Kabul, Oct 21 : The Taliban have reportedly shot dead a Christian lady social aid worker in Kabul, identified as 34-year-old Gayle Williams, accusing her of spreading her religion.

According to a report in The News, the aid worker, a South African-British national, helped handicapped Afghans, while working for the woman’s aid group ‘Serve’ (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises).

Khar (NWFP), Oct 21 : As many as 15 Taliban were killed when security forces used heavy artillery, fighter jets and helicopter gunships to target suspected hideouts in Bajaur Agency, last evening.

After the attacks in the Chinar, Charmang, Kohi, Babra, Zorbandar, Hashim and Loyesam areas of the tribal region, helicopters dropped pamphlets asking tribesmen to support the government against Taliban. Government troops now control Salarzai and Utman Khel tehsils and parts of Khar, reported the Daily Times.

Tokyo - Japan's House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill to extend the military's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for another year after January 15.

The bill proposed by the government enables the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Forces to continue refueling international warships involved in the US-led war in Afghanistan.

The opposition parties say the special law violates Japan's pacifist constitution.

The opposition-controlled House of Councillors was expected to vote down the bill on October 29. But it will likely receive final parliamentary approval after the more powerful lower house approves it in a subsequent vote the following day.

Berlin - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, interrupting his vacation, confirmed late Monday in Berlin the deaths of two German soldiers and five children in a suicide attack in Afghanistan.

Jung confirmed accounts which had previously come from Afghanistan in which two further German soldiers were wounded in the attack for which the Taliban had claimed responsibility.

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Monday the killing of two aid workers in Somalia and another in Afghanistan in the past three days, saying that he was alarmed by the targeting of people trying to help the poor.

Unknown gunmen shot and killed the head of UNICEF's water and sanitation programme in Somalia on Sunday, three days after an aid worker of the World Food Programme was killed in the central Somali town of Merka.

Kabul - NATO and Afghan forces killed more than 60 Taliban militants in country's southern region in separate clashes, officials said Monday.

In the latest attack, Afghan and NATO forces killed 34 Taliban militants in volatile southern Helmand province on Sunday night, Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor said.

He said several weapons, vehicles and motorbikes used by the militants were recovered by the joint forces.