Sydney - Australia rejected Saturday a formal request from the United States to resettle Chinese nationals currently detained in the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

The Australian newspaper said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had been urged by Beijing not to take the 17 former terror suspects who are ethnic Uyghurs.

President George W Bush is reluctant to let China take the Uyghurs for fear they would be tortured or even executed.

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Washington, Jan 9: Two top al Qaeda terrorists have been killed in a US missile strike on a building in northern Pakistan on New Year's Day.

The men were high on the FBI's "most wanted" list, identified by agency officials as Usama al-Kini - also known as Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, al Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan - and his lieutenant, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan.

Senior US officials said that the two men, both Kenyans, were believed to have been responsible for the September suicide bombing at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Islamabad, Jan. 6: The probe of the November, 2008 Mumbai attacks has given clear indications that the perpetrators of the attack had links with Pakistan. Reaffirming the Indian stand, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said that : "It is clear the "attacks have links to Pakistan or lead to Pakistani soil

As India handed over the details of the probe to Pakistan, Washington urged Islamabad to act on the proof provided.

Islamabad, Jan. 3: The United States has once again asked Pakistan to work together with India to reduce the rising tension between the two countries.

US Ambassador in Pakistan, Anne W Patterson has said that it is in the interest of both Pakistan and India to work together to defuse heightened tension and co-operate against terrorism.

Patterson also asked Pakistan to co-operate with India in the Mumbai terror attack probe.

"The US has been encouraging closer co-operation between India and Pakistan to trace the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks," the Daily Times quoted US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor, as saying.

Washington, Jan 3: In a startling revelation made by a former US official, it has emerged that China tested Pakistan's first nuclear bomb in 1990.

Thomas Reed, a former US Air Force secretary has claimed in his book- The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation that during Benazir Bhutto's tenure China helped Pakistan in testing its first nuclear armament.

"We believe that during Benazir Bhutto's term in office, the People's Republic of China tested Pakistan's first bomb for her in
1990. There are numerous reasons why we believe this to be true, including the design of the weapon and information gathered from discussions with Chinese nuclear experts," the Dawn quoted Reed, as saying.