A suicide car bomber has attacked Germany's consulate in northern Afghanistan, killing four people and wounding more than 100.

Afghanistan's government has signed a draft peace agreement with a designated "global terrorist" after lengthy negotiations that could pave the way for a similar accord with the Taliban.

Omar Mateen was a bodybuilder and a security guard, a religious man who attended the local mosque and wanted to become a police officer.

David Cameron has called Nigeria and Afghanistan "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world".

As the death toll in the massive earthquake that struck the remote Hindu Kush mountains soared above 300, officials on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border warned yesterday that casualty figures will likely leap once relief workers return from villages so remote they can only be accessed on foot or by donkey.

President Barack Obama has announced plans to keep nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan through most of next year and 5,500 when he leaves office in 2017, casting aside his promise to end the war on his watch and instead ensuring he hands off the conflict to a successor.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces before a suspected US air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the Islamist insurgents from an Afghan city.

THE news that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has pledged the group’s allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour, underlines how fluid and almost universal the threat represented by radical Islam has become.

Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency said that the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been dead for more than two years.

The Afghan government is examining claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar is dead.

One-day peace talks between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives have ended with both sides agreeing to meet again after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Ghani seeks to improve relations with Obama after Karzai exit

Afghanistan assumed full responsibility for security from departing foreign combat troops yesterday, a day after Afghan army mortar shells killed at least 20 civilians in Helmand province.

The United States and Nato have formally ended their war in Afghanistan with a ceremony at their military headquarters in Kabul.

The United States has returned four Afghans from Guantanamo Bay back to their home country.

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.

British troops ended their combat operations in Afghanistan as they and US Marines handed over two huge adjacent bases to the Afghan military, 13 years after a US-led invasion launched the costly war against the Taliban.

Partial results in Afghanistan’s crucial presidential election show a tight race between ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.

Campaigning officially opened yesterday in Afghanistan’s presidential election, with 11 candidates vying to succeed president Hamid Karzai in polls seen as a crucial test of whether Afghanistan can ensure a stable political transition.

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.

A BOMB exploded near a police station outside a crucial city in Afghanistan’s south yesterday where Afghan forces are readying to assume security responsibility within hours, another worrying sign as insurgents seek to disrupt a gradual transition process.

FIVE car bombs that detonated simultaneously rocked Afghanistan’s largest southern city Kandahar yesterday, killing at least 41 people and inuring more than 50.

President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah both have roughly 40% of the nationwide vote for president with 10 % of polling stations counted, the Afghan election commission said today as it announced the first official returns.

Six Afghan presidential candidates warned today that fraud allegations threaten to undermine the recent election and could fuel violence.

Afghans turned to the Twitterverse to share news of Taliban intimidation at the polls and voter turnout in the presidential election.

TOP candidates in the Afghan presidential race yesterday addressed rallies attended by thousands of cheering supporters on the last day of campaigning for key elections overshadowed by Taliban threats.

Afghanistan’s president today promised to hold international troops more accountable for civilian casualties.

The UN Security Council votes today on a successor to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

South Korea’s foreign minister cemented his position as favourite to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he became the only candidate to escape a veto during an informal Security Council ballot.

Donor nations have pledged €6.6bn to help war-ravaged Afghanistan rebuild and confront threats from private militias and widespread drug cultivation over the next three years.

President Hamid Karzai said today that delegates at a marathon constitutional council have overcome the chaos of an ugly walkout and are close to agreeing on his demand for a strong central government.