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Washington - A number of major US banks on Wednesday returned emergency loans that they were given by the government at the height of the financial crisis last October.

Ten major banks were given the go-ahead last week by President Barack Obama's administration to return the funds, totalling about 68 billion dollars.

JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, BB&T Corp and US Bancorp all said they returned the money on Wednesday and the other six were expected to make similar announcements.

Mexico City - The Mexican Navy found five tons of cocaine hidden in frozen shark meat aboard a ship bound for the United States, during a weekend raid that dealt a hefty blow to the drug cartels.

The drugs were hidden in two containers onboard the Dover Straits, a freight ship sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands from South America to the US, Mexican daily El Universal reported Wednesday.

The haul of drugs, the largest in recent years, took place in the Puerto Progreso harbour on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Islamabad - Pakistani police said Wednesday they had detained one of the seven gunmen involved in the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3.

Police produced a hooded suspect they identified as Neak Muhammad, alias Zubair, before the media in Lahore. The hooded man admitted being one of the seven who ambushed the cricketers near a roundabout.

"I was brought to Lahore two days before the attack," the man told reporters.

Harare - The European Union (EU) has temporarily agreed to lift a travel ban on two Zimbabwean cabinet ministers from President Robert Mugabe's party, following Mugabe's threat to call off re- engagement talks with Brussels, officials said Wednesday.

"This was a temporary visa waiver. It was a decision made after a consultation of all EU partners (in Zimbabwe) and Brussels," said Stephane Toulet, the deputy French ambassador to Zimbabwe.

Kabul - The outgoing NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived in Kabul Wednesday for talks with Afghan officials - as three soldiers serving under the banner of NATO-led international forces were killed in a blast.

"We are not here to achieve any form of military victory," Scheffer told a press conference after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his fortified presidential palace.

Luenen, Germany - Remondis, a private German waste management company, said Wednesday it was buying a firm that processes waste water in India and would rename it Remondis Aqua India.

The company, Shrushti Consultants in Maharashtra state, employs 100 people. It operates 12 sewage treatment works and also supplies tap water to both homes and industry.

Remondis processes both sewage and solid waste from home and factories in Germany and operates in 24 other nations.