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LONDON: A Taliban detainee in Pakistan claims to have information about Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts in January or February of this year.His claims cannot be verified but a leading American expert says his account should be investigated. The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11. He told British Broadcast that earlier this year he met a trusted contact that had seen Bin Laden 15 to 20 days earlier across the border in Afghanistan. "In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said he had come from meeting Sheikh Osama, and he could arrange for me to meet him," he said. According to the detainee, his contact is a Mehsud tribesman, responsible for getting al-Qaeda operatives based abroad to meetings with Bin Laden. "He helps al-Qaeda people coming from other countries to get to the sheikh, so he can advise them on whatever they are planning for Europe or other places. "The sheikh doesn't stay in any one place...

Friday, December 04, 2009 DHAKA:At least 35 people died in northeastern Bangladesh Friday after a ferry capsized, police said, the second accident of its kind this week in the impoverished nation.

Friday, December 04, 2009 TIKRIT: Attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed eight people, including a senior anti-terror officer who led a key fight back against Al-Qaeda in his province, police said. Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed al-Fahel, the head of the Saleheddin province anti-terror squad, and at least three of his bodyguards were among five people killed by a suicide bomber in Tikrit, the hometown of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, who was wearing a vest packed with explosives," said Colonel Abdel Haadi of the Salaheddin joint operations command. Seven people were wounded by the blast in a jewellery store, which struck at around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) in Tikrit, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In another incident in northern Iraq, two soldiers were killed at a checkpoint in the town of Mohallabiyah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the main northern city...

Friday, December 04, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR: A Legoland theme park will open in Malaysia's south in 2012 at a cost of 700 million ringgit (206 million dollars), one year earlier than scheduled, developers said Thursday.Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB) president and chief executive officer Arlida Ariff said the theme park covering 26 hectares (62.4 acres) in Johor state, which neighbours Singapore, is now slated to open in April 2012."The selection of Legoland is very deliberate. The (planned) theme park in Singapore by Universal Studios is for young adults. Our is for families. It will be complementary rather than competition," she said.The Malaysian attraction will be the first Legoland in Asia.IIB is an investment holding company linked to the 17.7 billion ringgit Iskandar Development Region (IDR), a major infrastructure project in Johor.The IDR, launched in November 2006, will be 2.5 times the size of Singapore when completed, including up-market residential homes, a logist...

Friday, December 04, 2009 DUBAI: Next month's opening of the Burj Dubai tower, the world's tallest building, will bring Dubai's era of exuberant expansion to a juddering halt as hundreds of other building projects are already mothballed.Plunging property prices and weak demand had already put a dampener on new schemes even before last week's shock announcement by state-owned giant Dubai World that it wants to halt debt payments for six months."It's not exactly going to improve investor confidence," said Matthew Green, associate director at property agency CB Richard Ellis, which has reported a 55 percent year-on-year drop in downtown Dubai commercial rental rates and a 67 percent fall outside the centre.The 800-metre (2,700 foot) tall skyscraper is the centrepiece of a 20 billion dollar new shopping district, Downtown Burj Dubai, which also includes 30,000 apartments and the Dubai Mall, which claims its space for 1,200 shops makes it the world's bigges...

Friday, December 04, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO: A study released Thursday by NPD Group indicates that 82 percent of US children two years of age or older play videogames but that interest wanes as teens near adulthood.Some 55.7 million US children are "gamers," with youths in a 12 to 14 age bracket logging the most play time at an average of 10.6 hours weekly, according to NPD.Time spent playing videogames drops off among children 15 to 17 years of age, with girls less likely to indulge in gaming than boys, NPD reported."The decline in teen usage of videogames is likely due to diversifying, maturing interests, which translates into stiffer competition for their mind and wallet share," said NPD videogame industry analyst Anita Frazier."In addition to competition from other areas of the entertainment space, more school work, activities, and parent-imposed time limits on gaming are factors which the data suggests may be contributing to this dip in older teen engagement....

