Dozens of insurgents killed by NATO and Afghan forces ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan - Backed by helicopters firing missiles, hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces hunted Taliban militants in villages outside Kandahar on Wednesday, killing dozens of insurgents.
NATO reported only light resistance in Arghandab district, a lush river valley filled with fruit groves that offer militants bountiful defensive positions. The Afghan army says up to 400 militants poured into the area on Monday, just 10 miles northwest of Kandahar city, the Taliban's former power base.
U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly played down the scope of the Taliban push. But the swift military response - 700 Afghan soldiers flew to Kandahar on a moment's notice - and the fighter aircraft dedicated by NATO suggest that keeping Arghandab free from militants is an urgent priority.
Arghandab is considered a gateway to Kandahar. If militants can gain a foothold there, attacks become easier on the city once commanded by fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, militants killed six NATO soldiers and wounded 10. Just last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates called attention to the worsening situation in Afghanistan, noting that American and allied combat deaths here in May surpassed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said more than 20 Taliban fighters were killed Wednesday in NATO airstrikes in the Arghandab village of Tabin and 16 more were killed in the village of Khohak. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed, the ministry said in a statement.
Twelve other militants were killed in fighting in Maiwand, a separate district also in Kandahar province.
The governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, said the Taliban had controlled 10 towns in the Arghandab district, but government and NATO forces took back four.
Europe imposes detainment laws on undocumented persons STRASBOURG, France - Europe's hardening attitudes toward immigration found a voice in the EU Parliament Wednesday, as legislators passed new rules for expelling illegals amid a widening crackdown in the United States.
As the global economy slows, governments in rich countries are coming under increased pressure to act tough on immigration. While the European rules do not lay the groundwork for workplace raids like in America, they do provide for long detention periods.
Under the new guidelines, already approved by EU governments, illegal immigrants can be held in specialized detention centers - not jails - for up to 18 months.EU countries must provide detained migrants basic rights, including access to free legal advice.
Following apprehension, immigrants will be given the opportunity to leave voluntarily within 30 days. If there is a flight risk or they do not comply, they can be put in custody for up to six months while their deportation is processed.
Until now, there has been no EU policy on expelling illegal immigrants, and detention periods varied from 32 days in France to indefinite custody in Britain, the Netherlands and five other countries.
Immune-priming experiment cures cancer for Oregon man ATLANTA - An Oregon man, given less than a year to live, had a complete remission of advanced deadly skin cancer after an experimental treatment revved up his immune system to fight tumors.
The 52-year-old patient's dramatic turnaround was the only success in a small study, leading doctors to be cautious in their enthusiasm. However, the treatment reported in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine is being counted as the latest in a small series of successes involving immune-priming treatments against deadly skin cancers.
"Immunotherapy has become the most promising approach" to late-stage skin cancers, said Dr. Darrell Rigel, a dermatology researcher at the New York University Cancer Institute in New York who had no role in the research.
Still, the immune-priming experiments have yet to yield a consistent therapy. Even researchers who worked on the experiment involving nine patients and just one success are quick to couch the result. "This is only one patient," said study co-author Dr. Cassian Yee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
And two years after his remarkable recovery, the patient fell out of contact with researchers and scientists do not know his condition.
Melanoma is a cancer in the skin cells that make pigments and cause skin to tan. Cancer begins when radiation overloads and damages the cells, causing mutations.
About 62,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year.
When caught early, melanomas can be easily treated by surgically removing the cancerous patch of skin. But "once it has spread, basically nothing works," Rigel said.
Recently, however, scientists began thinking they might have another option - helping the body's immune system.
Doctors had long thought that immune system cells were giving a pass to cancer cells. But about 20 years ago, some scientists discovered that immune cells could latch onto and attack skin cancers.
"There's a long history behind all of this," said Dr. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute, a pioneer in that research.
