World News: Fresh Pakistan floods force one million to quit homes

Fresh flooding in southern Pakistan has displaced almost a million people in the past 48 hours, the UN has said.

In Sindh province, 70 per cent of the 300,000 residents of the town of Thatta have been forced to flee to safer areas after the Indus river burst its banks.

A UN spokeswoman said teams in the south were working around the clock.

Further north, floodwaters are starting to recede, revealing the full extent of the damage caused by the disaster that has affected some 17 million people.

Meanwhile, the UN said it was reviewing security for its staff after US officials warned that militants planned to attack foreign aid workers.

One Taliban spokesman said that the presence of foreign organisations was "unacceptable". However, there have been no attacks since the humanitarian crisis unfolded.

The Pakistani authorities have ordered people to leave several towns and cities in the south as a flood surge breached more embankments on the Indus river.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said low-lying areas of Sindh province would remain under water for the next two weeks.

Leader slams Taliban 'boost'

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, has criticised the US military's plans to begin withdrawing troops from the country in July 2011.

Mr Karzai said that announcing a date for the withdrawal had given the Taliban insurgency "a morale boost".

Politician's booby prize

A POLITICIAN in Venezuela is holding an unusual raffle to raise campaign cash. The grand prize: breast implants.

For around $6 a ticket, participants get the chance to win the operation free of charge.

Breast enlargement is popular in image-conscious Venezuela.

US launches looters probe

US federal authorities are investigating allegations that New Orleans police were told after Hurricane Katrina to "take the city back and shoot the looters".

Police spokesman Bob Young said federal officials asked police for information and for permission to interview officers about the alleged orders.

The US Attorney's office in New Orleans and FBI spokeswoman Sheila Thorne refused to comment.

Man held over sausage delivery

A MAN was arrested after a kilogramme of cocaine hidden inside a hollowed-out chunk of bologna sausage was delivered to his home.

Police in Holyoke, Massachusetts, said they were tipped off by postal inspectors in Puerto Rico.

Rwandan army accused of genocide

Congo: A draft UN report has said the Rwandan army that ended the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 people retaliated with barbaric killings in Congo two years later that also could be classified as a genocide.

Peru: Police said two Roman Catholic priests were stabbed to death inside a historic monastery two blocks from the capital's main square in what officers said was a suspected bungled robbery.