THATTA: Jannan Soorjo summoned the energy to give birth in the filthy Pakistan graveyard that has become her refuge from the floods -- but she cannot produce the milk to feed her sickly newborn.The 26-year-old looks down helplessly at her crying son, who was brought rudely into the world

Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Wednesday that his country has suffered losses of around $43 billion due to the floods that have displaced over 17 million people and killed over 1,600.The floods, which started with heavy monsoon rains in July, have affected 30

CAMP RAMADI: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said during a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday that the American military`s war in the country is over.Asked by reporters at Camp Ramadi, an American base about 100 kilometres (80 miles) west of Baghdad, whether the United States was still

BEIJING: North Korea vowed to strengthen military ties with China on Wednesday, days after the North`s leader Kim Jong-il finished a visit aimed at bolstering the bond with his isolated country`s sole major supporter.Comments from Kim Yong-nam, the second-ranked official in North Korea,

SYDNEY: Nearly 100 asylum-seekers broke out of an Australian immigration detention centre on Wednesday after days of riots and staged a protest outside, police said.Some 92 detainees escaped from the centre in the far northern city of Darwin at about 6:30 am, a spokeswoman told AFP. Media

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: President Barack Obama was poised on Wednesday to launch a new U.S. push for Middle East peace even as a flare-up of Hamas violence and a deadlock over Israeli settlements loomed as potential deal-breakers.Preparing to host a Washington summit to restart direct

BEIJING: China on Wednesday launched live-fire naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, state media said, after voicing opposition to similar war games to be staged there by the United States and South Korea.The Beihai fleet of the navy of the People`s Liberation Army will conduct a "live

WASHINGTON: The United States is pushing for peace talks between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, US envoy George Mitchell said Tuesday, as the Israelis prepared to resume direct negotiations with the Palestinians. Wider peace talks between Israel and its northern Arab neighbors, which have

TOKYO: Japan`s Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his rival, powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, kicked off a leadership battle Wednesday that threatens to divide the ruling party only a year after it took power.Their contest to run the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the nation comes as

CANBERRA:  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard forged an alliance with the Greens party on Wednesday to take her party closer to forming a government, but vowed not to allow the deal to change her plans for a tax on miners` profits."Our election commitments are our election

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani government air raids have killed up to 45 militants and their family members in hideouts in the northwestern Khyber region on the Afghan border, security officials said on Wednesday.The strikes targeted militants in their stronghold, the Tirah Valley, on Tuesday

KABUL: The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war in 2010 is the highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, according to an AFP count Wednesday.A total of 323 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war this year, compared to 317 for all of 2009,

LONDON: Former British prime minister Tony Blair said he was "desperately sorry" over the Iraq war deaths and branded Gordon Brown`s premiership a "disaster" as he let loose in his memoirs out Wednesday.Entitled "A Journey", Blair said the book was his account of the "human being" at the

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD: President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year U.S. combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday and promised recession-weary Americans "my central responsibility" now is to repair the U.S. economy.Obama, who inherited the war from President George W. Bush and is

BAGHDAD: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis on Tuesday their own soldiers and police are up to the job in an "independent" state as US forces ended a combat role after seven years of warfare."This is a day that will remain in the memory of all Iraqis. Today, Iraq has become a

BERLIN: German prosecutors said Tuesday they had charged three men suspected of fundraising and buying weapons for the Sri Lankan separatist group the Tamil Tigers.Sri Lankan national Vijikanendra V. S., 35, and German nationals Sasitharan M., 33, and Koneswaran T., 39, were charged with

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka`s Supreme Court on Tuesday began assessing a draft bill that would amend the island`s constitution to allow President Mahinda Rajapakse to run for office for a third term. Registrar of the Supreme Court said the five-judge bench would give their decision to the

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday offered another 20 million dollars in flood aid to Pakistan, the country`s foreign minister said, boosting efforts to build goodwill between the estranged neighbours.S.M. Krishna told parliament a fresh instalment of 20 million dollars will boost India`s total

SINGAPORE: Singapore`s population crossed five million this year and more than a third of the total are foreigners, the statistics department said Tuesday.The city-state`s total population stood at 5.08 million people at the end of June, it said in a statement.Of the number, 3.23 million

JERUSALEM: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak have met secretly in Amman ahead of Middle East peace talks that start in Washington this week, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.The two met on Sunday in a private home in the Jordanian capital, where