A 48-hour ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan took hold late Wednesday, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in fresh cross-border skirmishes earlier in the day.

Afghanistan's government said on Thursday that Russia had become the first country to officially recognise its rule, calling it a "brave decision".

Kabul, Afghanistan - Since the start of the school year in March, Afghan boys have been required to wear new uniforms of turbans and long tunics, following an order to adopt outfits reflecting Taliban rule. The Taliban government's education ministry cites strengthening discipline, masking social inequalities and promoting what the...

Kabul, Afghanistan - Pakistan air strikes in an eastern border province of Afghanistan killed 46 people, the Taliban government spokesman told AFP on Wednesday. "Last night (Tuesday), Pakistan bombarded four points in the Barmal district of Paktika province. The total number of dead is 46, most of whom were children and...

It became just the second country after China to do so. The UAE said it was committed to "building bridges" to help the Afghan people, after the Kabul foreign ministry announced on social media that new ambassador Mawlawi Badruddin Haqqani had been received in a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

“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...

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.

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...

Paris, France -- The emirate of Qatar has further boosted its status as a specialist power in resolving delicate hostage situations by using its influence to help secure the release of hostages by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Analysts say Qatar has honed a careful balancing act, allowing it to marry warm...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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 Taliban authorities claim to have improved security since storming back to power in August 2021 but there have been scores of bomb blasts and attacks, many claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group.

"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.

"A meeting of Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is scheduled later today to consult and discuss how to tackle this issue," Tapiwa Gomo, public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP.

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.

Taliban officials have maintained that they are looking to strike trade deals with the international community, and have so far received oil and gas from neighboring Iran. The government has not yet been recognized by any country, but Russia has maintained bilateral ties with Taliban since before they seized power...

The NGO cited numerous cases of "unlawful killings, pushbacks by shooting and other unlawful returns, arbitrary detention, and torture and other ill-treatment of Afghans at the hands of both Iranian and Turkish officials."

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.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares was at Madrid's Torrejon de Ardoz airbase to meet them when the flight from Islamabad landed at Madrid's Torrejon de Ardoz airbase at around 10:15 pm (2015 GMT). The government would now work "to help these people to integrate, given that it will be difficult...

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

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.

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.

Chad rebels due to take part in landmark talks with opposition groups and the military government on Saturday threatened to pull out citing "provocations and attempted aggression" by the government.

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.

The Taliban have tasked a United Arab Emirates firm with the security screening of passengers and luggage at Afghan airports, officials said, as the country seeks to expand international flights. While some domestic and international flights are operating out of the capital's only airport, significant support is needed for major...

A United Arab Emirates company signed a contract with the Taliban authorities Tuesday to provide ground handling services at Afghanistan's three airports, officials said, as the country seeks to resume international transit. Capital Kabul's only airport was trashed in August when tens of thousands of people rushed to evacuate as...

More than one million Afghans have sought refuge in Iran since the Taliban returned to power in August, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA.

The Taliban on Saturday imposed one of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan's women since seizing power, ordering them to wear the all-covering burqa in public. The militants took back control of the country in August last year, promising a softer rule than their last stint in power between 1996 and...

One of the Taliban's most secretive leaders, whose only picture on US "most wanted" lists is a grainy semi-covered profile, was photographed openly for the first time Saturday at a passing-out parade for new Afghan police recruits.

The objective of the new aid provided by World Bank is to "protect vulnerable Afghans and help preserve human capital and key economic and social services."

Afghanistan's main universities reopened Saturday six months after the Taliban returned to power, but only a trickle of women returned to now-segregated classes.

The decree implemented on an "emergency" basis took effect on Friday based on a 'request' of a former government of Afghanistan that no longer exists.

The Taliban on Tuesday declared February 15 a national holiday to mark the anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan -- six months after they stormed into Kabul to topple the US-backed government.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, a key member of the Taliban leadership, met in Doha with ambassadors from the six-nation GCC on the first full day of his latest mission.