International

Moscow : The leaders of Russia and Germany said Saturday that the Malaysian passenger plane crash in eastern Ukraine should be thoroughly and impartially...

By DPA Tel Aviv : A Russian freight aircraft was involved in a near-miss with several Israeli military jets at Tel Aviv airport Tuesday after the pilot failed to hear air traffic controllers' instructions, radio reports said. The Russian pilot took off in the wrong direction just as the military jets were overflying the airport, the reports said. An investigation was ordered. The airport experienced a near-miss of two airliners at the end of September.

By Arun Kumar,IANS,

By DPA Sydney : Cities like Berlin and New York take a delight in their seedy precincts while others like Singapore and Sydney are ashamed of them and clean them up. The city fathers of the former are wise and those of the latter are misguided, says Australian cultural researcher Fiona Allon.

By DPA,

By RIA Novosti Moscow : Russia has protested to Thailand over alleged violations in the rights of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, recently arrested in a police operation in Bangkok. "On Friday, Supot Theerakaosal, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and a representation was made to him over the violations of the rights of Russian citizen V. Bout, arrested in Thailand at the request of the US," the ministry said without elaborating. Bout, 41, was arrested in March in a joint police operation led by the US.

By IANS, Kathmandu : Ruins of 2,000-year-old buildings have been discovered in eastern Nepal, Xinhua reported.

By IANS,

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : More than 2,700 bullets were fired at a Mexican official in a failed attempt on her life, an official has said. Public safety secretary Minerva Bautista Gomez, who was wounded in the attack in the western state of Michoacan, "is now stable and she'll leave the hospital very soon", the official said Tuesday. The secretary was attacked Saturday on a Michoacan highway that had been blocked with a trailer by the hitmen. Two of her bodyguards and two civilians were killed in the attack, while Bautista and nine others were wounded.

By IANS/EFE,

New Delhi: Diplomatic "privileges and immunities" to foreign envoys in India are extended on "reciprocal basis" and special airport access to the US ambassador...

By DPA, Pattani (Thailand) : An explosion Monday at a crowded morning market in Yala City of southern Thailand injured 28 people, two of them critically, army officials said. The bomb, planted inside a motorcycle that was parked near a pork meat vendor at Yala's open-air market, exploded at 7.30 a.m., injuring the civilians and three soldiers, First Army Region chief Lieutenant General Phichit Wisaijorn said. He blamed Muslim separatists for the latest act of violence. "We had received a tipoff to prepare for a car bomb, but they used a motorcycle instead," Phichit said.

By Xinhua, Hanoi : Thirty nine people died and five others were missing after a ferry with more than 80 passengers on board sank in Quang Binh province of central Vietnam Sunday morning, said a government official here. The overloaded ferry hit strong winds and sank into a river in Quang Binh province. The ferry was designed to carry only 40 to 50 people, said the unnamed official. Rescue workers have found bodies of 39 victims so far, said the official.

The Hague : A court in The Hague has found the Netherlands (Holland) liable over the 1995 deportation and deaths of 300 Bosnian Muslim...

By DPA, Kampala : At least 20 people, many of them children, were killed Friday night when three vehicles collided near the Ugandan capital, according to radio reports and witnesses. The accident took place in Buryantente village, 45 km east of Kampala, when a school bus, a cement-carrying trailer and a small truck crashed into each other, Central Broadcasting Service radio reported.

By IANS, Beijing: China has warned schools and teachers not to accept any gift or bribe or "misuse" public money during the coming New Year holiday season, a media report said Saturday.

By IANS, Kolkata : The West Bengal government's decision to scrap an ambitious IT project, where companies like Infosys and Wipro were to set up units, has not gone down well with British investors, a trade official from that country said Monday. The scrapping of the project following controversy over land acquisition has had a negative perception in the minds of British investors, UK-India Business Council chief operating officer Kevin McCole said.

By IANS/EFE,

By Venkata Vemuri, IANS, London : The number of babies born to immigrants has for the first time crossed the one-third mark of all births in England and Wales, eliciting mixed reactions to questions related to the government's immigration policy and race integration. Fewer than two-thirds of babies born in England and Wales are now registered as White British. Of 649,371 babies born in 2005, 64.4 per cent were recorded as White British, according to the Office of National Statistics.

