At least Taleban free abducted labourers ...
Germany to double police training mission in Afghanistan ...
Drugs 'slash' Malawi Aids deaths ...
Taleban 'kill spies' in Pakistan ... 15 people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a meeting of tribal elders in a restive region of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
Dozens were injured in the blast at a council of local leaders in the Orakzai district, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions.
They were meeting to raise a militia to evict Taleban from the region when the attack took place.
Orakzai, near the main north-west city of Peshawar, has been relatively calm.
"We were busy in raising a lashkar [tribal militia] to evict Taleban from the region when this attack took place," Qeemat Khan Orakzai, a member of the council, told Reuters news agency.
The BBC's Shoaib Hasan, in Pakistan, says the suicide bomber walked into the meeting of 600 people and blew himself up.
A security official told AFP news agency that the suicide attack came a day after armed tribesmen had targeted two militant hideouts.
Pro-Taleban militants on the Pakistan side of the border have been blamed for a rise in attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's government has been courting the fiercely independent tribes to persuade them to stand up to the insurgents.
(BBC)
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