World

The new Pakistani government has to do "more" to stabilise the border with Afghanistan not only because of concern to the United States but also to address the threat posed to Islamabad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.

Barack Obama yesterday warned that the situation in Afghanistan was "precarious and urgent" and said the country would be the central focus of the US "war on terror" if he became president.

European officials have hailed a decision by the US to send a senior envoy to weekend talks in Geneva with Iran aimed at resolving the dispute over Tehran's nuclear work.

A top U.S. Coast Guard official has told lawmakers that Russia is getting ahead of the United States in the "Arctic race" and the current U.S. administration must urgently revise its approach to Arctic exploration.

Russia's foreign minister said on Thursday that Western nations are blocking Moscow's plans for a non-violence pact between Georgia and its rebel region of Abkhazia by insisting on the return of Georgian refugees.

U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have now ordered a formal investigation into last weekend's attack on a remote combat outpost that killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 more.

At least 476 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Russia's large-scale military exercises in the North Caucasus is another manifestation of aggression against Tbilisi.

The US plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush.

The Bush administration's move to join Iran at nuclear talks echoes its pragmatic steps toward North Korea and shows how far it has come from the "axis of evil" days, analysts said Wednesday.