US Defence Secretary Gates said that most NATO countries lack military capabilities...

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates delivered a sharp parting shot at European allies on Friday, saying NATO risks “collective military irrelevance” unless they bear more of the burden and boost military spending.

In a final policy address before retiring at the end of the month, Gates said NATO-led operations in Afghanistan and Libya had exposed significant shortcomings in military capabilities and political will among the allies.

Afghan district captured by Taliban....

The defense ministry said that Afghan commandos had reclaimed the district.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked and briefly seized parts of a district in Afghanistan s remote and mountainous northeast on Wednesday, provincial officials said, with gunfights raging for hours between insurgents and Afghan troops.

Jamuladdin Badr, the governor of Nuristan province near the border with Pakistan, told Reuters the Duab district center had "fallen into the hands of insurgents," but most of it was recaptured within hours by Afghan troops.

suicide bomber hits the Hospital In Afghanistan .....

A suicide bomb attack on a hospital has left six people dead and 23 wounded in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The bomber detonated his device in a tent in the grounds of Charsad Bestar Hospital where medical students were eating lunch.