Politics

26 October 2025
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, seen in this file photo, said there had been no incidents of conflict in the four to five days since the agreement between Islamabad and Kabul, and both sides were complying with the truce.
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake in August brought shoddily built homes cascading down hillsides in eastern Afghanistan. (Photo by Aga Khan Development Network)
Natural disasters

Time running out for quake-hit Afghan region as winter nears

Humanitarians aim to 'build back better' but reconstruction faces acute funding shortage

19 October 2025
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks during a news conference in Kabul on Nov. 10, 2021.
International relations

Pakistan and Afghanistan agree to immediate ceasefire after Doha talks

Truce follows clashes that killed dozens, worst since Taliban seized power in 2021

19 October 2025
Afghan Taliban fighters sit next to an anti-aircraft gun near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
International relations

Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to temporary truce after fresh fighting

Clashes kill dozens over the weekend in worst fighting between neighbors since 2021

15 October 2025
People carry the Pakistani flag-draped coffin of a soldier, who died following overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, during a funeral in Kurram, a tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, on Oct. 12.
International relations

Pakistan's Afghan attacks expose its frustration with militants and others

Taliban 'closeness with India' proves final straw in sparking Islamabad action

15 October 2025
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is welcomed by an Indian official at New Delhi, Oct. 9. (Handout via Reuters)
International relations

India reopening embassy in Kabul, says foreign minister

Key announcement comes as Jaishankar meets Afghan Taliban's Muttaqi in Delhi

10 October 2025
Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, pictured here attending a conference in Tehran in December 2023. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
International relations

Taliban's 1st high-level India visit to send signals to US, China, Pakistan

Development comes after UN Security Council Committee grants exemption to travel ban

8 October 2025
The Taliban administration's order to cut internet and cell phone connections has hit air travel in Afghanistan.
Politics

Internet cutoff leaves Afghans stranded as flights cancelled

Chaos grows following Taliban order to cut connectivity

1 October 2025
Soldiers from the Pakistan Army following a militant attack in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan on Sept. 2. At least 19 Pakistani soldiers and 45 TTP militants were killed in multiple clashes earlier this month.
International relations

Pakistan urges Afghan Taliban to choose a side: Islamabad or militants

Warning comes after recent deadly clashes and China's failure in mediation

19 September 2025
Parked vehicles are seen at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan after U.S. troops vacated the site in 2021.
Trump administration

Trump dream of retaking Bagram might look like Afghan reinvasion: sources

Base in Taliban land could need 10,000 troops to reopen and protect from militants, Iran

19 September 2025
Taliban fighters and supporters ride on a pickup truck during celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the start of Taliban rule in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)
Opinion

Afghans are hungrier than ever after four years of Taliban rule

International recognition means little when millions face famine and malnutrition

1 September 2025
Trucks are seen at the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Oct. 30, 2023. (Photo by The Norwegian Refugee Council/Handout via Reuters)
International relations

Pakistan expels Afghan refugees despite thaw with Taliban

Islamabad introduces new 'refugee-free' policy to repatriate 1.4m people

14 August 2025
Kamal Ahmad, founder of the Asian University for Women, speaks about his commitment to women's education. (Photo by Yurika Yoneda)
Education

Asian University for Women founder envisions Afghan 'brain bank'

Education is tool 'for fighting inequality and injustice,' says Kamal Ahmad

6 July 2025
Some experts believe the cancelled contract will impact Sino-Afghan relations, but others say the two countries are bound by critical mutual interests. (Source photos by Reuters)
Economy

Taliban cancel oilfield deal with Chinese in Afghanistan's north

Kabul regime terminates first major investment project due to slow progress

25 June 2025
Pakistan has followed in China's lead in upgrading diplomatic ties with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by AP and Reuters)
International relations

Pakistan upgrades diplomatic ties to Afghanistan with China's push

Islamabad and Kabul agree to exchange ambassadors for the 1st time since 2021

4 June 2025
An Afghan man in his 30s who works as an engineer in Tokyo says he can't return home for ideological and ethnic reasons. (Photo by Tomoyo Ogawa)
Japan immigration

Volunteers in Japan help Afghan, other refugees resettle in country

Some who came to study and were unable to return are finding a new home

8 May 2025
A worker from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), along with a police officer, conducts a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in Afghan Camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 21, 2023. 
Opinion

Pakistan must rethink mass deportations of Afghans

Expelling refugees risks deepening a humanitarian crisis and fueling conflict

31 March 2025
Taliban members celebrate on the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul on a street near the U.S. embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2023.
Opinion

Why is India quietly boosting ties with Afghanistan's Taliban?

