Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for discussions on plans to pave the way for transferring security responsibilities in Afghanistan to home-grown military forces.

The Conservative government now says it was aware of "concerns about the state of prisons" in Afghanistan almost from the day it took office and eventually rewrote a prisoner transfer agreement as those concerns mounted.

The medical assistant braved Taliban fire to tend to a comrade shot in the neck during a gun battle in Afghanistan in March.

A key anti-Taliban tribal leader was assassinated Friday in a roadside bombing, the latest in a series of attacks against pro-government militias in the Afghan border area of northwestern Pakistan.

"They become your family and being able to eat together like this, to break bread together is a highlight," said 1st Sgt.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban and other extremist groups Friday to lay down their weapons and participate in rebuilding the battered country, as part of reconciliation efforts he has said will be his main objective during his second term.

"WASHINGTON a ' The United States is scrambling to coax NATO allies to send 10,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of President Obama a TMs strategy for the region.

Pakistan has warned the US that sending more soldiers to Afghanistan could endanger its southwest border region.

Five-year-old Kamila Gul should not have survived the landmine blast that slammed shrapnel into her tiny body, most of it to her skull.

Former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier testifies at a House of Commons committee on Wednesday about the Afghan detainee controversy.

The German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, tol the Berlin parliament that Gen Schneiderhan had been relieved of his duties for not explaining to his superiors the circumstances of exactly what happened in the Sept 4 incident.

The Taliban's reclusive leader issued a Muslim holiday message on Wednesday calling on Afghans to break off relations with the government, which he described as a 'stooge' administration, AP reported.

Two U.S. paratroopers were killed and five others wounded, all from the same company, in a pair of unrelated bomb blasts Sunday.

A former head of MI6 has launched an attack on the Government for its financing and handling of the military campaign in Afghanistan.

A Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani suspects on terror charges on Wednesday in connection with last year's attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, a defense lawyer said.

As President Obama gets ready to unveil a new strategy to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States military in the eastern province of Khost is already trying a different approach that relies on local anti-Taliban sentiment, Fox News reported Wednesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved Tuesday to calm the political storm surrounding the handover of Afghan prisoners.

Security forces seized 2.5 tons of explosive device from a vehicle in Laghman province in the east of Afghanistan and thus foiled a deadly terrorist attack, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Pentagon is making detailed plans to send about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in anticipation of President Obama's decision on the future of the eight-year-old war, a defense official said Tuesday, CNN reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama said here on Tuesday that he will announce his administration's decision on a buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan "shortly", Xinhua reported.