Barack Obama, US president, salutes as soldiers carry the coffin of Sergeant Dale Griffin, of Terre Haute, Indiana, at Dover air force base in Delaware on Thursday. Mr Obama was at the base to meet the aircraft carrying the bodies of 18 US personnel killed in Afghanistan on Monday, including Sgt Griffin

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, has called an urgent meeting of senior department heads on Friday to discuss overall security for the UN in Afghanistan just two days after five of its members were killed and nine wounded in an attack on one of its compounds in Kabul.