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KATMANDU: Nepal's prime minister fired the army chief Sunday, accusing him of defying government orders, while his deputy has been appointed Acting Army chief, officials said.Information Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara told reporters the prime minister announced army chief Rookmangud Katawal's removal after calling a special Cabinet meeting Sunday. ``The army chief was removed because he failed to give satisfactory explanation on why the government orders were ignored,'' Mahara said.The army's second in command, Kul Bahadur Khadka, has been appointed the new acting army chief, he said. Most political parties in the coalition government walked out in protest, with the main opposition Nepali Congress warning of street protests. But a vote was taken by the ruling Maoists _ led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal _ to fire Katawal.

WASHINGTON: A small plane crashed into the compound of a warehouse in the U.S. capital city here, but no loss of life reported.A small plane crashed into the compound of a warehouse near Puyallup, but the only person on board, the pilot escaped miraculously. The pilot said that when the plane reached at a height of 150 feet its engine failed and in his efforts to land it rammed into a warehouse.

MUMBAI: The only surviving suspected gunman in last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai would be tried as an adult, which means he could face the death penalty, the presiding judge said.The defense lawyer representing Mohammed Ajmal Kasab said his client was 17 at the time of the November attacks and should be tried by a juvenile court. But Indian medical experts declared that Kasab is at least 20 after examining his teeth and X-rays of his bones. Judge M.L. Tahiliyani, who was presiding over his trial, ruled Saturday that the medical tests were enough to prove Kasab was an adult at the time of the attacks. Prosecutors say Kasab, a Pakistani, was one of 10 attackers responsible for killing 166 people and wounding 304 more during the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Nine other suspects were killed during the attacks. He will face the death penalty if convicted. Had he been tried as a minor, Kasab would have faced a maximum of three years in prison.

NEW DELHI: At least six persons were killed in a car and truck head-on collision in India.The truck, coming from opposite direction on the Sonipur Highway rammed into a car in the Indian state of Bihar, which set the car ablaze completely gutting it.Police said that the accident occurred due to reckless driving. The inured were immediately rushed to the hospital, but the casualty feared to increase.

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation said on Sunday its laboratories had confirmed a total of 658 H1N1 flu infections in 16 countries, including 16 deaths in Mexico. The WHO's toll lags national reports about the virus but is considered more scientifically secure. The Mexican government said on Saturday that out of more than 100 suspected deaths from the strain, 19 had been confirmed. Authorities in the country, which has been most affected by the disease, had previously made an estimate of 176 suspected deaths. The WHO's most recent figures say that 397 people have been infected in Mexico, and 160 people have been infected in the United States, the two countries most affected by the virus widely known as swine flu. There has also been one U.S. death, identified by authorities there, as a Mexican infant. The WHO has also confirmed flu infections, without deaths, in the following countries: Austria (1), Canada (51), Hong Kong- China Region (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), Fran

SEOUL: North Korea on Sunday renewed its pledge to bolster its nuclear deterrent by reactivating its atomic programme in protest at UN condemnation of its recent rocket launch. Rodong Sinmun newspaper, published by the North's ruling party, called the communist state's move "an exercise of the legitimate right of the sovereign state" against what it calls unjust UN actions. "Nobody is entitled to take issue with the DPRK's resolute measures to reconstruct its nuclear facilities to their original state and reprocess the spent fuel rods," it said, referring to the North's official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "In order not to let the disgraceful history... repeat itself, the DPRK will further bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defence and mercilessly punish on behalf of the nation the gang daring challenge it."North Korea Wednesday threatened to conduct a second nuclear test and ballistic missile tests unless the

KABUL: A few months ago, the relationship between the new U.S. administration and the veteran Afghan president looked like a bad marriage, with both sides using every opportunity to complain about each other in public.But when Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai meet this week in Washington for the first time since Obama's election last year, expect the two presidents to get along fine. After months of berating Karzai's government as ineffectual and tolerant of corruption, U.S. officials have stopped chiding the man Washington helped install in power in 2001. Karzai, for his part, has toned down what had been increasingly angry complaints about U.S. troops killing Afghan civilians