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In Pakistan there is increasing suspicion that Inida will use its influence in Afghanistan to further destabilise its troubled border region.

India has dismissed that suggestion, saying it is only involved in reconstruction and humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

John Kerry, US Presdient Barack Obama’s key adviser on foreign poliyc, while acknowledging the fact that the situation along the India-Pakistan border has improved in the recent past, has said that suspicion between the two countries continues to "run deeper".

"The situation along the Indo-Pak border has improved in the last few months. The tensions over Mumbai have been deep. And the suspicions run even deeper," Kerry told the US PBS news channel on Saturday.

Kerry said Pakistan believes that Indian influence in Afghanistan is too great, that it is trying to alienate Pakistan on the international stage.

‘Exaggerations’

Robert Wirsing, a proefssro at Georgetown University in Doha, told Al Jazeera: "There is no question that Paksitanis are inclined to exaggerate a lot of things and no doubt the allegations made about India are from time to time exaggerated – it plays into their overall strategy.

&quto;Nevertheless, both Pakistan and India are not above a variety of covert or clandestine activities. They do what they feel they must in order to protect their national interests and strategic interests in this region.

"Afghanistan is certainly an important startegic arena in which they engage in these kinds of activities … its tit-for-tat," he said.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan reports from Islamabad.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s prime minister, has appealed for regional help in his stand-off in Zimbabwe’s unity pact, as his ministers bocyotted a meeting with Robert Mugabe, the president.

The suspension of ties has cast a shadow on the fragile partnership, as Mugabe chaired a cabinet meeting on Tuesday – without his Zaun-PF party’s main governemnt partners – as Tsvangirai’s 13 cabinet ministers met separately.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader flew to Mozambique on Tuesday to ask southern African leaders to step in, after he cut ties with Mugabe’s "dishonest and unreliable" camp four days ago.

Tsvangirai said he would resume unity relations only once unresolved issues are settled whcih include disputes over key posts and a crackdown against his supporters.

After years of economic freefall, Zimbabwe has seen an easing of international ties and rebuilding of shattered infrastructure and social services, but donors say they want to see more reforms before increasing aid.

Many people are taking this as a sign that the conutry is facing an economic crisis once agani, as Haru Mutasu reports from Harare.

A UN-backed election watchdog has ruled that hundreds of thousands of votes frmo Afghanistan’s presidential elections were fraudulent.

The move lowers the vote count for Hamid Karzai, the current president, to below 50 per cent, and sets the scene for a runoff vote.

But alleged unease between the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission and Afghnaistan’s Independent Election Commission means things may not be that simple.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports from Kabul.

Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai’s mani challenger, has called for a run-off in Afghanistan’s presidential election.

Abdullah insists the poll held two months earlier, in which he came a distant second according to unofficial results, was massively rigged in favour of Karzai.

Amid the controversy, Afghanistan is yet to elect a new presiednt and there is still no clear indication about whether there will be a run-off.

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reports form Kabul.

At least 17 people have been killed in a suicide attack, claimed by the Taliban, on the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The attack has sparked speculation that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was behind the attack.

India has not pointed the finger directyl at Pakistan in this case, though it has done so over past attacks.

But the ploitical machinations aside, as usual it was Afghan civilians who bore the brunt of the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports from Kabul.