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BHUBANESWAR: India carried out a night-time test of a nuclear-capable, medium-range ballistic missile off its eastern coast on Monday, a defence official said.The surface-to-surface Agni-II, which can deliver a nuclear warhead to targets within a range of 2,500 kilometres (1,560 miles), was fired from a mobile rail launcher on Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa state at 7:50pm (1420 GMT)."It was a user training trial to handle the missile at night," the defence official told a foreign news agency on condition of anonymity.The Indian-developed 20-metre-long missile, which has a launch weight of 16 tonnes, is capable of carrying a one-tonne conventional or nuclear warhead.The missile is one of a series being developed by India's Defence Research Development Organisation as part of the country's deterrent strategy against nuclear-armed neighbours China and Pakistan.India already has the 3,000-kilometre range Agni-III missile -- the longest in the Agni series -- whic...

Monday, November 23, 2009 MADRID: Two women were slightly hurt on Sunday when they were struck by bulls that escaped the set of a new film that stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, local police and officials said.The seven bulls roamed loose on the narrow streets of Cadiz in southern Spain for about 40 minutes before they were recaptured on a beach, a local police spokesman told the Europa Press news agency.Filming of "Knight and Day" -- an action comedy directed by James Mangold and scheduled to be released in the US in July 2010 -- was suspended by the mayor's office after the incident."Nothing will be filmed in Cadiz until we have a new plan that guarantees the safety of local residents," a spokesman for the mayor of Cadiz told the Diario de Cadiz newspaper.The film's Spanish producer Calle Cruzada said he did not know how the bulls managed to escape.Rehearsals started Monday for scenes that imitate the famous bull run held each year in Pamplona, northern ...

Monday, November 23, 2009 HANOI: At least seven people have been killed in a collision between a train and a bus in the Vietnam capital's suburban district, a railway source said Monday.Three people died at the scene of the accident on Sunday in Hanoi's Thuong Tin district while four others died on the way to hospital, a staff member at the Vietnam Railway Corporation said, citing an official internal report. Fourteen others were injured, she told foreign news agency, adding the accident happened as "the bus deliberately crossed the railway when the train was heading north."

Monday, November 23, 2009 BEIJING: The death toll from a coalmine blast in northeast China has climbed to 104, local authorities said today, according to state media. China's state-run news agency said four workers were still trapped in the mine shaft. The explosion early Saturday tore through the state-run mine in Heilongjiang province near the Russian border, one of the largest and oldest in China, after a build-up of gas, survivors said. The explosion occurred when a total of 528 miners were in the pit, according to a statement by the State Administration of Work Safety. Local news reports said the blast was felt 10 kilometers away.

Monday, November 23, 2009 MEXICO CITY: More at home on the dark side in the outer reaches of space Darth Vader looked a little out of place flying in these sunlit skies. The striking hot air balloon joined almost 100 others at a festival in Mexico. The design, based on the Star Wars character, stood out among the bright balloons floating over the town of Leon. Thousands of enthusiasts joined together to celebrate the eighth International Hot Air Balloons Festival.

Monday, November 23, 2009 NEW DELHI: The row over the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry into the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition led to the Lok Sabha adjournment until 12 noon Monday after opposition members boycott the session following eruption of uproar in the house. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded that the report be tabled in the house, following a media report that the Liberhan Commission has indicted senior party leaders, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said there had been no leakage of the report. There was only one copy of the report and that was with the home ministry, he said. Dissatisfied with the reply, the opposition led by the BJP stuck to its demand that the report be immediately tabled. BJP members gathered near Speaker Meira Kumar's podium, raising slogans. When the din refused to subside, the speaker adjourned the house.

