DHAKA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Bangladesh said Saturday that 1,723 people had been confirmed dead in the cyclone-hit south of the country, with the toll from the disaster expected to rise further.

'The number of deaths so far is 1,723 and it is increasing still,' said Major Emdadul Islam of the armed forces control room.

Officials have said they expect 'thousands' of bodies to be recovered over the coming days as relief workers reach badly hit areas.

DHAKA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Bangladesh said Saturday that 1,595 people had been confirmed dead in the cyclone-hit south of the country, with the toll from the disaster expected to rise further.

'We have so far confirmed 1,595 deaths and still more are coming in,' said Salina Shahid of the relief and disaster management ministry control room.

Officials have said they expect 'thousands' of bodies to be recovered over the coming days as relief workers reach badly hit areas.

KABUL, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Two soldiers with the NATO-led military and an interpreter were killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the force said.

Another three soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were wounded in the blast, ISAF said in a statement.

The alliance's 37-nation deployment does not release the nationalities of its casualties. Most of the ISAF soldiers in southern Afghanistan are British, Dutch and Canadian.

DHAKA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Bangladesh said Saturday that 1,070 people have been confirmed dead in the cyclone-hit south of the country, with the toll from the disaster expected to rise further.

'The death toll up to now is 1,070, but it will increase,' Salina Shahid, an official in the ministry of relief and disaster management, told AFP.

Officials have said they anticipate that 'thousands' of corpses are littering the area.

DHAKA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - The number of people killed by a cyclone that tore through impoverished Bangladesh may run into the thousands, a government official told AFP Saturday, with the current death toll already at 932.

'We are expecting that thousands of dead bodies may be found within a few days,' said the deputy head of the government's disaster management office, Shekhar Chandra Das.

DHAKA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - The death toll from a cyclone that tore through impoverished Bangladesh may run into the thousands, a government official told AFP Saturday.

'We are expecting that thousands of dead bodies may be found within a few days,' said the deputy head of the government's disaster management office, Shekhar Chandra Das.

He said authorities and relief workers were still struggling 'to collect information about casualties in many remote and impassable places' along the impoverished southwest coast.

JERUSALEM, Oct 1, 2007 (AFP) - An Israeli soldier was slightly wounded in a firefight with two suspects from the Gaza Strip, north of the main Karni commercial transit point with Israel, a military spokesman announced Monday.

'A patrol spotted two suspects on the Palestinian side of the border,' the spokesman told AFP.

'The two men lobbed two hand grenades and fired shots at the soldiers, injuring one,' he added.

Israeli troops returned the fire, hitting both men, he added.

BAGHDAD, Sept 30, 2007 (AFP) - US military losses in Iraq for September stood at 71 on Sunday, but the toll remained the lowest monthly figure since July last year, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

The US military on Sunday announced the death of another soldier, saying he died when his unit was hit by a bomb and came under small arms fire in eastern Baghdad on Saturday. A second soldier was injured.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Two foreign soldiers involved in military operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan have died, the international military force here announced Saturday.

A soldier with the NATO-led force was killed Saturday during combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The 37-nation ISAF does not release the nationalities of its casualties, leaving this to their home nations. It also gave no details of the incident.

BAGHDAD, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Two US soldiers were killed on Saturday in separate incidents in Iraq, pushing the overall toll of American losses since the March 2003 invasion above 3,800, the military announced.

One was shot dead in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, while the second was killed by small arms fire during an operation in a southern district of the capital, statements from the military said.

The deaths took American military losses since the invasion to 3,801, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - A suicide bomb that ripped through an army bus in the Afghan capital Saturday killed 31 people, most of then military personnel, and wounded several more, the national public health minister said.

Seventeen of the wounded were in a critical condition, Public Health Minister Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi told AFP.

'At this time I can tell you that 31, almost all of them military personnel, have been martyred,' he said during a visit to the city's main military hospital where many of the casualties were taken.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - A suicide bomb that ripped through an army bus in the Afghan capital Saturday killed at least 27 military personnel and wounded 21 more, the ministry of defence said.

'It has been made clear that 27 national army personnel have been martyred and 21 others injured,' the ministry said in a statement. The bus had been carrying soldiers and officers to work.

LONDON, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he believed that the death toll in Myanmar was 'far greater' than was being reported.

'I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported so far,' he said, after talks with US President George W. Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

At least 13 people have been reported killed after three days of violent military crackdown against the protestors, led by Buddhist monks.

YANGON, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of protesters faced off against Myanmar's feared security forces in the country's main city Friday. But not according to state media, which insisted there were just 120.

'About 30 demonstrators in each group protested at only four locations in Yangon today,' intoned the newsreader on Myanmar's evening television bulletin.

