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KABUL: At least 60 people have been killed in a suspected US air raid in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan, the governor of the province said.Two petrol lorries were hit by the air attack, government sources told an Arab TV on Friday, but a Taliban spokesman said only one abandoned lorry was hit, killing 90 civilians.According to reports, members of the Taliban reportedly hijacked the lorries, travelling from Tajikistan, and took them to the district of Aliabad."The Taliban there said 'Help yourself' to the village, and a large crowd appeared," Bays said."It appears that then the US then launched a bombing mission to bomb those trucks.""Afghan intelligence sources said that a very large number of people had been killed, and the governor of Kunduz province said many of the dead were Taliban."A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the two lorries were hijacked, but that one got stuck in the mud in Aliabad district and was abandoned.The air attack hit...

Friday, September 04, 2009 NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi led the mourners from across the nation to pay their last respects to Andhra Praadesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash on September 2.The three leaders flew in from New Delhi and reached the Chief Minister's residence in camp office at Begumpet where the casket with YSR's body has been kept since last evening after it was brought from Kurnool following the post-mortem.They placed floral wreaths on the casket and an emotion filled Ms Gandhi signed the condolence book. The Prime Minister and Mr Gandhi also signed the condolence book kept near the casket and were there for more than 40 minutes before driving to Begumpet Airport to return to Delhi.Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who also arrived in the morning, joined Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Minister of State in PMO Prithiviraj Chava...

Friday, September 04, 2009 NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi led the mourners from across the nation to pay their last respects to Andhra Praadesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash on September 2.The three leaders flew in from New Delhi and reached the Chief Minister's residence in camp office at Begumpet where the casket with YSR's body has been kept since last evening after it was brought from Kurnool following the post-mortem.They placed floral wreaths on the casket and an emotion filled Ms Gandhi signed the condolence book. The Prime Minister and Mr Gandhi also signed the condolence book kept near the casket and were there for more than 40 minutes before driving to Begumpet Airport to return to Delhi.Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who also arrived in the morning, joined Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Minister of State in PMO Prithiviraj Chava...

Friday, September 04, 2009 GENEVA: The world is speeding towards a climate catastrophe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday, urging rapid progress in talks to cut emissions and tackle global warming. "Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss," the UN secretary general said in a speech to the World Climate Conference. Ban, who this week visited the Arctic to witness first hand the changes wrought by global warming, warned that many of the "more distant scenarios" predicted by scientists were "happening now.""Scientists have been accused for years of scaremongering. But the real scaremongers are those who say we cannot afford climate action -- that it will hold back economic growth," he said. "They are wrong. Climate change could spell widespread disaster," Ban warned. The UN leader pinned his hopes of a breakthrough on a summit of world leaders in New York on September 22 to discuss climate change.

Friday, September 04, 2009 KUNDUZ: An air strike carried out by the NATO force in Afghanistan targeted a fuel tanker hijacked by Taliban insurgents causing dozens of casualties on Friday, officials and witnesses said. "Last night, the Taliban tried to take a fuel tanker that they hijacked on the highway to Angorbagh village," said Baryalai Basharyar Parwani, police chief of the Ali Abad district in northern Kunduz province."The fuel tanker got stuck in the river. There were local civilians with them as well. The Taliban were bombed. More than 60 people have been killed and injured," he said.A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under NATO told foreign news agency: "It was an ISAF air strike."

Friday, September 04, 2009 LOS ANGELES: The investigation into a deadly Los Angeles wildfire became a homicide probe on Thursday as authorities revealed that the mammoth blaze burning near the city was caused by arson. As weary crews tightened their grip on the monster inferno, which has been blamed for the deaths of two firefighters since it erupted on August 26, officials confirmed the blaze was set deliberately. "Arson investigators have concluded that the fire was the result of an act of arson," said US Forest Service official Rita Wears."The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide bureau has initiated a homicide investigation due to the tragic deaths of the two Los Angeles County firefighters as the result of this fire." The two firefighters Ted Hall, 47, and Arnie Quinones, 35 were killed when their truck plunged down a mountainside as they battled flames in a remote location on Sunday.

