International

By IANS, Johannesburg : Hutu troops raped a quarter million women and girls systematically during the Rwandan genodice in 1994, after being ordered by their superiors. While rape is always a matter of regulating power relations between the sexes, some differences exist between rape during peace and wartime. Researchers garnered focusing on what happened in the lives of the women and what was important about their experiences.

By DPA, Tokyo : The Hiroshima Bell of Peace tolled at 8.15 a.m. Friday, the exact moment 65 years ago when a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing tens of thousands of people in seconds and hundreds of thousands in the decades since. The first use of nuclear weapons against human beings wreaked unprecedented havoc in Hiroshima, a western Japanese city. By the end of 1945, some 140,000 people had died because of the bomb.

By DPA, Harare : A summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) due to take place in Zimbabwe has been postponed for the second time this year, fuelling speculation the cash-strapped country cannot afford to host it. The 13th summit of the 19-nation COMESA, which had been scheduled to take place from November 25 to December 8 in the resort town of Victoria Falls has been postponed to next year, Zimbabwe's government announced in a statement Wednesday. Zimbabwe is due to take over the rotating chairmanship of the body from Kenya at the summit.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By IANS, Ipoh (Malaysia): Malaysia's Perak state is considering appointing another ethnic Indian as the assembly's speaker, but the incumbent is not yet ready to give up the post. S. Vasan, one of the three on the panel of names suggested by the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) chief S. Samy Vellu, could be the new speaker, The Star newspaper reported Friday. Vasan was defeated in the last assembly poll but Article 36 (A) of the constitution provides for appointment of a non-member as the presiding officer. He is said to be "Samy Vellu's blue-eyed boy", the report added.

By Heather Lima, DPA Berne (Switzerland) : The land of health spas, muesli and mountain air, Switzerland remains one of the last havens for smokers in Europe and there is a powerful restaurant and hotel lobby set on keeping it that way. However, while the smoker still holds sway in many restaurants and bars across most of the country the non-smoker is breaking out of his corner. So far laws have been brought in piecemeal regionally. Six out of 26 cantons have introduced laws to curb passive smoking with others planning to follow.

By IANS, Nay Pyi Taw : Dolphins in Myanmar's Ayeyawady river are unique -- they help fishermen by herding fishes towards the net.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By DPA, Jakarta : Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after a magnitude-7.6 undersea earthquake struck Thursday morning in North Maluku province and nearby eastern regions, triggering panic among residents and office workers, seismologists and officials said. The tsunami alert was cancelled about 40 minutes later, after no tidal waves materialised, seismologists said, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS, The dramatic collapse of the Tamil Tigers, accompanied by white flags and surrenders even as some suicide bombers kept exploding themselves, is a sad commentary on the politics of uncompromising mayhem the rebels pursued for so long in Sri Lanka. Here was a group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that set out to form an independent Tamil state by breaking up the north and east of Sri Lanka. They never fought any elections but prided themselves as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamils.

Canberra : A former official of Australia's Labour Party, who is believed to have fought for Kurdish forces against the Islamic State (IS), should...

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia Wednesday launched a Progress cargo spaceship on a re-supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), an official said. A Soyuz-U carrier rocket carrying the Progress M-04M freighter lifted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 0345 GMT and is expected to dock at the ISS Feb 5, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control said. "The launch and the separation of the cargo spaceship from the carrier rocket were successful. The docking of the freighter with the ISS is expected at 0426 GMT Friday," the official said.

By RIA Novosti, Severodvinsk (Russia) : A Russian shipyard has been told to begin construction of a nuclear-powered strategic submarine this year, an official said. "Russia's Defence Ministry has ordered the shipyard to start construction of the fourth Borey class submarine this year," a Sevmash shipyard official told RIA Novosti Wednesday, adding that work could begin either in July or December. The first Borey class submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, will start sea trials in June.

By DPA, Colombo : At least two civilians were hacked to death, three injured and four more remain missing after Tamil rebels carried out an attack in the southern part of the country, a military spokesman said Monday. The group of civilians had entered the woods as they tended their cattle in the Maligawila, Monragala, area, 360 kilometres south-east of the capital, Sunday when they were attacked, the Defence Ministry said. A search operation has been mounted in the area to locate the missing.

