A militant arrested in the attacks on the Afghan capital and three other cities has confessed that the 18-hour assault was carried out by the Haqqani network, a lethal group of fighters with ties to the Taliban and al-Qa'ida, a top Afghan security official said today.

The Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks on as many as seven sites across the Afghan capital on Sunday, targeting Nato bases, the parliament and Western embassies. Militants also launched near-simultaneous assaults in three other eastern cities.

President Hamid Karzai said today that he is considering calling presidential elections a year early to lessen the strain that could be caused by foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan at the same time as the nation is holding a national ballot.

François Hollande's promise to withdraw troops this year means Nato allies may have to fill the gap

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a park today in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people, including three Nato service members, officials said, the latest in a string of attacks as spring fighting season gets under way.

The Council of Europe found that a "catalogue of errors" by Nato and coastguards resulted in the deaths of 63 refugees sailing in a small boat from Libya last May.

An Afghan soldier shot and killed two Nato soldiers at a base in southern Afghanistan today.

An Afghan official says a bomb exploded near a foot patrol of Afghan and Nato forces in the south of the country, killing eight Afghans and one international service member.

A Pakistani parliamentary commission yesterday demanded an end to drone attacks inside the country and an apology for deadly air strikes last year as part of a review of its near-severed relations with the US.

President calls on West to withdraw from villages as Taliban sever talks on Afghan future

Afghanistan is on fire and the leaders of the two largest Nato powers fighting there, Barack Obama and David Cameron, were headed for a college basketball game in Ohio. Popcorn and hotdogs were on the agenda.

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