By IANS,

By IANS, London : Foreign students from India and other countries outside the European region who want to study in Britain will have to sit for a stricter English-language test and will be banned from bringing over dependents if they are studying short courses, the government announced Sunday. British Home Minister Alan Johnson said the rules, which will be in force with immediate effect, will also restrict the number of hours foreign students can work in Britain.

By IANS/EFE,

By IANS, Colombo : A huge blast Monday rocked the crowded Fort area in the heart of the Sri Lankan capital. Casualties are feared. window.onload =...

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By Bernama, Yangon : Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo has pledged that the country will spare no efforts to hold the general election in 2010, said Xinhua news agency quoting a report in Saturday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar. Tin Aung Myint Oo, First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council, made the pledge at a ceremony marking the 63rd anniversary of the United Nations Day in Nay Pyi Taw Friday evening.

By IANS, Bonn : The earth is losing four species every hour. The rate of biodiversity loss is now 1,000 times the natural rate. It is in this backdrop that over 5,000 delegates from 191 countries gathered here Monday for the annual conference of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Even as their government tries to tighten immigration controls through legislation in parliament, Canadians say immigrants are important for the future and the government should be compassionate on family reunifications. Under the proposed immigration changes pending before parliament, the government will get sweeping powers to fast-track immigration in the skilled category, restrict the number of immigrants admitted each year and may reject applications outright even if the applicants qualify for immigration.

By IANS, Washington : Firing off e-mails and cueing up video conferences speeds up work manifold, but only at the cost of damaging trust, says a new research. Gregory Northcraft, business professor, University of Illinois says, high-tech communication cuts down the personal interaction needed to build trust, a key ingredient in getting workers to pull together and carry their share of the load.

By IANS, Washington : The prospect of fusion as a future power source is still decades away, but MIT scientists have edged closer to making it a reality. Fusion has enormous potential because it produces no emissions, fuel sources are abundant and it produces relatively little (and short-lived) radioactive waste. But it still faces great hurdles. "There's been a lot of progress," said physicist Earl Marmar, division head of the Alcator Project at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Centre (PSFC). "We're learning a lot more about the details of how these things work."

Riyadh: At least 17 policemen were killed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday when a suicide bomber targeted a mosque, Al Arabiya reported. The horrific incident...

By IANS, Washington : HIAPER, one of the most advanced existing research aircraft, will be embarking on a historic mission spanning the globe from pole to pole. The HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) mission will cover more than 38,400 kms as an international team of scientists makes a series of five flights over the next three years, sampling the atmosphere in some of the most inaccessible regions of the world.

By DPA Jamestown (Virginia) : They loom large in American imagination - the explorer testing a new continent and the daughter of an Indian chief whom he later said had saved his life. The real Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, chief of the tribes, the first permanent English settlement in America encountered it is difficult to separate from the myth perpetuated everywhere from a painting in the halls of the US Congress to a Disney feature film.

By KUNA New Delhi : Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) combat jets attacked on Friday a base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern part of the country. The SLAF jets bombed an LTTE training base in Pulopalai area at Muhamalai this morning, Indo Asian News Service reported, quoting an air force official. The LTTE training facility was completely destroyed in the attack, the official added. Figures of casualty, if any, are not yet available, and the LTTE is yet to react to this incident.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russians quizzed in an opinion poll released Friday gave their government the unflattering equivalent of a "C" grade for overall performance.

By RIA Novosti, Washington : World leaders have gathered in Washington for a crisis summit on ways to tackle the ongoing financial crisis, as well as measures to reform the global economic system. At a White House dinner for G20 heads of state on Friday evening, U.S. President George Bush attempted to lower expectations that the summit would come up with a fix-all solution for current financial woes. "This problem did not develop overnight and it will not be solved overnight, but with continued cooperation and determination it will be solved," he said.

By Xinhua, Bangkok : Thailand's coalition government led by the Democrat Party seized 20 more House seats out of the 29 vacancies in Sunday's by-elections in 22 provinces, according to unofficial vote counts released in the evening by the Election Commission (EC). Among the 20 seats won by the ruling coalition, the leading Democrat Party got seven seats in the House of Representatives, the Chart Thai Pattana party got 10 seats, and the Puea Pandin party had three.

