Seoul - North Korea has made a surprise proposal to South Korea for military talks, South Korean officials said Friday.

The North Korean side suggested Tuesday as the date for talks on the current working-level military agreements between the two countries, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said.

It was not clear what precisely North Korea wanted to put forward, the national Yonhap news agency reported, quoting an official from the ministry.

South Korea had not as yet responded to the proposal. The intra- Korean dialogue is currently on ice.

The BJP leader seems to be the target for the next terrorist attack. In an e-mail sent to Mr. Advani by Ali Hussain Badr, field Commander of the Indian Mujahideen in the north east has threatened to kill Advani with suicidal bombs if he steps into the state. 

The attacker has held Advani responsible for the Babri Masjid Demolition, the Gujarat Massacre and the recent attacks on Churches in Orissa, Karnataka and some parts of Madhya Pradesh. 

Kabul/Islamabad  - NATO forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani army said on Thursday that their military exchanged fire on the Afghan-Pakistan border, but both sources gave contradictory information about how the firefight was triggered.

The Pakistani army said that its soldiers opened fire on NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopters after the aircraft violated the country's airspace along the border with Afghanistan.

San Francisco  - Movie stars might be able to perform incredible car manoeuvres while talking on the phone and sending text messages. But in real life such actions will likely result in a nasty crash, and in California at least, a ticket and fine from the Highway Patrol.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former action movie star, has signed a new law banning text messaging while driving - making it only the sixth state in the US to institute such a ban.

Toulon, France - The economic turmoil provoked by crises in the American sub-prime and finance markets has put an end to the free- market economy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday in the southern French city of Toulon.

"Laissez-faire is finished, the all-powerful market that is always right, that's finished," Sarkozy said in a widely anticipated speech, his first in France on the economic crisis.

Tel Aviv/Bethlehem  - Paul McCartney called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Wednesday, as he toured Bethlehem a day before his historic "Friendship First" concert in Tel Aviv.

McCartney, who landed in Israel overnight, used the afternoon to visit the Church of the Nativity - built on the site where according to Christian tradition Jesus was born - in the West Bank city just south of Jerusalem.