors of a series of earthquakes that killed more than 2,000 people, as aid began trickling into the devastated region. Volunteers in trucks packed with food, tents and blankets flocked to hard-to-reach areas 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of Herat city,...

An AFP reporter saw dozens of homes ruined near the epicenter of the quakes, which shook the area for more than five hours. Men shovelled through piles of crumbled masonry as women and children waited in the open, with gutted homes displaying personal belongings flapping in the harsh wind.

Most foreign nations -- including India -- do not officially recognize Afghanistan's Taliban government but acknowledge them as the de facto ruling authority. This has left many Afghan embassies and consulates in limbo, with diplomats appointed by the former government refusing to cede control of embassy buildings and property to...

Afghanistan will compete in 15 sports in Hangzhou, the country's first Asian Games since the Taliban seized power in 2021. The Games, the biggest in history and boasting more competitors than the Olympics, open on Saturday after a delay of a year because of China's zero-Covid policy, since abandoned.

The closed-door meeting was one of the highest-level known gatherings of US and Afghan government officials in months, with the Washington team headed by Special Representative Thomas West and Kabul's by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The US statement did not, however, identify the Afghan representatives -- describing them only...

Clashes broke out between Iranian and Taliban forces at the border between the two countries, Iranian police said without reporting casualties, amid a water dispute between the two neighbors. State news agency IRNA quoted deputy head of the police force Qassem Rezaee as saying that Taliban forces started shooting at...

Iran said it "reserves" the right to take action as a dispute with Afghanistan escalates over an upstream river dam that restricts the flow of water into the country. "Iran reserves its rights to take necessary measures and emphasizes the full responsibility of Afghanistan in this regard," the foreign ministry...

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia--The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group has signed 77 financing agreements worth $5.4 billion with 24 member countries during its annual meeting in Jeddah. The four-day event hosted dozens of agreements, panels, summits, and business-to-business meetings with the high-level participation of its member countries. The agreements aim to...

Envoys from the United States, China and Russia as well as major European aid donors and key neighbors such as Pakistan are among representatives from about 25 countries and groups called to the two days of talks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The Taliban government has not been invited.

Seeking a "durable way forward" for the war-scarred Afghanistan, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is convening an international meeting in May. The closed-door gathering will feature special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries who aim to "clarify expectation" on concerns including the Taliban authorities' restrictions on women.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released on Tuesday a stark new assessment of 2022 data estimating 34 million Afghans were living below the poverty line. The figure is a staggering increase of 15 million on 2020, the last full year of rule by the Western-backed government that crumbled in...

The Taliban authorities ordered all NGOs in December to stop employing Afghan women after receiving "serious complaints" that women employees were not observing a proper Islamic dress code. Many NGOs suspended their entire operations in the country in protest after the ban was announced, piling further misery on Afghanistan's citizens,...

Abu Dhabi, UAE--The UAE has dispatched a plane carrying 38 tonnes of urgent medical and food supplies to Afghanistan to meet the needs of thousands of Afghan families affected by earthquakes that recently struck northeastern Afghanistan. The earthquakes resulted in numerous deaths and injuries and destroyed basic infrastructure. The provision...

NEW YORK, US - The United Nations Security Council Friday unanimously adopted two resolutions tabled by the UAE and Japan about Afghanistan. The first resolution will extend the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for an additional 12 months, enabling it to continue its work on...

The university ban is one of several restrictions imposed on women since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 and has sparked global outrage -- including across the Muslim world. The international community has made the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid...

The crossing was closed last Sunday by Afghan authorities, who objected to what they said were new documentation rules restricting people assisting medical patients from entering Pakistan. It was the first time the Torkham boundary had been officially closed since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan 18 months ago.

Kabul, Afghanistan-- Qatar has renewed its pledge to Afghanistan to help the war-ravaged country in fields of education, development, politics, and economy. This was reiterated in a meeting between the visiting Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Counterterrorism and Mediation in Conflict Resolution Dr. Mutlaq bin Majed...

"It is unfair that many developing countries are demanded not to develop their special resources and to be independent in the field of energy, while they are still in need of development. Many countries see that rich nations are requesting them to stop developing their oil resources," he adds.

"No country can develop -- indeed survive -- socially and economically with half its population excluded," Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

In Afghanistan, hundreds of earthquake-resilient concrete homes, many built by local laborers with the support of the United Nations refugee agency, have now been handed over to survivors who were until now living in makeshift tent cities.

National Geographic's "Retrograde" follows an Afghan general who tried in vain to hold back the Taliban advance in summer 2021, while Netflix's "In Her Hands" tells the story of the country's youngest female mayor, who had to flee as the Talib took over.

United Nations, US—Reiterating their pledge to continue providing aid to Afghanistan, Qatar and Kuwait have said they will continue to work with international relief organizations in order to ensure food security for the country. Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani, UN Permanent Representative of Qatar, said at a UN General...

More than a year after it took power, Taliban has failed to curb opium poppy cultivation in the country as production and exports have boomed. According to the UN's drugs agency the poppy cultivation has gone up by a third despite the Taliban's ban in April on the cultivation.

Hundreds of students were taking tests training for university admission, and the United Nations said at least 35 were killed and another 82 wounded, with most of the casualties being girls and young women.

The analysis, "Hunger in a heating world," found that acute hunger had risen 123 percent over six years in the ten most-affected nations, defined by the most number of UN weather appeals. "The effects of severe weather events are already being felt," Lia Lindsey, Oxfam America's senior humanitarian policy advisory...

Mujahid's comments came less than a month after US President Joe Biden announced the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul.

The economists said that the plunge in economic activity and the sharp cuts to foreign aid by previous supporters of the country after the US military withdrawal had sent the Afghan economy into a tailspin.

Last year, this week, the Taliban launched a final offensive to win back control of the country they ran between 1996 and 2001.

The UAE has sent three planes carrying a 1,000 sqm field hospital, which includes 75 beds and two operating rooms equipped with the latest medical supplies and devices, to offer relief to earthquake victims in Afghanistan.

Talks between the United States and the Taliban continued in Doha earlier this week to discuss earthquake aid, the State Department said Friday, months after the two parties last meet in the Qatari capital in March.

The United States and the Taliban plan talks Thursday in Qatar on unlocking some of Afghanistan's reserves following a devastating earthquake, officials said, with Washington seeking ways to ensure the money goes to help the population.

An estimated 2,000 homes have been destroyed by the deadly earthquake in Afghanistan, and a lack of machinery is hampering a rush to find survivors, a UN envoy said Wednesday. The earthquake struck a remote border region of Afghanistan overnight killing at least 1,000 people and injuring hundreds more, with...

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

The crackle of gunfire. A gasp of a stranger. Explosions rumbling in the distance. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, such sounds would normally prompt panic.