International

By IANS, Colombo : The Sri Lankan army has captured the forward defensive positions of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the island's north Thursday after fierce fighting, the defence ministry said. The soldiers, backed by artillery and mortars, advanced against the well-fortified LTTE bunker lines at Muhamalai and Kilaly areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula and captured them after a battle lasting several days, it said.

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS, London : A day after Bejing hosted what was hailed as the greatest Olympic opening ever, the response in London - the next hosts - has been a slightly bemused, 'cripes, what are we going to do now?' If nothing else, said the Times newspaper, the jaw-dropping opening at the Bird's Nest Stadium "has raised the bar dauntingly high for the organisers of London 2012". But British Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said London can match Beijing in 2012.

By an NNN-Bernama Special Report by Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur : The two-day Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship to be held in Washington from April 26 has been described as a paradigm shift in the United States President Barack Obama's leadership by one of the three Malaysians invited to attend the event. Dakhshinamoorthy Balakrishnan said here Monday that Obama had made the right move by giving presidential attention to a global force in democratising commerce and bringing Islamic and non-Islamic nations together under one roof.

By IANS, Beijing : At least 702 people were killed and 1,042 went missing in rain-triggered mudslides in northwest China's Gansu province, authorities said Tuesday. The death toll due to mudslides has reached 702, with 1,042 others still missing. Some 1,243 people have been rescued and 42 of them were found seriously injured, said Tian Baozhong, head of the provincial civil affairs department. The mudslide hit Zhouqu County in Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan early Sunday, Xinhua reported.

By IANS,

By IANS, Mexico City : The wave of violence blamed for nearly 7,000 deaths in Mexico since late 2006 has claimed over a dozen lives in the last couple of days, EFE news agency reported Saturday. Police have found two more severed heads from a cooler with a threatening message in Lazaro Cardenas, a port on the Pacific Ocean in western region of Michoacan. The contents of the message, believed to be from a drug cartel, have not been revealed, an official of the Michoacan state Attorney General's Office said.

Vilnius : The Presidential poll runoff kicked off in Lithuania Sunday. The country's incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaite and her rival Zigmantas Balcytis were competing for...

By IANS, New Delhi: Travelling to the US, but still need your daily dose of mangoes? If you're planning to pack the king of fruits in your luggage, just make sure that the mangoes you carry are certified, says a notice issued by the government of India. The appeal has been issued following reports that in violation of agreed protocol between India and the US, "some passengers are carrying uncertified/untreated mangoes in their luggage to the US" and "some of the firms are exporting parcels of uncertified and un-irradiated mangoes to US through courier services".

By DPA, Phnom Penh/Bangkok : Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra landed in Cambodia Tuesday, the Cambodian government said, amid an escalating diplomatic spat over the fugitive politician. Government spokesman Phay Siphan told reporters in Phnom Penh that Thaksin, who last week was appointed as an adviser to the Cambodian government and Prime Minister Hun Sen, was in the country. "It is a great honour for Cambodia," Phay Siphan said. "We hope Cambodia as a whole will greet him warmly."

By DPA Sydney: A paralyzed Australian who five weeks ago won a landmark court case for the right to starve himself to death has died, his lawyer said Monday. Former stockbroker Christian Rossiter, 49, became a paraplegic last year and had described his life in a Perth nursing home as a "living hell". The court ruled that his nursing home carers had a legal duty to obey his demand that they stop feeding him.

By IANS, Washington : President Barack Obama has rejected criticism that he has compromised too much in order to secure healthcare reform legislation, his top domestic priority, due for a Senate vote Thursday. Challenging his critics to identify any "gap" between what he campaigned on last year and what Congress is on the verge of passing, he said in interview with The Washington Post: "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill."

By IANS, Beijing : China is to resume construction of new nuclear power stations, suspended since the Fukushima disaster in Japan in March 2011, China Daily reported Thursday.

By IANS, London : An estimated 500,000 British graduates are about to join the queue for jobs this year, but the market has become tougher with employers raising the bar for minimum education qualifications. Most employers in Britain will not be recruiting graduates with lower than a 2:1 pass degree, equivalent to a second class honours degree with 60 percent marks or above. Latest research by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) reveals that eight out of 10 British employers have slapped a ban on recruiting anyone without a 2:1 degree because of the current job squeeze.

