Distraught and furious Afghans vowed vengeance yesterday after a US soldier apparently walked off a Nato base into civilian homes, turning his weapon on the families inside and killing 16 people, nine of them children.

The recent deaths in Afghanistan have been used for the expediencies of realpolitik

President Hamid Karzai said a US service member killed 16 people - nine of them children and three women - in a shooting spree today that he condemned as “an assassination.”

Nato commanders claim President's demand has hampered vital operations against the Taliban

Conflicting conclusions appear to have emerged from two inquiries into the burning of the Koran at Bagram airbase, amid reports that British war graves in Libya were desecrated in retaliation for the mishandling of the holy book.

Two American soldiers have been shot dead at a base in Afghanistan, the latest in a series of deaths following the burning of Korans by US soldiers.

Seven people were killed today in clashes between Afghan security forces and protesters demonstrating against the burning of Muslim holy books at a Nato military base.

Commander forced into grovelling apology in attempt to placate 3,000-strong mob

The admission that Nato troops at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans" was never going to pass without incident. Sure enough, riots and demonstrations followed, despite the forthright apology of the Nato commander, General John Allen.

More than 2,000 angry Afghans have gathered outside a US airbase to protest against the inadvertent burning of Korans and other Islamic religious materials.

With David Cameron in Saudi Arabia for his first visit since becoming Prime Minister, it is difficult to avoid the sense of the British Government once again holding its moral nose in the interests of our commercial and political influence.

Muslim men first to face trial under new hate laws for handing out anti-gay flyers near Derby mosque

At a mosque where the traumatised family of Abdul Mussavir and Shahzad Ali had gathered, people queued throughout the day to pay their respects to a household deprived of two sons. On the road in front of the red-brick building, Abdul Qadooth, the oldest brother, sobbed as friends embraced him.

A row has broken out in southern India over whether schoolchildren should be obliged to learn a Hindu religious text in the classroom, with the state's education minister further fanning the flames by saying those who objected to the plan should leave India.