International

By NNN-IRIN, Kathmandu : Peace talks are likely to be held soon with armed Madhesi groups that have been fighting for a separate province in the Terai, the flat southern region of Nepal, according to senior government officials. "We are making efforts to establish links with the groups of the Terai to hold a dialogue soon and create an environment conducive for peace talks with them," said the Minister for Peace and Reconstruction, Janardhan Sharma. He is also the coordinator of the recently formed government negotiation team.

By IANS, Kathmandu : An envoy sent by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to assess Nepal's fraying peace process has asked the coalition government to rehabilitate the guerrilla army of the Maoists and democratise the national army, warning that Nepal still had two armies though the communist uprising had ended four years ago. "The question of the future of the two armies should not remain unresolved any longer," said B. Lynn Pascoe, UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, in a statement issued by the UN Thursday.

By SPA, George Town, Cayman Islands : Gustav swelled to a Category 2 hurricane early Saturday with winds near 100 mph (161 kph) after plowing through the Cayman Islands toward Cuba, gathering strength on a journey that could take it to the U.S. Gulf Coast as a fearsome Category 3 storm three years after Hurricane Katrina, reported ap. Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, hit the Caymans Friday with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines. It was expected to cross Cuba's cigar country Saturday and head into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday.

By DPA, Washington: Sonia Sotomayor, fresh off her swearing-in as the first Hispanic member of the US Supreme Court, was called an inspiration for all Americans at a White House reception by President Barack Obama Wednesday. Obama said the success of Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican origin who was mostly raised by a single mother in New York's impoverished South Bronx, should encourage others in the US to rise out of poverty or tough circumstances.

By IRNA, Pretoria : At least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by a bulldozer caught fire and exploded in a village , the Red Cross has said. The fireball engulfed homes and schools at Ijegun village near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos. Many of the dead, who included schoolchildren, were killed in the ensuing stampede as people fled in panic from the flames. "About 100 people have so far been confirmed dead from the fire," said a Red Cross official.

By DPA, Washington : Nearly one in seven US households did not always have enough food last year as the country's deep recession struck even the most basic of needs for survival, according to government data released Monday. At 14.6 percent, the 2008 hunger rate is at its highest level since records began in 1995 and is up from 11.1 percent in 2007, the US Department of Agriculture said.

By IANS,

By Xinhua, Kathmandu : Representatives of newly elected political parties in Nepal have rejected any kind of sympathy towards the monarchy, the Rising Nepal reported Monday. The 25 parties poised to declare the country a republic within a couple of weeks met Sunday in a formal sitting for the first time to discuss mainly the Constituent Assembly (CA) procedures and formation of the new government. Even some small parties recognised widely as pro-king did not voice support to give continuity to any kind to monarchy, the report said.

By Xinhua, Washington : U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama's lead in the national poll has shrunk to zero after his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, won the Pennsylvania primary on April 22, said a poll released on Monday. According to the Gallup poll conducted on April 24 to 26, Illinois Senator Obama and New York Senator Clinton are now dead even at 47 percent among 1,240 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters. It was the second survey that has been made after Clinton's win on Tuesday in Pennsylvania with nearly 10 percentage points lead over Obama.

By DPA Washington : The mistreatment of Iraqis by private US security firms is in conflict with the overall military mission in Iraq, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said. Gates Thursday said a plan needed to be worked out with the State Department, which hires the companies to guard US diplomats and other personnel, to bring the contractors under a single command. "Based on everything I've read and what our own team has reported, there have been instances where, to put it mildly, the Iraqis have been offended and not treated properly," Gates said.

By IANS, Washington : University of Rochester researchers are designing more efficient solar cells by using special coatings that split light into colours like blue and red, to boost their power by 50 percent. Researchers then would then use different types of solar cell materials that each optimally absorbs energy from a light of different colour, said Duncan Moore, a professor at Rochester research, who is leading the team that is trying to boost this further by finding ways to intensify the light.

By Tarun Basu, IANS, Beijing : It was a moment China had awaited for decades. With a spellbinding ceremony before 100,000 people in a stadium crafted in unwrapped steel like some space-age bird's nest, China Friday launched the modern world's 29th Olympic Games, telling the world it had arrived. Billions around the world watched in awe.

CHICAGO, Jan. 15 (NNN-XINHUA) --- A Chicago company will bake a 500-pound cheesecake topped with a special chocolate seal and bring it to Washington D.C. for Barack Obama's Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. In keeping with the Abraham Lincoln inaugural theme, Chicago-based Eli's Cheesecake Corporation will make the giant cheesecake with an apple-flavored middle layer, in homage to Lincoln's love of apples.

