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Sunday, January 31, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haitian police were holding 10 US citizens Sunday on suspicion they tried to slip out of the country with 31 Haitian children in a trafficking scheme, a government minister said. Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said the police arrested five men and five women with US passports, and two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the Dominican Republic with the children Friday night. He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in Atlanta, Georgia. "This is an abduction, not an adoption," said Christallin. Christallin said the US citizens did not have the proper documents to take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorization from their parents. The children were aged two months to 12 years and had come from different places, he said. "What is important for us in Haiti is that a child needs to have an authorization from this ministry to leave the country," he said. US embassy offic...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops, in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one more innocent Kashmiri youth in Rajouri district. According to Kashmir Media Service, personnel of 63 Rashtriya Rifles during a crackdown operation shot dead the youth at Baji Maal area of the district. Dead body of a 75-year-old civilian was recovered from Nadimarg in Kulgam. Paramilitary troopers of Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) beat up and injured 11 persons when they were protesting against the Indian state terrorism in Nowhatta, Rajouri Kadal and Kawdara areas of Srinagar city.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LAS VEGAS: Caressa Cameron, Miss Virginia, has won the 2010 Miss America crown, sporting a yellow dress. Ms. Cameron won the prestigious event as well as the diamond crown. Cameron, 22, won a $50,000 scholarship and the crown in Las Vegas after a pageant that started with 53 contestants. She outlasted her opponents in swimsuit, evening gown, talent and interview competitions. Cameron is broadcast journalism student at Virginia Commonwealth University, and wants to become a news anchor. When asked during the interview portion of the competition her thoughts on fighting childhood obesity, Cameron said parents should curb television and video games. "We need to get our kids back outside, playing with sticks in the street like I did when I was little," she said. "Expand your mind, go outside and get to see what this world is like." Cameron said her win was a testament to her family's strength.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LONDON: Britain has temporarily suspended student visa applications from Northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The UK Border Agency, according to a report by a British media, took this step apparently as a precaution to a surge of applications. According to reports, student visa applications from Bangladesh, Nepal and northern India, have been put on hold for at least a month for now. British officials were quoted saying that the system had been overwhelmed with the number of applications. There also concerns that many cases were not genuine. Director of a student counselling agency, also an approved partner of the British high commission in Dhaka, providing counselling services for prospective UK students, confirmed what the UK officials said. Wishing to remain anonymous, this student counsellor said the high commission had admitted to serious backlogs. He was not surprised with the suspension either. The student counsellor said, "The UK Bor...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 DHANYAKURIA: Palatial mansions and small castles featuring an amalgamation of Gothic and Islamic architecture are features that distinguish Dhanyakuria village in India's eastern state of West Bengal. The village, in North 24 Parganas district, stands witness to the past glory, which has been a symbol of the development since pre-independence. Built by merchants who had settled in the place 170 years ago, the castles and mansions are highly influenced by the European lifestyle. Boasting of splendid domes, intricate filigree-work, gothic carvings, huge turrets and towers, the buildings are a visual feast for tourists and locals alike. The descendents of the merchants' families, despite having moved to India and abroad, have maintained close ties with the villagers. "I took a prompt action to accumulate all the young generations, along with the past generations to make a communication so that our heritage - not only our heritage but it is t...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 KABUL: For the US Marines deployed to the battlefields of southern Afghanistan, life is fragile and thoughts focus on the day they see their families again, but something about this war is different. They are preparing for an offensive on Marjah, one of the Taliban's big urban strongholds in the southern province of Helmand, but progress is slow with the militants apparently preferring fight to flight. The Marines will soon be joined by tens of thousands more soldiers, the lion's share of the 30,000-strong troop surge promised by US President Barack Obama in December to try and turn around the grinding Afghan war. A foot patrol for one platoon of Marines ends with a dash under a hail of bullets across a heavily-mined poppy field. The soldiers have been pinned down in a muddy mound, the thorny weeds cutting through skin. They recover soon enough, however, manoeuvring away from the Taliban's crosshairs and driving them away with heavy machin...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LIMA: Heavy flooding in southern Peru, which trapped thousands of tourists visiting the Inca city of Machu Picchu, has killed 20 and left at least five missing, Peru's Civil Defense force said Saturday. Thousands of others have been affected by heavy rains, the worst to hit the country in five years. In the Cusco region, the downpours prompted landslides that trapped 3,500 visitors in and around the picturesque mountaintop tourist site of Machu Picchu. Peruvian authorities used 12 helicopters and 40 pilots over four days to evacuate all the travelers trapped near the site, Latin America's top tourist destination. The evacuation of all visitors ended late Friday. "The good news is that Machu Picchu, along with all the ancient sites, is intact," said Carlos Millas, president of the chamber of commerce in Cusco, a region heavily dependent on the income from visiting tourists. But the railway that ferries 90 percent of the 1,000 peop...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 RIO DE JANEIRO: Carnival in Brazil is still two weeks away, but Rio de Janeiro's revelers kicked off the party on Saturday as thousands paraded through the streets of Ipanema beach. Thousands of revelers wearing all types of costumes flocked to the annual block party known as Banda de Ipanema, just one of the many street processions that take over the city's neighborhoods. The band, which is a favorite of Rio's gay community, pounded out samba songs with irreverent lyrics while transvestites struggled to stay upright in stiletto heels. A transvestite, known as Juju Maravilha, said Carnival is a democratic festivity. "The rich (people) and the poor (people) party, the fat and the thin (party), the young and the elder (party), Carnival is a true democracy," said Maravilha, who as wearing a Carmen Miranda costume. This year, Banda de Ipanema decided to pay tribute to the famous Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer and some transvest...