NUEVO LAREDO: A van packed with explosives blew up Thursday outside a police station in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of northeastern Tamaulipas state, causing some damage but no injuries, police said. "The explosion damaged two Rural Police patrol cars that were parked nearby, but there

BRUSSELS: Somali pirates seized a freighter with 24 Syrian and Egyptian crew members in the lawless waters of the Gulf of Aden, the EU`s anti-piracy force said, reporting the second pirate capture this week. The Syria Star, flagged in Saint Vincent and Grenadines, radioed for help on

SYDNEY: Three former Australian prime ministers have joined the country`s bitter election campaign, giving a boost Friday to both sides of politics two weeks before neck-and-neck polls. Former prime minister John Howard branded incumbent leader Julia Gillard`s tenure a "total failure",

NEW ORLEANS: BP plugged its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico with cement Thursday, one of the final steps in permanently sealing the gusher at the center of the worst US environmental disaster on record. Some 15 weeks after the well ruptured and 21 days after the flow was fully stemmed

LONDON: President Asif Ali Zardari confronts David Cameron in tense talks Friday over the British premier`s claims that Pakistan is secretly backing violent extremists while publicly denouncing terrorism. Relations between the two countries have soured since Cameron lashed out at

HAVANA: Cuba`s iconic former leader Fidel Castro says his childhood struggle against unjust authority turned him into a rebel and revolutionary, in extracts of his upcoming autobiography published online Thursday by Cubadebate.com. "I wasn`t born a politician, although as a young child I

HIROSHIMA: The United States on Friday for the first time attended a ceremony commemorating its atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 65 years after the Japanese city`s obliteration rang in the nuclear age. Representatives from more than 70 nations joined tens of thousands at the emotional event,

KARACHI: Pakistan`s beleaguered authorities braced for a deluge in the country`s farming heartland, evacuating half a million people from at-risk areas in the south as the worst floods in living memory worsened. The overall number of people affected by the two-week-old crisis has risen

ZAMBOANGA: Two people were killed and 24 injured in a bomb attack on an airport in the southern Philippines, police said Friday. The man believed to be carrying the bomb was killed instantly and a bystander died later, said Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo, police chief of the

SRINAGAR: At least 60 people have been killed and hundreds injured after heavy rain triggered flash floods in Leh, the main town in India Kashmir`s high-altitude Ladakh region, officials said Friday.The floods tore though the town and surrounding villages without warning during the night

SEOUL: A major South Korean naval exercise designed to strengthen defences against North Korean attacks went into a second day Friday, as the communist North bristled over the drill.   The exercise is one of a series planned in coming months in response to what the South says was a

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a hand-picked team to review two Western-backed anti-corruption bodies, the country`s attorney general said Thursday. "A presidential decree was issued so that all aspects of their formation, framework, working procedures must be reviewed

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is working on a three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000 kilometres (more than 600 miles) into space, Fars news agency reported on Thursday. "The country`s scientists are working on a three-stage rocket that will take us to 1,000

HONG KONG: Hong Kong`s richest man said Thursday he would donate more generously to charities, but stopped short of following the 40 US billionaires who pledged to give at least half of their fortunes away. Li Ka-shing, who has amassed his estimated 21.3 billion US dollar fortune by

MUZAFFARABAD: At least 22 people were killed on Thursday when a passenger bus plunged into a river in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said. The accident took place in Garhi Dupatta village, 22 kilometres (14 miles) east of regional capital Muzaffarabad, senior local

ZAMBOANGA: One person was killed and at least 12 others were injured when a bomb exploded at an airport in the restive southern Philippines on Thursday, authorities said. An improvised explosive device (IED) caused the blast near the arrivals area of Zamboanga airport, regional police

TOKYO: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, during a visit to Nagasaki, one of the two Japanese cities hit by US atom bombs in World War II. "The only way to ensure that such weapons will never again be used is to eliminate

GENEVA: Pakistan`s worst floods in generations brought on by torrential monsoon rains have affected more than four million people and killed some 1,600, the United Nations estimated Thursday. "Altogether, more than four million people are in a way or another affected," said Manuel

NOVO POKROVKA: Kyrgyz police Friday fired in the air to disperse 2,000 anti-government protestors rallying at a roadblock outside Bishkek to support a renegade businessman. Hundreds of members of the security forces were repeatedly firing in the air to disperse the protestors at the

BISHKEK: More than one thousand protestors gathered outside Kyrgyzstan`s parliament in the capital Bishkek on Thursday, demanding a meeting with the ex-Soviet state`s interim government.The demonstrators -- supporters of businessman and political leader Urmat Baryktobasov -- demanded that