International

By Xinhua, Beijing : China's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have called for greater government assistance to help them tide over the current financial crisis and expressed fears that the credit crunch would hurt them the most. "The global financial crisis is set to affect the world economy, including the Chinese economy, and small and medium-size enterprises will bear the brunt," chief of the association of the SMEs, Li Zibin said.

By Prensa Latina, Lima : The Congress of Peru will object a US military base in its territory should an official request is submitted, said Parliament Chairman Javier Velasquez. The statement is owed to news of US search to relocate the base it is to close in Ecuador following orders by President Rafael Correa. "Peru has democratic relations with all the countries in the hemisphere but we defend our sovereignty," said Velasquez.

By IANS, Beijing : A charity programme initiated by a group of journalists through the internet has been providing free lunch to 15,000 children from needy families across China.

By IRNA London : The government's proposed changes to the immigration rules for highly skilled migrant workers are unfair and unlawful and should be remitted to parliament to be changed, the Joint Committee on Human Rights said Thursday. The all-party group of MPs and peers criticized planned amendments to the government's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) which contain retrospective changes to the rules that affect people who have already made the UK their main home.

By Parveen Chopra, IANS

New York : It was not a terrorist act but the explosion of an ageing steam pipe in mid-Manhattan generated fears of asbestos contamination and public ire about the "mid-life crisis" of infrastructure in much of the US.

One 57-year-old woman died of cardiac arrest as she was fleeing the area of the explosion Wednesday evening and 40 others, including three fire fighters and one police officer, were injured.

By RIA Novosti, Plesetsk (Russia) : Russia Sunday test-fired the Topol intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from its Plesetsk space centre in the northern part of the country. The missile was launched at 11.24 a.m. (0724 GMT) by Russia's Strategic Missile Force. The Topol (SS-25 Sickle) is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with approximately the same size and shape as the US Minuteman ICBM.

Toronto: An Indian-origin man in Canadas' Alberta province has been sentenced to life in prison for dragging his wife from a moving vehicle and...

By IANS/EFE, Bogota : Eight miners, who were trapped inside a gold mine in Segovia town in Colombia, have been rescued. The miners were found Saturday by rescue teams and were in good condition despite a lack of fresh air, John Fredy Rendon Roldan, director of Colombia's Antioquia Provincial Disaster Response Department, said Sunday. The miners were trapped when an electric transformer exploded Friday at the mine. At least 32 people were working at the mine at the time of the blast, of whom 24 were rescued by emergency workers.

By DPA, Sydney : Police swooped on a suspected Islamic terrorist cell Tuesday in Melbourne to forestall a possible suicide attack on an Australian Army barracks, authorities said. More than 400 police raided 19 homes and picked up people from the country's 16,000-member Somali refugee community in the biggest anti-terrorism operation in three years. "We believe these men were affiliated with a group called al-Shabaab in Somalia," acting Federal Police Chief Commissioner Tony Negus said.

By DPA, Washington : US President Barack Obama arrived in Louisiana Friday to tour what has become the worst-ever US oil disaster, as energy company BP's critical top-kill operation to cap the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico entered its third day. Obama's visit - his second to the region since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion - comes amid growing local anger and frustration over the government's response to the disaster and BP's inability to cap the oil well.

By Sudeshna Sarkar,IANS, Kathmandu : Under growing fire from journalists' organisations in Nepal and the international community for the brutal murder of a woman reporter in the turbulent southern plains, Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda Thursday called off his controversial foreign junket scheduled this week.

By IANS, Washington : The discovery of a parrot fossil in Scandinavia dating back some 55 million years, indicates that they were once common in colder climes like Norway and Denmark. Parrots today live only in the tropics and the southern hemisphere, but this new research suggests that they first evolved in the north, much earlier than had been suspected.

By Xinhua, Siem Reap, Cambodia : Cambodia and Thailand said that they were committed to a peaceful solution to the nearly two-week bilateral military standoff in the border area near the Preah Vihear Temple, after foreign ministers of the two countries ended their one-day meeting here on Monday evening without any resolution.

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : As a breach in a river barrage turned over 50,000 people homeless in southern Nepal and threatened thousands more in neighbouring India, the Indian government rejected allegations that its negligence had caused the disaster, putting the blame squarely back on Nepal.

