Taliban suicide attackers in Afghanistan killed the South African leader of a foreign aid group, his son and daughter and an worker in an assault on the agency’s Kabul offices.

A suicide bomber tore through the Afghan capital, killing at least six people near the site where thousands of elders are to gather next week to discuss a controversial security agreement with the United States, officials said.

Pakistan is freeing seven more Taliban prisoners to facilitate a peace process aimed at reaching a political resolution to the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s president has urged neighbouring Pakistan to help peace talks with the Taliban, but hopes were low in both countries that much progress would be made.

Taliban suicide bombers blew up a car and stormed the traffic police headquarters in Kabul early today, setting off a gun battle which raged for six hours and left at least 10 people wounded, police said.

A US Marine staff sergeant who urinated on dead Taliban insurgents and posed for photographs with the bodies has pleaded guilty to two charges in a military court, the Marine Corps said.

At least one Afghan police officer turned his gun on Nato troops at a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan before dawn today, killing four American service members before escaping, according to Afghan and international officials.

Formal control of Afghanistan's only large-scale US-run prison has been handed over to Kabul, even as disagreements between the two countries over the thousands of Taliban and terror suspects held there marred the transfer.

Another Nato soldier was killed yesterday by an Afghan police officer, raising the coalition death toll from so-called “green on blue” shootings to nine in 11 days as the US urged Kabul to step up screening of recruits.

A militant detonated a remote-control bomb this morning, killing at least eight Afghan civilians travelling in a bus just north west of the Afghan capital, police said.

Afghan police say Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul, and that militants armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades have taken hostages and are continuing to fight Afghan security forces there.

An assassin yesterday shot dead a former high-ranking Taliban official working on reconciling Afghanistan’s insurgency with the government — a fresh blow to peace efforts on the day Kabul announced it was gradually taking the lead from the US-led coalition for providing security in much of the country.

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The Taliban’s political wing is ready to enter peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan, the group said today, but the insurgents will continue their armed struggle in the meantime.

AFGHANISTAN will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks, but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government’s peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.

Thirteen people killed when a suicide bomber rammed a military convoy in Afghanistan included five coalition troops and eight civilian contractors, Nato has said.

A 20-hour attack in the heart of Kabul ended this morning after a final volley of helicopter gunfire as Afghan police ferreted out and killed the last few assailants who had taken over a half-built property to fire on the nearby US Embassy and Nato compounds.

Suicide attackers stormed a British compound in the Afghan capital Kabul today, killing at least eight people in a series of explosions and more than eight-hour gunfight.

US General David Petraeus handed over command of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan to General John Allen today, transferring responsibility for the nearly 10-year war as Kabul’s international allies draw up exit plans from the conflict.

The death toll in the attack on an international hotel in Kabul has risen to 10.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed that the U.S. is in peace talks with the Taliban.

The Taliban has today denounced this week's international conference on Afghanistan's future, saying the "vague and terrible agenda" showed that the US and its allies intended to abandon the country and blame their ultimate defeat on the Afghan government.

New British Foreign Secretary William Hague is going to the US on Friday for talks certain to focus on the war in Afghanistan.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged the Afghan government to aggressively pursue a political settlement with insurgents to help end the war in Afghanistan and do it now while the military and civilian surges are putting pressure on the Taliban.

Gordon Brown set a deadline of the middle of next year for “turning the tide” against the Taliban today – suggesting that could be when British troops start coming home.

Afghan forces have increased the number of checkpoints and patrols in the capital Kabul amid public anger over security lapses that enabled a small group of militants mount a series of suicide explosions and gun battles.

Afghanistan’s voters were confronted with Taliban threats and lethal attacks today as they turned out to select a president in an election that could decide the future of them and their Western allies.

Afghan officials began counting votes as polling sites closed in the presidential election today.

THE Afghan police have ordered 7,000 officers onto the streets of Kabul to guard against attacks on senior leaders during Independence Day celebrations today, responding to signs of the Taliban’s growing strength near the capital.

Twenty-eight people were killed when a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in Afghanistan’s capital today in the deadliest attack of the year.

DONORS led by the United States pledged more than $15.54 billion (€10bn) in aid for Afghanistan, but said Kabul must do more to fight corruption and the international assistance must be better co-ordinated.

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A DIPLOMAT paid €10,000 a month from the Irish Aid budget last night denied he was expelled from Afghanistan for being a spy.

Police in Afghanistan this morning discovered the body of a second South Korean hostage killed by the Taliban, officials said.

South Korea today said 22 hostages remained in Taliban captivity after a Korean pastor was killed by the militant group in Afghanistan, drawing outrage from Seoul that warned those responsible would face consequences.

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the Pakistani president today, shortly after she arrived for a brief visit.

US midterm election results that heralded a massive power shift in the American political landscape were greeted with jubilation around the world.

A GROUP of Afghan asylum seekers protested outside the Dáil yesterday, highlighting the high numbers who have been turned down for refugee status.

A suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber blew himself up today during the funeral of a moderate Muslim cleric, killing 20 people including the Kabul police chief, and wounding 42 others, officials said.

A suicide bomb tore through a mosque in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan today during the funeral of a Muslim cleric who spoke out against the Taliban.

US President George W Bush yesterday said US troops in Afghanistan will remain under US control despite Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s request for more authority over them.

President George Bush said today that US troops in Afghanistan will remain under US control despite Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s request for more authority over them.

UP TO 15 people were reported dead yesterday after guerillas attacked an Afghan army base south of Kabul.

Aid agencies were today at the scene of a powerful earthquake that devastated villages in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan.