In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Taliban have launched their spring offensive, their annual spate of attacks targeting foreign bases, government officials and Afghan police, a Taliban spokesman said Sunday. On Sunday morning, a roadside bomb killed three police officers in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, provincial spokesman Nabi Jan said. A Ghanzi deputy police chief was among those killed, and two other officers were injured, Jan said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack -- and said more will come. "Today was our first day of the new operation, and we conducted many operations in several provinces such as Ghazni province, Kapisa province and Nangarhar province," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN. He said the new spring offensive will target foreign military bases and foreign convoys as well as attacks on Afghan National Police and the Kabul government. The group will use suicide attacks and rockets, Mujahid said. "We hope to plan and conduct more attacks on foreign troops so as to force them to leave Afghanistan," the Taliban spokesman added. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was sheltering the al Qaeda terror network when it launched attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. The next month, the United States cranked up military operations that led to the toppling of the Taliban government. Ever since, international forces have been fighting radical Islamic militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
3 officers, including a deputy police chief, are killed in a roadside bombing .
The Taliban claims responsibility for the blast and says it's starting a new offensive .
The group vows to target foreign troops as well as local government and police .

LONDON, England (CNN) -- I have a confession. As a music style, heavy metal has completely passed me by. I don't understand it. I'm not even sure I want to. "Bring your daughter to the slaughter," bellows Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson. Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to listen to anyone even suggesting I do that? Outside The Crobar in London's Soho our intrepid reporter tries out her rock moves. While the thought of spending the evening head banging leaves me longing for an expensive glass of merlot, slightly fruity, and perhaps a long sit down, I can't escape the feeling that I'm somehow missing out. As a child of the 70s, how could I have missed the birth of a wildly popular new music genre right in the next decade? Even at the end of the 80s, when Iron Maiden was releasing its "First Ten Years" compilation of greatest hits, I would have been sixteen (or thereabouts), the perfect age to fall for the charms of a long-haired, rebellious rocker in tight leather pants. You'd think. There's only one thing for it -- a crash course in all things metal with the man who knows, self-confessed metalhead Malcolm Dome, who also presents the chart show for 24-hour UK rock and metal radio station TotalRock. I meet him at the TotalRock studios in Central London. The stairs are scuffed. It smells of stale sweat. I'm pleased to see Malcolm is wearing the traditional heavy metal attire of black T-shirt and black jeans. Obviously I'm going to have to go and buy a T-shirt, perhaps one with a skull on it. "You can wear anything you want," Malcolm assures me. "You'd probably be surprised how many heavy metal fans there are who have very high-powered business jobs -- even members of parliament who are into metal. They can't go around dressed as I'm necessarily dressed now all the time because it doesn't fit into their jobs." Fortunately for Malcolm, his job as heavy metal journalist and broadcaster almost requires him to look the part. He's been involved in the scene since the late 1960s, when he fell for a young heavy metal group called Black Sabbath. His main allegiance later shifted to Led Zeppelin, but when it comes to music styles he's not fussy. "I've got eclectic tastes," he says. "I'm happy to listen to Frank Sinatra, listen to AC-DC, to all sorts." Finally, we've found some common ground. If there's anyone who can convince me of the joys of heavy metal, it's someone who also appreciates the soothing, melodic tones of Sinatra. I've heard someone compare heavy metal to pantomime, I say. Surely that can't be true? "It's absolutely panto," Malcolm enthuses, adding "Sammy Goldwyn said that any film should start with a climax and build it from there. And that's what metal does. It starts with a big, big stage show and builds it from there. Of course it's panto. It's 'he's behind you', it's the whole larger than life character, it's circus, it's frivolity." He hastens to add that a lot of time and effort goes into staging the shows, and from that perspective, it's completely serious. The problem with heavy metal, Malcolm says, is that the mainstream media misrepresented it for years. "Every time the mainstream media used to cover it in the 70s and 80s, it was done from the point of view that 'this is weird, we don't understand it, we're going to go away not understanding it but we're going to present it to you anyway,'" he says. Heavy metal was painted as the dark preserve of working class men who wore denim and leather and were, for the most part, sexist. That's even before you take into account accusations of devil worship and Satanism leveled at the genre by Christian activists in the 80s. "You can understand people actually seeing what was being presented to them thinking 'I don't get it and I don't want to get it,'" Malcolm says. Now many more people "get it." Some 30,000 people listen to TotalRock each week, many of them women. "It's ended up being I think a music that attracts if not fifty percent female fans then certainly a very big minority. The fact is metal has never tried to exclude women." So what of lyrics like "bring your daughter to the slaughter"? "'Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter' was actually written for a movie," Malcolm explains, "One of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. However, it is not about killing people. Slaughter was a metaphor for the party. So it was actually a fun representation. Metal has never openly espoused violence towards anybody." It should be stated here that there are varying degrees of heavy metal, from the hair metal of carefully-coifured Jon Bon Jovi to the black art of New York doom metal band Unearthly Trance. "What makes Unearthly Trance so heavy is that they literally make your bowels rumble," Malcolm says. "They are so intense. But it's also hypnotic. And strangely soothing," he adds. Dozens of sub-categories of metal have evolved to include black metal, stoner metal, thrash metal, power metal, goth metal, death metal and grind core, to name a few. What binds them all is a fierce dedication to the style of music and an admirable loyalty to their chosen bands. There seems to be none of the fickleness associated with the pop world where young performers are routinely thrown on the scrapheap after a few hits -- or flops. As Malcolm says, it's not unusual for bands to have a career that spans decades. Iron Maiden has been going for almost 30 years. Black Sabbath for even longer. So is there any age when heavy metal fans should retire gracefully from the scene? "Absolutely not, no, no, no," Malcolm says, looking slightly shocked. "If you love it and enjoy it why should you have give it up because you reach a certain age? Definitely not. Metal is ageless." It's not too late for me then. What a relief.
Malcolm Dome of TotalRock conveys the joys of metal to the unconverted .
Heavy metal concerts likened to panto, "it's circus, it's frivolity," Dome says .
Metal 'uniform' of black t-shirt, jeans and leather apparently unnecessary .
Metalheads display fierce loyalty to their bands, unlike fickle world of pop .