By IANS, Washington: Why are increasing numbers of Turkish women wearing veils in a secular country where the practice is banned in public buildings? Study authors �zlem Sand and G�liz Ger at Bilkent University, Turkey, said much like the first few people who began wearing blue jeans or getting tattoos, adopting this "stigmatised" fashion signifies independence from social secular norms.

By DPA Washington : US President George W. Bush has said the economy was "structurally sound for the long term" as he signed off on a report that conceded the country was "facing a rough patch". The president's council of economic advisors, which prepared the report, projected positive, if somewhat muted, growth for 2008. Bush noted that an economic stimulus plan passed last week by Congress would go a long way to addressing the short-term "uncertainties".

By IANS, Colombo : US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday discussed the current situation in Sri Lanka with President Mahinda Rajapaksa over telephone and acknowledged that the island nation was "now on the verge of defeating terrorism", official sources here said. "Hillary Clinton acknowledged that Sri Lanka is now on the verge of defeating terrorism, and that this presented a great opportunity to restore peace, leading to reconstruction and rehabilitation in the country," the president's office said in a statement Friday night.

By IANS, Beijing : A Chinese man who got a 400,000 yuan ($63,500) bill for his mobile phone charges in one month has won compensation from a shop that installed malware on his phone.

By Cindy Sui, DPA, Beijing : The opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics passed off without a hitch as Beijing mounted a massive security operation that some criticized as overkill. But a foreign security consultant to China said a legacy of the Games is that Beijing's law enforcement system is now closer to international standards. "Their concept of the processes of law enforcement's engagement with the media has changed dramatically from seven years ago," said Neil Fergus, chief executive of Australia-based Intelligent Risks.

By IANS, Beijing : US President Barack Obama Tuesday said the US government recognises Tibet as a part of China. He also said that the US supported the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have. "The US respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China," Xinhua quoted Obama as saying at a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao here.

By IANS, Beijing : Chinese health officials Wednesday found excessive degree of harmful bacteria in the sample of the milk which caused food poisoning to more than 200 school children two days ago. The milk contained excessive degrees of E.coli and other bacteria, officials said. Samples of the milk supplied to schools in Xunyang county of Shaanxi province in northwest China, were tested and found to have a bacterium density of 16,400 per gram of milk, exceeding the limit of 10 in per gram, said Zhang Jiman, director of a laboratory of the county disease control centre.

Tokyo: The Japanese cabinet Tuesday approved new guidelines on arms export, reported Xinhua. Under the newly adopted principles on the transfer of defence equipment, Japan...

By IANS, Washington: The US State Department has blacklisted the outfit Ansar al-Shari'a, which it said was a "new alias" of the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lankan troops battled Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula and continued to mount pressure on the rebels fighting to prevent the fall of their "political capital" of Kilinochchi, defence sources said Saturday. The ministry of defence said the troops deployed in the Kilaly area in Jaffna had confronted cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on three occasions Friday. The deep lagoon in Kilaly, lying on the west of the Jaffna-Kandy main highway, divides the Wanni mainland from the northern peninsula.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : A Moscow court on Thursday extended the custody of Sergei Storchak, the deputy finance minister charged with attempting to embezzle $43 million, until April 9. He was remanded in custody after a petition by the General Prosecutor's Office. "The court has ruled to extend Storchak's custody by two months and 25 days," the court's ruling said.

Jakarta: At least 30 people were killed on Tuesday when a Hercules C-130 military cargo aircraft crashed into a residential area in Medan city...

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will hold parleys with Nepal's first Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" Friday when he arrives in Nepal on a two-day visit as part of his four-nation Asian trip. The UN chief will be discussing the Maoist government's mandate to draft a new constitution within two years and the difficult task of integrating the Maoists' guerrilla army, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), with the Nepal Army (NA).

By DPA, Tokyo : Police are investigating whether the family of Tokyo's "oldest man" - who appears to have been dead at home for decades - fraudulently received pension money paid to him, news reports said Friday. City officials went to see Sogen Kato, listed as Tokyo's oldest man, to congratulate him on his 111th birthday, but discovered he had been dead for 30 years. Officials had long tried to meet Kato, born July 22, 1899, but his family members would not let them in, saying Kato did not want to see anyone or that he was in Gifu Prefecture, news reports said.

