Afghan leader warns against international meddling

President Hamid Karzai insisted Afghanistan would never be “a puppet state” and urged the international community against meddling in its politics in the run-up to a presidential election later this year.

Mr Karzai faces an election in August, at a time when the country is embroiled in a vicious Taliban-led uprising and the performance of his government has been criticised by US president Barack Obama’s administration and other Western capitals as inefficient and corrupt.