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GENEVA: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world Monday to rally against the threat that intolerance could rise as a result of the economic crisis, saying "the time is now" to stamp out racism.Ban, opening the global body's first racism conference, said racism including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia needed to be tackled."I fear that today's economic crisis, if not handled properly, could evolve into a full-scale political crisis marked by social unrest, weakened governments and angry publics who have lost faith in their leaders and their own future," the U.N. chief said.He also said he regretted the absence of the United States and eight other Western nations that have pulled out because of fears Muslim nations will dominate the conference with calls for to denounce Israel and for a global ban on criticizing Islam.Organizers have sought to steer clear of the controversies that marred the Durban meeting, but have run into many of the same contentio

WASHINGTON: The United States called Monday on Iran to end its "hateful rhetoric" after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attacks on Israel but said it still wanted talks with Tehran to mend relations. President Barack Obama "disagrees vehemently" with Ahmadinejad, who branded Israel a racist state, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. He said it vindicated the decision by the country's first African-American president to shun the UN conference on racism in Geneva. "This is hateful rhetoric. It's, I think, one of the reasons why you saw the administration and the president determined that its participation in this conference was not a wise thing to do," he said. But Gibbs added, "We continue to evaluate our policy and understand that from a larger foreign policy framework, doing things the same old way is not likely to bring about the change we need in our foreign policy." State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Ahmadi

BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani on Monday promised to decongest cities like Bangalore by reducing migration through creation of jobs in rural areas with the help of IT, if the NDA was voted to power.Addressing a public meeting at the National College Grounds in Bangalore as part of the party’s election campaign, Advani said his party had plans to create a minimum of 1.2 crore jobs in villages at the rate of 20 jobs in each of the six lakh villages in the country. This, he noted, would check migration of unemployed youth to cities like Bangalore in search of jobs and also help reduce the pressure on urban areas.Trying to strike a chord with the people of the country’s IT capital, Advani said the NDA would use IT as an effective tool to reduce corruption in administration if voted to power. Recalling the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement that if one rupee was released by the Centre under welfare measures, only 15 paise would reach

WASHINGTON: A US Senator said Monday he would soon offer legislation aiming to return North Korea to a list of state sponsors of terrorism and re-impose sanctions lifted under former president George W. Bush. "We should put them back on," Republican Senator Sam Brownback said as he spoke out against confirming veteran US diplomat and North Korea point person Christopher Hill as ambassador to Baghdad. Brownback's legislation would direct US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to list North Korea "as a country that has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism."Doing so would reactivate sanctions lifted when Washington took Pyongyang off the list in October, after saying North Korea agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume disabling its atomic plants. US President Barack Obama would be able to waive the designation if he certifies to the congress that North Korea has fully disclosed its nuclear activities, has no

DHAKA: Five people received injuries in a "bomb explosion" at Mirpur-2 in the capital city Dhaka on Monday night, said police. "We cannot say immediately what kind of bomb or device exploded," said officer in charge of Shah Ali Police Station Zakir Hossain Mollah told media. The explosion took place at around 9:30pm after a bag "containing bombs" fell from a table at a watermelon stall at Eidgah Field, he said. The injured, named as Saju (25), Rana (22), Ali Akbar (60), Nasir (32) and Alam (30), were admitted to local medical centres and Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Rickshaw puller Saju said the blast took place at the corner of Eidgah Field while he was walking along Zoo Road. "I don't know what happened after that," he said. Stall keeper Rana echoed the same. Mollah said there was a police check post on one side of the road and a RAB car parked on the other side from the stall. However none of them sustained injuries in the incident, he

LONDON: Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most famous scientists, is "very ill" in hospital, Cambridge University has said.The physicist, who works at the university, has been having tests after being taken by ambulance to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.A university spokesman said: "Professor Hawking is very ill. He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks."Professor Peter Haynes, head of the University's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, added: "Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague."We all hope he will be amongst us again soon."One of the last times the 67-year-old scientist appeared in public was in September when he unveiled a £1m clock erected at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.The professor is best known for his book A Brief History of Time.He has motor neurone disease and is wheelchair bound. He speaks with the help of a voice synthesiser.

