Afghanistan

The Pakistani Taliban group has claimed responsibility for a rare female suicide attack and another bombing against police to "avenge" military operations in the lawless tribal belt on Friday.

Following four days of rioting in the UK, with groups of people causing havoc on the streets in cities such as London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, the Libyan leader, has criticised David Cameron's call for more police power and accused him of launching a 'crackdown on protesters'.

Following the President's 50th birthday celebration on Thursday, analysts were surprised to see how the celebrations quickly turned to a campaign rally, with the president even given his supporters a pep talk in Washington D.C.

The UK is at the greatest risk of terrorism of any Western economy, according to research.

A string of attacks on high profile figure of the Karzai government has recently proven the Taliban are decided to try and regain control over Afghanistan.In the last few weeks the confrontation between the fundamentalist goup and President Karzai has intensified, leaving the future of the country and the government uncertain.

Suicide bombers armed with guns attacked at least two government buildings in the capital of Afghanistan's volatile southern Uruzgan province Thursday, killing three people and wounding 20, according to officials.Information that have emerged since the terrorist attack suggest that six suicide bombers stormed the provincial governor's compound and the police chief's compound in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan located north of Kandahar, Interior Ministry spokesman, Sediq Sediqi, said.

The news that Britain is now open to the idea of Colonel Gaddafi spending his retirement in Libya, as opposed to being dragged off to an absurd court in Northern Europe, does not come as any great surprise.

Afghan officials say a suicide bomb attack has killed the mayor of the southern city of Kandahar. "An explosion ripped through in Municipality department of Kandahar city, the capital of Kandahar province this morning, killing Kandahar Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi," spokesman for the provincial administration Zalmai Ayubi told Xinhua.

Just over 38 years ago, on 17 July 1973, King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan was overthrown in a coup d'état whilst undergoing medical treatment in Italy, by his Prime Minister and cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan. Anyone can be forgiven for missing the 38th anniversary of the First Republic celebrations in Kabul as there don't appear to have been any.

William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, has said that although the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi must hand over power, he may not have to leave the country.

Britain took responsibility Monday for a NATO helicopter attack in Afghanistan which wounded five local children, voicing "deep regret" over the incident and saying an investigation was under way.Five Afghan children were injured in a strike carried out by a British Apache attack helicopter, the Ministry of Defence has said.

According to a new speech by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Monday, the United States has no interest in creating permanent military bases in Afghanistan and does not want to use the country as a platform to influence neighbouring countries.

The Libyan conflict is now being treated as a civil war, but while the Transitional National Council (TNC) is now recognised as the legitimate representative of the people of Libya by various international states including the U.K., France and most recently, the U.S., not much is known about who the Libyan people really support.

Although the Islamist group banned television during its time in power between 1996 and 2001, since being ousted of power by the U.S. after being accused of harbouring al Qaeda militants blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Islamist group has increasingly become aware of the necessity to use new technology and its communication tools now includes websites, mobile phone text messages, emails and posts on Twitter and Facebook.

The Taliban on Wednesday said Mullah Omar was alive, accusing the Americans of hacking their phones after a text message sent to media from a spokesman's phone said the leader was dead.

U.S. General David Petraeus, the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, handed over command of U.S. and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan on Monday, a day after a gradual process of transferring security to Afghan forces began.

Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province and a key ally of President Karzai, was killed in a suspected Taliban attack.

Afghan government officials on Thursday accused NATO of killing six civilians, including an 11-year-old girl, during a military operation targeting the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.

A suicide bomber has killed three people at a Kandahar mosque during a memorial service for Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's brother who was assassinated last week.

Five French soldiers and an Afghan civilian were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bomb attack, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said, one day after he returned from a visit to Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has led mourners at the funeral of Ahmed Wali Karzai, his influential younger half-brother, who was assassinated on Tuesday afternoon in Kandahar by a member of his own security team.

Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, the country's defence minister, said without it Pakistan could not afford to keep troops at 1,100 checkpoints near the mountainous border.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he regrets the U.S. decision to stop $800 million in military aid to Pakistan.

An Afghan official says Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother has been killed in southern Afghanistan the Associated Press reported. Zalmai Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar province, says that Ahmad Wali Karzai was shot dead on Tuesday.

Following a surge of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, British army and commanders have said that despite the insurgents' attempt to sabotage the security handover in the southern Helmand province, Afghan police and troops can protect the area after a year of preparation, and training.

The raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan on the 1st May has been illustrated and pieced together for an 88-page graphic novel called Code Word: Geronimo.

Pakistan appear to be sliding into a mix of political and ethnic violence a little bit more every day and as violent protests have gripped the country's largest city for the fourth straight day, on Friday police and paramilitary troops were given orders to shoot suspected assailants on sight.

A round up of all the news from the British newspapers for 7th July 2011.

The UK will withdraw another 500 troops from Afghanistan next year, as armed forces begin to transfer combat duties to the Afghan security forces, the prime minister announced on Wednesday.

Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate claimed responsibility for two separate attacks in Iraq which killed at least 30 people in June, a group that monitors insurgent communications said.