By IANS/EFE, Buenos Aires : An Argentinean plumber fell from the eighth floor of an under-construction building but survived with only a broken arm, a media report said. Raul Lopez, 37, who has been dubbed "the miracle man", suffered the fall Wednesday while he was working on an air conditioning duct in a building in Cordoba city, the Clarin daily reported.

By DPA,

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : America's largest business lobby is pouring millions of dollars into an advertising push to prevent Democrats from winning dominance in the Senate, the Wall Street Journal says. The US Chamber of Commerce says it has raised enough money this year from corporations to spend about $35 million on the election, double its budget for House and Senate races in the 2006 election.

By SPA Rio de Janeiro : At least three people drowned and six others are missing when a ferry sank on the Cuiaba river, in western Mato Grosso state, DPA quoted local fire officials as saying Monday. Hope for finding the missing from Sunday's accident are slim. "We pray for a miracle, but there is hardly any chance," said a fire official. The bodies of three men were recovered on Sunday.

By DPA, Seoul : North Korea Monday replaced its Prime Minister Kim Yong Il with Choe Yong Rim, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said, quoting North Korean state radio. Choe is chief secretary of the Pyongyang branch of the Workers Party, the ruling communist party, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, confirming the report. No reason was given for the change.

By DPA, Kabul : A female Canadian soldier serving with NATO forces was killed and four others were wounded by a roadside bomb in the volatile southern region, officials said Tuesday. Trooper Karine Blais was killed and four of her comrades were wounded when their armoured vehicle was blown up in Shah Walikot district of southern Kandahar province Monday afternoon, the Canadian defence ministry said in a statement.

By IANS, Beijing: Chinese women may fly to space as soon as next year, one of the country's first astronauts and now in charge of the manned space programme has said.

Islamabad: The US government will give 160 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, and spare and repair parts worth 198 million dollars to Pakistan,...

By ANTARA News/DPA, Hong Kong : A court date was set Wednesday for what is expected to be a spectacular and scandal-packed battle over the fortune of Asia's richest woman. The hearing into the 4.2 billion US dollar fortune of Nina Wang, who died aged 69 last year, leaving her money to an unknown feng shui master, is due to begin on February 16, 2008. At a hearing Wednesday, a High Court judge ruled that a further assessment could be made in October to decide if the case can proceed in February. It is expected to last eight weeks.

By DPA Harare : Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Wednesday claimed victory and rejected the need for a second round of voting in the tense presidential contest between MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and long-time President Robert Mugabe. But a second round of voting, which the constitution calls for in the event neither candidate takes more than 50 percent, appeared likely after state media declared the two men were headed for a tie. The MDC said it would participate in a runoff if needed, albeit "under protest".

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russian troops detained two cars carrying ammunition via a humanitarian channel into the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official said Saturday. Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said that on Friday afternoon Russian troops stopped two cars with civilian and military people. "A gun shot erupted during the inspection as a result of which one car was damaged and the other managed to flee the scene of the incident," he said.

London, Jan 28, IRNA – The London conference on Afghanistan marks the beginning of the process of transition from international to Afghan control after a “difficult year,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday. Addressing delegates from some 68 countries and international organisations at the opening of the one-day international conference, Brown said it was a "decisive time" for the future of Afghanistan.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : Hillary Clinton gamely continued her quest for Democratic presidential nomination even as she lost her last advantage with rival Barack Obama surging ahead of her in the support of key party officials too. With odds heavily stacked against her after her massive defeat in North Carolina and a narrow win in Indiana primaries last Tuesday, Obama Friday racked up seven endorsements from super delegates who hold the balance of power in picking up the party nominee.

By RIA Novosti, Damascus : A man who had six sons and 175 grandchildren and great grandchildren died in Syria at age 114, the SANA news agency said. Isa Ali an-Nadir was born in 1895, when Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923). He died in his home town of Quneitra in southwest Syria. Isa Ali had said his meals everyday included milk, homemade butter and ground wheat, as well as strong coffee, were reasons for his longevity.

