31.   However, he refused to blame the Taliban religious militia, which is considered a close ally of Pakistan.

32.   Iftikhar Morshed told Velayati that his country was trying to persuade the Taliban religious militia to stop fighting and negotiate a peaceful settlement, it said.

33.   In Afghanistan, the Taliban religious militia has banned women from school and work and ordered their bodies covered from head to toe.

34.   In an offensive that began Sunday, rebel fighters from the religious Taliban militia were pushed back from their mountain-top positions along the Rishkor hills.

35.   In Islamic Afghanistan, where the hard-line religious militia rules most of the country, it is illegal to shave, which the Taliban say is offensive to Islam.

36.   In Kunduz, Taliban Information Minister Mohammed Khan Muttaqi told The Associated Press that the religious militia was in firm control of the city and airport.

37.   In southern Kandahar, the birthplace of the ousted Taliban religious militia, authorities said they have found leaflets threatening to kill parents who send their children to school.

38.   Iran has hosted several peace conferences that failed because of a boycott by the Taliban religious militia, which controls most of Afghanistan.

39.   International aid groups must move their operations to war-ravaged dormitories in Kabul after all, the Taliban religious militia said Thursday.

40.   It was not clear why the plane was ordered diverted to Kandahar, the headquarters of the Taliban religious militia.