International

By IANS, Washington : People's willingness to take a pill or drug depends on whether the trait the drug promises to boost is they one they consider desirable. Authors Jason Riis (Harvard Business School), Joseph P. Simmons (Yale University) and Geoffrey P. Goodwin (Princeton University) examined the reasons why healthy people take drugs to improve concentration or anti-depressants to lift their moods. People don't prefer using pills to enhance a trait they believe to be fundamental to their identity or nature. But other traits like concentration are more acceptable targets.

By Xinhua, Kashi (China) : Officials and the police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur region apologized Tuesday to two Japanese reporters who were manhandled for covering the terrorist attack in the region Monday. Both sides expressed understanding of the incident after local foreign affairs officials and border policemen had a meeting with the reporters Tuesday in Kashi, the officials told Xinhua. The two reporters clashed with local border police when they tried to film a controlled restricted area at around 11 p.m. Monday night.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : In a bid to woo Nepal's minority Muslims, Maoist supremo Prachanda has promised the formation of a powerful Muslim Commission to protect the rights of the group after a Maoist-led government is formed. "In the past, Muslims and other sects suffered oppression as Hindu extremism prevailed in Nepal. To compensate for that, our party supports giving Muslims special rights," Prachanda, poised to be the next prime minister of Nepal, said at an event here Tuesday.

By Xinhua, Pattaya (Thailand) : About 100 Thai anti-government protesters broke through an army cordon here Friday and marched to the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, the venue of the 14th ASEAN Summit. Thousands of red-shirted protesters blocked all roads leading to the Royal Cliff Beach Resort. The crowd briefly clashed with police before some forced their way through a group of security personnel deployed about 500 metres from the luxury hotel. The protesters shouted slogans against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, demanding that he step down and dissolve the house.

By DPA, Washington : US President Barack Obama has vowed to remain in Washington until the health care reform bill wins Senate approval, effectively pushing back the departure date for his holiday vacation in Hawaii. "I will not leave until my friends in the Senate have completed their work," Obama said. "My attitude is, is that if they're making these sacrifices to provide health care to all Americans, then the least I can do is to be around and to provide them any encouragement and last-minute help if necessary," he said.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : The Mumbai terror attacks have put the spotlight on how India's outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems are hampering the country's counterterrorism efforts, says a US State Department report. "Although clearly committed to combating violent extremism, the Indian government's counterterrorism efforts remained hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems," said the State Department's annual report on global terrorism released Thursday.

Dinhata (West Bengal) : Having been "stateless" for 68 long years, more than 51,000 enclave dwellers will finally have a country of their...

By Abdullah Boqus, KUNA, Kuala Lumpur : The Philippines is preparing to celebrate its new President on Wednesday after the 15th elected Pilipino President and the successor of Gloria Arroyo, Benigno Aquino took the oath before members cabinet, parliament and the country's representatives. Dressed in yellow, supporters of Aquino, the son of former president Corazon Aquino, attended the celebration of the president who won May's elections with five million votes separating him from ousted president Joseph Estrada.

By DPA, Moscow/Tbilisi : The first western mediators in Tbilisi to work for an end to the conflict between Georgia and Russia have called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), met Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili late Sunday. The next step would be for all the wounded to be treated during a ceasefire, Kouchner said.

By Prensa Latina Washington : Hillary Clinton is running out of lifesavers in the midst of the tsunami of popularity that seems to escort Barack Obama. Texas and Ohio could be the final rounds for the contenders. With only a dozen US states left to hold primary elections, the former first lady has fallen behind in the important competition for delegates to attend the Democratic Convention in August.

By Xinhua Lisbon : The Portuguese aviation authorities have intercepted a conversation on a possible attack against the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the local media reported. The Santa Maria aerial centre intercepted the conversation early Thursday about an attack on the Eiffel Tower through the short-wave radio, the police said. Portuguese officials have alerted their French counterparts, who are trying to identify the people involved in the telephone conversation. Portuguese and French officials are on alert.