By DPA, Madrid : Spanish police have detained 32 Chinese in their biggest swoop against music and movie piracy so far, press reports said Thursday. Most of the detainees were undocumented immigrants working in slave-like conditions in four clandestine production centres in the Madrid region. The factories, which ran day and night, were capable of copying 150,000 CDs or DVDs daily. That number of copies fetched 600,000 euros ($923,000) on the market. Police seized 300,000 copies and half a million virgin discs.

By Xinhua, Yangon : Myanmar designated on Monday three days of mourning for cyclone disaster starting from Tuesday to Thursday, according to an announcement of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) aired by the state radio in the evening. The announcement, signed by First Secretary of the SPDC Lieutenant-General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, sets the mourning activities to start on Tuesday at 9 a.m. (local time) with the state flag to fly half-mast.

By IANS, Rabat: Canadian aircraft builder Bombardier will start a manufacturing unit in Morocco with a $200 million investment next year, the Moroccan trade minister said.

By ANTARA News, Washington : A US B-52 bomber crashed Monday near Guam, killing two members of a crew who were about to participate in a ceremony celebrating the island's independence, the Air Force said. The Stratofortress bomber was operating out of Andersen Air Force and went missing about 50 kilometres off Guam's north-west coast, a statement issued by the base was quoted by DPA as saying. Search efforts were continuing for the other four crew members. The plane was not carrying weapons. B-52s have been in service since 1955.

By IANS, Tegucigalpa (Honduras) : A Honduras court has convicted 22 security officials for their alleged involvement in a jail massacre, which killed 68 people, Spain's EFE news agency reported Thursday. The massacre took place at the El Porvenir prison farm in the eastern part of the country in April 2003 following a clash among inmates. Among the 34 accused, 20 were police officers, who were joined in the dock by a soldier, a retired cop, prison guards and inmates. The court acquitted 12 accused for want of evidence.

By IANS, Villavicencio (Colombia) : Leftist rebel guerrillas in Colombia have released a former provincial governor they had held hostage for more than seven years, EFE news agency reported Wednesday. Alan Jara, former governor of the central Colombian province of Meta, was brought to Villavicencio, a city near capital Bogota, in a Brazilian helicopter Tuesday hours after Yves Heller, spokesman of Red Cross Colombia, announced Jara's release.

By Fakir Hassen,IANS, Johannesburg : Indian origin Pravin Gordhan, who has won international acclaim for transforming South Africa's revenue services, is likely to be inducted as the new finance minister in President-elect Jacob Zuma's government. The Afrikaans weekly Rapport quoted highly-placed sources within the re-elected African National Congress (ANC) government as saying that Zuma is set to appoint Gordhan as the new minister of finance.

By DPA, Beijing : More traffic and shoppers returned to the streets of China's riot-hit city of Urumqi Thursday as thousands of paramilitary police patrolled. Markets and car parks were busier than Wednesday as the government appealed for calm and stressed after ethnic-related violence there that life in Urumqi was "returning to normal". China State Television broadcast footage of scores of people walking around major shopping areas Thursday morning in the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang but avoided showing the police and troops on the streets.

By IANS, Paris : Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Cuban government to release 23 imprisoned journalists in response to the lifting of European Union (EU)'s diplomatic sanction on the island country, EFE reported Thursday.

By IANS,

By DPA, San Francisco : Microsoft is to pay comedian Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to star in a $300-million advertising campaign for its Windows Vista operating system. The campaign, which is one of the largest ever undertaken by the software giant, is aimed at establishing a cachet for the computer operating system and will feature Seinfeld along with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. The theme of the campaign will be "Windows not Walls," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday and will focus on "breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting".

New York: Real-time social media like Twitter could be used to track HIV incidence and drug-related behaviours with the aim of detecting and potentially...

By DPA, New York, Jan 16 (DPA) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit Haiti Sunday to show his solidarity with the earthquake-ravaged Haitian people and United Nations staff. The UN office announced Friday that Ban will use the opportunity to assess the destruction and international efforts to assist the Caribbean nation, which was devastated by Tuesday's magnitude-7 earthquake. The death toll is expected to be in tens of thousands.

London: India will never tolerate intolerance as it is the land of Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on...