SEOUL: South Korean officials have departed for North Korea to take part in the countries' first government-to-government contact in more than a year.The officials were seen Tuesday entering the border control area dividing the two Koreas to prepare to cross into the communist country. North Korea made a surprise offer to South Korea for talks last week. The two sides plan to discuss a troubled joint economic zone they operate across the border in the North. Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office last year in Seoul vowing to take a tough line on Pyongyang. North Korea has detained a South Korean worker at the Kaesong Industrial Complex amid allegations he denounced the country's political system.

MAYPORT NAVAL STATION: Navies from the United States and 11 other countries on Monday launched two weeks of war exercises off Florida's Atlantic coast that will include training in combating piracy and drug smuggling.Several Latin American countries, Canada and Germany are taking part in UNITAS Gold, which is now in its 50th year and is the Navy's longest-running yearly exercise. Hundreds of white-uniformed officers held a starting ceremony before embarking on ships, submarines and aircraft to begin training that is meant to foster naval cooperation throughout the Americas.Sailors, Marines and other military forces will perform live-fire exercises, undersea warfare, helicopter and amphibious operations, among other training. More than 25 ships, four submarines, 6,500sailors and 50 aircrafts are taking part in the exercise hosted by the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet, based at Mayport Naval Station just north of Jacksonville.

WASHINGTON: After banning and then publicizing the most controversial interrogation practices employed by the CIA, President Obama called on the agency Monday to live up to its mission under its new marching orders."We live in dangerous times," Obama said at the CIA headquarters in Virginia. "I am going to need you more than ever."Obama last week released legal memos written by the Bush-era Justice Department that gave the CIA authority to use harsh interrogation tactics on Al Qaeda suspects -- including waterboarding, in which drowning is simulated. The release of the memos has drawn criticism from some current and former intelligence officials and Bush administration officials. However, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. has called waterboarding "torture." Along with other methods, it is forbidden under orders Obama signed in his first week in office. "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those memos," Obama told CIA employ

DARFUR: A fire broke out last night at the headquarters of the hybrid United Nations-African Union (AU) peacekeeping operation in Darfur, known as UNAMID, causing $4 millions worth of damage, the mission announced today.UNAMID fire fighters, assisted by blue helmets from Rwanda and Egypt and the State Airport Fire Brigade, eventually brought the fire under control without suffering any injuries.The blaze caused an estimated $4 million worth of damage to communications equipment and another $1 million to other items, including office furniture and a water treatment laboratory.In addition, 11 container offices and two warehouses were completely destroyed in the fire, which may have been sparked by an electrical short circuit, according to an initial assessment to be confirmed after a more thorough investigation.

JEDDAH: Khaled Al-Mulhim, director general of Saudi Arabian Airlines, described the seizure of the airline’s Boeing 777-200 jet in Paris as an arbitrary measure and said such unilateral actions would affect continuation of its operations to France.“We’ll work with French authorities to stop such arbitrary measures,” Al-Mulhim said while commenting on the plane’s seizure at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Friday.Eagle Aviation, an aircraft-leasing firm based in Saint Nazaire, alleged that Saudia owed $2 million (2.6 million euros) to the company for providing the aircraft.“We’ll ask Eagle Aviation, which has been recently declared bankrupt ... to pay amounts higher than what it demands from us,” the Saudia chief said, referring to their legal battle. He said the leasing company had refused to reach a settlement.

BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.

NAIROBI: A police spokesman says 24 people have been killed in violence overnight between residents of a central Kenya town and members of a banned sect.Deputy Police spokesman Charles Owino says residents of Karatina town have been fighting members of the banned Mungiki sect because they have been extorting money from local residents. Owino says that most of those killed were Mungiki members. The government banned Mungiki in 2002 but the gang has continued to operate, extorting money from owners of minibus taxis and other public transport vehicles. The group is known for beheading some of its victims