The government wants allegations that it was complicit in the torture by the US of Britons held as terrorism suspects to be heard in secret.

In documents seen by the Guardian, lawyers for the government argue it must be allowed to present evidence to the high court with the public excluded, otherwise Britain's relations with other countries and its national security could be damaged. The government also wants its evidence kept secret from defence lawyers.

Lawyers for seven men who are now all back in the UK after the US released them without charge will tomorrow go to the high court in London to fight the government's attempt, which they say is designed to cover the embarrassment of ministers and the security services.

Eight US soldiers have been killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, say Nato-led forces.

An Afghan civilian was also killed in what were called "multiple complex IED attacks" - or improvised bombs.

The deaths make October the deadliest month for American forces in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.

On Monday 11 soldiers were among 14 Americans killed in multiple air crashes. In total 55 US troops have died in October, the Pentagon says.

A US diplomat has resigned from his post in protest over the US-led war in Afghanistan, becoming the first US official to step down over the conflict since it began eight years ago.

Matthew Hoh, the senior state department official in Aghanistan's Zabul province, said in a letter released on Tuesday that he had "lost understanding of, and confidence in, the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan".

"I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end," the letter, which was dated September 10, said.

Arkadi Gaydamak, a Russian-born Israeli businessman and Pierre Falcone, his French associate, have been sentenced to six-year jail terms for organising the illegal trafficking of weapons to Angola.

Gaydamak, who fled France before the trial, and Falcone were among 42 politicians, businessmen and members of the Paris elite accused of defying a UN embargo to arm the Angolan government during a civil war in the 1990s.

Charles Pasqua, France's former interior minister, was handed a one-year jail term on Tuesday for his involvement in the case dubbed "Angola-gate".

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of France's late president, was handed a two-year suspended sentence and fined $550,000 for receiving commissions linked to the illegal arms deals.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has said that he "appreciates" the support shown by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Erdogan, who arrived in Tehran for bilateral talks on Tuesday, has accused Western nations of hypocrisy in criticising Iran's uranium enrichment programme while remaining silent on Israel, which is believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Ahmadinejad told Erdogan: "When an illicit regime possesses nuclear arms, one can not talk about depriving other nations from the peaceful nuclear programme.

The family of a British couple feared to have been seized by Somali pirates while sailing near the Seychelles said they are praying for their safety.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 58 and 55, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, sent a distress signal on Friday from the Indian Ocean near the Seychelles.

A possible yacht sighting, about 200 miles to the east of the Somali port of Haradheere, is being investigated.

Mr Chandler's sister Jill Marshment said it was "like a bad dream".

"[I] just can't believe it's happened but I'm afraid it does happen," she said.

"I'm sure they will come out of it alright... and they will do the best they can.

Reporting from Mexico City -  Representatives of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the de facto government that replaced him in a coup returned to negotiations Monday, but the two sides remained deadlocked over whether to return Zelaya to power.

Both delegations had suggested Monday as a deadline for resolving the dispute, or calling off talks altogether. De facto President Roberto Micheletti abruptly announced Friday that the Supreme Court was the body that should decide whether to reinstate Zelaya. The head of Zelaya's team, Victor Meza, called the proposal "absurd" and countered that the Congress should make the decision, arguing that returning Zelaya to office was a political matter, not a judicial one.

The Supreme Court has endorsed the coup, and Zelaya's supporters do not trust it to be an impartial arbiter. The Congress also signed off on the coup and voted Micheletti into office, but Zelaya may believe there is more room for political jockeying among legislators. Micheletti's representatives favor deferring to the court because they want Zelaya to be brought to trial immediately on various charges, including abuse of power.

The two sides have agreed on all other points in a plan drafted in July by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, including a decision to forgo amnesty for people involved in the coup and the events leading up to it. But the final point, Zelaya's reinstatement, appears to be the deal-breaker.

Reporting from Mexico City -  Words can hardly convey how vicious, how over the top, Mexico's drug war has become. So they invented some.
....

Herewith a partial, albeit macabre, narco-glossary:

Levanton: the kidnapping of one or more members of a rival gang, or other enemy. Unlike traditional kidnappings, the point is not ransom, but to torture and kill a foe. Victims of a multiple levanton may end up fusilados.

Fusilados: from the Spanish for rifle, to be executed in the style of a firing squad, or with a shot to the head, known as a tiro de gracia. This occurred in an attack at a Ciudad Juarez drug-treatment clinic in early September.

Encajuelado: Based on the word for "trunk," a body dumped in the trunk of a car. This is a common method of disposing of victims of a drug hit. Often, the bodies are bound and gagged with packing tape or are encobijados, wrapped in blankets. Sometimes they are accompanied by a handwritten narcomensaje.

Narcomensaje: A scrawled drug message, often rambling or peppered with misspellings. Such missives are typically meant to threaten rival drug cartels or government security forces. Messages sometimes take the form of banners, known as narcomantas, and hung from bridges or in other public places to demonstrate a gang's audacity.

The Taliban brought their insurgency to the heart of Kabul this morning when militants stormed a guest house used by United Nation's employees which left six people dead.

At the same time a rocket attack on an exclusive hotel favoured by foreigners sent guests scurrying into secure underground bunkers and forced police to shut off large sections of the centre of the capital.

The assault on the UN approved Bekhtar Guesthouse in one of Kabul's most expensive neighbourhoods began in the early hours of the morning, and according to some people in the neighbourhood, involved at suicide bombers.

Such so-called "swarm attacks" have increasingly become a favoured tactic my militants operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A UN spokesman said six employees had been killed but was unable to confirm claims that some of the residents worked for UN Elect, the agency supporting the country's presidential election's which are due to go into their second round on November 7 despite threats by the Taliban to disrupt polling.

The UN also said nine people had been injured in the attack and this morning issued its "white city" order, confining all staff to their guest houses and banning all movement around the city until further notice.

Yesterday, a New Jersey paper reported that an angry young woman had splashed purple paint all over two people in Clifton, N.J., who were passing out pamphlets that depicted President Obama as a fascist.

The paper reported that, according to Clifton Police, the pamphleteers were working for the political action committee of Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical corporation that has a large campus in the same town.

[...]

But, as police told TPM today, they were mistaken. Further investigation showed the pamphleteers were actually supporters of fringe political figure Lyndon LaRouche.