Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesman said, as the U.S. and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The white banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban interim government, in a low-key ceremony, said Ahmadullah Muttaqi, multimedia branch chief of the Taliban’s cultural commission.

Beijing, Sep 10 (PTI) The Taliban have informed China that the ETIM militants from the volatile Xinjiang province who reportedly converged in Afghanistan have left the war-torn country after it told them to leave.

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Two hundred foreigners in Afghanistan, Americans among them, are set to depart on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation, a U.S. official said.

The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the Islamist militia seized the capital in mid-August, triggering the chaotic U.S.-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.

KABUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban said on Tuesday that Mullah Hassan Akhund was appointed as the prime minister of Afghanistan's caretaker government.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Abdul Salam Hanafi were named as the acting deputy prime ministers, while Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of the late Taliban co-founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, was appointed as the acting defense minister.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Tuesday announced an all-male interim government for Afghanistan stacked with veterans of their hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition, a move that seems unlikely to win the international support the new leaders desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown.

Sept 7 (Reuters) - The Taliban named Mullah Hasan Akhund, an associate of the movement's late founder Mullah Omar, as the head of Afghanistan's new government on Tuesday, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the movement's political office, as deputy.

Sarajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, will be the new interior minister, the Taliban's main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference in Kabul.

Sept 6 (Reuters) - Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom.

What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by foreign powers, who want the Islamist militant movement to respect the rights of women in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement.

KABUL, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said here on Monday that a new Afghan government will be announced in the next few days, after confirming that the group has taken over Panjshir, the only province that had remained out of Taliban's control.

Afghanistan might form a caretaker government as the preparation was underway to announce the new administration, Mujahid told a press conference.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban said on Monday they have taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their blitz across Afghanistan last month.

Thousands of Taliban fighters overran eight districts of Panjshir overnight, according to witnesses from the area who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, saying Panjshir was now under control of Taliban fighters.

Sept 5 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Sunday their forces had fought their way into the provincial capital of the Panjshir valley, their latest claim of progress in fighting against opposition forces holding out in the area north of Kabul.

There was no immediate response from the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), which groups opposition forces. It had said earlier the Taliban "propaganda machine" was trying to spread distracting messages and that it had pushed Taliban forces back from another part of the valley.