International

By IANS, Moscow : Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has termed pop star Madonna an "ex-wh***" over her backing of imprisoned punk rockers Pussy Riot, RIA Novosti reported.

By DPA, Hong Kong : Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang was under increasing pressure Tuesday to investigate the case of a former Tiananmen Square dissident sent over the border into China to be arrested. Zhou Yongjun, 42, a student leader in the 1989 pro-democracy movement who is now in the process of becoming a US citizen, has been held for a year in China after being picked up in Hong Kong. He faces fraud charges in mainland China after being found allegedly using fraudulent identity documents in Sep 2008 to enter Hong Kong from neighbouring Macau.

BY IANS, Mumbai : Videocon Industries and its joint venture partner Bharat PetroResources have acquired the Brazilian oil assets of Canadian natural gas producer EnCana Corp for $165 million, Videocon said Friday. In a regulatory statement, it said an additional $118 million was paid towards acquiring EnCana (Brasil) Petroleo Limitada, the Canadian company's Brazilian subsidiary, which has 10 deepwater offshore exploration blocks. The acquisition was made through VB (Brasil) Petroleo, the joint venture between Bharat PetroResources and Videocon.

Islamabad: Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistan prime minister's advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs, has said Islamabad will not resume dialogue with New Delhi...

By IANS, Accra : The five-year bond issued by Ghana's central bank Thursday was oversubscribed by 141 percent.

By IANS Santiago : Two people were killed and about 140 injured when an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale rocked northern Chile, the Spanish news agency EFE reported Thursday. Officials said the town of Tocopilla, the epicentre of the quake, bore the brunt. Both two deaths occurred there. Of the injured, 110 were from that city. According to Carmen Fernandez, head of the National Office of Emergencies, doctors have set up makeshift clinics to attend to the injured as the town's hospital was heavily damaged.

By IANS,

Yangon : Myanmar's national census, the first in three decades, started Sunday to collect data on population, economic and social facts. It was aimed...

By IANS, Kolkata : A South African parliamentary delegation Thursday evinced interest in outsourcing business to India and sought this country's participation in various sectors, including automobiles and mining. The 11-member team, led by Mewa Ramgobin, held an interaction with Indian businessmen and consultants at a programme organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and urged Indian companies to pump money in venture capital businesses, small and medium enterprises and pharmaceuticals.

By Neena Bhandari, IANS, Sydney : With leaders of the two major Australian political parties sharing the vision of an Australian head of state replacing the British monarch, the Greens Party Wednesday called for a referendum on the republic during the 2010 federal elections. "We think the time is right, the stars are aligned. We have a prime minister and a leader of the opposition who support the republic. We Greens are going to move before Christmas for a referendum at the next election on the republic, just a yes-no question," Australian Greens Party leader Bob Brown told reporters.

By IANS, Tehran : Iran will test-fire a range of "home-built" missiles during its military exercises that kicked off Thursday in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a media report said. Code named "Holy Prophet 5", the three-day war games will show the naval strength of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), IRNA news agency reported.

Bamako : At least three people were killed on Friday as gunmen took 170 people, including 20 Indians, hostage inside a five-star hotel...

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The Russian government has instructed ministries to cut spending by another 15 percent on top of the 15 percent budget cuts approved late last year, a business paper reported Monday. Budget cuts will affect all budget fund recipients, except courts. The biggest cut will hit the energy ministry (33 percent) and the transport ministry (30 percent), while the least affected will be the education ministry (11 percent), the State Duma (12 percent) and the foreign ministry (12 percent), Vedomosti reported.

By DPA, Washington : The crew of the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery received a phone call from US President Barack Obama Tuesday. Obama made the call from the White House along with a group of school children and members of Congress, whom he described as just as excited as the kids to speak with astronauts. He said he was proud of the US astronauts, but also of the international cooperation in the building and operation of the space station.

Brussels : The European Council said here on Friday that it has adopted the first legal acts implementing the latest Iran nuclear deal, which...

By IANS, Boston : A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was captured but later died Friday, while a second one is on the loose, police said.

