The only gunman captured during the terror attack on Mumbai said he was promised that his impoverished family would get around €990 if he died fighting for militant Islam, security officials said today.

A bomb planted in a truck belonging to a UK-based Islamic aid group exploded in north-western Pakistan today, wounding its driver and three passers-by, an official said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai chose a new Cabinet today, heeding calls to sideline warlords from top positions and creating a new post to oversee the fight against opium production.

Aid workers in Afghanistan were abandoning the western city of Heart today after rioters burned their offices and fought with security forces over President Hamid Karzai’s sacking of its warlord governor.

Afghan aviation minister Mirwais Khan was assassinated today in the western city of Herat.

Women and girls are still suffering severe abuse, harassment and repression at the hands of Afghanistan’s post-Taliban leaders, particularly in the west of the country, a human rights group said today.

Afghanistan opened its grand council to choose a new government today, shortly after the nation’s former president bowed out of the race for head of state, removing the last major challenger to interim leader Hamid Karzai.

Donald Rumsfeld has discussed the American role in forming and training a national Afghan army with the country's interim leader in Kabul.

Thousands of Afghan fighters are reportedly gathering in the west of the country as the first signs of opposition to the new regime appear in Herat.

Talks on Afghanistan’s political future moved into a decisive phase today, with pressure building on the Northern Alliance to agree to an interim administration.