By Xinhua Brasilia : Nine people were missing after a boat carrying 22 people sunk in Pantanal, the world's largest area of wetlands in centre west of Brazil, officials said Sunday. According to the local fire department, 12 tourists and 10 crewmembers were onboard of the boat that sank near Porto Cercado, a point of reference for visitors in Pantanal. The reason of the accident was not yet known, but some survivors said they have heard a noise and then the boat sunk. The tourists hired the boat for a fishing expedition, said the local fire department.

By Paritosh Parasher, IANS, Melbourne : Australia will end the monopoly enjoyed by International English Language Testing System (IELTS) from Nov 5.

By ANTARA News/Kyodo Aomori, Japan : The Japan Coast Guard on Monday recovered a body from a sunken scallop fishing boat in Mutsu Bay off Aomori Prefecture and another three bodies from the seabed around the vessel, coast guard officials said. The coast guard said the bodies are of four of the eight crew members aboard the 5.1-ton Nikko Maru that became unaccounted for on Saturday. The bodies were identified by their families as those of captain Harumitsu Kawamura, 74 and three other crew members -- Chikashi Kawamura, 46, Takayoshi Kudo, 33, and Mikijiro Matsumoto, 28.

By IANS,

By Xinhua Seoul : At least 27 people were killed and 13 remained missing after a massive explosion at a cold storage house in South Korea Monday. The accident occurred in Icheon, 80 km southeast of Seoul, around 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) in the basement of a two-story warehouse and caused fire, police said. Local media said 57 people were working at the warehouse when the explosion occurred. The rescue workers have confirmed 27 dead and 13 missing in the accident. Seven people escaped safely while 10 wounded have been sent to hospitals after being rescued.

By DPA, Athens : Strikes by union groups upset by Greek government privatisation plans and pension reforms disrupted air transport, bank and state services Thursday. Ships remain anchored at the ports of Pireaus near Athens and in the northern port city of Thessaloniki and state carrier Olympic Airlines cancelled 40 flights and rescheduled another 24. Greek private air company Aegean also cancelled 28 flights and changed departure times for another 52 as air traffic controllers held a four-hour walkout.

By Vishal Arora, IANS,

By IANS/EFE,

Colombo (Xinhua) : The Sri Lankan military said Friday that more than 4,000 deserters have rejoined the Army during a two-week amnesty period. Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told reporters 4,394 deserters rejoined the Army between Nov 12 and Nov 24. He said this accounts for about half of the 10,000 soldiers who have deserted the Army due to various reasons. "After a short period of retraining they will be posted in the ranks they held when they deserted," he said. The spokesman also said soldiers who have completed their 12-year service are encouraged to rejoin the Army.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Brussels : The European Union has said that it will work with the new Belarusian foreign minister despite the fact that he is subject to EU sanctions.

By DPA Bangkok : Myanmar dissidents Thursday urged the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) to suspend Myanmar's membership if the country's leadership continued to ignore international calls for launching a meaningful national reconciliation process.

By IANS, London : Hundreds of teenagers gatecrashed a private party held at a British MP's house after details were leaked on social network Facebook.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will hold air defense command and staff exercises on April 22 involving over 100 military aircraft, a spokesman for the Russian Air Force said on Monday. He said the exercises to be supervised by the Russian Air Force commander will be conducted by the joint CIS air defense control bodies under the military block's joint action plan.

By DPA, Washington : A 64-year-old man with a gun was arrested Tuesday near the Congress building after he told police officers that he had a "delivery" for President Barack Obama, police officials said. The man had driven up to the US Capitol to talk to the special police officers who protect Congress and ask about Obama's whereabouts so he could deliver something, Capitol Police said in a statement. Police then questioned him and searched his vehicle. "The man admitted to having a rifle in his vehicle," police said.

By DPA, Johannesburg : A day after South African President Thabo Mbeki gave the green light for the deployment of the military to help curb a wave of xenophobic violence that has claimed 42 lives the exodus of migrants continued unabated Thursday. Nearly 9,000 Mozambican nationals have fled South Africa since the attacks on African migrants began May 11 in a township north-east of Johannesburg, South African radio reported. Mozambicans are thought to be the second-largest migrant group in South Africa after Zimbabweans.

By IANS, London : George W. Bush has sanctioned a final attempt to capture Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden before he leaves office, a newspaper said as the American president arrived on his last official visit to Britain Sunday. Bush, who will meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown privately, has launched a renewed hunt for bin Laden along with British and Pakistani forces, the Sunday Times said quoting sources in Washington and London.

