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TOKYO: Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday promised up to one billion dollars in aid to help stabilise Pakistan, after meeting President Asif Ali Zardari on the eve of a donors meeting.Aso said at a media briefing after their talks that "I told him that Japan would make a pledge of up to one billion dollars" at the Tokyo aid conference on Friday that is jointly hosted by Japan and the World Bank.The Japanese premier said Pakistan's stability is important for the region and for "the peace and stability of the international community."President Zardari called Japan, already Pakistan's biggest aid donor, "an important partner in the world. Japan is showing its responsibility by being always there to support Pakistan and its fight against terrorism."Almost 30 donor countries are to meet Friday to raise what the World Bank hopes will be four to six billion dollars in loans and grant aid pledges for the poor, nuclear-armed country.Washington

WASHINGTON: Nineteen American crewmembers of the Maersk Alabama returned home early Thursday, days after the dramatic high seas capture of their captain.Family members and friends greeted the crew at a dark and damp Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington in the early hours of the morning.The Danish-operated Maersk Alabama crew had been in Mombasa since the vessel docked there on Saturday, three days after the pirate ambush in the Indian Ocean that saw the vessel's captain taken hostage for five days.The crew disembarked the jet liner, down the steps onto a rain-sodden runway as family members rushed to embrace them.It remained unknown when Captain Richard Phillips would return home.Phillips was taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, a US Navy destroyer, after the rescue on Sunday in which Special Forces snipers shot dead three of four pirates who had taken him hostage aboard a lifeboat.Late Tuesday, the Bainbridge came to the rescue of another US-flagged freighter, Liberty Sun, which

NEW DELHI: An angry BJP worker threw a shoe at party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, L. K. Advani on Thursday, Geo news reported.

KABUL: A soldier with NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan was killed in a bomb blast, the alliance said Thursday."An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was killed by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan yesterday," the force said in a statement without giving further details.NATO does not release the nationality of their casualties prior to notification of next of kin, leaving the job for their native countries.ISAF numbers more than 58,000 troops from 42 countries. The force works alongside a US-led coalition that is estimated to number around 10,000 although the figure is not public.

MUMBAI: An Indian court on Thursday appointed a new lawyer to represent the only Islamist militant suspect captured during last year's attacks on Mumbai.Advocate Abbas Kazmi was appointed to defend Mohammed Ajmal Kasab a day after his high-profile trial started in disarray, with a previous lawyer dismissed by the trial judge because of a conflict of interest.The 21-year-old Kasab, said to belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), faces a string of charges including "waging war" on India, murder, attempted murder and kidnapping.He faces the death penalty if convicted of taking part in the November 2008 rampage of killing in India's financial capital, which saw 10 gunmen land in the city by boat and murder more than 160 people.During Thursday's court proceedings, Kasab asked the judge to allow him to immediately meet his new defence.The court has granted him permission, and also informed the accused that a request for legal aid had been sent to Pakistan. Kasab had asked

KHARTOUM: A Sudanese court has sentenced to death 10 members of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) for an unprecedented 2008 attack on the Sudanese capital here on Thursday.The men were found guilty of involvement in the attack on the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman in May 2008. Three others were acquitted and will be freed, the court said.After the sentence was announced, the men raised their shackled hands and shouted in unison "Allah Akbar" (God is great) and "Revolution until victory".The men were found guilty of 12 charges, including treason, violence against the state and illegal possession of weapons. The group has seven days to appeal the decision.The sitting judge rejected requests for leniency from their lawyers.More than 200 people were killed and hundreds injured when JEM launched the shock attack.

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Police have seized over Rs 26 crore unaccounted money during last two weeks reportedly meant for distribution among voters in the elections, state Chief Electoral Officer said. The illegal money was seized during vehicle checks across the state. "Any unaccounted money is being seized. This is to curb the flow of illegal money during elections," state Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao told reporters. The police have also seized a large quantity of liquor bottles, cricket kits and sarees reportedly meant for distribution among voters as inducements to the voters. Meanwhile, police returned over Rs four crore after it was found not to be for distribution among voters, the CEO added.

MUMBAI: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the possible goof-up in sending identical DNA reports of terrorists involved in 26/11 attack in Mumbai was a "non-issue" and a "minor clerical error". "Pakistan no longer denies that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail (the two terrorists involved in the Mumbai terror strikes) were its nationals," Mr. Chidambaram said alluding that the goof-up may have occurred because the same photocopies of the report might have been sent. He also ruled out setting up a commission of inquiry into the 26/11 attack. "This is a minor clerical error which can be corrected. Kasab is still alive. His DNA can be taken again while a dead man's DNA is required only to know who the father or mother is," he said. While Kasab is the lone gunman captured alive in the 26/11 attack, Ismail was among the nine terrorists killed in the operation by commandos. The media reports had said that in a dossier sent to Paki

WASHINGTON – Fifty of the country's most polluted and hazardous waste sites were selected Wednesday to receive a share of federal stimulus money to continue cleanup operations. The Environmental Protection Agency announced that $582 million in recently approved economic stimulus money would be used to help clean up the sites in 28 states. The sites were contaminated years ago by mining waste, lead smelters, landfills, and other sources of chemicals but the companies responsible are no longer around to pay for their cleanup. At half the sites, cleanups were either stalled last year or were expected to face delays this year because the EPA was running short of funds. The money announced Wednesday will pay to excavate contaminated soil from hundreds of residential lawns in Evansville, Ind., Minneapolis, Minn., Madison County, Mo. and Omaha, Neb. Up to $25 million will connect 180 houses in southeastern North Dakota to public drinking water. Their wells were tainted with arsenic from b

MELBOURNE, Australia – Four baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia, leading to a search that forced the cancellation of two flights, the airline said Thursday. Twelve non-venemous Stimson pythons were being transported Tuesday on a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne in the plane's cargo area in a bag inside a plastic foam box with air holes. When the flight landed, it was discovered that four snakes had escaped from the package, a Qantas spokeswoman said in a statement. A reptile expert searched for the 6-inch (15-centimeter) -long snakes but did not find them. It was not known if the snakes were still on the plane or if they had somehow escaped outside after the plane landed. In the meantime, the plane missed two flights it had been scheduled to fly and the passengers were transferred to other flights. When the snakes were not found, the airplane was fumigated and it returned to service on Wednesday. Stimson's pythons, which can grow up