Peshawar, Oct 1: Denying reports appearing in the Pakistani media that the abducted Afghan envoy Abdul Khaliq Farahi was released on Monday morning, senior security officials in Peshawar have said that there was still no trace of the missing diplomat.

They said that the media reports were “false and irresponsible”, and that they might have been intentionally planted by someone.

Tokyo- Japanese stocks tumbled more than 4 per cent Tuesday to a three-year low, leading an Asia-Pacific sell-off in reaction to Wall Street's historic plunge.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 483.75 points, or 4.12 per cent, to close at 11,259.86.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues fell 40.46 points, or 3.59 per cent, to 1,087.41.

Mingora (Pakistan), Sept 30: The Pakistan’s unit of the Taliban – Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - have reportedly offered to released the two Chinese engineers, whom they had abducted earlier this month, in exchange for 136 jailed militants.

The extremists also declared a unilateral ceasefire in Swat till the third day of Eidul Fitr, but said that they would retaliate if attacked by Pakistani security forces.

Speaking to journalists on phone from an unspecified place on Monday, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said that the kidnapped engineers of a private Chinese cellular company were ‘safe’ in their custody, reported the Dawn.

Manila - Four more miners were rescued overnight after being trapped for one week in a flooded mineshaft in the northern Philippines, bringing the total number rescued alive to six, a regional police chief said Tuesday.

Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin said one miner was rescued before midnight Monday while three more were found early Tuesday as rescuers work round-the-clock to take advantage of the good weather.

Warsaw, Sept 30: The Polish firm Geofizyka Krakow, whose engineer was abducted in Pakistan two days ago, has reportedly decided to quit its operations in the strife-torn country and immediately pull its staff from there.

“We’re preparing the withdrawal from Pakistan of our 18 other employees,” the Daily Times quoted Geofizyka Krakow chief Leopold Sulkowski as saying in an interview with a Poland news agency.

Sulkowski said his firm had broken its contract in Pakistan after the kidnapping of engineer Piotr Stanczak.

Stanczak’s two drivers and a security guard, all Pakistanis, were shot dead during the abduction, about 110 kilometres from Islamabad. No terrorist organization has so far claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Kuala Lumpur - Somali pirates have released a second Malaysian oil tanker after the government paid a ransom of 2 million dollars, officials and news reports said Tuesday.

The MT Bunga Melati 2, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen on August 19, was released early Monday and was now heading towards Djibouti in East Africa, a spokesman from the Defence Ministry confirmed.

Armed pirates had attacked the ship, killing a Filipino national crew member. The 38 other crew members were reported to be in good health, said Fadzlette Othman Merican, the ministry's director of public relations.