By Xinhua, Manila : Eight-hundred and sixty-two people were on board as a Philippine passenger ferry capsized off the country's central province of Romblon, the owner of the ship said on Monday, up from the earlier reported figure of 747. "There were 751 manifested passengers and 111 crew members on board the capsized vessel, "said the Sulpicio Lines company aired on TV. On its way from Manila to Cebu, the 23,800-ton M/V Princess of the Stars was stalled due to engine failure and capsized in stormy waters amid the onslaught of typhoon "Fengshen" on Sunday.

By DPA, Washington : Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was catapulted to national prominence as the Republican vice presidential candidate last year, will resign later this month, she said Friday. In a televised press conference from her home in Wasilla, Alaska, she said she would hand over governing duties to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell July 26 and instead work to "affect positive political change outside of government". The move shocked national political commentators and raised questions about the reasons behind the move and her political future.

By IANS, Lagos : At least 500 people, including women and children, have been hospitalised after inhaling poisonous welding gases in Nigeria's Kaduna state, media reports said Sunday. The incident occurred when a welder attempted to cut open a gas cylinder at around 3.00 p.m. Saturday, Xinhua reported citing a statement in the Sunday Punch newspaper. Several people in the area suddenly fell unconscious, while several others started gasping for breath after inhaling the poisonous gas, Ahmed Musa, a local resident was quoted as saying.

By Surender Bhutani, IANS, Warsaw: Acting president Bronislaw Komorowski has been elected as the new president of Poland. He defeated Jaroslaw Kaczynski by a narrow margin in the second round of elections, which took place Sunday. According to an exit poll, Komorowski got around 52 percent vote whereas Kaczynski got around 48 percent. The final official results will be announced Monday afternoon according to the Polish Election Commission.

By DPA, Manila : The Philippines' election commission Saturday declared the victory of nine senators five days after national polls that used a new automated system. Three other senatorial seats are to be determined after all the votes from the May 10 poll are counted, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. The commission declared the first nine winners after determining that their leads were already insurmountable. Five incumbent senators were re-elected.

Dhaka : Bangladesh executed two political leaders, convicted of war crimes during the country's independence war in 1971, amid tight security early on Sunday. Bangladesh's...

Yangon : Authorities in Myanmar have assured protesting students of carrying out education reforms step by step, asking them to stay tolerant, official sources...

By DPA, Denver (Colorado) : The presence of Hispanic Congressional leaders at the Democratic convention kick-off here underlined the centre-left party's renewed push for votes in the Republican-leaning Mountain West region. A key factor in holding the convention in Denver was to help pursue the growing number of Hispanic voters in the Rocky Mountain state and in nearby New Mexico and Nevada. Florida is also a key battleground in the Hispanic strategy for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who will accept the party's nomination Thursday.

By IANS Mexico City : Three former Mexican presidents had supported the US secret service Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its clandestine campaign against Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a US journalist, reported EFE Monday.

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka's opposition parties have urged the ruling coalition to disclose the reasons behind the "sudden visit" to Colombo by a high-powered Indian delegation led by National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, a media report said Monday. The demand from the opposition parties has come as both the Indian and Sri Lankan governments remain tight-lipped on the visit, while implying that the officials came here for a routine consultative meeting ahead of the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in Colombo.

By IANS/AKI, Genoa : The remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman merchant ship has been found in Italy.

By IANS New Delhi : Britain will implement from Feb 29 a new points-based immigration system for assessing visa applications of highly skilled immigrants working in that country, visiting British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said here Wednesday. In India, the new system for highly skilled migrants, to be now known as Tier 1, will be launched from April 1, and will be followed in the rest of the world later, the minister told reporters here Wednesday evening.

By IANS, Dharamsala : Resume dialogue, suspend religious control regulations and free political prisoners in Tibet, a visiting parliamentary delegation from Italy said here Sunday.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS Kathmandu : Nepal entered a new epoch minutes before Wednesday midnight with its newly elected constituent assembly voting overwhelmingly in favour of a motion to end the nation's 239-year-old monarchy and transform it into a federal, democratic and secular republic. Of the 564 members present at the first historic meeting of the assembly, only four voted against the proposal to strip embattled King Gyanendra of his title and few remaining vestiges of power and ask him to vacate the royal palace within 15 days.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : As the world economy comes out of a deep global recession, global activity is forecast to expand by about 3 percent in 2010 after contracting by about 1 percent in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections. Though well below the rates achieved before the crisis, these projections in the October 2009 World Economic Outlook (WEO) reflect modest upward revisions to those in the July 2009 WEO Update. The WEO was released Thursday in Istanbul where the IMF-World Bank group is holding its annual meeting this year.

