International delegates are gathering in the German city of Bonn for a conference on the future of Afghanistan, but the absence of the Taliban and Pakistan from proceedings has raised questions about what the talks can achieve.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility Thursday for the kidnapping of a 70-year-old American aid worker in Pakistan in August, and issued a series of demands for his release.

The head of Morocco’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), Abdelilah Benkirane, was was appointed on Tuesday by King Mohammed VI to forming a new government following his party’s victory in last Friday’s elections.

Pakistanis have once again taken to the streets of the southern port city of Karachi to protest against a deadly US-led NATO cross-border airstrike on two military checkpoints which killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers.

TEHRAN- Recently launched official statistics by the Centre of Census in Iran purport that the population of Sunni citizens of the Iranian capital, Tehran, has crossed one million. The news has exasperated some officials.

NATO helicopters have attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 24 troops, wounding 12 and prompting Pakistan to halt a vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

Morocco’s main Islamist party said it had won more than 100 out of 395 seats in parliament, describing the polls as a “historic turning point.”

Pakistan has announced that it intends to complain to UN Human Rights Council about non-UN-sanctioned US drone strikes in its northwestern tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan.

Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, wanted internationally on charges of crimes against humanity and the last major fugitive at large after the fall of the former Libyan leader, has been arrested, according to the National Transitional Council (NTC).

Muammar Gaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent Saif al-Islam has been detained in the southern desert, Libya’s interim justice minister and other officials have said.