International

By IANS, Islamabad : A two-day SAARC business leaders conference scheduled to be held here in February has been deferred due to Pakistan-India tensions in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, Geo TV reported. SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive member Zubair Ahmad Malik told the channel that the Feb 21-22 meeting had been put off as the Indian delegation's visit to Pakistan didn't seem possible due to the highly charged sub-continental atmosphere.

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 DPA Washington : US presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pledged to keep race out of the Democratic Party's nomination battle, capping days of sniping between the two camps over Obama's African-American origin. "I think what's most important is that Senator Obama and I agree completely that neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign," Clinton said Tuesday during a televised debate in Las Vegas between the top Democrats.

Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Wednesday that 13,703 people have been infected with the Ebola virus since the epidemic began in March. Of...

By Saeed Naqvi, The new poster boy of European politics could well be a pony tailed Pablo Iglesias, in a dark blue denim shirt, 40, leader of Spain’s new communist movement, Podemos, which threatens to end the two decade old rule of the right wing Peoples Party. Playing second fiddle to PP in Spain were the socialists. As phenomena, is there a similarity between Iglesias and Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party?

By RIA Novosti, UN : The UN Security Council has given the green light for the deployment of a 2,000 strong EU police and justice mission (EULEX) in Kosovo under a plan that has received the backing of Serbia. The EU mission, viewed by Kosovo Serbs as an unacceptable symbol of Kosovo's independence, is intended to replace the current UN mission, which has been in charge of the territory since the end of the conflict between Kosovo Albanians and Serb forces in 1999.

By SPA, Atlanta : Workers building a soaring pedestrian bridge plunged dozens of feet today when the structure collapsed at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, killing one worker and injuring 18 others, according to AP. The workers were all atop the canopy walk, an elevated pathway that reaches up to 40 feet (12 meters) high, when it gave way around 9 a.m., Atlanta fire officials said. Joggers, dog walkers and others were in an adjacent park, but no visitors were in the area of the collapse, authorities said.

By IANS, Sydney : Australia has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, with only 65 deaths being reported over a three-year period from 2003 to 2005. During this period from 2003-2005, only one out of 11,896 women giving birth died, bringing down the mortality ratio to 8.4 per 100,000 women. “This figure is lower than in the previous three year period (2000-2002) in which 84 maternal deaths were reported,” said Elizabeth Sullivan of University of New South Wales.

By DPA Washington : Police have recovered two more bodies from the site of a bridge that crumpled into the Mississippi River last week, the Pioneer Press newspaper reported. The heavily travelled 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota broke apart during evening rush hour last Wednesday. The recovery of the two additional bodies Thursday brought the death toll from the accident to seven, with at least six others still missing. The names of those discovered Thursday had not been released pending notification of their families.

By IANS, Bhopal : Police in Madhya Pradesh Monday claimed that the arrest of the son of a former Nepali minister in Kathmandu for running a fake Indian currency racket was through the leads provided by them. "Nepal Rastriya Janata Dal chairman Yunus Ansari, the kingpin of fake Indian currency notes racket, has been arrested in Kathmandu on the basis of the leads provided by us to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBl) which subsequently passed it on to agencies in Nepal," an official of the Anti Terror Squad (ATS) said.

By Arun Kumar, IANS Washington : US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns has thanked the Indian-American community for its strong support for the India-US civil nuclear deal and hopes it will be completed soon. "I believe in the civil nuclear deal and I hope we will see it completed very soon," Washington's chief interlocutor for the deal said at the fifth annual White House Diwali Celebration Wednesday.

Athens: The outbreak of the flu in Greece has reached alarming levels with fatalities rising to 79 this winter, according to the latest data...

By IANS, Washington : For real health benefits, people should exercise for 30 minutes a day five times a week, a new study has found. Although pedometers (which measure how much we walk) are widely used as a physical activity monitoring tool, they are unable to measure activity intensity. Researchers have determined that a rate of at least 100 steps per minute achieves moderate intensity activity. Therefore a simple pedometer-based recommendation of 3,000 steps in 30 minutes can get people started on a meaningful exercise programme.

By DPA Vienna : The prices of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude slipped after oil ministers of the 13-nation cartel decided to maintain current output levels, the OPEC secretariat said Thursday. One barrel (159 litres) of crude from OPEC's 12-brand reference basket stood at $95.95 Wednesday, down 34 cents from the previous day, the secretariat said. At its 148th meeting, OPEC decided to keep current production quotas steady, thereby ignoring calls by US President George W Bush to increase output.

By DPA, Geneva/Harare : Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has continued its rapid spread, with the toll reaching 2,225 Friday, the UN said in Geneva. According to the organisation, 42,675 people have been infected with the waterborne disease. Wednesday, the toll stood at 2,106 dead and 40,448 infected. The epidemic was being fuelled by a lack of clean drinking water and chronic shortages of food and other essentials in the country, which is facing its worst-ever economic and humanitarian crisis.

