Afghanistan executed 15 prisoners – one convicted of killing foreign journalists – an official said today, ending three years without the death penalty.

The United Nations is prepared to mediate peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, the top UN envoy said.

Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a Nato convoy in southern Afghanistan today, and a gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him and killed a man in a bakery.

A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40, many just arriving for work, in a busy pedestrian alley next to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry today, officials said.

Police killed three Taliban and captured a former mid-level official from the hardline militia’s ousted government in separate incidents, officials said today.