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DHAKA: A 22-year-old unmarried Bangladeshi woman who was caned 39 times for alleging a neighbour was the father of her son is fighting for her life in hospital, police said Tuesday.The case has shocked the impoverished Muslim-majority nation, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering the woman to be shifted from her village home to the capital for proper medical treatment.Local police chief Moshiur Rahman told that the woman, from Comilla, 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital Dhaka, had angered Islamic clerics, when she told friends that a neighbour had fathered her six-year-old son. They called her and the alleged father to appear before a makeshift Islamic court, but the man denied the paternity claim, Rahman said. "He held a Koran in one hand and swore to the village clerics that he was not the father of the boy. The village court found him not guilty," he said. "They also issued a fatwa that the woman should be caned 39 times for lying." The woman, seri...

KUWAIT CITY: King Abdullah of OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said in remarks published on Tuesday that a fair price for oil was between 75 and 80 dollars."We still believe that a fair price is 75 dollars and perhaps 80 dollars a barrel, especially now," the king said in an interview with Kuwaiti daily Assiyassa. King Abdullah -- whose country is the world's top oil exporter -- also said that prices, which have dropped sharply due to the global economic meltdown, would eventually stabilise at a higher range when the world economy recovers."The issue of fluctuating prices is governed by developments and conditions of the world markets. These (prices) are bound to stabilise at a higher price for oil in the future," he said.Oil prices were hovering around 60 dollars a barrel in Asian trade on Tuesday ahead of an OPEC meeting later this week and continued unrest in key oil exporter Nigeria. Oil fell from record peaks of more than 147 dollars in July to about 32 dollars...

TBILISI: Tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Tbilisi on Tuesday, Georgia's Independence Day, to demand the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.The opposition accuses Saakashvili of monopolising power since the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that swept him to power and of walking into a war against neighbouring Russia in August that Georgia had no chance of winning.Protesters waving white ribbons packed the 60,000-capacity national football stadium ahead of a planned march across the Mtkvari river to parliament, where opposition supporters in mock prison cells have blocked traffic since early April."This leadership has discredited itself," said 54-year-old Lamara Buadze. Former Saakashvili ally Nino Burjanadze told the rally: "I'm sure we will win. We will not take a single step back. All we demand is the president's resignation."Authorities called off a military parade planned for Tuesday to mark Georgian Independence Day --...

NEW YORK: Former heavyweight world champion Mike Tyson's four-year-old daughter died Tuesday, a day after she was injured in an accident at her home, Phoenix police said. "I was just advised by investigators that Exodus Tyson was pronounced deceased at 11:45 am today at the hospital," Phoenix police spokesman Andy Hill said in a statement. "Our sympathies go out to the family." Exodus Tyson had been on life support in hospital since Monday, when she was found with her neck caught in a cable of a treadmill exercise machine at her home.

SEOUL: North Korea warned Wednesday of a possible military response after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise, and said it is no longer bound by the 1953 armistice, which ended their war.A military statement quoted by official media also said the North could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping off its west coast. It repeated Pyongyang's position that Seoul's decision to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is tantamount to a declaration of war. "Any tiny hostile acts against our republic, including the stopping and searching of our peaceful vessels... will face an immediate and strong military strike in response," the statement said."Our military will no longer be bound by the armistice accord as the current US leadership... has drawn the puppets (South Korea) into the PSI," said the statement from the North's military representative at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

WASHINGTON: Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in the city here, where he would be meeting with the U.S. President, Barrack Obama on Thursday.U.S. officials received Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas on U.S. visit at Andrew Airbase.Mahmoud Abbas in his meeting with the U. S. President Barack Obama would discuss halting the new Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas and matters relating to setting peace in the Middle East. He would also be meeting other U.S. high officials and exchange views on matters of mutual interests.

