AFGHANISTAN

China's test flight of a prototype stealth fighter will help insulate U.S. weapons spending against deeper cuts sought by deficit hawks and add momentum to efforts by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to redirect precious budget dollars to future threats.

An audio message released by Osama bin Laden on Friday warned that French hostages held by Islamic militants will be killed if President Nicolas Sarkozy does not withdraw French forces from Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden warned France on Friday that the country should leave Afghanistan if it wanted to see its captive nationals alive, in a televised audio-recording.

The Taliban have ordered harsh limits on the use of mobile phones in a remote area of northwestern Afghanistan, residents and officials said, a sign of the militants' increasing influence in a once peaceful area.

The sixteenth international Dubai Shopping (DSF) Festival is all set to kick start at the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Creek Park, Global Village, and the Dubai Outlet Mall on Thursday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a one month delay to the inauguration of parliament after a special election court asked for more time to look into fraud allegations, his office said Wednesday.

Twenty Afghan civilians, including 13 children, were killed by a roadside bomb in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a senior official said, in the country's deadliest insurgent attack in nearly six months.

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 shook southwestern Pakistan early on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as Delhi and Dubai, but the epicentre was far from major population centres.

Internal U.S. government reviews have determined that a mass leak of diplomatic cables caused only limited damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite the Obama administration's public statements to the contrary.

A major earthquake (magnitude 7.4) has struck southwestern Pakistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Former president Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that Pakistan's blasphemy laws could not be changed, but that the man who killed the governor of Punjab province over his opposition to them must be punished.

President Barack Obama stressed U.S. support for Pakistan during a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday and reiterated plans to visit Pakistan later this year, the White House said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday focussing on long-term economic ties and Iraqi officials said the idea of delaying a U.S. military pullout did not come up.

The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

President Hu Jintao of China is coming to America next week, to meet with President Barack Obama and discuss relations between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden tried to dispel what he called common anti-American misperceptions in Pakistan while urging the government on Wednesday to fight growing religious extremism.

A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed two people and wounded more than 35 in Kabul on Wednesday and foreign troops suffered their bloodiest day this year with five deaths in different attacks around the country.

Arizona enacted a law on Tuesday that will forbid picketers to come within 300 feet of a funeral or burial service, a move meant to reduce the impact of planned protests of Arizona shooting victims by members of a Kansas-based church known for protesting the funerals of U.S. soldiers.

Hong Kong beat rivals Singapore and Australia to be rated the world’s freest economy for a straight seventeenth consecutive year, according to a ranking by US-based Heritage Foundation.

Hong Kong was rated the world's freest economy for a 17th straight year in a ranking by the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation, above rivals Singapore and Australia for the title.