'The security forces were used only at the places needed, in order to restore stability,' the bulletin added.

YANGON, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - The third day of a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Myanmar has resulted in hundreds of arrests, and almost certainly deaths and injuries, a Western diplomat said Friday.

Fresh protests broke out in three locations in the main city of Yangon Friday, despite the military action of the previous two days, which left at least 13 dead, including a Japanese journalist.

GAZA CITY, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Another Palestinian militant died on Friday of wounds inflicted by an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip this week during a series of operations that killed more than a dozen people, medics said.

The death of Shadi Abu Suraya, 30, a local commander in the Army of Islam, brings to 13 the number of Palestinians killed in one of the bloodiest days in the impoverished coastal strip had seen in weeks.

SYDNEY, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Australia's ambassador to Myanmar said on Friday that the number of deaths there from the military crackdown was much higher than the official numbers given by the regime.

The ambassador, Bob Davis, said the secretive junta had provided a death toll of 10 from the crackdown on mass protests against the regime.

But he told ABC radio that witnesses had reported to embassy officials that they had seen 'significantly more than that number of dead being removed from the scene of the demonstrations in central Yangon yesterday (Thursday).'

LOME, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Three more people died in Togo after recent torrential rains, taking the country's death toll up to 23 according to a new tally published Thursday.

The additional deaths occurred in Kpendjal province, 650 kilometres (404 miles) north of the capital, Togo Social Affairs Minister Roger Tamasse Danioue told AFP. Another 55 people have been hurt.

The rains have lashed other regions, and 22,000 people have been made homeless, said Danioue.

YANGON, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Nine people, including a Japanese man, were killed Thursday in a crackdown on anti-government protests, Myanmar's state media said, accusing the pro-democracy opposition of fomenting the unrest.

Another 11 demonstrators were wounded, including one woman, and 31 security forces were also injured, it said in an evening television bulletin.

YANGON, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - A Japanese journalist was shot and killed in Myanmar Thursday, becoming the first foreign victim of the violent crackdown on anti-government protests, officials and his employer said.

International media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was 'appalled' at the death of 50-year-old Kenji Nagai, a journalist with Tokyo-based video and photo agency APF News.

LONDON, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - A 22-year-old British woman has died of injuries she suffered in a plane crash in Thailand nearly two weeks ago, the Foreign Office in London said Thursday.

Bethan Jones, 22, from Porth in south Wales, died in hospital in Thailand on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the September 16 crash to 90, a spokeswoman said.

The domestic Press Association news agency said her mother Jean, father Steven, brother Dewi, uncle Tony and other family members had all flown out to be at her bedside.

TOKYO, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - A Japanese man who Thursday became the first foreigner killed in protests in Myanmar was a video journalist and was hit by a stray bullet, his employer said.

Kenji Nagai, 50, was working for APF News, a video and photo agency based in Tokyo, the company said.

Nagai worked on a contract and was dispatched in the past to trouble spots.

He had entered Myanmar two days ago on the eve of the crackdown against the mass protests led by thousands of Buddhist monks, the company said.

YANGON, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - At least one person was shot dead and three injured with gunshot wounds as Myanmar authorities clamped down for a second day on anti-government protesters, according to hospital sources and witnesses.

Scores were also beaten as tens of thousands of protesters, many of them youths and students, played cat-and-mouse with security forces across the city Thursday, witnesses said.

The six-hours of protests ended after sunset and ahead of a military-imposed curfew, witnesses also said.

YANGON, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - A Japanese national in his 50s was killed Thursday in Myanmar in the violent crackdown on protests against the military regime, the Japanese embassy in Yangon said.

'The man was in his 50s and carried a Japanese passport. He was taken to Yangon General Hospital,' said a Japanese diplomat. 'We sent our staff to the hospital, but at this moment we have no further details.'

In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said Myanmar's military government had told Japan that a Japanese national was killed Thursday.

TOKYO, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Myanmar has told Japan that a Japanese national was killed Thursday in the crackdown on protests against the military regime, a foreign ministry official said here.

If confirmed, the victim would be the first foreign national killed in the junta's clampdown on pro-democracy demonstrations.

'The Myanmar government has informed the Japanese embassy in Yangon that a Japanese has been killed,' the official told AFP in Tokyo.

He said that the Japanese embassy had sent a person to the hospital to confirm the person's identity.

GAZA CITY, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Two Palestinian militants from the armed wing of the Hamas movement were killed in an Israeli air strike on northern Gaza early on Thursday, Palestinian security sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed it had 'targeted a rocket-launching cell in northern Gaza who were about to fire into Israel, and we identified hitting them.'

This latest Israeli raid follows one of the bloodiest days of violence in Gaza in recent months, when nine Palestinians militants were killed in two separate Israeli strikes across the Hamas-controlled territory.

