The top two US generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell in 2021 told lawmakers that the Biden administration inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.

Monday’s operation targeted the Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant faction, which claimed responsibility for the attack on a military outpost that left seven soldiers dead.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government publicly executed three convicted murderers in the past week at sports stadiums as thousands watched.

Herbert Fritz travelled to Afghanistan last year and published an article titled ‘Vacations with the Taliban’. He was arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of espionage.

Observers said the Taliban’s hopes that the completed project will become a link to China’s vast network are unlikely to be shared by Beijing.

There are no official laws about male guardianship in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have said women cannot move around or travel a certain distance without a man who is related to her by blood or marriage.

The development is the latest blow to Afghan women and girls, who are already reeling from bans on education, employment and access to public spaces.

The Nobel Prize winner says many are facing depression and turning to drugs and called for gender apartheid to be made a crime against humanity.

Facilities at the main northwestern border crossing of Torkham have been increased three times to cater for the rising number of returnees.

Pakistan says deportations protect its ‘welfare and security’, amid growing anti-Afghan sentiment from economic woes and cross-border militancy.

Islamabad has given hundreds of thousands of Afghans it says are living illegally in Pakistan until November 1 to leave voluntarily or face deportation, with the order coming amid a rise in attacks blamed on militants operating from Afghanistan.

Taliban’s acting minister for commerce and industry, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, will travel to Beijing, ministry spokesman tells Reuters, in move underscoring China’s growing ties with Kabul.

The UK ordered an inquiry last year after the BBC reported that soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances during the war in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013.

Two-thirds of those with severe injuries following the latest devastating earthquakes in Afghanistan are children and women, WHO’s Dr Alaa AbouZeid said.

Most foreign nations – including India – do not officially recognise Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which seized power following the collapse of the Western-backed government more than two years ago.

Afghan women have become increasingly isolated and restricted, often by male relatives tasked with upholding the Taliban’s decrees, the UN’s women chief told the Security Council.

Beijing is in the unusual position of maintaining an ambassador and embassy in a country ruled by a regime it does not officially recognise.

A report from the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crimes said the country is also a major opium producer and heroin source, even though the Taliban declared a war on narcotics in August 2021.

The mining contracts are the Taliban’s biggest such round of deals since seizing power two years ago.