A photo shows more than 600 Afghans -- women, men, children and the elderly -- sitting packed on the floor of a cavernous US military plane, part of a dramatic airlift hours after Kabul fell to the Taliban. 

Regional powers will see their influence increase dramatically in Afghanistan as the US executes a hasty, haphazard withdrawal and the Taliban return to power after 20 years.  

Four more Bangladeshis were found stranded in Afghanistan, two days after the commercial flights were suspended as the airport in Kabul turned chaotic with thousands of foreigners and Afghans scrambling to leave after the Taliban’s capture of the country Sunday.

The Taliban gave the first indication on Tuesday since coming to power that they would not make the full burqa compulsory for women as they did when they last ruled Afghanistan.

A UN human rights expert warned of “cultural disaster” in Afghanistan after Kabul fell to Taliban forces, and urged states to provide urgent assistance to human rights defenders, including those working on women’s and cultural rights, as well as artists trying to flee the country.

Taliban has pledged cooperation with media within the cultural framework in their first press briefing after taking over.

Iran's embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul remains open and fully active, state media reported on Tuesday, a day after Tehran welcomed the "military failure" of its arch-foe the United States as it withdraws its forces from Afghanistan.

A US military cargo plane, with the capacity to carry 150 people, evacuated some 640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday.

The United States must do more to ensure the safety of Afghan journalists as the county falls under the control of the Taliban, including facilitating safe passage out of the country and providing emergency visas, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.

Taliban announced Tuesday an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule.

India today said it was pulling back its ambassador to Afghanistan and his Indian staff from Kabul as part of the emergency evacuation in view of the situation there.

Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul's airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the United States to pause evacuations, as President Joe Biden confronted mounting criticism over the US withdrawal.

The first of three German evacuation planes en route to Afghanistan has diverted to the Uzbek capital Tashkent after it could not land at Kabul airport, a German general said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia called on the Taliban and "all Afghan parties" on Monday to preserve lives and property, after the insurgents seized the capital Kabul.

Panic, chaos and confusion gripped Afghanistan yesterday after the Taliban took control of Kabul following a lightning offensive that saw the country fall to the insurgents virtually unopposed.  

Several charter flight companies have contacted Biman Bangladesh Airlines for its services to evacuate several thousand people, including Afghans who worked for the American troops, from war-torn Afghanistan. 

Sri Lanka’s president yesterday demoted the health minister who publicly endorsed sorcery and magic potions to battle Covid-19, as coronavirus infections and deaths hit record highs.

Kabul’s streets were deserted early yesterday, a day after Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital without a fight, but the airport was jammed with hundreds of civilians trying to flee.

The Taliban will offer support to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan more discreetly than during their first period in power when they openly embraced the terror network, analysts say.

Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport Monday, so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said.