AFP - US President George W. Bush said he would pressure Kabul over the "deeply troubling" case of an Afghan facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

AP - President Bush called on Afghanistan on Wednesday to respect the religious freedom of an Afghan citizen on trial for his life for converting from Islam to Christianity.

AP - Scientists say they've found a reason bird flu isn't spreading easily from person to person: The virus concentrates itself too deep in the respiratory tract to be spewed out by coughing and sneezing.

AFP - At least 21 suspected Taliban and two civilians were killed in violence blamed on militants in insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The Afghan government will not interefere in the trial of a man who could face death for converting to Christianity.

AP - An Afghan man facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity may be mentally unfit to stand trial, a state prosecutor and presidential adviser said Wednesday.

AFP - Afghanistan's foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said that his country did not share Washington's concerns about Iran as a terrorist threat, saying Kabul has benefitted from Tehran's aid.

Reuters - The United States and three NATO allies with troops in Afghanistan urged the Kabul government on Tuesday to respect the religious freedom of an Afghan convert to Christianity who faces the death penalty there.

AP - Police in the Afghan capital defused two bombs Tuesday near a Shiite shrine where tens of thousands of people had gathered for a religious festival, the country's anti-terrorism chief said.

An Afghan man being tried in Kabul could face the death penalty unless he reconverts from Christianity to Islam.

AP - An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.

AFP - A suicide car bomber was killed when he rammed his vehicle into a coalition convoy in southern Afghanistan, officials and witnesses said.

Reuters - Taliban rebels raided a police post in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Sunday, killing two policemen, a government official said.

AFP - A suicide car-bomber was killed when he rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a US-led coalition convoy in southern Afghanistan, a witness and an official said but there were no military casualties.

AP - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb killed nine policeman Friday as they traveled in a convoy transporting four bodies believed to be Macedonian workers kidnapped in southern Afghanistan a week ago, a senior official said.

Reuters - Israel detected its first cases of H5N1 bird flu on Friday, saying the virus had killed thousands of turkeys and chicken on two farms, and it hospitalized one person suspected of being infected.

Ayinde O. Chase - AHN Staff Writer Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - Afghanistan is the latest country to have confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. According to the United Nations and the Afghanistan government, lab tests have confirmed an outbreak of the deadly virus. A statement...

AP - Lab tests have confirmed the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Afghanistan, the government said Thursday. Sweden also announced an outbreak of the virulent virus after two wild birds were found to be infected.

AP - Afghan authorities said Wednesday that preliminary test results from a U.N. lab make them "99 percent certain" that the country's first bird flu outbreak is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Reuters - Afghanistan's national army will be fully operational within four to five years and ready to take over more responsibility for security from international troops, the country's defense minister said on Monday.