Hamid Karzai vowed to tackle corruption in his government and reach out to his political opponents today, but gave no commitments to specific action in his first speech since being re-appointed as president of Afghanistan.

Speaking at the presidential palace in Kabul, Karzai echoed the commitments that his western backers had pushed him to accept, including appointing a clean government and making progress in peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Former conscripts in Chile have offered to reveal details of murders and other crimes sanctioned under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in a move that could lead to some of the men receiving pensions and immunity from prosecution in return.

The ex-soldiers say they want to end almost four decades of silence and share harrowing secrets about abuses they committed and witnessed. Some want to unburden their conscience, others to obtain immunity from possible prosecution or gain pensions and healthcare.

Hundreds gathered in front of the presidential palace in the capital, Santiago, at the weekend to seek official recognition that they too were victims of the regime.

UK oil company, British Petroleum and the China National Petroleum Corporation have signed Iraq's first major new oil deal since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The contract signed on Tuesday is to develop the country's southern Rumaila oilfield, one of the world's biggest.

The 20-year contract is the first of several deals Iraq expects to sign in the coming weeks and months as it tries to catapult itself to third place from 11th in the league of oil-producing nations.

The Goldstone report on last winter's Gaza war has become something of a fixture in the media since its publication in September.

But for South Africans, it is another investigation carried out by the distinguished judge Richard Goldstone - a commission that exposed the brutality of Apartheid security forces in the early 1990s - that looms large in their minds.

That investigation, which came as South Africa moved towards democracy, gave Goldstone hero status in the country. 

Now a group of South African lawyers are confident that his recent Gaza report has paved the way for a legal case that could see uncomfortable questions about the conflict asked much closer to home.

They want to investigate South African citizens who may have fought for the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in December and January, with a view to prosecuting them on South African soil for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

At least five people have been killed in fighting in Somalia after al-Shabab fighters fired mortars at Mogadishu's main airport as the Somali president arrived.

Witnesses said mortars were fired towards the capital's main airport on Wednesday around the time when Sharif Ahmed was landing after a trip to Yemen.

Police said the president was unharmed, but Ali Musa, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said five people had been killed and 11 people were wounded in the ensuing battles.

Al-Shabab last week fired mortars at the airport as the president was boarding a plane, sparking gun battles that killed at least 24 people.

Reporting from Washington - Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.

The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments -- which substitute for or supplement medical treatments -- on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual healthcare."

It would have a minor effect on the overall cost of the bill -- Christian Science is a small church, and the prayer treatments can cost as little as $20 a day. But it has nevertheless stirred an intense controversy over the constitutional separation of church and state, and the possibility that other churches might seek reimbursements for so-called spiritual healing.

Cab drivers in South Korea can continue to have televisions on their dashboards, despite the risk of crashing, a court has ruled.

The ruling comes after a taxi driver challenged a $507 (£311) fine imposed by the local authorities in the capital, Seoul. The city's tortuous congestion led taxi drivers to install new mobile TV systems in an attempt to beat boredom.

Watching TV while driving was a factor in 200 accidents last year, police say. Three people were killed and 351 were injured in those accidents, news agency Agence France Presse reported.