U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his French counterpart Herve Morin discussed NATO's involvement in Afghanistan during a meeting Thursday at the Pentagon, but neither would provide many details of their talks. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.

U.S. experts have warned that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state if urgent steps are not taken to improve security and reconstruction in the country.

Some 500 Afghan women have gathered in a rare demonstration in southern Kandahar province, demanding the release of a female American aid worker kidnapped Saturday.

Veteran British diplomat Paddy Ashdown has withdrawn his name from consideration as the new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan.

U.S. defense officials made it clear today that while they appreciate the hard work NATO troop-contributing nations are doing in Afghanistan, more counterinsurgency training would help further the allies' success.

Most girls dream about about falling in love, getting married in a beautiful dress, and having a family. But for thousands of young girls in Afghanistan, and millions more across Asia and Africa, marriage often comes before they are old enough for such dreams -- and ends in nightmare.

A German aid worker recently opened a school in rural north Afghanistan with financial support from the Netherlands. A grammar school no less. So that rural children also get the chance to go to university. Until recently that was unthinkable in this province and in this country, one of the poorest in the world. But Dr. Sybille Schnehage proves that nothing is impossible. She even does business with the local Taliban.

Afghanistan has ordered a top European Union official and a United Nations staffer to leave the country for threatening national security while EU spokeswoman hopes for a swift resolution to the problem.

The head of al-Qaida Osama bin Laden released a new tape where he calls on Europeans to stop supporting the U.S. in their war against Afghanistan.

Afghan officials say NATO warplanes mistakenly killed 14 Afghan construction workers while hunting for Taliban militants in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

A bomb planted on a road in Kabul has blown up a civilian vehicle, killing its four Afghan passengers. The bomb was remotely detonated and exploded as the vehicle passed in the south-eastern outskirts of the city, city police chief General Zalmai Uriakhail said.

A suicide bomb on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul has killed six schoolchildren and wounded three Italians working on an aid project building a bridge, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.