A senior Taleban official has warned that foreign aid...

A senior Taleban official has warned that foreign aid workers on trial in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity could be executed.
Taleban chief justice Mawlawi Noor Mohammad Saqib told the Pakistan-based news agency Afghan Islamic Press that if the eight accused were found guilty, they would be punished according to Islamic law.
"We will punish them according to the laws they have broken," he said. "If they have broken the law and should be hanged, then we will punish them like that."
Mr Saqib said the accused, who were all working for the German-based Shelter Now organisation, would be allowed to have foreign, non-Muslim lawyers. The trial began in Kabul on September 4 behind closed doors. Diplomats who sought a meeting with the chief justice to clarify the legal proceedings were turned away from the court building without explanation.
Mr Saqib said the diplomats would be contacted when it was deemed necessary, adding that the court had still not decided whether to allow independent observers into the trial.