The pastoral scene of farmers tilling wheat fields replaced the buzzing of helicopters and explosion of rockets in an area declared just a day earlier to be under Taliban control.

By Allauddin Khan; Jason Straziuso KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber penetrated a crowd watching a dog-fighting competition in the Taliban's former stronghold Sunday, killing up to 80 people in one of the bloodiest bombings since the regime's 2001 ouster.

By Stephanie Levitz, THE CANADIAN PRESS KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military bristled at a suggestion Monday that more than three dozen Afghan deaths and injuries to four Canadians could have been avoided if it had taken the advice of the Afghan government.

By Stephanie Levitz, THE CANADIAN PRESS KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military bristled at a suggestion Monday that more than three dozen Afghan deaths and injuries to four Canadians could have been avoided if it had taken the advice of the Afghan government.

By Taimoor Shah Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul and Carlotta Gall from Islamabad.