International

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka has hailed neighbouring India for providing urgent healthcare assistance to thousands of civilians fleeing the island's northern war zone where the troops and the Tamil Tigers are locked in a fierce battle. Visiting the Indian field hospital at Pulmoddai in the eastern port city of Trincomalee, senior presidential adviser and legislator Basil Rajapaksa Sunday said Sri Lankans would "never forget how India came to the assistance of civilians who were affected by LTTE atrocities".

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS, London : "Twilight" star Ashley Greene has been roped in to lead a new campaign aimed at stopping domestic violence.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By IANS, Washington : Exposure to environmental threats can affect children's health and development early in life and into adulthood. World Health Organisation (WHO) and Boston University scientists suggest that it is time for both industrialised and developing countries to assess the environmental burden of childhood diseases.

By DPA Manila : The rich are growing richer faster than the poor in developing Asia as disparities in standards of living continue to widen in one of the most dynamic regions in the world, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study said Wednesday. According to the bank's publication Key Indicators 2007, the poor are still lagging behind in the region's rapid development even as poverty rates have declined in the past decade.

By IANS/EFE, Brasilia : An area equivalent to 10,000 soccer fields has been wiped out in a massive wildfire in a national park here in the Brazilian capital.

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : The severed head of a man was found at the tomb of Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, who died last month in a shootout with marines, authorities said. The head belonged to Adalberto Gurrola, 29, said a spokesman in the Sinaloa state Attorney General's (AG) Office Monday, adding that the victim had no criminal record. Gurrola's family said he worked at a food-processing plant in his native Sinaloa. The AG office spokesman said Gurrola went missing Saturday after leaving his home with several friends.

By IANS,

By DPA, Lima : The European Union-Latin America-Caribbean (EU-LAC)summit stressed in its final declaration in Lima that participants were "deeply concerned by the impact of increased food prices", specifically citing troubled Haiti as an example. "We agree that immediate measures are needed to assist the most vulnerable countries and populations affected by high food prices," the Lima declaration said Friday.

By Xinhua Colombo : Sri Lanka Tuesday asked its permanent representative in the UN to call for a clarification on a statement made by a top official of the world body saying the country was one of "the world's dangerous places for aid workers". "We will take up the issue with the UN," Keheliya Rambukwella, defence spokesman and the minister of foreign employment told reporters here.

By DPA,

By Xinhua United Nations : The UN General Assembly approved a two-year UN budget of $4.17 billion despite objection from the US. The budget, proposed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was approved by a vote of 142 to one Saturday. Ban welcomed the approval and also expressed his regret that the budget was not adopted by consensus, marking a break with tradition after 20 years, the UN spokesman's office said in a statement.

By DPA, Hong Kong : More political activists were barred from entering Macau as the territory marked the 10th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule, a news report said Monday. Three activists from Hong Kong said they were detained and roughed up by immigration officers when they arrived in the territory by ferry Sunday, the day of the anniversary, the South China Morning Post reported. One of the pro-democracy activists told the newspaper he was detained for an hour, pushed and kicked in the groin before being put back on a ferry to Hong Kong.

By KUNA, London : The United Kingdom's most senior police officers are divided over the necessity for 42 days pre-charge detention for terror suspects, it was reported here Monday. British ministers have repeatedly cited police support for extending the period suspects may be held without trial, and London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has publicly backed the change. Writing in The Sun newspaper today, Sir Hugh Orde, Northern Ireland's Chief Police Constable, also said he believed the current 28-day limit was not enough.

By Bernama, Pontianak (West Kalimantan) : Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) grouped in the People's Struggle Front (FPR) reject the ongoing Summit of Group of 20 (G-20) in Washington DC because they believe the group will not be able to overcome the current global financial and economic crises, ANTARA quoted their spokesman as saying. FPR Coordinator Rudi HB Daman in a press statement here on Saturday said the United States which initiated the G-20 Summit had a long record of failures in dealing with global financial crises.