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 TOKYO: Japan has lodged a formal protest with Russia after two of its fishing vessels were shot at by the Russian Coast Guard near four disputed islands. Japan's foreign ministry says the ships were fishing in an area agreed on by the two countries when the flares were fired at them. Japan's Kyodo news agency says the two vessels appear to have 20 bullet marks on their hulls. Russia's newswire reports the boats were shot with flares from a helicopter because they were suspected of operating illegally in Russia's exclusive economic zone near the islands. It says the two boats were shot at near Kunashir Island after they refused to stop. The two countries have a decades-old dispute over the chain of Pacific islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuril Islands in Russia.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 BULALACAO: The Mangyans in the central Philippine island of Mindoro have struggled to keep their tribal culture alive amidst massive modernisation. With a growing number of Hanunuo Mangyans migrating to cities and adopting modern ways, ancient traditions are fast disappearing - like their ritual for the dead, called "kutkot." "Kutkot" is a Filipino word for "scratch" or "unearth." The ritual entails digging up a loved one's remains and dressing it up like a human being, to bring him back to the land of the living. It is an obligation that tribe members must perform, in keeping with a family's practice or following a dead relative's request. A year after Hulyong Antonio was buried, six of his children and other relatives from the Hanunuo Mangyan tribe traveled to his grave and retrieved his coffin. "This man told his children, 'Whatever happens to me, you have to do the kutkot ritual, in th...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 WASHINGTON: A powerful winter storm swept through southern and mid-Atlantic states Sunday, dumping up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow in some areas. Six inches of snow dropped in Washington, DC, where the storm took many by surprise. In Virginia, driving was clearly treacherous, despite the best efforts of snow plow crews. In North Carolina, a state that doesn't often have to cope with winter storms, only a limited number of plowers were available to clear hundreds of kilometers of paved roads. Seven to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow fell across the state. Hundreds of accidents were reported across the state, and two road accident deaths were attributed to the storm. It was a similar story in Tennessee, where it was reported that 900 customers lost power due to the storm. Travelers at Nashville International Airport also had to show patience. Many flights were canceled or delayed.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 WASHINGTON: Facing budgetary constraints, President Barack Obama will scale back US space ambitions, abandoning plans to return to the moon by 2020 and confining NASA to lower orbits for years to come. The shift will be unveiled Monday when Obama presents his 2011 budget blueprint to Congress, according to an external White House advisor. "Constellation is dead," the advisor said on Friday, referring to a program that envisioned using Earth's nearest neighbor as a base for manned expeditions to Mars. Under the new plan, Obama will also propose boosting the development of commercial rockets and other vehicles that can ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Constellation program was launched in 2004 by then-president George W. Bush after the Columbia space shuttle mission ended in disaster with the death of all seven crew members in 2003. The catastrophe led the US space agency to decide it would retire its shu...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 PROVIDENCIALES: Scores of Haitians have been picked up in a boat off the Turks and Caicos Islands, the first group known to have fled since the devastating January 12 earthquake, police said Saturday. A rickety boat crammed with 126 people, including children as young as eight, was intercepted early Wednesday five miles from the island of Providenciales, Marine police chief Neil Hall said. "The amount of people on board is indicative of the problem we may now face," Hall said, adding that he feared it would be the first in a wave of many to set sail in coming weeks. "People are desperate -- they will be trying to get away," he said. Assistant police commissioner Dave Ryder said some of the boat passengers had been taken to the country's sole detention center, which can accommodate around 25 people, and the rest were being held in a nearby sports complex. Local doctors and Red Cross volunteers treated many of the survivors for...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 PERTH: Pakistan T20 skipper Shahid Afridi is set to miss the only Twenty20 clash with Australia after he was banned for two Twenty20 matches on Sunday. The International Cricket Council found Afridi guilty of tampering the bill during the final one-day international against Australia. Afridi admitted the charge, after which the match referee put a two Twenty20 matches ban on him. Coach Inftikhab Alam described the ban as ‘unfortunate’. It may be reminded here that Shahid Afridi was seen tampering the ball with his teeth during the final ODI match.

MELBOURNE: Defending champion and top seed Serena Williams powered to her fifth Australian Open title and 12th Grand Slam when she beat a brave Justine Henin 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 on Saturday. Williams took a tight first set then had to hold off a charging Henin to deny the Belgian a fairytale ending to her tennis comeback in a thrilling final on Rod Laver Arena. The American claimed her 12th Grand Slam with the win, putting her alongside fellow American Billie Jean King on the list of all time major winners. It was fitting that the final was played in front of King and Australian great Margaret Smith Court, who won a record 24 Grand Slams and handed Williams her trophy. Williams said she hung on grimly as Henin went on a 15-point, five game winning streak midway through the match. The world number one looked in complete control when she led 6-4 and had a break point on Henin's serve to make it 4-3 with her serve to come. But the unseeded Belgian then went on her incredible ram...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 PERTH: Pakistan could not avoid the whitewash after making a great fight back as Australia won the thrilling contest by two wickets with four balls remaining in the fifth and the final One-day International here at the WACA ground on Sunday. Needing only three runs in the final over with two wickets in hand, Australia lost Nathan Hauritz on the first ball by Rao Iftikhar Anjum for 18. Then Ryan Harris playing next ball was caught in the covers by Shahid Afridi but umpire Asoka de Silva called no-ball and thus Australia won the thriller and also completed the clean sweep in the one-dayers after making it in the three-Test series. This was the second-ever five-match whitewash for Pakistan in 22 years. Earlier, they tasted it in1987-88 from the West Indies. Chasing 213 runs to win, Australia were looking in pressure as wicket were falling at regular intervals. However, Ricky Ponting played a responsible innings of 55 and later Michael Hussey steered hi...