Washington : Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ricardo Patino said that he has accepted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro's proposal that he lead mediation efforts...

Jammu: Pakistan troops overnight violated the ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LoC) and international border in four sectors of the Jammu region. "Pakistan...

By P. Karunakharan, IANS, Colombo : At least 12 Tamil Tiger rebels and three soldiers were killed, and scores wounded as fierce gun battles and artillery duels between the two sides continued to rage in the northern Wanni battlefront, military sources said here Tuesday. "The troops deployed ahead of the recently liberated Palampiddi area in Vavuniya have totally neutralised an LTTE attempt to open-up the military defences in a heavy gun attack mounted from non-liberated areas on Monday," the defence ministry claimed.

By IANS/EFE,

By DPA Berlin : A "leap in the dark" was how one journalist described the fateful day 75 years ago when Adolf Hitler came to power. Within the space of a few months, Hitler's Nazi Party used violence to silence their opponents while the vast majority of Germans acquiesced as they were manoeuvred into enforced political conformity. What began as a period of optimism and jubilation for many Germans ended in the destruction of their country, a world war and genocide against European Jewry.

By Xinhua, Seoul : South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev talked over the telephone on Tuesday evening and agreed to closely cooperate to settle the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula, the Presidential Office said. Lee asked Russia to provide continued cooperation in persuading the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to abandon its nuclear program and join international society, while the new Russian leader pledged to closely cooperate with South Korea for the settlement of the nuclear issue, the office said.

By Xinhua, Colombo : Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Saturday called on South Asian leaders to redouble their efforts for collective action to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Rajapakse told the inaugural session of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo that no country in the SAARC region has been spared of the curse of terrorism that threatens peace and stability.

By DPA, Washington : Chairman of the Arkansas state Democratic Party, Bill Gwatney, 48, has been shot dead at the party headquarters in Little Rock, police said. A gunman Wednesday walked into the office, asked to speak to Gwatney and fired several shots, fatally wounding him. He died four hours later in hospital. The shooter fled in a pickup truck, was chased by police and killed in an exchange of gunfire on a highway, the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette reported. Police later identified the gunman as Timothy Dale Johnson. They recovered additional weapons from his truck.

By IANS,

By DPA, Colombo : The Sri Lankan army foiled a last-ditch, pre-dawn attempt by the Tamil Tigers to breach military defences Sunday, killing at least 70 fighters and destroying six vessels, a military spokesman said. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebels, initially posing as civilians, had come across a lagoon and made an attempt to breach the defences around 1.30 a.m., but were confronted and killed. He did not say whether the army suffered any casualties in the incident.

Kathmandu : A week after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake jolted Nepal, three tremors were recorded on Sunday in different parts of the Himalayan nation. According...

By IANS, Los Angeles: Socialite Paris Hilton and her boyfriend River Viiperi were reportedly refused re-entry to the People's Choice Awards when they stepped outside the Nokia Theatre, here.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,

By Prensa Latina Havana : Cuba will launch a campaign on the World AIDS Day Dec 1 to highlight the work of volunteers and social activists in the prevention of the scourge. Gloria Pausada, a specialist working with the AIDS prevention and control programme, said the volunteer movement on the island country, grew through participation of patients themselves, who spent part of their time visiting workplaces, schools and other institutions to increase public awareness about AIDS.

By IANS, Sydney : Imagine if you could generate power using nuclear power minus radioactivity - it would be the answer to the dream of finding a clean, sustainable energy source. That is the hope raised by researchers who believe they have found a radical new path to the ultimate goal of solving the world's energy crisis through nuclear fusion power.

By DPA Washington : US leaders trot the globe putting on native garb - a form of costume diplomacy that's like kissing babies at home. But when a photo popped up Monday showing leading US Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama wearing the turban and garb of a Somali Muslim tribesman in northern Kenya, nerves frayed like grass in the arid plains of Wajir. That's the desperate work of Obama's struggling rival for the party's nomination, Hillary Clinton, his campaign staff charged. What's the big deal, Clinton's staff asked, without denying ownership.

By Arun Kumar, Washington: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra ModiÂ’s visit, President Barack Obama has nominated Richard Rahul Verma as the new ambassador to India,...

By IRNA, Madrid : Floods and mudslides caused by torrents of rains have left at least 32 people dead in Madeira, Portugal. IRNA reporter in Madrid said that and more than twice that number are unaccounted for. Earlier, Portugal’s premier Jose Socrates arrived in Madeira to assess the damage for himself and help coordinate the aid effort. Situated next to three main water arteries that run into the Atlantic, the low-lying capital Funchal saw some of the worst flooding.