By IANS New Delhi : The long-delayed upgrade of the Indian Air Force's MiG-29 jets is set to get underway with its manufacturer RAC-MiG inking a deal with the Indian defence ministry in Moscow Friday, the company said. The upgrade, which will cost some $850 million, will convert the MiG-29 from an aerial interceptor and air dominance jet to a fighter-bomber capable of striking mobile and stationary targets on the ground and at sea with high-precision weapons under all weather conditions.

Jerusalem : The Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR) warned on Wednesday that a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 50 days...

By IANS, Kunming (China) : A suspected toxic gas leak near a detention facility in southwest China caused the poisoning of nine inmates Monday night, local officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) of Nepal Tuesday instructed the government to recover a sum of money from former royal ministers, local newspaper The Rising Nepal reported on Wednesday. The involved amount of 14 million Nepali rupees (around 203,000 U.S. dollars) from royal regime ministers Kamal Thapa, Shrish Shumsher Rana and Tanka Dhakal is to be investigated, since the CIAA believed that the process of spending from the public fund during their tenure was wrong, according to highly placed sources at the CIAA.

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : Forty-one guards at a Mexican prison have been arrested in connection with the escape of 151 inmates, officials said.

By DPA, Beijing : At least six infants died and 294,000 were taken ill as they were fed milk contaminated with melamine, the Chinese health ministry said Tuesday. Four months after the scandal of melamine contamination was revealed, 861 infants and babies are still hospitalized with kidney problems. A total of 154 infants are in a serious but stable condition, the ministry said.

Washington : The US Central Command has said that it cannot "corroborate" the death of the second-in-command of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group,...

By DPA, Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that the US was "no longer an enemy, but also not yet a friend," shortly before talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Interfax news agency reported. Lavrov said that his personal relationship with Clinton was "constructive and solution-oriented." The relationship between President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev 20 years after the end of the Cold War was one of "trust", he added. Clinton arrived in Moscow early Thursday for talks on nuclear disarmament and the Middle East.

MOSCOW. (Member of the Russian pen club Anatoly Korolev for RIA Novosti) - Under the rules of the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prizes archives may be opened 50 years after the awarding takes place. Thus, the documents of October 1958 may be declassified in January of this year. This is a notable date for Russian culture. That year, the Academy awarded a Nobel Prize in literature to Soviet poet Boris Pasternak. Now that the archives have been declassified, the circumstances of the loudest scandal in the history of Nobel Prizes will be finally scrutinized.

By IANS/AKI, Rome : A 500-million euro movie theme park named after Italy's renowned Cinecitta film studio is to be built on the outskirts of the capital Rome. The theme park will be called Cinecitta World and will be constructed on 150 hectares of land at Castel Romano. According to a report in the Italian daily La Repubblica, the theme park will include 35 family attractions, as well as restaurants, snack bars and shops. It will be built on the same location where Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis had his studios during the 1960s.

Sao Paulo : A new poll of voter intentions for next month's Brazilian presidential elections has revealed a technical tie between President Dilma Rousseff,...

By SPA Washington : The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved $18 billion in new taxes on the largest oil companies as Democrats cited record-high oil prices and rising gasoline costs in a time of economic difficulties. The money collected over 10 years would provide tax breaks for wind, solar, and other alternative energy sources and for energy conservation. The legislation, approved 236 to 182, would cost the five largest oil companies an average of $1.8 billion a year over that period. Those five companies earned $123 billion in profits last year.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Beijing : Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday proposed establishing an anti-terrorism centre within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

By DPA Johannesburg/Harare : The counting of votes in Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections, in which President Robert Mugabe is battling to retain power, was under way Sunday with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) already claiming victory. "We have won this election," Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the MDC said in the early hours of Sunday morning. "But they (the government) still might steal it," he told DPA.

