International

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the Beslan school tragedy in which 331 people, including 186 schoolchildren, were killed by separatist militants of Chechnya. During the memorial, flowers and floral wreaths were laid and candles lit in memory of the deceased. The proceedings started with the ringing of the school bell to mark the exact time when the school was seized.

By Xinhua Tianjin (China) : China's anti-virus authorities have warned computer users to guard against Valentine's Day computer viruses. Valentine's Day computer viruses especially "Vbs_Valentin.A" spread chiefly through e-mails or online chat systems such as MSN and QQ, the experts from Tianjin-based China National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre warned. Other viruses like "Worm-blebla.B" and "VBS-ILoveyou" infect computers if users open e-mails or attachments disguised as Valentine's Day greetings.

By Bernama, Hanoi : A railway service from Hanoi to Nanning province of China will be launched on January 1, 2009, according to an announcement by the Vietnam Railway Corporation. Nguyen Huu Tuyen, Head of the corporation's Transport Business Department, said the train used for the route will have six air-conditioned carriages, each with 40 hard beds and 30 soft beds. All of these first-class carriages have been provided by China, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) quoted Nguyen as saying.

By Xinhua, Beijing : The death toll in the May 12 earthquake in southeast China's Sichuan province and its neighbouring region has risen to 69,225, the State Council information office said Monday. The number of people missing and injured reached 17,939 and 374,640 respectively, the statement said. The government has so far spend about $9.4 billion in relief and reconstruction, it said. The killer quake affected some 24 million people and wreaked havoc over an area of 44,000 square km..

By Arun Kumar,IANS, Washington : India has promised a level playing field to top US institutions in a bid to encourage foreign investment in the education sector as New Delhi seeks partnerships with global institutions to provide quality education at home. "With the expansion of the higher education sector and the needs of Indian students, we need not just to allow education providers in India to grow, but we also need to provide for foreign investment in the education sector," India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said at a press conference here Friday.

By Xinhua Paris : At least one person was killed and five others were injured in a parcel bomb explosion in a central Paris building Thursday, the Interior Ministry said. The explosion took place at a lawyer's office in a building on Boulevard des Malesherbes in the west of the capital Paris, said a ministry statement.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Langkawai (Malaysia) : Russian shipbuilders are developing new "super mini" submarines, the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) state holding company said Friday.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Young Indian Canadian MP Ruby Dhalla, listed third on the list of sexiest women politicians in the world by Maxim magazine, is in the centre of a steamy controversy. Dhalla, who is the MP from the Brampton-Springdale constituency on the outskirts of Toronto, is in a legal battle to stop distribution of DVDs of a Bollywood movie she acted in in 2003 before her election to parliament. In the film "Kyon Kis Liye", Dhalla is shown in some steamy scenes with the film's producer and co-star Charanjit Sihra.

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) Chairman Prachanda said Saturday that the new Nepali government will be formed under his leadership. Speaking at a program in the capital organized by the party to express gratitude to the voters of Kathmandu district constituency-10 where Prachanda was elected for the Constituent Assembly (CA), the CPN-M leader said he will address the masses with new development plans after the government is formed under his leadership.

Washington: US intelligence and law enforcement agencies have identified around a dozen of its citizens, who have traveled to the Middle East to join...

By IANS, Toronto : At a time when auto sales are slipping around the world, sales of Toyota and Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Canada are registering a huge jump this year. Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) has surpassed its 2007 record sales for the month of October, selling 15,843 Toyota and Lexus cars and trucks - a jump of 9.4 percent over last year's figures. The Japanese car giant has also already surpassed the record 2007 sales of 201,326 by selling 201,614 cars, with two months still to go this year.

By Mehru Jaffer, IANS, Vienna : When 33-year-old Ramesh Nair talks, Austrians listen, because the choreographer and actor and new mascot of Telering has the answer to all their problems. Whether on the golf course or at a supermarket, when in doubt Austrians are told to ask the Indian for a solution in all Telering advertisements playing on the radio and television round the clock these days.

Washington : Ami Bera, Co-chair of Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, has introduced a resolution to recognize India's Independence Day and the significance...

By KUNA, RAMALLAH : Israeli special forces killed Thursday morning an activist affiliated with Islamic Jihad Movement in Jenin. Israeli special forces, not in uniform, opened fire on Alaa' Abu Rab's house after surrounding it, witnesses told KUNA, adding that Israeli forces prevented Abu Rab's family from taking him to hospital as he bled to death. They added that Israeli forces attacked the house with grenades, opened fire, and forced the family out.

