Taliban Rule In Afghanistan

The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada showed up Friday at a major gathering of clerics in the Afghan capital called to rubber-stamp the hardline Islamist group's rule over the country.

The Centre has sent a team of foreign ministry officials to Afghanistan's capital of Kabul for talks with senior members of the ruling Taliban, the ministry said on Thursday, the first such meeting since the chaotic USwithdrawal last year.

In another new decree on Thursday, the Taliban directed all-female presenters working on all TV channels to cover their faces while presenting programs.

Haqqani also said that the Taliban regime is seeking "good relations with the US and the international community."

The UN Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss an order by Afghanistan's Taliban for women to cover their faces in public, a return to a signature policy of the Islamist group's past hardline rule and an escalation of restrictions.

The United States will take steps to increase pressure on Afghanistan's Taliban government to reverse some of its recent decisions restricting the rights of women and girls if the hardline group shows no sign of rescinding the actions on its own.

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has expressed fear for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban issued a decree making the hijab compulsory for women in Afghanistan.

Taliban forces have arrested a suspected ISIS militant who planned a bomb attack that killed at least 12 worshippers at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan, police said on Friday.

The World Bank has put four projects in Afghanistan worth $600 million on hold amid concerns over a decision by the country's ruling Islamist leaders to ban girls from returning to public high schools, the bank said.

US President Joe Biden called on the Taliban Sunday to "immediately release" the man believed to be its last American hostage, withholding any hope of recognizing the militants' rule in Afghanistan until he is free.

A small Australian medical consulting firm got caught up in an unexpected publicity storm on Thursday after being wrongly named as agreeing with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to bankroll a $450 million hashish processing plant in Central Asian country

The US government will streamline immigration procedures for recent Afghan arrivals to speed up their resettlement in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.

Hundreds of female judges in Afghanistan live in fear and anonymity after the Taliban took control of the country in August, a media report said.

The vast majority of Afghan girls continue to be barred from attending secondary school, leading some Afghan teens to believe there is "no hope in Afghanistan" for women to pursue careers.

The International Criminal Court on Friday said it cannot rule on a prosecutor's request to resume a war crimes investigation of Afghanistan until it can decide who represents the country in international bodies.

The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada showed up Friday at a major gathering of clerics in the Afghan capital called to rubber-stamp the hardline Islamist group's rule over the country.

The Centre has sent a team of foreign ministry officials to Afghanistan's capital of Kabul for talks with senior members of the ruling Taliban, the ministry said on Thursday, the first such meeting since the chaotic USwithdrawal last year.

In another new decree on Thursday, the Taliban directed all-female presenters working on all TV channels to cover their faces while presenting programs.

Haqqani also said that the Taliban regime is seeking "good relations with the US and the international community."

The UN Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss an order by Afghanistan's Taliban for women to cover their faces in public, a return to a signature policy of the Islamist group's past hardline rule and an escalation of restrictions.

The United States will take steps to increase pressure on Afghanistan's Taliban government to reverse some of its recent decisions restricting the rights of women and girls if the hardline group shows no sign of rescinding the actions on its own.

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has expressed fear for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban issued a decree making the hijab compulsory for women in Afghanistan.

Taliban forces have arrested a suspected ISIS militant who planned a bomb attack that killed at least 12 worshippers at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan, police said on Friday.

The World Bank has put four projects in Afghanistan worth $600 million on hold amid concerns over a decision by the country's ruling Islamist leaders to ban girls from returning to public high schools, the bank said.

US President Joe Biden called on the Taliban Sunday to "immediately release" the man believed to be its last American hostage, withholding any hope of recognizing the militants' rule in Afghanistan until he is free.

A small Australian medical consulting firm got caught up in an unexpected publicity storm on Thursday after being wrongly named as agreeing with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to bankroll a $450 million hashish processing plant in Central Asian country

The US government will streamline immigration procedures for recent Afghan arrivals to speed up their resettlement in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.

Hundreds of female judges in Afghanistan live in fear and anonymity after the Taliban took control of the country in August, a media report said.

The vast majority of Afghan girls continue to be barred from attending secondary school, leading some Afghan teens to believe there is "no hope in Afghanistan" for women to pursue careers.

The International Criminal Court on Friday said it cannot rule on a prosecutor's request to resume a war crimes investigation of Afghanistan until it can decide who represents the country in international bodies.