By Arun Kumar , Washington:Ending a decade long US boycott of Narendra Modi, President Barack Obama congratulated him on BJP's "success in India's historic election"...

By IANS,

Beijing : China's securities regulator will soon begin inspecting online equity financing platforms to address risks brought by illegal activities and help the platforms...

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : Nepal, regarded a Shangri-La for holiday makers with its Himalayan ranges, assortment of religious shrines and network of casinos, has recorded the highest tourist arrivals in eight years. According to the Nepal Tourism Board Monday, figures released by the Immigration Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport indicate that 50,567 tourists visited Nepal in October, the highest in a single month since 2000.

By IANS, London : Beijing is considering allowing foreign tourists a 72-hour window to explore the capital without a visa.

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : The Nepali government has decided to table a supplementary bill to the Fifth Amendment bill of the Interim Constitution at Saturday's Constituent Assembly meeting, according to local media. However, the protesting Madhesh-based parties would continue their protest as their demands were not met by the bill, local newspaper The Rising Nepal reported Saturday.

By IANS, New Delhi : Climate-friendly policies not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bring environmental benefits, they also boost and diversify the economy, reveals a recent study analysing some 100 climate policies of G20 countries. Carried out by think tanks Ecofys and Germanwatch for global NGOs WWF and E3G, the study evaluates climate policies of countries accounting for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, identifying best and worst examples and lessons learned.

By IANS, London : A British minister Friday defended his decision to walk out of a Muslim wedding where men and women were separated, saying such practices ran against his efforts to build "inclusion." Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick and his wife walked out of the marriage ceremony in his east London constituency - home to a large number of Bangladeshis - after discovering they would have to sit in separate rooms. He told BBC radio Friday that such practices promoted "exclusion rather than inclusion," which his government was trying to build in areas like east London.

By DPA, Seoul : North Korea said Friday that it was entering the final phase of uranium enrichment and was reprocessing plutonium for nuclear weapons from spent fuel rods. "Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted and entered into the completion phase," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. "Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is in its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponised."

By NNN-Bernama Melbourne : Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, 54, who was shot by an assassin who also blew himself up, killing about 20 others, at an election rally in Rawalpindi. Rudd said Bhutto was campaigning "resolutely" for democracy in the lead up to the country's Jan 8 polls.

By Xinhua Washington : U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Nevada caucuses Saturday, beating arch-rival Barack Obama in a hard-fought race, while former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won a landslide victory on the Republican contest. With 79 percent of precincts reporting, Hillary has 51 percent of the vote, compared to 45 percent for Barrack Obama, her arch-rival. John Edwards came in with a remote third place, grabbing only 4 percent of the votes.

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : Three people were killed and seven others injured Sunday in a bomb blast in western Nepal, a media report said. The blast took place in Malakheti village in Dhangadhi area of Nepal's western Kailali district, Nepalnews.com reported. Three of the injured were in serious condition at a hospital. Chief district officer Shiv Prasad Nepal said the explosion occurred Sunday evening in the courtyard of the house of Harka Bahadur Mohta. The police have launched an investigation into the incident.

By DPA, Braunlage (Germany) : A naked tobogganing race attracted around 10,000 people to an eastern German town in the Harz mountains Saturday. Car parks were overflowing ahead of the popular event in the town of Braunlage, one spokesman said, while police confirmed that roughly 10,000 spectators had gathered to watch the event. Around 30 scantily clad male and female teams had registered to compete on the 100-metre-long track. Earlier this month, a row erupted in another winter resort, in eastern Germany, over plans to hold a topless tobogganing event.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Americans tested mustard gas on thousands of their own soldiers during World War II to know which race was more vulnerable to it, according to a Canadian historian. Susan Smith of Alberta University said Monday that the misguided race-specific mustard gas tests by the American military were carried out on White, African-American, Japanese-American and Puerto Rican soldiers to know its effectiveness against different races.