New York: In what could be read as a subtle message to co-founder Jack Dorsey, Twitter said it is looking for a CEO with...

By IANS,

By DPA Beijing : China has formally charged a well-known dissident with subversion, despite appeals from the European Union (EU) and the US for his release, a rights group said Friday. The family of Hu Jia was told that prosecutors had decided to charge him with "inciting subversion of state power", Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. The state prosecutors notified the family in writing Wednesday, just two days before the statutory limit for detention without charge, the group said.

By IANS,

By IANS, Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Monday underlined the steps the state and central governments have taken to alleviate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils but the opposition charged them of not doing enough for the ethnic minority caught in violence in the island nation. Karunanidhi penned an emotional poem exhorting people of the state to provide more relief and to ignore those who faulted the serious efforts to send out succour to the suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka.

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting to review relief and rescue operations following the massive earthquake in...

By Xinhua, Jakarta : Terror suspects arrested in Indonesia recently had been preparing an attack on a cafe in the West Sumatra town of Bukittinggi, police said Saturday. Before taking action, they learnt that no foreigners but Moslem were dominant at the location and therefore switched to Jakarta for the target, The Jakarta Post daily on Saturday quoted National Police chief Gen. Sutanto as saying.

By IANS/EFE,

By P. Karunakharan, IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka Monday reacted angrily to the attack on its mission in Oslo by dumping Norway as a peace facilitator between the government and the Tamil Tigers. The foreign ministry summoned Norwegian ambassador Tore Hattrem and lodged an official protest over the violent attack "by hooligans belonging to the international terror network of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)".

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

Beijing: Five miners were killed and two others remain trapped in a flooded coal mine in China's Anhui province, local authorities said Saturday. The accident...

By IANS, London: A 16-year-old Indian origin schoolboy in Germany has managed to crack puzzles that baffled the world of maths for more than 350 years, it was reported here Saturday.

By IANS, Geneva : World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy will seek a second term in office when his current term expires in 2009, a key official told WTO members Tuesday. WTO General Council chairperson Bruce Gosper said to WTO members he had received a letter from Lamy telling him about the decision.

By IANS, Hanoi : Vietnam has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over anti-dumping tax imposed by the US on its frozen shrimp, Xinhua reported Thursday. Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga made the announcement here Thursday. This is the first time Vietnam takes such an action since it joined the WTO in January 2007. Nga said the US decision to apply anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese frozen shrimp is irrational and unfair. Vietnamese enterprises do not dump this product in the US market.

By KUNA, London : The UK Government Monday insisted the country needed nuclear power as it prepared to unveil plans to fast-track a new generation of nuclear power stations. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband acknowledged anxieties about nuclear power but said it had a "relatively good" safety record in this country. "The basic message here is, we can't say no to all of the nuclear or all of the low carbon fuels that are out there," he told the commercial TV station GMTV.

By DPA,

By DPA,

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By Prensa Latina Lusaka : The acting president of the Community for the Development of Southern African countries (SADC) Levy Mwanawasa called for an extraordinary summit to analyze the situation in Zimbabwe, noted a press release. Zambia Head of State Mwanawasa said that Saturday's meeting here will debate how to help people from that sister nation avoid more damage. Since the general elections last March 29, Zimbabwe has been living an unprecedented political crisis.

By Prensa Latina, Washington : On Wednesday, the US Congress is investigating treatment the White House gave to prisoners suspected of terrorism amid another torture scandal. CNN reported the House of Representatives Judicial Committee summoned several members of the George W. Bush administration for questioning. Among them was David Addington, Chief of the Vice President Richard Cheney Cabinet. On the previous week Kathryn Wheelbarger, Cheney's legal advisor, said that Addington should agree to attend the hearing.

By NNN-Xinhua, Jiaxing/Ningbo, China : China will inaugurate the world's longest cross-sea bridge on Thursday as part of its effort to boost economic integration and development in the Yangtze River Delta. The opening ceremony of the 36-kilometer bridge, which spans Hangzhou Bay near Shanghai, will be held on Thursday afternoon and will open to traffic on a trial basis at midnight.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : A poor yak herder's son who became a porter at the age of 12 to feed his family Thursday re-established his image as the greatest living Everest legend, conquering the world's highest peak for an incredible 19th time. Apa Sherpa, who in the 1980s attempted to climb Mt Everest to eke out a living, this year led the Eco Everest Expedition 2009 to draw attention to the perils of climate changes in the Himalayas, causing glaciers to melt and imperilling the lives of the people living in high altitudes.

