International

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow: A suspicious package reported to the Bulgarian police by the US embassy in Sofia turned out to be a bag full of garbage.

By RIA Novosti

Brussels : Russia has offered to engage NATO in a strategic partnership to counter possible missile threats, a senior foreign ministry official said here Thursday.

"We are offering (NATO) strategic partnership - an international system to neutralize missile threats," said Anatoly Antonov, director of the foreign ministry security and disarmament department.

By IANS, Dhaka : Ministers from eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries have resolved to work together to build regional capacity for mitigating the impacts of climate change and consult each other before international negotiations. In the Dhaka Declaration adopted Thursday, they pointed out that climate change is substantively the result of greenhouse gas emissions by the developed countries for over two centuries.

By IANS, Geneva : The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office has demanded a fair trial for all perpetrators of violence on both sides of the conflict in Cote d'Ivoire.

By Xinhua Taiyuan (China) : Five children have been killed in a blast at an abandoned firecracker factory in Yuncheng city in north China's Shanxi province. The six, all about 10 years old, were playing inside the factory near Wangjia village of Nanzhang township, Wanrong county Sunday, when the explosion occurred. A small amount of expired explosives stored in the factory went off at about 1 p.m., killing five instantly and seriously injuring another, sources said.

By DPA, Taipei : Taiwan's top negotiator with China Wednesday headed to Beijing for historic talks that will pave the way for cross-strait rapprochement after six decades of impasse. "We hope through the talks this time, the two sides would be able to achieve a win-win situation so that people across the Taiwan Strait can live better," said Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), before departing.

By RIA Novosti Moscow : Russia will sign a deal with Iran to supply 100 Tu-204 and Tu-214 medium-haul passenger airliners, a spokesman of the aircraft manufacturer said Tuesday. A memorandum of intent was signed last week when a delegation of the United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC), led by its president Alexei Fyodorov, visited Iran. The spokesman said a contract, worth an estimated $2.5 billion, would be signed in 2009 and that deliveries would start in 2010.

By Chris Cermak, DPA, Washington : President Barack Obama made the safe choice in re-appointing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term, preferring not to roil financial markets and keep his economic team in place as the US begins to pull out of recession. The announcement Tuesday was expected and welcomed by most economists. Some lawmakers reacted with scepticism, but his nomination is nearly certain to be approved by the Senate before his current term ends Jan 31.

By IANS,

By SPA Washington : U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday was optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy, but said that it is in a definite “slowdown.” Amidst widespread concern about the health of the U.S. economy and the prospect of a recession, Bush said that the country is not “headed to recession,” but added that “no question, we’re in a slowdown.”

By DPA, Wellington : At least 50 people were arrested as students rioted for a second night in New Zealand's university city of Dunedin, news reports said Sunday. Police donned riot gear as drunken students threw bottles, set fire to furniture in the streets and created general disorder in the three hours after midnight, Radio New Zealand reported. Twenty people were arrested Friday night following the arrival in Dunedin of carloads of students from Canterbury University in Christchurch, 360 km to the north, on an annual pub crawl that has caused mass disturbances in the past.

By IANS, London : The investment banking arm of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), one of India's leading infrastructure development and finance companies, has launched its British operations to tap European channels of financing. "The Indian infrastructure and manufacturing sector requires large investments both in the form of debt and equity. The domestic funding will therefore need to be complemented with financing from international sources," the company said.

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

By Prensa Latina, Manila : Philippine Minister of Agriculture Arthur Yap said that his country is in favor of an Asian meeting on the rice crisis and rising food prices. A declaration of the International Rice Research Institute includes the call of the Philippine minister for a ministerial meeting to discuss the issue. The forum would also study provisional assistance to the most affected populations due to the lack of rice and the increase in prices, said IRRI as backing the proposal.

