Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is hopeful of reaching a “positive conclusion” to his bid to sign Feyenoord midfielder Karim El Ahmadi.

A group of suicide attackers stormed a government compound in western Afghanistan today, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Fifteen people have been killed after suicide bombers struck two government offices in southern and western Afghanistan as militants step up attacks across the country, authorities said.

At least 10 people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a government office in western Afghanistan during rush-hour today, authorities said.

A bomb has killed a university professor in an attack coinciding with the second anniversary of a explosion that killed a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said.

A car bomb has exploded outside a bank in a major southern Afghanistan city, killing four people, officials said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up today at the gate of the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 11 security officers in a city where Afghans have recently taken control of security.

Seven police officers have been poisoned and shot dead at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

A Nato airstrike has killed 14 people – all women and children – and wounded six in the volatile south-west Helmand province.

A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform has killed the top police official in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar province.

A Taliban roadside bomb killed 15 civilians in a dangerous and remote region of southern Afghanistan.

About 300 families have already fled a southern Afghan town ahead of a major new offensive planned on a key Taliban stronghold, provincial officials said today.

A Yemeni governor has said security forces have killed a suspected al-Qaida figure in a raid in a remote mountainous province.

US MARINES and Afghan troops yesterday launched the first offensive since US President Barack Obama announced an American troop surge, striking against Taliban communications and supply lines in a southern insurgent stronghold, a military spokesman said.

Iranian riot police clashed with supporters of the main opposition candidate in disputed presidential elections as incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a landslide today.

Human Rights Watch today accused the US military of not doing enough to reduce civilian casualties during battles in Afghanistan and called for “fundamental changes” to prevent massive civilian deaths like those during an airstrike this month.

A double suicide bomb attack killed seven people and wounded 20 in southern Afghanistan today, an official said.

A joint Afghan-Nato operation in a volatile region in the country’s dangerous south has killed 40 militants, including the Taliban’s leader in that region, a government official said today.

Armed assailants attacked a man and gouged out his eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault in southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

The top Nato general in Afghanistan said he rejects the idea that Nato is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.

Around 60 Taliban militants were killed today in a battle in an area protected by British troops, according to officials.

More than 600 prisoners escaped during a brazen Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, officials said today.

Iran’s Culture Ministry today announced the closure of nine cinema and lifestyle magazines for publishing pictures and stories about the life of “corrupt” foreign film stars and promoting “superstitions”.

AN IRISHWOMAN serving with the US Army in Afghanistan has been killed while on duty.

The Taliban will “never” negotiate with Afghan authorities until US and Nato forces leave the country, a spokesman for the group said today, again rebuffing an overture for peace talks from President Hamid Karzai.

Taliban chiefs would consider holding negotiations with the Afghan government, but no direct offer has been made by President Hamid Karzai's administration, a spokesman for the militant group said today.

The Taliban today said the Afghan government has promised safe passage to two top Taliban leaders so they could meet with South Korean negotiators to discuss the fate of 21 Korean hostages.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said the Afghan government is working to free 21 South Korean hostages but indicated it wouldn’t give in to Taliban demands.

The Taliban today offered to hold talks with South Korean officials in Afghan government-controlled territory over the fate of 21 hostages if the UN guaranteed the safety of the militant delegation.

Amnesty International said it had directly appealed to the Taliban to free 21 South Korean hostages, warning the militant movement that holding and killing captives was a war crime.

The Afghan army today dropped leaflets warning of impending military action in the region where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans, though the army said the upcoming operation is not connected to the hostages.

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

TALIBAN militants in Afghanistan yesterday claimed they shot and killed one South Korean hostage while a group of abductees was freed and taken to a US military base, officials said.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan today claimed they shot and killed one Korean hostage while a group of abductees was freed and taken to a US military base, officials said.

A purported Taliban spokesman today said negotiations for the lives of 23 South Korean hostages have stalled and that the militants planned to kill “a few” of the captives immediately.

Airstrikes and clashes in southern Afghanistan killed more than 75 militants, as a threatened deadline for the lives of 23 South Korean hostages being held by Taliban militants passed with no resolution.

KOREAN negotiators, accompanied by Afghan elders and clerics, met face-to-face with the kidnappers of 23 South Koreans yesterday as a threatened Taliban deadline to execute them passed by once again.

The hard-line Taliban militia claimed today to have killed two German and five Afghan hostages but said it was willing to release 22 South Korean Christians in exchange for the freedom of imprisoned Taliban fighters.

A purported Taliban spokesman said the hard-line militia today shot and killed two German hostages because Germany’s government did not announce that its troops would leave Afghanistan.

A roadside bomb killed three Canadian Nato soldiers in southern Afghanistan today.

Afghan officials have arrested seven suspects in connection with an apparent assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai, a government spokesman said today.

Five Americans and two other soldiers died when a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Afghanistan’s most volatile province. The Taliban has claimed responsibility.

The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, a spokesman said today, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar said the killing of its top field commander in Afghanistan “won’t create problems” for the hard-line militia, a spokesman said today.