By EFE, Mexico City : Mexican authorities have arrested a drug kingpin for allegedly plotting to kill President Felipe Calderon, officials said Monday. Dimas Diaz Ramos was arrested Sunday along with four other suspects in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state. The arrest comes as the leaders of the region gathered in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara for the North American Leaders' Summit Aug 9-10. US President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also attended the summit. Officials did not provide further details about the plan to kill Calderon.

By IANS

London : Hindu worshippers at the Skanda Vale temple in Wales prevented veterinary officials from reaching the 'sacred' bull Shambo, who is scheduled to be slaughtered after testing positive for TB infection.

In the battle of wits between officials and the Hindu groups, police help had to be requisitioned. Over 100 Hindu worshippers from various parts of Britain, Switzerland and New Zealand began reciting hymns and prayers from early Thursday morning.

By Prensa Latina Harare : The Zimbabwe Police arrested seven officials from the Electoral Commission (ZEC), claiming they have committed fraud to favor opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, The arrested ZEC members diverted 5,000 votes from President Mugabe to Tsvangirai candidature, police sources said. The commission has not yet given the results for the presidency polls despite of the fact that the vote was cast last March 29. ZEC reports a victory for the opposition Movement for the Democratic Change (MDC) in the dispute for the National Assembly's seats.

By IANS,

By DPA, Beijing : A giant panda at Beijing Zoo mauled an intruder who climbed into its enclosure, state media said Thursday. The 110-kg panda, Gugu, bit the legs of the man who climbed into its pen to retrieve a toy dropped by his young son Wednesday, the Beijing Morning Post said. The animal's attack on Zhang, a tourist from the eastern province of Anhui, was its third reported in the last three years. In 2007, a 15-year-old boy suffered serious leg injuries after Gugu mauled him when he scaled a fence in a attempt to cuddle the panda.

By IANS, Moscow: Ten people died in Russia Sunday when a minibus collided head on with a truck, authorities said.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Lhasa : There are 999 rooms and a sprawling cave in the awe-inspiring, centuries old Potala Palace in the centre of Lhasa Valley in Tibet. But there is not a single photograph of the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in the palace-turned-museum where he spent his teenage, was educated, held religious ceremonies and met government officials and envoys.

Nairobi: At least 28 people were killed Saturday in an attack on a bus in Kenya's Mandera county, authorities said. A group of over 100...

By IANS,

By SPA, Tbilisi, Georgia : Four bombs exploded early Sunday in the tense border area between Georgia and the separatist province of Abkhazia, officials said. No injuries were reported. The blasts went off near the Inguri river, which divides Georgia and Abkhazia, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. Lt. Col. Alexander Novitsky, a spokesman for the Russian peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia, was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as blaming the blast on Georgian agents.

Singapore : Two more Indian nationals in Singapore were sent behind bars Tuesday for their involvement in the December 2013 riots in the Little...

By Xinhua Beijing : Chinese President Hu Jintao inspected the southern province of Hainan before attending the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) opening on Saturday. The forum, April 11-13, is a platform for high-level interaction between leaders from Asia and the world. Boao has been the permanent venue of the annual regional economic forum since 2001.

By NNN-Prensa Latina Madrid : The Cuban Embassy has criticized Spain for over its manipulation of Cuba’s record in human rights. The embassy to Spain pointed out in a communique published on the Day of Human Rights that the enemies of the Revolution are the same as those who started wars like Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent victims.

Dubai: Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez was on Friday suspended from bowling in international cricket for the next 12 months following an independent assessment of...

By Xinhua, TEHRAN : Iran's government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham on Saturday criticized the new U.S. President Barack Obama for following George Bush's approach towards Iran, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported. "The era of this (Bush's) literature has passed and speaking in the language of the past is not suitable for today's situation," Elham said, referring to Obama's emphasis on the need for the suspension of Iran's nuclear activities. "Today you cannot speak illogically and you cannot set preconditions," he added.

By KUNA, Tokyo : Japanese police have raided two companies on suspicion they helped supply Japan-made vacuum pumps to North Korea being used in uranium enrichment. Last week, the authorities searched Tokyo Vacuum, a machinery maker in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, and the Tokyo-based trading firm Nakano Corp., police and Nakano Corporation said Thursday.

