Even in the final days of Washington's chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind.

He was told to stay home and not worry, that they would be evacuated.

The number of daily COVID-19 cases confirmed in Egypt has grown steadily in recent weeks amid relaxed precautionary measures and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

The Health Ministry reported late Tuesday 279 cases in 24 hours and nine deaths, compared to 194 cases and seven deaths on the same day last week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States' involvement in Afghanistan, charging that its 20-year-long military presence in the country has achieved "zero."

Putin said Wednesday that for 20 years, the U.S. military in Afghanistan "was trying ... to civilize the people who live there, to introduce their norms and standards of life in the broadest sense of the word, including the political organization of society."

Global stock markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors weighed the economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus's delta variant.

Markets in London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced.

Palestinian health authorities are launching a vaccination drive for students in the Gaza Strip ages 16-18 as the territory contends with a third wave of coronavirus infections.

Health officials began giving the Pfizer vaccine in Gaza Strip schools on Wednesday and aim to inoculate more than 100,000 students in the coming weeks. Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank began a similar drive on Tuesday.

AC Milan is aiming to strengthen its presence in the Middle East by signing a partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai.

Milan announced the deal on Wednesday and said it is part of its continued push to promote the club in what it sees as "a key market."

North Korea has proposed a U.N.-backed immunization program send its allotment of almost 3 million doses of a Chinese-made vaccine to countries with severe COVID-19 outbreaks while it continues to claim a perfect record in keeping out the coronavirus.

UNICEF, which procures and delivers vaccines on behalf of the COVAX program, said Tuesday that North Korea's Ministry of Public Health has communicated that the 2.97 million Sinovac shots COVAX planned to deliver to the North may be sent elsewhere.

The deal that didn't happen best defines the landscape of European football after a summer transfer window that saw unexpected moves by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Kylian Mbappé will remain with Paris Saint-Germain this season, and the star French forward could leave for Real Madrid as a free agent at age 23 next summer for free rather than for a fee that could have exceeded $200 million now.

Britney Spears and her new attorney say her father is trying to get about $2 million in payments before stepping down from the conservatorship that controls her life and money, a move they liken to extortion in a court filing Tuesday.

The document filed by lawyer Mathew Rosengart says the upcoming scheduled accounting of the conservatorship, which James Spears says he wants completed before he steps down, will mean significant payments for him.

Flames raced across treetops and through drought-stricken vegetation as firefighters scrambled Wednesday to keep a growing California wildfire from reaching a resort city at the southern tip of Lake Tahoe after evacuation orders were expanded to neighboring Nevada.

Thick smoke from the Caldor Fire enveloped the city of South Lake Tahoe, which was all but deserted during a summer week usually bustling with tourists.