The blanket secrecy over SAS operations has been ditched, with the Defence Force revealing that elite troopers recently helped capture bomb-makers in Kabul.

Gun sights with biblical inscriptions will not be withdrawn from New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan but New Zealand defence bosses want them cleaned up.

The Defence Force says it was caught unaware by biblical citations stamped on its weapons, and they will be removed.

"I am still in Sobibor 67 years on," the trembling man told Court 101. "I still have nightmares about the place.

The Govt says its three-strike policy, which was agreed with Act today, will ensure repeat violent offenders get the harshest possible sentences.

Taliban fighters have developed a deadly new generation of their most lethal weapon, the improvised explosive device, or IED, which is almost undetectable because it has no metal or electronic parts, military experts said last week.

The defence correspondent of the Sunday Mirror newspaper has become the first British journalist to be killed while covering the war in Afghanistan.

PM keen to hear Hillary Clinton's views on what progress has been made towards establishing a corruption-free Government in Afghanistan.