An Afghan provincial governor said a blast at his office on Wednesday was an assassination attempt while in a separate incident, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a judge. The level of violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan in recent months with the Taliban stepping up their insurgency as thousands more NATO peacekeepers are arriving. A bomb planted in a police vehicle exploded inside the compound of the governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar. It caused no casualties but smashed office windows and damaged the car the governor had just arrived in. Full Story