The spokesman for the governor, Omar Zwak, was among those wounded in the attack. Other officials were also wounded, including two district governors and the director of agriculture for the province, according to provincial officials. Police officers guarding the area were on edge late Wednesday, refusing entry to any vehicles as cleaners swept the debris from the streets. Officials had gathered at the compound to discuss the issue of child trafficking in Helmand, said Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar , the deputy governor of the province, who was unhurt. The governor himself was in Kabul when the attack occurred, he added. Instead, they kill innocent and powerless people.

U.S. Mortgage Rates Hit New Record Low With 30-Year at 2.65%



Radio journalist killed in bomb blast in Afghanistan
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan have sent Christmas messages to their loved ones. Guardsman Sam Gray, Corporal Ben Simpson and Kingsman Kythe Rowbotham have sent special messages with photos from the front line to family and friends in the run-up to Christmas. Love, Dad. By Lancs Live.


Afghanistan: New Taliban Tactics
The departure of the farmers is one of the most telling indications that Taliban fighters have found a way to resume their insurgency, three months after thousands of troops invaded this Taliban stronghold in the opening foray of a campaign to take control of southern Afghanistan. Militants have been infiltrating back into the area and the prospect of months of more fighting is undermining public morale, residents and officials said. As the coalition prepares for the next major offensive in the southern city of Kandahar, the uneasy standoff in Marja, where neither the American Marines nor the Taliban have gained the upper hand and clashes occur daily, provides a stark lesson in the challenges of eliminating a patient and deeply rooted insurgency. Over families have fled Marja in the last two weeks, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Marja residents arriving here last week, many looking bleak and shell-shocked, said civilians had been trapped by the fighting, running a gantlet of mines laid by insurgents and firefights around government and coalition positions.




We will not go to a second round. Vote counting has finished at all 6, polling stations around the country, but electoral officials said preliminary results would not be released for several days. Official results will follow in several weeks. Afghanistan's election authority said it could not confirm the Karzai team's claims and called on candidates to await the final results. Voter turn-out was expected to be high in the more secure north, but as low as ten per cent in the most violent districts of the Pashtun tribal south.