Friday, September 04, 2009 PETRA: Pop star Madonna has wrapped up her world tour with a sightseeing trip to Jordan's famed ruins in Petra.Madonna, 51, was flown by helicopter into this ancient Roman-era city carved out in red stone in a trip arranged by Queen Rania, the wife of Jordan's King Abdullah II.The pop star, in a white shirt and white slacks, was escorted by Jordanian security and an armed bodyguard during her 15-minute tour.She made no comment to reporters as she walked in almost total darkness. Jordanian security lit the area with headlights from their vehicles.Madonna arrived in Jordan from neighboring Israel, where she performed two concerts over the last two days.

Friday, September 04, 2009 BELGRADE: Explosions ripped through a munitions factory in northern Serbia on Thursday killing seven people and injuring 14 others, officials said."Seven employees, six women and one man, were killed in the explosions" that rocked the Prvi Partizan plant in Uzice, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on a private television after visiting the scene.Fourteen people suffered light injuries and had been taken to hospital, he added. The cause of the explosions has yet to be determined, said Dacic.The bodies were pulled from the debris, said police official Predrag Maric, adding that firefighters had put out the resulting blaze."A more serious catastrophe was avoided as some 100 people were located in the factory at the moment of the explosions," he said.

Friday, September 04, 2009 TEHRAN: Iran said it won’t bow to international pressure to meet an end-of-September deadline for holding talks on its nuclear program. The U.S., China, Russia, France and the U.K., the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany, met near Frankfurt yesterday to discuss the offer for direct talks with Iran. “The Iranian nation favors interaction and dialogue but will not surrender to pressure,” state-run TV cited Hassan Qashqavi, the foreign ministry spokesman, as saying. He was replying to a question on how Iran will respond to the September deadline, TV said. The U.S. and its European allies suspect Iran is developing atomic weapons. They say they will seek international backing for stiffer sanctions on Iran should the Persian Gulf nation rebuff negotiations aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions. Iran’s top negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said today his country will present updated proposals for talks next week, Agence France-Press...

Friday, September 04, 2009 GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip early on Friday near the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The air strike targeted a tunnel under Israel's security barrier that was to be used to infiltrate Palestinian militants, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. Palestinian security officials confirmed the air strike, adding that no one was injured.Five mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel on Thursday without causing damage or casualties, according to the Israeli military. Two exploded inside Israeli territory, a third landed near the Karni crossing point into the Palestinian enclave and the other two hit near the border fence on the Palestinian side, a military spokesman said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned on several occasions that the Israeli army would respond to each rocket or shell fired into Israel. According to the army more than 200 rockets and shells have been fired from G...

Friday, September 04, 2009 LOS ANGELES: More than two months after his death from a drug overdose, Michael Jackson will be laid to rest here Thursday in a private funeral for family and friends at a star-studded Los Angeles cemetery. Jackson, who died aged 50 on June 25, will be entombed in an ornate mausoleum at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, where Hollywood icons such as Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Walt Disney are buried. No details of the 45-minute service have been released, although reports Thursday said soul diva Aretha Franklin could sing at the service as mourners said a poignant final farewell to the "King of Pop." Jackson's children -- Prince Michael, 12, 11-year-old Paris and Prince Michael II, 7 -- would leave notes in their father's coffin, reports said. Messages reading "Daddy we love you, we miss you," would be placed in Jackson's gold-plated casket alongside his trademark single white glove. Close Jackson friends Dia...

Friday, September 04, 2009 BELGRADE: Six people were killed in an explosion of unknown origin at a munitions factory in Uzice, northern Serbia, said a police official cited by media on Thursday.

