Afghanistan
Biden sees Afghan withdrawal this year but not by May deadline
The Islamist insurgents in turn promised to open peace talks with President Ashraf Ghani's government, although there has been little sign of headway since the...
The Taliban insurgents have largely stuck to a promise not to attack US or other foreign troops since the agreement was struck in February last year, but they say the date to end America's longest war is inflexible.
Biden on Wednesday cast doubt on meeting the deadline, saying he was in the process of deciding when troops would leave.
Schoolgirl choirs are a regular feature of official Afghan events, but when education authorities in Kabul banned the participation of teenagers it prompted an immediate backlash.
The new US leader has ordered a review of the deal Washington cut with the Taliban last year, which promised the withdrawal of all foreign forces by 1 May in return for security guarantees from the militants.
Peace talks began on 12 September at a luxury hotel in Doha, but negotiations are currently on a break until 5 January.
Malalai Maiwand was killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad, said Enekaas TV, the private television channel she worked for.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of Ghazni city, capital of the eastern province of Ghazni, which has seen regular fighting between the Taliban and government forces.
The attack came hours before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to meet with negotiators from the Taliban and Afghan government in Qatar, amid signs of progress in talks between the two warring groups.
The military's own inspector general produced the harrowing 465-page official inquiry into events between 2005 and 2016 that detailed dozens of killings "outside the heat of battle".
Holding banners stating: "Stop Killing Us", the small gathering came as Afghanistan observed a national day of mourning and the first funerals were expected.
Many people were trampled when they tried to exit the stadium in the city of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, leaving 10 others injured, provincial hospital spokesman Zaher Adel said.
Khalilzad said that he and General Austin Miller, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, met several times with the Taliban to discuss "strictly adhering" to the terms of the agreement.
Negotiations will be arduous and messy, delegates warned during the opening ceremony, and are starting even as deadly violence continues to grip Afghanistan.
The talks are being held in a hotel conference room in Doha, where chairs were dotted at socially distanced intervals facing a banner emblazoned with the words 'Afghan Peace Negotiations' in four languages.
In a video posted on Facebook soon after the explosion, Amrullah Saleh, with bandages on his left hand, said he had been travelling to his office when his convoy was attacked.
The attack began on Sunday evening with a car bomb detonated at the entrance to the prison, and there were numerous other blasts heard as the IS gunmen opened fire on security guards.
Qamar Gul, 15, killed the militants when they stormed her home last week in a remote village in the central province of Ghor.
The New York Times report, which has been confirmed by several American and British media outlets, said that US intelligence concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants to kill troops of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.