By IANS, Geneva : The permanent mission of United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the UN office here is hosting Iftar programmes for the Muslim community in Switzerland. The Iftar programmes, being funded by the Khalifa bin Zayed Charity Foundation, will cover many cities in Switzerland including Geneva and Zurich, WAM news agency reported Saturday. The permanent representative of UAE at the UN office Obeid Salem Al Zaabi said that the the UAE has always extended its hand of charity towards people in all parts of the world.

By IANS, Winnipeg: Two Canadian police officers are being hailed as heroes for saving the life of a baby accidentally born in a toilet bowl. The two officers were at a home on Flora Avenue and Andrews Street Sunday afternoon when they heard a woman screaming for help from the washroom. They rushed in to see what was happening, Winnipeg Police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen told the Vancouverite News Service. They found a woman had just given birth to the baby while she was seated on the toilet.

By IANS, Washington : Intelligence reports are the last thing one would expect to contain biblical quotations, but in the beginning of the war in Iraq a series of briefs for then US defence secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others quoted from the Bible - giving fodder to the theory of 'clash of civilisations'.

By KUNA Sofia : The group of states of the Regional Cooperation in Southeastern Europe affirmed at conclusion of a three-day conference on Saturday necessity of commitment toward regional cooperation. The states, in the final statement of the conference, indicated at keenness on continuing processes of political and economic reforms in the regional countries.

By IANS, Kathmandu : With a constitutional crisis and President's Rule threatening Nepal, its former Maoist guerrillas Sunday began an indefinite general strike paralysing the entire nation after talks with the ruling parties failed and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal refused to quit.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : An investigation into an accident on board a Russian nuclear submarine will be completed by March, a source in the investigation commission said Thursday. The accident occurred Nov 8 last year when the Nerpa submarine was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.

By EFE, Mexico City : An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale rattled central Mexico Friday, bu there were no reports of damage, the National Seismological Service (SSN) said. The temblor hit at 14:24 p.m. and was felt with a certain intensity in Mexico City, though no casualties or significant damage have yet been reported. The quake's epicentre was located in the state of Puebla, southeast of the Mexican capital the SSN said.

By IANS, Kathmandu: As Nepal Friday began celebrating its five-day festival of lights, the merry-making was marred by human rights groups resurrecting tales of unpunished killings and torture and accusing the coalition government of failing to provide justice.

By Arun Kumar,IANS, Washington : This capital city of the world's most powerful nation and the areas around were still trying hard Monday to dig themselves out of what President Barack Obama called a "Snowmaggedon" and a local daily a "historic mess". With Saturday's record-setting blizzard piling up over two feet of snow across the Washington-Baltimore belt, federal workers were asked to stay home Monday except for emergency employees. Most schools and colleges in the nation's capital also got a snow day off.

By IANS,

By IANS/EFE,

By Gurmukh Singh Toronto(IANS) : The BBC is set to produce a documentary on Salman Rushdie's controversial novel 'Satanic Verses' and it will be "a thriller", says the director. Gurdip Bhangoo, who heads the BBC Asian Programmes Unit, said the documentary, "Words that Shook the World", would capture the cultural and religious turmoil that "Satanic Verses" created in the late 1980s. The 1988 novel had angered many Muslims for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet and forced Rushdie into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death.

By IANS, Buenos Aires : At least six people were killed and over 100 injured when a metro train and a bus collided near the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires early Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

Tripoli: Nineteen militants were killed on Wednesday in clashes between local jihadis and the Islamic State (IS) AFFILIATE in the eastern Libyan city of...

London: Britain has sent two Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jets to participate in the US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical...

Washington : Americans see the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group as a bigger threat to the US than Iran, Russia or other countries, according...

Kabul: A group of unknown men shot dead 13 civilians in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province on Saturday, a local official said. "The group of armed...

By IANS,

By IANS, Colombo : Closing in on the last Tamil Tiger base, Sri Lanka Monday ordered rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his fighters to surrender by Tuesday noon or face death. "We have issued the last and final 24-hour ultimatum to Prabhakaran and his group to surrender," defence ministry spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters Monday. "The ultimatum began this noon (Monday and) will expire tomorrow noon. Otherwise they will have to face the military course of action," he said.

