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BAGHDAD: American troops on Memorial Day honored their fallen in Iraq.In Iraq, soldiers and Marines stood solemnly during a playing of Taps at Baghdad's Camp Victory. They saluted a memorial of a single helmet propped on a rifle beside a pair of boots.At Camp Victory, Staff Sgt. Bienvenido Celestino, 43, stood by the makeshift memorial, taking a moment to remember those who served and died during his three deployments in Iraq.

DHAKA: A 22-year-old unmarried Bangladeshi woman who was caned 39 times for alleging a neighbour was the father of her son is fighting for her life in hospital, police said Tuesday.The case has shocked the impoverished Muslim-majority nation, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering the woman to be shifted from her village home to the capital for proper medical treatment.Local police chief Moshiur Rahman told that the woman, from Comilla, 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital Dhaka, had angered Islamic clerics, when she told friends that a neighbour had fathered her six-year-old son. They called her and the alleged father to appear before a makeshift Islamic court, but the man denied the paternity claim, Rahman said. "He held a Koran in one hand and swore to the village clerics that he was not the father of the boy. The village court found him not guilty," he said. "They also issued a fatwa that the woman should be caned 39 times for lying." The woman, seri...

CALCUTTA: The death toll from Cyclone Aila reached 40 on Tuesday after it lashed eastern India and Bangladesh and stranded thousands in their flooded villages, officials said.The storm destroyed nearly 3,000 thatched and mud houses and toppled a large number of trees in nearly 300 villages across India's West Bengal state, said Kanti Ganguly, a state minister. He said 34 people were killed in West Bengal.The cyclone also caused high waves to hit coastal areas in neighboring Bangladesh, killing at least six people, said a statement by Bangladesh's Food and Disaster Management Ministry. The country's leading newspaper said tens of thousands of people were stranded as waters submerged their homes.

KABUL: NATO forces say three international troops have been killed in a bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan. Spokesman Lt. Commander Christopher Hall says their military vehicle was rocked by an explosion outside the capital of Kapisa province on Tuesday. He confirmed the deaths and wounded but did not provide further details on the incident or the troops' nationalities.A spokesman for the governor of Kapisa says a suicide bomber rammed into the vehicle, causing the explosion. Abdul Halim Ayar said an Afghan civilian was also killed.

KUWAIT CITY: King Abdullah of OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said in remarks published on Tuesday that a fair price for oil was between 75 and 80 dollars."We still believe that a fair price is 75 dollars and perhaps 80 dollars a barrel, especially now," the king said in an interview with Kuwaiti daily Assiyassa. King Abdullah -- whose country is the world's top oil exporter -- also said that prices, which have dropped sharply due to the global economic meltdown, would eventually stabilise at a higher range when the world economy recovers."The issue of fluctuating prices is governed by developments and conditions of the world markets. These (prices) are bound to stabilise at a higher price for oil in the future," he said.Oil prices were hovering around 60 dollars a barrel in Asian trade on Tuesday ahead of an OPEC meeting later this week and continued unrest in key oil exporter Nigeria. Oil fell from record peaks of more than 147 dollars in July to about 32 dollars...