Shunning Kabul would virtually ensure less concern about anti-India terrorism

14 March 2025
A Cambodian environment activist holds a placard that reads "Justice is dead," after a court delivers a verdict against activists from the Cambodian environmental group Mother Nature in Phnom Penh in July 2024. 
Opinion

Justice is not for all in the Asia-Pacific

Equitable systems centered on the needs of people are urgently needed

21 February 2025
An Afghan flag flies at the Afghan Embassy in Moscow.
Opinion

Afghanistan's neighbors must back the Taliban to counter terror threats

Nation at risk of becoming a haven for groups seeking to wage jihad across the region

19 February 2025
Taliban fighters in Kabul celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan on Aug. 14, 2024.
Opinion

The Taliban might be running out of time in Afghanistan

The militant group is playing a dangerous game making an enemy of Islamabad

17 January 2025
Attacks in Pakistan by militants including members of the Tehreek Taliban Pakistan -- the Pakistani Taliban -- claimed the lives of nearly 600 civilians and almost 750 security personnel in 2024, making it the deadliest year in a decade for the country. (Nikkei montage/Source photo by Getty Images)
Policy Asia

Pakistani-Afghan conflict fears grow as border clashes multiply

Hopes for resolution fade as Islamabad claims Taliban harboring Pakistani militants

17 January 2025
Pakistani security officials inspect the scene of a blast at a railway station in Quetta, the provincial capital of restive Balochistan province,  on Nov. 9. (Photo by EPA/Jiji)
Terrorism

Pakistan marks deadliest year in a decade as militant attacks soar

Government battling Islamist threat and separatist insurgency in restive province

19 December 2024
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, shakes hands with Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan's Taliban movement Amir Khan Muttaqi during a meeting in Moscow on Oct. 4.
Opinion

U.S. must act on Afghanistan to slow China's and Russia's gains

Beijing and Moscow are engaging with Taliban rulers for security, resources

31 October 2024
Amir Khan Muttaqi, left, Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister, shakes hands with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Oct. 4. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
International relations

Russia to remove Taliban from terrorist list as IS threat rises

Moscow's move also comes as Putin seeks a counterbalance to the West

7 October 2024
Afghanistan's embassy in London is set to cease operations after its diplomats refused to work with the Taliban.
Afghanistan turmoil

Taliban locked in showdown with Afghanistan's old-guard diplomats

U.K. embassy set to close this week as militant group squeezes 'renegade' missions

26 September 2024
Women protesters in Kabul in 2022. The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 with their ultra-strict brand of Islam.
Afghanistan turmoil

Afghan women 'brace for worst' as Taliban tighten morality laws

Ban on women's voices in public blasted as 'intolerable' by U.N. rights chief

3 September 2024
A woman dresses her child at a hospital in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in March 2023. Since taking over in 2021, Taliban authorities have barred women from universities and most charity jobs, but they have made exemptions in the healthcare sector.
Opinion

U.N. must focus on improving lives of suffering Afghans

Dialogue may persuade Taliban to accept goals within its hard-line ideology

26 August 2024
A general view of Mes Aynak valley is seen some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Commodities

Taliban and Chinese partner restart copper project, reigniting worries

Pollution of nearby area, destruction of relics feared in Mes Aynak development

18 August 2024
Taliban patrol as a burqa-clad woman walks on a street in Kabul on Oct. 3, 2021. The militant group has enforced strict dress codes since retaking power three years ago.
Afghanistan turmoil

Taliban dress code tightens cord around Afghan women, and men

Western apparel makers forced to adapt after group's return three years ago

15 August 2024