UK names new ambassador to Afghanistan

Britain on Thursday named Mark Sedwill, who has held a string of high-level postings in Asia and the Middle East, as its new ambassador to Afghanistan. Sedwill, who will take up the post in April, replaces Sherard Cowper-Coles, who was earlier this month was named as Britain's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Currently international director of the UK Border Agency, Sedwill was the Foreign Office's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa in 2005, deputy high commissioner in Pakistan in 2003-04 and spent time in Iraq in 1996-97 as a diplomat and UN weapons inspector.