By Xinhua Yaounde (Chad) : The Chadian Army said that it has driven the rebels out of the capital N'Djamena and also repulsed an attack on the eastern town of Adre. According to reports reaching here from N'Djamena, the army said late Sunday the security forces quashed the rebels' offensive on the capital and forced them to retreat. The rebels now pose no threat and the army troops are seeking a victory with hot pursuit, the statement added.

By Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS Liverpool : If you visit Liverpool as it revels in the status of the European Capital of Culture during 2008, chances are that you will be greeted by large, blown-up images of the Beatles in Rishikesh at the local John Lennon Airport (JLA). The northwestern port city of Liverpool is better known the world over as the place where the Beatles came together in the late 1950s. The iconic group of the flower power 1960s generation had close interaction with Indian spiritual leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

By IANS, Washington: At least 60 people were injured, five of them critically, in a head-on, rush-hour collision between two commuter trains Friday evening near New York City, officials said.

By IANS, Colombo : A Sri Lankan Tamil political party said Sunday that it will continue to push for a UN mechanism to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the island nation.

By IANS, London : Early farmers probably migrated to central and eastern Europe about 7,500 years ago, bringing domesticated plants and animals with them, which replaced stone age hunting, says a new study. Researchers analysed DNA from hunter-gatherer and early farmer burials, and compared those to each other and to the DNA of modern Europeans. They conclude that there is little to genetically link hunter-gatherers and the early farmers, and 82 percent of the types of DNA found in the hunter-gatherers are relatively rare in central Europeans today.

By RIA Novosti Seoul : South Korea's Navy and Coast Guard are searching for 14 missing sailors after a freighter sank on Tuesday off the South Korean coast, the Yonhap news agency said. The Taiwan-bound vessel, Eastern Bright, with a crew of 15 - 12 Koreans and three Myanmarese - left the South Korean port city of Yeosu late Monday carrying toxic chemicals. Early on Tuesday it sent a distress call and disappeared from radar screens.

By SPA, Beijing : A Chinese government spokesman says the death toll from the earthquake that struck two weeks ago has risen to 65,080. The toll given by Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin on Monday was up about 2,500 from a day earlier. Premier Wen Jiabao has already said he expects the death toll to eventually surpass 80,000 from the May 12 earthquake.

By DPA, Washington : The world's seven leading economies agreed to do everything in their power to tackle a financial crisis that threatens to plunge the world into recession, but unveiled no new joint measures after their meeting. The Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers and central bank heads said after their meeting Friday they would use "all available tools" to stabilise the financial system and unblock credit markets that have come to a virtual halt in the United States and Europe.

By DPA,

By Xinhua, Beijing : On a sunny Thursday morning, Chinese President Hu Jintao made his first appearance in a high-collared dark Mao suit at a grand national ceremony, following the dress code which has prevailed when Chinese leaders review National Day military parades.

By DPA, Washington : The US civil rights movement of the 1960s opened up economic and social opportunities for African Americans, but it was accompanied by an erosion of the black family that continues to cause debate in the US. On Jan 20, Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, will move into the White House with a traditional nuclear family: First lady Michelle, an accomplished professional; daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7; his mother-in-law Marian Robinson; and even the promise of a first dog.

By Xinhua, Washington : World Bank's chief economist Justin Lin has called for the establishment of a $2-trillion Global Recovery Fund to help the low-income countries to cope with the current financial crisis. Lin, who proposed for the setting up of the massive fund Monday, said it was in "the spirit of Marshall Plan for the development" that would help the low-income economies to invest in the bottleneck areas and achieve sustained growth.

By DPA, Seoul : South Korea Wednesday conducted its largest civil defence drill since these began 35 years ago after a deadly North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island last month.

By Xinhua, Beijing : Wang Yali is busy packing her groceries at a supermarket as usual. However, she doesn't put her goods into plastic shopping bags, but stuffs them all into her own bag. From Sunday, Chinese retailers, including supermarkets, department stores and grocery stores, would no longer provide free plastic shopping bags. China will try to reduce the use of plastic bags which will save energy and control pollution. "It doesn't matter how much a plastic shopping bag costs. What matters is our sense for environmental protection," Wang said.

London: British Foreign Secretary William Hague Thursday condemned the terrorist attack in China's Xinjiang Uygur region, which left at least 31 dead and 94...

By IANS, Washington : US President Barack Obama had to take the oath of office again Wednesday as Chief Justice John Roberts had misplaced the word “faithfully” in the earlier oath, a media report said. San Francisco Chronicle reported that “Barack Obama took the advice of constitutional lawyers and retook the oath of office Wednesday that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the first time around”.

By IANS, Hong Kong : A British private tutor has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for molesting a five-year-old girl student, a media report said Thursday. Nigel Russell Harris, 43, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of indecent assault after being accused of touching the girl's private parts at a flat here Sep 9 and 14 last year. The incidents came to light after the girl told her family. Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi slammed Harris for abusing the trust placed on him by the girl's parents, the Standard newspaper reported Thursday.

