KABUL — Two U.S. service members died and four Afghan soldiers were killed in separate explosions today in eastern Afghanistan, an area of the nation rife with violence, officials said.

Nine members of the Afghan National Police were injured today in other incidents.

NATO said the two American troops died in a bomb blast, but disclosed no other information. Their deaths bring to 12 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan so far this month; 16 other soldiers from the international coalition have died this month.

In Khost city, members of the Afghan National Army found two explosives, said Amir Hassan, a spokesman for the police chief in Khost province near the Pakistan border. He said the soldiers detonated one and removed the other, which subsequently exploded. The four soldiers and a civilian died in the morning blast just outside a police barracks, he said.

In southern Afghanistan, three members of the national police force and three civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber in a truck detonated his explosives near a police office in the Daman district of Kandahar province, according to the Ministry of Interior. Three vehicles, including an ambulance, were damaged in the blast.

And in Ghazni province, six Afghan policemen were injured when a remove-controlled bomb exploded near an international aid office, said Abdul Ghani, deputy police chief in Ghanzi province of eastern Afghanistan.

BEIJING — Google's threat to pull out of China over censorship is a rare display of defiance in a system where foreign companies have long accepted intrusive controls to gain access to a huge and growing market.Dismayed by the prospect of a China without Google, visitors left flowers at its Beijing headquarters today as Web sites buzzed with words of support and appeals to stay.In industries from automaking to fast food, companies have been forced to allow communist authorities to influence their choice of local partners, where to operate and what products to sell.Web companies have endured criticism for cooperating with a communist system that tightly controls information. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have acceded to pressure to block access to politically sensitive material.Google's decision even to talk publicly was rare in a system where Chinese officials react angrily to criticism.