By IANS, Kathmandu: Two days after Nepal's government was compelled to cancel a deal with India to print new Nepali passports, India Tuesday said it was a matter of regret that the issue had been politicised in Nepal and confidential communication from the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu leaked. "The government of India remains committed to strengthening India-Nepal relations, which have withstood the test of time," a statement issued by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : Embracing Barack Obama's message of change, President George W. Bush promised to give his administration's "complete cooperation" as his successor makes his transition to becoming the commander-in-chief in 76 days. In brief remarks from the White House Wednesday, Bush said he would keep Obama informed on all his decisions between now and Jan 20 when Obama would take over as the country's 44th president.

By Farheen Sultana for Twocircles.net Muslims get excited whenever they hear words such as 'Subhan Allah' and 'Masha Allah' from politicians and actors. 'Oh...

By IANS, Caracas : At least eight people were killed and one seriously wounded in a shooting spree at a nightclub in western Venezuela, local media reported. According to reports, three unknown persons burst into the club, located in the municipality of Independencia in Tachira province bordering Colombia, and opened fire indiscriminately, EFE news agency reported Sunday. The Friday night shooting left eight people dead on the spot, most of the them were reportedly workers at the nightspot, a TV channel reported quoting police accounts.

By Xinhua Nairobi : The Kenyan government Wednesday urged the state-funded Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) to be non-partisan in its work to avoid further polarizing the country. With the current crisis afflicting the country, the commission should not take sides but discourage the culture of impunity, by sticking to the truth, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said during a meeting with KNHRC officials in his office. Musyoka said there is need to find a solution that will be uniquely Kenyan in the on-going talks since the country has the capacity to rise and shine.

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : More than 300 kg of synthetic drugs valued at $7.8 million have been seized by Mexican army troops in Tijuana city, near the border with San Diego, the defence secretariat said. The quantity of drugs was sufficient to produce nearly 942,000 doses, it said. The drugs were found packed in 276 plastic bags in a house near the US border, it said, adding that a vehicle was also seized during the operation.

By Xinhua, Urumqi (China) : The toll in the ethnic clashes in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has risen to 140, authorities said Monday. Fifty-seven people died at the spot and the others died later in hospital, a spokesman of the regional government said at a press conference Monday. He said the death toll could climb further. The clashes took place between Uyghurs and members of China's Han community.

By IANS, Port-au-Prince : The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) will set up a committee to help restore the Haitian cultural heritage damaged in a devastating earthquake in the Caribbean nation. Unesco director-general Irina Bukova said this at the end of her two-day visit to Haiti Wednesday. Bukova said the Haitian cultural heritage is in danger due to vandalism, pillage and trafficking of artworks in the wake of the quake and her organisation will work hard to protect them.

By Anil Giri, Kathmandu : In the aftermath of the massive 7.9 earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday, there were many, many stories of hardship...

By SPA Manila : A Japanese oil tanker rescued 26 crewmen of a Chinese vessel that sank in the northern Philippines while two other members of the crew remained missing, AP quoted the sources of the coast guard as saying Monday. The M/V Jinshan developed problems and sank late Sunday off the Philippine province of Ilocos Norte, coast guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Armand Balilo said. Chinese authorities asked for help from the Philippines, which sent a helicopter to the area, he said.

By IANS,

By IANS, Washington : The US has said that the snapping of military communications hotline by North Korea was "not constructive."

By DPA, San Francisco : California's former governor Jerry Brown has announced that he wants his old job back when Arnold Schwarzegger steps down at the end of his term in November. Brown, 71, is currently California attorney general and is not expected to face a serious opposition to become the Democratic candidate to take the top job in the most populous and most economically important state in the US. Brown previously served two terms as governor, succeeding Ronald Reagan from 1975-83, as well as running for the presidency three times.

By IANS, Beijing : A charity organisation in China's Henan province has started a unique programme - it takes care of children of convicted people. The children of convicts not only receive education and healthcare at the Xinxiang Sun Village, a charity set up in 2004, but also psychological counselling and job training.

Kathmandu : The toll in the April 25 devastating earthquake in Nepal rose to 8,151 on Monday, police said. As per latest updates from the...

By IANS, Pyongyang : North Korea said Thursday it plans a new nuclear test and more rocket launches.