GAZA CITY, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Three Palestinians were killed on Wednesday during an Israeli army ground incursion on the outkirts of the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, medical sources said.

Nine other people were wounded in the ground raid which came shortly after four Palestinian militants belonging to a radical group which claims links to Al-Al Qaeda were killed in an Israeli air raid on the heart of Gaza City.

GAZA CITY, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - At least three Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli air raid targeting a vehicle in Gaza City on Wednesday.

The militants were driving through the Zaitun neighbourhood when their car was targeted by an Israeli missile, witnesses and security sources said.

According to some witnesses, the militants belonged to the armed wing of the Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip.

Other sources said they belonged to the radical Army of Islam group which claims to be linked to Al-Al Qaeda.

YANGON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - At least four people were killed and 100 injured Wednesday as Myanmar's security forces clamped down on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks, according to officials and witnesses.

About 200 people were also arrested, as many as half of them Buddhist monks, as soldiers and police cracked down on some 100,000 protesters who swept across Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon, according to witnesses and diplomats.

BAGHDAD, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - A US soldier was killed in a small-arms fire attack while on combat duty in eastern Baghdad, the US military announced on Wednesday.

The attack took place on Tuesday while the soldier's unit was engaged in bomb-detecting operations, a statement said.

The death took the American military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,799, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

YANGON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - At least three monks were killed in clashes with Myanmar security forces who cracked down on anti-government protests in Yangon, two officials told AFP.

'According to the information that we received, at least three monks were killed,' one Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

One monk was killed when a gun went off as he tried to wrestle the weapon away from a soldier, while two others were beaten to death, the official said.

YANGON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - One person was killed and three others injured by gunfire from Myanmar security forces who fired warning shots and teargas to break up anti-junta protests Wednesday, a hospital source said.

'These people were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds inflicted by the security forces,' said a source at Yangon General Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to reporters.

'One victim was dead on arrival at the hospital,' he said.

HANOI, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The death toll from the collapse of a bridge in southern Vietnam on Wednesday doubled to at least 36, a hospital official said.

'Thirty six people have died from the accident,' either immediately or after being taken to hospital, said Dang Quang Tam, director of the Can Tho provincial hospital.

'Many of the 95 injured in our hospital are in serious condition,' Tam said.

He made the comments to AFP after a meeting of local authorities on the accident which occurred Wednesday morning in Vinh Long province.

KABUL, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The number of Taliban killed in a major operation under way in southern Afghanistan passed 100 Wednesday, the US-led coalition said after earlier announcing 61 were dead.

The fighting, involving international ground and air forces, started Tuesday in the Musa Qala district of the southern province of Helmand, the coalition said in a statement.

'The initial estimate by the ground force commander assessed that more than 104 insurgents were killed thus far in the engagement,' the statement said.

COLOMBO, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Sri Lanka Lankan troops shot dead 13 suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes across northern defensive lines, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

Ten members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) died Tuesday trying to inflitrate army defences in Vavuniya district, the ministry said in a statement.

Four government troops were also injured in the attack, it said.

The military said three more rebels were killed during a separate attack in Vavuniya on Tuesday which also left five soldiers injured.

BAGHDAD, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - A US soldier was killed in Iraq's northeastern Diyala province on Tuesday when an explosion occurred near his vehicle, the military said, giving no further details.

The death took the military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,798, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

OTTAWA, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - A Canadian soldier was killed in a mortar attack while repairing a tank in the northern part of Panjwayi in Afghanistan, Canada's defense ministry said Tuesday.

One other soldier was wounded in the blast, while three soldiers were wounded in a subsequent firefight with insurgents when they tried to come to the aid of their comrades, Brigadier-General Guy Laroche said in a televised briefing from Kandahar.

COLOMBO, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Sixteen people were killed and 39 others injured as security forces clashed with Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka Lanka's embattled north and east, the two sides reported Tuesday.

Four soldiers died in the northern district of Mannar early Tuesday when the rebels tried to breach a security line, the military said placing guerrilla losses at nine killed and 36 injured.

KHOST, Afghanistan, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was killed Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance force said.

ISAF did not immediately have details of the incident in which the soldier died or the location.

An Afghan government official in the eastern province of Paktia said meanwhile that a bomb struck a Western military convoy in the volatile Zurmat district, causing some troop casualties.

BAGHDAD, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - Insurgents have killed an American soldier in Baghdad with armour-piercing explosives of the sort the US military has previously linked with Iran.

The military said the soldier died on Saturday when the so-called explosively-formed penetrator (EFP) was detonated as his patrol passed.

The military has repeatedly charged that Iraqi extremists are receiving the EFPs, which