KABUL: Five US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate incidents while battling the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, as NATO said its troops had accidentally killed six Afghan civilians.Three of the soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed in the south, NATO`s

  DHARAMSHALA:  India`s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in this northern Indian hill station for talks on Saturday, officials said.   Rao "called on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the two discussed issues of common interest,"

KABUL: Five US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate incidents while battling the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, NATO said.   Three of the soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed in the south, NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.  

WASHINGTON: A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook the Pacific near the US territory of Guam Saturday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.   The quake hit around 9:43 pm in Guam (1143 GMT) some 296 kilometers (184

NEW ORLEANS:  Energy giant BP was expected Saturday to try and place a better cap over its gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico to stop the devastating oil flow. Admiral Thad Allen, who oversees the government`s spill response, said late Friday he had approved the plan to simultaneously

KABUL:  International troops fighting the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan killed six civilians, NATO said Saturday, a day after conceding that six Afghan soldiers had died in a "friendly fire" incident. Civilian casualties are an incendiary topic with Afghans, who increasingly regard

MANILA:  A reporter who worked for a politician in the Philippine elections has been shot, police said Saturday, the latest attack on a journalist in a country regarded as one of the most dangerous for the media. Police were guarding the hospital room of broadcaster Miguel Belen after

SULAIMANIYAH: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight wounding one person in the raid, an Iraqi regional government official told AFP on Saturday. "The bombing started at 3:00 am (midnight GMT) and lasted for one hour in the area of Sidakan," near the Iranian

PESHAWAR:  Three Pakistani soldiers were killed as Taliban attacked security forces in a northwestern tribal area, sparking clashes in which 25 militants were killed, officials said Saturday. "Militants attacked an army patrol in Makeen district of South Waziristan area late Friday in

YAKAGHUND: A suicide attacker and a suspected car bomb unleashed carnage in a busy Pakistani market on Friday, killing 102 people including woman and children and burying victims under pulverised shops.   The attacks devastated Yakaghund town in the district of Mohmand, one of seven

AL-QAEDA: Surrounded by mountains and weighed down by poverty, a Yemeni town bears the dubious honour of carrying the same name as Al-Qaeda.The residents of Al-Qaeda, 220 kilometres (135 miles) northwest of the capital Sanaa, say the name has brought shame on the town.Al-Qaeda (Arabic for

TOKYO: Japan`s new prime minister Naoto Kan was hailed as the humble "son of a salaryman" when he took office a month ago but quickly lost favour with the electorate by bringing up the subject of tax hikes.Japan`s fifth premier in four years, Kan has put fiscal discipline at the core of

VIENNA: In a perfectly choreographed operation, Russia and the United States completed their biggest spy swap since the Cold War Friday, exchanging 10 agents deported by the US for four freed by Moscow.As the cloak-and-dagger move successfully drew the curtain on what could have fuelled

SYDNEY: An Australian soldier was killed while on foot patrol in restive southern Afghanistan, Australia`s defence minister said Saturday -- taking the death toll among the nation`s troops to 17.The 23-year-old died and another soldier was wounded after they hit an improvised explosive

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon Friday called Friday on Sri Lanka to "normalize conditions" around the UN office in Colombo after days of angry demonstrations over a UN war crimes panel.Following Thursday`s recall of the UN`s top envoy to the island, Neil Buhne, Ban again urges

LONDON: Raoul Moat, the fugitive gunman snared by British police after a massive manhunt, has died, a source told AFP, after apparently shooting himself Saturday in an armed siege.A well-placed source confirmed that the 37-year-old, on the run for a week following a deadly shooting spree,

SEOUL: North Korea said Saturday it was willing in principle to return to nuclear disarmament talks after the United Nations failed to blame it for a deadly attack on a South Korean warship.The North, which denies US and South Korean claims that it torpedoed the ship with the loss of 46

MOSCOW: Ten Russian spies freed by the United States will arrive on a flight from Vienna at Moscow`s Domodedovo airport shortly before 1400 GMT, an airport spokeswoman told AFP. The Kremlin agents were to arrive at Domodedovo on a plane belonging to Russia`s emergency situations ministry

PARIS: West Africa, beset by poor security, corruption, lawlessness and home to sprawling and remote desert, has become a key transit point for drugs smuggled from Latin America and destined for Europe. The contraband is smuggled in on cargo planes and ships, fishing vessels and yachts

TOKYO: Japan`s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in power for just a month, will seek the popular mandate he lacks so far at upper house elections Sunday, but opinion polls suggest his chances are mixed at best. The vote will be the first national ballot box test since his centre-left party