New York  - The United Nations Security Council on Monday renewed the mandate of its mission in Afghanistan for another year, emphasizing its "central and impartial role" in building peace and stability in the troubled nation.

The mission, with 115 international and more than 300 local staff, will lead international efforts to assist the government in Kabul, including the organization of general elections in August.

The Hague - Between 800 and 1,000 journalists from around the world were expected to attend the international conference on Afghanistan in The Hague at the end of the month, Dutch officials said Monday.

Some 500 journalists had already registered to cover the gathering of representatives from at least 75 countries that is to focus on the future of Afghanistan, a spokesman for The Hague municipality told reporters.

Kabul, Mar. 23 : United States Special Forces reportedly killed five people near the Afghan-Tajik border on Sunday, and claimed that they were militants.

The United States military said in a statement that its forces had also detained four suspects in an operation against a "terrorist network".

The military statement also said the operation was coordinated with the local Afghan police. But the provincial police chief, General Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, said no information had been given to him, the Kunduz governor or the head of intelligence.

Kabul - NATO claimed on Monday that its forces killed 10 militants including a commander in southern Afghanistan, the region which witnessed the deaths of seven foreign soldiers in separate attacks.

Taliban leader Maulawi Hassan and nine other militants were killed in NATO operation in Kajaki district of southern Helmand province on Saturday, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

The militants were killed inside their compound, it said, adding that several weapons and bomb-making materials were discovered.

New Delhi/Kabul  - The host was absent when German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung held a press conference at the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan recently.

ISAF's commander, General David McKiernan, apparently had something better to do - unusual considering Jung is defence minister of the third-biggest supplier of troops and the fourth biggest donor nation in Afghanistan.

Kabul  - A foreign soldier serving with NATO forces was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan Sunday, according to military sources.

The attack brings to seven the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in the past three days.

The soldier, whose nationality was not revealed in the statement, died of wounds he sustained in "a hostile incident," the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) said in statement.