Bali, Indonesia - Indonesia and Australia pledged Wednesday to intensify efforts to fight against human trafficking, and Jakarta will soon to extradite an Iranian national to face such charges in Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed that "we would further deepen our cooperation at the operational field level in dealing with the challenges of people smuggling."

Rudd, who was on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to attend a regional forum to promote democracy, said an Iranian national suspected of smuggling people to Australia will soon be extradited from Indonesia.

Beirut - Sunni fundamentalist group Fatah al-Islam said its leader may have been "captured or killed" and it has named his successor, local radios reported Wednesday.

Shaker al-Abssi and two other members of the group were ambushed in Syria while trying to meet with other Islamic militants from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Voice of Lebanon radio station quoted a Fatah al- Islam statement as saying.

The three were either captured or killed during the gunfight with members of the Syrian security forces, the radio said.

Abu Mohamad Awad had been named to succeed Abssi at the head of Fatah al-Islam, the group said.

Islamabad, Dec 10 : Pakistan has put its navy and air force on high alert in wake of the Indian Air Force alert in response to heightened perceptions of air attacks.

The alert has been sounded in view of intelligence reports of air strikes at Indian installations from across the border or an aerial attack by terrorists groups based in Pakistan.

However, the alert is still defensive in nature and intended to protect Indian targets.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) spokesman has said that Pakistan was ready to give a crushing reply to any aggression.

Manila - Pirates have freed 17 Filipino sailors after more than two months in captivity off Somalia, the Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

The Filipinos were kidnapped in the Gulf of Aden on September 21 when heavily armed Somali pirates hijacked the Greek cargo ship MV Captain Stefanos.

Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the sailors were "safe and in good health" when they were freed on Monday evening. They were headed to Italy and then to Greece, where they would be met by the ship's owners.

"We are coordinating with the owners on their repatriation (to the Philippines)," Conejos said.

London - The planned screening Wednesday of a television documentary showing a man ending his own life in an assisted suicide has renewed controversy over "the right to die" in Britain.

The film, by Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky, records the suicide of 59-year-old Craig Ewert, a US university professor in Britain who allowed the filming of his death in September 2006 in a clinic in Switzerland.

Ewert suffered from motor neurone disease and chose to die rather than endure the "torture" he feared from his degenerative condition.

Hanoi - The US dollar rose sharply against the Vietnamese dong Wednesday on the country's black market, as bankers cited fears that the government's economic forecast for 2009 was too rosy.

The government set its reference rate Wednesday at 16,600 dong to the dollar for those selling dollars.

But commercial banks were selling dollars for 16,986 dong each, while gold shops and black market traders were offering 17,430 dong to the dollar.

"The rising dollar stems from people's fears that Vietnam's economic growth for 2009 will be not as good as expected," said Phan Thanh Son, vice chief executive of Tien Phong Bank in Hanoi.