By Xinhua Brussels : Sweden is the most innovative country in the European Union (EU), according to a study. Sweden's innovation performance was way above the US, Canada and Japan, according to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2007, a study commissioned by the European Commission, whose results were released Thursday. The overall innovation performance is calculated on the basis of 25 indicators covering five dimensions of innovation.

By Xinhua Hanoi : A Vietnam court Friday sentenced 12 people to death in a drug trafficking case involving a trans-national ring, Vietnam News Agency reported. At the end of a five-day trial, the People's Court of the northern province of Quang Ninh also handed down life sentences to eight people and jail terms to nine others. The trafficking ring was led Can Viet Phuong, now in custody, and operated from the Ha Tay province. He was involved in the shipment of 50.4 kg of heroin that was illegally brought to the country.

By IANS, Washington: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Christine Lagarde, will attend the Group of Twenty (G20) meet to be held on the weekend in Mexico, Xinhua reported.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia and China consider cooperation in nuclear power to be a priority of bilateral economic ties, a communique rounding off President Dmitry Medvedev's two-day visit to the country said on Saturday. "The heads of state consider cooperation in nuclear power to be a priority area of economic cooperation, and express their satisfaction with the success that has been achieved in this sphere, and the readiness of the two countries to continue mutually beneficial cooperation," the document said.

By Xinhua Colombo : The Sri Lankan government said Friday that it has called for the withdrawal of certain staff of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). A Foreign Ministry statement said that it has expressed serious concern to the Unicef country representative over the participation of its staff at a recent demonstration in Colombo. The ministry said the international and local staff who took part in the demonstration violated its mandate, but it failed to give details of the demonstration.

By IANS, Beijing: Around 3,600 smuggled Siamese crocodiles have been saved by police from being served as exotic dishes in China's Guangxi Zhuang region, Xinhua reported Saturday.

By DPA, Washington : US environmental regulators Thursday rejected a series of challenges to the science behind climate change, reaffirming that global warming is real and the result of man-made pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling was welcomed by US climate groups and comes after a number of recent controversies over the workings of climate scientists provided fodder for sceptics around the world.

By IANS, Stockholm : The Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has announced that the company was going to cut around 2,500 jobs before the end of next year.

Brisbane: G20 leaders Sunday endorsed India's concerns over black money and tax avoidance, and promised to modernize global tax rules and begin automatic exchange...

By NNN-ACN Havana : Zimbabwean vice-President, Joyce Teurai Ropa Mujuru, paid tribute on Tuesday in this capital to the Cuban combatants who fell in action in the struggles for liberation in the island and abroad. Teurai Ropa Mujuru visited Havana’s Colon cemetery to lay a wreath on the monument to the fallen, and paid special honor to the Cuban fighters who died fighting for the independence of the African people.

By Xinhua, Chengdu (China) : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday arrived in this capital of southeast China's quake-devastated Sichuan province. "Rice will express condolences on behalf of the American people for the disaster," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey before Rice's departure. She is the highest-ranking US official to visit the area ravaged by an 8.0-magnitude earthquake May 12 that killed some 70,000 people. During her 4-hour stay in this southwestern province, Rice will travel to Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit cities in the massive quake.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : Russian cargo spacecraft Progress M-62 has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) with Christmas gifts, Russia's mission control said Wednesday. Progress M-62, piggybacked on a Soyuz-U carrier rocket, lifted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan Sunday. It has delivered 1.26 tonnes of food and water for the crew, as well as fuel to maintain the ISS's orbit, and other cargo and research equipment, including Christmas presents for the crew.

By IANS, Washington: A US mother has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for cruelly beating her two-year-old daughter and gluing her hands to a wall, Xinhua reported.

Suva : Fiji's new cabinet ministers are scheduled to be sworn in Wednesday by President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to be...

By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS, New Delhi : Over a quarter century after Tamil militancy erupted in Sri Lanka, the once formidable Tamil Tigers are in dire straits, vanquished but not crushed by a rampaging military. Less than seven years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its founder leader Velupillai Prabhakaran looked like the masters of Sri Lanka's northeast after virtually bringing Colombo to its knees.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : South Ossetia's acting interior minister expressed his concern on Thursday over the build up of Georgian police in buffer zones close to the region's border following the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers. The withdrawal of troops from buffer zones adjacent to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia following a five-day armed conflict between Russia and Georgia in August was completed on Wednesday, two days ahead of a deadline agreed by the Russian and French presidents in September. Russia handed control of the zones to an EU monitoring mission.

