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Concerned a ban on security contractors in Afghanistan will curtail the efforts of development workers, the State Department is feverishly negotiating with the Afghan government about a set of conditions that will allow private security details to operate in the country, senior U.S. officials told CNN. FULL POST

The marked increase in airstrikes in Afghanistan does not mean the more restrictive airstrike policy put in place by ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been rolled back by the new commander, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff said Tuesday.

"The truth of the matter is we have 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. And additional operations suggest that there will be additional air operations as well." Gen. Norton Schwartz said at the National Press Club.

In September there were 700 incidents of NATO airstrikes, up 172 percent from the previous year and one of the highest single-month totals of the entire nine-year war, according to Air Force data cited by Wired Magazine's Danger Room blog. FULL POST

Aisha was 19 years old when CNN first told her story - a survivor of persistent abuse. Her husband — a member of the Taliban — sliced off her nose and ears after a Taliban court in Oruzgan ruled she had brought shame to the family by running away. Now, she unveils her new nose and begins a new life in America.

In an exclusive interview, CNN's Larry King talked to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday night in a wide-ranging interview, from talking to the Taliban to rumors that the Afghan leader is manic-depressive. Read the full story

Watch some excerpts from the interview:
Karzai: There is a corruption problem
Karzai: Osama bin Laden not here
Karzai: Relations with Obama are good
Karzai: Manic claims 'rather funny'

After 11 days of waiting, supplies for NATO troops are on the move again as hundreds of fuel tankers and container trucks roll through the Torkham border crossing toward the Khyber Pass bound for Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the crossing for NATO trucks after a border incident involving Pakistani troops and a U.S. helicopter on September 30 that left two Pakistani border soldiers dead.

But the closure of this main transit route for NATO goods into Afghanistan has left a huge backlog, and American military vehicles continue to sit out in the open with very little security to protect them from attacks.

An Afghan interpreter was killed and eight people were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a coalition helicopter in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

The incident occurred in Kunar province. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter had just landed and had been off-loading when the RPG was fired into the cargo bay. Seven ISAF servicemembers and an Afghan Border Police officer were injured. FULL POST

War casualties in a Kandahar hospital are "hitting record highs," figures that illustrate the "deteriorating security situation" in southern Afghanistan, the International Committee for the Red Cross said on Tuesday. FULL POST

The Taliban is spreading through northern Afghanistan, and the governor of the northern province of Kunduz claims in an interview with CNN that 40 percent of his province is over-run by Taliban militants.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has started talks with representatives of the Taliban, a move that analyst Fareed Zakaria says could bring an end to the nine-year-long war.

"Most civil wars end with some kind of negotiated settlement, and in the Afghan case this is inevitable," says Zakaria. "Much as we don't want to believe it, the Taliban is a part of Afghan society. It represents some section of the conservative Pashtun community. These people are not foreigners who will go away one day. Finding a way to integrate them into the political system is a good idea."

Watch his take above about the process, the likelihood for success without the U.S. at the negotiating table, and just how Pakistan fits into all this.

And read the full Q&A: How to end the war in Afghanistan
Your view: Talking to the Taliban

Watch the entire exclusive interview by Larry King with Hamid Karzai on "Larry King Live" at 9 p.m. ET Monday.

Attempting to advance his nation's peace progress with insurgents, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said unofficial negotiations with the Taliban have been taking place and hopes the formation of a peace council will further those efforts.

"We have been talking to the Taliban as countryman to countryman, talk in that manner," Karzai told CNN's "Larry King Live" in an interview scheduled to air Monday night. "Not as a regular official contact with the Taliban with a fixed address, but rather unofficial personal contacts have been going on for quite some time." FULL POST

A British aid worker who died during an operation to rescue her from kidnappers in Afghanistan may have been killed by a grenade thrown by American forces trying to free her, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will launch an investigation into the failed attempt to rescue Linda Norgrove, 36, Cameron said.

NATO and British officials had said earlier she was killed by her captors, who detonated an explosive.

Read the full story

An anti-insurgent provincial governor who had survived Taliban assassination attempts was among 20 people who died on Friday in an explosion at a northern Afghan mosque during prayers, a government official said.

The blast in Afghanistan's Takhar province killed Kunduz provincial governor Engineer Mohammad Omar, who recently sounded an alarm about the threat of insurgents during an interview with CNN.

The bombing also wounded 35 others, with most of those killed and injured engaged in prayer, said Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashari. FULL POST

NATO forces killed five armed men in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, and the command is investigating allegations of civilian casualties, the International Security Assistance Force said.

The incident occurred in the Nadir Shar Kot district of Khost province, when an air weapons team was on patrol.

Helicopters spotted people with weapons moving from a "previously identified enemy position near Sinzai Kalay village." ISAF is sending an assessment team to the region to look into claims of civilian casualties.

CNN's Martin Savidge talks with parents of a U.S. soldier who was killed after four tours of duty in Iraq and eight in Afghanistan. Sgt. 1st Class Lance H. Vogeler, 29, of Frederick, Maryland, died October 1 in Bastion, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered in Helmand, Afghanistan.

More: Home & Away: Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

Vogeler's widow Melissa is expecting a child, and a trust account has been set up for the unborn son. Those wishing to donate to a trust fund for Baby Boy Vogeler can contact the Coastal Bank Johnson Square office and mention Baby Boy Vogeler or the parents' names.

A jihadist from Hamburg suspected of being part of an al Qaeda plot against Europe was killed by a drone strike in northwest Pakistan this week, according to a statement Thursday on a Turkish-language jihadist website.

The website said a fighter named Abu Askar al-Almani and three other Jihadists had been "martyred" by the missile strike against a base in Waziristan, where German and Tajik fighters were living. German officials say al-Almani is the nom de guerre of Shahab Dashti, an Iranian-German who left Hamburg, Germany, with 10 other suspected militants in the spring of 2009. FULL POST