Former Afghan TV presenter shot dead

A gunman shot and killed an Afghan woman television presenter two months after she was fired from her job on a pop music programme after complaints from religious conservatives.

The woman, Shaima Rezayee, 24, was killed in her home in Kabul, police said. "We don't know who did it or whether it was related to her work or not."

Private television and radio stations have mushroomed in Afghanistan since the ouster of the hardline Taleban in 2001.

Rezayee worked for a new channel called Tolo TV, which has won many young urban fans with its Western programmes and trendy presenters but also drawn criticism from clerics.