By Arun Kumar By IANS,

By Xinhua Nairobi : Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki Wednesday called on negotiators who are trying to resolve the political unrest in the country to move with speed and resolve all outstanding issues. Kibaki, who met former UN chief Kofi Annan over the suspended talks, expressed his commitment to the talks, saying the outstanding issues should be tackled under the current constitution.

By DPA, Oslo : Norwegian police officers Thursday staged a nationwide strike in protest against changes in regulations for working hours. The 90-minute strike was called by the Norwegian Police Federation. Union leaders said they were angered that they were not allowed to take part in negotiations concerning changes to working hours, and that police officers were forced to have shorter time off periods posing a possible threat to their health. In the west coast city of Bergen, police officers called for Justice Minister Knut Storberget to resign, local media reported.

By DPA, New York : African nations called for strengthening the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping capability during a special UN Security Council session, but were warned by Western governments and the UN leader that Africa's credibility must be backed by democracy, particularly in Zimbabwe. The Wednesday's meeting drew a large turnout of high-level African officials. While UN members were unanimous that the AU should receive the means to carry out its peacekeeping mandate, the unresolved presidential election in Zimbabwe was injected into the debate.

By RIA Novosti United Nations : On Serbia's request, Russia has called for a session of the UN Security Council to be held next Tuesday to discuss Kosovo, a spokesperson for Russia's office to the UN told reporters on Friday. Supported by Russia, which has strongly opposed Kosovo's independence, Serbia called on Thursday for a new UN Security Council session to be held on Kosovo's secession. Russia holds the rotating UN Security Council presidency in March.

London, Dec 24, IRNA ,Britain's high court has blocked the handover of the last Iraqi prisoners held in the custody of UK troops pending the outcome of a final appeal on December 29. Public Interest Lawyers (Pil) said Tuesday that they had won a Court of Appeal injunction in London, preventing the immediate transfer of Faisal al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi, who are accused of killing two British soldiers.

By DPA Antananarivo (Madagascar) : Tropical cyclone Ivan had been downgraded to a tropical storm by Tuesday as it headed for flood-ravaged Mozambique after killing 11 people on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, where it reportedly flattened a hotel. The tourist paradise of Sainte Marie island off Madagascar was the worst-hit area as the cyclone, dubbed Ivan the Terrible by local media, slammed into the east coast at wind speeds of more than 230 km per hour, the Tribune de Madagascar reported.

By DPA, Washington : Tim Russert, a journalist for NBC television and among the most admired in the profession, has died following a heart attack. He was 58. Russert, the chief of the network's Washington bureau, collapsed Friday while at work, NBC announced. Russert hosted the venerable Sunday show "Meet the Press," the longest running television show in the United States that focused mostly on politics.

By Prensa Latina, Kathmandu : In an action to speed up political transition and the formation of a new government, the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-M) ordered its youth wing to dismantle the paramilitary structure. The leadership of the party, which waged a decisive armed struggle against monarchy for ten years (1996-2006), also order the devolution of private and governmental properties confiscated during the armed conflict. Those were two key conditions set by other Nepalese parties to create a republican government of national consensus under Maoist leadership.

Yangon : Peace negotiators of the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups have set early January 2015 to hold the seventh round of talks...

By Andy Goldberg, DPA, San Francisco/Los Angeles : The US economy may be deep in the doldrums, but there's one sector where enterprising entrepreneurs are still making a fortune. Since last week's victory by Barack Obama, souvenirs of the president-elect are selling like the crash never happened, as his supporters and foreign tourists rush to get their hands on almost anything that commemorates the election of the first African-American president. There are some limits, of course.

By IANS, Yangon: Over 1,000 people have been arrested in western Myanmar's Rakhine state for breaking the law and violating human rights, state media reported Saturday.

