New York  - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday called for the release of two Canadian diplomats kidnapped in Niger last December, following the release over the weekend of a local staff member who was held hostage with them.

The captors set free Soumana Mounkaila, a driver who was with former Canadian ambassador to the UN Robert Fowler and his aide Louis Guay when they were abducted on December 14, 2008, while riding in a UN vehicle.

Intelligent Mechatronic Systems' (IMS) iLane is the first in-car gadget that reads out e-mails and answers to the voice to draft a reply.

iLane, a portable smartphone-compatible device, features a synthesised female voice that aware users when they receive a new email, and reads out the message.

The compact device, which can be mounted on a dashboard, sun visor or air vent, gives drivers the ability to manage their smartphones without using their hands.

Ottawa  - Two roadside bombs killed four Canadian soldiers and one Afghan interpreter, the Ministry of National Defence said.

Eight soldiers were injured in the blasts that occurred in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Friday, the ministry said.

The first happened early Friday in the vicinity of a dismounted patrol in Zhari District, west of Kandahar city, killing two soldiers and a local interpreter and injuring five people.

Ottawa  - Canada allows hunters in this year's seal hunt to kill 338,200 animals that is 55,000 seals more than in 2008, the fisheries minister said late Friday.

Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said the quota was fixed after scientists' advice "to ensure the seal population is maintained," Canada's CTV channel said.

Animal rights organizations were dismayed over the Canadian government's decision to raise the quota for the annual hunt, which draws international criticism.

London  - Outspoken British anti-war member of parliament (MP) George Galloway Friday denounced as "outrageous" a decision by the Canadian authorities to refuse him entry on the grounds of national security.

Galloway, a former Labour politician who has now set up his own political party, said in London that he would not accept the ban imposed ahead of a speech he had planned to give in Toronto.

Calgary (Canada), Mar. 18 : Former US President George W Bush has said that he does not want spend his retirement criticizing his successor Barack Obama.

"He [Obama] was not my first choice for president, but when he won I thought it was good for the United States of America. I was deeply touched and I was deeply moved when I saw African Americans on TV weeping and saying, `I never thought it was possible,''" the Globe and Mail quoted Bush, as saying during a luncheon speech here.