"Afghanistan"

Afghanistan resumed pine nuts export to China in late October via air corridor and the first flight carried 45 tons of the seeds to the neighboring country, marking the first export from Afghanistan to China since Talibans takeover of the country.

According to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, Afghanistan resumed the export of pine nuts to China on Sunday.

LONDON - A group of LGBTQ Afghans who fled their home country have arrived in Britain, the first in a wave that London has said it will evacuate, as advocates warn they have received calls from hundreds more people who fear being persecuted for their sexual orientation and gender identity after the Taliban takeover.

Working as a porter at a market, 18-year-old Nazir said "poverty has gripped my life as I hardly earn 400 afghani currently, while a bag of 21.5-kg rice was 2,000 afghani a couple of months ago but today it is 2,500 afghani which is beyond the purchasing power of ordinary people."

Afghanistan is on the brink of a starvation crisis, with more than half its population - some 22.8 million people - projected to face acute food insecurity this winter, according to a study co-led by the United Nations World Food Program and its Food and Agriculture Organization.

"Languishing in other jails from Kandahar to Kabul the situation was tolerable, but in Bagram prison, in one word, I can say that no human rights had been respected. The detainees were tortured and insulted. It was extremely miserable that some detainees had eaten razor to end their lives given the inhuman treatment of the American soldiers," said former detainee Abdul Qadir Hijran.

Scores of families affected by latest terrorist attacks in two Afghan provinces have received humanitarian aid provided by Iran.

Where do we go from here? On quality-of-life issues pertaining to women and girls in Afghanistan, the world is now wondering.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the U.S. withdrawal agreement with the Taliban under Donald Trump, has resigned as special envoy to Afghanistan, effective Tuesday.

"If we do not act and help Afghans weather this storm, and do it soon, not only they but all the world will pay a heavy price," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.

KABUL - A bombing outside Kabul main mosque left at least two Afghan civilians dead and others wounded on Sunday, the Taliban said, the latest in a series of blasts apparently intended to undermine the militants ability to bring security to the capital and other cities.

Although the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has not resulted, so far, in the kind of massive refugee influx that Pakistan feared, thousands of refugees are still willing to brave harsh uncertainties in Balochistan’s remote lands to find their way, eventually, to safety in Iran or Europe. But what do they hope awaits them on the other side?