An Afghan vote monitoring group said Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s south cut off the fingers of two voters, carrying out a gruesome pre-election threat.

US vice president-elect Joe Biden promised US support for Afghanistan’s struggle against terrorism, drugs and corruption, in a surprise visit to southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

Canada’s parliament voted to extend its mission in Afghanistan to 2011 if NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the volatile south.

A string of suicide bombings across Afghanistan killed 18 people, including four Canadian soldiers, today and wounded scores of others a day after Nato announced a victory over insurgents in a southern Taliban stronghold.

A suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan today, an Afghan official said.

Nato troops assumed command today of military operations in volatile southern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition in the latest bid to crush resurgent Taliban forces behind a deadly spike in bloodshed.

US-led coalition forces and Afghan police killed 20 suspected Taliban in the latest fighting to hit southern Afghanistan, as NATO today prepared to take command in the insurgency-wracked region.

Canadian and Afghan troops have killed five Taliban militants in fierce clashes around an opium-rich southern village, the military said.

AFGHAN and coalition troops, pushing ahead with their largest offensive since the ousting of the Taliban five years ago, have killed about 85 suspected insurgents in targeted attacks over the past few days in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that his government will recruit local tribesmen to fight the biggest increase in Taliban violence in years.

Election authorities today said they have dismissed about 50 employees for suspected fraud in last month’s legislative polls, while human rights advocates warned that about half of the winning candidates are suspected to have links to armed groups.

Afghan police and soldiers are pressing ahead with a plan to eradicate the world’s largest opium crop, moving from field to field in southern Kandahar province with shearers and large sticks as angry farmers look on.

Two Britons working for a security company have been killed in an attack while helping the UN prepare for landmark elections in Afghanistan.

TALIBAN fighters ambushed a truck full of government soldiers in the southern province of Zabul, killing several, the provincial governor and a Taliban spokesman said yesterday.

EIGHTEEN people travelling on a bus were killed yesterday when a powerful bomb destroyed a bridge in southern Afghanistan.

A bomb has destroyed a bridge outside Kandahar, killing 18 people on a bus.

US military official say they had no information about claims a US bombing raid in eastern Afghanistan has destroyed a village and killed more than 100 civilians.

The US has launched its first daylight raid on Afghanistan.

Fighter jets have bombed the stronghold of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia in southern Kandahar hours after dawn today, Taliban officials said.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban will let a grand council of Islamic clerics decide whether to hand over Osama bin Laden.

Helicopter gunships belonging to opposition troops fired rockets in the vicinity of the Kabul airport early today, hours after the devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, according to Taliban soldiers and eyewitnesses.