By IANS, Washington : Fabricating microchips is a prime example of how energy misuse is rife in industrial methods. It uses up more energy than making manhole covers, according to a detailed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study. Overall, such manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to one million times bigger consumers of energy - per pound of output - than more traditional industries. Initially, it might seem strange to make comparisons between such widely disparate processes as metal casting and chip making.

By DPA, Buenos Aires : A former Argentine Roman Catholic archbishop was sentenced to eight years in jail for aggravated sexual abuse of a seminarian, the former prelate's lawyer said Wednesday. The former seminarian had filed suit against Edgardo Storni, former archbishop of the Argentine city of Santa Fe, in 1993.

By NNN-UNNS, United Nations : UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will depart for Asia later this month on a four-country tour whose itinerary includes stops in the Philippines, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. While in Manila, Mr. Ban will meet with President Gloria Arroyo, who will present him with the nation’s order of diplomatic merit. He will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of the Philippines and address the Second Global Forum on Migration and Development.

By IANS, London : Countries with ties to Antarctica have adopted US proposals to limit tourism in the region, in a bid to protect the fragile ecosystem of the continent, BBC reported Saturday. Parties to the Antarctic Treaty agreed to limit the size of cruise ships and the number of tourists taken ashore at a meeting in the US city of Baltimore. Limiting tourism has taken on urgency due to a surge in visits and a number of cruise ship accidents. Antarctic visits have risen from 6,700 in 1992-93 to over 45,000 last season.

By Xinhua, Beijing : A moderate aftershock measuring 6 on the Richter scale jolted Jiangyou city in China's quake-hit Sichuan province early Sunday, officials said. No casualties were reported. The temblor jolted two townships in Jiangyou city, northern Sichuan, at 1.08 a.m., causing cracks in a mountain and seriously damaging roads. One of the crevices runs 300 meters. Jiangyou is situated near Beichuan county and Mianyang city, which are among places hardest hit by the May 12 earthquake that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Khartoum : Sudanese authorities have rescued 154 illegal immigrants from the Sudan-Libya border, a media report said on Tuesday. The immigrants were onboard a truck...

By RIA Novosti, Sukhumi : The president of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia accused Tbilisi during an annual parliamentary address Tuesday of trying to avoid resuming peace talks. He said "Georgia is taking action depriving Abkhazia of a possibility to participate in the negotiating process, including attempts to maintain a regime of sanctions against the republic, obstructing any measures for Abkhazia's social-economic and humanitarian development and using special reconnaissance flights."

By IANS, Buenos Aires : Heavy rain has killed three people and displaced 12,000 in northeast Argentina, authorities said. Two children drowned near Resistencia city, the capital of Chaco province, about 1200 km north of Buenos Aires, Xinhua reported. In Goya City, 730 km north of Buenos Aires, a seven-year-old girl died when her house collapsed while she was sleeping. About 5,000 people were evacuated in Chaco province while 3,500 were evacuated in Corrientes province, and 3,200 in Concordia city.

By Indo-Asian News Service Brussels: The European Parliament is increasingly showing interest in India, said a British MP here. Charles Tannock, re-elected as co-chairman of the informal parliamentary group "Friends of India in the European Parliament", Wednesday hosted a reception to introduce the office-bearers of the body. The function of the group is to promote India and provide a vehicle for visiting Indian officials, dignitaries and parliamentarians to meet Members of European Parliament (MEPs), Tannock told the news agency INEPNEXT.

By IANS,

By IANS Quito : The Ecuadorian government has lifted the state of emergency proclaimed Nov 29 in the oil-rich Orellana province following large-scale agitation for better public amenities, Spanish news agency EFE reported Wednesday. Interior Minister Fernando Bustamante said the emergency rule has been called off after an agreement was reached with human rights organisations and regional leaders.