By IANS, Washington : Hillary Clinton is likely to accept the post of Secretary of State in the Barak Obama administration, Fox News reported Saturday. It said a formal announcement was planned after Thanksgiving. Clinton, who has represented New York in the senate for eight years, will have to give up her seat to join forces with her former rival, who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination. The decision comes a week after Clinton and Obama met to discuss the idea of Clinton becoming the nation's top diplomat.

By IRNA New Delhi : Asking Tibetans to show restraint, the spiritual leader of Tibet, Dalai Lama Tuesday said he will resign as leader of Tibet's government-in-exile if the situation in Lhasa and its neighbouring provinces got out of control. "If Tibetans choose violence in their agitation, I shall resign from the leadership," the 73-year-old monk told reporters in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, PTI reported here.

By IANS, Washington : At least 10 people were injured in a crash between a rural transit bus and a freight train in Pennsylvania state in the US, a media report said.

Beijing : Rainstorms in south China over the last four days have left 26 people dead and three others missing in nine provincial-level regions...

New Delhi(IANS) : Even as it wages a global war on terror, the United States is chiefly to blame for Pakistan's growth as a nuclear power and its emergence as the mother of all the "nuclear-tinged crises" in the world today, says a new explosive book. "For three decades, successive US administrations, Republican and Democrat, as well as the governments in Britain and other European countries have allowed Pakistan to acquire highly restricted nuclear technology," says "Deception" (Penguin), a fascinating study of Pakistan's nuclear programme.

Washington: US President Barack Obama and Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jemaa will meet at the White House April 4, a government official said Tuesday. The...

By IANS, Los Angeles: Actress Katie Holmes is reportedly flourishing in her life post the divorce from actor Tom Cruise.

By DPA Wellington : A five-month-old Samoan baby born with a severely disfigured face is to get surgery in the US after she was refused entry to New Zealand for treatment, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Miracletina Nanai will be flown to Miami Children's Hospital with her parents on Monday after the US embassy in Apia, capital of the Pacific island state of Samoa, issued visas for the family, Wellington's Dominion Post reported.

By IANS, Beijing: A Sino-US exchange on climate change issues will boost the global negotiations in the long run, but are unlikely to substantially contribute to any possible deal at Copenhagen in December, experts said. These views were expressed on the eve of US President Barack Obama's China visit Nov 15-18 where climate change is expected to figure on the agenda between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xinhua news agency quoted these experts as saying.

ByDPA, Washington : US President Barack Obama marked Holocaust Remembrance Day Thursday by warning that preventing genocide in the future depends on the world's willingness to confront hatred wherever it arises. "Bearing witness is not the end of our obligation. It's just the beginning. We know that evil has yet to run its course on earth," Obama said. "We've seen it, in this century, in the mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground and children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war."

Washington : The US and Cuba are on Wednesday scheduled to announce the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first...

By IANS, Beijing: Rescuers have pulled out a 74-year-old woman from her fourth-floor apartment Monday, as search for survivors continued in northwest China, hit by mudslides and floods triggered by torrential rains that left at least 127 people dead and over 1,200 missing. Workers had to smash a hole in one of the walls of her apartment to pull her out, 36 hours after sludge and water flooded the building in Zhouqu county of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

By IANS, London : The US and Britain said Monday they would continue the dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme but also warned that sanctions would be intensified if Tehran continued its hard line over the issue. "Our message to Iran is: You do not have to choose the path of confrontation," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after talks with US President George W Bush in London. "My first choice is to solve this diplomatically," Bush said about the conflict with Iran. Brown said Britain wanted to do "everything possible" to maintain dialogue with Tehran.

Ufa (Russia) : Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is known to be a active supporter of healthy lifestyles, fitness and sports, has promised Indian...

By Xinhua, Colombo : The Sri Lankan government Monday said it was ending its combat operations against Tamil Tiger guerrillas. An official statement said the security forces would end the use of heavy calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons that could cause civilian casualties.

By DPA, Kabul: An Afghan intelligence agent and four civilians were killed in a suicide attack in southern Afghanistan, while the Taliban fired eight rockets into Kabul early Tuesday, wounding two people, officials said. In Shah Joy district in the southern province of Zabul, a bomber, who had strapped explosives around his body, detonated himself close to an intelligence vehicle, killing himself and five others, Gholan Jailani, the deputy provincial police chief, said.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Kiev : A Ukrainian child rights activist has asked the Russian president for political asylum following an assassination attempt against him at home.

