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WASHINGTON: Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response.The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.The European and American officials said that Iranian officials had refused to go along with the central feature of the draft agreement reached on Oct. 21 in Vienna: a provision that would have required the country to send about three-quarters of its current known stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia to be processed and returned for use in a reactor in Tehran used to make medical isotopes.

Friday, October 30, 2009 LONDON: According to researchers from Bath University, choosing a wife who is younger and smarter, ideally there the woman should be 5-years younger, is the secret to a happy and long lasting marriage.The study published in the European Journal of Operational Research was conducted on approximately 1,500-couples, either married or in a serious relationship, finding men and women choose partners 'on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values'.BBC News reports, following 1,000 of the couples 5-years after they were married, researchers found when women were older than the men, the likelihood of divorce was three times higher than if they were of the same age.Married couples comprising of one partner who had been previously divorced, seemed to be at greater risk of breaking up, than if both of them had been through divorces.There is greater likelihood of long lasting marital bliss, if the man is o...

Friday, October 30, 2009 LONDON: Sharks abandon their young pups as soon as they're born. But far from being cold-hearted mothers, scientists have shown for the first time that they provide their pups with super-sized livers to live off while they learn to hunt.Researchers from Bangor University made the finding after trawling through shark data records from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa spanning over 30 years. 'We found this really just by chance. We plotted liver mass against body mass and there was a massive peak in the really young sharks. There was an obvious pattern of the liver being used up,' says Nigel Hussey, who led the research. The huge livers, which make up around 20 per cent of the pups' body mass, are packed with fats and probably keep them going in the first months of their lives, say the researchers. Once the sharks are fully grown and get better at hunting, the livers make up just six per cent of their body mass.Until now, researchers hadn't looke...

Friday, October 30, 2009 SRINAGAR: India banned pre-paid mobile telephones in Kashmir on Friday, state television reported, following concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs and hide their identities.Mobile phones were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead, but pre-paid versions are suspected to have been used in attacks since.Pre-paid phones -- phones that come with a set number of minutes charged on them -- are easier to buy than their post-paid equivalents.Post-paid -- mobiles paid on a monthly basis -- can only be bought after a series of security checks and official registration of personal details and passport photographs."All pre-paid mobile connections will stop functioning from November 1 after the home ministry's order in this regard," India's state-owned television Doordarshan announced Friday.India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram during his trip to Kashmir this month had raised the possibility that p...

Friday, October 30, 2009 DENVER: Parts of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado are covered in 3 feet of snow as an autumn snowstorm slowly makes its way into Nebraska and Kansas.The system shuttered schools, caused dozens of traffic accidents and canceled about 200 flights.The weather service is warning of near-zero visibility on roads in eastern Colorado. And huge stretches of interstates in Wyoming were shut down.A winter storm warning is in effect for portions of Nebraska, with forecasters predicting up to 9 inches of snow. A foot has already fallen in the town of Rushville.In Arkansas, meanwhile, storms have unleashed at least two tornadoes and have prompted flash flooding warnings.There have been reports of damage from the twisters, but no one was hurt. Forecasters expect up to 7 inches of rain in central and southern parts of the state.

Friday, October 30, 2009 LONDON: The London film festival closes with the world premiere of "Nowhere Boy," about John Lennon's rebellious teenage years and his torrid relationship with his aunt and mother before the Beatles were formed.The directorial debut of video artist Sam Taylor-Wood, the movie stars Aaron Johnson as an angry, confused Lennon who struggles to understand why his mother Julia left him with his aunt Mimi when he was a small boy.The film plays on the contrast between his "buttoned-up," straight-laced aunt, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and his fun-loving mother (Anne-Marie Duff) who encourages him to listen to rock'n'roll and teaches him the banjo. The film will hit the theaters on December 25.

Friday, October 30, 2009 UNITED NATIONS: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon Thursday said that attacks on UN staff in Afghanistan are carrying out to disrupt presidential elections.He warned that the world body was vulnerable to more attacks in the week leading up to the Afghan elections and pleaded for more help to protect his staff. "We cannot do it alone," the secretary general told a crisis meeting of the UN Security Council following Wednesday's suicide attack by Taliban fighters on a UN guesthouse in Kabul that killed five UN staffers and wounded nine."We need the support of the member states," he told diplomats from the world's most powerful countries. A little over a week before Afghanistan's November 7 run-off presidential election, Ban said UN staff faced a "dramatically escalated" threat and were seen as a "soft target." "Increasingly, the UN is being targeted, in this case precisely because of our support for the Afghan...

Friday, October 30, 2009 JAIPUR: A massive fire broke out at the Indian Oil Corporation’s fuel depot in the Pink city, Jaipur. The fire started today evening and around 5 persons were killed and more than 160 injured. Around 30-35 persons have been trapped inside the depot. People staying in the nearby areas have been asked to shift and move to other places. The fire broke out at 19:30 hours when petrol was being transferred from the depot to a pipeline in the outskirts of Jaipur. Fire brigade have been trying continuously to bring the fire under control.The electricity has been cut off in the nearby areas and around 70 ambulances have reached the spot and are taking the injured to the hospitals.

Friday, October 30, 2009 MUMBAI: The slum kid stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" want a lot of things in life — new houses, a car, trips to London and Paris — but they aren't too interested in school.Ten-year-old Rubina Ali has missed nearly 75 percent of her classes and her co-star hasn't done much better — truancy that filmmakers say will jeopardize their trust funds and monthly stipends if it continues.Their parents blame the absences on deaths in the family or other misfortunes, including the demolition of Rubina's shanty by city authorities earlier this year, and have promised to do better.But the filmmakers say the children are being lured away by endorsement deals, television appearances and other opportunities to cash in on their celebrity — at the risk of losing the money set aside for them once they graduate."Our love got a little bit tougher today," "Slumdog" producer Christian Colson told sources Thursday."We understand there are ...