Bomber Kills 17 in Afghanistan

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a bathhouse in a southern Afghan border town as men gathered to wash before Friday prayers, killing 17 people. About an hour later, gunmen shot dead a police inspector in the nearby city of Kandahar. The attacks came the same day NATO announced that three of its service members were killed in roadside bombings, underscoring the continuing threat the Taliban pose, despite a stepped up coalition. NATO, which has roughly 140,000 troops in the country, has struggled to fix the problems. Coalition officials estimate Taliban's numbers at 25,000 roughly unchanged despite the international force's stepped up offensive against insurgent leaders and rank and file fighters