KABUL (AFP) – Twelve people including three foreign soldiers were killed in a spate of bombings and gun battles in Afghanistan, including one firefight between police and opium growers, officials said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Pentagon said Tuesday that any sizeable increase in much-needed US forces in Afghanistan will depend on deeper troop cuts in Iraq than currently planned.

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Jam Bigum, a drug addict in Afghanistan’s impoverished northern province of Badakhshan, feeds her three-month-old son opium three times a day to keep him quiet.