BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he's formed a national peace council to pursue negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Karzai's office described it as a significant step towards peace talks. His chief of staff, Mohammad Omar Daudzai, told the BBC that significant elements of the Taliban had
indicate
d their willingness to negotiate.
"Soon after the peace jirga, we have noticed some
momentum
within a certain degree of leadership of their position and also within the foot soldiers. Significant level of leadership has been indicating their willingness to talk. Of course they have their conditions for talking for peace, but their willingness to talk is there."
An American air attack has killed at least seven people in Pakistan's northwest tribal region near the Afghan border. Missiles targeted suspected militants in a house and a vehicle in a village in North Waziristan. Government officials said three foreign fighters were among the dead.
Demonstrators have taken to the streets in more than 130 cities and towns in France to protest against the government's policy of
expel
ling Roma people. A French medical aid group said the authorities had declared a
veritable
war on the Roma. Christian Fraser reports from Paris.
Perhaps 30,000 people gathered in the capital, all sorts of groups, the unions, anarchists, students, African migrants and of course, the Roma - now the target. Just