The United Nations launched an appeal to raise almost $460m (€357m) for flood-hit Pakistan tonight.

Flooding ravaged hundreds of villages in Pakistan’s main province of Punjab today, destroying homes, soaking crops and threatening more lives.

Nato today said as many as 150 insurgents were killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan after two large groups of fighters crossed the border from Pakistan.

Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on a remote US military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed eight of them execution-style, police said today.

A Russian-made helicopter crashed in bad weather in the eastern Afghan mountains yesterday, killing all 16 on board, including at least two American civilians and two Dutch military officers, officials said today.