Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Tehran hopes to resolve a decades-old dispute with neighboring Kuwait over their maritime border before the end of the year.

British troops are facing “operational” defeat in Afghanistan because of years of government underfunding, a former head of the armed forces warned last night.

* Afghan Interior Ministry claims a group was killed smuggling weapons from Pakistan. KABUL/KHOST: Nearly 80 Taliban rebels were killed in a series of air raids by international military forces near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, a provincial government spokesman said on Sunday.