Afghanistan

AP – Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with Taliban militants Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, leaving six suspected insurgents dead and one wounded, the coalition said.

AFP – Afghanistan’s efforts to stem opium production have left 18 police dead and another 33 wounded this year, most of them in clashes during poppy eradication, a deputy minister said.

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, a spokesman said Sunday, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south. Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the group’s leaders announced the beginning of operation “Kamin,” …

AFP – Taliban militants have freed three Afghans abducted with two French colleagues nearly two months ago, their aid group and a spokesman for the extremist movement said Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) —  US President George W. Bush  celebrated victory on Saturday after he signed into law a long-sought  bill committing $100 billion to the wars in Iraq and  Afghanistan.

BBC News – A British soldier has been killed and four others injured in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. The dead soldier was from the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards. The five were hit by an explosion after clashes with Taleban forces during offensive operations in Garmsir …

By Guy Dinmore and Rachel Morarjee, Financial Times The US is proceeding with plans for a big crop-spraying programme to destroy opium poppies in Afghanistan, in spite of resistance from the government of President Hamid Karzai and objections from some senior US military officers who fear it will fuel the …

AFP – A suicide attacker struck a police patrol close to the governor’s office in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, wounding at least three policemen, an officer said. Remains of the bomber, who had been on foot, were scattered across the road, which was immediately cordoned off by police, an …

By Patrick Worsnip, Reuters Britain lobbied U.N. officials on Thursday with a proposal for the world body to lead a comprehensive “campaign plan” for peace in Afghanistan, where NATO-led troops are struggling against Taliban insurgents. Defense Secretary Des Browne said the United Nations was best placed to coordinate a peace-building …

AFP – A rowdy protest of about 200 people, half of them women wearing burqas, demanded that parliament reinstate a female MP suspended for comparing her colleagues to animals. The demonstrators marched in the eastern town of Jalalabad to the offices of the United Nations where they were to hand …