Nato forces have killed al-Qa'ida's second-highest ranking leader in Afghanistan in an air strike.

The French president François Hollande continued his whirlwind introduction to office yesterday with a snap visit to Afghanistan to defend his early withdrawal of French troops.

French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan today to visit some of the French troops he wants to pull out later this year, defending his plan for their early exit after meeting his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.

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President and British advisers acknowledge Afghans face tough future as West looks to open exit routes through Pakistan

President Barack Obama and Nato leaders expressed confidence in Afghanistan's ability to take the lead for its own security next year, as nations with a stake in the deeply unpopular war met today for talks aimed at paving the way for its end.

Chicago braced for more demonstrations today, with protesters vowing to march to the Boeing headquarters a day after clashes outside the Nato summit.

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As if one insoluble problem were not enough, world leaders moved directly from discussing the woes of the eurozone at Camp David at the start of the weekend, to the equally intractable challenges of the Nato summit in Chicago at the end of it. Even without the thousands of protesters lining the streets, the meeting would not have been an easy one. And the issue at the top of the agenda is the most difficult of all: the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Hollande’s pledge to pull out troops early will dominate Chicago talks as UK bill is set to hit £20bn

Rockets crashed into a US base and a house Friday in a remote area of northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border, killing two Nato service members and three civilians, officials said.