By KUNA, PARIS : France on Friday condemned an attack Thursday against Israeli children in which one child died and one was injured. Although details remain sketchy, the attack by a group of alleged Palestinians, apparently wielding an axe, left one thirteen-year-old dead and a seven-year-old wounded near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. "France expresses its horror after the attack carried out in the West Bank which caused the death of one Israeli child of 13 and wounded another of seven, " the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

By IANS, Yangon : Nineteen people were confirmed dead Thursday after a boat capsized in Myanmar.

IANS/RIA Novosti, Washington: US President Barack Obama announced Saturday that the US will not deploy any ground forces in Libya.

By IANS, Auckland : New Zealand Prime Minister John Key admitted to having a vasectomy during a press conference and, as journalists asking him questions on budget cuts looked on stumped, he added, "Boy that's slowed things down. Any other questions?" Key was fielding questions about budget cuts at his post-Cabinet meeting press conference when he was asked if he would be happy for his own children to attend an Early Childhood Education centre, New Zealand Herald reported Tuesday.

By IANS, London : Scientists and fashion designers have developed a new fabric that is grown in a soup of green tea, sugar and other nutrients over the course of several days. It has been dubbed the authentic "tea shirt" - an item from a range of clothing made from Britain's favourite beverage. The material with a leathery texture is extremely lightweight and has been used to make shirts, jackets, dresses and even shoes, reports the Telegraph.

By Prensa Latina Moscow : Russian Supreme Court ratified the decision of the Central Election Commission to refuse the application of four independent aspirants to candidates to the presidency. Maximum court authorities rejected the actions of Oleg Shenin, Valeri Bespalov, Nikolai Zubkov and Yuri Gudzhabidze, whose candidacies were turned down by CCE due to incongruities in the documentation, the official entity says.

By DPA, Washington : US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dismissed speculation that she could switch jobs with Vice President Joe Biden before the 2012 election.

By DPA, Hong Kong : Air pollution is causing 10,000 premature deaths a year in Hong Kong, Macau and southern China's Pearl River Delta, according to a report published Thursday. Respiratory diseases caused by the worsening smog is estimated to be costing 440,000 hospital bed days and 11 million doctor visits and costing the region's economy 6.7 billion yuan ($964 million) a year. The estimates are contained in a report on the effects of poor air quality by the Hong Kong-based think tank Civic Exchange published in newspapers Thursday.

By DPA, Yangon : Joining a world hopeful of change, Myanmar's military junta has sent congratulation notes to US president-elect Barack Obama and vice president-elect Joseph Biden, news reports said Saturday. State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Senior General Than Shwe sent a message of congratulations to Obama Friday while the junta's number two, Vice-Senior General Maung Aye, sent a similar message to Biden, The New Light of Myanmar reported.

By NNN-PTI Washington : The World Bank today approved a USD 12 million grant to Bhutan to support the country's institutional reforms and on-going medium-term policy. The 'Second Development Policy' Grant is designed to support the government's development strategy in enhancing economic growth, achieving better socio-economic outcomes, and reducing poverty, the Bank said in a statement. The grant seeks to strengthen Bhutan's efforts to provide sound macroeconomic and fiscal underpinnings for the country's steady economic growth, it said.

By DPA, Taipei : Taiwan is ready to buy 60 F-16C/D warplanes from the US and will pass the budget for the purchase as soon as Washignton approves the sale, a lawmaker said Sunday. Lin Yu-fang, a member of the parliament's defence committee, made the remark in response to a newspaper report that a US official will come to Taiwan later this month to persuade incoming President Ma Ying-jeou to approve the purchase.

Kiev : Ukraine has announced a unilateral ceasefire in the country's eastern regions to allow armed activists to lay down their weapons or leave...

By RIA Novosti Hanoi : Vietnam's first communications satellite, the Vinasat-1, is to be launched on April 12, a Vietnamese government official said on Wednesday. Nguyen Ba Thuoc, deputy director of the Vietnamese Post and Telecommunications Corporation, the satellite project's investor, said the satellite would be launched by an Ariane carrier rocket by the French company Ariane Space from the Kourou space center in French Guiana.