By IANS, London : Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is not preparing to marry her US quarterback boyfriend Tom Brady, according to the sportstar's father. Bundchen reportedly got engaged to Brady following his proposal on a private jet that took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and landed in Boston, Massachusetts Dec 24, according to contactmusic.com. Brady packed the plane with four-dozen white roses and champagne for the joyous event, reportedly witnessed by Bundchen's parents who were also onboard.

By IANS,

By IANS, Colombo : A loud explosion was heard Tuesday from the heart of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo. window.onload = function() {var adsPercent = 1;if(Math.random() <=...

By IANS,

By IANS, Colombo : The Sri Lankan government Thursday rejected a call for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes when the military crushed the...

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By BERNAMA, TOKYO : An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 jolted northern Japan on Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The focus of the quake, which occurred at 13:24 p.m., was some 10 kilometers underground in the Chishima-retto region in Hokkaido, Kyodo News reported. There were no reports of injuries or damage. No tsunami warning was issued. The U.S. Geological Survey reported magnitude 7.O earthquake hit Russia's Pacific coast on Tuesday about 182 miles (293 km) east northeast off Kuril'sk in the Russia-held Kuril Islands, which is near Hokkaido.

By IANS, Monterrey (Mexico) : Remains of at least 14 people, including two teenagers, have been discovered in Mexico's northern state of Coahuila, said officials who blamed the drug cartels for the massacre, EFE reported. Prosecutors in Coahuila said the charred remains of at least 14-16 people were found in a field in the rural area of San Jose de la Rioja near the town of Arteaga. The forensics experts collected the remains, discovered by the army, for examination, the state prosecutor's office said.

By Amandeep Kaur, IANS,

By TwoCircles.net, Staff reporter London: A demonstration have been planned at Downing Street in London to protest Narendra Modi when he...

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By NNN-Prensa Latina Mexico City : PEMEX (Mexican Oil) proposed the reactivation of 50 fields that are older or in the process of abandonment, following the increase of world's oil price. The project was undertaken by the Treasury Department and it has been indicated that 33 of the fields are located in the North region of the country while 17 others are in the south. These mature or in abandonment fields are those that presented difficulties in the extraction process using conventional technology and requires a lot of recovery procedures.

By IRNA, Berlin : The domestic affairs committee of the German parliament is to deal with the issue of alleged CIA death squads in Germany when it meets on January 27, news reports said Thursday. The topic will be placed on the agenda following a request by the fraction of The Left party (Die Linke), the chairman of the German parliament's domestic affairs committee, Wolfgang Bosbach was quoted saying.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : Over 30 Russian strategic bombers and long-range interceptors are participating in joint exercises with a naval task group in the Atlantic and Arctic, an Air Force spokesman said on Friday.

London : Britain's Conservative Party headed by Prime Minister David Cameron is leading in the general elections held on Thursday, winning 292 out of...

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia has raised export duty on crude oil to a record $495.9 per tonne, the finance ministry said Tuesday. The new duty, effective from Aug 1, has been raised by $97.8 per tonne over the existing rate, in line with world market trends, the ministry said. "We will reach a record export duty on Russian oil that will be fixed at $495.9 per tonne from Aug 1," Alexander Sakovich, deputy head of the customs payment department at the finance ministry, said.

By IANS/EFE,

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The United States will continue talking to Iran, but wants Moscow's cooperation in sending Tehran a signal that defiance of international demands will not go unpunished, a senior U.S. envoy has said. U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns was in Moscow on Thursday to discuss Iran and arms reduction with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. "The United States believes we should keep the door open to negotiations and involve Iran in cooperation," he said in an interview with Gazeta daily published in Russian.

Kathmandu : The death toll following the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25 has reached 7,912, according to the latest update made...

Islamabad: At least four gang war suspects were killed on Thursday in Pakistan's Sindh province during a gun fight with police. Sindh police claimed to...

Wellington : New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key Thursday described the shooting incident near Canadian Parliament as "a senseless act of violence". "The reasons behind...

By IANS/EFE, Washington : President Barack Obama took a moment during his State of the Union address to the US Congress to announce a tour of Latin American nations.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : North Korea has reassured the US it will not develop its uranium enrichment programme, a high-ranking US official said Wednesday. North Korea also assured the US that it has no intention to engage in nuclear cooperation with other countries in the future, US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Two weeks ago Mike McConnell, the director of the US intelligence service, said the communist country has broken the pledge it made last year to halt all nuclear activities.

