Afghanistan

KABUL - Fighting overnight between international troops and Taliban militants in central Afghanistan has left as many as 22 insurgents dead, police said Friday.

LONDON (AFP) - Another two soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan, taking the death toll to nine in as many days, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

As of Thursday, July 9, 2009, at least 647 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

LISBON (AFP) - Portugal's military have given the green light for a proposal to increase its troops in Afghanistan by nearly a third next year, according to the Lusa news agency.

KABUL (Reuters) - An explosion outside a school south of the Afghan capital on Thursday killed at least 25 people, including 15 students, officials said, and Taliban fighters overran a district near the Pakistan border after heavy fighting.

KABUL - Afghanistan's government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.

MOHAMMAD AGHA, Afghanistan (AFP) - A truck rigged with explosives blew up near Kabul on Thursday killing 25 people including many students in one of the deadliest blasts in Afghanistan this year, police said.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned five heroin smugglers, at least one of them a relative of a man who heads Karzai's campaign for re-election next month, a source and a government spokesman said.

KABUL (AFP) - A roadside bomb attack killed two NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Thursday.

PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An explosion outside a school south of the Afghan capital on Thursday killed at least 15 people, including 12 students, an official said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The commander of US Marines in southern Afghanistan said there was an urgent need for more Afghan security forces as well as civilian experts to back up a major offensive against Taliban insurgents.

WASHINGTON - Senior U.S. generals said Wednesday that more Afghan and NATO soldiers are needed to expand the fight against a Taliban-led insurgency in southern Afghanistan, although current military plans make such increases unlikely.

WASHINGTON - The former top U.S. commander in Europe predicted Wednesday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai will easily win re-election in August, but warned that Afghans will quickly lose faith in him, and his U.S. backers, if he does not provide better leadership.

UNITED NATIONS - Afghan women are increasingly the victims of violence, including rapes and acid-throwing attacks at the hands of anti-government elements and local chieftains, according to new U.N. report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine offensive in southern Afghanistan has too few Afghan forces for the task of winning popular support in the Taliban heartland and only four U.S. civilian experts, officials said on Wednesday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - A US soldier was killed in action in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the military said, also reporting the death of a civilian woman and several militants in a mounting insurgency.

GENEVA (AFP) - Rape in Afghanistan is "widespread" and violence against women serving in public life is on the rise, a UN report said Wednesday, nearly eight years after the fall of the Taliban.

ISLAMABAD - Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft launched two attacks against militants loyal to the head of the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday, killing at least 45 in the latest in a barrage of strikes against a group also being targeted by the Pakistani military, intelligence officials said.