A U.S.-backed conference with the Taliban and Afghan government was derailed, raising doubts about progress toward a negotiated settlement to end decades of war in Afghanistan.

Afghans are coming forward to describe past alleged killings by Australian forces, as the Australian government launches investigations into its troops' suspected war crimes in Afghanistan.

President Biden's announcement for U.S. and foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 appears to have derailed the peace process that was meant to wind down the conflict in that country.

Months after an Australian army inquiry acknowledged potential war crimes were committed in Afghanistan by members of its elite forces, more Afghan victims are coming forward to demand justice.

As President Biden faces a decision on whether to withdraw troops from the country, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went to tour the region himself in a visit to the capital of Kabul.

Journalist Fatima Roshanian has faced threats before, but she and many other Afghans say the risk to their lives is more serious than ever. "People are being killed everyday, everywhere," she says.

The U.S. promised to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by May 1 when it signed a deal with the Taliban last year. Now, it looks like it will miss that deadline as peace talks crawl along.

The president said it would be "tough" to meet the May 1 deadline agreed to by the Trump administration. "The withdrawal must be completed by the first of May," a Taliban spokesman told NPR.

Mistrust towards China-produced vaccines, general vaccine hesitancy and distribution complications have all been obstacles in getting the vaccine out in some countries.

In a letter reportedly sent to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. "has not ruled out any option" and asked him to "understand the urgency of my tone."

Three Afghan female journalists were killed in the eastern part of the country on Tuesday. It's part of an on-going wave of assassinations aimed at journalists and human rights activists.

The pandemic has slowed efforts to eradicate the contagious disease. Yet the country's polio effort offers insights on the launch of its coronavirus vaccine campaign.

Zindagi Tamasha has come under fire for its portrayal of a its Muslim cleric. Critics add it to a growing list of entertainment shelved this year in response to outcries from the religious right.

The country had nearly annihilated polio before conspiracy theories gave the disease room to spread. An army of health workers is set to give coronavirus vaccines too — if Pakistanis will take them.

The fifth most populous country has put strategies in place to address anti-vaccine sentiment and prevent elites from using their influence to obtain government vaccines.

Journalist Daniel Pearl's beheaded body was found in a shallow grave in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 2002. The murder conviction of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was overturned last year.

Pakistan's Oscar submission for the best international feature category is a film that Pakistanis cannot watch — as gatekeepers weed out media that are seen as violating the country's moral code.

The U.N. finds that nearly half of all children younger than 5 in Afghanistan, some 3.1 million, are facing acute malnutrition. Mothers share their plight to provide the children sustenance.

While Israel has already vaccinated half a million citizens against the coronavirus, the vaccine timeline for poor countries will be much longer. We look at Israel, Pakistan and the Philippines.

As the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years, it leaves behind a country made worse by the pandemic. The situation for children under five is dire: more than 40% are acutely malnourished.