By Xinhua, Yangon : A tripartite core group involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations (UN) and Myanmar is working to make joint assessment on the impact of Cyclone Nargis that devastated Myanmar in early last May, according to state media Tuesday. In preparation to carry out the assessment, the ASEAN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team (ERAT) is providing training for officials from over a dozen Myanmar government ministries, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

By IANS,

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : A team of UN offices in Nepal, led by UN resident representative to Nepal and human resource coordinator Robert Piper, inspected the camps set up for displaced flood victims in southeastern Nepal, Nepali national news agency RSS reported. The team on Wednesday visited the camps at Bhardaha of Sunsari district, some 220 km southeast of capital Kathmandu.

By DPA, London : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an interview Sunday that he has made mistakes in office but will do better in future. Speaking to the BBC on the second day of the Labour Party's annual conference in Manchester, Brown said "you asked me had we made mistakes and I said yes ... Of course I always want to do better and I will do better." Brown described his cabinet as "pretty united." He has been under pressure from poor poll ratings and an attempt by a handful of junior government ministers last week to seek a leadership contest.

By IANS, London : Britain-based defence firm BAE Systems will cut almost 3,000 jobs in the country, a media report said Tuesday.

By IANS,

By RIA Novasti Moscow : Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday the British Council's decision to keep two of its regional offices open in defiance of a closure order was a provocative act. British Ambassador Tony Brenton was earlier summoned to the Foreign Ministry over the decision by the British Embassy's cultural arm to keep open its offices in Yekaterinburg in the Urals and in St. Petersburg.

By IANS, By RIA Novosti, Madrid: Real Madrid have agreed to sell French midfielder Lassana Diarra to Russia's big-spending side Anzhi Makhachkala, the Spanish champions have said.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS, Washington : Adverse reaction to antibiotics necessitates as many as 142,000 emergency department visits every year in the US alone, according to a study. "This number is an important reminder for physicians and patients that antibiotics can have serious side effects and should only be taken when necessary," said study author Daniel Budnitz of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

By Prensa Latina Moscow : Nearly 108 million Russians with the right to vote will choose a new President for a mandate of four years (2008-2012), the third President in the recent history of Russia. Elected in 2004 with 71.31 percent of the votes, Vladimir Putin will finish his second mandate on May 7, as established by the Russian Constitution, after two consecutive presidential mandates. Russia is on its fifth presidential elections since the presidency was approved in a popular consulting in 1991.

By IANS,

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

By IANS/RIA Bovosti, Vladivostok (Russia) : Russian border guards in the Far East seized five kg of bear paws which poachers tried to transport to China, authorities said Tuesday.

By DPA, Berlin : Germany slumped into a recession during the third quarter, data to be released later Thursday is forecast to show, amid signs that a global economic downturn was taking hold. Europe's biggest economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the third quarter, analysts predict Thursday's figures from Germany's statistics office will show after it contracted by 0.5 percent in the quarter to end June. As a result, Germany will fulfil the technical definition of recession after clocking up two consecutive quarters of negative rates.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : The Group of 20 major economies will have a summit meeting here in September to ensure that efforts to make 2010 a year of recovery from the severe global economic crisis are on track. "The main key thing is that they are committed to ensuring that 2010 becomes a year of recovery," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia who represented India at a meeting of G-20 finance ministers here told reporters Sunday.

By Xinhua, Paris : France's plan to create a sovereign wealth fund is a part of the country's efforts to guarantee its economic security in the current world financial crisis. The fund, announced by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week, is designed to protect the strategically important French enterprises threatened by the global credit crunch and prevent those companies from foreign takeover, the latest manifestation of economic patriotism of the country.

By IANS, United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the killing of two World Food Programme (WFP) officials and a member of a partner organisation in Somalia.

By IANS, Washington : Changes to the earth's land cover, climate and ecosystems are endangering the health of hundreds of millions, possibly over a billion, of people worldwide and now represent the greatest public health challenge of the 21st century, says international green think tank Worldwatch Institute. The scale of these global changes is rapidly undermining human life-support systems and threatening the core foundations of healthy communities around the globe.

By IANS,

By IANS, Toronto : A Punjabi-origin Indo-Canadian trucker driver was arrested Monday by US authorities for trying to smuggle marijuana from Canada. Forty-year-old driver Gurmit Singh of North York on the outskirts of Toronto was arrested on the Canada-US border in New York State Monday after he was found carrying 353 pounds of marijuana in his truck cargo. Singh had concealed the drug by co-mingling it with fire wood he was ferrying from Toronto to Worcester in Massachusetts in the US.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : US President Barack Obama has urged the world's top 20 economies to work together to boost reforms and take aggressive actions to repair the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s. In a letter released Friday ahead of the June 26-27 G-20 summit in Toronto, Obama told the leaders of the world's top economies including India, China and Russia: "Our highest priority in Toronto should be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery."

