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Gunmen have attacked the office of a Western aid agency in north-western Pakistan, killing six people, police and the agency say.

The Dutch far-right, anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders has won major gains in local elections in the Netherlands, with preliminary results today indicating he may dominate the political scene in the run-up to the general election in three months.

Germany's biggest terrorist trial of recent times has wound up with jail terms of between 5 and 12 years for four Muslim radicals who plotted to blow up US military installations, airports and night clubs in the Frankfurt area. The men, said Judge Otmar Breidling, were planning to bring the Islamic Holy war to the heart of Europe and spark explosions that would have been several times more destructive than the London Tube bombs of July 7, 2005.

At least 63 people have died in a stampede after the gate of a Hindu temple collapsed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police say. Dozens more were injured in the panic at the temple in Pratapgarh district, 650km (400 miles) south-east of Delhi.

A visit by the Dalai Lama to Washington has "seriously undermined" relations between the US and China, Beijing says.

Afghanistan's punishing war is entering a new phase and Pakistan has made it clear it can and must play a leading role. The sudden significant capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second in charge in the Taliban hierarchy, comes at a crucial point. Talk of negotiation is now taking centre stage, a strategy in parallel to a powerful military assault against Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan.

North Korea has fired artillery shells near its disputed maritime border with South Korea for a third successive day.

Plans to engage the Taliban in talks are gathering pace, with Afghanistan inviting members to a peace council and reports of a secret UN meeting.

Taliban gunmen launched a brazen assault on targets in the center of Kabul on Monday, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up at several locations and heavily armed militants fighting a pitched battle in a shopping center.

Islamic extremism is on the rise in Yemen, according to an article by the BBC.

Egyptian police say they have arrested three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and one security official.

There have been more attacks on churches in Malaysia, in a growing dispute over the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.

A suicide car bomb attack on Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the city of Peshawar has killed at least 12 people and injured 40, officials say.

Maoist activists have clashed with the police as thousands demonstrated on the streets of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, against the governing coalition.

Gunmen have attacked law enforcement buildings in Pakistan, with at least 18 people reported killed in Lahore and eight in a suicide bombing elsewhere.

Rescue teams struggled on Thursday to find people trapped under debris after a powerful earthquake hit the Indonesian city of Padang, possibly killing thousands.

At least 23 people are reported to have died when a makeshift church building collapsed in eastern Nepal.

The Hindu nationalist government in the powerful state of Gujarat, western India is conducting a census of minority populations that could help target persecution, it’s been claimed.

We are sad to inform you that Ursula Schmidt, an Interserve Partner at Tank Hospital in Pakistan, died suddenly last week.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has issued a statement condemning the recent killings of 8 Christians in Pakistan's Punjab province.

A roadside bomb attack claimed by the Taliban killed at least 12 people in west Afghanistan's most important city on Monday, officials said, amid worsening security before a presidential poll this month.

Eight Christians have been killed in religious unrest in Pakistan's central Punjab, after days of tension sparked by the rumoured desecration of a Koran. The four women, a man and a child died as Muslim militants set fire to Christian houses in the town of Gojra. Two men died later of gunshot wounds.

On June 14th a group of nine foreigners was kidnapped in northern Yemen. This group consisted of seven Germans, one Briton, and a South Korean. Three of the group were children. On June 15th various reports were received about the fate of the hostages. It is believed that three of the group have been killed, although there are reports that more have also been killed.

On May 27th a large bomb attack was carried out against the headquarters of the police and the ISI (the Pakistani intelligence agency). Gunmen attacked guards before detonating a car bomb which killed at least 24 people and injured more than 200.

Bomb attack on Nepali church Two people were killed in a bomb attack on a Catholic church in Nepal on May 22nd. The attack, which took place in a church in Lalitpur, south of the capital Kathmandu, killed two people including a schoolgirl and injured another twelve. Although nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack police suspect the involvement of the Nepal Defence Army, an extremist Hindu group which seeks to restore the Nepali monarchy.

There has been heavy fighting between Pakistani government forces and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley in north-west Pakistan for many days now, and the situation is having a serious effect on the lives of many thousands of people.

The morning of Tuesday 3rd May a group of between 10 and 12 armed men attacked the team bus of the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore.

On February 25th 2009 some members of the Bangladesh Rifles, an army unit responsible for protecting Bangladesh’s borders and tackling cross-border crime, mutinied in their barracks in Dhaka, citing poor pay and treatment as the reasons for their revolt.

There have recently been various public statements linking Global Connections and CRIB to an alleged campaign against the ministry of Patrick Sookhdeo, the Barnabas Fund and others.

On Sunday January 18th both Israel and Hamas declared a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that its objectives had been achieved, while Hamas announced that they had won a victory in the conflict.

On December 27th 2008 Israeli warplanes and helicopters launched a string of attacks on targets within the Gaza Strip. Israel states that these attacks, and the attacks that have followed since then and which are still ongoing, were launched in response to Hamas rocket fire from Gaza which has killed a number of Israeli citizens over the past few years.

In the immediate fall-out of the Mumbai attacks Pakistan has initiated a crackdown on militant camps within Pakistan. In early December 2008 the Pakistani army moved into a suspected terrorist training camp in the Kashmir region of Pakistan and arrested several militants who are currently being questioned.

On November 26th 2008 a group of terrorists attacked a number of civilian targets across the Indian city of Mumbai. Men armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the Chhratrapati Rail Station, the Oberoi Trident, the Leopold Café, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the Nariman House Jewish Centre, the Cama Hospital, and the Metro Centre. After several days of fighting Indian police had regained control of all of these sites, but the gun battle at the Taj Mahal Palace lasted until November 29th when Indian commandos stormed the building and killed the remaining terrorists.