By IANS, New York : The name of an Indian American doctor missing since the day before the 9/11 attacks here has been restored to the casualties list after an appeals court decided that there was no other plausible explanation for her disappearance. The city medical examiner's office said Thursday that Sneha Anne Philip, 31, was among 2,751 victims killed at the World Trade Centre Sep 11, 2001.

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka Tuesday described as "appalling" the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan's Lahore city. "It is appalling that anybody should have targeted a sporting team in such a brutal manner. The attitude of targeting sportsmen must change," Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary P. Kohona said Tuesday. He added that the players would be back on the first available commercial flight.

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lankan troops have launched "the world's largest humanitarian operation" to rescue thousands of civilians trapped in the government-declared no-fire-zone after seizing control of the last rebel bastion in the north, the defence ministry said Friday. It said the troops have "almost swept away terrorist strongholds in the northern anterior of the 12-km-long no-fire-zone demarcated for the civilians" and were conducting mop-up operations in the southern anterior of the no-fire-zone (NFZ).

By KUNA, Brussels : The European Union congratulated here Saturday Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono upon his successful re-election on July 8, which was officially confirmed today by the Indonesian General Election Commission (KPU). "In peaceful elections the people of Indonesia have testified to their commitment to democracy and have entrusted President Yudhoyono with a strong second mandate, expressing confidence in his policies and the further pursuit of reforms," said the Swedish EU Presidency in a statement.

By DPA, Yangon : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Myanmar Friday for a two-day official visit during which he will press for the release of all political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Ban and his entourage arrived at Yangon International Airport, stopping over briefly in the old capital before flying on to the junta's new headquarters in Naypyitaw, 350 km north of Yangon.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : The next US president, be it a Republican or a Democrat, is unlikely to pose a hurdle to the stalled India-US nuclear deal even if it does not go through during the watch of President George W. Bush. A senior US official who has worked under both previous Democratic and the current Republican administrations indicated this Wednesday when asked at a briefing how the deal was likely to play out under Republican John McCain or Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

By IANS, London: A Dutchman has designed a machine that takes the sweat out of bricklaying and also does it in a jiffy, especially in road building.

By DPA, Johannesburg/Harare : Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has decided to withdraw from the presidential run-off elections June 27, party sources said Sunday. The decision was made Sunday morning at a meeting of the pro-democracy party's national executive in Harare, said the source, asking not to be named. He said the decision would be announced by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC's leader and its candidate in the elections, later Sunday.

By IANS, Tokyo : Japan's exports fell 4.5 percent in November from a year earlier, marking the second straight month of decline, the ministry of finance said in a preliminary report Wednesday.

By DPA, Moscow : Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel prize winner for literature who was exiled from the former Soviet Union for his graphic portrayals of life in Soviet labour camps, died here early Monday. He was 89. The Interfax news agency reported the news quoting literary circles in the Russian capital, where he was living since 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union. The world famous writer and historian had not been seen in public for months, and had reportedly been seriously ill for months. He died from the aftermath of a stroke, according to unconfirmed information.

By KUNA, New Delhi : At least 37 rebels of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and four government soldiers have been killed in battle fatigues Northern Sri Lanka. On the Mannar front 21 LTTE rebels and one soldier were killed in separate clashes yesterday, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said in a statement Wednesday at Colombo. While one LTTE cadre was killed in Elathumadduwal and Muhamalai in clashes, two soldiers were killed in Muhamalai in Jaffna yesterday, Sri Lanka's Media Centre for National Security said today.

Washington: The US is "deeply concerned" by reports that Israel would build more settler homes in east Jerusalem, the state department has said. "Israel's leaders...

By IANS, New Delhi: Incidents of violence against Indians in Australia have not been addressed seriously by that country's top administrators, says Australian author Richard Flanagan.

