President Barack Obama met his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in Washington yesterday. Ewen MacAskill reports on US efforts to get Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari to help fight Islamist extremism in their countries.
The European court of human rights ruled in December that the government was wrong to retain the DNA of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Home affairs editor Alan Travis says the Home Office's response to the ruling is likely to disappoint civil liberties campaigners.
Jennifer Cole, research analyst in emergency management at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank assesses the UK's preparedness for swine flu.
And Peter Beaumont looks back at his 20 years of war reporting for the Observer.
