THE interception of a US reconnaissance plane by North Korean fighter jets heightens tension on the Korean Peninsula amid fears that the North could make nuclear bombs within months.

US military officials, the Afghan government and the US Embassy in Kabul were today on their way to the village where about 40 people celebrating a wedding, mainly women and children, were killed and 70 injured after being bombed by American forces.

Japanese police were to continue questioning an American Air Force sergeant who is under suspicion in the alleged rape of a woman in Okinawa.