Monday, November 23, 2009 LVOV: Ukraine celebrated on Sunday the fifth anniversary of “the orange revolution”, marking Freedom Day. It was instituted by a decree of President Viktor Yushchenko in November 2005 “in order to establish the ideals of democracy and to bring up the feeling of national dignity”. November 22, 2004 is regarded as the start of “the orange revolution” (the colour of opposition’s flags) in Ukraine, the campaign of protests, rallies, strikes and other actions of civil disobedience mostly of residents in the country’s western regions who supported Yushchenko. They were organised and conducted in Kiev’s central square – Maidan. Yushchenko was the key candidate from the opposition in the presidential elections in November-December 2004. Protests began when the Central Election Commission announced results of the run-off, according to which Viktor Yanukovich was the winner.The Supreme Court ruled to hold the second voting under the pressure of the opposition, as a resu...

Monday, November 23, 2009 NEW DELHI: The Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission of Inquiry of Indian court has indicted former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, current Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani and former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, among others, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, calling it a meticulously planned event, according to a news daily. The report says that as per the evidence it gathered, which includes witness statements and official records, one of the key conclusions of the Commission is said to be that the entire build-up to the demolition was well planned. Besides, there was nothing to show that these leaders were either unaware of what was going on or innocent of any wrongdoing. The Liberhan Commission analysed the entire sequence of events along with the facts and circumstances leading to the occurrences at Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex on December 6, 1992 — the day the Babri Masjid was brou...

Monday, November 23, 2009 NEW DELHI: It reflects poorly on New Delhi's political sense that it has failed to realise that the more it tries to suppress the Kashmiris' urge to get out of its cruel hold, the more entrenched in the people's psyche becomes the freedom struggle and the more conscious the world gets of the urgency with which the dispute needs to be resolved. Amnesty International recently called upon President Obama to raise the issue of India's brutal oppression in Occupied Kashmir when he meets Prime Minister Singh in Washington. Its words, "The Indian side of Kashmir is an area where the security forces commit mass human rights abuses with impunity...facilitated by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and other similar laws." Similarly, President Hu and President Obama, in a joint statement, have observed that the two sides, "agreed to cooperate...(in) bringing about more stable, peaceful relations in all of South Asia". Secretary of S...

Monday, November 23, 2009 LONDON: Leaked British government documents call into question ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's public statements on the buildup to the Iraq war and show plans for the U.S.-led 2003 invasion were being made more than a year earlier, a newspaper reported Sunday.Britain's newspaper published details of private statements made by senior British military figures claiming plans were in place months before the March 2003 invasion, but were so badly drafted they left troops poorly equipped and ill-prepared for the conflict.The documents — transcripts of interviews from an internal defense ministry review of the conflict — disclose that some planning for the Iraq war had begun in February 2002.Maj. Gen. Graeme Lamb, then head of Britain's special forces, was quoted as saying he had been "working the war up since early 2002," according to the newspaper.In July 2002, Blair told lawmakers at a House of Commons committee session that there were no prep...

Monday, November 23, 2009 BAGHDAD: An Iraqi bank has opened a branch entirely dedicated to and operated by women in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, Geo news reported on Sunday.Director of the bank, Amira Issa said the branch was opened in October to meet the needs of women in the city."The idea of opening a women bank has come upon a request from female businesswomen as other ordinary banks are very crowded," Issa said.Even the head of the bank is not allowed to enter the branch because he is male.The only men working for the branch are security guards stationed outside.The branch provides regular bank services including loans and savings accounts in both Iraqi dinars and US dollars. One client, Um Hussein, described the all-female concept as "a good thing bestowed by almighty God"."Now Muslim women can freely conduct our business in this bank as it is run by female staffers," she added.The bank is considering expanding the new model to ot...

Monday, November 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: A radiation leak at Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history, has sent home about 150 workers, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported Sunday."They had an airborne radiological contamination alarm," NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci told media. "They evaluated all the workers, a handful of workers -- I don't have a precise number -- had contamination. They since have been decontaminated," she said.About 150 people work in the building where the leak occurred.Screnci said what she called a "leak... happened at 4:00 pm Saturday (2100 GMT) and they resumed work in the contaminated building" near Middletown, Pennsylvania."There was no impact on public health safety and it does not appear to have an impact on the workers," she said adding that "this kind of incident occurs once in a while."So far, "they don't know the origin of the contamination," Sc...

