US troops pounded the insurgent stronghold Fallujah with airstrikes and tank fire Sunday, and the Iraqi government appealed to residents of the city to expel "foreign terrorists" and "murderers" to prevent an all-out attack.

KABUL - Interim leader Hamid Karzai holds about 70 per cent of the votes counted so far after Afghanistan's landmark presidential election.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq hasn't made the world any safer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a British TV interview aired Sunday. "I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq," Annan told the ITV network. "We have a lot of work to do as an international community to try and make the world safer," he said. Annan has previously described the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein as "illegal."

The New York Times enthusiastically endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry for president, saying he has "the capacity to do far, far better than"' President George W. Bush.

The U.S. Army Reserve soldiers who refused orders to drive a dangerous route were members of one of a few supply units whose trucks are still unarmored, their commanding general said Sunday.