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GAZA CITY: An Israeli airstrike on a smuggling tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt killed three Palestinians inside and wounded seven on Tuesday in the deadliest Israeli attack on the volatile border area in months, a Palestinian Health Ministry official said.The Israeli military said the air force struck in retaliation for a mortar attack from Gaza Monday into southern Israel that lightly wounded an Israeli soldier. The Israeli government has pledged a military response to every attack.Fighting between Israel and Gaza militants has largely subsided since a fierce Israeli offensive in January, but Israel and Egypt have maintained a tight economic blockade of the coastal area to maintain pressure on the militant Hamas government.In Gaza, the men killed and wounded were all smugglers caught in a tunnel during the pre-dawn Israeli strike, said Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 RAMALLAH: An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.Salam Fayyad's 65-page program proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors in a Palestinian state, which he says could be made ready by 2011.The program appeared to be a wish-list rather than a detailed blueprint. Peace talks with Israel, in which Palestinians seek a state on Israeli-occupied land, have been suspended since December."We need continued support by the international community," Fayyad told reporters after introducing the document."We are going to seek this additional funding," he said without disclosing figures. "Even after the state is established ... we will continue to need external financial support at least for development and public investment spending."The Palestinian Authority is heav...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 WASHINGTON: Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, global cancer experts said in a report issued on Tuesday.The new Tobacco Atlas from the World Lung Foundation and the American Cancer Society estimates that tobacco use costs the global economy $500 billion (306 million pounds) a year in direct medical expenses, lost productivity and environmental harm."Tobacco's total economic costs reduce national wealth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 3.6 percent," the report reads."Tobacco accounts for one out of every 10 deaths worldwide and will claim 5.5 million lives this year alone," the report said. If current trends hold, by 2020, the number will grow to an estimated 7 million and top 8 million by 2030.Last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on launched a tobacco centre to oversee cigarettes and other related products, after winning the...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 KABUL: President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah both have roughly 40 percent of the nationwide vote for president with 10 percent of ballots counted, the country's election commission said Tuesday.The commission said Karzai has 40.6 percent and Abdullah has 38.7 percent in the country's first official returns since the nation voted for president last Thursday.The early returns are based on only 10 percent of the country's ballots. The commission plans to release partial results each day the next several days. Final, certified results won't be made public until mid or late September.The commission said it had based the count on 524,000 valid votes after throwing out about 31,000. Less than 2 percent of Kandahar votes have been counted, and no votes in Helmand have been counted, the commission said. Karzai would expect to do well in both provinces, suggesting his returns could go higher.If neither Karzai or Abdullah gets more...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 JERUSALEM: A Palestinian was wounded by Israeli gunfire late on Tuesday after he breached a security fence separating the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state, a military spokesman said. "According to latest information, a Palestinian was injured by fire from our soldiers after he crossed the security fence near the Nahal Oz fuel terminal," said the spokesman.Soldiers "fired warning shots which were ignored, whereafter they aimed and wounded" the Palestinian. "The man, who was apparently lightly wounded in a leg, was moved to an Israeli hospital," he added. Early on Tuesday, three Palestinian brothers were killed and nine other people wounded when Israel bombed smuggling tunnels between the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Egypt, medics said. The Israeli military said it launched the raid in response to mortar fire from the Palestinian territory late on Monday that wounded one soldier.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 KANDAHAR: A massive bomb ripped through the downtown area of the troubled Afghan city of Kandahar Tuesday, killing up to 40 people and wounding dozens near hotels and government offices, officials said. The truck bomb ripped through 10 residential buildings, trapping casualties under the rubble as rescue workers frantically tried to dig them out of the debris under the cover of darkness, officials said. "So far we have 36 killed and 64 wounded and they are all civilians," said General Ghulam Ali Wahdad, police commander for southern Afghanistan, adding that it was impossible to give a breakdown on the identity of the victims. "Police are still busy trying to find bodies from under the rubble," Wahdad said by telephone. The deaths of 36 people would make it the deadliest explosion in Afghanistan since a suicide car bomber killed more than 60 people, including two senior diplomats, in an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008. ...