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Updated at: 0231 PST, Saturday, January 02, 2010 NAIROBI: Somali pirates seized an Indonesian chemical tanker Friday with 24 crew members in the Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog reported. The Singapore-flagged Premoni was captured while en route to India -- the third vessel since August to be taken in the region patrolled by foreign navies -- said Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Programme. It also marked the first attack this year. Among the crew are 17 Indonesians, five Chinese nationals, a Nigerian and a Vietnamese, said Mwangura, adding that the sailors were safe. On Monday, pirates seized the St James Park, a UK-flagged chemical tanker with a crew of 26 from nine different countries, while Yemeni authorities said the same day that a Yemeni freighter with 15 crew members had also been taken.

Saturday, January 02, 2010::SYDNEY: Three changes have been made in the Pakistan squad for the second Test match against Australia beginning here tomorrow. Fast bowlers Mohammad Sami and Umar Gul and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria have been included in the team in place of Mohamamd Aamer, Abdul Rauf and Saeed Ajmal. Captain Pakistan team Mohammad Yousuf told Geo news that the Sydney wicket has enough grass which would help fast bowlers and this is why Sami and Gul have been included in the team. The Pakistan team consists of the following players: Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Faisal Iqbal, Mohammad Yousuf (captain), Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria. On the other side, Australia have made only one change in their team by including New South Wales batsman Phillip Hughes in place of injured opener Simon Katich for the second Test.

Thursday, December 31, 2009 KABUL: At least 8 American civilian workers were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bomb attack on a US military base, officials said. Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Almarah Belk said the eight died when an attacker detonated a vest packed with explosives on Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province -- a key Taliban stronghold. "Eight Americans have been killed in an attack on RC-East," a US embassy official said, referring to the military region of eastern Afghanistan. "No US and no ISAF military personnel were killed or injured" in the incident, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) added. Suicide attacks are a hallmark of the Taliban, who are waging a major insurgency to topple the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The number of foreign civilians under government contracts in Afghanistan is increasing, with the strategy to defeat the Taliban placing more emphasis on developme...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 MOSCOW: Russian scientists will soon meet in secret to work on a plan for saving Earth from a possible catastrophic collision with a giant asteroid in 26 years, the head of Russia's space agency said Wednesday. "We will soon hold a closed meeting of our collegium, the science-technical council to look at what can be done" to prevent the asteroid Apophis from slamming into the planet in 2036, Anatoly Perminov told Voice of Russia radio. "We are talking about people's lives," Perminov was quoted by news agencies as telling the radio station. "Better to spend a few hundred million dollars to create a system for preventing a collision than to wait until it happens and hundreds of thousands of people are killed," he said. The Apophis asteroid measures approximately 350 metres (1,150 feet) in diameter and a local news agency said that if it were to hit Earth when it passes nearby in 2036 it would create a new desert...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 LONDON: Angelina Jolie has been named the Beauty Icon of the Decade in a new poll in the U.K. The multi-award winning actress is ahead of Brad Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston in the list. Health and beauty retail chain Superdrug asked 3,000 people in the new survey, which sees the "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" Star the envy of women around the world. Commercial Director for the company, Steve Jebson, told a UK-based newspaper, "Angelina Jolie is not a conventional beauty but her strong character shines through her fabulous features to give her a unique standing in the beauty world." He added that while Jolie, 34, is famous for her sultry pout, her figure and long thick lustrous hair are what make British women envious. Scarlett Johansson, who was named Beauty Icon of 2008, is at sixth place, while Beauty Icon of 2009, Cheryl Cole, is at fifth. Also included in the list are Beyonce (8th), Halle Berry (10th), Megan Fox (16th), an...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 NEW DELHI: India is preparing for a possible `two-front war' with China and Pakistan, Geo News quoted an Indian newspaper saying Wednesday. The newspaper said the Indian Army is now revising its five-year-old doctrine to effectively meet the challenges of war with China and Pakistan, deal with asymmetric and fourth-generation warfare, enhance strategic reach and joint operations with IAF and Navy. Work on the new war doctrine -- to reflect the reconfiguration of threat perceptions and security challenges -- is already underway under the aegis of Shimla-based Army Training Command, headed by Lt-General A S Lamba, sources told the Indian newspaper. It comes in the backdrop of the 1.13-million strong Army having practiced -- through several wargames over the last five years -- its `pro-active' war strategy to mobilise fast and strike hard to pulverize the enemy. This `cold start strategy', under a NBC (nuclear-chemical-biological) overhan...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 PARIS: The number of journalists killed because of their work rose to 76 this year from 60 in 2008, the media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday. "Wars and elections have been the main threats to journalists in 2009", said Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general of the watchdog group (Reporters sans frontieres - RSF). "Violence committed against journalists pre- or post-election have been especially high in 2009 in countries with weak democracies." The year also saw an increase in the number of journalists kidnapped (33 compared with 29 in 2008) and physically attacked or threatened (1,456 compared with 929) and more bloggers were censored (151 in 2009 against 59 in 2008). Repression has increased on the Internet, as the number of countries affected by censorship nearly doubled from 37 in 2008 to 60 in 2009. "Each time the Internet or new media (social networking websites, mobile telephones, etc.) ...