Friday, September 04, 2009 HILLA: At least five people were killed and nearly 100 were wounded in a swathe of attacks across Iraq on Thursday, police said. Three worshippers died and 51 others were injured when a bomb exploded at a Shiite tomb in Musayyib, 55 kilometres (34 miles) south of Baghdad in Babil province, said a police officer based in provincial capital Hilla. At Mahauil, 80 kilometres south of the capital, a booby-trapped car near another Shiite tomb killed two people and wounded nine others, the officer said. Eight people were hurt when a bomb went off at a market in Aun, a small community near the holy city of Kerbala, 110 kilometres south of Baghdad. In Baghdad's Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiya a bomb targeting Sunni Sahwa militia men wounded four of them and four civilians. A car bomb at Dora on the southern edge of the city injured a Sahwa officer and four of his bodyguards. Five civilians were hurt in a bombing at Kasra in northern Baghdad. In Baquba ten people in...

Friday, September 04, 2009 WASHINGTON: US Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has said US wants much better ties with Pakistan while US is facing difficult times in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is taking issue with any notion that the war in Afghanistan "is slipping through the administration's fingers."Meeting with reporters at the Pentagon Thursday, Gates and Mullen both acknowledged growing impatience with the war. But he said that must be expected, given that the United States has had a presence there for eight years.Gates said he believes "it's important for us to be able to show over the months to come" that President Barack Obama's new strategy for both Afghanistan and Pakistan is succeeding. Obama had said the goal is to defeat and dismantle the al-Qaida terrorist network and its allies.He said any request for additional U.S. troops or funds for the war in Afghanistan would only come after officials study a new assess...

Friday, September 04, 2009 NEW YORK: US teen Melanie Oudin shrugged off a sore left leg to stun Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva on Thursday in the first major US Open shocker while top seed Dinara Safina struggled through again.Dementieva, a 2004 US Open runner-up still in search of her first Grand Slam title, had not made so early an exit at Flushing Meadows since 2002 but was sent off 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 by a 17-year-old American wearing pink and yellow shoes.World number one Safina, still searching for her first Slam crown, rallied to defeat Germany's 67th-ranked Kristina Barrois 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-3. The Russian made 38 unforced errors and double faulted 15 times.Oudin, ranked 70th but third among Americans, had her left thigh taped early in the third set but ignored the pain to finish off Dementieva with a service winner on her third match point after two hours and 45 minutes.Oudin said she felt a sharp pain in her leg when she hit the winning shot but was confident she will be ...

Friday, September 04, 2009 PARIS: Italian Giancarlo Fisichella has been given the green light by Force India to race for Ferrari in the five remaining Grand Prix of the season.In a seemingly unbridled, altruistic act in the often cut-throat world of Formula One, Force India insisted that no money had changed hands and the switch had been made in good faith for the sake of the veteran driver and the sport itself."I'm in seventh heaven. I still can't believe it that the dream of my life comes true," Fisichella told ferrari.com.Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali added, however, that the Italian veteran would be the team's reserve driver in 2010.Force India team boss Vijay Mallya said that he would not have stood in the way of the Italian taking a race seat with Ferrari."For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception," Mallya said."Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term futur...

Friday, September 04, 2009 VINAROS, Spain: Germany's Andre Greipel took the golden jersey as overall leader of the Tour of Spain after recording his second consecutive stage win here on Thursday.The Team Columbia rider came from behind with just metres to go to beat Belgium's Tom Boonen and Italy's Daniele Bennati in a sprint at the end of the 174-kilometre race from Tarragona to Vinaros in northeastern Spain.The stage was held amid scorching temperatures that reached 38 C (100 F), a contrast to the rain on Tuesday when Greipel won the treacherous 225-kilometre fourth stage between Venlo in the Netherlands and Liege in Belgium.The 27-year-old takes over as Tour leader from Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who had led since the time trial on first day on Saturday.In the overall classification he leads Boonen by six seconds and Bennati by 17, with Cancellara 27 seconds back in fifth place.It was his 17th victory of the season but the first time he has led a major Tour.Thu...