Manila (DPA) : The Philippine government has offered a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of a Marine captain and other suspects involved in a failed attempt to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, officials said Sunday. Captain Nicanor Faeldon was one of dozens of renegade soldiers who took over the Peninsula Hotel in Manila's financial district of Makati City Nov 29 in a bid to overthrow Arroyo. The standoff ended in just seven hours, with government troops storming the hotel and arresting the rebel soldiers and their civilian supporters.

By Xinhua

Vienna : A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will inspect the site of a heavy-water nuclear reactor in Arak, Iran early next week, the UN nuclear watchdog has said.

The announcement was made after Olli Heinonen, deputy director general of the IAEA, held talks with Iran's deputy national security chief Javad Vaeidi here Tuesday.

The talks aimed at working out a plan "on clarifying the open issues associated with the scope and content of Iran's (uranium) enrichment programme".

By IANS, New York : Indian American community leaders and businessmen have applauded President George W. Bush for signing a historic law on the India-US civil nuclear deal Wednesday that will help India meet its energy demands while giving the US access to a growing market for nuclear technology and material. Indian Americans constituted more than half of the 250 prominent people present at the White House reception that followed the bill signing by the president.

By IRNA, London : Police chiefs are calling on Home Secretary, Theresa May to ban the latest anti-Muslim march by the far right English Defence League (EDL) that is due to take place in Bradford, northern England, later this month. West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison said police would be backing a campaign to ban the march on August 28 because of the "understandable concerns of the community" in the city, which has the second highest ethnic-minority population in the UK.

By DPA, Washington : The US Central Intelligence Agency has videotapes made at a secret prison in Morocco showing the interrogation of a conspirator in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, CNN reported Tuesday. The tapes were reportedly found three years ago under a desk at the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and may offer insights into the controversial role that some foreign countries played during former president George W Bush's war against terrorism.

By Bernama, Moscow : A 6.9- magnitude earthquake jolted the region of the Sea of Okhotsk in southeast Russia on Saturday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The tremor occurred at 06:13 Moscow time (0213 GMT), the Kamchatka office of the geophysics service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said. According to seismologists, the epicenter was at a depth of about 600 km under the seabed, 400 km west of the Kamchatka territorial center.

By Joydeep Gupta, IANS, Copenhagen: The Copenhagen climate summit was adjourned on its scheduled final night as a host of countries attacked the accord that India had prepared with four other nations. In the early hours of Saturday, Tuvalu, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua led the attack on the accord, calling it undemocratic because it had been prepared by India in consultation with the US, China, Brazil and South Africa.

Kiev: Pro-Russia militants took over a police headquarters in Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, BBC reported Saturday citing local media and witnesses. This followed a gun...

By DPA, Washington : The US Friday unveiled part of a massive, comprehensive plan to help resolve the US financial crisis and prevent a rush of new bank failures in the coming weeks. The US Treasury announced a $50 billion guarantee programme for the money-market mutual fund industry, the first in a series of moves that could come Friday after overnight talks with congressional leaders. The US media reported the entire rescue package could cost as much as $500 billion.

By RIA Novosti, Tbilisi : The son of Georgia's first post-Soviet president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia in September, has been released on bail, Georgia's Imedi television company said on Tuesday. Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested at Tbilisi Airport on September 3 and charged with spying for Russia, an attempted coup, and grievous bodily harm. He had earlier been on hunger strike in protest against his arrest.

By Xinhua, Amman : Energy-thirsty Jordan on Sunday discussed with French nuclear giant Areva plans to join hands to build a nuclear plant in the kingdom. Talks between Jordan's Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and visiting Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon covered a timetable for the project, Areva's key role in helping Jordan raise sufficient funds for construction, and operation of the nuclear power facility.

By Murali Krishnan, IANS, Thimpu : Having relished their country's isolation for years, not many Bhutanese are sure if the historic poll held in March, which transformed their quaint Himalayan nation from a kingdom to a democracy, is going to make a qualitative change in their lives. The century-old rule by the hugely popular Wangchuk dynasty ended as the world's newest democracy, nestled spectacularly in the Himalayas between giant neighbours India and China, elected 47 members to the national assembly.