By IANS, Kathmandu: Accompanied by three ministers, Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Saturday left for his first official visit to China, pledging it would create a new high in economic ties. During the five-day trip, Nepal will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and senior officials of the Communist Party of China. He will also speak on Sino-Nepali relations at Tsinghua University and tour Lhasa, Xian and Shanghai cities.

By IANS Havana : Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has called on US President George W. Bush to lift the trade embargo on the island, according to the Spanish news agency EFE. A brief statement from Castro released here Sunday also quoted the Cuban leader asking US "not to threaten the world with nuclear war".

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow : Six people, five of them children aged between 18 months and seven years, died in a fire in Russia's Krasnoyarsk territory, officials said Sunday.

By SPA, United Nations : U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned weekend violence in the Somali capital of Mogadishu that reportedly killed dozens of civilians. A human rights group in Mogadishu reported that at least 81 civilians were killed and that over 100 were when Somali transitional government forces and Ethiopian troops battled opposition militias.

By IANS, Dubai: A three-day "Mergers and Acquisitions conference" - first in the Gulf region - concluded Thursday, WAM news agency reported Saturday. The event took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi from Dec 8-9 The event themed - "Strategies and opportunities for companies to enhance profit and growth in the region" and addressed concerns resulting from some of the major challenges facing the Gulf region such as lack of regulations necessary for regional merger and aquisition activity, and the lack of transparency and disclosure in the region.

By IANS/EFE, Mexico City : Mexico' central bank Monday brought into circulation the country's first 1 kg gold commemorative coin.

By DPA, Beijing : Military helicopters flew aid Wednesday to settlements cut off near the epicentre of a devastating earthquake in southwest China that killed some 15,000 people and left tens of thousands missing in toppled buildings. Heavy rain had initially prevented the helicopters from flying emergency aid to Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, while troops were still trying to restore the badly damaged main road to the county. The nearby city of Mianyang reported more than 7,000 dead and an estimated 18,000 buried in collapsed buildings.

By DPA, Pattaya (Thailand) : Thai officials cancelled a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Saturday after anti-government protesters broke into the summit venue at Pattaya, a resort town 100 km south of Bangkok. The Thai government said the summit between ASEAN members and six dialogue partners, including China, Japan and India, was cancelled due to security concerns and would be held again into about two months time.

By Xinhua, Kuala Lumpur : China could not have today' s achievements if it had not carried out the policy of reform and opening-up some thirty years ago, says a Malaysian media expert. China's reform and opening-up has navigated into its 30th anniversary now, and its astonishing achievements since 1987 have not only been experienced by its own people, but also witnessed bythe world, Kee Hong Tan, a Malaysian researcher working for Malaysia Press Institute, told Xinhua during a recent interview.

By IANS, Washington : Children who grow up in aggressive or violent households are more likely to become violent or aggressive in future relationships. What has been unclear is the link between witnessing aggressive behaviour as a child and carrying it out as an adult. What changes occur in a child that affect whether he or she will choose to deal with conflict in aggressive or violent ways?

By IANS,

London: To discourage extremist elements originating from Britain, Home Secretary Theresa May has plans to bring in new laws that may strip Britons fighting...

By Xinhua, Kunming (China) : The death of a prisoner while playing a game of hide-and-seek in China's Yunnan province was being probed by a 15-member investigation team that includes five netizens. Li Qiaoming, 24, a resident of Yuxi City, was taken into custody in Jinning Jan 30 for cutting trees without authorisation. He was hospitalised Feb 8 and died four days later from severe brain injuries.

By IANS,

By DPA, Astana : At least 28 people were killed in the central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan after severe flooding and a helicopter crash, local media reported Friday. In the village of Kysyl-Agasch, in the eastern Almaty region, the river Karatal burst its banks, flooding dozens of houses and drowning 20 people. A rescue helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the village of Makanchi, killing all eight people on board. The causes of the crash were not yet known. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev set up a government commission to help victims.

