Overthrown Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is alive somewhere near the Pakistani border but prospects of arresting him remain slim, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today.

Fourteen prisoners died in a fire when an escape bid from a Dubai police station went wrong overnight.

US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an Arab television interview that the United States is trying to do a better job of making its case to Muslims suspicious of the war on terrorism.