Afghanistan

A British Chinook helicopter pilot was shot between the eyes by a Taliban bullet, but still managed to fly on and saved all 20 aboard.

Iraq is the country most at risk from terrorist attacks for the second straight year, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft, while Thailand has joined the nine countries most in danger for the first time.

Two Nato rockets aimed at Taliban insurgents in Helmand missed their target today, killing 12 civilians sheltering in their home and dealing a sharp blow to hopes that civilian casualties would be avoided in the largest western-led operation of the nine-year Afghan war.

At least 165 people have been killed in a series of avalanches that ploughed into traffic in a mountain pass on Afghanistan's main north-south road.

KABUL — A planned assault on a major Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan is the first real test of a new US-led counter-insurgency strategy to re-establish government control and end the war.