By IANS,

Manila: Two German hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf group have been released, said a senior Philippine military official Friday evening. Gregorio Pio Catapang, chief...

By IANS/EFE, Washington : President Barack Obama Tuesday proposed to Congress the abolition of tax breaks enjoyed by the petroleum sector and using that money to develop clean sources of energy.

By Xinhua, Washington : Seven people were killed Thursday when a sports utility vehicle (SUV) they were travelling in veered off a highway and crashed into a cement barrier in northern Colorado, the police said. The vehicle burst into flames after the crash, Gilbert Mares, a police officer with Colorado State Patrol, told reporters. There were no survivors, he said. "We're in the preliminary stages of this investigation and we do not know what caused this (accident)," said Mares, adding that the weather was not a factor.

By IANS, Sydney : More than 25,000 knees are replaced in Australia every year, but most of them can be prevented with the help of gait analysis. We need to know more about the way various forces affect the knee, said Pazit Levinger, a postdoctoral research fellow at the La Trobe University's Musculoskeletal Research Centre. Levinger is using a complex system of gait analysis to learn more about the walking pattern of people with painful knee conditions. 'Preventative measures can then be devised to correct the gait and hopefully prevent deterioration of the joint,' she said.

By IANS,

By IANS, Colombo : The Sri Lankan military claimed Wednesday night that at least 43 soldiers were killed, 33 went missing and 120 wounded in of one of the bloodiest battles in the island’s northern Jaffna peninsula. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that heavy fighting broke out when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) “launched a pre-dawn attack on the military's forward defences at Kilali and Muhamalai areas”.

By IANS,

By IANS, Shanghai : A hospital in China has begun offering a group discount on eye surgery, prompting a doctor at another hospital to term it a gimmick.

By IANS,

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By DPA, Seoul : In a speech to mark the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean President Lee Myung Bank Friday urged North Korea to stop its "reckless military provocation", reports said. Tensions have been rising between the two Koreas since the sinking of a South Korean Navy vessel in March, causing the death of 46 sailors. International investigators concluded the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. "Our ultimate goal is not a military confrontation but peaceful reunification," Lee was quoted as saying by the South Korean Yonhap News agency.

By DPA Beijing : North Korean chief negotiator Kim Gye Gwan arrived in Beijing Tuesday for talks on the six-nation process for ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Chinese state media said Kim was expected to meet top Chinese officials and possibly US negotiator Christopher Hill, who was scheduled to arrive in Beijing later Tuesday. North Korea Monday reaffirmed its intention to begin the disablement of key nuclear facilities Thursday.

By IANS/EFE,

By Xinhua, Nanjing(China) : Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang(KMT) party, Monday arrived in the capital of China's southern province of Jiangsu as the first stop of his six-day mainland visit. Invited by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao, Wu will also visit Beijing and Shanghai, marking the first highest ranking meeting between Taiwan and mainland China in more than six decades. Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan work office of the Communist Party of China central committee, received him.

By DPA, Buenos Aires : Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Thursday sacked Central Bank president Martin Redrado, increasing the stakes in a power struggle over use of the country's foreign currency reserves to pay off state debt. Fernandez de Kirchner issued a decree charging Redrado with "incurring in bad behaviour" and failing to fulfil "the duties of a public servant". Redrado reportedly was not officially notified of the decision and heard about it from the media.

By Xinhua Yangon : Myanmar is the biggest producer of natural gas in Asia and has the potential to ascend higher globally because many gas projects remain to be implemented, Yangon Times reported Wednesday. Currently, the country ranks 10th at the world level with its gas sale, up from 11th previously, while it represents the first in Asia, Yangon Times quoted the World Energy magazine as saying.

