Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has announced that he has set up a council to pursue peace talks with the Taliban. The formation of the High Peace Council was “a significant step towards peace talks,” a statement from Karzai’s office said on Saturday.

At least 54 people have been killed and nearly 200 injured in a suicide attack targeting a Shia Muslim rally in Pakistan’s southwest city of Quetta. Police officers said the bomber was among the 450-strong crowd and had detonated the device on reaching the main square in the city on Friday.

MIRAMSHAH: Two US drone strikes on Friday killed at least ten militants, including some foreign fighters, in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, security officials said.

At least six more US-led soldiers have lost their lives in separate incidents in the troubled eastern and southern areas of Afghanistan.

KABUL: Seven U.S. troops were killed in two Taliban-style bomb attacks Monday in southern Afghanistan, the area hardest hit by the insurgency nearing the end of its ninth and most deadly year, NATO said.

ISLAMABAD: Muslim countries, organizations and individuals have pledged nearly $1 billion in cash and relief supplies to help Pakistan respond to the worst floods in the nation’s history, the head of a group of Islamic states said Sunday.

Up to 30 Taliban fighters, including suicide bombers, have attacked two US bases in Afghanistan’s east. At least 13 Taliban fighters were killed and several Nato soldiers wounded in the pre-dawn attacks on Saturday, officials told Al Jazeera.

More than 175,000 people have fled Pakistan’s southern city of Thatta, leaving it virtually empty, as flood waters threatened to submerge the city’s outskirts.

Two Spanish police trainers and their interpreter have died in Afghanistan after being shot by their driver.

Brunei’s Youths yesterday were reminded to occupy themselves during this holy month of Ramadan with the beneficial act of Quran reading, as well as other religious activities.