Women from a taekwondo team in Herat call for the Taliban not to 'obstruct the path of girls' as they display their medals in the city in western Afghanistan. The Taliban's all-male government has shut down the ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety for enforcing religious doctrine during the hardliners' 1996-2001 stint in power. The Taliban's all-male government has shut down the ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety for enforcing religious doctrine during the hardliners' 1996-2001 stint in power.

Every weekend, fighters from around Afghanistan gather on a public field in the capital to pit their skills against each other in a sport that is a mix of judo and wrestling.

Yahya (not real name) who identifies as gay and a non-conforming person, left the relative safety of their Kabul home just three times in six weeks after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital. Yahya says. "If anyone identifies us, our lives will be under threat. We're just inside our rooms, praying nothing bad happens to us."

Courting controversy at the outset of his third term, Albanian PM Edi Rama has set up a new state agency for media and information, or MIA. Skeptics decry it as a "propaganda ministry."

More than 9,000 people are stranded at military bases in Ramstein and Kaiserslautern. Washington suspended flights when measles were detected among evacuees landing in the US.

A black and white Taliban flag flies over the blown-up statue of a revered Hazara chief at the entrance to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. Since the radical Islamists swept to power seven weeks ago, they have repeatedly promised a more moderate, inclusive brand of rule than during their last stint, when minorities were brutally persecuted. But members of the Hazara community here don't believe them.

The European Commission says a request from the UNHCR to resettle 42,500 Afghans in the next five years is "doable" but down to individual EU member states.

Reached by narrow dirt roads, the Tangi Saidan clinic is alone in offering surgery in the remote area, with local Taliban leaders allowing some flexibility in the movement's rules on the segregation of the sexes.

While tourists have long been able to mingle freely unofficially at parties in and around Jeddah, known as Saudi Arabia's most open-minded city, Saudis were confined to single-sex beaches. But now, four years into a reform drive aimed at improving the country's image and creating new opportunities for its oil-reliant economy, they are enjoying more freedoms.

Before the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan, Kabul was a city with a vibrant nightlife and arts scene. But since then, there has been a radical transformation. Thousands of longtime Taliban fighters have poured into the capital, now working in round-the-clock security patrols. Meanwhile, financial disputes and quarrels between neighbours are being settled by Islamic judges. FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent and Roméo Langlois report from Kabul.

The Murat 729, carrying 400 mostly Afghan migrants and refugees, sent a distress signal after its engines failed. Turkey failed to respond to a request to take back the vessel, despite a 2016 EU deal worth billions.

Rights groups say hundreds of Afghans fled to neighboring Uzbekistan to escape the Taliban. But, without official refugee status in the Central Asian country, they are vulnerable and could face deportation.