Strasbourg, France  - A controversial new law reportedly approved by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that makes it illegal for Shiite women to refuse their husbands sex is "extremely alarming and troublesome" for NATO allies, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday in the French city of Strasbourg.

Kabul - US-lead international troops and Afghan soldiers killed five Taliban fighters in the southern province of Helmand, a US military statement said Friday.

Four militants, among them a local Taliban commander believed to be responsible for a suicide attack and an attack on international forces, died in a raid on a compound while a fifth insurgent was killed when a group of militants attacked a coalition patrol, the statement said.

Meanwhile, a Romanian soldier was shot and killed late Thursday, the Romanian Defence Ministry said.

Washington, Apr. 2: Keen to regain control of the offensive against insurgents and extremists in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has decided to deploy the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) All Terrain Vehicle in that landlocked country’s rough terrain with the objective of protecting Allied troops against improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

According to Fox News, Afghanistan is not Iraq. It''s a different war against a different enemy in a different country with an entirely different terrain and altitude.

Washington  - The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and the country's Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency are gaining strength, the top US commander for the region warned Wednesday as the US prepares to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, said in congressional testimony that insurgents had expanded their control over the southern and eastern parts of the country but vowed they would be fought "aggressively and relentlessly" by US forces.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Wednesday the suicide bombing attacks on a government provincial office in Kandahar which killed at least two people and injured a large number of others, including a UN employee.

"Such attacks indiscriminately targeting people and institutions committed to building a better future for the country are morally repugnant and can only set back the efforts to foster peace, reconciliation and stability in Afghanistan," Ban said in a statement.

Munich  - Meeting in Munich, 18 special envoys concerned with Afghanistan and Pakistan vowed Wednesday to step up cooperation and focus on the success of free elections this year in Afghanistan.

Germany hosted the consultations in the Bavarian city, the first meeting of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Support Group.

In a statement, the German Foreign Ministry said Berlin would coordinate the panel in future.