US president Barack Obama said today he was praying for critically-ill diplomat Richard Holbrooke, calling him “a towering figure in American foreign policy”.

The Afghan government has been holding secret talks for months with a Taliban group linked to al Qaida, a source said today.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan said the September 11 2001 attacks “wouldn’t have happened” if Americans had been forewarned to be on the lookout for terrorism.

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai urged citizens to vote in today’s parliamentary election, despite a Taliban threat warning people not to leave their homes and violence on the eve of the ballot.

The US envoy to Pakistan has warned that the world will only be able to fund around 25% of the "tens of billions" of dollars needed to rebuild Pakistan after the floods, meaning its government will have to make up the shortfall.

Pakistan thanked the world for coming to its aid and said more than 20 million flood victims now knew that nations and people around the globe were standing with them during the worst disaster the country has ever faced.

The United Nations appeared to have met its target of €358m in immediate aid for flood-stricken Pakistan today, after Ireland, the US and other nations dramatically upped their pledges.

THE general tapped to take over command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan braced lawmakers yesterday for an escalation in violence, playing down hopes for a swift turnaround after nine years of war.

THE US has warned Pakistan that a recently-signed gas pipeline deal with Iran could run foul of new sanctions being finalised in Congress, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan said yesterday.

A bomb at a mosque in Pakistan’s north-western tribal belt killed 29 people today.

A suspected US missile strike killed at least 10 alleged militants today at a compound formerly used as a religious school in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, officials said, the eighth such attack in two weeks.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a scathing attack on Pakistan for failing to hunt down al Qaida inside its borders, saying the government knew where the terror leaders were hiding.

A former US Marine-turned diplomat has become the first American official to resign in protest at the war in Afghanistan.

War-time Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is requesting that the UN Security Council pass a resolution exempting him from trial at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, insisting he was promised immunity by an American envoy.

The Taliban is in a much stronger financial shape than al Qaida and relies on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a US Treasury chief said.

CHARGES of fraud in Afghanistan’s presidential election are extensive enough that they could sway the final result, the commission investigating the complaints said yesterday.

GORDON Brown yesterday pledged to push ahead with the “vital” mission in Afghanistan as the UK death toll passed the 200 mark.

President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan has praised the country’s “very significant” progress in taking back key territory from the Taliban and promised more weapons for the fight against extremists close to the Afghan border.

ONE of Osama bin Laden’s sons was probably killed by a US missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year, US National Public Radio reported, citing US intelligence sources.

Army surveillance planes today flew over suspected militant strongholds in Pakistan’s north-western tribal district where a major offensive is planned, and helicopter gunships hit several targets in advance strikes, officials said.

A suicide bomber killed 30 people attending prayers at a mosque in Pakistan’s violence-racked north west today.

President Barack Obama will today host talks with Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai in a bid for closer regional co-operation and a greater response to the Taliban insurgency.

Turbaned Taliban militants seized government buildings, laid mines and fought security forces in the Swat Valley in Pakistan today.

PAKISTANI paramilitary forces rushing to protect government buildings and bridges in a Taliban-infiltrated district just 90km from the capital were met with gunfire yesterday that killed one police officer.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic today refused to enter pleas to new genocide charges and nine other counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Presidents Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama spoke on the phone for the first time, exactly four weeks after Obama’s inauguration, Karzai’s office said today.

A suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in north-western Pakistan today, killing 20 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said.

Five children were killed after they were caught in the crossfire between Australian forces and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Ministry said today.

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai called cross-border terrorism one of the greatest threats confronting his country and vowed yesterday to improve ties with Pakistan to combat the problem.

One of the key peace brokers in the North started work today as part of Barack Obama’s revamped US foreign policy.

President Barack Obama vowed to “refocus attention and resources” on Afghanistan and Pakistan as he attempted to reshape US foreign policy today.

Barack Obama is already odds-on favourite to win the 2012 US election, according to a leading bookmaker.

United Nations prosecutors plan to file a new indictment against Radovan Karadzic within days to update the eight-year-old charges against the former Bosnian Serb leader.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic claims he is the victim of a media witch hunt that will prevent him from getting a fair trial.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will reappear before the UN war crimes tribunal later this month after his first skirmishes with the Netherlands-based court yesterday.

Radovan Karadzic is to fight Serbia's attempt to extradite him to the Netherlands to face a war crimes court.

THE surprise capture of Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, is expected to transform Serbia’s place in the world and greatly increase its chances of entering the European Union.

US President George Bush traded ideas on Iraq with a bipartisan commission and promised to work with the incoming Democratic majority toward “common objectives”.

Nato today welcomed the plea by the wife of fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic for her husband to surrender, saying such a move would benefit his family, Bosnia and the whole region.

The wife of fugitive Radovan Karadzic today appealed to her husband to surrender to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal “for the sake of the family”.

FAMILIES buried the skeletal remains of Srebrenica victims yesterday at the 10th anniversary of the massacre, while the West acknowledged its failure to prevent Europe’s worst atrocity in 50 years.

President George Bush’s nomination of John Bolton to be UN ambassador has been shaken again by a Republican senator’s surprise opposition to the embattled nominee, and Democrats hope to seize the opportunity and defeat him in the Senate.

SENATOR John Kerry yesterday accused President Bush of “dodging and bobbing and weaving” on explanations for nearly 400 tons of missing explosives in Iraq.

A visiting American senior official has said his visit to a displaced persons camp in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region was “very disturbing” and said neither Sudan, the United Nations nor the international community were doing enough to address the crisis.