Three UN workers kidnapped three weeks ago in the Afghan capital remain out of reach, a government official said today, as fresh appeals were made for their release.

The UN appealed today to the Taliban-linked kidnappers of three of its staff in Afghanistan to release them in time for a Muslim festival starting this weekend.

Militants threatening to kill three UN hostages - including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan - said talks were to begin with Afghan and UN officials today, 10 days after the victims were abducted at gunpoint on a street in the capital.

Militants claiming to hold three UN hostages in Afghanistan, including Annetta Flanigan of Northern Ireland, said tonight they had delayed a decision on their fate.

Militants claiming to hold three United Nations hostages in Afghanistan, including Northern Irish woman Annetta Flanigan who is said to be “seriously ill”, said they would decide today whether to kill them.

Afghan militants claiming to hold three UN hostages, including Irish woman Annetta Flanigan, said talks on demands including the release of Taliban prisoners had broken down today.

Militants threatening to kill three United Nations hostages including a woman from Northern Ireland said today that a noon deadline could be postponed for negotiations on demands that include the world body’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Afghan officials are optimistic that three UN hostages, including Northern ireland's Annetta Flanigan, will be freed unharmed, a government spokesman said.

Afghan militants threatening to kill three foreign hostages, including a woman from the North, today offered to negotiate with a UN envoy, but warned that any rescue attempt would end in bloodshed.

THE second hostage drama involving an Irish citizen took a turn for the worse yesterday when the kidnap gang responsible issued a three-day deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Kidnapped Northern Irish UN worker Annetta Flanigan was today featured in a video released by her captors who are demanding the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan.

A UN election worker holding dual British and Irish nationality is among three foreigners seized in Afghanistan today.

An Irish woman was among three foreign election workers kidnapped by armed men in the Afghan capital, Kabul, today.

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.

Demonstrators stormed UN compounds and stoned US soldiers in the Afghan city of Herat, a day after the government sacked its warlord governor.

Demonstrators stormed a UN compound and stoned US soldiers in a tense west Afghan city, officials said today, a day after the government sacked its warlord governor.

Two Britons working for a security company were killed today in an attack, claimed by the Taliban, while helping the UN prepare for landmark elections in Afghanistan.

By Amir ShahHUNDREDS of rival militiamen with tanks and artillery faced off along a narrow front line in northern Afghanistan yesterday, as the government scrambled to stop what it described as the worst fighting in months.

WOMEN in many parts of Afghanistan continue to face discrimination and intimidation more than a year after the fall of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime, according to a UN report issued yesterday.

The UN is investigating reports that witnesses with possible information about alleged mass killings in northern Afghanistan have been executed.

The United Nations says three mass graves have been found in the central Afghanistan region of Bamiyan.

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