The Obama administration on Wednesday will propose cutting the top tax rate for corporations to 28 percent, and pay for it by eliminating dozens of tax loopholes companies now use to lower their rates, a senior administration official said.

From a simple mud-walled house above a steep Kabul hillside buried deep in snow, the Taliban's former guardian of virtue and once-feared scourge of vice sees a revolution under way.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm on Wednesday after officials said at least six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests over the burning of copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, at NATO's main base in the country. The U.S. embassy said its staff were in "lockdown" and travel had been suspended as thousands of people expressed fury over the burning, in protests that flared for a second day in several cities.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday urged Washington to establish a "predictable, transparent and sustainable" relationship ahead of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to repair damaged ties.

India has long maintained that it has deep cultural and historical links to Iran, having shared a common border until the British left, and Persian influences merged into its social fabric. But that argument no longer holds water, what with Washington and the European Union tightening sanctions against Tehran, and other nations joining in. As a result, India-Iran relations are quickly becoming a conundrum for New Delhi.

India and Pakistan Wednesday signed three deals and agreed to normalise visa regimes and move from "positive list" to a short "negative list" trade regime by the end of this month, a major step forward to ease trade norms and facilitate movements of people.

Bashiran Bibi and her husband fought everyday because money was too tight. Their hungry children's screams tormented her. She began begging in Pakistan's streets. But that didn't help. So the maid, 25, decided there was only one way to deal with crushing poverty. She jumped in front of a speeding train with her two sons and daughter, all under the age of 3.