The Red Cross says air strikes by US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday are now thought to have killed dozens of civilians including women and children. The organisation says the civilians were sheltering from fighting in the province of Farah when their houses were struck. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he has ordered an investigation. [...]

Pakistan’s pants are on fire!” This may be a strange way to describe the state of a country, but it was the metaphor used by one US congressman. It was not meant as some kind of playground taunt, but to describe the widespread alarm at recent developments, with extremists fanning the flames. Pakistan’s pants are [...]