By IANS,

By DPA, Sydney : The death toll in Australia's worst-ever forest fires was set to soar Monday as burnt out cars and smouldering logs were shunted aside and rescuers broke through to villages cut off by the inferno. Authorities in the south coast city of Melbourne say 128 are confirmed dead but hold grave fears for many others. Among the more than 4,000 homeless are people like Ronny Macpherson, left with only the clothes he was wearing and his Jack Russell dog Missy.

By IANS, Ottawa : Meeting ahead of the G8 and G20 summits here in June, heads of business chambers from the G8 industrialised nations urged their leaders to institute new polices to sustain recovery from the global economic meltdown. The leaders of the largest business associations in the G8 nations Wednesday released the 'G8 Business Declaration' as their input for the G8/G20 summits. They called on the G8 and G20 governments to implement coordinated policies to restore confidence in global markets.

By IANS, Washington : Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have entered the danger zone and must be reduced if climate disasters are to be averted, according to researchers. US, British and French scientists, including two from Yale, said in a study that optimum CO2 level should be less than 350 parts per million (ppm) - a dramatic change from most studies that have pegged the danger level for CO2 at 450 ppm or higher. Atmospheric CO2 is currently 385 ppm and is increasing by about two ppm every year from the burning of coal, oil, gas and forests.

By IANS/EFE,

By IANS,

By Neena Bhandari, IANS, Sydney : Australia Friday expressed concern at and offered to assist with investigations into claims that "pretty" children kidnapped from Indian slums have been adopted by families in this country. "I am aware of allegations regarding child trafficking and share concerns for the safety of children adopted from overseas. I have asked my department to make direct contact with the Indian authorities and provide me with a brief on any potential legal issues arising in India and Australia", Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland said.

Washington: US President Barack Obama Thursday echoed his Wednesday's call for Muslim communities around the world to resist the notion that the West was...

By KUNA, GAZA : Israeli soldiers have killed a Palestinian man who reportedly killed three soldiers in Sur Baher in Jerusalem, an Israeli...

By IANS/EFE,

By IANS, Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan Monday called off a scheduled trip to an area 20 km away from the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant due to bad weather, officials said.

By Arun Kumar,IANS, Washington : The Washington Post Tuesday named two managing editors, one of them a person of Indian origin and the other the first woman to hold that title in the paper's history to speed up the merger of the company's print and online newsrooms. Raju Narisetti, a former deputy managing editor of the Wall Stret Journal,will oversee the paper's style and other feature sections. He becomes the second person of Indian origin to take up a leadership position in a major US daily.

By DPA, Geneva: The United Nations was preparing to send disaster response teams to Haiti along with needed food aid, officials said Wednesday following a massive earthquake. "Initial reports indicate a large number of casualties and widespread damage," said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Life saving assistance, helping the injured and providing shelter - these are the priorities right now," OCHA spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs told reporters at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

Seoul : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday presented South Korean President Park Geun-Hye with two finely woven pashmina stoles inscribed with a poem...

By DPA, Phnom Penh/Bangkok : Cambodian and Thai soldiers exchanged gunfire Friday morning at a disputed border area where a fatal skirmish between the two South East Asian neighbours erupted last year, officials from both countries confirmed. No casualties were reported in the clash at the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said. He said about a dozen Thai troops crossed the border about 7.15 a.m. and were immediately confronted by Cambodian soldiers.

By Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS London : Listeners of the BBC Asian Network woke up Monday morning to get a rare peek at the work of Asian agents working for British intelligence agencies currently grappling with several threats to security. After the Sep 11 and the July 7 London bombings, MI5 and MI6, the intelligence agencies, went on an overdrive to recruit from the Asian community. But members of the Asian community have not been very keen to join them.

By SPA, Colombo, Sri Lanka : Battles between government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels across Sri Lanka's war-ravaged northern region killed 31 rebels and 11 soldiers, the military said Monday. Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara was quoted as saying by the Associated Press that army troops fought insurgents Sunday on three fronts separating the government-held territory and the rebels' de facto state in the north.

By RIA Novosti Khartoum : A British teacher who was found guilty of insulting religion in Sudan was sentenced Friday to 15 days behind bars. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday on blasphemy charges in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, after her class of primary school pupils named a teddy bear Muhammad in September. Islamic Sharia law is in force in some parts of Sudan, including the capital.

