Blast at a hotel in Kabul killed four hotel employees and injured six other people. ·Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed suicide explosion and gun-fighting went off at Serena Hotel.

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 14 – Two Norwegians are among the injured on Monday in an explosion and firing attack at a luxury hotel in Afghan capital Kabul, according to reports reaching here from Oslo.

A LEADING military analyst with the Ministry of Defence’s own think tank warned that Nato was on the “precipice of failure” in Afghanistan unless it swaps throwing “money and troops” at the country’s problems for a more coherent approach.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said he plans to send 3,200 additional troops to Afghanistan by April to deal with an expected Taliban offensive.

BRUSSELS (AFP) — NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has rejected suggestions that not enough allies are pulling their weight in Afghanistan, as he welcomed US plans to send more troops there.

KABUL (Reuters) – A former senior Taliban commander has been appointed government district chief of the fiefdom he once controlled as an insurgent leader, Afghan officials confirmed on Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Afghanistan, and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police patrol in the south, killing a policeman, officials said.Clashes and another roadside bomb left nine people dead elsewhere.

WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration struggles for a way to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a similar effort to scale down a larger and more secretive American detention center in Afghanistan has been troubled by political, legal and security problems, officials say.

THE CANADIAN PRESS KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A pair of Canadian soldiers returning to establish camp for the night part way through an operation in southern Afghanistan were killed Sunday evening in a vehicle roll-over.

Most girls dream about about falling in love, getting married in a beautiful dress, and having a family. But for thousands of young Afghan girls, and millions more across Asia and Africa, marriage often comes before they are old enough for such dreams — and ends in nightmare.