Media Coverage

Some Afghan women employed by the United Nations have been detained, harassed, and had restrictions placed on their movement since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world body, the UN says. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers informed the UN early last month that Afghan women employed with...

The Taliban has not been invited to a United Nations-organized conference on Afghanistan in Doha, with the Afghan group governing the South Asian country saying that the two-day meeting would be “ineffective” without its participation. Envoys from the United States, China, and Russia, as well as...

Myanmar’s generals say they have pardoned more than 2,000 political prisoners to mark Wesak, a major Buddhist holiday. The Myanmar military has cracked down on its opponents with lethal force and detained thousands of people since seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a...

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously condemned a ban by the Taliban on Afghan women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, calling on Taliban leaders to “swiftly reverse” a crackdown on the rights of women and girls. The resolution—drafted by the United Arab Emirates and Japan...

Government and think tank representatives from Myanmar and its neighbors, including India and China, held talks in New Delhi on Tuesday as part of a secretive effort to de-escalate a bloody crisis in the army-run Southeast Asian nation, two sources said. The talks this week were the second in a...

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Myanmar’s ruling military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the country’s violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with the army leader who seized power two years ago. Ban met...

Myanmar’s military government on Monday granted amnesty to more than 3,000 prisoners to mark the traditional lunar New Year holiday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if those released included the thousands of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule. State-run MRTV television reported...

Human rights groups and opposition politicians in Thailand are criticizing the government for forcibly repatriating three men who were reportedly members of an anti-government resistance movement in military-ruled Myanmar. There has been serious fighting for the past two weeks in eastern Myanmar’s...

Afghan religious scholars Saturday criticized a ban on female education, as a key Taliban minister warned clerics not to rebel against the government on the controversial issue. Girls cannot go to school beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan, with the education ban extending to universities. Women are...

Fierce fighting between the Myanmar military and armed ethnic rebels has forced about 5,000 people to flee across the country's border into Thailand this week, officials and media said on Thursday. Myanmar's military government, which overthrew an elected government in a 2021 coup, is grappling with...