By IANS, Toronto : Canada will go to the polls Oct 14, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced after he met Governor General Michaelle Jean and requested her to dissolve his minority government. This will be the third general election in the country in four years. Speaking to the media, Harper said Sunday: "Between now and Oct 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble.

By IANS, Moscow : Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that Moscow was willing to share civilian nuclear technology with Caracas, Spain's EFE reported. "We're ready to study the joint use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Putin said during a meeting with Chavez at the prime minister's residence in Novo-Ogariovo near Moscow. Putin said Russia was also "ready to ... continue cooperation (with Venezuela) in the military technology sphere", including arms sales, according to the report.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has praised president-elect Barack Obama as "inspirational" and promised to do everything to make a smooth transition at the State Department. "This was an exercise in American democracy, of which Americans across the political spectrum are justifiably proud, said Rice, who is the first African-American to hold the post of the nation's top diplomat.

By Sudeshna Sarkar,IANS, Kathmandu : Cadres of Nepal's ruling Maoist party have caught five Tibetans and handed them over to local police for allegedly crossing into Nepal illegally in a bid to take part in the "Free Tibet" campaign against the Chinese government. The group, including two Tibetan women, were caught by members of the Young Communist League (YCL), the controversial strong arm of the Maoists that has been frequently known to take the law into its own hands.

By IANS, Mexico City: At least 29 people died in Guatemala Wednesday in a 7.4-magnitude undersea quake that also jolted Mexico and El Salvador.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS Kathmandu : Under pressure from China, Nepal's Girija Prasad Koirala government, which came to power last year pledging to protect democracy and human rights, has stopped 5,000 Tibetan refugees from getting asylum in the US. This was revealed by US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey, who arrived in Kathmandu this week on a visit to facilitate the resettlement in the US of Bhutanese refugees now living in Nepal.

By IANS, London : Eastern Eye, a tabloid catering to the Asian market, has been sold to Britain’s oldest Indian-owned newspaper group amid praise for the buyer’s business acumen, it was announced Thursday. Asian Media and Marketing Group (AMG), which publishes Garavi Gujarat newspaper, GG2 Life Magazine, Asian Trader and several other titles, bought the tabloid for an undisclosed sum.

By IANS,

By IANS, London : A woman, reportedly of Pakistani origin, was stabbed to death Monday by a man wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask in a small college for foreign students in east London. The 23-year-old unnamed woman was said to be a receptionist at St George's college in the area of Plaistow. The small college runs courses in subjects from travel tourism to computing and is believed to have three teachers. Witnesses said the killer, wearing a curly black wig as well as the white mask from the popular musical, repeatedly stabbed the woman's lifeless body in a frenzied attack.

By Xinhua, Wellington : Heavy rain and high tides were causing problems in New Zealand South Island's largest city of Christchurch early Sunday. Police southern communications spokesman Inspector Warren Kemp said motorists were being warned to take extreme care on roads both in the city and the surrounding areas, the New Zealand Press Association reported. With heavy rain, countless roads and streets have surface water. High tides were causing rivers to back up.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow : The US Army has unveiled a new helicopter-like surveillance drone, the Boeing A160T Hummingbird, the BBC reported Friday.

By Xinhua, Beijing : China Sunday said it hoped France would take concrete steps to resolve the recent irritants in bilateral relations and promote ties. "We hope France will pay great attention to the current problems in China-France relationship, take concrete actions and work with China to overcome difficulties, enhance friendship and deepen mutual trust, to enable the relationship to develop in a healthy and stable way," Vice President Xi Jinping told Jean-David Levitte, diplomatic adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

By Biswajit Choudhury, Moscow : Deregulated electricity markets suffer from short-term focus and are ignoring the long-term advantages of nuclear energy such as tackling climate...

By Edgar Bauer, DPA, Bonn : Halfway through a two-week conference in Germany on biodiversity, enough progress has been made to avoid total failure, but much more remains to be done at the UN event. More than 6,000 delegates from 200 nations have debated and pored over tonnes of conference papers. After a week, they have isolated key issues splitting the ninth conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that runs until May 30.

