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Sunday, November 15, 2009 SINGAPUR: US president Barack Obama has told Burma's junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, a US official said.Obama delivered the message during his summit with leaders of 10 south-east Asian nations in Singapore, which included Burma prime minister General Thein Sein.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama called on Burma to free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and end oppression of minorities.He said Obama "brought that up directly with that government", Mr Gibbs said.Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years.For decades, Western governments have avoided direct contacts with leaders of Burma because of the regime's poor human rights record and suppression of democracy.A joint statement to be issued after the summit - the first between a US president and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - is expected to devote an ent...

Sunday, November 15, 2009 MEXICO CITY Authorities say a 7-year-old boy, three women and a university professor are among 15 people who were killed in a single day in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.The carnage was even high for Ciudad Juarez, which has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October this year -- averaging seven a day in the city of 1.5 million people. The metropolis across the border from El Paso, Texas, is considered Mexico's deadliest city.State prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said the child was traveling with his father in a pickup truck when gunmen opened fire Friday, killing them both.Mr. Sandoval said three women were shot to death in two separate incidents. A university professor was killed in a residential area.Mr. Sandoval said that nine other men were killed in six separate incidents.Last week, business groups in Ciudad Juarez called for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highes...

November 15, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US space agency was readying for the launch Monday of the space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts to deliver equipment that will maintain the nearly completed International Space Station.Lift-off is set for 1928 GMT from the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA said Saturday."Atlantis is ready to go, in really great shape," said shuttle launch manager Mike Moses at a press conference broadcast on NASA television."Here at Kennedy Space Center weather should be very good," said Meteorologist Kathy Winters, adding that there was just a ten percent chance of weather prohibiting the launch.Captained by Marine Corps colonel Charlie Hobaugh, the all-male crew arrived Thursday at Kennedy Space Center from Houston, Texas, where the astronauts are based.The shuttle mission is set to include three spacewalks aimed at storing space hardware on the exterior of the orbiting outpost.The 11-day space outing will b...

Sunday, November 15, 2009 GLASGOW: A threatened racist protest today outside Glasgow’s central mosque was blocked as the city centre was firmly in the hands of around 3,000 anti-racists and anti-fascists. A group styling themselves the Scottish Defence League – after the English Defence League, which has attempted a series of racist protests in England – first threatened a protest outside the mosque then a march and rally in the city centre.In the event some 70 racists eventually gathered enough bravado to leave the pub where they had gathered to stand outside on the street for five minutes before being ushered onto buses by police and driven out of the city centre.Meanwhile 3,000 people marched to protest against racism and fascism to warm support from shoppers. Trade unionists, students, members of the Muslim community and others joined together to ensure Glasgow gave zero tolerance to racist thugs whose stated aim was to intimidate the Muslim population of the city.

Sunday, November 15, 2009 PARIS: Novak Djokovic advanced to the men's final of the Paris Masters tennis tournament with a straight set win over Rafael Nadal on Saturday.Djokovic beat the Spaniard 6-2, 6-3. While the Serb is only 6-14 lifetime against Nadal, the 22-year-old has now won their last two meetings. "I felt so good on the court that all the shots I hit transformed into winners," Djokovic said. "It was perfect, exactly the way I wanted." Djokovic, the third seed at the event, is heading into the ATP championship finals in London on a roll. He defeated Roger Federer last week to win the tour event in Basel, Switzerland. Second seed Nadal hasn't won an event since the Rome Masters in May. The Spaniard has battled a knee injury and, more recently, a pulled stomach muscle. The six-time Grand Slam champion at one point Saturday lost 14 consecutive points on his serve.He entered the semis fresh off a victory over defending tournament champ Jo-Wilfried Ts...

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Camp Bucca, the US-run jail where around 100,000 prisoners were kept over six years, was a breeding ground for the Al-Qaeda terror network, according to police and former inmates. Bucca, located in an isolated desert north of the border with Kuwait, was a school for scores of Takfiris, or Sunni extremists who usually ended up in Al-Qaeda, said Abu Mohammed, freed in 2008 after 26 months behind its bars."The illiterate and straight-forward people were the easiest prey for indoctrination," said the 32-year-old resident of Ramadi, the former insurgency stronghold 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Baghdad.Opened after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Camp Bucca was the biggest detention centre in Iraq housing up to 22,000 prisoners in 2007.At its closing on September 17 this year, there were only 8,000 inmates who were transferred to Camp Cropper in Baghdad and Camp Taji, north of the capital."The two suicide bombers and the majority of suspects deta...

Sunday, November 15, 2009 LONDON: The British government has faced repeated accusations that troops are being put at increased risk because of insufficient equipment and helicopters.But Lieutenant General Nick Parker, the British deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan insisted shortages of kit were not to blame for his 26-year-old son Harry losing both legs in a booby-trap bomb in July.Parker told the News of the World that the equipment supplied to British troops was right for the job they are doing.He suggested that the key to stemming casualties and achieving military success in the country was not more helicopters but a strategy to win the hearts and minds of local people by getting out into their communities."Rather than asking for more helicopters -- which may be a requirement -- what we've got to do is develop tactics that get you out and amongst the people and re-establish ourselves as a force for good in the community," he told the newspaper."I know ...

Sunday, November 15, 2009 LEEUWARDEN: The eleventh edition of Domino Day, organized by Endemo Netherlands together with Robin Paul Weijers, known as "Mr Domino", has come to a successful conclusion. The world record for toppling dominoes has been broken, with 4,491,863 dominoes biting the dust. The standing world record was 4,345,027 dominoes, also set by Mr Domino in 2008. This year's event involved displays representing different continents. Mr Domino laboured for a year over the various patterns and techniques. A team of 90 builders from 14 European countries worked for two months to set the stage in a hall in the northern Netherlands town of Leeuwarden. They came from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Germany, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Croatia and Switzerland. The task called for total concentration and no little discomfort, as team members placed the dominoes in position. With each millimetre counting, they used ...