Muscat, Oct 7: The members of the Indian community in Oman have been urged upon by the Indian envoy here Anil Wadhwa to donate a day's salary to help the flood-stricken people of India, particularly in the states of Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, reported the Gulf News.

The Indian envoy made the appeal while addressing members of the Indian community at an open house held at the mission’s premises to celebrate Eid al Fitr.

Meanwhile, the Indian Social Club (ISC), under the aegis of the Indian Embassy, has begun a charity drive to raise funds for the flood victims in Bihar and will hold a fund-raising dinner on the Embassy premises on October 11, added the paper.

Tokyo  - Asian stocks nosedived throughout the region Monday as investors feared the US bail-out would fall far short of resolving the financial crisis that has also spread to Europe.

Stocks in Tokyo plunged to their lowest levels in five years on worries about the deepening global crisis despite the US Congress' approval of a 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bail-out.

Peshawar, Oct 4: United States air strikes on three villages in North Waziristan have killed at least 21 people and wounded several others.

Intelligence officials said a pilotless drone aircraft launched an attack on the village of Mohammad Khel, 30 kilometres west of Miranshah, North Waziristan’s main urban centre, at around 9:30 p. m. on Friday.

One intelligence official said at least 12 people had been killed in the attack, including some foreigners.

However, Taliban sources in the area said that eight people were killed and seven were wounded.

Washington, Oct 2: General David McKiernan, the commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, has reportedly not ruled out holding talks with the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar for ensuring peace in the country. He also called for enlisting tribes to help achieving the desired objective.

He said that the US-led coalition needed more troops for what, according to him, was increasingly a “tough fight” in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

London, Oct 2: Pakistan’s intelligence agency the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) may have provided help to the Taliban with arms and other aid to fight against the Afghan government in 2005, besides providing them training and intelligence in specialist camps in Pakistan.

This has been revealed by a leaked Spanish intelligence document.

The secret document, marked confidential and bearing the official seal of Spain's ministry of defence, was published on the website of Spanish radio. It shows that Spanish intelligence officials had reason to believe that the ISI was helping to procure improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in attacking vehicles at a time when coalition forces appeared to be winning against the insurgents.