ONE NEWS

BEIJING: Oscar darling ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has landed a coveted spot on China's list of 20 foreign films allowed to be screened in its theatres.Danny Boyle, who captured the director's Academy Award for the film, which also won the best-picture Oscar this year, is attending the movie's premiere in Beijing.It's hard for many Hollywood movies to break into the Chinese market because of the quota and also the rigid censorship process; Chinese authorities often reject films that may contain negative portrayals of China, its people, scenes of violence, or sensitive topics such as Tibet."The movie will be available at cinemas nationwide," Zhang Xiaosong, an official with the China Film Group Corporation (CFGC), told reporters.Slumdog Millionaire will be shown in some 2,000 cinemas across China. The story of an orphan from the slums of Mumbai who rises to become a game-show winner won eight Oscars.The British film, made on a modest budget of $15 million US, has alr...

WASHINGTON: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook northern Peru Thursday, the US Geological Survey said.The quake hit at 12:35 pm (1735 GMT) 95 kilometers (59 miles) west, southwest of city of Piura. The epicenter was only one kilometer (0.6 mile) below the surface, the agency said.

ISLAMABAD: The World Economic Forum has issued the global information technology report for 2009 according to which Pakistan has been placed at the 98th position in the world.In Islamabad, the Competitiveness Support Fund has issued this report which is the eighth report from the World Economic Forum.Details of 134 countries have been mentioned in this report and Pakistan stands at the 98th among these countries.Earlier, Pakistan was ranked 89th among 127 countries and thus its ranking improved by nine places.

JERUSALEM: Israel has carried out several successful test launches over the past two days of missiles to stop short- and medium-range rockets, a television reported on Thursday.The missiles managed to locate, track and intercept the rockets in flight, whether fired singly or simultaneously, it reported.Channel Ten said the missiles, which can destroy rockets with a range of up to 70 kilometres (43 miles), will become operational in 2010 when the first batch is delivered to the Israeli air force.The missile system, named Iron Dome, was the target this month of a scathing report by Israel's state comptroller, who accused the defence establishment of wasting time and money on the proposed rocket protection shield.

BRUSSELS: Iran and NATO have held their first talks since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago, officials at the military alliance said Thursday, in a new sign of a thaw in Tehran's ties with the West.At allied headquarters in Brussels last week, an Iranian diplomat and a senior NATO official had an "informal contact" focused on Iran's neighbour Afghanistan, where the alliance is battling a stiff Taliban-led insurgency."The diplomat met with Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Martin Erdmann," chief NATO spokesman James Appathurai said."It was a first informal contact about the subject of Afghanistan," he said, adding: "We have not yet programmed a second meeting."A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the talks, said the visit by the diplomat, who was not identified, was the first "since the regime of the Shah" of Iran, which collapsed in 1979.He noted ...

WASHINGTON: The United States will set benchmarks to judge the performance of itself and its allies in a new strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan that President Barack Obama will announce Friday, a senior US official said.

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden and the core Al-Qaeda leadership are plotting new attacks against the United States and its allies from safe havens in Pakistan, a senior US official warned Thursday.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will Friday announce a new strategy to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al-Qaeda in its safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior US official said.

KABUL: U.S. forces say international and Afghan troops have killed 11 militants in a firefight in southern Afghanistan.A military statement says the fighting broke out during a Thursday night raid on a key Taliban insurgent in Helmand province. The statement says the forces came under fire from militants inside the targeted compound and returned fire. The statement says one insurgent was captured and 11 were killed. No civilian casualties were reported.The U.S. is sending 17,000 additional troops to southern Afghanistan to stamp out the resurgent Taliban who have de facto control of the region. Senior U.S. officials say President BarackObama plans to deploy 4,000 trainers to build up Afghan forces as part of a new strategy to be announced Friday.

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan's former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is pursuing a strategy to reclaim power, the top U.S. intelligence official said , identifying a key administration concern as the White House prepared to unveil a new plan to step up combat operations and stabilization efforts.U.S. spy agencies lack a detailed understanding of the regional dynamics across much of Afghanistan, said Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence."We know a heck of a lot more about Iraq on a very granular basis than we do in Afghanistan," Blair said, describing an intelligence imbalance that could hamper the Obama administration's efforts as it shifts troops from one War Theater to the other. Omar is believed to be based in the Pakistan city of Quetta.

