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An Afghan diplomat has been shot dead by a security guard at the country’s consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Third secretary Mohammad Zaki died of his injuries shortly after the attack, a spokesman for the consulate said. The private security officer, who is an Afghan, is in custody. Police say he was the diplomat’s personal bodyguard.

Officials say he opened fire following a dispute between the two men. What prompted the argument remains unclear. “We were working at our office when we heard gunshots,” consulate spokesman Haris Khan said, Associated Press reports. “Everybody was running in panic when I got out.”

Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal confirmed the shooting. “It seems to be a personal dispute related criminal act,” he wrote on his official Facebook account.

Police and paramilitary forces were deployed to the Clifton district area around the consulate after the shooting broke out.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital, has a history of political, sectarian and militant violence – and there have been a number of attacks on foreign missions based there.

A knife attacker has admitted killing a US tourist and wounding five others in a rampage in central London.

Zakaria Bulhan, from Tooting, south-west London, carried out the attack in Russell Square on 3 August last year.

Retired teacher Darlene Horton, 64, was visiting the city with her husband when she was killed.

Bulhan, 19, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and charges of wounding. He had been charged with murder and attempted murder, but the court accepted his plea.

The court heard he was suffering an “acute” episode of paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the attacks.

Mother-of-two Ms Horton was due to return home to Tallahassee the day after the attack. The knife penetrated her left lung and heart when she was stabbed in the back. She died at the scene.

Lillie Selletin, David Imber, Martin Hoenisch, Bernard Hepplewhite and Yovel Lewronski were all injured in the rampage. The court heard they have all made good recoveries from their injuries.

Mr Hoenisch, a retired fireman from Las Vegas, was visiting London with his wife Laurie Kelly when he was injured in the attack. He said on Facebook it was a “very unreal experience” and he was “still very saddened about the woman who was killed”.

Ms Lewronski, 18, was visiting London from Tel Aviv when she was stabbed in the upper arm. She wrote on the social media site that she did not know whether to call it “luck or fate” that she escaped death.

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Russia is carrying out a sustained campaign of cyber attacks targeting democracy and critical infrastructure in the West, UK Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has warned.

Moscow was “weaponising misinformation” in a bid to expand its influence and destabilise Western governments and weaken Nato, he said.

Vladimir Putin had chosen to become a “strategic competitor” of the West. Sir Michael said it was vital alliance members strengthened cyber defences. His speech, at the University of St Andrews, came hours before Theresa May was due to use an informal summit in Malta to press EU Nato members to boost defence spending.

May To Press EU Leaders Over Defence Spending

Meanwhile, in a report, MPs have warned that a skills shortage and “chaotic” handling of personal data breaches are undermining confidence in the UK government’s ability to protect its own infrastructure and economy from cyber attacks.

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A French soldier guarding the Louvre in Paris has shot a man who tried to attack a security patrol with a machete shouting “Allahu Akbar”, police say.

The man, who tried to gain entry to the Louvre’s shopping centre, was shot in the abdomen and seriously injured. One soldier received a head injury.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the attack was “terrorist in nature”. The Louvre, home to numerous celebrated art works, is the most visited museum in the world.

Police say five shots were fired at the man, who was taken to hospital. Two rucksacks belonging to the suspected attacker have been inspected but no explosives were found. A second person has been arrested. Two-hundred-and-fifty visitors were in the Louvre at the time were evacuated gradually after security checks.

As the attack unfolded, they were told by security staff to crouch on the floor.

France has been on a high state of alert since the Paris attacks of 2015. A series of assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers claimed by so-called Islamic State killed 130 people in November 2015.

In January of the same year, 17 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and linked shootings.

US defence secretary James Mattis is in South Korea on the first foreign trip by a senior official in the Trump administration.

Mr Mattis is expected to use the visit to reassure Seoul of continuing US commitment to security deals in the face of threats from North Korea.

While campaigning, Donald Trump accused South Korea and Japan of not paying enough for US military support. He also suggested they could be allowed to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. Both Japan and South Korea rejected this idea.

On the campaign trail, Mr Trump also said he was willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, contradicting longstanding US, South Korean and Japanese policy. Mr Mattis will be in South Korea until Friday, and will hold talks with his Korean counterpart, Han Min-koo, among other officials.

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