NEW YORK: The UN General Assembly has postponed until late June the high-level gathering aimed at assessing the global economic crisis and seeking solutions, which take the interests of all nations into account.Originally scheduled to take place from June 1-3, the 'UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development' will now be held in New York from June 24-26.Delegates had voiced concern that they needed more time to negotiate the draft outcome document to be adopted at the gathering, according to spokesperson for Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto, who is also the summit's organiser.The President has appealed for negotiations on the draft outcome document to be wrapped up by June 15, underscoring at an Assembly session that the three-day meeting's success will hinge on "the active engagement of the political leadership of the Member States at the highest possible level." He further expressed confidence that "Membe...

MOGADISHU: Somali insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace in the capital, killing seven civilians and two government soldiers, witnesses and officials said Wednesday.Military spokesman Farhan Casoye said the insurgents were aiming for the palace but hit a residential area Tuesday night _ the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence this month that has killed nearly 200 people. Insurgents are trying to topple the country's Western-backed government and install a strict Islamic state. `The mortars rained down on our home, I ran with my children for cover and on my way I saw the dead bodies of two government soldiers in uniform, they were hit by a mortar,'' Sahra Abdullahi Gedi, a mother of six The military spokesman said seven civilians were killed.

NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-21 'Bison' plane crashed near Jodhpur on Wednesday but the pilot ejected safely. The warplane, which had taken off for a routine sortie in the forenoon from the Jodhpur airbase, crashed on a barren stretch land in Luni village in Mordijoshyan, near here, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Kaviraj said. There was no damage on the ground, he said.

KOLKATA: It's not just residents of Kolkata who bore the brunt of Cyclone Aila. Forest wardens fear that as the cyclone tore through the Sunderbans flooding the mangrove forests, it may have killed more than a dozen of the highly endangered Bengal tigers.As the human toll from Monday's cyclone rose to 64, beat officers and range officials in the Sunderbans feared hundreds of herbivores and at least a dozen tigers might have been swept away by the giant waves that lashed the forests. While a tiger had sneaked into the Jamespur village wading through the flood waters and was tranquillised early on Tuesday morning, 20 crocodiles and two spotted deer were found dead. The full extent of the damage will be known only after an assessment by forest teams. As per the last census, the Sunderbans had 265 tigers. Pintu Mirdha of Jamespur got the shock of his life when he spotted a male tiger crouching in his waterlogged cowshed. Mirdha managed to shut the cowshed door and informed the fore...

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Wednesday named former congressman Timothy Roemer to be the US ambassador to India, the White House said.

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Israel in unusually blunt terms Wednesday to completely halt settlements on land that Palestinians claim as part of a future state of their own.In remarks to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said President Barack Obama had made clear last week during talks at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that stopping settlements is a key part of moving toward a dealestablishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. ``He wants to see a stop to settlements _ not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions,'' Clinton said.``We think it is in the best interests of the peace process that settlement expansion cease,'' Clinton added.

KHOST: Afghan and US-led forces killed up to 34 Taliban fighters in an overnight ground and air attack on a militant gathering near the border with Pakistan, a government official said Thursday.The US military confirmed the operation in the eastern province of Paktika and said its initial figures were that 29 militants were killed.

DHAKA: The death toll from a cyclone that tore through southwestern Bangladesh and eastern India hit more than 200 on Thursday as villagers began returning to their homes to assess the damage, an official said. Cyclone Aila slammed into the coast of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal on Monday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless after a tidal surge washed away villages, roads and livestock. At least 131 people were killed and around 6,000 injured in Bangladesh, and 70 more died in India, officials told foreign media.Bangladesh government disaster control spokesman Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said the worst-hit areas were closest to the Indian border but deaths and damage occurred across 14 districts on the southern coast. Around 220,000 mud and bamboo houses were washed away while another 300,000 were damaged, he said.

WASHINGTON: A powerful earthquake of 7.1magnitude struck northeast of Roatan in Honduras early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake that hit 39 miles (64 km) northeast of Roatan, Islas de la Bahia, had a shallow depth of 6.2 miles (10 km). A tsunami watch was in effect for Honduras and Belize, Guatemala, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.