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Wednesday, September 09, 2009 ANKARA: Nine people were killed and two were missing on Tuesday as torrential rain triggered floods in north-western Turkey, media reports and officials said. A family of five were swept away from a farm near the town of Saray, Tekirdag province, when heavy rain caused a river to burst its banks overnight and inundate a large area, causing significant material damage, the town's mayor Nazmi Coban told a news agency. The bodies of the mother and her three daughters, aged six, eight and 12, were found several kilometres away from the farm. Rescue teams were still looking for the father. Rescuers also discovered the bodies of an elderly couple among the wreckage of a nearby house that was swept away by the flooding, Coban told Anatolia. In Silivri, a seaside suburb of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul, one person died of a heart attack when flood waters gushed into his home, governor Muammer Gulen told the Anatolia news agency. Rescuers were searching fo...

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 KABUL: A suicide car bomber killed three Afghan civilians in Afghanistan's capital Tuesday, while four U.S. soldiers died during fighting in a northern province. An Afghan police official said the attacker in Kabul struck a NATO convoy outside the military base at the international airport. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which wounded another six Afghan civilians and three international soldiers - two Americans and a Belgian. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said four U.S. troops were killed while fighting insurgents in northeastern Kunar province. The French news agency said 10 Afghan soldiers also died in the clash.Meanwhile, NATO acknowledged for the first time that Afghan civilians were killed in last Friday's air strike on two fuel tankers in northern Kunduz province and ordered a full investigation.The commander of NATO's force in Afghanistan, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, named a Canadian officer, Major General C.S. ...

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 SAN'A: Four Yemenis carrying explosives and guns were arrested near the U.S. embassy in San'a, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.The Ministry's statement didn't say when they were arrested. But senior security officials told media last week they were on the look out for possible attacks against foreign interests in San'a.The ministry said the four, aged between 20 and 33, had grenades, automatic weapons and ammunition in two separate vehicles. The men were residents of the northern town of Damag, home to one of the country's largest radical Sunni Islam teaching institutions, frequented by Yemeni, Arab and foreign clerics.Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has targeted the U.S. Embassy in the past. In September 2008, gunmen backed by suicide bombers assaulted the walled compound in an attack that left 19 dead, including six attackers. Months before that, militants fired mortars at the embassy but missed, hitting a nearby school and kill...

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 WASHINGTON: The space shuttle Discovery dated at: 0356 PST,undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday and began its journey back to Earth after a successful mission.Discovery undocked from the ISS at 1926 GMT and circled the space station to survey and photograph its exterior -- customary practice to end such missions -- before returning to Earth for a scheduled Thursday landing in Florida.Before their second and final burn away from the station, the crew used a robotic arm and high-definition cameras to ensure the shuttle's heat shield had not been compromised by orbiting debris and small meteorites.The shield must be intact to prevent Discovery from disintegrating as it enters the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.During their eight days aboard the ISS, the Discovery crew has transferred 6.9 tonnes of equipment, including new sleeping quarters, a treadmill, and a refrigerator that will store materials for experiments.They also ...

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 LONDON: A suspected explosive device was found Tuesday at a major Royal Air Force base in the southwest of England, the Ministry of Defence in London said. Explosive experts were investigating the suspected device at RAF Lyneham, where many of the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are returned, the ministry said."A suspected IED has been discovered at RAF Lyneham," a spokesman said. "An EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team are on site and currently working to make the area safe."Officials said the alarm was raised when sniffer dogs reacted to a vehicle on the perimeter of the base, which is home to four RAF transport squadrons flying C-130 Hercules. They declined to give further details.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 KABUL: Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud in the country's controversial elections and had ordered some ballots recounted.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 CHENNAI: A group of four students, in bid to seek entry into Limca book of records, performed yoga for 180 minutes in Chennai. The students of city's Velamal Matriculation Higher Secondary School struck 999 yoga postures in a bid to get registered in the Limca Book of Records.The event was held as part of the school's 'Save the Earth 99999 Lights out' campaign to spread awareness amongst the students and masses about global warming."The main objective of arranging this programme is to propagate the double nine and triple nine concepts to the students as well as to the public in and round Chennai. Double nine and triple nine is nothing but to create awareness about global warming. We are going to tell all the students to tell their parents and relatives to switch off their lights. Indirectly it will help to avoid this global warming," said P.Prabakaran, Principal of the school.The school authorities hope this initiative will help sen...

