Defence secretary Chuck Hagel encountered political tension with the Afghan President and a series of security problems during his first visit to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, but he met privately with President Hamid Karzai and says they discussed the key issues.

Clashes between Syrian rebels and regime forces erupted today near a village where UN peacekeepers are being held hostage, an activist said, possibly complicating efforts to free them.

Uhuru Kenyatta has won Kenya’s presidential election despite facing an international crimes against humanity trial, provisional results showed today, as his main rival refused to concede, raising tensions following the key poll.

Lahiru Thirimanne cracked a maiden century to put Sri Lanka in command on the second day of the opening Test against Bangladesh in Galle today.

Indonesia scientists say they are closely monitoring a smoking volcano on Java island, urging villagers and tourists to stay off the mountain’s slope.

John Kerry was on Monday holding talks with his counterparts from six Gulf monarchies on the war in Syria and Iran’s disputed atomic programme, on his first visit to the Gulf as US secretary of state.

A suicide bomber struck in an area between major shrines in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala today, wounding 10 people, security and medical officials said.

An international human rights organisation says the Syrian military fired at least four ballistic missiles into the embattled northern city of Aleppo over the past week, killing more than 140 people, including 70 children.

A suicide car bomb blew up at an army checkpoint in northeastern Damascus, leaving five soldiers killed, a watchdog said, as rebels pressed toward the centre of the capital.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan says NATO has so far found no evidence to support Afghan allegations of misconduct by American special forces in a strategic eastern province.