Taliban deny sending 10-year-old girl on Afghan suicide bomb mission --- The Taliban have denied that they dispatched a 10-year-old girl to carry out a suicide attack against Afghan police after the girl said her brother wrapped her in an explosives-packed vest but that she refused to blow herself up at a checkpoint in Helmand province. -- Border police in the southern Afghan province arrested the girl's father, Abdul Ghfar, and were searching for the brother, a police commander said. The girl, who was detained on Monday and identified herself only as Spozhmai, said her brother was a Taliban commander. -- But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahamdi on Tuesday denied any involvement in the alleged plot, which he dismissed as government propaganda. - "We never do this, especially with girls," he said. - More, Guardian, at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/08/taliban-deny-girl-afghan-suicide-mission