By IANS, Toronto : With 15 news cases of swine flu taking the nation's total to 34, Canadian authorities have said they will start an awareness campaign Friday to stem the spread of the virus. Of the 15 new cases reported Thursday, five were in British Columbia province, four each in Alberta and Nova Scotia provinces and one each in Ontario and Quebec provinces. The Public Health Agency of Canada is launching an awareness campaign Friday to caution people about the steps to be taken to avoid infection.

By EFE, L'Aquila (Italy) : US President Barack Obama has urged his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to help convince Iran to keep its nuclear programme peaceful. The two leaders met for about 30 minutes on the sidelines of the G8 summit in the Italian city of L'Aquila and discussed issues like energy, climate, the political crisis in Honduras, global economic downturn and Iran, the White House said Thursday.

By IANS, London : The Chinese government is not only hacking into computers but also bugging, burgling and blackmailing British business executives in search of commercial secrets, the British intelligence agency was quoted saying Sunday. The Sunday Times quoted a secret MI5 document as saying spies from the Chinese army and public security ministry approach British businessmen with offers of gifts, including cameras and memory sticks that have been found to contain electronic bugs which provide the Chinese remote access to users' computers.

By IANS, Tunis : At least 94 people arrested for their involvement in an attack on the US embassy here in the capital of Tunisia will be tried in a military court, Xinhua reported.

By DPA, London : Hundreds of people were unable to vote in Britain's general election because of long queues at polling stations and, in one instance, a shortage of ballot papers, it emerged Friday. The Electoral Commission watchdog said it had ordered a "thorough review" into incidents around the country in which people were unable to cast their votes by the time polls closed at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT Thursday). The commission said the incidents were cause for "serious concern."

By Christiane Oelrich,DPA, Buon Me Thuot (Vietnam) : This southeast Asian nation's coffee industry has experienced rapid development over the past 25 years. Coffee plantations have mushroomed from a mere 22,000 hectares to currently half a million hectares, which makes Vietnam today the world's second-largest coffee producer behind Brazil. In 2007, Brazil harvested 36 million sacks of 60 kg each, while Vietnam's harvest tallied in at 18 million sacks. Number three producer Colombia trailed with 12 million sacks.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By RIA Novosti Donetsk(Ukraine) : Local prosecutors opened Monday a criminal investigation into a mine blast in east Ukraine's Donetsk region as the death toll rose to 72, with 28 miners still missing. The Zasyadko coalmine was hit by a methane explosion early Sunday, causing a fire in the mine. At the time of the blast, 457 miners were underground. A total of 357 miners have since been brought overground.

By Pushpranjan, EuAsiaNews, Kathmandu : The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation) or GTZ has expressed its interest to help Nepal to dispose obsolete pesticides stored across the country since three and a half decades. Most of the pesticides are stored very close to Indo-Nepal border towns, which may cause serious health hazard. GTZ officials have told Nepali environment ministry, that they are ready to take the no longer useful pesticides and dispose it safely in their country, if Nepal can collect all the pesticides at one point.

By IANS,

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : After failing to elect a new prime minister Monday despite five rounds of vote spread over a month, Nepal's parliament will now hold an unprecedented sixth round of election Sep 5 amidst growing protests at home and concern among the world community. It is likely to be the last chance for Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and his sole rival, former deputy prime minister Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress, to win the support of at least half the 599 MPs or clear the decks for a different solution.

By Xinhua Lisbon : Leaders from 53 African countries and 27 European Union nations opened a "summit of equals" in the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon on Saturday, to outline future cooperation and relations between the two continents. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not attending the meeting as he refuses to sit with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Britain is represented by Baroness Amos, the former International Development Secretary.

By IANS,

By DPA, Wellington : A sea and air search was under way Thursday for 27 people missing following the sinking of an inter-island ferry off the South Pacific Island of Tonga. New Zealand's rescue coordination centre is overseeing the rescue effort, and an airplane is searching the area. Three vessels, including a Tongan naval boat, are assisting with the search, the centre said in a statement. The centre launched the response late Wednesday, after receiving a distress call just before 11 p.m. Wednesday in New Zealand. It received a distress beacon from the vessel a few minutes later.

