Four student leaders from Hong Kong’s top university were arrested yesterday for “advocating terrorism”, police said.

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday wrote “I fear for my Afghan sisters” in an op-ed published in The New York Times in the wake of the Taliban’s stunning takeover.

Haibatullah Akhundzada was appointed leader of the Taliban in a swift power transition after a US drone strike killed his predecessor, Mullah Mansour Akhtar, in 2016.

Afghanistan may be governed by a ruling council now that the Taliban has taken over, while the Islamist militant movement's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would likely remain in overall charge, a senior member of the group told Reuters.

Afghans who arrived in Germany on Wednesday described chaotic and terrifying scenes at Kabul airport before they were evacuated to safety and said they feared for lives of loved ones they left behind.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf state's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after he left as Taliban fighters seized control.

The United States, European Union and 19 other countries on Wednesday released a statement calling on people in authority in Afghanistan to guarantee the protection of women and girls in the country, as fears mount that the Taliban will use its recently won power to disempower thousands.

At least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured after Taliban militants opened fire during protests against the group in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters.

More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, a Western security official told Reuters on Wednesday, as efforts gathered pace to get people out after the Taliban seized the capital.

Myanmar's security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi from power six months ago, an advocacy group said on Wednesday.

Girls wearing white hijabs and black tunics crammed into classrooms in the western Afghan city of Herat just days after the Taliban's takeover.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan with astonishing speed, but it appears unlikely that it will prove equally as fast in gaining control of most of the Afghan central bank's roughly $10 billion in assets.

The US Air Force said on Tuesday that it was investigating the circumstances surrounding human remains that were found in the wheel well of one of its C-17s that flew out of Kabul amid the chaos of the Taliban taking over the Afghan capital.

The EU will only cooperate with the Taliban if they respect fundamental rights, including those of women, and prevent the use of Afghanistan's territory by terrorists, the bloc's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

The Taliban held their first official news conference in Kabul yesterday since the shock seizure of the city, declaring they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law as evacuation flights resumed after a day of chaos. 

Foreign relations analysts fear long-term instability and a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the Taliban takes control of the country following the withdrawal of US forces, with its repercussions felt in the entire region.

Rohingya refugees expelled from Myanmar in a bloody crackdown were set to testify in a court in Argentina for the first time yesterday to urge a full judicial investigation into allegations of war crimes committed against them.

The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan poses a new challenge for big US tech companies on handling content created by a group considered to be terrorists by some world governments.

Malaysia’s king asked leaders from different parties to work together to address the economic and health woes facing the country, as he yesterday began a search to replace Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister. 

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Afghanistan on Sunday,  is in Oman after Tajikistan denied landing yesterday.