Friday, December 04, 2009 BRUSSELS: More than 20 countries plan to send more troops to Afghanistan following U.S. President Barack Obama's increased commitment to the war, NATO said on Thursday, but the overall number falls short of U.S. expectations.As NATO foreign ministers gathered to discuss their response to Obama, the alliance also said it still needed over 200 more police and military training teams to boost Afghan forces so they can eventually take responsibility for security.On Wednesday, Obama announced he would send 30,000 more U.S. troops to join the fight against the Taliban-led insurgency, and Washington wants up to 7,000 more troops from allies.NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expected U.S. allies to provide at least 5,000 extra troops and probably a few thousand more -- still short of the 10,000 troops and trainers Pentagon officials are seeking."There are well over 20 countries that are indicating or have already indicated that they intend...

Friday, December 04, 2009 JAKARTA: An Indonesian labourer who hoped to be named the world's tallest man is actually five centimetres (almost two inches) shorter than record-holder Sultan Kosen of Turkey, an official said Wednesday.Suparwono, who like many Indonesians goes by just one name, was said to be 2.71 metres (8.89 feet) tall compared to Kosen's record height of 2.47 metres.But official measurements taken by Indonesia's Museum of Records found the 25-year-old Suparwono stood at 2.42 metres, enough to make him Indonesia's tallest man but not enough to qualify for the Guinness World Records."After our team from the Museum of Record measured him lying down and in the standing position we found that his height is 2.42 metres," museum director Ngadri said."We had reports this morning including the result of measurements from a hospital which were 2.71 metres. But we have to stick to our measurement," he said.Suparwono shot to fame this week after o...

Updated at: 0054 PST, Friday, December 04, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said he'd send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. But the actual number could be higher.Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he asked the president for flexibility on the number in case military commanders in the field request additional medics or troops trained to detect improvised explosive devices.Gates told a Senate committee Thursday that he got approval for the 30,000 troop deployment to be expanded by as much as 3,000 if necessary.Obama had granted authority to the defense chief to send up to 3,000 medics, intelligence analysts, bomb disposal specialists and other support troops if necessary to safeguard American combat forces, Gates told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Thursday, December 03, 2009 WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that there is a lack of trust between Pakistan and United States. She lauded two major military offensives by Pakistan against militants. The Secretary of State warned that Taliban of Pakistan and Afghan were syndicate of al-Qaeda. The world must remember that Pakistan is a sovereign country, she commented.

Thursday, December 03, 2009 KABUL: Afghanistan's president says he is willing to talk with the Taliban chief in a bid to bring peace to the country.President Hamid Karzai said in an interview Thursday with a foreign news agency that he would do “whatever it takes” to bring peace, including meeting with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.But Karzai says he wants guarantees that the U.S. and its international partners are backing any peace bid. He says previous efforts at talks with the Taliban were undermined when ex-members of the hard-line movement were “harassed” by international forces even though they had quit the insurgency.Karzai says not all Taliban are terrorists but members of al-Qaida and other terror groups are not welcome in the country.

Friday, December 04, 2009 WELLINGTON: Pakistan's bowlers destroying New Zealand's top order with another clinical performance in second Test here, which left them superbly placed to level the series. After extending their first innings to 264, thanks largely to Kamran Akmal's enterprising 70, the bowlers immediately got down to business, exploiting the conditions and the huge flaws in the techniques of the New Zealand batsmen, bundling them out for 99 and extending their overall lead to 229 by close of play. Save for a brief four-over period when New Zealand took the last three Pakistan wickets and a little period just before close of play, the day belonged entirely to the visitors. Mohammad Aamer did his by now customary trick of taking a wicket in his first over. Mohammad Asif seamed the ball both ways, Gul was the perfect first-change bowler who offered the New Zealanders no respite, while Danish Kaneria befuddled the lower order with his bag of tricks. That was one of ...