By NNN-TNA Pattani : Thousands of Thais, Buddhist and Muslim alike, and bird-lovers from more distant places, gathered together peacefully Saturday, as 1,700 doves crooned and cooed and help the spectators put aside their worries of violence in the ongoing shadowy and formless insurgency which has brought fear as a constant companion to residents of the South. Owners of the winning birds will receive trophies from Thailand's Queen Sirikit.

By NNN-ANTARA Hihroshima : Japan vows on Monday never to seek atomic weapons and urged nuclear powers to give up their own arsenals 62 years after the world's first nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Some 45,000 people recited silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.

By Anil Giri, Kathmandu : Nepal on Tuesday denied it was refusing any aid but requested all countries and international organisations to inform it prior...

Jammu : Pakistan Rangers on Sunday once again violated the bilateral ceasefire, opening unprovoked firing at Indian positions on the international border in...

By DPA,

By Xinhua, Pyongyang : Representatives of women from the two Koreas met on Thursday and Friday at Mt. Kumgang Resort of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), vowing to implement two declarations on reunification. The delegates called for promoting the national reconciliation and unity and boosting the desire for reunification, said the official news agency KCNA. They vowed to uphold and implement the June 15 joint declaration and the Oct. 4 declaration, which were reached by the two Korea's leaders in 2000 and 2007 respectively, the KCNA added.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : As the US financial system reeled with the turmoil on the Wall Street, President George W. Bush assured that his administration was working to reduce disruptions and minimise the impact on the broader economy. "As policymakers, we're focused on the health of the financial system as a whole," Bush said at the White House Monday, using the visit of Ghana President John Kufuor to reach out to the Americans "concerned about the adjustments that are taking place in our financial markets".

By IANS,

By Xinhua Beijing : China's top economic planner said Sunday that it would step up reforms in key areas such as the economic system, investment regulation and supervision, resource products pricing and national healthcare. "We should further deepen reform in 2008," Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the annual working meeting of economic planners at all levels concluded here on Sunday.

By IANS, Washington : The US Coast Guard has fired cannons to sink a Japanese ghost ship that was drifting towards Alaska, a media report said.

By DPA, Yangon : An aid conference for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into Myanmar three weeks ago leaving 133,000 dead or missing, opened Sunday in Yangon amid widespread perplexity over the government's stance on the disaster. In addition to representatives from about 45 countries, the conference included United Nations agencies, ministers from the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Red Cross movement and at least five non-governmental organizations, UN sources said.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By ANTARA, United Nations : The Security Council adjourned after three hours of closed-door talks on North Korea's long-range rocket launch with no agreement on how to respond to what Western members called a clear violation of UN resolutions. "Members of the Security Council agreed to continue consultations on an appropriate action by the council in accordance with its responsibilities given the urgency of the matter," Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller, the council chair this month, was quoted by AFP as telling reporters after the meeting.

By IANS, New Delhi : A London-based NRI who arrived at the international airport here Saturday morning has been admitted to a hospital with suspected swine flu infection, an official said. The man was subjected to screening for swine flu symptoms at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and found to have a running nose, cough and throat irritation. He was admitted to the isolation ward of the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, its medical superintendent N.K. Chaturvedi told IANS.

By KUNA, Washington : A bipartisan US congressional panel warned Tuesday the world is at risk for a nuclear or biological attack in the next five years. The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism said the international community must act decisively and with great urgency to counter such a threat. Without urgent action, "it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013," the commission said in its report "World at Risk".

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : President of Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala has accepted the resignation tendered by newly-elected President Rambaran Baran Yadav from the post of the party's General Secretary and member of the party, stating that he needed to be independent from partisan affiliation to maintain dignity and integrity of the post of the president, the National News Agency RSS reported on Wednesday.