Monday, November 23, 2009 LONDON: Engineers and emergency workers checked hundreds of bridges for damage on Sunday, fearful some could collapse and isolate villages, as heavy rain lashed northwest England.In the southwest, a 46-year-old canoeist, believed to be from the Reading area died after becoming wedged under trees on the flooded River Dart near Newton Abbot in Devon on Saturday.A search was under way for a 21-year-old woman believed to have been swept into the River Usk in Brecon, mid-Wales, late on Saturday.Conditions were predicted to worsen on Sunday, with up to 50 mm (2 inches) of rain on high ground, and winds inland of up to 55 mph (90 kph)."I have spoken to people...they are running short of food, they are running short of medication. Things are getting pretty desperate," Tony Cunningham, member of parliament for Workington, told a local television channel.He said some people were having travel about 35 miles to get food and milk because of diversions.British Pr...

Monday, November 23, 2009 DUBLIN: A car carrying a 400-pound bomb was driven through barriers at the Policing Board headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, police said Sunday.Two men ran away from the vehicle, and there was a small explosion about half an hour later, as the building was being evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement. They believe the bomb exploded only partially.PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott condemned the attack as "reckless."Barry Gilligan, the chairman of the Policing Board, called it "an attack upon the entire community."He said the target was "not just an empty office building on a Saturday night," as a significant number of people who lived nearby were "put at risk.""Had this device functioned as the terrorists planned, there would have been widespread damage and destruction," an unnamed police spokesman said in the PSNI statement.There were no injuries, the police said.The car c...

Monday, November 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday started a high-profile state visit to the United States with a call on President Barack Obama to stay committed on Afghanistan and pressure Pakistan.The Indian premier arrived at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to kick off the first full-fledged state visit of Obama's presidency, which will culminate in a swank black-tie dinner at the White House on Tuesday.While a host of issues are on the table, experts say Obama's main intention was to demonstrate his commitment to the world's largest democracy after an early focus on working with its neighbors China and Pakistan.But Singh made clear he would not shy away from offering advice on the top foreign issue for Obama -- Afghanistan. Obama is wrapping up weeks of deliberation on whether to reinforce the 68,000 US troops who will be in Afghanistan by year-end."It is very important that both the US and the global community stay engaged...

Sunday, November 22, 2009 PARIS: The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study.Published Sunday in Nature Geoscience, the same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antarctic icesheet is also shedding significant mass.Scientists worry that rising global temperatures could trigger a rapid disintegration of West Antarctica, which holds enough frozen water to push up the global ocean watermark by about five metres (16 feet).In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, but this estimate did not factor in the potential impact of crumbling icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica.Today many of the same scientist say that even if heat-trapping CO2 emissions are curtailed, the ocean watermark is more likely to go up by nearly a metre, enou...

Sunday, November 22, 2009 LONDON: An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England.Christie's auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family's home in Oxford.The book will be auctioned on Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie's said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).Darwin's "The Origin of Species" outlined his theory of natural selection, the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.Celebrations around the world this year have marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.

Monday, November 23, 2009 LONDON: Roger Federer blazed past Fernando Verdasco after an early stumble Sunday while Andy Murray marked the start of London's five-year hosting of the ATP Tour Finals with a three-set victory over Juan Martin del Potro.Swiss maestro Federer, looking to regain the year-end top ranking after being overthrown by Rafael Nadal last year, dug himself out of trouble to win 4-6 7-5 6-1 and join Murray at the top of Group A in the season-ending showpiece.World number one Federer was top billing for the evening session at the spectacular 02 Arena but lost his opening service game to love and sprayed 15 errors in the first set as Verdasco threatened to cause a shock.He then survived a crisis at 5-5, 0-30 in the second set, breathing a sigh of relief as the left-handed Verdasco went agonisingly wide with a forehand -- a near-miss confirmed by a Hawkeye replay accompanied by thumping heartbeat sound effect, which was just part of the razzmatazz enjoyed by the 17,50...