Pashtun people

This handout picture provided by the UAE Presidential Court shows UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (R) meeting with a delegation of Afghan's ruling Taliban administration including interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani (2nd-R) at al-Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi on June 3, 2024.

In a chilling display of authority, the Taliban carried out a double public execution at a stadium in southeastern Afghanistan, shocking thousands of spectators who witnessed the killing of two convicted individuals.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government has said it signed seven mining contracts amounting to $6.5 billion in investment, in the biggest such round of deals since seizing power two years ago.

The seven contracts are with locally based companies, many of whom have foreign partners in countries including China, Iran, and Türkiye.

Funerals are being held across Pakistan, and the government has vowed to catch those behind the deadly attack, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.

In a madrassa in the Afghan capital, rows of teenage girls rock back and forth reciting verses of the Koran under the watchful eye of a religious scholar.

The number of Islamic schools has grown across Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, with teenage girls increasingly attending classes after they were banned from secondary schools.

Clashes between Pakistan's police and supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan persisted for a second day outside his home in the eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday, a day after officers went to arrest him for failing to appear in court on graft charges.

Pakistani police have filed terrorism charges against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, authorities said Monday, escalating political tensions in the country as the ousted premier holds mass rallies seeking to return to office.

Pakistan's political opposition ousted the country's embattled prime minister in a no-confidence vote early Sunday, which they won after several of Imran Khan's allies and a key coalition party deserted him.

The Turkish ambassador to Qatar met on on Sept. 23 the acting deputy foreign minister of Taliban administration in Afghanistan, the Turkish Embassy in Doha said.