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, Pretoria : A delegation from the UN Security Council will visit South Africa next week to assess the country's legislation, enforcement capacity and national systems to implement anti-terror measures, BuaNews reported Friday. The 15-member team from the UN's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) will assess the country's capacity in line with the UN Security Council resolutions and international conventions, George Nene, deputy director general in the South African foreign ministry, said Thursday.

By Ronald Baygents, KUNA, Washington : Declaring that he was "not President Bush," Republican presidential nominee John McCain delivered what analysts agreed was his best performance on Wednesday night in the last of three debates between the Arizona senator and his rival, Barack Obama. Whether that was enough to close the big lead Obama has over McCain in recent polls leading up to the November 4 election was an open question. A CNN "instant poll" of debate watchers showed 58 percent viewed the performance by Democratic nominee Obama as favorable compared to 31 percent for McCain.

By NNN-Kyodo, Tokyo : The Cabinet on Friday endorsed a specific plan about Japan's dispatch of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel to quake-hit Haiti to engage in UN peacekeeping operations, prompting some 160 SDF members to depart for the Caribbean nation on Saturday. Under the plan, a 350-member unit will engage in the UN mission on a steady basis until November 30. The unit consists mainly of SDF engineers who will help reconstruction work in the quake-devastated country, and includes three civilians who will examine the quake resistance of buildings.

By Lalit K. Jha, IANS, New York : Indian Americans have the highest per capita income among ethnic communities in the US and are known for making massive political donations, but they seem to have made little contribution to the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Only 18 names of Indian Americans feature in a list of 1,776 donors.

By DPA, Moscow : Russian lawmakers Monday unanimously passed a resolution backing the independence of Georgia's rebel regions, a move sure to deepen a rift with the West over Moscow's military actions in the former Soviet state. In an emergency session, the two houses of parliament unanimously voted in a motion urging President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize the provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent. The rush toward recognition of the ethnically separate regions follows the brief but bloody war between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia earlier this month.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Canada has blasted Myanmar's military junta for preventing international relief from reaching the victims of last week's cyclone, which may have claimed up to 100,000 lives. The government has despatched its famed Disaster Response Assistance Team (DART) to Thailand, to be deployed in neighbouring Myanmar when its military government gives it the green signal. DART is made up of about 200 members of Canadian armed forces who are deployed to disaster-hit regions of the world to provide quick medical help and safe drinking water to the victims.

By DPA, London: BP Plc chief executive Tony Hayward is to step down following intense criticism of his handling of the worst oil spill in US history, British Broadcasting Corporation reported Sunday. His departure from the British oil giant could come into effect within 24 hours, the broadcaster said. The spill in the Gulf of Mexico followed an explosion in April at the offshore Deepwater Horizon oil rig where BP had been drilling a well. Hayward is likely to be replaced by his US colleague, Bob Dudley, the head of BP's efforts to contain the spill, according to the report.

By Venkata Vemuri, IANS, London : Even as British Prime Minister David Cameron begins his first official visit to India, his Business Secretary Vince Cable created a stir by saying he preferred a more liberal immigration policy for non-EU workers than what the government was currently adopting. Talking to the media before heading for New Delhi Tuesday, Cable, a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government, said he wanted a liberal policy as opposed to the Conservative line of a tougher one.

By Prensa Latina Madrid : Cuba Parliament President, Ricardo Alarcon, said his country has shown evidences of stability and institutional harmony, and criticized those who "try not to see the Revolution has a strong popular support". In an interview with Spanish newspaper Publico, Alarcon stressed the Cuban Revolution´s continuity, and said President Fidel Castro "has entered history as a winner a long time ago". Fidel Castro is an extraordinary person, with outstanding merits, but the revolutionary process is beyond him, Alarcon noted.

By DPA

London : Britain's ruling Labour Party suffered marked losses in local and regional elections, the last of the Blair era, but results Friday showed that the party steered clear of an "electoral disaster" that had been widely predicted.