Afghanistan's President-elect Ashraf Ghani and opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah decided to hold separate swearing-in ceremonies on Monday as the two failed to reach an agreement.

Rockets fired as Ashraf Ghani takes oath as Afghanistan president

Afghans risked their lives to vote in legislative elections in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, after the Taliban-claimed killing of a powerful police chief delayed the ballot by a week.

Afghans risk their lives to vote in delayed Kandahar poll

A suicide car bomb attack on a bus carrying police officers and workers in central Afghanistan killed at least five people Saturday, officials said. Another 12 were wounded in the Taliban-claimed blast in the Wardak provincial capital of Maidan Shar, provincial police spokesman Hekmatullah Durrani told AFP.

Suicide attack on Afghan police bus kills five: Officials

Afghans are bracing for more deadly violence on Saturday as voting gets under way in the long-delayed legislative election that the Taliban has vowed to attack. Polling centres opened at 7:00 am (0230 GMT) across the war-torn country, with some 54,000 security forces deployed to protect them.

Afghanistan braces for militant attacks as polling centres open

Doctors, mullahs, sons of warlords, feminists and even a prison inmate are among a motley crew of candidates contesting war-torn Afghanistan's October 20 legislative election.

Watch: Who would want to be an Afghan MP?