A veteran US photojournalist and a translator have been killed in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

With her kohl-rimmed eyes cast down, Nadia lilts through a folk couplet before a secret assembly of women poets on a forbidden subject that often gets people killed in Afghanistan -- love.

A local Taliban commander and 50 fighters have been killed in overnight fighting in the Sangin district of Helmand province, Afghan officials say.

The police HQ in the strategic Afghan town of Sangin remains under siege after a Taliban attack, officials say.