By Xinhua, Mianyang : Rescuers are preparing to dynamite the barrier of a swelling quake lake, which has posed a new threat after a devastating 8.0-magnitude temblor ravaged southwest China's Sichuan Province. Helicopters had airdropped professionals and materials for the operation by 7:49 a.m. Monday onto the dam of the barrier lake at Tangjiashan in Beichuan County, which was formed by landslides that blocked a local river known as Jianhe after the May 12 earthquake.

By IANS,

By DPA, Beijing: US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed the Korean Peninsula by telephone Monday as Hu said he was worried by the "fragile situation" there.

New York, Sep 29 (DPA) China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has asked the United Nations to "oppose and repulse" Taiwan's campaign to gain UN membership, and warned countries supporting Taiwan. Yang Friday spoke strongly about not permitting any challenges to the so-called "one China" policy and UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, which in 1971 ousted the Republic of China on Taiwan from the UN and gave the seat to the People's Republic of China.

By IANS,

By DPA, Tegucigalpa (Honduras) : The Organization of American States (OAS) has announced an agreement between Honduras' interim president Roberto Micheletti and the ousted president Manuel Zelaya to reinstate the latter to end the political crisis in in the country. The deal should lead to the formation of a government of national reconciliation, Micheletti said. Elections scheduled for late November should take place as planned. The deal was struck Thursday night.

slamabad: Over 250 law enforcers have been killed and many injured in Pakistan's city of Karachi over the last two years, officials said. At...

By Xinhua, Washington : CIA Director Leon Panetta has said that the US spy agency no longer uses secret prisons to detain terrorism suspects and is working on a plan to close the existing facilities. Panetta made the remarks in a letter Thursday to the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Panetta said in accordance with President Barack Obama's order to ban controversial detention and interrogation practices, CIA "no longer uses secret sites" and plans to close all remaining sites.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia Thursday said NATO's planned military exercises in Georgia next month are an "open provocation" and warned of negative consequences. "NATO's plans to hold exercises in Georgia... are an open provocation. Exercises must not be held there where a war has been fought," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. He also warned that the exercises could have negative consequences for those who made the decision to hold them.

By IANS/EFE,

By IANS, Dharamsala : The Tibetan government-in-exile Thursday criticised a Chinese court's sentence on 30 Tibetans involved in anti-China protests last month. "We strongly condemn the arbitrary sentences. The penalty imposed on the 30 Tibetans range from three years to life imprisonment for merely exercising their freedom of expression," a spokesman of the Tibetan-government-in-exile here said.

By Xinhua, Belgrade : The Serbian police Friday arrested 10 former guerilla fighters of Kosovo Liberation Army suspeced of involvement in crimes against Serb and non-Albanian civilians in the former Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999, the authorities said. Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the suspects had been arrested in the southern town of Presevo, near the border with Kosovo, the official Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.

By IANS, Kathmandu : At least five people were killed and 19 others injured Monday when a bus skidded off a road and rolled down a hillside in Nepal.

Kiev : Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk Thursday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the Russian military presence in...

By IRNA, Tehran : Better care for babies during the first month after they are born is key to reducing child mortality rates in developing countries, the United Nations health agency said Monday. According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) here on Tuesday, the agency made the announcement in an update on measures that are essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

By IANS, Beijing : The personal wealth of the rich in China has continued to expand despite the global economic downturn, and a new study says their number could cross 450,000 by the year-end. The phenomenal growth comes despite the global economic slowdown, said a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Thursday. Assets under management have hit $1.73 trillion, China Daily quoted the report as saying.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Georgia has deployed almost 7,500 troops on its border with Abkhazia, the defense minister of the breakaway republic said on Sunday. Merab Kishmaria said should a military operation begin, some 3,000 troops will apparently be used to seize the Kodori Gorge, in the northeast of Abkhazia. "We are watching the movement of troops in the Kodori Gorge. According to our intelligence, up to 7,500 Georgian troops on the Georgian-Abkhaz border are on alert, with 3,000 of them to be used in attempting to take the Kodori Gorge," he said.

By IANS,

By IANS/RIA Novosti,