(CNN) -- Monday, the official first day of winter, airlines were scrambling to accommodate passengers affected by the cancellation of hundreds of flights after a monster weekend winter storm blanketed a swath of the East Coast. Charlene Fisk, a filmmaker from Atlanta, Georgia, tried her best not to lose it at Hartsfield International Airport on Monday at 4:30 a.m. when she found out she wouldn't be getting home to upstate New York anytime soon. Her US Airways connecting flight had been canceled, so she was placed on another flight to Philadelphia, which was then canceled. She's going to have to fly to Chicago on Monday evening, hopefully stay the night with friends and then hop on a standby flight to Syracuse. Her family will have to drive about an hour from their home to pick her up. "Passengers are talking about renting cars together and just driving home," Fisk said. US Airways is picking up the tab to fly Fisk to Chicago. And while some airlines are offering refunds, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines said the company is providing weather waivers that allow passengers to reschedule without a penalty if they were scheduled to travel before Christmas. Another strong winter system will be developing by Tuesday in the Rockies. The system will take a track through the central Plains, Midwest, and into the western Great Lakes. Winter storm and blizzard watches are already in effect for the Central Plains for Tuesday night through Thursday. Severe weather also will be possible from Dallas and Houston, Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. On Monday, CNN correspondent Susan Candiotti was taking her first day of vacation when she began a chaotic journey from Newark, New Jersey. Already with boarding pass in hand, she spent nearly two hours in three different lines because agents were unsure which line passengers should be in, she said. Another agent eventually told Candiotti and others to go directly to TSA security where they got in another line. A different Continental agent then lead them to an upper floor to check their bags. Then, they were sent back to security and she made it to her  8:45 a.m. flight gate with 10 minutes to spare only to learn that the flight had been postponed until around 11 a.m., when it eventually took off for Columbus, Ohio. Her final destination is northern Kentucky which she'll eventually reach once her sister picks her up in Ohio and drives her home. "My experience today was nothing compared to many people we interviewed (on Sunday) who stood in line for three or four hours," Candiotti said. "One student trying to get to Denver had to spend two sleepless nights at the airport. So, my delay pales by comparison." Washington's Dulles and Reagan National airports saw snowfall of 18 inches and 16.4 inches respectively on Sunday, the highest one-day totals ever for December. Alison Young posted on her Facebook page that she's glad her brother finally made it to Omaha, Nebraska. He arrived at 3 a.m. central time on Monday. He began his journey at 7 a.m. Sunday at Reagan National, had to scramble to find a flight out of Dulles, went through Denver and then made it home. "Can't wait to attempt my own trek home Tuesday," Young joked. American Airlines said it would add extra flights, use bigger planes where possible and reflow passengers to other flights. Passengers who were affected can switch flights with no change fees through Thursday, said Charley Wilson, airline spokesman. Continental Airlines said though flights are extremely full because of the Christmas season, staffers are working on a "case-by-case basis" to ensure passengers get home for the holidays. Passengers can also get a refund or change their flights for free at Continental's Web site or through the 800 number, said spokeswoman Mary Clark. Areas from the Mid-Atlantic through the Northeast set snowfall records this weekend. Record snow blanketed some areas Sunday, including 23 inches in Bethesda, Maryland, and 24 inches in Medford, New Jersey. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received 23.2 inches -- its second-highest snowfall ever in a single event. Two people were killed in weather-related crashes, the Virginia State Police said Sunday, and "there are two additional deaths that are likely related to the winter storm." The storm, known as a nor'easter, blanketed the mid-Atlantic region and the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor. Meanwhile, western North Carolina residents were digging out from the powerful storm. In Washington, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said the storm is "perhaps the biggest we've seen in several years." "We are going to throw everything we have at it to keep the District open for business on this busy pre-holiday weekend," Fenty said when he announced the snow emergency. But, he also urged residents to stay put in their homes. "We urge everyone if you don't have to go anywhere, wait. We should have a lot of streets ready to go by rush hour Monday. And, hopefully, all of it done between Monday and Wednesday." Nine people were taken to a hospital after a bus and a city snow plow collided, a D.C. fire official said. The injuries were not considered serious.

Monster weekend winter storm blankets a swath of the East Coast .
Atlanta passenger put on two canceled flights, must hopscotch home .
Stranded in NY: "You sort of crumble once, get it over with and then put on a smile"
At least four deaths have been linked to the winter storm, officials say .

