South Asia

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan did little to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan. Anita Powell reports from the White House on how President Biden, fresh from a historic meeting with India’s leader, is approaching relations with the two South Asian rivals.  

For weeks since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August, many Afghans had been wondering if the militants would resume meting out public punishments of the sort that made them notorious during their first rule in the 1990s. On Saturday, they got an answer.  In the western Afghan city …

Afghanistan will not address the U.N. General Assembly, in the wake of the Taliban takeover and potential competing claims of representation at the world body.   A U.N. spokesperson said they were informed by email on Saturday that they were withdrawing. Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai had originally been scheduled to speak on …

As some 100 American citizens are still waiting to leave Afghanistan, the State Department said Monday that the biggest hurdle to their evacuation remains the “unpredictability” of the Taliban. “The biggest constraint to the departure of our citizens and others from Afghanistan, of course, remains the Taliban’s unpredictability, regarding who …

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Monday asked the tribunal for permission to resume a war crimes investigation into the actions of the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan in Afghanistan.  The ICC had spent 15 years investigating alleged war crimes in war-torn Afghanistan, but the probe …

Thousands of farmers in India blocked highways and rail tracks on Monday to give renewed momentum to their months-long demand for scrapping agricultural laws that have triggered the country’s longest farm protest and presented a political challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  The nationwide protest, or “bharat bandh,” was held …

Afghanistan’s Taliban government Sunday asked foreign airlines to resume commercial flights to and from Kabul, saying problems at the capital city’s airport had been resolved and the facility “is fully operational.”    The Islamist group regained control of the war-torn country in mid-August following the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan …

The Taliban hanged a body from a crane parked in a city square in Afghanistan on Saturday in a gruesome display that signaled the hardline movement’s return to some of its brutal tactics of the past. Taliban officials initially brought four bodies to the central square in the western city …

International recognition of the Taliban “at the present juncture is not on the table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday at the United Nations. Among the Taliban’s promises are ensuring an inclusive government; respecting human rights, especially for women; and preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for terrorists. But the …

Thousands of people demonstrated in cities across Italy on Saturday to support Afghan women and demand continued international pressure on the country’s Taliban leaders to let women participate in the educational and political life of the country.  Among the groups organizing the protests were members of the Pangea Foundation, which …