By Xinhua, Shanghai : China is poised to become the world's leading gold producer in 2008, with output reaching 300 tonnes, the China Gold Association (CGA) said Tuesday. "Recent years have seen a continuous drop in gold output in South Africa and the United States, traditionally big gold producers, while China maintains an annual growth rate of five percent," said Hou Huimin, vice president of the association.

By DPA, Bangkok : A Thai teenager who torched the library at his boarding school to avoid having to attend class said he got the idea from protesters who burned buildings in Bangkok last month, media reports said Monday. The 16-year-old, whose grades had been slipping, reportedly confessed to having set alight the facility at the Mahidol Witthayanusron School, some 60 km northwest of the capital, in the early hours Sunday. No one was injured in the blaze, but the co-ed school which has around 720 students was closed for the week.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia has said it will stop opposing the US-sponsored anti-missile radar system in the Czech Republic if Russian observers are permanently posted at the facilities. Only this (the permanent deployment of Russian observers) could end Russia's objection to the project, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists Monday. "A one-off visit would not change anything, but only increase our suspicions," he stressed.

By Prensa Latina Pyongyang : The People ó s Democratic Republic of Korea Friday denounced the US delays in the fulfilment of the agreements signed in the six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. According to a report by the government Minju Joson newspaper, though the PDRK has fulfilled its commitments, it has been forced to reduce the pace in the closure of the nuclear facilities.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : The Russian Navy has called on international navies to launch joint operations against pirates that have recently stepped up attacks on ships off Africa's coasts. Pirate attacks have risen across the world, with most attacks occurring along the Somali coast, where more than 25 ships were seized last year. "Coordinating operations by naval forces in the zones of pirate attacks could help partly resolve the problem," Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.

By ANTARA News/Kyodo, Naha : The Naha District Court sentenced a U.S. military policeman Monday to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for conspiring with four minors to assault a taxi driver in the city of Okinawa and steal 6,000 yen in March. Senior Airman Darius Brunson, 22, assigned to the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture, admitted to the charges at the first hearing of his trial on June 2. His defense counsel had asked for leniency, saying he has repented of his act. Public prosecutors had demanded three years in prison.

By IANS, London : More than 70 percent of marriages in the British Muslim community involving a foreign spouse have some element of coercion or force, a leading Islamic group has admitted. While police and government authorities deal with some 300 reported cases of forced marriages every year, the true figure of such abuse is in its thousands, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) said in a report that backed up government's fears about the scale of the problem.

By IANS, Washington : Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met US President Barack Obama for an informal chat on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Camp David.

By IANS, Brussels : The European Union (EU) Wednesday expressed concern over the growing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka and stressed that reaching a sustainable political settlement in the country would be a real victory. "The EU agrees that reaching a sustainable political settlement that meets the aspirations of all communities in Sri Lanka is essential for the future prosperity and long term development of the Island," the 27-member bloc said in a statement here.

Washington: In a bid to stop snooping on its users, Google has overhauled its Gmail service in a big way - encrypting every single...

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is hanging onto leads in several battleground states as well as a handful of traditionally Republican states won by President George Bush in 2004, according to several new polls. Obama holds narrow leads in Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, while rival Republican John McCain is hanging onto his lead in Indiana and West Virginia, according to CNN's average of a string of polls in these states.

By IANS, London : A well-known British journalist has admitted in a book extracted Sunday that he thought the late mother of Britain's reigning monarch was a “ghastly old bigot”. Edward Stourton, long-standing presenter of the BBC's flagship radio news and current affairs programme Today, has made the comments in a book on political correctness extracted in The Sunday Times. In his book, Stourton said the Queen Mother told him about a European summit in the 1990s: “It will never work, you know.”

Colombo : The Sri Lankan police have arrested two human rights activists on terrorism-related charges. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana told Xinhua Monday that the two...

By Prensa Latina Washington : At least 75 percent of Democratic electors in the US are considering the possibility of a joint Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton candidacy, or viceversa, for the presidential elections in November, according to a Gallup survey. At least 30 percent of people consulted considered the best option for Obama to be the presidential candidate and Clinton his vice-president running mate, while 45 percent deemed it acceptable, the poll indicated.

