Kabul - Roads were cordoned off in Kabul this week for the heavily armed convoy of visiting German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung.

To spend as little time as possible on the dangerous streets, the 18 armoured jeeps negotiated them at high speed, leaving behind thick clouds of dust.

The speed was necessary because if the convoy moved too slowly, it could be attacked.

The clearing of the streets for Jung's convoy highlights a trend in Kabul: Ordinary Afghans can no longer move freely about in their own capital. Kabul has been transformed into a fortress.

Blast walls have grown higher and higher and have encroached further into Kabul's streets as the number of checkpoints has increased dramatically.

London/Kabul, Mar.

Kabul - A remote-controlled roadside bomb killed seven Afghan security forces Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of an Afghan journalist, who was shot dead by unknown assailants in southern region.

Seven Afghan security forces were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled roadside bomb in Lakan area of south- eastern province of Khost on Wednesday morning, General Najeeb Nuhzad, an army commander in the province said.

Kabul, Mar. 10: The Taliban has squarely rejected US President Barack Obama’s call for negotiating with its ‘moderate’ arm to bring the ‘War on terror’ in the region to end.

A self styled spokesperson of the outfit, Qari Mohammad Yousuf termed Obama’s tactics of adopting a strategy similar to that of Iraq, as ‘illogical’.

“This does not require any response or reaction from us as this is illogical," The News quoted Yousuf in a media report, as saying.

Kabul  - It was around 6 pm when hospital director Muhammed Hashim Wahaaj left his office in downtown Kabul to go home.

A car followed his vehicle. Wahaaj stopped to let the car pass.

As the car pulled up, a shot rang out, and the bullet hit the 47-year-old in his upper arm.

Three or four men, Wahaaj said, emerged from the car, blindfolded him and tied him up, forced him into the vehicle and had him crouch on the floor.

This event began a painful ordeal of torture and a fear of death for the doctor.

Kabul - A Canadian soldier and ten Taliban insurgents were killed in separate blasts and clashes in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

The Canadian soldier was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in Shah Walikot district of southern Kandahar province, Canadian defence ministry and the NATO military alliance said in statements.

The soldiers were conducting security operations in the area on Sunday when the explosion occurred, the military said.