Ankara - Pakistan and Afghanistan leaders on Thursday reiterated their pledges to cooperate towards promoting peace, security, stability and economic development in the region.

New York - The UN General Assembly president criticized governments on Thursday for failing their responsibility in building up a strong economy to protect their people's living conditions.

A one-day debate on the world economic crisis began at UN headquarters in New York with Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, leader of the 192-nation body, saying that the complex economic crisis has exposed failure by the dominant markets.

Vienna  - Police seized a Bosnian bank robber Thursday who had taken a female hostage in Feldkirch in the westernmost part of Austria, and forced her to drive him across two thirds of the country by car.

After the hostage, a 37-year-old bank employee, had persuaded the armed kidnapper to let her use a bathroom at a rest stop near the town of Enns, police arrested the 43-year old suspect, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Police monitored the robber's car as it drove for around 470 kilometres east from the crime scene, where the unmasked Bosnian had robbed 3,055 euros (3,905 dollars).

London - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "delighted" to have been received by Queen Elizabeth II during a flying visit to London Thursday.

Merkel said she had told the British monarch during their private meeting in Buckingham Palace that Germany had "every interest in seeing the UK as a close partner and friend."

She had also made clear that she was "delighted that the UK was part and parcel of the EU," Merkel told journalists after the audience.

Taipei - Fourteen foreign and local baseball players were questioned by prosecutors in Taiwan Thursday as new evidence emerged in an investigation into alleged match-fixing by the T-Rex team.

The 14 include five foreign players. Three of them - including former US Major League baseball player Cory Bailey - have been suspended from playing indefinitely after they were questioned on October 8 and released on bail.

Damascus  - The US embassy in Damascus announced that for security reasons it would be closed for the day Thursday as thousands of protesters in the Syrian capital demonstrated against the recent US commando raid on a Syrian village near the Iraqi border.

Carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, protestors denounced US President George W Bush, with signs bearing slogans such as: "Bush: The supporter of terrorism around the world."

Dozens of students from the Syrian region of Bokmal, the location of Sunday's raid, protested near the embassy, which was surrounded by Syrian riot police.