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra is ecstatic at the prospect of finding a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first female actress to portray 12 characters in 'What's Your Rashee'."We have applied to the Guinness Book of World Records.It is a long process. Let us see if we succeed," said the actress, who was here to announce her support to 'Save the Children' campaign for their initiative 'Rewrite the Future'.Priyanka said 'What's Your Rashee', which releases on September 25, very subtly gives a social message."Even a film like 'Taare Zameen Par' had a message about children which was not talked about before, but was woven into a very well-told entertaining story.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 NICOSIA: Traditional hand-made lace produced in the Larnaca district village of Lefkara in Cyprus known as lefkaritiko includeded in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Soseilos said that the relevant UNESCO committee has already decided to include lefkaritiko in its list of the world’s ICH, a more recent addition to UNESCO’s long-standing list of World Heritage sites, and the decision will be formally announced at the UNESCO General Assembly next month. The tradition of needlework and lace embroidery in Lefkara goes back centuries.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 MUMBAI: It was the South Indian film industry that dominated the 55th National Film Awards for 2007. Priyadarshan's Tamil film Kanchivaram, a period drama about silk weavers of the south, was chosen as the best movie at the 55th National Film Awards. On the other hand, Tamil actor Prakash Raj was declared the Best Actor for his role in the film Kanchivaram thus beating off competition from Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Raj had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor award for Iruvar in 1998 and also a special Jury Award in 2003.Adoor Gopalakrishnan bagged best director for the Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal making it his seventh national award. Umashree received the best actress award for her performance in Girish Kasaravalli's Kannada film Gulabi Talkies.While the films from the South took away most of the awards, the Hindi film industry was not far behind. Yash Raj Films' Chak De! India bagged the award in the Wholesome Entertai...

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 BEIJING: China says a coalmine blast has killed 35 in central Henan province and left another 44 miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the pre-dawn explosion Tuesday happened at Xinhua No. 4 pit in Pingdingshan city in Henan province.A statement on the administration's Web site did not give a reason for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. There were 93 men working underground at the time of the blast, it said.

Monday, September 07, 2009 TAIWAN: The 21st Summer Deaf Olympics officially kicked off in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. The twelve-part opening ceremony included singing by Taiwanese pop star A-mei, an appearance by actor Jet-Li and choreographed artistic performances themed on Taiwan's landscape, ecology, and even its food.One of the acts, meant to highlight Taipei as a culinary capitol, had performers dressed up as noodles, vegetables and stewed eggs. They assembled into famous local dishes, such as minced pork and beef noodle soup.Many of the performers, who are deaf, responded to split-second visual cues.The Deaflympics features 20 sports, including soccer, swimming, wrestling, table tennis and orienteering. A record 4,000 athletes from 81 countries are registered to compete this year. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou also attended the opening ceremony.The Deaf Olympics were first held in Paris, France in 1924. The competition, the first ever for athletes with disabilities, wa...

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 NEW YORK: It was a bleak day for US tennis on Monday as for the first time in the 41-year Open era no American made it into the quarterfinals of the men's singles. The last to fall was giant John Isner, who was toppled by Spain's Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer, meanwhile, moved a step closer to a record-equaling sixth straight title with a routine 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over outclassed Tommy Robredo of Spain.In the last eight, he will play the man be beat in Paris to end his French Open jinx, Robin Soderling, who moved on when Nikolay Davydenko abandoned with a thigh strain when trailing 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. Verdasco will go up against fourth seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia who eased past Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in a disappointing night-time session match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Five points from a straight-set loss, Oudin kept plugging away with her perpetual-motion defense ...

When she first came to power, Angela Merkel was heralded as Germany's Thatcher: a trail-blazing female leader who would shake up the country's traditional, male-dominated politics. Yet in their approach to government, they are as different as day and night. At a campaign rally in Münster's handsome city square, the party faithful of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have gathered respectfully beneath the gilded clocks of the cathedral. Although the 55-year-old Chancellor's big theme is decisiveness e_SEnD she and the CDU have it, their rivals do not e_SEnD her listeners take instruction, not inspiration. Eventually, something does stir, as dozens of activists hold up pre-printed placards and start chanting: "Angie, Angie." But the daughter of an austere pastor from East Germany has always been a comforting, rather than galvanising, figure for a nation still trying to create a unified identity 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "It is ...

Schools across the US went ahead with a boycott of a broadcast by President Barack Obama today in spite of many rightwing critics rowing back at the last minute from a campaign accusing him of socialist indoctrination. Some school heads reported that they had not allowed the broadcast to be shown because of protests from parents. Many others allowed the broadcast to be screened as planned. Obama's speech, delivered from a school in Virginia, was free of any political message and was aimed mainly at encouraging children to stay on at school. The White House put out the text of his speech yesterday to allow headmasters, teachers and parents to assess whether it contained political content. In the speech, Obama said: "Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is." Further encouraging pupils, he said: "Whatever you resolve to do, I want you...