Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged the international community to remain engaged in Afghanistan. He made the comments Tuesday during an unannounced visit to Kabul by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Taliban's newly named top field commander purtportedly warned in a first public statement that Taliban fighters would continue their holy war until Western powers leave Afghanistan.

The increasing spiral of violence in Afghanistan is one of the main topics occupying U.S. President George W. Bush and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in talks today at Bush's Texas ranch.

Afghan police say air strikes by NATO-led forces killed 60 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar Province overnight. Provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said the strikes targeted at least one gathering of Taliban fighters in the province late May 14.

NATO said the killing of the Taliban's top operational commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, is a major setback for militants there, but security analysts interviewed by RFE/RL countered that there are many local Taliban commanders who are willing to succeed him.

A U.S. military commander has apologized for the killings of Afghan civilians by U.S. Marines in early March. Colonel John Nicholson told reporters in Afghanistan that he met Tuesday (May 8th) with the families of 19 people who were killed and 50 who were wounded in the violence.

The upper chamber of the Afghan Parliament has voted in favor of opening dialogue with Afghan Taliban fighters in a bid to persuade them to accept the Afghan government. The draft law says a differentiation must be made between Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban, and Al-Qaeda fighters.

The outgoing top U.S. official in Afghanistan, who has just completed his assignment there, says he thinks stability is still possible, despite ongoing violence linked to the resurgence of the Taleban and increased cultivation of opium poppies. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington.

The U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that scores of civilians were killed recently in fighting between U.S. and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The reports coincide with mounting public pressure on President Hamid Karzai and his international allies over noncombatant deaths as a violent insurgency continues.

A roadside bomb exploded today near an Afghan National Army vehicle in southeastern Paktika Province, killing seven Afghan soldiers. The attack followed a suicide bombing in the same province a few hours earlier in which only the bomber was killed.

Australia is sending hundreds more troops to southern Afghanistan, including some 300 special forces commandos, to help combat a resurgence of violence by Taliban militants. Prime Minister John Howard announced that Australia's total military deployment in Afghanistan will reach 950 troops by the middle of this year and will increase to around 1,000 by the middle of 2008.

A militant in southern Afghanistan has demanded the release of Taleban prisoners in exchange for four Afghan health workers and their driver who were kidnapped Tuesday in Kandahar province.