Earthquake destroys villages and kills 800 people, with 2,500 injured

Desperate Afghans clawed through rubble in the dead of the night in search of missing loved ones after a strong earthquake killed some 800 people and

Pakistan, China and Afghanistan hold high-level meeting in Kabul to boost cooperation

Pakistan’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar (right), Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (center) and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in Kabul Top diplomats from Pakistan,China

Female tour guides lead women-only groups as some travelers return

They wandered through the museum, listening attentively as their guide explained the antiquities in display cabinets. It could have been any tour group, anywhere in theworld.

With no access to education beyond the 6th grade, girls turn to religious schools

For six hours every day after school, Nahideh works in a cemetery, collecting water from a nearby shrine to sell to mourners visiting loved ones’ graves. She

Travel ban may shut door for Afghan family to bring niece to US for a better life

Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end

The US lifts bounties on senior Taliban officials, including Haqqani, says Kabul

The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former

Afghan women cannot pray loudly or recite in front of other women

Afghan women are forbidden from praying loudly or reciting the Quran in front of other women, according to a Taliban government minister. It’s the latest restriction on

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns, the UN says

The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the U.N. said yesterday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of

UAE accepts credentials of Taliban ambassador in a major diplomatic win for rulers

The United Arab Emirates accepted the credentials of the Taliban’s ambassador to the oil-rich Gulf Arab state, the biggest diplomatic coup for Afghanistan’s rulers who are not

Washington needs to take historical responsibility for war-torn Afghanistan

Washington can’t shake off its responsibility of amending the damage it had caused to Afghanistan, a call made by the Afghan public and the international community for the

The Taliban are working to woo tourists to Afghanistan

Around 30 men are crammed into a Kabul classroom, part of the debut student cohort at a Taliban-run institute training tourism and hospitality professionals. It’s a

Senior Taliban officials visit villages struck by earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people

A senior Taliban delegation was visiting western Afghanistan’s Herat province yesterday in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people over the weekend

As mental health worsens among women, the UN is asked to declare ‘gender apartheid’

The U.N.’s most powerful body must support governments seeking to legally declare the intensifying crackdown by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on women and girls “gender apartheid,” the head

Afghanistan is the fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, UN drug agency says

Afghanistan is the world’s fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, a report from the United Nations drug agency said yesterday . The country is also a major opium producer and

The Taliban two years of rule: Women and girls pay the price

The Taliban have settled in as rulers of Afghanistan, two years after they seized power as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country following two decades

UN urges Taliban to end floggings, executions

A U.N. report on Monday strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power in Afghanistan, and called on the country’s

Taliban want control of more diplomatic missions

The Taliban government is trying to take charge of more Afghan embassies abroad, a spokesman said this weekend, amid their continued international isolation because of restrictions

Ruling Taliban display rare division in public over bans

A rare public show of division within the ranks of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban emerged in recent days when Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, a powerful government figure, gave

Islamic State group claims attack on hotel in Kabul

The militant Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a coordinated attack on a hotel in Afghanistan’s capital that left three assailants dead and at least two

Taliban arrest fashion model, say he ‘insulted’ Islam

The Taliban have arrested a well-known Afghan fashion model and three of his colleagues, accusing them of disrespecting Islam and the Quran, the Muslim holy book,

MACAU DAILY TIMES