By IANS, London: Cage fighter Alex Reid admits he has made "bad mistakes" throughout his relationship with fiancee Chantelle Houghton.

By DPA Sydney : At least 30 pro-democracy protesters have been killed in Myanmar's crackdown on dissent - three times the official figure, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday. The Australian newspaper, quoting diplomatic sources, also put the death toll at 30 and said 300 Buddhist monks and 1,500 civilians had been arrested. "We estimate many thousands have been injured, many very seriously, especially among the monks who took very heavy beatings last Wednesday and Thursday," the unnamed diplomat told the paper.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By DPA, Tokyo : A magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit northern Japan Wednesday night, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warnings were issued. Several people were taken to a hospital in northern city of Aomori, but all sustained only minor injuries, according to media reports. There was no damage reported to nuclear power plants in Miyagi province, and these continued operating. Immediately after the quake, the government set up a task force at prime minister's office.

By DPA, Paris : The French Navy has found another body from the Air France airliner that plunged into the Atlantic with 228 people aboard, a spokesman said here Sunday. The body was spotted by a helicopter and recovered from waters about 1,200 km northeast of the Brazilian coastline by the frigate Ventose. The announcement follows the discovery of two male bodies Saturday and three other victims earlier Sunday by Brazilian searchers. The French navy spokesman provided no details about the identity or gender of the body.

New Delhi: India has dismissed as "petty, to the point of being ludicrous", the criticism over Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif walking up to...

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : Eurocopter plans to invest up to $550 million in Mexico over the next few years, the European aviation company's president and CEO, Lutz Bertling, said.

By DPA, Washington : The astronauts, including India-born Kalpana Chawla, who died in the 2003 disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia as it returned to Earth had just seconds to respond before becoming incapacitated, an in-depth report on the tragedy has said. The 400-page report released Tuesday by NASA was aimed at gleaning lessons for crew survival from the tragedy that killed Columbia's seven-member crew. The accident was blamed on foam that broke from the craft during takeoff and damaged heat shielding tiles, a defect that caused it to burn up during reentry.

By Xinhua Nairobi : Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki is set to name a new government this week after parliament approved a power-sharing deal between him and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Kibaki, leader of Party of National Unity (PNU), is expected to appoint a cabinet with the 63-year-old Odinga of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) as prime minister in a political deal reached Tuesday that is expected to end countrywide violence over disputed December election results.

By Xinhua, Jakarta : The Indonesian government is considering offering incentives for regions that allow part of their area to be used as a site for nuclear power plants. "The concept is being formulated by a working team for nuclear power plants under the ministry," the Jakarta Post daily Thursday quoted Evita H. Legowo, an expert adviser at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, as saying. Nevertheless, opposition from local communities had been a major problem in developing nuclear power plants, she said.

By SPA Seoul, South Korea : South Korea can attract more foreign investors but needs to first address worries they have about putting money in the country, a high-profile adviser to President-elect Lee Myung-bak said Sunday, according to AP. David Eldon, the chairman of the Dubai International Financial Center Authority, said openness, transparency, strong and consistently applied laws and a level playing field are requirements for drawing the attention of foreign capital.

Washington : Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday launched her long-awaited second presidential bid and promised to be a champion for...

By SPA, La Paz, Bolivia : A bus went off a curve on a mountainous road Monday in southern Bolivia, leaving 17 people dead and 30 injured, local media reported. The vehicle carrying a sports team plummeted 200 meters off the pavement before coming to rest, DPA reported.

By IANS, London: Singer Ozzy Osbourne is reportedly set to have an airport named after him.

New Delhi : Offering Indian students keen on exploring higher education opportunities in Europe a platform to meet European universities and higher education institutions,...

