Sydney - An Afghan district governor and his two bodyguards were killed in a gunfight involving Australian soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) said Friday.
Rozi Khan Barekzai, governor of the Chora district in Uruzgan province, was killed Wednesday in Trin Kot, the provincial capital.
He was a mujahedin commander during the war against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and had also served as provincial police chief after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
"It is not possible at this time to determine that he was killed by ADF fire," the statement said.
Sydney - There's something stalking the suburbs of Sydney and it's not joblessness, homelessness or another of the nasty fellow travellers of the global financial crisis.
The 4 million people of Sydney were warned Friday that their children could be gobbled by leopards, panthers, cougars or other big cats that have escaped from zoos.
"I don't think it's necessarily an urban myth," Nathan Rees, the premier of New South Wales, said when commenting on reports that exotic animals were prowling the fringes of Australia's biggest city.
Rees, who is just two weeks into the job, was immediately accused of a scaremongering to distract attention from the scandals plaguing his government.
Kabul - An Afghan district governor along with his two bodyguards were killed mistakenly by NATO-led Australian troops in southern Afghanistan while five police officers and three Taliban militants were killed in a clash and a roadside bombing, officials said Thursday.
Rozi Khan Barekzai, governor of the Chora district in Uruzgan province, was called Wednesday to a friend's house in Trin Kot, the provincial capital, because the friend believed his house was surrounded by Taliban militants, said Gholub Wardak, the province's deputy police chief.
"Actually the man's house was surrounded by Australian forces, and when Rozi Khan and his men arrived there, the foreign forces mistook them for Taliban and opened fire at them," Wardak said.
Sydney - In the midst of a global financial crisis Sydney's most expensive house has changed hands.
A Japanese businessman Thursday agreed to pay back-to-the-wall financier David Coe 47 million Australian dollars (37 million US dollars) for Coolong, a harbourside mansion with its own sandy beach.
Coe, founder of struggling financial engineering firm Allco Finance, had the 4,000-square-metre property on the market for some months for 50 million dollars.
Sydney - The era of cheap debt that powered Macquarie Bank Ltd to becoming Australia's most admired and most profitable financial institution is over.
Sydney - Austral
Sydney - In the midst of a global financial crisis Sydney's most expensive house has changed hands.
