The Taliban government leader asked for international aid and access to about $10 billion in funds frozen after the insurgents took over the country in August. The UN is warning half the country could starve this winter.

Indian government forces have killed the head of a Pakistan-based militant group in Indian-administered Kashmir. Noor Mohammad Tantray, head in the Kashmir valley of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group, was killed in a gun battle after being trapped in a house near the city of Srinagar on Monday evening. The 47-year-old, a mere three feet tall, took over the group in Indian Kashmir in 2016.

Every morning in the Rwandan capital Kigali, long queues appear outside milk bars, where people come to socialise and unwind over large pints of ikivuguto, a fermented milk mixed with honey. Milk drinking became engrained in the country's culture as the result of a government policy initiated after the 1994 genocide to revive the economy and fight malnutrition. In 2006, the government set up the Girinka programme, in a bid to ensure that even the poorest families were able to afford a cow.

Authorities in Nigeria reject the conclusions of an independent report that found that security forces were behind the death of 11 people at an anti-police brutality protest last year. Also, South Africa's president calls for solidarity between countries in the face of travel bans following the discovery of the Omicron variant. And on World AIDS Day we take you to Kenya, where the prevalence of HIV has fallen drastically in the past two decades, but the fight against new infections remains a daily battle.

Citizens of Afghanistan were by far the biggest group of people applying for asylum in the EU, Switzerland and Norway in September 2021.

The SPD's Olaf Scholz, Germany's next chancellor, has presented his Cabinet ministers for the new government, to be sworn in on Wednesday. He offered a few surprises.

The leaders of the Social Democrats, Greens and the Free Democrats met in Berlin to officially sign their three-party coalition deal.

Brussels says the Belarusian government created the crisis by luring migrants with false promises. But some say Poland and the EU are ignoring human suffering.

Burkina Faso's Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabire has resigned amid an escalating security crisis that led to street protests calling for his ouster. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore accepted Dabire's letter of resignation on Wednesday.

Germany's "traffic light" coalition of SPD, Green Party, and FDP is taking power. Will the new government modernize the country? Guests: Derek Scally (Irish Times), Anna Lehmann (taz), Thomas Sparrow (DW)

The leader of the UK's opposition Labour party said on Sunday (December 12) that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had broken the public's trust over COVID-19 regulations, making him "unfit for public office." Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Keir Starmer said Johnson posed a risk to public health following reports that parties were held at Downing Street during a 2020 Christmas lockdown when such festivities were banned.

India was recently gripped by a controversy involving the family of one of its most famous actors, Shahrukh Khan. In October 2021, Khan's son was arrested for alleged narcotics consumption. But according to his lawyer, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. Many Indians believe the arrest was in fact orchestrated by India's Hindu nationalist government as a way of targeting the actor. In recent years, the government has become increasingly hostile towards some members of the country's powerful film industry. Our correspondents report.