World News: Taliban 'must be disarmed before peace talks can start'

PEACE talks with the Taliban will lead to disaster unless the insurgent group is disarmed first, Afghanistan's former intelligence chief has warned.

Amrullah Saleh, who headed Afghanistan's spy agency from 2004 until earlier this year, said the key to peace with the Taliban is cutting off their support from Pakistan and disarming and dismantling them before allowing them to operate as a normal political party.

Saleh said the United States should give Pakistan a deadline of July 2011 to pursue top insurgents inside their borders or threaten to send in US troops to do the job.

Saleh, who headed the Afghan National Directorate of Security until he resigned last June from Afghan president Hamid Karzai's government, warned an audience at the National Press Club that failure to cut off Pakistani support would allow the Taliban to only pretend to make peace, then sweep back to power after NATO troops leave.

The former spy chief's comments display the dissension at the highest levels of Afghan political society over whether to engage the Taliban in talks, or keep fighting them.

Agostino Pezzatini and Luiz Menezes push one of 45 giant pink snails from an art installation in Miami Beach, Florida. They're being moved after vandalism.

Putin's fury over internet leaks

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has lashed out at the United States over the leaked US diplomatic cables, which cast him as an "alpha-dog" ruler of a corrupt and undemocratic bureaucracy, saying the West had no right to preach to Russia about democracy.

Britain today welcomed a breakthrough in the 2.3 billion dispute with the Icelandic government over the collapsed IceSave bank.

Deal reached over savings

Reykjavik announced a new draft deal on repaying the cash spent compensating tens of thousands of UK savers.

Doors singer finally cleared

Florida's Clemency Board has posthumously pardoned singer Jim Morrison of The Doors for his 40-year-old conviction on indecent exposure and profanity charges.

Outgoing governor Charlie Crist requested the pardon yesterday.

Mr Crist expressed doubts that Morrison exposed himself during a rowdy concert in Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium on March 1, 1969.

Morrison was appealing against the conviction when he was found dead in 1971.

Calls to free Nobel prize winner

PRO-democracy advocates marched on the Chinese embassy in Oslo demanding that China release imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

The protest came on the eve of the Nobel prize ceremony today, where the 54-year-old Liu will be represented by an empty chair.

Ex-PM flees ahead of crucial vote

Croatia: Ivo Sanader, a former prime minister under investigation in a corruption case, left the country hours before parliament was to vote on lifting his immunity from prosecution, police said.

America: Two workers were killed and another injured when an explosion rocked a small chemical plant in West Virginia. Theresa D'Aurora, an office manager, confirmed that two employees died in the blast.