By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,

Kathmandu : Nepal's ruling Maoist party has asked Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" not to waste time on touristy things during his India visit from Sunday but to plunge headfast into thorny issues between the two neighbours, including the damage wreaked by the Kosi river and their contentious Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.

"We have asked him not to waste time visiting Shantivan, garlanding Mahatma Gandhi's statue or visiting the Red Fort," senior Maoist leader and the party's foreign affairs chief C.P. Gajurel said Monday.

By RIA Novosti,

Gelendzhik (Russia) : Russia's state-run arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, said Monday a number of Russian companies will provide India's A-50 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft with after sale services.

"Rosoboronexport has signed contracts with the Beriev Aircraft Company, the Perm Motors Group and the Vega concern to provide after-sale maintenance to India's airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft," a Rosoboronexport official told reporters at an air show in the Krasnodar region of south Russia.

By DPA,

Khartoum (Sudan) : The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has threatened to suspend deliveries of food aid to Sudan's Darfur province after a string of attacks on its convoys.

"Repeated and targeted attacks on food convoys are making it extraordinarily difficult and dangerous for us to feed hungry people," said Monika Midel, WFP's Deputy Representative in Sudan, said in a statement.

"Should these attacks continue, the situation will become intolerable, to the point that we will have to suspend operations in some areas of Darfur," she added.

By IANS,

New Delhi : In its first response to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver for India, China Monday hoped the decision will contribute to "peaceful use of nuclear energy" and international cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation.

By DPA,

Moscow : French President Nicolas Sarkozy will spearhead international efforts to pressure Russia into withdrawing more troops from Georgia, in talks in Moscow and Tbilisi Monday to save the ceasefire pact he brokered last month.

Sarkozy is attempting to force Moscow's full compliance with the accord that stopped the five-day war over South Ossetia, by threatening to suspend talks on a new partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and Russia.

France currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

By NNN-PTI,

Melbourne : Australian government will not sell uranium to India despite welcoming Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) decision to end the 34-year long embargo on nuclear trade with India, official said.

"However, Labor is committed to supplying uranium to only those countries party to the NPT. Australia will therefore not be supplying uranium to India while it is not a member of the NPT," Australian trade Minister Simon Crean was quoted as saying in 'The Australian' newspaper report today.

By KUNA,

Paris : French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his capacity as rotating president of the European Union (EU), left Paris Monday morning for Moscow and Tbilisi to meet their leaders to try to broker a settlement in their conflict, diplomats confirmed.

Sarkozy is expected in the Russian capital around midday local time and he will immediately undertake talks with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev at his residence outside Moscow.

The French leader is accompanied by President of the EU Commission Jose-Manuel Barosso and Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana.

By SPA,

Miami, Florida : Hurricane Ike tore into Cuba's northeastern coast Monday on a path that could take it over Havana on Tuesday morning and then toward the storm-weary U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week, CNN reported.

At least 73 people in Haiti were killed by rains and flooding from Hurricane Ike, and a journalist on Grand Turk Island compared the destruction there with a "Twilight Zone" episode.

By RIA Novosti,

Moscow : The development of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, has involved over 700 Russian physicists from 12 research institutes, a project coordinator said Monday.

The $5.8 billion international project, which will be officially unveiled on October 21 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN, has involved more than 2,000 physicists from hundreds of universities and laboratories in 34 countries since 1984.

By DPA,

Beijing : German President Horst Koehler left China Monday on board a commercial Air China flight because of technical problems with his German air force plane.

The Airbus Konrad Adenauer could not be repaired in time, forcing Koehler and his 50-member delegation to fly to Frankfurt with the commercial airline.

During his three-day visit to Beijing, Koehler attended the opening of the Paralympics, the Olympic games for athletes with disabilities.