Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, while a bomb attack near the capital killed three German nationals, officials said today.

The German military have banned filming of Tom Cruise's new movie at its bases because they object to the actor's Scientology religion.

THE German Defence Ministry last night said an army instructor’s order to a soldier to imagine being accosted by blacks in New York’s Bronx borough while firing a machine gun was “absolutely unacceptable”.

A German army instructor who ordered a soldier to envision himself in New York City facing hostile blacks while firing his machine gun is still on duty, a spokesman for the army said today.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed disgust at photos that appeared to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a human skull and pledged that any soldiers found to be involved would be punished severely.

The German military today said it had deployed 250 troops to help clear away dead birds from a Baltic Sea coastal region as authorities tried to prevent the spread of bird flu.