AFP - US envoy Richard Holbrooke praised Friday the arrests of Taliban leaders, despite a former UN envoy's claim that they disrupt reconciliation efforts with the group.

AFP - US commanders may send an additional 2,500 troops to fend off the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, a region that had been relatively peaceful until recently, a defense official said Friday.

Reuters - Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, who banned television and barred women from appearing in public without an all-enveloping burqa, the Afghan government is fighting a losing battle to keep female flesh off TV.

AP - The arrests of top Taliban figures in Pakistan abruptly halted secret U.N. contacts with the insurgency at a time when the efforts were gathering momentum, the U.N.'s former envoy to Afghanistan said Friday.

Time.com - Diplomats, analysts and local notables say the Kandahar governor, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is unlikely to be embraced by the population even if NATO clears out the Taliban

AP - The first shots came from the north, sending Marines ducking into the nearest ditch — some filled with putrid water. More shots rang out from the southwest: a possible ambush from two sides.

AFP - An earth mover rumbles slowly past a barbed-wire fence, churning up dirt under what will soon be temporary housing for thousands of coalition troops heading to Afghanistan.

AP - In the capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province, Taliban roam the streets freely. Barely a mile (a kilometer) outside Lashkar Gah, they wield more control than the government, according to residents.

AFP - The arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan stopped a secret channel of communications with the United Nations, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan said Friday in a BBC interview.

AP - Crouched on packed earth at a barricaded Marine encampment, the village elders issued their complaint: U.S. troops had killed an innocent 14-year-old boy. Secretly, the Marines didn't believe them. No matter. They apologized, called the death a tragedy and promised to offer a condolence payment to the boy's family.

AFP - Operations to push the Taliban out of their Afghan stronghold of Kandahar are under way and will steadily build in the months ahead, military officials said Thursday.

AFP - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday boosted the power of an anti-corruption body that had faced fierce accusations of being toothless and half-hearted in its battle to wipe out official graft.

AP - Security and military intelligence operations are being reinforced around Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and site of the next phase of the allied military offensive against the Taliban, the American commander for the country said.