By IRNA London : A new code of conduct is needed to ensure all Foreign Office (FCO) staff tackle Britain's "inconsistent" response to human rights violations around the world, according to the opposition Conservative Party. "There is a need for clear policies to raise the profile of human rights promotion within the FCO, improve its capacity to address human rights issues, and standardise and synchronise conduct and policy," the party's human rights commission said.

By IANS, Havana : In what is seen as a thaw in their relations, the European Union (EU) and Cuba have agreed to resume aid links, with the 27-nation bloc offering two million euros ($2.56 million) to help the island country overcome the backlash of two devastating hurricanes last month.

By IANS, Beijing : The Dalai Lama should "cherish the opportunity" of fresh talks, China said Tuesday as the communist government resumes dialogue with the exiled Buddhist leader over the political status of Tibet after a haitus of 15 months. "We hope the Dalai Lama will cherish the opportunity of fresh contacts and respond positively to the request of the central government," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said here.

By DPA, Brussels/Moscow/Kiev : The European Union (EU) expects gas supplies from Russia to resume Tuesday morning, officials in Brussels said Monday following the signing of an accord on a gas monitoring mission in Russia and Ukraine. "The agreement has been signed by all parties. The gas will start flowing in the morning," Ferran Tarradellas, spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, said after talks in Brussels with representatives from Russia's gas monopolist, Gazprom, and Ukraine's Naftogaz, whose pipelines are used by Moscow to deliver gas to Europe.

By SPA, Washington : U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday welcomed new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, Virginia. Bush’s welcoming remarks came on July 4, which is the day of independence for the United States. Bush welcomed the 72 people getting their naturalization, from 30 different countries, saying “I’ll be proud to call you a fellow American.”

By DPA, Conakry (Guinea) : At least 87 people were killed in Guinea when government security forces fired into the crowd at an opposition rally in the capital Conakry, reports said Tuesday. Hundreds of opposition supporters turned up Monday at the Sep 28 football stadium, named for the day in 1958 when Guinea claimed independence from France, to campaign against junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

By IANS/EFE, Asuncion : Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo had a paternity test as ordered by a court following scandals caused by paternity lawsuits that shook his government during his first year in office. The 59-year-old former Catholic bishop had his blood sample taken at the presidential residence that was ordered Aug 10 by Judge Ana Ovelar.

By IANS/WAM, Stockholm: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sweden have held talks over joint cooperation and strengthening of trade and economic ties.

By IANS,

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The Progress M-65 cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on September 17 and served as a temporary space lab, has been "buried" in the Pacific Ocean, Russia's Mission Control said Sunday. "The cargo spacecraft's remaining fragments fell into the ocean after re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere is 11:49 a.m. Moscow time [8:49 GMT] on Sunday," Mission Control said.

London: The family of a British man being held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants have appealed to his captors to make contact with...

By IANS, Moscow: At least four people were killed when a light aircraft crashed in a village in northern Russia, a spokesperson for Emergency Ministry said Saturday.

By IANS/EFE, Washington : The number of people filing initial applications for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week to 381,000, the US Labor Department said Thursday.

By DPA

Moscow : Russia has welcomed as "logical" the decision at the United Nations (UN) in New York to refer the Kosovo independence issue to a six-nation contact group.

"This is a logical consequence of our active policy. We want to lay the foundations for a continuation of the dialogue with the aim of reaching an agreement between Pristina and Belgrade," a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said late Friday, according to Interfax.

BY Phanindra Dahal, Zhang Jianhua, Xinhua, Kathmandu : Nepali political parties still remain in deadlock about the formation of new government, after the abolition of monarchy in the Himalayan nation. "Unless the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) gathers a consensus and creates an atmosphere to form a new government, the present government will not be dissolved," Ram Chandra Poudel, a senior Minister for Peace and Reconstruction said Sunday, after a multi-party meeting attempting to end the deadlock.

