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DRESDEN: A Russian-born German man was sentenced to life behind bars Wednesday for the brutal murder of a pregnant headscarved Egyptian woman, a crime that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.Alex Wiens, 28, his face covered by a hood and his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, was motionless as the court in the eastern German city of Dresden found him guilty of murdering Marwa El-Sherbini, dubbed the "veil martyr."On July 1, in the same courthouse, Wiens had plunged an 18-centimetre (seven-inch) kitchen knife at least 16 times into Sherbini, 31 and three-months pregnant at the time with her second child.Her son, three-year-old Mustafa, watched her bleed to death at the scene.Sherbini's husband, Egyptian geneticist Elwy Okaz, rushed to her aid but was also stabbed repeatedly and then shot in the leg by a guard who apparently mistook him for the attacker.On crutches, unsure if he will ever walk again, Okaz gave wrenching testimony during the trial, telling the court how Must...

Updated at: 0705 PST, Thursday, November 12, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US envoy to Afghanistan has written memos to Washington expressing deep concern over possible deployment of thousands of new troops to the country, US media said Wednesday, citing senior US officials.Ambassador Karl Eikenberry's classified cables reportedly detail his strong reservations against sending reinforcements until Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government shows it can tackle insipid corruption that has spurred the Taliban's resurgence, The Washington Post and New York Times said.Eikenberry's cables also expressed worries over Karzai's erratic behavior, according to US officials familiar with the memos, the Post said.Eikenberry joined the policy meeting by video link from Kabul, said the Times, adding that Obama discussed his concerns with him, according to officials who requested anonymity.The envoy also voiced concern that sending tens of thousands of additional troops to the war-wracked ...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 PARIS: Former foes France and Germany held a joint World War I Armistice Day ceremony for the first time as events around the globe Wednesday honoured the millions killed in the conflict.President Barack Obama, speaking at a ceremony in the United States, hailed "the brave men and women of this young nation, generations of them, who above all else believed in and fought for a set of ideals."In London, Queen Elizabeth II led tributes to the war dead, including the growing number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. But the last British veteran of the 1914-18 conflict boycotted official events.President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel rekindled the flame on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and vowed that their nations would never wage war on each other again."We are not commemorating the victory of one people over another but an ordeal that was equally terrible for each side," Sarkozy declared befor...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 LONDON: If you're among the hundreds of thousands of Americans with clogged kidney arteries, you might want to consider trying medicines before rushing into angioplasty to open them up. The pricey procedure is no more effective and carries surprisingly big risks, a study found.The National Kidney Foundation estimates more than 250,000 Americans have narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the kidneys. It's usually caused by a buildup of fatty plaque, mostly in folks 50 or older, and can result in high blood pressure and, sometimes, kidney failure. Each year, about one in six patients with the condition dies.About 16 percent of patients with newly diagnosed blockages in kidney blood vessels undergo angioplasty or, occasionally, more-invasive artery bypass surgery. But rushing to get blood vessels cleaned out could be a dangerous mistake, according to a British study and some experts.Doctors at several British hospitals and universities compare...