By BERNAMA, LIMA : Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of human rights crimes and sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday, the first time a democratically elected Latin American president has been found guilty in his own country of such offenses. A three-judge panel convicted him of ordering a military death squad to carry out two massacres that killed 25 people during his 1990-2000 rule, when he was battling communist guerrillas. Nearly 70,000 people died in two decades of conflict in the Andean country.

Washington: Call it war, fight, battle or what you may -- the Barack Obama administration seems to be warring within over what to call...

Colombo : Sri Lankan Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne said President Mahinda Rajapaksa would be able to contest the upcoming presidential elections despite the opposition...

By IANS, Toronto : The deadlocked Canadian parliament will be dissolved Sunday, paving the way for a snap poll Oct 14. Reports say Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet Governor General Michaelle Jean Sunday to request her to dissolve the House of Commons. The prime minister, who is heading the minority Conservative Party government, is seeking a fresh mandate on the grounds that the current hung parliament is not letting him carry out his party's agenda.

By IANS,

By IANS/AKI, Rome : Half of married Italians have had affairs and the number is growing, according to a survey by the Italian Association of Family lawyers.

By IANS, London : At least 42 young Britons - aged 10 to 17 years - are arrested every day for drug offences, The Sun reported.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : His effort to don a new role and spruce up his image has landed yesteryear's crime maestro "Serpent" Charles Sobhraj in a new controversy in Nepal with the lawyers fighting to keep him behind bars accusing him of violating prison regulations to influence the judges. Ironically, the new controversy was fuelled after the 64-year-old, serving a life term in Kathmandu's central jail for the murder of an American tourist in 1975, tried to play Good Samaritan and wrote to a local daily, volunteering to help out a young Nepali woman in distress.

By DPA, Singapore: A Singapore court Monday sentenced a man to 24 years in prison for raping his daughter over several years, a media report said. The 57-year-old security guard, who was not named to protect the victim's identity, began abusing the girl in 2002 when she was 8 years old. The attacks stopped in 2008 after the girl's mother found out about it, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported. The couple also has four sons. According to Singapore law, the man will not be caned because he is above the age of 50.

By AFP, Charlotte, North Carolina : The White House rivals Saturday gave qualified welcomes to a huge government bailout of Wall Street, driving home their own ideas to bring relief to both busted financiers and "Main Street." After the US government said it wanted a green light from Congress to buy 700 billion dollars in distressed mortgage assets, Barack Obama and John McCain both said they would study the deal and work across the political aisle.

By DPA, Tbilisi : Russian armoured forces were showing little inclination to quit Georgia Saturday, in the wake of an exchange of barbs between the Presidents of Russia and the US over the South Ossetia war. Russian marines, tank and helicopter forces were occupying the Georgian port city Poti, and 100 vehicle-armoured column had reportedly moved into the city Senaki, 30 km inland.

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : Amnesty International has asked the Mexican government to guarantee the security of a journalist who has received death threats.

By IANS, Tunis : The trial of Tunisia's ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been postponed following a request from his lawyers, a media report said.

By IANS, Beijing : A county in northwest China will spend four million yuan (around $635,000) to build a museum for the preservation of a 1,000-year-old copy of the Quran.

By APP United Nations : Chronic neglect of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific has left over 200 million people in extreme poverty amid rising prices for foodstuffs and despite robust growth in other sectors, according to a U.N. report released Thursday. The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008, produced by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), says that 218 million people - a third of the region’s poor, largely living in rural areas ­ could be lifted out of poverty by raising agricultural productivity.

By AFP, Port-Au-Prince : At least 61 people have died in Haiti as Tropical Storm Hanna triggered widespread floods in several cities, the civil protection agency said Wednesday. At least 37 people were found dead in northern Haiti, including 21 in the flooded city of Gonaives, civil protection said. The rest were found dead in other parts of the country.

By Neena Bhandari, IANS, Sydney : Trade unions in Australia are seeking guarantees for migrant workers on the 457 visa to get the same pay and benefits as local workers as some say the temporary skilled migration programme has become a source of getting cheap labour from India, China and the Philippines.