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 KANDAHAR: The death toll from a massive explosion in Afghanistan's southern city of Kanadahar late Tuesday has risen to 36 with another 64 people wounded, a top police official said. "So far we have 36 killed and 64 wounded and they are all civilians," said General Ghulam Ali Wahdad, police commander for southern Afghanistan. "At this stage we cannot break down the casualties in terms of how many women, children and men. Police are still busy trying to find bodies from under the rubble," he added. The interior ministry in Kabul said that dozens of people were killed and wounded when explosives ripped through a vehicle. A spokesman put the death toll at more than 10 and the number of wounded at more than 50. A local police official earlier put the death toll at 10 following what one police official called a suicide car bomb.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 KANDAHAR: Eight people were killed and 13 others wounded when an explosion ripped through Afghanistan's troubled city of Kandahar, a hospital doctor said. "We have received eight dead bodies and 13 wounded from the blast this evening and they all seem to be civilians," Doctor Asmatullah, who like many Afghans has only one name, said at the main hospital in the city. A senior police official said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomb.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 MUMBAI: Shahid Kapoor's latest release Kaminey has run into trouble with a religious group filing an FIR against the makers of the film for allegedly denigrating Lord Jagannath in the film.Jagannath Sena Sangathan has filed an FIR against production house UTV Motion Pictures Ltd and director Vishal Bhardwaj at a police station in Puri for showing Lord Jagannath in a poor light in their latest film Kaminey starring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.The Sangathan staged a protest in Puri and submitted a memorandum before the state governor through the district collector. The police said that a case has been lodged against the makers of Kaminey following the allegation that some scenes in the film have hurt the sentiments of Jagannath devotees. It added that investigation on the matter is on.The devotees of Lord Jagannath are not happy with a scene in the film where it has been written Apna Hath Jagannath in the toilet with a semi-clad model under the writing...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 KABUL: Incumbent Hamid Karzai narrowly led the race for the Afghan presidency with just two percent more votes than his closest rival, the election commission announced Tuesday in the first partial results. The partial results amount to about 10 percent of the total ballots cast in Afghanistan's only second direct presidential election, which was held last Thursday and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud. "From the total 524,444 valid votes, Hamid Karzai has got 212,927 and Abdullah Abdullah has 202,889 votes," a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission (IEC) told a news conference. Those results handed Karzai 40.6 percent of the initial votes announced and Abdullah 38.6 percent. Ramazan Bashardost, a popular Afghan lawmaker who camps out in a tent near parliament and campaigned against corruption, got 53,740 votes and former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani 15,143 votes, the commission announced. "I repeat again, this...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: Commanders have introduced the $117m initiative to help troops handle their stress before it becomes debilitating and leads to mental illness. From October 1 all active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers will be required to take a “resiliency” test to assess their emotional, spiritual and physical state.“How often do you feel that you lack friendship?” and “How often do you feel left out?” are among the 170 questions. Answers will remain confidential, but soldiers will be asked to choose a resiliency training programme based on their individual results. The army wants to train 1,500 sergeants by next summer to teach weekly 90-minute anger management classes designed to reduce stress and help troops avoid depression and suicidal thoughts. Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, who is overseeing the programme, said: "This was developed because we recognised that we did really did not have a good preventive and strengthening model for psychologi...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 LONDON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a European tour aimed at placating critics with talks in London Tuesday, as efforts gathered pace to revive Middle East peace talks. The hawkish premier, who has upset Britain over Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, was here for his first talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown since taking power nearly five months ago. The talks at 10 Downing Street come ahead of a summit on Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government is traditionally one of Israel's closest allies in Europe. As well as debating the prospects of peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu will discuss international efforts to halt arch-foe Iran's nuclear drive. The United States has threatened new sanctions if Tehran fails to return to the negotiating table. The visit to London offers Netanyahu a chance to patch up relations with Brown's government, which recently said it wa...