WASHINGTON: The United States welcomed Wednesday a commitment by Japan to give five billion dollars of aid to Afghanistan and to implement quickly an earlier pledge to Pakistan. Japan's announcement on Tuesday came just ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to Tokyo on Friday and Saturday. "As President Obama prepares to travel to Japan this week, he looks forward to renewing our strong alliance with Japan, and discussing our continued partnership on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and critical bilateral issues," a White House statement said. "We welcome the announcement by the government of Japan to provide approximately five billion dollars over the next five years to Afghanistan and to implement swiftly its April 2009 pledge of one billion dollars for economic assistance to Pakistan." After coming to power in September, the new Japanese government of center-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said it will end a naval refueling mission that supports the US-led ...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 WASHINGTON: A Google search has reunited a father with the daughter he has been trying to track down for three decades.April Antoniou, 30, of Newnan, Georgia, and her father, Scott Becker, of Wichita, Kansas, have been making the rounds of television news and talk shows since their Internet-aided reunion this month.Antoniou and Becker told Atlanta television stations WGCL-TV and 11Alive they had been independently trying to find each other for years but with no success.Antoniou said she had frequently turned to Google but had no luck because her father's name is relatively common and she knew very little about him.But when she typed "Scott Robert Becker Looking for April" into the Google search box a few days ago it landed her on a website created by her father seven years ago -- www.aprilbecker.com -- where he had left a message:"Dear April,"When you read this, please send an email to: april@aprilbecker.com"I'm your Dad and ...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 PARIS: Two minute changes in a gene that is otherwise identical in humans and chimps could explain why we have full-fledged power of speech while other primates can only grunt or screech, scientists said on Wednesday.The findings may also point to new drug targets for hard-to-treat diseases that disrupt speech, such as schizophrenia and autism, they said.A decade ago, researchers discovered that members of an extended family beset with a rare inherited speech disorder all shared the same defect in a gene called FOXP2.Investigators then found that a small number of patients with another speech-related disease, developmental dysphasia, also had mutations in the gene.Separately, biologists studying FOXP2 in our closest evolutionary cousin, the chimpanzee, noticed that only two among the hundreds of amino acids in the protein coded by the gene differed across the two species.The question emerged: Could this minor genetic variation be the key that enables human s...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 JOHANNESBURG: A new species of dinosaur that roamed the Earth 197 million years ago, likely an ancestor of the enormous brontosaurus, has been discovered in South Africa, scientists said Wednesday.Dubbed Aardonyx Celestae, a combination of Afrikaans and Greek that means "Earth Claw", fossils of the seven-metre (23-feet) long dinosaur were uncovered in the central Free State province by a team of post-graduate students from Johannesburg's Witswatersrand University."We knew that there were likely to be some fossils in these bone beds... but we did not expect to find anything of this magnitude," said Adam Yates, the scientist who supervised the work.The Aardonyx appears to be ancestors of the massive sauropod dinosaurs, the largest backboned animals ever to walk on land, he said.The fossils from a partial skeleton unveiled Wednesday came from a young dinosaur, Yates said."Growth rings in the rib and shoulder blade sections show that...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 SYDNEY: The Australian programmer who claims to have created the world's first Apple iPhone virus as a prank said does not regret writing it.First IPhone Worm Spreads Rick Astley WallpaperThe worm, 'Ikee' changes iPhone owners' wallpaper and replaces it with a photo of '80s pop star Rick Astley and the message "ikee is never going to give you up".Twenty-one-year-old Wollongong resident Ashley Towns, said he created the virus out of curiosity and boredom."I had just formatted my iPhone and it told me to set the password in bold, big letters and I wondered how many people have actually done that," Towns said."So I ran a scan on my 3G network and there was 26 phones running the service that's vulnerable, and out of that 26, 25 hadn't changed their passwords."Towns said he loves the iPhone so there was no vendetta against Apple, just disbelief that many users had failed to change their passwords when req...

Thursday, November 12, 2009 RAMALLAH: Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Wednesday to honour their iconic leader Yasser Arafat, with president Mahmud Abbas due to address the rally amid a brewing political crisis.The fifth anniversary of Arafat's death finds Palestinians more divided than ever and his successor Abbas pondering resignation because of stalled US-led peace efforts that have failed to bring about an independent Palestinian state.A crowd waving Palestinian flags and banners of Abbas's Fatah party crammed the government compound that contains Arafat's tomb to honour the man who catapulted the Palestinians' struggle onto the world stage and led them through nearly four decades of armed struggle and sputtering peace talks.A senior Palestinian security official estimated that more than 100,000 people had gathered in and around the Muqataa presidential compound, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority and the site of Arafat's mausoleum.Abbas wa...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 MANILA - At least 100 members of a students' activist group on Wednesday held a lightning protest in front of the United States embassy in Manila, signalling a series of demonstrations during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit in the Philippines.Terry Ridon, secretary-general of the League of Filipino Students, led at least 100 youth activists protesting the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in front of the US embassy along Roxas Boulevard."Bumabati ang mga estudyante, ang mga kabataan (The students, the youth are greeting [Mrs. Clinton]," Ridon said, adding that they will be holding similar protests against VFA while Clinton is in the country.Clinton will stay in Manila on Thursday noon until Friday before attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Singapore.Clinton is set to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministerial Meeting and will stop by the Philippines on Thursday noon until Friday....

Thursday, November 12, 2009 NEW YORK: Mike Tyson has been arrested at an airport in the US after allegedly punching a photographer.The former heavyweight boxing champion was detained on suspicion of battery following the scuffle at Los Angeles International Airport, police said.The snapper, who was treated in hospital for a cut to his forehead, told officers that Tyson struck him once, an airport police spokesman said.Tyson's spokeswoman said the boxer, who was travelling with his wife and 10-month-old child, was reacting to an overly aggressive photographer to protect his baby.Tyson was protecting wife Lakiha Spicer and daughter Milan, his spokeswoman saidThe 43-year-old is expected to be released from custody later. The photographer is also likely to be charged, police said.

Thursday, November 12, 2009 PARIS: Swiss tennis star and world number one Roger Federer has suffered a surprise defeat in the second round of the Paris Masters.Federer lost 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 to the unseeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau on Wednesday evening.The Swiss made a usually high number of unforced errors to fall to Benneteau, who was cheered on by the home crowd.The 15-time Grand Slam champion's record at the Paris Masters is patchy - he has never been further than the quarterfinals in seven appearances.On Sunday Novak Djokovic prevented Federer from making it four in a row at the Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, the Swiss player's hometown.