Baghdad: US combat aircraft Sunday bombarded positions of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist group in the Sinjar region of Iraq's Nineveh province, Kurdish...

By DPA, Nairobi : A radical Islamist preacher listed as a suspected terrorist cannot be deported from Kenya to his home country Jamaica, as Britain and South Africa have refused the required transit visa, The Standard reported Thursday. Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, deported from Britain several years ago after preaching hatred against Jews, Hindus, and the West, continued to be held in Kenya as no direct flights to Jamaica were available and travel via third countries required a transit visa.

By Prensa Latina, Seoul : The PDR of Korea denounced the South Korean newly elected government has been rising pro-US support to the detriment of reunification with North Korea. Communist party daily, Rodong Sinmun, calls President Lee Myung Bak and his group traitors for they talk cooperation to try and calm disgust in Pyongyang. The PDR of Korea will not talk or negotiate with a group that does not respect our nation and refuses to observe the joint statements of Jun 15, 2000 and Oct 4, 2007.

By DPA, New York: A New York man has been charged with stabbing to death a fellow commuter on a train after the they got into an argument over a seat, according to a report Sunday. The 37-year-old suspect had demanded that a reportedly homeless 36-year-old man move a bag from the seat where he wanted to sit on the train he boarded at the city's Rockerfeller Center, the New York Daily News reported. The newspaper said that after the man refused and assaulted him, the suspect drew a steak knife.

By Bernama, Atambua : The commander of Indonesian military troops guarding the border with Timor Leste, Lt Col Muhammad Kusdaryanto, said limitations to the infrastructure and facilities at his unit's disposal had made it quite possible for foreigners to cross the frontier illegally, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported. "There are many, many obscure back-country routes foreigners can take to go to or come from the neighbouring country. Moreover, they know the region well. Most border-crossings are done at night, and we are short of night-vision binoculars," he said here Monday.

New York, Sep 26 (DPA) Hours before her first address to the United Nations as Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel was honoured as World Statesman by a US foundation that works for religious freedom in New York. The award by the Appeal for Conscience Foundation was given in part for her past interventions on the side of Israel. Merkel said she was grateful for the honour and that she would continue to battle the threat of right-wing extremism in Germany.

By DPA,

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : US President George W. Bush is expected to have high-level contacts with the new government of Pakistan soon, but the White House would not say if and when he would call his "personal friend" Pervez Musharraf. "I would expect that the president will have high-level contact with Pakistani authorities in the near future. We'll certainly keep you updated on that," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch.

By IANS,

By IANS,

By Xinhua, Canberra : Australia announced Thursday it has donated an initial 500,000 Australian dollars (478,000 U.S. dollars) to the Philippines National Red Cross to help the typhoon victims. Typhoon Fengshen struck the Philippines last week, leaving more than 280 people dead. An AusAid officer has been dispatched to the disaster area to determine how much further assistance will be required, reported Australian Associated Press. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has sent a letter of condolence to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

By DPA Lima : Two days after a massive earthquake in central Peru, widespread looting prompted President Alan Garcia to start deploying navy and army troops to keep order in Ica, the area most affected by the powerful quake. In one case, a local mayor was trying to transport material to affected quake areas when robbers attacked him. In other cases, truck drivers fired guns in retaliation. Civil Defence authorities said the official death toll from the country's worst quake in 37 years had increased to 446 and put the official number of injured as high as 1,008.

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS, London : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Thursday hailed with apparent relief the end of “free market dogma,” saying he would now work to build a “progressive era” around the world. “When the history books come to be written, 2008 will largely be remembered for the scale of the great economic and financial crisis. A year in which an old era of unbridled free market dogma was finally ushered out,” Brown said in his New Year's day message to the nation.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The opposition figure shot dead in police custody in the Russian republic of Ingushetia was killed by the accidental discharge of a police officer's gun, a paper said on Monday, quoting investigators. Magomed Yevloyev, the founder of a banned opposition website, was detained by police at the North Caucasus republic's Magas airport in late August. Officers then put him in a police car to take him to Nazran (the republic's largest city) to give testimony regarding "a criminal case."

