The Taliban denounced Saturday U.S. moves to blacklist the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network as a terrorist organization, saying it would have no impact on operations and was indicative of U.S. defeat in Afghanistan.

In a statement released through micro-blogging site Twitter, it said there was "no separate entity... in Afghanistan by the name of Haqqani", adding that the network's founder and its fighters were totally loyal to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar.

Clashes between the army and militants in southern Yemen on Saturday killed three suspected al-Qaida members and wounded two soldiers, an official said.

The militants attacked a vehicle carrying troops near the coastal town of Shaqrah, in Abyan province, before army reinforcements arrived and the soldiers killed "three extremists," said the official on condition of anonymity.

Barack Obama on Thursday accepted his party's nomination for president with a prime-time convention address that asked Americans to give him four more years at the White House.

"On every issue, the choice you face won't be just between two candidates or two parties," Obama said, making his case for re-election. "It will be a choice between two different paths for America."

The Obama administration has decided to blacklist the Pakistan-based Haqqani network as a terror group and is expected to announce the decision as early as Friday, the New York Times reported.

U.S. officials have been debating the move for a month, with opponents fearing that it could pour more salt on the wounded alliance with Pakistan after months of turmoil in the delicate relationship.

The U.S. embassy and several Belgian government offices were evacuated Wednesday after police found a suspect vehicle nearby and called in the bomb squad, officials said.

A U.S. spokesman said staff from the embassy as well as the U.S. mission to the European Union left the building early afternoon after police informed them of the suspect vehicle.

A NATO helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two NATO personnel in an area south of Kabul that is largely under Taliban control, officials said.

The Islamist militia leading a decade-long insurgency against foreign troops claimed to have shot down two helicopters in Logar province, but NATO said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Hundreds of Afghan soldiers have been arrested or expelled over a rising number of attacks on NATO colleagues, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

On more than 30 occasions so far this year, members of the Afghan security forces have opened fire on their Western allies, killing at least 45 foreign troops -- the majority of them American.

China said Wednesday it supported a political transition in Syria and was not attached to President Bashar Assad as it defended its record during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, meeting in Beijing with the country's top leadership, reiterated she was "disappointed" by the vetoes of China and Russia of U.N. resolutions that would have threatened action against Assad to end the spiraling bloodshed.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Beijing Wednesday that reaching a code of conduct over the South China Sea was in "everyone's interest", but denied seeking to contain the rising power.

"We do believe it's in everyone's interest that China and ASEAN engage in a diplomatic process toward the shared goal of a code of conduct," Clinton told a joint news conference in Beijing with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

U.S. Democrats dropped a reference to Jerusalem being the capital of Israel from their election platform, prompting scorn from rival Mitt Romney Thursday.

Since 1992 Democrats have stated unequivocally that "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," as they did in 2008.