DUISBURG: Authorities were searching for clues Sunday as to what touched off a sudden stampede at the Love Parade dance party in Duisburg, western Germany that killed at least 18 people.Around 15 others were seriously hurt and dozens more sustained lighter injuries as a crush occurred in

KABUL - Afghan insurgents captured two U.S. soldiers and are holding them in southern Logar province, a Taliban official said on Saturday.The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had no official comment, but a Reuters correspondent in Logar heard local radio broadcast

MOSCOW - Russia`s top naval commander Saturday insisted its purchase of French warships would only go ahead if there were a transfer of technology, warning that otherwise there was "no point" in the deal.The comments by Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky come a day after French President Nicolas

KOLKATA - A farmer died and at least 12 other people were injured on Saturday when a Soviet-era MiG-27 Indian war plane crashed into a village in eastern India, police said.The pilot ejected before the crash in Moinagudi village, some 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of the West Bengal

SRINAGAR: At least 25 people were killed in Indian Kashmir when an overcrowded minibus skidded off a mountain road and plunged into a fast-flowing river, police said Saturday.The accident occurred late Friday in Kishtiwar district, south of the summer capital Srinagar."Twenty-five people

KABUL - Taliban-style bomb attacks killed five US soldiers in Afghanistan Saturday, NATO said, as the death toll of foreign soldiers in the nine-year Afghan war climbed towards the 2,000 mark.NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the five had died in two separate

PESHAWAR: A US drone Saturday fired four missiles into a compound used by Islamist fighters in Pakistan`s northwestern tribal belt, killing at least 11 militants, security officials said.The missiles targeted the compound in Dwasarak village, about 40 kilometres west of Wana, the main

NEW DELHI: Myanmar`s military ruler Than Shwe arrives in India Sunday for a state visit that underscores the growing strategic ties between the world`s largest democracy and one of its most repressive regimes.The red-carpet reception planned for Shwe, who rarely travels abroad, has been

WASHINGTON: The United States said Friday it has upgraded the protocol for the Palestinian mission in Washington in a symbolic show of confidence in president Mahmud Abbas.President Barack Obama`s administration will allow the mission to call itself the "General Delegation of the

MOSCOW: Two separate attacks left three Russian soldiers and a village official dead on Friday in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, neighbouring Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.In the first incident, unknown gunmen opened fire on soldiers belonging to a motorcycle unit in

WASHINGTON: Two US lawmakers -- a Republican and a Democrat -- proposed a bill this week demanding the withdrawal of all US troops in Pakistan, where they are conducting covert operations against militants."We have known that US forces have been operating in secret inside the territories

WASHINGTON: The United States said Friday that it considered an Al-Qaeda-affiliated gang in North Africa to be a "common threat" after French-backed Mauritanian forces launched a deadly raid.State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the United States was not involved in the desert

UNITED NATIONS: The UN said Friday that groups seeking to deliver aid to Gaza should send it by land, after Israel said it would prevent two ships seeking to break a blockade of the Palestinian enclave."There are established routes for supplies to enter by land. That is the way aid should

MANILA: Three major quakes measuring between magnitude 7.3 and 7.4 hit the southern Philippines early Saturday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.The underwater quakes struck at a depth of between 575 and 605 kilometres (350 and 375

SEOUL: North Korea on Saturday threatened a "powerful nuclear deterrence" in response to joint US-South Korean naval exercises starting this weekend, Pyongyang`s state media said.North Korea was prepared for a "retaliatory sacred war", the North`s National Defence Commission (NDC) said in

NEW DELHI: India and the United States signed an anti-terrorism pact on Friday, a day after Pentagon`s top military officer warned extremists could try and stage fresh attacks on the South Asian country.The India-US Counter Terrorism Cooperation Initiative aims to boost security ties

MANILA - The death toll from a typhoon that struck the Philippines last week has risen to 111, with another 45 people still missing, the government said Friday.The confirmed death toll jumped from 79 after 32 bodies, mainly those of fishermen, were found in recent days, said Benito Ramos,

KATHMANDU:  Nepal`s parliament is set to meet Friday for another attempt at electing a prime minister to fill a three-week political void in the country.After several missed deadlines and an inconclusive session on Wednesday, lawmakers will try to decide on either Maoist leader Pushpa

HANOI - North Korea on Friday vowed a "physical response" to recent measures imposed by the United States in response to the sinking of a South Korean warship."There will be physical response against the steps imposed by the United States, militarily. It is no longer the 19th century

SEOUL:  North Korea`s "loving" leader Kim Jong-Il sent the air force to rescue dozens of people trapped by flash floods after heavy rain this week, Pyongyang`s official media reported Friday. A Korean Central Television broadcast, monitored by the South`s Yonhap news agency, said 28