By IANS Kathmandu : As Maoist chief Prachanda was warning of violence and possible assassination of political leaders ahead of the April election, a blaze in a packed bus, reportedly caused by a blast, killed seven passengers in trouble-torn south Nepal and injured nearly two dozen more. Krishna Moktan, who along with his wife and two kids had Friday boarded the bus heading towards the frontier town of Birgunj from Janakpur in the Terai plains, said the vehicle stopped at one place where two women passengers got down.

By IANS, Berlin : A 27-year-old German Islamist has been arrested for his alleged links to an Al Qaeda-linked outfit, officials said.

By DPA, Hong Kong : Hong Kong Monday joined China in declaring three days of official mourning for the victims of the earthquake which shook Sichuan province killing thousands last week. Government offices and workplaces throughout the city fell silent at 2.28 p.m. - the exact time that the earthquake struck Monday, May 12 - to observe a three-minute silence to commemorate the dead. The stock exchange also suspended trading for three minutes and border traffic came to a temporary standstill as buses, MRT trains and ferries sounded their horns to signal the start of the silence.

By IANS, London : Former Spice girl Victoria Beckham has snubbed an invitation to ex-band member Mel B's lavish Egyptian “wedding”. Mel B is flying friends and family out for an all-expenses-paid trip to see her renew her vows to husband Stephen Belafonte, who she married in Las Vegas last year, reports thesun.co.uk. The Beckhams, however, don't plan to attend the tacky four-day bash in Hurghada. It is not known yet if the other Spice Girls Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and pregnant Mel C will attend the event.

Syed Zarir Hussain Moreh (Myanmar-India Border), Sep 28 (IANS) The military crackdown on protesting monks in Myanmar is stoking public anger against the junta with fears that several ethnic rebel armies in the impoverished nation could hijack the pro-democracy movement.

By EFE, Buenos Aires : Argentina tops the list of countries that smoke the most in Latin America, consuming 1,014 cigarettes annually for every inhabitant over age 15, media reports said Sunday, citing a World Lung Foundation study. Argentina is followed on the list by Paraguay, with annual consumption of 968 cigarettes, and Chile, with 909, while Peru has the lowest cigarette consumption in the region at 129 annually per inhabitant.

By IANS, Port-au-Prince/Sao Paulo: A mammoth relief operation slowly picked up Thursday in a race against time to help survivors of the earthquake that devastated the Haiti capital of Port-au-Prince. Relief teams were distributing small quantities of food as thousands of hungry and traumatized residents wandered aimlessly through the streets of the city of 1.9 million. The capital and its surroundings were the areas hardest hit by the powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the impoverished Caribbean country Tuesday afternoon.

By Xinhua Manila : The Philippines government Thursday condemned the protest staged by a group of former coup plotters and said it would not allow another mutiny to happen like the 2003 Oakwood mutiny in Makati City. A group of military officers, including newly elected opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig Gen Danilo Lim, walked out of a courtroom in Makati City Thursday morning and began a standoff with the government in a five-star hotel, asking for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over alleged corruption and misrule.

By IANS, London : French and British officials have discussed a nuclear deterrence-sharing scheme but Britain has opposed the idea "so far" on grounds of political unacceptability, a media report said Friday. The Guardian quoted an unnamed British official as confirming that the French government had proposed sharing the expensive task of patrolling the seas with nuclear weapons-armed submarines. Known as "continuous at-sea deterrent", the task has currently been undertaken individually by the two countries at a projected future cost to Britain of up to 100 billion pounds.

By DPA, Tel Aviv : Israel launched its latest spy satellite as Tel Aviv, along with many other world governments, is wary of Iran's nuclear programme and its "belligerence" toward the Jewish state, a newspaper said here Wednesay. The satellite, dubbed Ofek 9, was launched on board a booster rocket Tuesday night from the Palmachim airbase, 10 km south of Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post said. From its low Earth orbit at an altitude of around 600 km, the 300-kg satellite is to join its precursor Ofek 7.

By IANS, New Delhi: Raninder Singh was Saturday re-elected unopposed as the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

By Chris Cermak DPA, Washington : In a country that prides itself on free market principles, US taxpayers' money is already on the hook for more than $300 billion in financial industry bailouts, and, by some accounts, the government is just getting started. The Federal Reserve's unprecedented, $85-billion loan and effective takeover of the largest US insurer, American International Group (AIG) Inc, was only the latest in a string of emergency interventions this year on Wall Street.