By IANS, Havana : Cuba has successfully performed over 5,100 kidney transplants since Feb 24, 1970, an achievement on par with that of developed nations, an expert said Wednesday.

By IANS, Washington : Some 6,500 US troops are being mobilised to conduct disaster relief and rescue missions in the country's east coast endangered by hurricane Irene, Xinhua reported.

By IANS, Washington : An innovative programme combining nursing and pharmacy teams that work with cardiac patients and their doctors has slashed heart attack deaths by 73 percent. The team is connected by technology tools that help them deliver care proven to improve health outcomes. George C. Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente (KP), a healthcare provider, associated with the project, stressed the importance of caregivers' training, coordination, and ability to use technology in achieving better health outcomes.

By DPA, Hong Kong : A high-profile millionaire Hong Kong businessman was beginning a community service order Saturday after escaping jail for drunkenly groping two male taxi drivers. Stephen Gan Fock-wai, known as the Prince of White Flower Oil because of his company's health products, was ordered in a courthearing Friday to perform 180 hours of community service. He was convicted of assaulting two taxi drivers by fondling their thighs and crotches as they drove him home.

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow: A 52-year-old businessman in Siberia dug a 60-metre-long tunnel and siphoned off some 30 tonnes of crude oil from a pipeline, police said.

By IANS, Beijing : Seven people were killed and 31 injured Monday when a massive explosion rocked a fast food restaurant in northwest China, authorities said.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington: An influential US daily Monday advised the Indian government to resist pressures to test a nuclear weapon, and said it would be a huge setback for New Delhi's relations with Washington and the battle against terrorists. "Indian nuclear scientists are trying to bully their government into testing a nuclear weapon," the New York Times suggested in an editorial titled, "Just Say No."

Hong Kong : The Hong Kong government took another step towards its plan of political reform for the 2017 elections to the region's chief...

By IANS, Hyderabad : In yet another attack on Indian students in the United States, a student from Andhra Pradesh was shot by some unidentified people in Tennessee. Shashank Pulluru, who was admitted to a hospital, hails from Hanamkonda town in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. He was studying MS at the Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro in Tennessee. According to information received by the family, he was shot by some African Americans when he, along with two of his friends, returned to their apartment after the classes Saturday.

By DPA Singapore : A Netherlands-based international arbitration court is setting up its first Asian centre in Singapore to resolve disputes between countries in the region, news reports said Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar and the secretary general of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), Tjaco van den Hout, signed an agreement to establish the facility, the fifth of its kind in the world.

By IANS/EFE, Madrid : Spain's arms exports fell 43.7 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2011, the Industry Ministry said in a report released Wednesday.

By SPA Mae Sot, Thailand : A leader of Myanmar's biggest rebel group was shot dead at his home in a Thai border town on Thursday in an assassination immediately blamed on troops loyal to the former Burma's military junta. Mahn Sha Lar Phan, secretary-general of the Karen National Union (KNU), was shot at his two-storey wooden home by two men who arrived in a pickup truck, his wife Kim Suay told Reuters at the scene. He died instantly.

By DPA, Washington : US stocks dropped by more than one per cent, in the worst two-day slump in six years on concern that Congress would not act fast enough to adopt the government's $700-billion bank rescue plan that the central bank head says is direly needed to avoid a recession. Hardest hit companies included General Motors Corp., department store chain Dillard's Inc. and Regions Financial Corp., which tumbled more than seven percent. Members of the Senate banking committee Tuesday were sceptical over US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan.

By Xinhua, Beijing : The toll in the May 12 killer earthquake in southwestern China's Sichuan province rose to 65,000 Monday, information office of the State Council said. According to the government reports, more than 360,000 people have been injured in the quake and 65,080 are still missing. About 14.38 million quake-affected people have been evacuated, the statement said. It also revealed that 83,527 injured had been hospitalised after the quake.

By DPA, Tokyo : A random stabbing spree that took place in Tokyo Sunday may have been warned about on a mobile-phone bulletin board, media reports said Monday. The Metropolitan Police Department was investigating messages that showed contemplated killing in Tokyo's electronics' centre of Akihabara Sunday afternoon. Tomohiro Kato, 25, hit three people with a two-ton truck Sunday before he stabbed seven people to death and injured 10 others. Police arrested Kato on the scene, who said he was "tired of life."

The Hague: Five Dutch F-16 fighter jets have arrived in Jordan to take part in the US-led military airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS). The...