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.

Peshawar, Sept 19 : A senior Al Qaeda commander, said to be an Arab, was reportedly killed in yet another US drone attack, this time on a remote village in South Waziristan Agency, last evening.

Besides, six others, including one more Arab, were also killed in the drone attack.

The two Arabs were identified as Jiran, the al-Qaeda commander, and one Sabri, said sources close to the tribal militants.

US unmanned aircraft continue to hover over Pakistan territory despite Army Chief-level talks between the two sides held on Tuesday, after which America had said in a statement that it would “respect Pakistan’s sovereignty”.

Washington, Sept 19 : For the first time in past seven years, after former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf pledged his country’s support to US-led global war on terror, the Pak-US alliance appears to be under significant strain. Last Tuesday, America''s top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen flew to Islamabad to clam down the increasing anger in Pakistan over the recent increase in US’ strikes against militants along Pak-Afghan border.

Admiral Mullen''s need to rush to Pakistan – his fifth visit in the past year – points to a new and testing phase for the US-Pakistani alliance, said an article in the Christian Science Monitor (CSM).

Rajshahi, Bangladesh - Police in the northern Bangladeshi city of Rajshahi arrested 11 members of the radical Islamist organization Hijbut Tahrir as they were preparing to address a news conference, local officials said Friday.

"The suspected Islamic militants have been detained as they arrived at the local press club to announce the group's future political programmes to the newsmen," said city assistant police commissioner Ekramul Hossain.

Frankfurt - Six major central banks pumped billions of US dollars of extra short-term credit into the world's financial markets Thursday, amid fears that this week's crisis was drying up liquidity.

European share prices steadied after the joint operation, which was triggered by the growing reluctance of commercial banks to lend one another money in a week where one financial institution after another has succumbed.

London, Sept 18 : Police has caught an elderly widow in possession of 1,300 pounds of cocaine, who said that she planned to take the drug to give her “a lift”.

Betty Lily Nicholls, 77, was arrested after police was informed that drugs were being transported in the car she was travelling in.

Exeter court was told that when police stopped Nicholls’ Ford Focus car on the M5 last November, she and the driver appeared “very nervous and avoided eye contact”.

After searching Nicholls’ handbag, police spotted compressed white powder, but she denied knowing anything about the nature of the powder.

“I don’t know what it is. I thought it was puff,” The Daily Express quoted Nicholls, as telling police.