Khost, Feb. 4 : An Indian engineer and three other persons were seriously injured when the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by a bomb in the outskirts of the city here.

The engineer and other road construction workers were on their way to their work site when their convoy was attacked.

"They were on their way to their work site when their vehicles were struck by an explosion and three people, including a foreign engineer- an Indian engineer- were wounded," The News quoted a police official Mohammad Jamal, as saying.

Kabul  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan Wednesday, a day after the world body asked international donors to provide 603 million dollars for humanitarian aid for the war-wracked country.

The UN chief was scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and leaders of the national assembly during his second visit of the country since taking office in late 2006, the UN office in Kabul said in a statement.

Washington, Feb. 4 : The United States may change its strategy on Afghanistan, and focus more on dismantling the terror training camps in Pakistan.

According to The Nation, the Pentagon's top military officers have recommended to President Barack Obama that the US should focus more on eliminating Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan, rather than on achieving lasting democracy and a thriving Afghan economy.

Geneva  - The United Nations issued an appeal Tuesday for Afghanistan, asking donors to give 603 million dollars for aid as the humanitarian situation in the country continued to deteriorate.

Mounting insecurity along with natural disasters, specifically drought, have set the country back from gains made earlier this decade, the UN said.

"Poverty indicators, maternal mortality and infant mortality rates, are all very poor," said John Holmes, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

Moscow - Russia will grant Kyrgyzstan hundreds of millions of dollars in aid if the Central Asian nation moves to shut down a US military base crucial to operations in Afghanistan, a Russian business daily reported Tuesday.

Kommersant said Moscow is offering a 300-million-dollar credit over 40 years and a one-time 150-million-dollar state grant as incentives to close the airbase.

Washington, Feb 3 : US President Barack Obama has said his administration wants to make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the insurgency-hit country does not destabilise its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan.

Obama told NBC in an interview that his administration is for having clear objectives in Afghanistan and wants to fix the drift that occurred there over the last two years.

"We are not gonna be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy," Obama said.