Nick Clegg faced flak over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal during Prime Minister’s Questions. Photograph: PA David Cameron had flown to be with his dying father, so Nick Clegg had to face the flak from the hacking scandal. It can’t have been easy. Recently Chris Huhne, a Lib Dem and now energy secretary, [...]

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles. Photograph: Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty Images This is the second time Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles’s departure as the UK’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan has been announced. On the first occasion, back in June, he informed the new foreign secretary, William Hague, that he barely had a job any more. It involved little more [...]

Protestors hang anti-war banners from the scaffolding infront of parliament ahead of a debate on the Afghan conflict. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images Military families will deliver a letter to parliament tomorrow calling for troops to be pulled out of the “unwinnable” war in Afghanistan. More than 30 people who have either lost loved ones there [...]

Customers wait to take money from Kabul Bank. Photograph: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings today from the country’s biggest bank, which is mired in a scandal of corruption and mismanagement. Kabul Bank’s troubles have threatened to add a financial crisis to Afghanistan’s other woes, [...]

Sprint Cup drivers say they were warned about making negative comments, support NASCAR fines NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers said they are OK with NASCAR’s policy of fining drivers for comments considered materially damaging to the sport. Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin confirmed Friday that they were fined recently...