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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, the Eid-ul-Fitr, today, was marked with massive Eid gatherings, anti-India protests and clashes between the Indian police and demonstrators.Indian troops after using brute force foiled an attempt by a large number of people to break the police siege around the residence of senior Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani to bring him out for Eid prayers. Dozens of people were injured on the occasion and many were arrested. The senior leader continued to remain under house arrest for the 12th day, today.Thousands of people, chanting pro-freedom slogans, took out a procession from Eidgah in Srinagar, which was intercepted by the police at Kawdara. The troops resorted to heavy baton charge to break up a demonstration in Lal Chowk. People took to the streets in Sopore, Baramulla, Islamabad and other towns and cities to protest against the Indian state terrorism.Addressing a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people in Eidgah, t...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 KABUL: Afghanistan's overcrowded prison system has become a "sanctuary and base" from which militants can plan attacks on international forces, as well as a key recruiting ground for new fighters, according to a report by the top US commander in the country.Even detainees not previously linked with the Taliban or al-Qaida are at risk of being radicalised because a lack of personnel to interrogate them means many are kept at the Bagram air base facility for long periods without charge, said General Stanley McChrystal, who is in charge of US and Nato forces in the country.The message came in a four-page supplement to a main report by McChrystal, warning that more international troops and revamped military tactics were needed to avoid possible defeat in the country.Attacks apparently planned from inside prisons included the storming of a luxury hotel in Kabul in January 2008 in which seven people were killed, McChrystal said in his report, detail...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 THIMPHU: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has killed at least ten people in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, officials have said.Ugyen Tenzing, the country's director of disaster management, said rescuers were searching for survivors under the debris of collapsed buildings in the eastern districts of Munggar and Trashigang on Monday."It's hard to determine the extent of the damage at the moment. There is still information coming in," Tenzing said.The state-run Bhutan Broadcasting Service reported that dozens had been injured.Lungthen Dorji, the governor of Trashigang district said: "Houses, and monasteries and roads have been damaged. Mobile services are clogged."

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 NEW YORK: Drought, conflict and displacement are causing the worst humanitarian crisis in war-torn Somalia in 18 years, the UN food agency warned on Monday.Some 3.6 million people, about half the Somali population, need emergency aid including 1.3 million people displaced by fighting in the Horn of Africa country, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement.Around 1.4 million Somali farmers face a severe drought, while some 655,000 poor urban dwellers face high prices for basic food staples, the FAO said.Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled their homes over the past three years of violence involving hardline Islamist movements and many more in total over the country's 18 years of almost uninterrupted civil chaos.Hunger also stalks other countries in east Africa and the Horn of Africa region, the UN agency said.The number of people depending on food aid in the region -- currently nearly 20 million -- "may increase as the hu...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 CUBA: A military judge agreed Monday to another delay in the war crimes trial of five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.Army Col. Stephen Henley agreed to the U.S. government's request for a 60-day continuance, a delay intended to give President Barack Obama's administration enough time to decide whether it should move the case to a civilian court or a revamped war crimes tribunal.Henley had scheduled a hearing at the U.S. base in Cuba to allow Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants — all three of whom are serving as their own lawyers — to voice any objections to the Obama's administration's third continuance in their case.But Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, and the other defendants sent a note to the judge saying they did not oppose the delay, and Henley granted a written order without a hearing.Mohammed was still expected to address the court later on a series of legal motions from the th...

KABUL: Police officials from some of Afghanistan's most violent regions questioned the need for more U.S. troops, saying Monday it would increase the perception they are an occupying power and that the money was better spent on local forces.The police officials were responding to a confidential report in which Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, warned the war was getting worse and could be lost without more troops. Details of McChrystal's assessment was first reported late Sunday by The Washington Post.President Barack Obama earlier this year approved sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of U.S. forces there to 68,000 by the end of 2009. Increasing that number risks alienating Afghans, police officials said."It is very hard for local people to accept any foreigners who come to our country and say they are fighting for our freedom," said Gen. Azizudin Wardak, the police chief in Paktia province. ...

Monday, September 21, 2009 HAVANA: The Revolution Square is expected to become a seething mass of people Sunday afternoon, with peace and music as leitmotiv for a unique five-hour concert by Colombian Juanes and 14 other artists, who will perform for 11 million Cubans.Its identity seal is "Peace without Borders," the name of this Juanes' project first materialized on the Colombian border in 2008 and now in Havana.For his dream to become a reality, Juanes had to face aggressions and strong criticism from the most recalcitrant sectors in Miami.It is a dream that beat fear to emerge stronger. This way to Cuba has helped me understand many things. There will be a Juanes before and after this concert. The Juanes after Cuba is the one I want to be, he told Prensa Latina.The enormous perimeter of the Revolution Square, linked to the history and life of Cubans, is an enviable open-air scene, with 12 cameras on different brackets to facilitate better images and a sort of dialogue...

