Afghans have rioted for a second day over the burning of a Koran in the US, killing nine people in Kandahar and injuring more than 80 in a wave of violence that underscored rising anti-foreign sentiment after nearly a decade of war.

Anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a church in the US has fuelled a second day of deadly violence in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops on fire in a riot which left nine protesters dead.

Thousands of Afghans staged violent protests today against a tiny American church’s plan to burn the Muslim holy book.

IN the past, the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks was marked by sombre reflection and a call to unity, devoid of politics. No more.

PASTOR Terry Jones seems like an unlikely candidate for the title of America’s Enemy No 1, but that is what he has become, almost overnight, in his attempt to lead his band of Christian soldiers against the sword of Islam.

TERRY JONES this week became America’s most inconvenient public figure – who seems hell-bent on getting across his message to the world.

The pastor who planned an “International Burn-a-Koran Day” will instead fly to New York to try to meet the imam overseeing plans for a controversial Islamic centre near Ground Zero.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama warned that an obscure US Christian pastor’s plan to burn the Koran tomorrow to mark September 11 could provoke al-Qaida suicide bombings, as Asian countries urged Washington to prevent the act.

US President Barack Obama today urged a Florida pastor to “listen to those better angels” and call off his plan to engage in a Koran-burning protest this weekend.

Anger was growing in Muslim countries as the leader of a small Florida church insisted he would not back down on plans to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a plea to an American clergyman not to go ahead with his plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.

A US church minister today insisted he will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran in protest at the September 11 attacks despite the top general in Afghanistan warning it endanger American troops.

PAUL HESSION will open what he has described as his “big year” in an unusual setting for a sprinter when he lines up for the 100m at the Great City Games on a specially laid track on the streets of Manchester’s Deansgate on Sunday week.

Rock 'n' roll icon Bo Diddley is in a stable condition after suffering a heart attack on Friday.

Danny Harold Rolling, Florida’s most notorious serial killer since Ted Bundy, was ”remarkably calm” as he awaited his execution for the grisly 1990 slayings of five college students in Gainesville, his attorney said today.

Hurricane Frances swept across Florida today submerging entire roads, tearing off rooftops and leaving more than four million people without power.

An elderly man told police in the US he robbed a Florida bank to pay his wife’s medical bills.

Florida