By IANS, London : Around 100,000 Christians are killed every year around the world because of their faith, a top Vatican official has said.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : Hunted down by armed Chinese security forces inside Nepal's territory and threatened with bullets by Nepal's police, thousands of Tibetan refugees in Nepal, including women and children, are living on the razor's edge, dying a death by "a thousand cuts", a report says. "A fragile welcome: China's influence on Nepal and its impact on Tibetans", released by rights organisation International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Saturday, on the eve of World Refugee Day, depicts a dismal condition of Tibetan refugees in the Himalayan republic.

New York: Four India-born Americans were recognised for their contributions to the US along with 36 other people in the annual Great Immigrants tribute...

By IRNA, London : Britain is considering pulling out of a Pnds 9 billion (Dlrs 16 bn) project with America to produce the new controversial Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, which has been under development for more than a decade. Although the planes, which were set to replace the UK's harrier fleet, were intended to fly off the UK's forthcoming massive aircraft carriers, according to the Sunday Times, the government is under pressure to plug a Pnds 1.5 bn shortfall in its defence budget.

By IANS, New York : The Taraknath Das Foundation has given its annual award for contribution to Indo-US understanding to the Chicago-based American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), which works to advance knowledge about India in the US. Foundation director Leonard A. Gordon presented the award plaque to AIIS president Ralph Nicholas in the presence of a dozen past recipients of the award here Friday.

By DPA, Johannesburg : The 167 miners trapped 2,200 metres underground after a lightning strike knocked out power to the mine were lifted to safety Sunday evening, local reports said. According to the Sapa news agency, the miners who were underground for more than 24 hours were brought to the surface by the mines reconnected lifts. The miners were never in any serious danger as they were well supplied with water, air and medical supplies.

By IANS, Tehran : Iran tested various types of missiles at a war game in the country's southern waters Monday. Surface-to-surface, air-to-surface and surface-to-sea missiles were tested at the "Velayat 89" exercise, which started May 5 and is scheduled to end Wednesday, IRNA news agency reported.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia has destroyed more than 24,000 metric tonnes - or 60 percent - of its chemical weapons stockpile, the industry and trade ministry said.

Geneva: The UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos Friday underscored the severity of the crisis of Central African Republic (CAR) and appealed for enhanced efforts...

By DPA, Hong Kong : An 11-year-old boy was arrested here for a bomb hoax that sparked the evacuation of a housing estate with more than 100 residents, police said Sunday. A wooden box was found Saturday with a bomb threat attached in the Aberdeen area of the former British colony. It was one of a series of hoaxes over the last few weeks as officials tightened security while Hong Kong played host to the Olympic equestrian events. One false bomb was discovered in a flower bed outside the main entrance of a Tsim Sha Tui hotel where Olympic VIP guests were staying.

Phnom Penh : Cambodia's Supreme Court Friday ruled out the extradition of ex-Russian billionaire Sergei Polonsky, who is wanted in his homeland for embezzlement. "Cambodia...

By IANS, Beijing : China has urged the Australian government "to remove blinkers" toward investors from China and stop foiling the ordinary business plans of Chinese enterprises.

By DPA, Washington : There are few things more American than basketball and "family values". When the Democratic Party's presidential convention opens Monday in Denver, Colorado, Barack Obama's wife Michelle, her basketball-coach brother and Obama's half-sister will provide the opening act. They will be joined by a videotaped message from Senator Edward Kennedy, the centre-left party stalwart who is suffering from brain cancer, and other top Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

By DPA,

By Paras Ramoutar, IANS, Port-of-Spain : Devout Hindus turned out in large numbers at the over 200 temples across Trinidad and Tobago for celebrations to mark Janmashtami, the birth of Lord Krishna, which began Thursday evening and went on till early Friday. Hindus of Indian origin form about 40 percent of the population in this country. For several days now, Hindus have been refurbishing and cleaning their homes in preparation for the festival.

By DPA Harare/Johannesburg : A Zimbabwean election watchdog said many people had been turned away from polling stations during voting in the country's watershed elections Saturday because of confusion over where they should vote. "It seems like there's a high voter turnout and a lot of people got turned away on the basis of ward (district) boundaries," Noel Kututwa, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), told a press conference in Harare, without giving estimates for turnout or the number of people turned away.

By Xinhua, Colombo : Some 200 soldiers were killed and 997 others were injured during fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels inthe north in September, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said on Tuesday. Speaking at parliament, Ratnasiri Wickramanayake also said 13 civilians were killed and 25 more were injured in the conflicts during September.

