Kiev- Ukraine's political leadership on Thursday was hopeful a 16.4-billion-dollar International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan would improve the former Soviet republic's current bleak economic outlook - an opinion shared neither by markets nor independent experts.

"This is good news, the reaction of investors is positive," said President Viktor Yushchenko at a meeting with top bank managers. "This (the IMF loan) is a signal for world society to increase its level of trust towards our country."

Hanoi- The head of the Hanoi chapter of the Communist Party has apologized for controversial comments he made while visiting people in flooded areas on Sunday, a senior Hanoi Party official confirmed Thursday.

On Sunday, Hanoi Party boss Pham Quang Nghi told a reporter from the news website VietnamNet that while out checking the situation on the ground, "I found that unlike in the old days, people rely a lot on the state. They just wait for the government to supply this, support that, they don't try their best to do it themselves."

Cairo - The headquarters of Egypt's opposition al-Ghad party were set on fire on Thursday amid clashes between rival factions in the party, security sources told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

Twelve fire trucks were called in to extinguish the flames in the party's offices in downtown Cairo.

New Delhi - Indian share prices dipped by more than 3 per cent Thursday on heavy selling by foreign funds and retail investors tracking an overnight slide in United States markets.

An unexpected rise in inflation figures also pushed down shares. Metal and blue-chip stocks were among the big losers.

The benchmark 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange ended with a loss of 385.79 points, or 3.81 per cent, closing at 9,734.22. The Sensex opened weak at
9,755.03 and hit an intra-day low of 9,635.22.

Islamabad - An explosion ripped through a meeting of pro-government tribesmen in Pakistan's remote region along the border with Afghanistan on Thursday, leaving three people killed and more than 45 others injured, media reports said.

The blast took place when around 200 people from Salarzai tribe were holding a meeting to plan action against Taliban militants in Batmale village, some 50 kilometres from Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district.

Urdu-language Aaj news channel reported while citing official sources that the death toll was feared to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition.

Hong Kong  - Letters calling for higher pay signed by 19,000 Hong Kong police officers, more than two thirds of the city's force, were Thursday handed to a government advisory body.

The letter campaign is the biggest in the force's history and follows a long fight for better pay rates by associations representing rank and file officers in the former British colony.

Staff associations are calling for new pay scales that would add an average of 230 US dollars a month to the pay packets of the city's 27,000-strong police force.