WASHINGTON: Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, a leading prosecutor in Afghanistan, said President Hamid Karzai had fired him for refusing to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of government, The New York Times reported late Saturday.According to the report, Faqiryar, a former

LONDON: Reconstruction efforts must begin immediately in Pakistan to prevent the flooding disaster from becoming a long-term catastrophe, aid agency Oxfam said Sunday.The British-based international charity said in a statement released here that billions of dollars would be needed to

GORGA CHAL: When the US army ends its Iraq combat mission this week, Captain TJ Tepley will stay on the frontline -- keeping the peace at the centre of what commanders say is the country`s biggest challenge.The 27-year-old leads a company made up not only of US troops, but also of Arab

SEOUL: The man nominated to be South Korea`s next prime minister put himself out of contention on Sunday amid a mounting scandal over alleged misconduct while he was a provincial governor.Kim Tae-Ho, 47, was put forward for the job three weeks ago in President Lee Myung-Bank`s biggest

SYDNEY: Masked men, some armed with long poles, are standing on the roof of an Australian immigration centre in which a fire broke out Sunday, reports said.One section of the Darwin Immigration Detention Centre, which houses up to 500 asylum-seekers, had been on fire but the flames had

EDGARTOWN: President Barack Obama and his family spent the day at the beach on Saturday, as their summer vacation at the posh Massachusetts island of Martha`s Vineyard drew to a close.The first family left their rental farm in the late morning and headed to a private beach in Edgardtown,

JAKARTA:  Indonesia issued a red alert Sunday after the Sinabung volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted, spewing smoke and ash 1,500 metres into the air and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people."Initially we thought the ash and smoke were triggered by rain but now we know the

BRADFORD: Thirteen men were arrested Saturday in the ethnically-mixed British city of Bradford as a far-right, anti-Islamist group clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators in the streets.Members of the English Defence League (EDL) threw bottles, stones and smoke bombs during violent scenes

VINEYARD HAVEN: Three days before the official end of the US combat mission in Iraq, US President Barack Obama said Saturday that the war in the country was "ending" and called Iraq a "sovereign" nation free to determine its own destiny."On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the United

BEIJING: At least four Tibetans may have been killed and 30 others hurt when Chinese police fired on crowds protesting the expansion of mine operations blamed for environmental damage, a report said Saturday.The shooting occurred August 17 in a remote region of southwestern China`s

TEHRAN:  Three people, including two children, have been killed and 40 others injured in an earthquake which struck Iran`s biggest desert, Dasht-e Kavir, state television reported on Saturday.The 5.9 magnitude quake struck on Friday south of the northern city of Damghan.In a separate

MOGADISHU: At least 11 civilians were killed late Friday or overnight in fresh fighting in Mogadishu between Islamist insurgents and government forces, officials and witnesses said."Many people died yesterday in our neighbourhood: six civilians were killed in a mortar blast and three

KARACHI: Flood waters threatened to engulf two towns in southern Pakistan on Saturday, a month after the disaster began, as the United Nations warned that tens of thousands of children risked death from malnutrition.The floods are Pakistan`s worst-ever natural disaster in terms of the

BEIJING: China said on Saturday that military ties with India remained on track, despite a visa row that some reports said led to a freeze in defence contacts between the two big neighbours with sometimes testy relations.An Indian defence source and some Indian news media said on Friday

MIAMI: Hurricane Danielle weakened to a Category 3 storm on Saturday, as the season`s first major hurricane churned over the open Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.Danielle, located some 345 miles (560 km) southeast of Bermuda, had top sustained winds of 120 miles

WASHINGTON: The United States, looking for a diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean Peninsula, has begun weighing a fresh effort at engagement with the government of North Korea, The New York Times reported.Citing unnamed officials and analysts, the newspaper said a new overture to

CIUDAD VICTORIA, August 28, 2010 (AFP) - An official probing the massacre of 72 migrants in northeast Mexico went missing along with a police officer as more bodies were identified and two car bombs shook the region Friday.The official, Roberto Suarez, was one of the first people to find

PESHAWAR: Suspected militants attacked army buildings near the US consulate in Pakistan`s northwestern capital Peshawar on Saturday, police said.Police said a number of armed fighters tried to get into a secure area close to the consulate and army buildings early in the morning and that

PANAMA CITY: Eighteen nations on Friday wrapped up nearly two weeks of military exercises to defend the Panama Canal from mock terrorist attacks and other threats, the US Southern Command chief said.Sponsored by the United States, Panama and Chile -- the three top users of the canal --

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il appeared to be heading home from China Saturday, with Beijing`s diplomatic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son, news reports said.Kim left a hotel in northeastern China on Saturday where he is believed to have met