International

By IANS/EFE,

By Anil Giri, Kathmandu : Visiting Indian Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who is here to participate in an infrastructure summit, paid...

By RIA Novosti, Makhachkala (Russia) : Four militants were killed Saturday in a counter-terrorist operation on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a police spokesman said. According to the official, the militants were suspected of involvement in Friday's murder of a deputy prosecutor in Makhachkala, as well as an attack on police in the city of Kizilyurt. Officials identified one of the dead militants as Bagautdin Kamalutdinov, a local terrorist leader.

By IANS,

By Xinhua, Jakarta : Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that Moslems throughout the world are responsible to foster global peace through religious tolerance. "Too much attention and energy has been spent on resolving conflicts, but still not enough on preventing them," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono remarked on Wednesday in front of 350 participants of the conference from 66 countries. The three-day conference was held in the capital city of Jakarta, themed "Upholding Islam as Rahmatan Lil-Alamin: Peace Building and Conflict Prevention in the Muslim World."

By Xinhua Belgrade : Tomislav Nikolic of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party was in lead on Sunday's Serbian presidential election, but he had to face the incumbent pro-Western Boris Tadic in a presidential run-off, first preliminary results showed on Sunday evening. Nikolic won 38.26 percent of the votes, followed by the candidate of the Democratic Party Tadic with 35.15 percent, said Dragan Vukmirovic, director of the Serbian Statistics Office, citing initial results.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Calling the arrest of former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka "the murder of dissent'' by Colombo, Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada have sought immediate international trial of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for war crimes. "If Rajapaksa can do this to his former chief, what can Tamils expect from his government? These four brothers (President Rajapaksha and his three brothers) will never give anything to Tamils,'' said Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman David Popalapillai here Monday.

By IANS, Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI officially resigned Thursday, saying that he now "will simply be a pilgrim" starting his last journey on earth.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia will send a team of rescuers to Japan, stricken by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, a spokeswoman for the country's emergencies ministry has said.

RIA Novosti Tokyo : Experts from six nations gathered near the border between North and South Korea Tuesday to discuss details for aid to Pyongyang in return for ending its nuclear programs, Japan's Kyodo agency reported. The two-day talks taking place at the truce village of Panmunjeom are expected to address details for shipping and storage of 950,000 tonnes of heavy oil or equivalent aid to the North Korea, which is known to have a storage facility for only 200,000 tonnes annually, the agency said.

By IANS New York : New research into the history of the potato has rubbished two popular theories about how they travelled from their homeland in South America to Europe - and then to the rest of the world. The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, used DNA to conclude that a whopping 99 percent of all modern potatoes are descendents of varieties once grown in south-central Chile.

London, March 9 (IANS) The British government Monday launched its largest-ever public consultation to tackle violence against women and girls, including a probe into the sexualisation of teenage girls. Thousands in towns and cities across England are expected to take part in the consultation, which was launched by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and also includes a review into police powers for dealing with serial perpetrators of domestic violence.

By IANS, Jakarta : A total of 15 crew members are yet to be found after a cargo ship with 27 people on board capsized off eastern Indonesia Sunday morning, Xinhua reported.

By DPA Washington : The chief White House spokesman Tony Snow has indicated he will probably resign before his boss, US President George W. Bush, leaves office in January 2009, media reports said. Contacted by CNN Friday, Snow said he was not making any announcement. But he told conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt earlier this week that financial reasons could prompt him to leave before Bush's presidency ends. He did not mention his colon and liver cancer as a factor in a possible departure.

By DPA Beijing : China Sunday issued a statement condemning rioting in Lhasa from its state-appointed Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Panchen Lama, amid reports that independence protests had spread to several more monastery towns. China's 18-year-old Panchen Lama was chosen in 1995 by state-sponsored Tibetan Buddhist leaders. A rival Panchen Lama, chosen and recognised by supporters of the exiled Dalai Lama, has reportedly been held under virtual house arrest in China since he was six years old.

By DPA, Taipei : More than 4,000 Taiwan men sought help after being abused by wives last year, the Central News Agency said Sunday. In 2009, 4,428 men called the family abuse hot line set up by the interior ministry to seek help, after being abused by their wives, up from 1,325 in 2002, it said.

By Xinhua, Beijing : The Chinese economy is set to slow down in the next few years, a Beijing-based weekly reported Tuesday quoting an expert. "According to our initial analysis, 2007 was probably the peak point of the current Chinese economic growth curve. The growth rate from this year on will slow down gradually," Xu Xianchun, National Bureau of Statistics deputy director, told the China Economic Weekly. According to Xu, the Chinese economy had registered an annual average growth rate of 12.8 percent for the past five consecutive years since 2003.

By Xinhua Nanchang (China) : A micro-credit programme for the farmers of Wuyuan county in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi has won the international quality certificate ISO 9001:2000. "The ISO 9001:2000 is an internationally-recognised regulation system. The certification to China's rural micro-credit programme demonstrates that the country has reached an international standard," Zhang Li, a quality control expert, said after the ISO certificate was awarded Feb 18.

By IANS

Brussels : The European Commission has confirmed that Spanish authorities are withdrawing two brands of toothpaste of Chinese origin from the Spanish market because of a risk to public health.