BBC News with David Austin
The top police commander in northern Afghanistan has been killed in a bomb attack. The Taliban says it carried out the attack, making him the most senior casualty of the Taliban spring offensive. General Daud Daud was killed along with a provincial police chief, two bodyguards and three German soldiers. Paul Wood reports from Kabul.
The suicide bomber was wearing a police uniform and waiting in a corridor as General Daud and others
emerge
d from a meeting. The explosion sent flames and a column of smoke high into the air over the governor's compound in Takhar. General Daud was the commander of all Afghan interior ministry forces in the north of the country, softly-spoken and charismatic. Nato liked him because he got the job done, wresting swathes of territory from Taliban control and because of his emphasis on human rights and the rule of law.
He was seen as an effective leader at a time when Afghan forces are starting to take over the lead role in security from Nato.
A court in Egypt has imposed a fine of $90m on the ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former senior officials for
cutting off
mobile and Internet services during the anti-government protests in January. It's the first court ruling to be made against Mr Mubarak. Here's Sebastian Usher.
This new charge against Hosni Mubarak is for damaging the economy by trying to cut off Internet and phone networks as the protests gathered