Briefly world

Taliban militants stoned a young couple to death for adultery after they ran away from their families in northern Afghanistan,officials said on Monday....

Afghan Taliban stone couple for adultery

KABUL: Taliban militants stoned a young couple to death for adultery after they ran away from their families in northern Afghanistan,officials said on Monday. The woman,Sadiqa,was 20 years old and engaged to another man,said the Kunduz provincial police chief,Gen Abdul Raza Yaqoubi. Her lover,28-year-old Qayum,left his wife to run away with her,and the two had holed up in a friends house five days ago,said district government head,Mohammad Ayub Aqyar. They were discovered by Taliban operatives on Sunday and stoned to death in front a crowd of about 150 men,Aqyar said.

Afghanistan: 4 months to disband security firms

KABUL: The President of Afghanistan is setting a four-month deadline for private security companies to cease operations in the country,his spokesman said on Monday. A presidential decree expected to be issued later Monday will detail the process through which the companies should cease operations,spokesman Waheed Omar told reporters in Kabul. Within four months,all private security companies will be disbanded, Omar said,but declined to go into detail before the decree is released.

S Korea,US launch drills despite North threat

SEOUL: South Korean and US troops launched computerised military drills on Monday despite North Korea warning it would retaliate with a merciless counterblow for the exercises Pyongyang considers rehearsal for invasion. The 11-day drills are annual war games that involve about 56,000 South Korean soldiers and 30,000 US troops in South Korea and abroad,South Koreas Defence Ministry and the US command in Seoul said on Monday.

Court to Nihita: Prove marriage to Sobhraj

Kathmandu: Nepals Supreme Court has ordered Charles Sobhrajs so-called to prove that she is legally married to him,amid a contempt of court battle following her outburst against the verdict upholding the life term verdict on the Indian origin criminal. A Supreme Court division bench of Justices Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Balaram KC demanded legal documents to prove 22-year-old Nihita Biswass marriage with Sobhraj,the Nepalnews online reported on Monday.

Debate over enshrining bullfighting as culture

Madrid: Now Spains leading opposition party wants to enshrine bullfighting as part of the nations cultural heritage and stop efforts to ban the bloody pastime. Supporters who say bullfighting is a form of art crucial to Spanish national identity say the move would also overturn the high-profile bullfighting ban enacted last month in the populous northeastern Catalonia region,and strike down a 1991 ban in Spains Canary Islands.

James Camerons underwater birthday

Moscow: Academy-award-winning director James Cameron on Sunday celebrated his 56th birthday on the bottom of the worlds largest freshwater Lake Baikal in Siberia. Cameron was invited by his Russian friend Anatoly Sagalevich,who had helped him shoot Titanic in 1997. Sagalevich heads the Science Academys deep diving research programme of Mir-1 and Mir-2 mini submarines. James Cameron dove to the bottom of Lake Baikal in the south near Cape Tolsty on the Mir-1 piloted by Anatoly Sagalevich, a spokesman for the Lake Baikal preservation foundation was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Richie dances to see if outfit is secure

Story continues below this ad

London: To avoid a wardrobe malfunction,socialite Nicole Richie dances in front of the mirror before leaving the house to make sure her outfit is secure. The 28-year-old says she checks her outfit is all in place by doing some energetic moves before she leaves the house,reported Contactmusic. When you go out and have your outfit on,you should check that everything is securely in place by dancing in the mirror, said Richie. The reality star turned fashion designer who has Harlow,two,and 11-month-old Sparrow with fiance Joel Madden also said being a mother has made her more organised in life.