WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Marine Corps reportedly wants to withdraw its entire force from Iraq to focus its combat efforts on Afghanistan.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s lower house of parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved extending the deployment of 3,000 troops and six reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan for another year, despite mounting public skepticism about the mission.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan authorities this week shut down two private security companies and said more than 10 others – some suspected of murder and robbery – would soon be closed, Afghan and Western officials said yesterday.

BERLIN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) — German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed Wednesday that the German engineer kidnapped months ago in Afghanistan was released.

OTTAWA — Canada is seeking assurances from the Afghan government that none of the 15 prisoners executed Sunday had been transferred by Canadian forces, as human-rights advocates expressed outrage over the decision to end a three-year moratorium on the death penalty.

OTTAWA – Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department offered a muted response Tuesday to the execution of 15 prisoners in Afghanistan.

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — The execution of 15 prisoners in Afghanistan, the second confirmed use of the death penalty since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, is a concern, the United Nations envoy in the country said.

SYDNEY (AFP) — Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday an Australian soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan died for a just cause while fighting “brutal terrorism”.

A UK soldier killed in Afghanistan is the most senior Army officer to die in the country since the conflict began. Maj Alexis Roberts, serving with the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was returning to Kandahar Airfield on Thursday when he died in an explosion.

KABUL (AFP) — A British NATO soldier was killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan overnight while US-led coalition forces killed several militants, officials said Friday.