Kabul - The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar said Thursday that he was being sacked by the central government.

General Rahmatullah Raoufi, who had served as army commander in the southern region before he was appointed as governor, had replaced powerful and controversial former governor Assadullah Khalid in August.

Khalid had disagreements with NATO-led Canadian commanders in the province and Canadian government officials earlier this year had asked President Hamid Karzai to remove him.

Paris - A French aid worker abducted in the streets of Kabul one month ago has been freed, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday.

Dany Egreteau, 32, who worked for the NGO Solidarity Laique, was kidnapped by armed men on November 3 while walking in the centre of the Afghan capital.

An Afghan secret service agent who tried to prevent the kidnapping was shot to death by the abductors.

In a statement, Kouchner thanked French and Afghan authorities for their efforts in obtaining Egreteau's release, and slammed the kidnappers for targeting aid workers.

Kabul - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 13 militants and captured 15 others in separate clashes in southern and eastern Afghanistan, military sources said Wednesday.

Combined forces killed seven Taliban insurgents in Nad Ali district of the volatile southern province of Helmand Tuesday, US military said in a statement.

Troops were conducting patrols in the area when insurgents attacked with small arms' fire and rockets, the statement said.

Kabul - Two US soldiers have been formally charged with mistreating a pr

Kabul - Two Taliban fighters on motorbike shot dead a district governor in southern Afghanistan Monday morning, the latest in a series of assassinations of senior provincial officials.

Abdul Rahim Desiwal, governor of Andar district in southern Ghazni province, was killed in front of his house in the provincial capital, also called Ghazni, as he was on his way to his office, his spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.

The spokesman said one of Desiwal's bodyguards was seriously wounded in the attack and taken to hospital by police.

Provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman said he believed the attackers were still in the area, and police were trying to track them down.

Kabul, Dec. 1: An Afghan policeman has been killed by British soldiers in Kabul .

British soldiers opened fire on a vehicle, on Sunday, which killed the policeman intantly. The vehicle is reported to have approached the NATO convoy despite warnings to keep away.

The oncoming vehicle ignored repeated warnings, that included the firing of a mini-flare, and continued towards the NATO International Security Assistance Force patrol in the southern town of Lashkar Gah .

The ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) soldiers judged the vehicle to be ‘a direct threat to their lives’ and hence opened fire, the military said in a statement.