Taliban

Afghanistan's new rulers have asked for United Nations recognition so they can address the current General Assembly session. But the U.N. credentials committee is unlikely to move that quickly.

The Taliban beat him for being Hazara. He spent his life savings to smuggle his family to Turkey — climbing over its border wall — to find a community of Afghans that helps each other get settled.

Kabul's interim mayor did not give an exact number on just how many female employees would be forced to stay home because of the new rule. Previously about a third of city employees were women.

The Qatar Airways charter flight, which was the latest departure from the country now under Taliban control, also included seven U.S. permanent residents.

Dr. Wahid Majrooh tells NPR that "If I am hesitant and doubtful now it won't help anyone, and people in need of care will be the first to be affected."

"Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed," a senior Taliban official reportedly said.

The Taliban's ideology has distant links to India. Scholars say Afghanistan's new leaders might listen to clerics in the birthplace of Deobandi Islam, though the clerics deny ties with the Taliban.

Ali Nazary, the National Resistance Front's head of foreign relations, denies that the last holdout against the Taliban has fallen, calling such reports part of the "Taliban propaganda machine."

As when the Taliban last took power, the Panjshir Valley is the hub of resistance — and is led by a man named Massoud. This Massoud has no combat experience but is amassing allies and vows to fight.

Some Afghans are welcoming their new rulers, while many others remember the excesses of the harsh ideology the Taliban enforced when they last seized power in the 1990s.