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow: Russian and Central Asian military pilots are currently carrying out joint exercises to repel missile strikes over the region, a military spokesman said.

By IRNA, London : Britain’s parliament session has been adjourned until after next month’s general election with a final flurry of around 20 bills passed in a 48-hour marathon session. Although ministers temporarily retain their government post, all MPs seeking re-election become parliamentary candidates among others contesting seats. The final session of parliament has been described as one of the most scandalised in British history and included revelations about the extent of expenses claimed by MPs from all parties.

By SPA, Seoul, South Korea : North Korea planned to resume dismantling its nuclear program Tuesday for the first time in two months, days after the United States removed the communist regime from a terrorism blacklist as a reward under a disarmament pact. Pyongyang has told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would restart work to disable the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors to resume their activity, according to a restricted IAEA document to the agency's 35 board members and obtained by The Associated Press.

By DPA, Los Angeles : Robert Mulligan, the director of the movie classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" which brought the issue of entrenched racism in the US South to the screen, has died. He was 83. Mulligan died Friday of heart disease at his Connecticut home, according to an announcement by his family Monday.

By R. L Francis,

By Prensa Latina Pyongyang : The Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea denounced over 200 spy missions against its territory by the US and South Korea. A military source told KCNA news agency that US planes carried out 110 such missions and said the South Korean Air Force for over 90 flights. The PDR of Korea denounced deep inland flights on March 9 by a U-2 plane, with base overseas, and an E-3 that took off in Japan guided US and South Korean planes during a war game but spied on the PDR of Korea from March 17-19.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,

By DPA Colombo : At least 11 civilians were killed in a bomb explosion on a passenger bus in central Sri Lanka Saturday morning, a military spokesman said. The explosion took place when the bus was in the bus stand at Dambulla, 148 km north of the capital, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. More than 20 people were injured in the blast, hospital sources said. The blast comes ahead of the country's 60th anniversary of independence to be marked in Colombo Feb 4.

By IANS,

By Xinhua, Washington : Three U.S. presidential candidates displayed their diplomacy on Thursday as they held the one-on-one meeting separately with the visiting British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Brown, who is on his second visit to the United States since he came in office in June, granted a 45-minute meeting to each of the three White House hopefuls.

By Prensa Latina Sofia : Presidents of Russia and Bulgaria, Vladimir Putin and Georgi Parvanov respectively, signed eight bilateral cooperation agreements Friday, among which is for construction of a nuclear plant and an oil pipeline. The agreements signed during Putin s official visit to Sofia refer to bilateral issues in energy, culture, transport and tourism.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington: Allaying any concerns in New Delhi about Washington warming up to Beijing, the US Wednesday made it clear that building better relations with China or any other country would not be at the cost of India. "Of course, we are interested in building better relations with China, but that does not mean it has to be at the cost of India," US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns said when asked about President Barrack Obama not mentioning India in a major speech about Asia's role in world affairs.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : Japan will not join the US global missile defence network in the near future despite close cooperation with the US on boosting its own missile defences, Russia's top commander said Friday. "Japan is not planning to integrate its national missile shield into the US global missile network," Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the general staff, said after talks with his Japanese counterpart Admiral Takashi Saito in Moscow.

Paris: French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve Saturday ordered with "the absolute urgency", the expulsion of a Tunisian man accused of recruiting young French nationals...

By IANS, Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) : Gunmen removed a wounded man from an ambulance heading for a hospital in this Mexican city and shot him dead, officials said. The killing occurred Monday night as the Red Cross ambulance was taking the wounded man from the Juarez suburb of Guadalupe to a clinic in the city, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas, EFE reported. The gunmen forced the unidentified victim to get out of the ambulance and then shot him on the side of the road.

By IANS

Nairobi : Rescue workers have given up all hopes of finding any survivors of the Kenya Airways plane that crashed into a swamp near the Cameroonian capital Douala.