For a third time, Afghanistan sets up anti-corruption squad; critics seek deeds not just words. Afghanistan's newly unveiled anti-corruption unit drew guarded praise Monday from a wary international community, which has heard President Hamid Karzai promise before to end the graft and thievery that's bleeding his nation.

Afghanistan's minister of mines allegedly accepts $20 million to steer mining project to China. A senior Afghan official allegedly took a $20 million bribe to steer a copper mining project to a Chinese company, a glaring example of the claims of corruption clouding the Obama administration's deliberations over expanding the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan.

Analysis: In the end US accepts Karzai because Afghanistan offers few other good options. President Hamid Karzai's leadership is weak, his government corrupt and nearly a third of the votes he won in the August election were thrown out as fakes.

Afghan President Karzai effectively handed a 2nd term when challenger drops out. President Hamid Karzai was effectively handed a second five-year term Sunday when his only challenger dropped out of the race, and the Obama administration said it was prepared to work with the man it has previously criticized to combat corruption and confront the Taliban insurgency.

Killing of 5 British soldiers raises questions about infiltration of Afghan police force. The killing of five British troops by a rogue Afghan policeman underlines concerns about training and discipline within the ranks and possible insurgent infiltration of a police force that the U.S. hopes will be its ticket out of Afghanistan someday.

Suicide car bombing strikes near NATO headquarters in Afghan capital as election looms. A suicide car bomber struck near the front gate of NATO headquarters in Kabul killing seven people and wounding nearly 100 in a brazen daylight attack less than a week before Afghanistan's landmark presidential election.

US condemns return of controversial Afghan warlord days before presidential election. A powerful and controversial Afghan warlord returned from exile in Turkey late Sunday ? in an apparent attempt by President Hamid Karzai to attract ethnic Uzbek voters in this week's presidential poll.

Major allegations of fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election topped 550 by Sunday, more than doubling the figure investigators reported just two days earlier, officials said.

Major fraud allegations double in Afghanistan's presidential vote. Major fraud complaints in the Afghan presidential election surged Sunday to nearly 700, raising concern that the volume of cases that must be investigated will delay announcement of a winner and formation of a new government.

Afghans say they're tiring of election mania, would like a winner in 1 round. Can we please get this over with?

Defiant Afghan voters trickle to polling centers, express hope, fear and pride. Some Afghans voted eagerly Thursday in the presidential election, even though threats of violence kept many from the polls.

Ascetic ex-minister campaigning out of a tent is running 3rd in Afghan election. Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost works out of a tent, eschews meat and refuses bodyguards. With a message of asceticism and charity, he has struck a chord with Afghan voters, disillusioned with candidates tainted by ties to warlords and government corruption.

Western airstrikes kill fewer Afghan civilians in July despite rise in fighting, troop deaths. Fewer civilians were killed by airstrikes in Afghanistan last month even as U.S. and NATO forces pushed deep into Taliban territory, driving clashes and Western casualties sharply higher.

Chinese state media say bomb threat diverts plane scheduled to land in Xinjiang. An Afghan plane bound for the restive western Chinese region of Xinjiang was sent back to Afghanistan after a bomb threat, Chinese media said Sunday.

Afghan journalists blamed a kidnapped colleague's death on what they called a reckless rescue operation by British forces and said Thursday that foreign troops have a "double standard" for Western and Afghan lives.

US troops in Afghanistan remember Sept. 11 attacks amid waning support for 8-year war. Many of the troops at this sprawling U.S. air base were in their mid-teens when they watched the planes hit the World Trade Center's twin towers on television and vowed to join the military.

Hidden behind the burqa, female candidates struggle to campaign in Afghanistan. Sima Matin's burqa limits her vision. It gives her migraines. Now it's causing another problem: It's hiding her from the voters she hopes will elect her in next month's provincial election.

UN: Civilian deaths up 24 percent in Afghanistan; insurgent bombings, airstrikes blamed. Civilian deaths in the escalating Afghan war soared by 24 percent during the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year, the United Nations said Friday, blaming most of the casualties on Taliban attacks launched with little regard for civilian lives.

2 Marines die in S. Afghan bomb blasts; analysts say US still vulnerable to guerrilla tactics. A bomb blast killed two U.S. Marines in Afghanistan's dangerous south, where thousands of American troops have deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country's opium poppy region, officials said Sunday.

3 British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan; 16 deminers kidnapped in the east. Insurgent attacks killed three British soldiers in the southern Afghanistan region where thousands of U.S. Marines pushed forward with the American military's biggest anti-Taliban offensive since the hard-line Islamist regime was toppled.