Hundreds of people gathered at a sports stadium in Afghanistan to witness the public hanging of two Afghan women convicted of prostitution by the Taliban. BBC correspondents say that, although public execution has become common under the Taliban, it is rare for women to be executed in this manner. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Afghans continue to attempt to flee Afghanistan, but Tajikistan and Pakistan have essentially closed their borders. Pakistan is threateneing to forcibly return 100,000 of the some 3 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan because it can no longer deal with the humanitarian crisis. Some 1 million Afghans, both in Afghanistan and in refugee camps in neighboring countries, are facing death by starvation and exposure to freezing temperatures during one of the most severe droughts in the region in the past 30 years. The situation is exacerbated by the collapse of humanitarian services to refugees, displaced persons, and the population in Afghanistan.
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