By DPA, Washington : The US Senate Saturday approved the Obama administration's record $626 billion defence spending bill for the current fiscal. The vote was 88 to 10. With the House of Representatives having already approved the bill, all that remains is President Barack Obama's signature for it to take effect for the fiscal year that began Oct 1. The bill foresees spending of $128.3 billion for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka Thursday made it obligatory for civilians from the war-ravaged northern districts and living in capital Colombo and its suburbs for the past five years, to register themselves with the police, a police spokesman here said.

By IANS, San Jose : A powerful earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked northern Costa Rica Thursday, but there were no reports of any casualty, EFE news agency reported Friday. The epicentre of the quake was near Poas volcano in Alajuela province, about 60 km northwest of San Jose, said Juan Segura, the head of Costa Rica's Ovisicori Seismology Institute. The quake struck at around 1:19 p.m. and was felt throughout the country, Segura said and added that the tremor was followed by a number of aftershocks which will continue "for up to months".

By KUNA Tokyo : Construction of the oil pipeline from Myanmar to southwest China's Yunnan Province is still under discussion, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported Monday, citing a top provincial official. The long-awaited pipeline is expected to provide an alternative route for China's crude imports from the Middle East and Africa and ease the country's worries of its over-dependence on energy transportation through the Strait of Malacca.

By ANTARA News/AFP Narathiwat, Thailand : Suspected separatist rebels have shot dead three Muslim men in separate attacks across the insurgency-hit south of Thailand, police said Sunday. Two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot dead a 28-year-old villager in front of his house in Narathiwat province late on Saturday. Hours later in nearby Yala province, the son of a local politician was killed by gunmen, while a third Muslim was shot dead elsewhere in the same province as he returned home from the local mosque, police reported.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : Citigroup's Indian American CEO Vikram Pandit says the troubled banking giant is today "fundamentally different" and far healthier than when he took over thanks to an over $45 billion government bailout. "I am pleased to say we are in a far different and much healthier position," Pandit said in testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel Thursday. The independent watchdog group oversees the $700 billion financial bailout. The bank had returned to being a bank, not "a financial supermarket", he said.

By Prensa Latina Bangkok : Insurgency in the convulsive southern province of Narathiwat attacked an army patrol on Monday, killing eight, the ANT Thai news agency said. The rebels detonated an explosive device and opened fire on a government unit on the road to Rudop village, in Chanae district, ANT reported. The soldiers were patrolling the area when a 20 man contingent detonated the bomb with its vehicle. Over 2600 people in that Thai southern region have died violent deaths since the separatist movement resumed the armed struggle on January 2004.

By TCN News, Washington DC: Indian Muslims in America have expressed “profound sadness” on passing away yesterday of the very courageous human rights...

By P. Karunakharan,IANS, Vavuniya (Sri Lanka) : Having lost his father to long-range fire, 23-year-old Aruldasan and a group of 40 other war-displaced people recently succeeded in escaping from Mullaitivu after 20 gruelling days. He was working for an international aid agency when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forced him to undergo 10 days of "civil defence training", which was compulsory for everybody in the age group between 18 and 60 in the Tiger-held territory.

By Lalit K Jha, IANS, New York : The Indian American community has launched a petition campaign all over the country urging the US to support a resolution in the UN Security Council that would permit strikes against terrorists camps inside Pakistan. Thousands of people have signed this petition, which is being kept outside for signatures, at the scores of condolence meetings and candle light vigil in memory of the victims of Mumbai terrorist attacks, being held across the US in the past week.

By DPA, Harare : President Robert Mugabe's government has suspended the operations of CARE International, the United States-based relief organization, alleging involvement in "political activity," the organization said in a statement Wednesday. The government's action has affected aid delivery to 500,000 people, CARE said. The organization's 300 Zimbabwean employees were "currently at home, pending further notice from the government." The statement said that last year in the "lean period" between crop harvests, 920,000 Zimbabweans were fed by CARE.

By Xinhua, Moscow : Russian President Vladimir Putin told Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at talks near Moscow on Saturday that he is satisfied with the level of political contacts between Russia and Japan. "We are maintaining permanent contacts on the political level. Ministers and prime ministers hold meetings. The president takes part in activities, aimed at promoting the development of our relations," Putin said. Meanwhile, the outgoing president believed that there are ways to resolve the existing problems between the two sides, despite some difficulties.