By DPA, London : An Egyptian-born radical preacher wanted for trial by the US lost the latest stage in his fight against extradition from Britain Friday. The High Court in London ruled that the US extradition request for Abu Hamza did not carry "the smell of the torture chamber", as had been alleged by his lawyers. Hamza, 50, is currently serving a seven-year-jail term in Britain for inciting murder and race hate during sermons at London's Regent's Park mosque.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : A Proton-M carrier rocket put into orbit on Wednesday a U.S. telecommunications satellite, the Russian Federal Space Agency said. "The foreign satellite has successfully separated from the Breeze-M booster, and control over the satellite has been transferred to the client," the agency said. Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) signed a contract in March to launch two Sirius satellites to expand the existing SIRIUS Satellite Radio constellation.

By DPA Yangon : Myanmar's military regime has released from detention 96 monks who participated in September's marches, permitting half of them to return to the Ngwekyaryan monastery in Yangon, sources said Monday. Authorities released the 96 monks, including Abbot Sayadaw U. Yevada, last Friday from the Kaba Aye detention centre, where they had been kept since the government crackdown on monk-led protests Sep 26-27.

By IANS, Beijing : At least 11 people were confirmed as dead and 50 injured in a hotel fire which occurred in China's Hubei province Sunday.

By IANS, Colombo : The Sri Lankan government has told parliament that it has no objection in implementing recommendations of a war commission appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

By IANS, Beijing: China has begun work of its manned space laboratory to be completed by 2020, a media report said Wednesday.

By IANS, Havana: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths in Cuba, claiming over 20,000 lives each year, an expert said here.

By Chris Cermak, DPA, Raleigh (US) : In a very personal and emotional appearance in North Carolina this week, Barack Obama for the first time completely dissociated himself from his former pastor, hoping to finally put an end to a controversy that nearly derailed his US presidential campaign. Less than two months ago in a broad speech on race relations in Philadelphia, Obama said that despite Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr's offensive remarks, he was "like family", and a man Obama could no more disown than he could the African-American community to which he belongs.

By Xinhua, Chongqing (China) : The toll in a landslide in southwest China last week has risen to nine after rescuers recovered two more bodies as search for 63 other missing people continues. Nine people were killed and eight others injured following the landslide last Friday. Officials with drilling machines and excavators continued their search for the missing people Monday. The landslide buried an iron ore plant and 12 houses in Tiekuang Township in Wulong County.

Kathmandu : Two senior United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) officials have arrived in Kathmandu to assess the aftermath of the devastating earthquake...

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By Xinhua, Beijing : More than 20 million Chinese or 68.6 percent of the country's Internet users, are using the web to get their main source of news, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)reported. CASS, a top academic institution, released the figure in the Blue Book of China's Economy (2009) report, Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

By IANS, Washington: A Chinese scientific research centre has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the US as maker of the swiftest machine, a media report said Thursday.

By Xinhua, Wellington : Tsunami signs will soon be going up as the New Zealand government has released a national design standard, Civil Defence Minister Rick Barker said on Monday Barker said on Monday that the signs would indicate tsunami evacuation zones, evacuation routes for vehicles and pedestrians, tsunami safe locations and information boards. "The national standard will mean that wherever people travel in the country the signs will look the same and mean the same things," the New Zealand Press Association quoted him as saying.

By Xinhua, Canberra : The Australian Green Party on Monday called on the government to put free trade negotiations with Japan on hold until the slaughter of whales in Antarctic waters is stopped. Green Party Senator Rachael Siewert urged the government to take stronger action, saying it was clear that diplomatic efforts had done nothing to prevent the slaughter of whales. Senator Siewert said the government must take stronger action and should refuse to progress a free trade agreement with Japan until it stops killing whales.

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 Arun Kumar, Washington: As exit polls suggested that the Narendra Mod- led Bharatiya Janata Party was set to win the Indian election, President Barack...

By IANS/RIA Novosti, Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed the bombings at the Boston marathon a "heinous crime".

By IANS

Auckland : A New Zealand Sikh association has told a parliamentary select committee it fears its community members could be targeted if changes are made to the country's aviation security legislation.