Islamabad - At least 19 people, including three soldiers and 14 Islamic militants, were killed Tuesday in fresh clashes in restive north-west Pakistan, security officials said.

A roadside bomb targeted a security convoy in Kabal area of troubled valley of Swat in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), leaving at least three law enforcers dead and numerous injured, a local official said.

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said three vehicles of the security forces were also destroyed in the attack.

Moscow - Its organization unchanged since 1945, Russia's military now faces an overhaul, after its brief war with Georgia this summer showed leaders the country needs a more agile force that does not operate on Cold War scenarios.

While reforms were in the works before the Georgia war, the sight last August of Soviet-made tanks stalling as they pushed into South Ossetia and instances of military officers forced to use journalists' satellite phones to communicate with command muddied Russia's victory.

Ljubljana - Queen Elizabeth II received a golden tea set Tuesday at the start of her three-day visit to Slovenia, her first since the Alpine-Adriatic republic claimed independence from former Yugoslavia.

Queen Elisabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were whisked away from the airport outside the capital Ljubljana to meet their host, President Danilo Turk, at the nearby 16th century castle Brdo pri Kranju.

Upon arrival, the Queen, President Turk and their spouses posed for pictures and exchanged gifts.

New York - United Airl

New York - Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drug maker, said Tuesday that its quarterly earnings tripled on one-time items despite flat revenues.

Earnings rose to 2.28 billion dollars, or 34 cents a share, on job cuts and a favourable exchange rate, up from 761 million dollars, or 11 cents, in the year-earlier period when it was hit by a one-time charge for dropping an insulin drug, the company said in New York. Excluding one-time costs, profits rose 5 per cent.