By RIA Novosti, Beijing : At least seven people were killed Friday and another seven injured in a coal mine gas blast in southern China, the Xinhua news agency reported. The agency quoted a local safety official as saying that the accident happened in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Friday morning when around 100 miners were underground. Eighty-four people have been safely brought to the surface.

By Richa Sharma, IANS,

By DPA, Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said Tuesday that the authorities are certain they found the remains of the missing Air France passenger plane around midday in the Atlantic Ocean. A Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane found a "set of fragments" spread over a five-kilometre radius some 640 km off the island Fernando de Noronha, Jobim said. Jobim noted that the objects found were metal pieces and wires, apparently part of the structure of the missing plane.

By DPA Guatemala City : Four Belgian tourists who had been taken hostage in Guatemala have been released, officials said Sunday. A group of farmers and hired rural workers seized the tourists and three Guatemalans Friday to demand the release of one of their leaders who has been jailed for the illegal taking of land, a local radio broadcast reported. The released tourists - two couples from Flanders ranging in age from 59 to 62 - were transported to the Belgian embassy in Costa Rica following a medical examination, said Sergio Morales, the Guatemalan state attorney for human rights.

By RIA Novosti, Washington : The space shuttle Endeavour has docked with the International Space Station at the start of a home-improvement mission due to last almost two weeks, NASA's Mission Control said. The shuttle linked up with the orbiter at 22:01 GMT on Sunday, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters said.

By IANS/EFE, Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer said Tuesday it reached a deal to sell 40 E175 passenger jets to US airline SkyWest for nearly $1.7 billion.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

New York: App ads on Twitter may soon have the option to be video-based, the microblogging site has announced. In a blog post celebrating one...

By IANS, Beijing: Half of China's urban residents say they prefer buying luxury items online and the major factor for drawing people to internet retailing is favourable prices over franchised stores. The 2009 China Luxury Forecast also said about 78 percent of respondents in a survey said they would continue to maintain consumption of luxury goods in the next 12 months, China Daily reported. Over 1,100 people with an average annual income of 250,000 yuan ($36,890) took part in the survey.

By DPA, Singapore : The top reason why employees in Asia quit is unhappiness with their pay, a study by a human resources firm said Saturday. It found 70 percent of the best employers see a large connection between improved performance and higher salaries. While Asian employers have "increased investment" in compensation, they are not yet getting the "strategic and financial results", The Business Times quoted Hewitt Associates principal Nishchae Suri as saying.

By IANS,

By DPA,

By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS, Kathmandu : With just a fortnight left for the ouster of Nepal's King Gyanendra, the army that had once been allowed to perpetrate gross human rights violations in the name of combating the Maoist insurgency is now facing a backlash with its past crimes catching up with it.

Seoul : North Korea has formally asked the UN to revoke its resolution on human rights in the country, arguing that it is based...

By IANS, Washington : Researchers have discovered a new species of fish, a grouper that grows to more than six feet and weighs almost 500 kg. These Atlantic goliaths are not the same groupers that swim in Pacific waters, though they look identical. "For more than a century, ichthyologists have thought that Pacific and Atlantic goliath grouper were the same species, and the argument was settled before the widespread use of genetic techniques.

By IANS,

By DPA, Nairobi : On a beach in Bosaso, northeast Somalia, near the tip of the Horn of Africa, dozens of Somali and Ethiopian refugees perch on rocks or squat in the sand, peering across the Gulf of Aden to the promised land. They are waiting for boats to carry them to Yemen and away from a life of miserable poverty, persecution and a war in Somalia that is threatening to spiral even further out of control. Yet none of the desperate refugees, who cram into boats run by unscrupulous smugglers, can be sure that they are going to survive the journey.

By DPA Kathmandu : Nepalese police Tuesday arrested over 100 Tibetan demonstrating in front of China's embassy's visa office in the capital Kathmandu amid growing concerns by the United Nations over the detentions. Tuesday's demonstrations were the first by Tibetan exiles in Nepal targeting the Chinese embassy since the start of their campaign against Chinese rule in their homeland nearly two weeks ago. Police said they detained the demonstrators after they refused to move away from the Chinese visa office.