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Afghan women will no longer be allowed in parks, a spokesperson for the Taliban's morality ministry said, in part because they had not been meeting its interpretation of Islamic attire during their visits.

Mohammad Akif Muhajir, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the comments in an interview with local media and, when asked about the restrictions, referred Reuters to audio of the interview.

"For the last 14 or 15 months we were trying to provide an environment according to Sharia (Islamic law) and our culture for women to go to the parks," he said.

"Unfortunately, the owners of parks didn't co-operate with us very well, and also the women didn't observe hijab as was suggested. For now, the decision has been taken that they are banned," he said, referring to the group's interpretation of the Islamic dress code for women.

Almost all women in Afghanistan wear a head scarf, or hijab, in public. However, the Taliban have said women should wear long flowing clothes that cover their bodies and also cover their faces, such as the all-enveloping burqa. Some women in Kabul and other urban centres do not cover their faces in public and others wear a surgical face mask.

Western governments have said the Taliban needs to reverse its course on women's rights, including a U-turn on signals they would open girls' high schools, for any path towards formal recognition of the Taliban government.

It was not clear how long the park restrictions would last and whether they would be extended across Afghanistan.

Park operators in western Herat and northern Balkh and Badkahshan provinces said they had not been asked to stop women entering yet.

Some women in those provinces told Reuters they were watching the restrictions in Kabul closely and were worried they might be applied in other provinces.

"Here they haven't restricted women and girls yet but you will never know when they change their minds," said a woman in Badakhshan who asked to remain anonymous.

The Taliban say they respect women's rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law. (Reuters)

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Friday that unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the Asian region by force can never be accepted amid tension over the South China Sea, Taiwan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Yoon made the comment at a summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Yoon said his Indo-Pacific strategy was aimed at fostering a "free, peaceful and prosperous" region built on a rules-based order.

To that end, he would help shore up rules-based efforts to prevent conflicts and ensure the principle of peaceful resolutions through dialogue.

"Peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region is directly related to our survival and prosperity," Yoon said in opening remarks at the summit.

"Any unilateral change in the status quo by force should never be tolerated."

Yoon also said he would boost shared economic prosperity based on an "open, fair order" and step up cooperation with ASEAN countries to increase the resilience of global supply chains and economic security. (Reuters)

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided on Friday that the bloc should ensure there were measurable indicators and a specific timeline for implementing a peace plan agreed with Myanmar's junta after "little progress".

The bloc's foreign ministers had been tasked with developing "concrete, practical and measurable indicators with specific timeline to support the five-point consensus," ASEAN said in a statement, referring to the plan agreed jointly with Myanmar's military government last year. (Reuters)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on Friday that she plans to meet with China's central bank governor Yi Gang on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali to discuss global economic conditions and China's property market situation.

Yellen spoke about the plans for her first in-person bilateral meeting with a senior Chinese economic official in her role as Treasury secretary in an interview with Reuters in New Delhi. The expected meeting will coincide with President Joe Biden's planned Monday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the exact timing for Yellen's meeting has not yet been set.

"I expect to meet with the central bank governor Yi Gang and I expect to talk with him about a range of issues, but particularly the global economic situation," Yellen said. "I'm going to be interested in learning more about the property sector in China and I’m going to try to update him on what's happening in the United States."

Yellen also said she would talk with Yi about low-income countries that are facing debt difficulties. The U.S. Treasury chief has been pressing China to do more to restructure bilateral debt that a range of developing countries owe to China, including through the G20's common restructuring framework.

China's cash-strapped property sector has suffered a wave of defaults on offshore debt obligations this year and a number of firms are struggling to tap sources of funding to finish projects and pay suppliers, prompting Chinese regulators to expand financing support for the sector.

More recently, investors have been fretting about the crisis deepening as developers widely believed to have had government backing also missed payments, such as CIFI (0884.HK) and Greenland Holdings Corp Ltd (600606.SS).

Since becoming Treasury secretary last year, Yellen has held three video calls with China's departing economic and trade czar, Vice Premier Liu He, who is expected to be replaced by He Lifeng in March. Yellen's meeting with central bank chief Yi would be her first in-person meeting with a senior Chinese official.

The meeting comes as relations between the world's two largest economies have hit a new low amid China's anger over House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August and growing U.S. technology export restrictions.

Biden hopes to limit deterioration of ties with China when he meets with its leader Xi, but will be honest about U.S. concerns including over Taiwan and human rights, a senior administration official said on Thursday. (Reuters)