Kabul, April 22
Four Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan today when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, a Canadian military spokesman said.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan since the Taliban announced last month they had launched a spring offensive in their campaign to rid the country of foreign forces and topple the Western-backed government.

"All of the occupants of the vehicle were killed," said the spokesman, Lieutenant Mark MacIntyre.

The four men were travelling in an armoured jeep in the volatile Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province when the blast hit, he said.

Fifteen Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops after the Taliban were ousted by US and Afghan opposition forces in late 2001.

Canada has about 2,200 soldiers in the Afghan south where it commands a multi-national force based in Kandahar.

Brigadier General David Fraser, the Canadian commander of the force, said his men would not be deterred by the loss.

"While we are saddened by their loss, we will not forget them or their sacrifice," Fraser said in a statement.

"We will redouble our efforts in southern Afghanistan in their memory," he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but the Taliban have claimed a string of similar attacks in recent months.

Thirteen American troops have been killed in an intensified Taliban insurgency this year.

Nearly 60 Americans were killed last year, the worst for U.S. forces since they invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban from power.

Despite the rising level of violence, the United States is planning to trim its force of more than 19,000 troops in Afghanistan by several thousand.

At the same time, NATO members, including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, are taking on more responsibilities in the volatile south.

Up to 1,600 Dutch troops will soon move in to Uruzgan province and about 3,300 British troops will soon be arriving in another violence-plagued southern province, Helmand.

Some critics say NATO troops risk getting bogged down in a relentless insurgency that is being funded in part by Afghanistan's huge narcotics trade.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has faced questions from opposition politicians about Canada's deployment, said this month Canadian troops would be in Afghanistan for years to come.

He refused to accede to an opposition party request to commit to a vote in parliament on any extension of the Canadian deployment beyond early 2007.

In a separate incident on Saturday, two bombs badly damaged the home of an Afghan politician in the generally peaceful north but caused no casualties.

A security official said Taliban insurgents or their allies might have been responsible.

Though mostly active in the east and south, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for attacks in the west and north too. — Reuters

Denver (USA), April 22
A man who claimed to have a bomb aboard a United Airlines flight was subdued by fellow passengers as the California-bound plane was diverted to Denver International Airport, airport officials said.

Two F-16 fighter jets from Buckley Air Force Base scrambled to escort the plane as it flew into Denver yesterday, according to Lt Commander Sean Kelly, a spokesman for NORAD.

“They followed to make sure nothing untoward was going to happen,” he said.

Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega was arrested after the plane landed, FBI spokeswoman Monique Kelso said.

Three Secret Service agents travelling between assignments who happened to be on the plane helped detain the passenger, said Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren.

After the A-320 Airbus landed, it taxied to a remote part of the airport where the passengers got off and were bused to the terminal.

None of the 138 passengers or six crew members was injured, airport spokesman Chuck Cannon said. The flight was headed to Sacramento, California, from Chicago.

Authorities searched the aircraft for explosives and re-screened luggage and passengers before they reboarded the plane, Kelso said. —AP 

Moscow, April 22
Russia today confirmed that Tu-160 strategic bombers managed to penetrate a radar zone undetected near the Canadian coast during recent military manoeuvres.

“Our command-post exercises were planned, but they caused a kind of commotion in a number of countries. In particular, our warplanes managed to pass through a radar zone near Canadian coasts unnoticed,” Russian Strategic Force Commander Igor Khvorov told Interfax news agency.

He said the military exercises “reverberated” in west Asia, adding, “Of course, our exercises did not have anything to do with the situation in Iran, but their organisation indirectly echoed in that region.”

Mr Khvorov pointed out that manoeuvres involved 53 sorties and four guided missile launches and the planes dropped about 200 heavy bombs. — UNI 

New York, April 22
Two American Muslims are under arrest for allegedly discussing strategic locations, including oil refineries and military bases, for possible attacks and hatching a plan to get training in one of the terrorist-sponsored camps in Pakistan.

They also allegedly planned to disable the global positioning system to disrupt military and civilian communications and traffic.

Investigators said Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both American citizens, had travelled to Canada in March last year and met at least three other persons, also being investigated in connection with international terrorism, to discuss their plans.

It was there that the group decided to get military training at one of the terrorist-sponsored camps in Pakistan.

Ahmed travelled to Pakistan for the purpose, the investigators charged.

Ahmed (21), a Tech student, was arrested in Atlanta in Georgia state last month, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was being held without bail. The charges against him included material support to terrorism.

Sadequee (19) was arrested in Bangladesh last week and transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). — PTI

New York, April 22
India and Pakistan are among the nine countries that will benefit from $ 145.6 million in loans approved by a UN specialised agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing nations.

The loans were approved at the 87th session of the executive board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The board also approved $ 4.9 million in grants to support the rural poor, in particular women and small livestock keepers.

India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka will get $ 35.1 million in additional loans for post-tsunami programmes to help the rural poor rebuild their livelihoods.

Pakistan is to get a $ 26.4 million loan to support the $ 29.6 million project for the restoration of the quake-affected communities and household hit by the last October disaster.

Other benefitting projects include $ 12.6 million for Bosnia and Herzegovina to help finance the $ 24.5 million Rural Enterprise Enhancement Project which will assist 10,000 households in some of the country's poorest municipalities.

A $ 30 million loan and a $ 500,000 grant for Brazil to aid the $ 60.5 million Rural Communities Development Project in the poorest areas of the state of Bahia, directly benefitting 35,000 poor and landless families living in the semi-arid region. — PTI