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 SANTA BARBARA: A small airplane made an emergency landing into oncoming traffic on a coastal freeway and collided with three vehicles, but no one was injured, authorities said.The Piper PA-24 Comanche with a pilot and his wife aboard was bound for Santa Barbara Airport when the pilot told air traffic controllers he had no fuel remaining and landed at about 10:30 a.m. on the southbound side of U.S. Highway 101, about one mile northeast of the airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.The pilot, Kris Sean Michel, told investigators he had tried to land with the flow of traffic but could not control the plane and came down amid oncoming traffic, the California Highway Patrol said in news release.The plane's tail hit a Chevrolet Suburban while it was still in the air, hit a Honda Accord just after landing, then was struck by a Volkswagen after it had come to rest, the CHP said.A total of nine people were involved in the accident but non...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 GAZA: Palestinian medical sources in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip reported on Monday at night that a Palestinian resident was killed and a 15-year old child was seriously wounded by Israeli military fired in Al Atatra area near Beit Lahia.The sources stated that Sa’id Ata Al Hasoumy bled to death as the army barred Palestinian ambulances from reaching him. The sources added that a 15-year old child was seriously injured in the same attack and was moved to a local hospital later on. The army admitted that it remains unclear whether the slain Palestinian was armed, but said that “the area where he was seen is a closed military zone. Palestinian resistance in Gaza retaliated by firing two homemade shells at Ashkelon. Israeli military sources reported that one soldier was mildly wounded when a shell fragmentation hit him in the head. The shell landed and detonated near the so-called Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The soldier was moved to Barzi...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: Swine flu could infect as much as half of the US population this fall and winter and cause up to 90,000 deaths, President Barack Obama's science advisors warned Monday.Laying out a "plausible scenario" for the epidemic's impact in the United States, the report painted a grim picture of stress on the US health care system as it struggles to cope with a flood of flu patients. The epidemic's resurgence could "produce infection of 30-50 percent of the US population this fall and winter, with symptoms in approximately 20-40 percent of the population (60-120 million people), more than half of whom would seek medical attention," the report said.As many as 1.8 million people could be admitted to hospitals with up to 300,000 of them requiring treatment in intensive care units. "Importantly, these very ill patients could occupy 50-100 percent of all ICU beds in affected regions of the country at the peak of the epidemic an...

Monday, August 24, 2009 LONDON: Chelsea claimed their third successive victory in the English Premier Football League defeating Fulham 2-0 here on Sunday. Carlo Ancelotti cut a contented figure at Craven Cottage after his side cruised home against their west London rivals rivals thanks to goals in either half from Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.The triumph put Chelsea into second place in the English Premier League table behind Tottenham, but of more significance to Ancelotti will have been the nonchalant manner of the performance.Chelsea were almost completely untroubled by Roy Hodgson's team, who badly missed the injured Andy Johnson, and this display - characterised by doughty defending and lethal finishing - sent an ominous message to their title rivals.Ancelotti's satisfaction will have been compounded by the fact that Fulham are a side that traditionally revel in bloodying the noses of the top flight's elite, and Chelsea have suffered more than most.In other matche...

Monday, August 24, 2009 BERLIN: United States won the World Athletics Championship while Jamaica came second and Kenya finished third.On the final day of the event held in Berlin, the US obtained gold medals in men’s and women’s 4X400m relay.Norway's two-time Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen ended his title drought at these championships after two silvers with gold at last. This is Norway’s only gold medal in the championship.Ethiopian superstar Kenenisa Bekele and Americans LaShawn Merritt and Sanya Richards won their second gold medals on the final day of the world athletics championships here on Sunday.Bekele's came in the 5,000 metres as he became the first man to do the 5,000-10,000m double, a feat even his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie failed to achieve the one time he tried in 1993.Merritt and Richards' second titles came in the men's and women's 400m relays respectively.There was to be no such joy for Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain who, having taken the 15...