BREAKING NEWS

Taliban kill senior peace envoy in south Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban fighters killed a senior member of Afghanistan's peace council on Wednesday, officials said, dealing another blow to nascent peace efforts with the insurgency.
President Hamid Karzai formed a 70-member High Peace Council in 2010 in a bid to reach a peace settlement with the insurgents, but little has been achieved, with the Taliban saying they will not talk with the Afghan government.
Malim Shahwali, the council's chief in the southern province of Helmand, was traveling to the violence-plagued Gereshk district when insurgents ambushed his convoy, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Omar Zwak.