By DPA, Buenos Aires : Colombia Friday denied allegations that a ransom was paid to secure the freedom of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US contractors and 11 other hostages held for years by leftist rebels. Vice President Francisco Santos told Argentine radio station America that "it was a clean, most successful operation" and attributed reports of an alleged ransom of $20 million to "counter-information" from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

By IANS Lima : The Peruvian government has apologized for the 1992 La Cantuta killings of nine people by a death squad raised by the then government of president Alberto Fujimori. "In the name of the Peruvian state, we express public apology and (undertake) to make amends to you, who as relatives (of the victims) are seeking that such deeds are never repeated," Justice Minister Maria Zavala said Thursday.

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, Beijing : Chinese leaders led by President Hu Jintao Tuesday marked the 110th birth anniversary of Liu Shaoqi, late president and Communist leader who was prosecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution. "We have gathered here with deep respect to remember his contribution to the independence and liberation of China, the development of the country and welfare of the people," said Hu at the ceremony. Liu worked hard for the cause of Party and people all his life, making great contribution to the revolution and construction of socialism in China, Hu said.

By Arun Kumar,IANS, Washington : Ailing banking giant Citigroup, led by Indian American chief executive Vikram Pandit, has surprised Wall Street to deliver its first profit in more than a year, helped by strength within its investment banking division. Taking something of a break from the financial crisis with strong results reflecting a rebound in capital markets, the bank swung to $1.6 billion first quarter profit from a $5.1 billion loss a year earlier and a $17.5 billion loss in the fourth quarter.

By DPA, Johannesburg : African National Congress (ANC) deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe was due to be sworn in Thursday as South Africa's third president since democracy was established in 1994, five days after Thabo Mbeki was forced out of the job by his party. Mbeki's nine years as president, which followed Nelson Mandela's single five-year term, formally came to an end at midnight Wednesday. He chaired his last cabinet meeting Wednesday.

By IANS, The Hague : Around 50,000 tonnes of beef sold across Europe was recalled by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) on fears it might contain horse meat.

Gilgit (Pakistan) : Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharf's party has clinched half of the Gilgit-Baltistan assembly seats in elections held on Monday, and outperformed...

By IANS, Washington : Japan has deployed three guided missile destroyers with orders to shoot down any debris from a North Korean rocket which might stray into Japanese airspace, a media report said. The US, Japan and South Korea meanwhile agreed that any launch would be immediately brought up in the UN Security Council, the Voice of America reported Saturday.

New Delhi : If China attacks India tomorrow, the situation would be something similar to the 1962 war, a strategy expert said on Friday. Sam...

By Prensa Latina, La Paz (Bolivia) : Latin America's two leftist leaders have called on US president-elect Barack Obama to lift the decades-old blockade on Cuba. Bolivian President Evo Morales and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said they hoped the new administration of Obama, who has vowed to bring in change in US policies, would "lift the Washington-imposed economic, trade and financial blockade as well as withdraw US troops from some countries". Lula and Peruvian opposition leader nationalist Ollanta Humala said that the policy of siege on Cuba "has no human explanation".

By IANS,

By IANS,

By DPA, Toyota : Toyota Motor Corp's president apologised for recalls of millions of his company's cars worldwide in his first public appearance since the problems began last month at the world's largest carmaker, which once had a stellar reputation for quality. Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota's founder, said at a hastily convened news conference late Friday that the company would establish a quality-control committee as part of its efforts to win back its customers' trust.

By IANS Rio de Janeiro : Cuban musicians Miguel Angel Costafreda, Arodis Verdecia Pompa and Juan Alcides Diaz, who had been missing in Brazil since last Tuesday, have asked the Brazilian government for political asylum, the Spanish news agency EFE said quoting authorities. The musicians, members of Los Galantes, a Cuban folklore band, were on tour in the northeastern state of Pernambuco and are now in the custody of the police in that state, the justice ministry announced in a press release.

Kabul: Over 100 militants have been killed in military operations in Afghanistan since Saturday, said the country's defence ministry on Sunday. "Afghan National Army carried...

By IRNA, Berlin : German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier here Friday warned of the unresolved Georgian crisis in the wake of the unilateral independence declaration of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

By IANS, Sydney : Independent MP from Queensland Bob Katter Friday said he has sent a list of 20 conditions to Australian prime ministerial hopefuls Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, saying "I'm still in a very powerful position here". Incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard got a boost to her hopes of returning as the country's leader after Independent MP from Tasmania Andrew Wilkie decided Thursday to support the Labor Party.

By IANS,

By IANS, Tunis: Turkish police have arrested two Tunisian nationals at the Istanbul airport for their alleged involvement in the killing of the US ambassador to Libya, Xinhua reported.

