Washington  - Richard Holbrooke, the special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will travel to the two countries as well as India after attending a weekend security conference in Munich, the US State Department said Wednesday.

Holbrooke departs Washington on Wednesday for London before he heads to the annual conference in Munich, which runs Friday to Sunday. He will then head to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India as part of "an orientation trip," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

"He's not going there to lecture, he's going there to listen," Wood said, but did not provide specific dates for Holbrooke's arrival in South Asia.

Vijay Mallya controlled Kingfisher Airlines has announced that it intends to expand its routes in South Asia. According to sources, company's first flight in South Asia will start from January 19, which will connect Chennai and Bangalore with Colombo.

The private air-carrier (Kingfisher) has also intends to roll out a Bangalore-Dubai flight on February 8, while Mumbai-Bangkok and Bangalore-Bangkok flights are expected to launch on the February 12 and Kolkata-Dhaka flight on February 16.

Dhaka  - Bangladesh on Sunday called for India and Pakistan to calm their tensions that have risen since last month's terrorist attack in Mumbai.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, after meeting the farm ministers from South Asian countries, told reporters that "We have set aside two million tonnes of wheat that will be given to countries which have been asking for it through diplomatic channels."

Although India had banned wheat exports in 2007, analysts say that robust output and higher stocks at government warehouses have enabled India, the world's second-biggest producer, to set aside some wheat for overseas supplies.

Virginia, Nov 5 : South Asian origin students in the United States today expressed their happiness over the historic victory of Democrat Barack Obama, who defeated his Republican rival John McCain to become the 44th US President elect.

Obama won at least 338 Electoral College votes, far more than the 270 needed. With results in from more than two-thirds of US precincts, he led McCain by 51 percent to 48 percent in the popular vote.

London, Sept 12 : Child mortality rates are falling significantly in many regions, but remains high in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, according to UNICEF.

Its reports shows that more than 9 million children globally died before their fifth birthday in 2007.

Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and East Asia and the Pacific countries have cut deaths among under-fives by over 50 percent since 1990, according to the report.

However, over the same period, deaths in western and central Africa have fallen by just 18 percent; in sub-Saharan Africa the figure was 21 percent while in eastern and southern Africa it was 26 percent.