By DPA, Brussels : The European Commission appealed Thursday to all sides in the Georgia-Russia conflict to ensure the safe access of humanitarian aid to the region, with latest estimates out of Brussels suggesting some 150,000 potential refugees could be affected by the fighting. Of these, 45,000 were to be found in the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia and 60,000 in and around the Georgian town of Gori. A further 45,000 ethnic-Georgian refugees were believed to be in Abkhazia, Georgia's other predominantly Russian region.

By DPA, Wellington : A Korean businesswoman, who filed a complaint with police about disgraced New Zealand minister Richard Worth, says she had a "sexual encounter" with him at a hotel, a newspaper reported Friday. The woman, who lives in Auckland, says he invited her to an official function he hosted in parliament in Wellington in March and then took her to a hotel room "where a sexual encounter took place", the New Zealand Herald reported.

By DPA Washington : US President George W Bush has strongly condemned the crackdown in Myanmar on democratic activists and protestors and called for the release of all political prisoners in the country. "I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organising or participating in peaceful demonstrations," Bush said. The White House said Thursday that Bush would be raising the issue during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney next month.

By DPA, Washington/Chicago : Boeing's Integrated Defence Systems said Wednesday it is cutting 1,000 jobs to accommodate the drop in demand in the federal defence budget. The lost jobs represent about 1.5 percent of the 70,000 employees in the defence branch. Branch chief Jim Albaugh told Boeing employees that the company must reduce its staff according to the size of contracts from clients, a company spokesman said.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS Kathmandu : One person was killed as violence erupted in several places within hours after polling began in Nepal Thursday to elect a constituent assembly, which is expected to restore peace in a nation racked by a decade-old Maoist insurgency. A man was run over by the car of a ruling party contestant when he was trying to flee a polling booth in Mahottari district in Nepal's turbulent Terai plains after gunmen began firing indiscriminately, a private TV station said.

By Prensa Latina Rome : Italian soldiers concluded on Monday collecting a large accumulation of garbage in Naples, which will be sent to Germany. Extraordinary Superintendent Gianni De Gennaro has managed a momentary solution to the crisis, noted the source. The waste will be recycled and turned into renewable energy under protection of contracts signed with Frankfurt authorities. The Peninsula will have to spend about 30 million euros, about 47.4 million dollars, to export 100,000 tons of garbage, according to agreements.

By DPA, Lima : Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday at a business meeting in Lima that South America is in top form. "South America is going through a magical moment," Lula told the second seminar on Brazilian Trade and Investment Opportunities. "I do not recall having had in my whole political life such a reasonable combination of economic growth, macroeconomic stability and, at the same time, a strong policy of social inclusion," Lula stressed.

By Xinhua, New Mexico : At least 167 passengers on board a Canjet plane were released while two were being held hostage at the Scangster International Airport in Jamaica, a media report said. Police and security personnel were handling the incident, the CNN reported Monday. The incident occurred as the flight was due to depart for Canada, the report said.

By RIA Novosti, Vladivostok : Russia will invest $5 billion in a shipbuilding programme in the country's Far East, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday. Earlier in the day, the Russian premier attended the ceremony of launching the first stage of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline project, which is designed to pump up to 1.6 million barrels (220,000 tonnes) of crude per day from Siberia to Russia's Far East and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region.

By IANS, Kathmandu : Nepal's first Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who kicked up a controversy last year when he chose to visit China before India, is scheduled to make his second visit to Beijing from May 2, a report said Wednesday. During his eight-day visit, Prachanda will inspect the controversial Three Gorges Dam project that is expected to generate 22,500 MW by 2011 and the industrial area in Shanghai, the Kantipur daily reported.

By IANS New Delhi : British Chief Justice Lord Phillips Monday severely criticised President Pervez Musharraf for sacking Pakistan's chief justice Iftakar Muhammad Choudhry last year and for failing to provide "the rule of law" to his country. Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers was addressing members the Indian Supreme Court bar and bench in presence of Indian Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan among others. Lord Phillips was leading a British delegation to an Indo-British Legal forum's meet here Monday.