By Prensa Latina, Washington : According to a survey conducted by Real Clear Politics (RCP) web, sixty-five percent of Americans disapprove of President George W. Bush's administration. CNN, ABC News, CBS News and Rasmussen Reports inform domestic economy and war in Iraq remain the key reasons to discredit the leader, together with high gas prices, the housing crisis and increased unemployment during the last six months. Regarding Iraq, at least six out of ten polled think the conflict should not have started in the first place and 81 percent agreed the nation is on the wrong track.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS,

By DPA, Jakarta : A tsunami early warning system developed and funded by five donor countries began operations Tuesday in Indonesia, nearly four years after the Asian tsunami of December 2004, which claimed 230,000 lives. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who attended the launch ceremony in Jakarta, expressed pride over the development of the technology in Indonesia but reminded the country that the equipment was not an end-all, be-all but would only provide help. The German government financed the 45-million-euro ($58-million) project.

By Sudeshna Sarkar,IANS, Kathmandu : Twelve years ago, Nepal's Maoist party decided to quit parliament and wage a war against the state with the aim of establishing a people's republic. Now, after coming to power, the former guerrillas are geared for a new battle. A clash between members of the Maoist party begins in the temple town of Bhaktapur Friday as hardliners challenge moderates in a new struggle that will determine the fate of the former underground party as well as the future of the nascent Himalayan republic.

By IANS, By RIA Novosti,

By DPA Singapore : US and North Korean negotiators were set to meet Tuesday in Singapore, raising hopes of progress in stalled nuclear talks with even the venue seen as a positive sign. Although the US State Department cautioned against expecting too much from the talks, a diplomatic source said Monday that the willingness of North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, to come to the city-state was an welcome development. His US counterpart, Christopher Hill, expressed hopes for "some progress" in Singapore before departing for the city-state from East Timor.

By IRNA Berlin : More than 41 million people, older than 14 years, have used the Internet during the third quarter of 2007, said a study released Thursday by the Frankfurt-based AGOF online research group. Some 41,3 million Germans went online at least once during the third quarter of last year. People between 14 and 29 years are the most active Internet users in Germany as 92.9 percent of them go online.

By DPA, Moscow/Brussels : Russian natural gas deliveries fell substantially in downstream markets Saturday, drawing a sharp European Union (EU) demand that the Kremlin and Ukraine end a row over energy. Russian natural gas volumes pumped via Ukrainian pipelines to Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania were all down, with Romania registering a 33 percent cut in deliveries. Russia Thursday halted natural gas deliveries to Ukraine because of a delivery contract dispute. Fuel volumes moving onward to Europe fell marginally Friday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (APP): The World Bank will start a $5 billion fund to invest in local-currency denominated bonds in poor nations. A report in the Wall Street Journal said the fund’s goal is to increase investment by western pension funds and Asian nations with bulging reserves in countries in that are considered relatively risky bets. The Bank also hopes to boost the ability of poor nations to borrow in their own currencies rather than in dollars or euros.

By DPA, San Francisco : The identity of a brutal killer who murdered an eight-year-old-girl in the quiet California farming town of Tracy has shocked local residents almost as much as the murder itself. Instead of a paedophile, police Friday arrested Melissa Huckaby, 28, a church school teacher and mother of the best friend of victim Sandra Cantu. Sandra's body was found last week stuffed into a suitcase in an irrigation pond, just two fields over from the mobile home park where she lived close to her friend and her alleged murderer.

By Xinhua, Colombo : A small bomb explosion here injured five people late Monday, officials said. Officials from the Media Centre for National Security said the explosion occurred near Colombo's business district of Fort about 9.45 p.m. (1615 GMT).

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By IANS, Kathmandu : Violence erupted in western Nepal Monday as a Hindu group clamped a shutdown demanding the restoration of a Hindu state ahead of the promulgation of a new constitution in May. A little-known group calling itself the Vishwa Ekata Parishad set two buses and a motorcycle on fire in Kailali district for venturing out during the general strike that has affected nearly five remote districts.

By P. Karunakharan, IANS, Kilinochchi : Sri Lanka's feared Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is still holed up in a coastal strip in the north and has told his cadres that he will fight on, an army commander said Friday. Quoting the confession of a Tiger leader who surrendered two days ago, Brigadier Shavendra Silva told reporters that the cream of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was also with the elusive Prabhakaran in Mullaitivu district.

By IRNA,

New York/New Delhi: In the latest attack targeting Hindu places of worship, a temple in the US was vandalized on the eve of the...

By IANS, Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi will host 2012 Global Financial Markets Forum in February.