Kabul - Two foreign nationals, a South African and a British, and an Afghan guard were shot dead in the centre of the capital Kabul on Saturday, police said.

Dhaka - Two Bangladeshi development workers based in war- torn Afghanistan were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, an official from the non-governmental Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) said on Saturday.

Akhter Ali and Mohammad Shahjahan Ali, BRAC area managers in Afghanistan's central Ghazni province, were taken from their office in Moi Mobarok in the provincial capital, the Dhaka-based organization said in a statement.

The gunmen attacked another Afghan national working for the organization, according to BRAC.

Islamabad - Pakistan's security forces claimed Saturday they had seized a strategic Taliban militant base in the country's ungoverned tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

Major General Tariq Khan, inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said the troops had taken control of Loi Sam area in Bajaur tribal district, a known sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters carrying out cross-border attacks on US-led international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan troops backed by fighter planes and helicopter gunships launched a major offensive in August after militants captured a strategic hilltop in Loi Sam on a road leading into the Afghan province of Kunar, and reinforced their positions in the surrounding areas.

Kabul - Two foreign nationals and an Afghan guard were killed when gunmen opened fire on them in the centre of the capital Kabul on Saturday, police said.

"Two foreigners and one of their Afghan guards were killed by gunmen this morning," said Alishan Ahmadzai, a Kabul police official.

Another police officer at the scene said that the dead foreigners were a woman and a man, while two guards were wounded in the attack.

Washington - Opium production in Afghanistan has fallen 31 per cent this year, White House drug czar John Walters told reporters on Friday.

Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said 5,500 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan this year, down from 8,000 tons in 2007. In 18 of the country's 34 provinces poppy production has been stopped, thanks in part to stepped up efforts by the Afghan government and US and allied troops, he said.

London, Oct 24 : A British war hero who fought in Afghanistan is living in his car, while a migrant family of Afghans has been handed over a 1.2million pounds mansion.

According to the Sun, Corporal Marcus Kilpatrick, 31, who spends his nights in a sleeping bag in the back of a 12-year-old Land Rover, was told no council housing was available for him.

Marcus, who had served in Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, said: "I feel completely let down and unloved by my own country."

Unemployed Marcus, originally from Norwich, sought help a week ago from Ealing Council in West London.

"I kept getting pushed from one person to another, or got told to come back the next day or the next, the paper quoted him, as saying.