Afghanistan: special report

The US is in contact with the Taliban about a possible peace deal in Afghanistan according to Hamid Karzai. Earlier this year the Afghan President told Channel 4 News “contacts had been made”.

Prince Harry could be heading back to Afghanistan on a second tour of duty, it was reported today. His first tour, in 2007-8, was cut short because of fears for his safety, as Asha Tanna reports.

Witnesses say Syrian helicopter gunships have fired machineguns to disperse pro-democracy protests, as the US joins calls for a UN Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown.

On the day the bodies of three British servicemen killed in Afghanistan are returned to the UK, NATO considers its options for an accelerated troop withdrawal from the country.

Two Royal Marines – one a decorated hero who saved a wounded man in 2009 – are the latest victims of insurgents in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The former head of Pakistan’s ISI, Hamid Gul, tells Channel 4 News that he is “100 per cent sure” a Taliban attack on a major naval air base in Karachi was an “American operation”.

Two families say they are amazed that their loved ones were put in “avoidable harm’s way”, after a coroner’s inquest into the killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman.

After at least 12 protesters are killed in a demonstration in northern Afghanistan, President Karzai condemns last night’s NATO raid in which four people died and which provoked today’s protest.

Britain donates more in foreign aid than ever before, with a budget set to eclipse that of the Home Office within four years. As Liam Fox raises concerns, Channel 4 News looks at where the money goes.

Five British soldiers were shot by a renegade Afghan policeman as a bloody local vendetta played itself out, a coroner’s court has heard.

The Coalition could confirm next week that the pact between the Government and its armed forces, which promises a duty of care to troops for the sacrifices they make, is to be enshrined in law.

The Archbishop of Canterbury says the killing of Osama bin Laden has left him with a “very uncomfortable feeling”. Bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot dead by US forces in a compound in Pakistan.

Photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body will not be published, says President Obama, as senior Taliban commanders tell Channel 4 News the al-Qaeda leader died of kidney disease months ago.

Britain shares the “same struggle against terrorism” with Pakistan, David Cameron says, pledging his support for Pakistan’s President in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death.

Channel 4 News has sent International Editor Lindsey Hilsum and producer Nevine Mabro to the Abbottabad compound where Osama bin Laden was killed. Their tweets make fascinating reading.