TRIPOLI: A year after the controversial release from jail of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on medical grounds, Libya continues the secrecy over the health of the ex-intelligence agent convicted of the deadly Lockerbie bombing.Serving a life sentence in Scotland for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am

KABUL: The Afghan government is standing firm on its plan to disband all private security firms despite widespread concerns that the four-month deadline is too tight and could ultimately be self-defeating.President Hamid Karzai`s decree, issued on Tuesday, ordered the 52 private security

TOKYO: Four Japanese coastguard personnel died in a helicopter crash while rescuers continued to search for a missing crew member, officials said Thursday.Coastguard helicopter Akizuru crashed Wednesday afternoon after hitting offshore power lines near small islets that are part of Kagawa

LA PAZ: A former de facto president of Bolivia was arrested following complaints he had engaged in obscene acts in public and was found to be under the effects of cocaine, a prosecutor in eastern Santa Cruz said Wednesday.Retired general Juan Pereda Asbun, 79, was "in a lamentable state,"

WASHINGTONL: The last US combat brigade pulled out of Iraq and crossed into Kuwait almost seven and a half years after the US-led invasion, US media reported Wednesday.Television footage showed an MSNBC reporter travelling with the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, crossing the

TEL AVIV: A man carrying a knife and a toy gun broke into the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and attempted to take a diplomat hostage before being overpowered by security, Turkish officials said. Witnesses quoted by Israeli public radio said the man -- reportedly Palestinian and

LONDON: A train derailed after colliding with a sewage tanker at a railway crossing in Britain, injuring 21 people, one of them critically, emergency services said. The front carriage of the two-car train came off the tracks late Tuesday after smashing into the lorry in the village of

Bangkok: Five people, including a senior official, were killed in a helicopter crash in northern Thailand, an official said Wednesday. It is believed that the helicopter crashed into a mountain in Namom district, Nan province, said Nisakorn Kositratna, deputy permanent secretary of the

Shimla: At least 34 people, mostly women, were killed and around 25 injured in Himachal Pradesh`s Mandi district when the truck they were travelling in fell into a 200-metre gorge Wednesday evening, police said.   The victims, mostly from Bhaot village, were on their way home after

Dehradun: At least 18 children were buried alive when the building of a school caved in following incessant rain in Uttarakhand`s Kapkot town Wednesday, an official said. Classes were going at the Saraswati Shishu Mandir school in Kapkot, in Bageshwar district in the Himalayan state,

  GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes carried out four air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip late Tuesday that caused no injuries, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said. The raids struck targets near Rafah and north of Khan Yunis, near the border with Egypt, as well as targets near

WELLINGTON: Three people died and another three were missing after a New Zealand chartered fishing boat with a crew of 51 sank in icy waters in the Southern Ocean early Wednesday, rescuers said. Forty-five survivors had been recovered from life rafts and three people including the ship`s

KAMPALA: Uganda has charged 32 people in connection with the July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala which killed 76 people as they watched the World Cup final, the country`s chief prosecutor said Wednesday.Four Ugandan alleged masterminds were among the 32 who were charged with 76 counts of

SEOUL: North Korea proposed a summit with South Korea even after tensions mounted dramatically over the deadly sinking of one of Seoul`s warships, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.The impoverished communist state made the proposal last month in an apparent bid to secure economic aid from

BEIJING: Investigators are probing a crash involving a unidentified small aircraft in northeast China, state media said, amid reports from Seoul on Wednesday that it could have been a North Korean helicopter.China`s Xinhua news agency issued a brief dispatch about the incident in Liaoning

BEIJING: China said Wednesday that a Pentagon report on Beijing`s expanding defence capabilities was "not beneficial" for military ties between the two nations. "Issuing this report is not beneficial for the improvement and development of Sino-US military ties," Geng Yansheng, spokesman

KATHMANDU: Nepal`s parliament has delayed a vote to choose the country`s next prime minister, an official said Wednesday, further prolonging a leadership vacuum in the troubled Himalayan nation. Parliament was scheduled to hold the vote on Wednesday afternoon, more than six weeks after

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan won more aid pledges Tuesday as UN officials warned money needs to come through faster to help 20 million people hit by disastrous floods and stave off a "second wave of death" from disease. Torrential monsoon rain triggered catastrophic floods which have affected a

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama`s administration has decided to support the creation of a UN inquiry into war crimes allegedly committed by Myanmar`s government, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Citing US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said the

SOCHI: Russia on Wednesday hosts Pakistan`s embattled President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai for a regional summit expected to focus on security in Afghanistan. The Pakistan leader is expected to fly in to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for only a few hours after he was