FORT CARSON, COLORADO: A court-martial got underway for the first female US Army soldier to flee to Canada to avoid a second tour of duty in the Iraq war yesterday.

BOSTON: A woman’s DNA has been found on at least one of the explosive devices used in the Boston bombings, adding a new dimension to the probe into the terror attack that killed three people and wounded over 200 others.

ISLAMABAD:  Virtually sealing his political comeback plans, a provincial High Court today banned former Pakistani military ruler Mr Pervez Musharraf from contesting elections for the rest of his life on a day another put him in judicial custody till three days after the general elections on May 11.

DAMASCUS:  The Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Wael al-Halqi escaped an assassination bid on Monday, surviving a blast that targeted his convoy in Damascus, Syrian state television reported.

LONDON: A 1,000-year-old Buddhist carved Indian-style temple step, found in the garden of a home in England, has fetched a whopping 553,250 pounds at an auction here.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators probing the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto have decided to quiz Mr Rehman Malik after being told by Pervez Musharraf that the former interior minister had decided details of her security on the day she was killed.

LONDON/MELBOURNE: One of the two Australian radio jockeys involved in a prank phone call to a UK hospital treating a pregnant Kate Middleton, that apparently led to the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha, on Monday said she will appear at the now-delayed inquest into the India-born nurse’s death.

BEIJING:  China on Sunday  took note of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s remarks over PLA’s incursion into the Depsang valley and said that it is willing to work with New Delhi to deal with differences while maintaining peace at borders and forging strategic cooperative partnership.

ISLAMABAD: The first general elections in Pakistan that will usher in a smooth democratic transfer of power in 66 years is likely to go down to the wire with no party expected to get a majority.

SEOUL: The North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-un's wife made her first public appearance in two months to mark the opening of a health complex in Pyongyang, the country's official news wire service said Sunday.