By DPA, Manila : At least 18 people were killed in landslides and other accidents caused by a powerful typhoon that pummelled the northern Philippines, disaster relief officials said Friday. Six people were also reported missing and 10 injured in landslides in the northern provinces of Ifugao and Zambales, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). Ten people were killed in a landslide in Ifugao, while five drowned in the provinces of Bataan, Batangas and Pangasinan, local officials said.

By DPA, Washington : Former US first lady Barbara Bush, 83, underwent tests at hospital after she complained of stomach pains, CNN reported. Bush, who is also the mother of the current US President George W. Bush, was hospitalised in Houston, Texas Tuesday night, the broadcaster reported, quoting a family spokeswoman. Jim McGrath, a spokesman for Bush's husband, former president George H.W. Bush, told CNN that the tests were negative and she was due to be released Wednesday.

By IANS, Kolkata : Borelli Tea Holdings Ltd, the Britain-based subsidiary of Indian tea producer McLeod Russel, has acquired 75 percent equity stake in Olyana Holdings LLC of the US for $2.75 million. Borelli and Olyana signed a shareholders' agreement in this regard Monday, McLeod Russel chief financial officer Kamal Beheti said here Tuesday. The balance 25 percent will be held by Olyana promoter George W. Rubagumya. Olyana had earlier signed a share sale agreement with the government of Rwanda for acquiring 60 percent shares in Gisovu Tea Co in the African country.

By DPA, New York : The UN is studying the "best mechanism" to fund the reconstruction of Haiti following the destructive earthquake of Jan 12, UN officials said Tuesday. Technical experts from various international financial institutions and the UN have already begun what is known as the post-disaster needs assessment to work out a list of initial demands for the international donor conference scheduled to take place in New York in late March.

By IANS, Washington: The US has announced that 149 airport control towers will be closed across the country beginning April 7 due to a budget saving implementation plan.

By IANS, Prague : The Czech military is to reduce the number of officers at its headquarters to slim down the command structure and reduce costs, Deputy Defence Minister Jiri Sedivy has said.

By Xinhua, Beijing : US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived here Friday evening on her first visit to China since she took office. Clinton was greeted by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi at the airport. During her stay in China, Clinton is scheduled to meet Chinese state leaders to exchange views on bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

By IANS, Washington: The US manufacturing sector resumed expansion in September after three consecutive months of contraction, an industry survey showed Monday.

By Xinhua, Madrid : Finance ministers of China, Japan and South Korea Sunday reached an agreement on the key elements of a regional foreign exchange reserve swap. "We reached an agreement on several key elements of the CMI (the Chiang Mai Initiative) multilateralization," the finance ministers said in a joint statement after they met on the sidelines of an annual Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting.

By DPA, Lusaka : Rioting broke out in Zambia's capital overnight, after it emerged that acting president Rupiah Banda had overturned opposition leader Michael Sata's lead in Thursday's presidential by-election with only a few results left to count, reports in South Africa said. With just two constituencies out of 150 in the southern African country left to be announced, Banda, 71, the candidate of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, was poised to become president for the next three years, replacing ex-leader Levy Mwanawasa, who died in August.

By DPA, Taipei : Taiwan Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said Monday that he submitted his resignation to the president to take the blame for a disaster triggered by last month's Typhoon Morakot that left close to 700 dead and thousands homeless. Liu said his resignation was approved by President Ma Ying-jeou Saturday ahead of a cabinet shuffle Thursday.

By DPA, Paris: Representatives from Unesco's 193 members gathered in Paris Tuesday for the opening of the organisation's bi-annual general conference. The aim of the 17-day meeting is to determine policies and main lines of work as well as to adopt the budget and programme for the next two years. In addition, the conference is expected to name Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova as its next director-general, replacing Japan's Koichiro Matsuura, who served for 10 years.

