KABUL, Feb 10: Afghanistan said on Sunday it backed a senior US official’s assertion that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar were operating from Pakistan.

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) — US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned that the failure of the international force in Afghanistan would increase the security threat to Europe.

BAGHDAD – Growing impatience with the slow pace of work to improve basic services like electricity and water could threaten security gains in Iraq’s Anbar province, a former al Qaeda stronghold, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

BEIRUT – A leading member of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian governing coalition on Sunday warned of anarchy and raised the specter of war in the country, which is suffering its worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

MUNICH, Germany – Russia said on Sunday that Europe risked opening a “Pandora’s box” if it went ahead and recognized the independence of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.

RACAK, Serbia – The massacre of 44 Kosovo Albanians by Serb security forces in this village nine years ago is a reminder of why Kosovo deserves independence from Serbia, says the U.S. diplomat who reported it to the world.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan rejected on Saturday a U.S. official’s assertion that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are operating from Pakistani territory.

Pakistan holds elections for the lower house of parliament and assemblies in its four provinces on February 18. The elections were postponed from January 8 after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

PATHAN KOT, Pakistan – Election banners and flags of all three of Pakistan’s main political parties flutter across Punjab, the country’s biggest province and the main battleground for votes in a February 18 election.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon was warmly received by his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a welcome ceremony here in Tehran on Sunday.