By DPA Berlin : Deutsche Bahn (DB), Germany's state-owned railway, has prepared itself for an all-out strike by the main train drivers' union, a railway board member said in an interview published Sunday. DB would do all in its power to resolve the eight-month dispute by Jan 7, when the union says it intends to call its 15,000 drivers out on an indefinite strike, Georg Brunnhuber told the Sunday edition of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.

By Prensa Latina, Yamoussoukro : President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo proposed on Wednesday to create a Bank of the South in the continent, similar to that in Latin America, to fight world poverty. According to Gbagbo, the body must be funded from a special tax on raw material exports by developing nations, to be created by his country. During the summit of the G-77, the president and host said his plan would help finance the international expansion of a bank baring the same name as that launched last year by his Venezuelan peer Hugo Chavez.

By DPA, Phnom Penh : Cambodia is seeking private investment to build 14 new hydropower dams worth more than $3.2 billion, according to a government report obtained Sunday. The report titled Prime Investment Information in Cambodia details potential private investment opportunities around the country, including hydroelectric dam construction. According to the report, 14 dams of various sizes and capacities are estimated to be able to generate a minimum of 1,850 megawatts.

By IANS, Washington : E. coli bacterium, one of the best-studied single-celled organisms around, is a master of industrial efficiency. This bacterium can be thought of as a factory with just one product - itself. It exists to make copies of itself and its business plan is to make them at the lowest possible cost, with the greatest possible efficiency. Efficiency, in the case of a bacterium, can be defined by the energy and resources it uses to maintain its plant and produce new cells versus the time it expends on the task.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow: Russia was ready to sell Su-30s and other modern fighter jets to African countries, state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport said.

By DPA, Manado (Indonesia) : Coral reefs would disappear from the Coral Triangle by the end of this century unless effective action is taken on climate change, said a study released Wednesday. The study, commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said the destruction of the Coral Triangle would reduce the ability of coastal environments to feed people by 80 percent and result in the livelihoods of around 100 million people being lost or badly affected.

By IANS, London: Drinking up to eight cups of tea a day lowers blood pressure and could prevent heart disease, Australian scientists have found.

By Arun Kumar, IANS Washington : Iowa victor Barack Obama has shot far ahead of Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to new polls before Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. The latest polls showed the former first lady of the US 5 to 13 points behind Obama, seeking to be the nation's first black president, with the CNN/WMUR poll suggesting that 39 percent of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters back Obama - ten points ahead of Clinton's 29 percent.

Kathmandu : Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday expressed his commitment to extend all possible support for Nepal's socio-economic development. He made this comment when Nepal...

By NNN-APP, United Nations : The UN General Assembly closed its 62nd session late Monday, with its outgoing president calling for continued efforts to deal with challenges of rising food and energy prices, climate change and impediments to development. “A global downturn could undermine economic progress achieved over the last decade,” Srgjan Kerim told the closing ceremony of the 62nd session of the General Assembly, which commenced from Sept. 18 last year.

By IANS, New Delhi: The recent India-Pakistan talks and the preparations for US President Barack Obama's visit to India will be discussed when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna meets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Kabul Tuesday. Krishna and Clinton will meet on the sidelines of an international conference Tuesday on the future of Afghanistan hosted by Kabul. "The meeting is being fixed. It could happen Tuesday morning," said reliable sources.

By IANS, Moscow : Russia has decided to ban livestock import from the European Union starting March 20, the agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said Friday.

By Chris Cermak, DPA, Washington : There were tears of joy and a real sense of history in the making. For many African-Americans, Barack Obama's election in November 2008 as president of the US was an undeniable landmark in race relations. One year on, it is not clear just how Obama's unlikely journey to the White House has changed the underlying dynamics between white and black Americans.

By Xinhua Beijing : A U.S. marine suspected of brutally slaying his pregnant colleague who had accused him of rape was arrested Thursday night in Mexico, according to media reports. Magdalena Guzman, a spokeswoman for Michoacan, Mexico, state prosecutors office, said Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean was detained by Mexican police on a street in the small town of Tacambaro, Michoacan, around 7 p.m. EDT Thursday. Laurean, 21, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, 20, who was eight months pregnant.

By IANS

Kathmandu : Despite an offer by the US and other western countries to provide a new home to Bhutanese refugees, many of who want to go back, UN's top envoy for refugees is going to Bhutan Thursday to broach the repatriation issue afresh.