Shamsia Alizada dropped out of the Madwdud Academy in Kabul after a suicide bomber killed more than 40 students. But she returned — and has scored top grades on the country's college entrance exams.

Shamsia Alizada, the daughter of a coal miner, has received the highest test score in Afghanistan's university admissions exam. She will attend medical school.

Some analysts think Kabul is holding out for a possible Joe Biden presidency before trying to strike any substantive deals with the Taliban.

Negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end 40 years of war will begin soon. But some say Afghan officials hope to delay talks until there's a new administration in Washington.

The Taliban and Afghan government agreed to halt fighting for three days during the upcoming Eid al-Adha, a move that could renew momentum toward negotiations.

Pakistani education officials are broadcasting lessons over a TV channel to keep kids learning. A public education channel was cobbled together just weeks after schools shut down in March.

They're speaking out and leading protests to learn the fate of fathers and brothers who are among the many hundreds of disappeared Pakistanis — most of them men. Are they making a difference?

Thousands of people in Pakistan have disappeared over the years — suspected militants, bloggers and others. Young women are speaking out over the disappearances of their fathers and brothers.

They are working harder than ever to keep up with the death toll from the novel coronavirus. "People bring their dead during the day and during the night," says a gravedigger named Abbas.

The attack occurred Monday morning as people were arriving for work. Unknown militants attacked the country's stock exchange in the commercial capital, Karachi.

Kabul's cemeteries are hiring more grave diggers and they're preparing burial spots in advance to deal with a rush of COVID-19 victims.

That's the perspective of Dr. Samar Fakhar, a surgeon at the government-run Khyber Teaching Hospital, as cases surge and tensions rise.

In Pakistan, angry families are attacking doctors and smashing hospitals as health care workers turn away coronavirus patients — saying their institutions are full.

Like many places, Pakistan has seen a surge in bike riding during the pandemic. But the face of cyclists is changing in this conservative society as women venture onto the roads.

A plane carrying around 100 people has crashed in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. It was only a few days ago, on May 15, that domestic flights were allowed to resume in the country.

Automated ventilators are expensive. Hand-operated ventilators require a lot of labor. So these teens are on a quest to create a mechanized bag-valve-mask that'll do the job.

There's a shortage of medical personnel and equipment in the war-torn country. Teenage girls are building a ventilator out of cheap car parts to help their country cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The assault in Kabul targets a maternity ward and shocks a country grimly accustomed to violence. And it isn't the only attack Tuesday as a suicide blast tears through a funeral in another province.

The Taliban accuse the government of spreading COVID-19 in prisons and warn of revenge if their prisoners are harmed. With prisoners on both sides at risk, peace efforts have become more complicated.

Some people in Pakistan hide COVID-19 symptoms, fearing stigma, and dying alone as a result. Others claim that the virus is fake and that doctors just kill patients.