WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

KABUL – A soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed and another was wounded on Wednesday in a mine blast in southern Afghanistan, a military statement said.

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin has appointed a firebrand nationalist as Russia’s permanent representative to NATO as the Kremlin takes a more assertive stance with its Cold War foe.