Berlin  - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Sunday ruled out the creation of a "bad bank" to take toxic assets from the nation's major financial institutions.

Such a bank would need to be funded by at least 150-200 billion euros (198-260 billion dollars) of taxpayers' money, the minister told the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"How could I take such a proposal to the federal parliament," he asked. "The nation would think we've gone crazy."

Ruhpolding, Germany - Six-time biathlon world champion Magdalena Neuner of Germany won the women's pursuit over 10 kilometres for a 13th World Cup biathlon victory.

Neuner could afford four shooting errors on the way to a defeat of Russian Ekaterina Iourieva in 32 minutes 56.5 seconds.

Iourieva, who had one shooting error, crossed the line 8.9 seconds behind with German Kati Wilhelm third, 21.7 seconds behind team-mate Neuner.

Neuner, who had edged Wilhelm to victory in the women's 7.5-kilometre sprint in Ruhpolding on Friday, moves third overall on 409 points, behind Russian Svetlana Slepzova (481) and Iourieva (461).

Kabul  - A British soldier serving with NATO-led international troops was killed by "enemy fire" in southern Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed they had downed a US military helicopter in eastern region, officials said Sunday.

The British soldier was killed in a fight with Taliban insurgents while he was on a joint foot patrol with Afghan forces close to the district centre of Sangin, in southern province of Helmand, British defence ministry said in a statement.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi, speaking from an undisclosed location by phone, claimed that their fighters killed four British soldiers during the gunbattle.

Belek, Turkey - Cologne defender Pierre Wome will be sidelined for at least 10 weeks after tearing a thigh muscle at the Bundesliga team's training camp in Turkey, coach Christoph Daum said Sunday.

Aosta, Italy  - Four It

Islamabad, Jan. 18 : The increasing influence of the Taliban, and other extremists groups in the tribal region, and especially in the Swat valley in Pakistan, reaffirms the Taliban ambitions of running a parallel government in the country.

According to a Daily Times editorial, the territory controlled by the terrorists has increased from 25 to 75 percent.