Dresden, Germany

NATO took command of international peacekeepers tasked with enforcing security in the Afghan capital, heralding the 54-year-old alliance’s first mission outside Europe.

Four German soldiers were killed and nine others seriously injured when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in an attack on peacekeepers in Afghanistan today, German Defence Minister Peter Struck said.

THE United States clashed openly with reluctant European allies yesterday, rejecting a last-ditch peace plan to send UN troops to Iraq along with a beefed-up team of weapons inspectors.