SHORTFALLS: With violence in Afghanistan up 27 percent this year and 60 percent in Helmand Province, the US secretary of defense wants NATO to step up its presence
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Tuesday called on NATO allies to fill shortfalls of troops, equipment and resources in Afghanistan, warning of rising violence and the emergence of a classic insurgency.

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More than 50 Taliban fighters who fled a southern Afghan town were killed during a two-day battle as the militants tried to attack a nearby government center, Afghanistan's defense ministry said yesterday.

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Pirates freed a Japanese tanker and its 22 crew members, apparently unharmed, off the Somali coast yesterday, a US Navy spokesman said.

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South Korean police arrested a suspect yesterday in a deadly attack on two marines that left one of the soldiers dead and sparked a nationwide manhunt.

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ROUGH JUSTICE: The Queensland state government is appealing the sentences of nine males who walked free after gang-raping a 10-year-old girl in a remote community
An Australian prosecutor who described nine males who gang-raped a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl as "naughty" was suspended from duty as outrage grew yesterday over the fact they were not jailed.

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`A KIND MAN': Slain General Francois El Hajj had been tipped to become the army's next commander if General Michel Sleiman was appointed Lebanon's new president
A Lebanese army general was among at least four people killed yesterday in a car bomb that also injured seven in a Christian suburb on the outskirts of Beirut, a security source said.

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Israelis and Palestinians resume negotiations for the first time in nearly seven years, trying to reconcile conflicting claims and clashing dreams in a bid to end six decades of conflict.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin kept Russians waiting yesterday on whether he would accept a proposal to become prime minister, but analysts said the wily Kremlin leader would ultimately make the switch -- turning Russia's power structure upside down in the process.

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EVIDENCE: David Remes, a lawyer for Yemeni national Mahmoad Abdah, among others, said the decision raises questions about whether other evidence was destroyed
The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics.

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The Canadian House of Commons passed emergency legislation late on Tuesday night aimed at bypassing Canada's nuclear safety watchdog and putting a swift end to a critical shortage of medical isotopes.

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A Canadian pig farmer convicted of killing six women and butchering their bodies like pigs officially received his automatic life sentence and learned he will not be eligible for parole for a minimum of 25 years.

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■ HONG KONG

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