Monday, September 21, 2009 RIYADH: Boasting one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, a team of top scientists and a campus where female and male students can mingle freely, Saudi Arabia's new multi-billion dollar university aims to break both scientific and social barriers.Officially the goal of this week's launch of the sprawling new facility is to propel the kingdom into the heady global ranks of technological research.But with women on campus not having to shroud themselves in the black abaya and allowed to drive cars, an unstated aim is to chip away at the strict restrictions on Saudi women imposed by hardline Muslim clerics.On Wednesday the monarch, in a keystone of his attempts to power his country into the 21st century, will open the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology -- KAUST -- probably the only postgraduate research university ever built from scratch.Both the ambition and the billions of dollars thrown at the project have sparked deep interest i...

Monday, September 21, 2009 ROME: At least 200 people have been arrested in Italy for illegally entering into the country; most of them are Pakistanis.At least 44 people hailing from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey have been arrested from a truck en route to enter Italy via Greece.42 people have been returned to Greece and two minor among them have been handed to City Social Services Department.Furthermore, 138 people were arrested from near Sicily; most belong to Libya.The arrested people said they have paid one thousand dollars to the human smugglers.

Monday, September 21, 2009 DHAKA: The Met Office recorded 39mm of rainfall in Dhaka between 8am and midday Monday, as thousands braved thunderstorms to attend Eid-ul-Fitr congregations. Met official Md Abdul Mannan said that parts of the country were experiencing rainfall as a monsoon front blew in overnight from the northern Bay of Bengal. Dhaka, and surrounding districts, along with the northern region, saw the worst of the thunder and showers from morning. The rain is likely to recede over Dhaka and the north in the afternoon, Mannan said. But, he said, the western region will experience downpours later as the monsoon was moving in a westerly direction.

Monday, September 21, 2009 KABUL: Two tanks were destroyed and 16 allies and Afghan forces troops were killed in an attack on their convoy in Afghanistan.Hizb-e-Islami spokesman claimed that their fighters have blown up two tanks of the allied forces by a remote control device at Khawaskhelo area of Lugar province. Hizb-e-Islami claimed that eight allied forces troops were also killed in the tanks blow up. Besides four more allied forces troops were killed in another incident of remote control blast blowing up a tank at Galawat area of Laghman province.On the other hand, Hizb-e-Islami spokesman has accepted the responsibility of attack on the joint convoy of allied forces and Afghan army, resulting in the death of two allied forces troops and to Afghan soldiers. Hizb-e-Islami spokesman has confirmed one of their fighters receiving injury.

Monday, September 21, 2009 TOKYO: Around 100 Japanese children spent their Saturday flying paper airplanes in a contest held in suburban Tokyo.'We organised this contest to let our children get experiences in handcrafting things so that they become interested in craftsmanship at their early age and later become professional craftsmen,' Fumihiro Uno, the secretariat of Japanese Paper Airplane Association, says.30 teams, each with three members, participated in the event - seeing who could keep their plane airborne for the longest time.The country has a long and proud history of paper plane flying prowess, with nine out of the top-ten longest glides set by the Japanese.

Saturday, September 19, 2009 WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Friday was discussing selling some of the fund's gold to provide low-interest loans to poor countries and shore up its internal finances.The move, authorized by the G-20 countries at their summit in London in April, has been long expected and discounted by commodity markets, where the price of gold has been rising amid fears of a weakening dollar and a resurgence of inflation.The key question for the markets is whether the IMF will sell its gold in auction over a set period of time to get the best price or let central banks from member governments buy it. China, India and Russia, eager to reduce their position in dollar-denominated securities, have expressed interest in buying IMF gold.IMF officials have said repeatedly the sale will be carried out in a way that does not disrupt the market and in coordination with European central banks, who agreed last month on amounts of gold they w...

Monday, September 21, 2009 JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s government received support on Sunday for its demand that the country’s top athletics official be axed after he admitted lying about gender tests conducted on 800-meter world champion Caster Semenya.Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene apologized Saturday, saying he had lied to protect the 18-year-old’s privacy.The sports ministry called on the ASA to fire Chuene.“If they fail to do so, they run the risk of being led by a liar,” Gert Oosthuizen, the deputy sports minister, said in a statement.For once, the country’s main opposition was in agreement.Democratic Alliance spokesman Donald Lee said Chuene had damaged South Africa’s image.“Mr. Chuene’s immediate dismissal is the very least that needs to happen,” he said in a statement.Chuene was not immediately available for comment.Semenya won the 800 at the world championships in Berlin in 1 minute, 55.45 seconds on Aug. 19, finishing 2.45 seconds ahead of her closest comp...