NEW DELHI: A government ally in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu will forge a new regional alliance in a blow to the ruling Congress party's attempts to secure a national coalition, weeks before the general election.The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) party said it would join Congress opponent the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The main national vote battle is between a coalition led by Congress -- the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) -- and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an alliance led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The United Progressive Alliance put together by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2004 unravelled with the exit of the PMK on Thursday. The formal announcement sent shockwaves through the Congress. This could be a sign that in Tamil Nadu, which proved to be a decisive swing state in the 2004 elections, the ground is shifting from under Congress' feet.

JAKARTA: A dam that burst its walls near Indonesia's capital Jakarta early Friday has killed at least 50 people and left hundreds of homes underwater, a health ministry official said.

WASHINGTON: U.S. Navy ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles are being moved to the Sea of Japan, a Navy spokesman said.The USS Chaffee is one of two destroyers headed to South Korea for an upcoming ceremony. The move came as North Korea was preparing for an expected rocket launch next month.Later Thursday, Japan announced it was ready to fire on the rocket, if any part of it enters Japanese airspace.

NEW DELHI: Terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is planning to sneak in its trained cadres through the `fenced border' in Rajasthan and Punjab — the stretch which is generally considered safe -- to carry out "some action" during forthcoming general elections. According to Indian newspaper ‘Times of India’, a senior home ministry official said, "The LeT, which lost 17 of its cadre in an encounter with Army in Hafruda forest area of Kupwara district in J&K in the past few days, may try to push in its men through the fenced border — the way it did in Kanachak in Jammu sector last year. Their plan is to send small batch of jihadis for quick action in Rajasthan and Punjab." The heightened vigil on the western border, in the wake of recent inputs will, however, not affect the BSF's current level of deployment along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

BANGKOK: Former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra addressed by telephone tens of thousands of his devout red-clad followers surrounding the prime minister's offices on Thursday. Thaksin thanked the estimated 35,000-strong crowd which has besieged Government House in Bangkok for their support as they step up efforts to topple the three-month-old government of premier Abhisit Vejjajiva. Ousted in a coup in 2006, Thaksin is currently living in exile to avoid a two-year jail sentence for corruption. He said he could not speak for longer as he was currently travelling between countries, without saying which ones. Around 6,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 police were guarding Government House while authorities had placed barbed wire atop the fences of the building, officials said. The protest was one of the biggest of several held by Thaksin loyalists since Abhisit came to power in December following the controversial dissolution of the previous, pro-Thaksin government by a court.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan asked the United States Friday to reconsider missile strikes on its territory. "It is important that the US administration factors this in regarding its operational policy," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement. "Pakistan's concerns in this regard have been conveyed to the US government at the highest level." Basit reiterated the government's position that "drone attacks on our territory are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and definitely counter-productive."

JAMRUD: A blast has been occurred in a mosque adjacent to Bhegari checkpost in tehsil Jamrud of Khyber Agency on Friday. Causalities feared in incident.According to eyewitnesses, five injured have been shifted to hospital whereas sources said three people have been killed and 10 injured in the blast. However, deaths could not be confirmed.

JAMRUD: A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people when he blew himself up in a crowded mosque near a security check post in Jamrud town of Khyber Agency on Friday.The attack came hours before U.S. President Barack Obama was scheduled to announce a new strategy for the Afghan war, an approach U.S. officials said would also recognise Pakistan as a key part of the conflict.Police, paramilitary forces and government officials were among the congregation in the mosque, about 30 km (20 miles) from the Afghan border. The bomber set off his explosives as a cleric began prayers."So far we have counted 50 bodies," Tariq Hayat Khan, the top administrator in the Khyber region, told Geo news, adding the toll could rise.Between 250 and 300 people were in the mosque and about 125 wounded had been taken to Sherpao, Lady Reading and other hospitals in Peshawar, he said."It was a suicide attack. The bomber was standing in the mosque. It's a two-storey building and it has collapsed,...