By Xinhua Kathmandu : A bomb exploded at a busy downtown area, killing one and injuring six others in a Nepal town Thursday evening. According to the Parsa district police office, the bomb blast took place at Ghantaghar Chowk in Birgunj, around 90 km south of capital Kathmandu, and the man who detonated the bomb was also injured in the explosion. Five others injured were street vendors and all six people have been admitted to the local hospital, the police said. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion so far.

By DPA, Bari (Italy)/Paris : Two French nationals have been charged by Italian police with leading an Al Qaeda terrorist cell and planning attacks in Paris and in Britain, the Italian news agency Ansa reported Tuesday. The two men were arrested in the Italian city of Bari in November 2008 after arriving from Greece with illegal immigrants in their camper van. A police search then turned up incriminating documents in the camper van.

By IANS, Washington : US President Barack Obama said Monday that China's rapid economic development is in the interest of US economy.

By IANS, New Delhi : A woman leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that she was assaulted by a gang of drunk men in a posh locality of south Delhi late Thursday.

By DPA Kathmandu : One person was injured when a crude bomb exploded here Monday near the election rally venue of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress Party. "Unknown assailants hurled the improvised explosive device at a busy public square in Baneshwor area of the city," the police said. "The device was poorly made and caused little damage." Witnesses told Nepalese media that they saw unidentified men on motorcycle hurl the bomb and sped away. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the fifth such blast in Kathmandu since Friday.

By IANS, Mumbai/New Delhi : Israel is planning to send paramedics and rescue personnel to Mumbai to speed up the release of an Israeli rabbi and seven others held hostage by terrorists in an apartment in the city and to help the injured. The Israeli intelligence agencies have identified the hostage as Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg. His wife Rivka and six others are said to be held inside the Jewish centre in Mumbai. Indian security personnel are trying to break into the Nariman House, also known as the Chabad House.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : Nepal's northern neighbour China has announced a military aid of NRS 100 million (over $1.3 million) for Nepal, the first military aid received by the new Maoist-led government of the Himalayan republic. China's Minister for Defence Liang Guanglie made the announcement during a meeting with his Nepali counterpart, Maoist Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal' Friday. Badal is on a visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese defence ministry to observe military exercise 'Warrior 2008'.

California: NASA's sun-observing IRIS spacecraft has captured its first stunning close-up of a colossal coronal mass ejection (CME) erupting from the sun. The field of...

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City, April 17 (IANS/EFE) Ten Mexican police officials have been arrested on charges of extortion in Ciudad Juarez, a senior police official said. The arrests are the "result of the confidence of the citizens to report this type of conduct", the force's commissioner Facundo Rosas told a press conference Thursday in the capital. He said the federal cops stationed in Juarez "are there to serve, and not to exploit the citizens".

By DPA Taipei : Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian Saturday asked the Tibetan government-in-exile to join Taiwan in defying China and invited the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan. At a seminar on human rights in Tibet, Chen said Tibet is an important symbol of weak forces defying China's tyranny and seeking freedom under China's military threat. It is also a test of how the international community handles human rights, he said.

By DPA, Washington : The US government is sending high level officials on a worldwide mission to make personal contact with airport officials about their security methods. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, in the political crosshairs over lapses that led to the near-bombing of a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day, said Thursday she was sending the officials to Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. They were to review security procedures and technology that screens US-bound passenger flights.

By DPA Nairobi : Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner Sunday amid re-ignited violence around the country after a tight, tense presidential race was marred by allegations of fraud. As Kibaki's supporters celebrated in the capital Nairobi, pro-opposition protesters countrywide took to the streets charging the vote was rigged. Leaders had appealed for calm before Kibaki was declared winner, but local media reported riots had erupted in parts of the capital, as well as in Kisumu, a stronghold of defeated opposition candidate Raila Odinga.

By IANS Pretoria : South African President Thabo Mbeki has urged all Zimbabweans to accept and honour the outcome of the presidential elections as the verdict of the people, BuaNews reported Sunday. "We are waiting for the announcement of the results by the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) and hope everybody would accept the results," Mbeki said Thursday.

By IANS, London : Nazi leader Adolf Hitler possibly had Jewish as well as African ancestors - communities whom he had pledged to exterminate, new DNA tests have revealed. Daily Express Tuesday reported that samples taken from Hitler's relatives link him to both the Jewish community and people from North Africa.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Joseph Alliluyev, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's grandson and son of his daughter Svetlana, has died in Moscow. Alliluyev died Sunday, media reported, without specifying the cause of the death. Alliluyev, born in 1945, was the only grandson of Stalin to have met him. He worked as a cardiologist publishing over 150 papers on heart disease and kept a low profile throughout his life, never giving interviews. Svetlana Alliluyeva, aged 82, Stalin's only daughter, defected to the United States in 1967 and is now a US citizen.