By IANS, Colombo : Although the global petroleum costs have dropped by $100 a barrel, Sri Lanka's retail price of petrol remains the highest in South Asia, a media report said Sunday. This is despite the fact that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has slashed the price of (90 octane) petrol by Rs.35 per litre in the past two months.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS, Toronto : Friday namaz at a school in the Toronto suburb of North York has angered Hindu advocacy groups here, who want it stopped.

By IANS, Kathmandu : Three weeks after oral care giant Colgate Palmolive India sold its Nepal arm to local company Everest Hygiene Products, the new owner has not been able to restart the factory due to continued protests by the employees. Local media Thursday reported Madan Neupane, leader of the labour union at the factory of former Colgate Palmolive Nepal in Hetauda town in central Nepal's Makwanpur district, had said the workers were waiting for the Indian company to send a representative to discuss their grievances.

By Prensa Latina, Moscow : Japan expects to move towards the signing of a peace treaty during the current visit to Russia of Mahasaiko Komura, minister of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic sources informed. The press secretary of the Japanese foreign ministry, Kazuo Kodama, affirmed that during talks with Komuras counterpart, Serguei Lavrof, new opportunities are expected for an arrangement that dates back to 1945. Moscow and Tokyo had not signed a formal peace treaty after the Second World War regarding discrepancies over the Kuril Islands, under Kremlin sovereignty.

By IANS/EFE,

By Arun Kumar, IANS Washington : President George Bush acknowledged "our economy has slowed" as American employers slashed 63,000 jobs in February, the most in last five years, but claimed a stimulus package could help stem the tide. "Losing a job is painful and I know Americans are concerned about our economy. So am I," Bush said. "I know this is a difficult time for our economy. But we recognised the problem early and we provided the economy with a booster shot."

By IANS, Beijing : Floods triggered by torrential rains have claimed the lives of 701 people and left 347 missing in China, the government said Wednesday. About 18 million people in 27 provinces and municipalities had been relocated since the flooding started in April, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. Over seven million hectares of farmland were affected and 645,000 houses were destroyed in the worst floods in a decade. Direct economic losses estimated at about 142 billion yuan (about $20 billion), Xinhua reported.

By Venkata Vemuri, IANS, London : A British charity has launched a website on 'teenglish' to make parents understand the jargon their children use in normal conversations. The jargon-buster website, Gotateenager.org.uk, contains almost a hundred definitions for words commonly used by teenagers but until now incomprehensible to their parents. It is one way to make way for better communication between parents and their teenage children, according to British charity Parentline Plus.

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : Major political parties in Nepali Constituent Assembly (CA) and agitating Madhes-based parties on Sunday reached an agreement to introduce a new supplementary amendment bill to the Interim Constitution.

By DPA, Yangon/Bangkok : A magnitude-6.8 earthquake killed at least 27 people in northeast Myanmar and one in Thailand, officials said Friday.

By IANS, Stockholm: Caffeine, the primary constituent of coffee has been found to be associated with low birth weight babies and may also prolong pregnancy, says a Swedish study.

By IANS/AKI, Rome : Almost four million Italians are living abroad, according to a new report released Thursday. The Migrantes Foundation said that there were 3.91 million Italian citizens living outside the country - in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. In 2008, the number was 3.73 million. Migrantes, a Catholic organisation, said that of the total number living abroad, the majority - 2.18 million - lived in Europe, 1.52 million in the Americas, 126,000 in Oceania, 51,000 in Africa and 32,000 in Asia.

By KUNA, Brussels : EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, will travel later Wednesday to Paris to attend the EU-Central Asia Ministerial Troika meeting. On Thursday, Solana will participate in the EU-Central Asia Forum that will bring together the Foreign Ministers of the EU Member States with the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as well as representatives of a number of international organizations.

By DPA, Berlin : A man tore the head off a wax statue of Adolf Hitler in Berlin Saturday, minutes after the new branch of the Madame Tussauds wax-work museum chain opened for the first time to the public. German police said the man, 41, was detained. The decision by London-based Madame Tussauds, part of the Merlin Entertainments company, to include Hitler in the 75-figure museum has roused fierce passions in the German capital.

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

By IANS, London: Singer Mollie King says she always make New year resolutions but never manages to stick to any of them.

By Sudeshna Sarkar

IANS

Kathmandu : Priceless archaeological relics that could date back to the 14th century are being demolished in southern Nepal with unlettered, poor squatters taking over land abounding in such wealth and erecting shanties.