Afghanistan

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.

On Monday evening, it was alleged that the News of the World had hacked the phone of Milly Dowler just days after the teenager went missing near her home in Walton on Thames in 2002. As Tuesday passed, it was clear that the public was both outraged and shocked by the allegations.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has publicly condemned the Rupert Murdoch owned News of the World tabloid for its alleged hacking of murdered Milly Dowler's voicemail.

As the Libyan conflict is dragging on, headlines indicating that Gaddafi is preparing to leave Libya are emerging once again. Could the Lion of Africa really be on his way out, or is this just part of a desperate tactic aiming at retaining public support at a time when both the rebels and Nato are heavily criticised.

A British serviceman has gone missing in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.Following the soldier's disappearance from his base in southern Afghanistan early this morning, a massive search has been launched, amid claims that he was killed in Taliban custody. It is understood that the search is being carried out both on the ground and from the air, as troops desperately try to find him.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday responded to criticism as he assured that that his army and police would be ready to take over from foreign forces as planned despite a brazen assault on one of Kabul's premier hotels that left 19 people dead, including all eight attackers.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has today issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi over crimes against humanity committed against opponents of his regime.

Pakistan has expelled a team of at least 18 military advisers and trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies.

As the U.S. looks ahead to its phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, even more attention is being directed toward Pakistan, where Obama administration officials say al-Qaeda and its allies are still plotting attacks against the West.

Aiming to convince senators of the viability of the Barack Obama administration's Afghanistan policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday cited South Korea as a successful "investment" case. "You look at the decades of our investment in South Korea," she said, facing a barrage of questions in a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee aimed at clarifying Washington's policy and progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

President Obama has ordered 33,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan in the next 14 months with 10,000 to be withdrawn by the end of this year. The timetable settled on by the president after a vigorous internal review was faster than sought by some top military commanders but much slower than demanded by many domestic political critics.

Dozens of militants, many of them suspected al Qaeda members, have today escaped a Yemeni prison located in the south-eastern province of Hadramout, by using a tunnel they dug over the past months in what appeared to be a brazen, coordinated jailbreak, according to reports.

When the US and Nato invaded Afghanistan in 2001 two reasons were widely advanced. One, the Taliban needed to surrender Bin Laden, and two, the US could not let the Islamist movement treat women so barbarically.

US President Barack Obama is expected to use a prime-time TV address to unveil plans for an initial withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan.

The number of forcibly displaced people around the world has reached a 15-year high, according to the UN high commission for refugees (UNHCR), with the vast majority languishing in poor countries ill-equipped to cater to their needs.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said publicly for the first time on Saturday that the United States and the Nato-led coalition have been actively negotiating with the Taliban, an assertion that was yesterday confirmed by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

"We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it constitutes one of one of the most serious threat to international peace and security", this UN resolution was adopted in 2005 and set international background in which the Sri Lankan civil war was fought.

The long-serving second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been appointed its head following the death of Osama Bin Laden, the militant organisation said in a statement.

Prince Harry to return to Afghanistan

Syrian troops trying to quash three months of protests are committing "alleged breaches of the most fundamental rights", while 1,100 unarmed civilians have been killed in the crackdown says a UN report.

Pakistan's top spy agency has arrested five Pakistani informants who assisted the CIA ahead of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The coalition has placed the United Kingdom on a road to austerity. The vaccination debate is sensitive. Primarily the government's first priority should be to keep their people safe and healthy. With defence and health care cuts can they really justify spending extra on international aid? The government may be heading down a thoroughly noble path but is the timing all wrong?