By IANS Santo Domingo : Foreign ministers of the 20-nation Rio Group Friday started their 20th summit focussing on ways to defuse the crisis arising out of Colombia's cross-border raid on the hideouts of the country's leftist rebels in Ecuador, EFE news agency reported. While the crisis was not on the official agenda of the summit that would discuss energy, development and natural disasters, diplomatic efforts were mounted to explore ways the group could bring the Andean adversaries to the negotiating table.

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By IANS, Madrid : The Spanish National Court has sentenced four members of a separatist group ETA to jail for over 50 years, Xinhua reported.

By IANS, Washington: It is known that acidic beverages like sodas and citric juices like grapefruit and orange juice can damage teeth. An expert says the only solution is to stop or at least reduce consumption of these beverages. Mohamed A. Bassiouny, professor of restorative dentistry at Temple University and co-author of a new study on the subject, outlined three steps to rehabilitate teeth that suffer from dental erosion as a result of the excessive consumption of these products.

By Xinhua Quito (Ecuador) : The US military's contract for renting the Manta base in Ecuador will not be renewed after it expires in 2009. Ecuador's constituent assembly voted to outlaw the installation of foreign military bases in the country Wednesday, four days after President Rafael Correa announced that he would not allow such bases on Ecuadorian soil as of 2009. The US has expressed interest in renewing the lease for the base, which it has been using since 1999.

By Xinhua Tokyo : Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) newly-elected President Yasuo Fukuda formally announced the line-up of the party's leadership Monday. Education Minister Bummei Ibuki, 69, was appointed party secretary general, General Council Chairman Toshihiro Nikai, 68, retained the post, and former finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, 62, became Policy Research Council chairman, Kyodo News reported. The line-up was confirmed at an extraordinary General Council meeting of the party.

By DPA Kathmandu : Nepalese police Sunday broke up yet another anti-China demonstration by Tibetan exiles in the capital Kathmandu detaining over 100 protestors. The demonstration was the latest in a series of anti-China protests in Nepal which have occurred almost daily since March 10. Baton-wielding police charged about 200 Tibetan exiles who tried to converge on the Chinese embassy's visa office in the Nepalese capital. Scuffles broke out between police and protestors after the Tibetan exiles tried to cross the police lines.

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,

By DPA Washington : The US central bank has cut its lending rate to banks by a quarter of a percentage point, in a dramatic bid to help financial institutions get cash and bolster an economy hit hard by defaults on home mortgages and a tightening credit market. The Federal Reserve approved the move unanimously in an emergency weekend meeting Sunday, immediately decreasing the so-called discount rate from 3.5 percent to 3.25 percent. It also announced the creation of a lending facility to make short-term loans to financial institutions.

By AFP Harare : Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe came under increased pressure Monday to allow the release of presidential election results as his rival Morgan Tsvangirai met with ruling party chief Jacob Zuma in South Africa. The heat on 84-year-old Mugabe was turned up with a flurry of near-simultaneous statements from the European Union, the White House, the US State Department and the United Nations. The man who says he defeated Mugabe outright, opposition leader Tsvangirai, meanwhile, made his first overseas trip since the March 29 polls.

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By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia sent a new military satellite into space Thursday intended to improve communication facilities. The Raduga-series satellite was launched with a Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, said Alexei Zolotukhin, a spokesman for the Space Forces. Space Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said the satellite "is a new project that will help significantly increase the capabilities of the space communication system".

By IANS, London : A woman in the US lives with 1,000 cats and she spends a whopping 26,000 pounds every month on them, it was reported here.

By IANS, Sydney : Cardiovascular epidemic is making inroads in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) like India and China, but the poor have limited or no access to treatment facilities. Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death globally in 2005 with more LMICs alone accounting for more than 80 percent of these deaths from cardiovascular disease in 2005. India, for example, has twice the mortality rate from cardiovascular-related deaths among people of working age between 39 and 59 years, compared to the USA.

By ANTARA News/Xinhua Prague : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will sign a treaty on the stationing of the planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil in Prague in early May, Victoria Silverman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy here said on Monday. According to the information from the Czech news agency CTK, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg is to sign the treaty on behalf of the Czech Republic.

By IANS, Washington : Global corporate biggies are seeking greater transparency on climate change related policy in order to better anticipate the impact of regulations driving carbon markets and carbon prices. Regulatory uncertainty is delaying strategic investment decisions, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) annual report. It offers data on greenhouse gas emissions of 1,550 corporate houses and their climate change-related strategies.

Kathmandu : The Nepal government is shocked to learn of the terrorist attack on a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar Tuesday that...

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By Xinhua Vientiane : The six-nation Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) group Monday wrapped up its two-day summit in this Laos capital, endorsing a five-year action plan to boost regional growth. The prime ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, connected by the Mekong River, announced the Vientiane Action Plan for 2008-12 committing themselves to reducing poverty, promoting social development and ensuring conservation of ecology.