By DPA, Kathmandu : An investigation into an air crash near Mount Everest in October 2007 blamed pilot error for it, a government report said Thursday. The crash at Lukla airport, about 175 km north-east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, Oct 4, 2007, killed 18 people, including 12 Germans, two Australians and four Nepalese nationals. The only survivor was the plane's captain. A report submitted to the government said the primary cause of the accident of the Yeti Airlines Twin Otter aircraft was misjudgement by the pilots while landing at the airport.

By Prensa Latina Damascus : The Syrian government has accused the United States of hampering elections in Lebanon and contributing to fuel the current political crisis in that country. Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal blamed the White House for thwarting Syrian and French attempts to make election of a Lebanese president possible. On Sunday Bilal denounced that Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams and US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, both known for their support to Israel, were in Lebanon last week.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : The guessing game continues. Will Hillary Clinton get the job of President-elect Barack Obama's Secretary of State or not? Those in the prediction markets think it's in the bag for her. Others suggest it may well depend on a review of the business activities of her husband, former president Bill Clinton. But the Obama transition team is mum on her chances.

Seoul: South Korea's financial regulator said Sunday that market will start trading gold on spot next week to disclose gold transactions, which were blamed...

By Xinhua, Hanoi : Flash floods in some Vietnamese northern provinces caused by a storm since last Friday have killed119 local people and left 40 others missing, according to the country's Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control on Wednesday. The flash floods and landslides by 21:00 Tuesday had also injured 86 others in the 10 provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Phu Tho,Quang Ninh, Ha Giang, Lang Son, Bac Can, Lai Chau, Thai Nguyen andDien Bien.

By IANS, London : A 23-year-old British woman stabbed her 11-month-old daughter to death, and called the police to say: "I've got a baby and stabbed her."

By IANS, London : An Indian-origin hair specialist accused of groping women while giving them head massages has been jailed for three years in Britain. The Reading crown court also banned Praminder Mankoo for life from giving treatment without a witness present. He will also have to sign on to the Sex Offenders' List indefinitely. Mankoo had been charged with lewd acts with his clients on Sep 14. Mankoo ran a successful clinic in Thame, Oxfordshire. The instances of his lewd acts occurred between 2003 and 2007, but three of his victims came forward only recently to nail him.

By IRNA, Paris : European Union leaders are to hold talks with US President George W. Bush on the financial crisis. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and EC President Jose Manuel Barroso will discuss at Camp David the framework for a summit of G8 leaders planned for November that may include China, India and other major economies. The Europeans want the summit to pave the way for talks on an overhaul of the world's financial regulatory systems. Earlier, Sarkozy said that without regulation there could be no freedom.

Bali, Dec 13 (IANS) In a speech likely to go down in history as an oratorical milestone in the fight against global warming, Al Gore, former US vice-president and co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, electrified the Dec 3-14 UN conference on climate change on its penultimate evening Thursday. Clearly speaking from his heart, Gore exhorted the nearly 11,000 delegates from 187 countries gathered here for the summit to bypass the US government delegation that is threatening to derail the entire Bali roadmap to start global negotiations that will help fight global warming.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington: With the rise of India and China continuing to reshape the international system, the US looks at India as a strategic partner with rapidly improving military capabilities and shared democratic values. "As the economic power, cultural reach and political influence of India increases, it is assuming a more influential role in global affairs," the Pentagon noted in its Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) released Monday by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

By NNN-Bernama Mira, Malaysia : The European Union (EU) is confident the initiative to achieve an Asean Economic Community by 2015 will spur growth in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines East Asean Economic Area (BIMP-EAGA). The European Commission (EC) Ambassador to Malaysia, Vincent Piket says the economic blueprint adopted by the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) will lead the region to harness its potentials and raise its economic importance.

Washington: The US Friday imposed sanctions on two alleged key financiers of al-Nusra Front and Al Qaeda, authorities said. Abdul Mohsen Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Sharikh and...

By Prensa Latina, Madrid : Spain has refused to accept any inmate from the Guantánamo prison, saying that would create serious legal problems. In a press conference here, Spanish President Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Friday "his government was neither requested to receive any inmates not it has plans" to accept them as that would result in unnecessary legal problems.

By DPA

Mexico City/Washington : It no longer seems clear who tops the world of the super-rich, after Mexican media claimed that Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim had surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest man on the planet.