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WASHINGTON: The first Muslim woman appointed to a position in President Barack Obama’s administration met with lawmakers and discussed her role on an interfaith advisory board the new administration hopes will broaden dialogue and understanding. Dalia Mogahed’s dimpled smile shined from under her hijab, the Muslim headscarf, as she addressed senate staff and think tanks at a meeting organized by the Congressional Muslims Staffers Association to discuss American Muslim public opinion in the wake of a recent survey.The Egyptian-born American who heads the Gallup American Center for Muslim Studies, a non-governmental research center providing data-driven analysis on the views of Muslim populations around the world, became the first Muslim veiled woman to be appointed to a position in the White House. "I am very honored to be given this opportunity to serve my country in this way," Mogahed, who will be Obama's window into the Muslim American community, told media.Last month,

LOS ANGELES: Salma Hayek and her husband have tied the knot — again.Hayek spokeswoman Jillian Fowkes said Sunday in Los Angeles that the Mexican-born actress and French magnate Francois-Henri Pinault renewed their wedding vows Saturday in a ceremony at Venice's La Fenice opera house.Hayek and Pinault originally were married in a small civil ceremony in Paris last Valentine's Day.This time, the couple made it a weekend-long celebration, starting with a cocktail party at Punta della Dogana, an art museum owned by the groom's father, Francois Pinault.Among those attending were actresses Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz and Ashley Judd, plus U2 frontman Bono and Vogue editor Anna Wintour, as well as former French President Jacques Chirac.

MEXICO: Fears of a global swine flu pandemic grew with new infections in the United States and Canada, and millions of Mexicans hid indoors to avoid a virus that has already killed103 people. While the only deaths have been in Mexico, the flu is spreading with cases in the United States and Canada, and possible cases as far a field as Europe and New Zealand. The World Health Organization has declared the flu a "public health emergency of international concern" that could become a pandemic, or global outbreak of serious disease. A pandemic would deal a major blow to a world economy already suffering its worst recession in decades.

BEIJING: Twenty Chinese couples, most of whom lost their spouses during the Sichuan earthquake last year, have tied the knot in a mass wedding ceremony.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan forces attacked a rebel-held village in the north with heavy machine gun fire early Monday, just hours after rejecting the Tamil Tigers' call for a truce as a ploy to avoid certain destruction, a rebel-linked Web site reported.The military attacked the small, coastal village of Mullivaikal from the north, south and west about 3:45 a.m. Monday, Tamil Netreported. The village is in a no-fire zone the government demarcated inside rebel territory as a civilian refuge. The Web site said the area was densely populated with tens of thousands of civilians.``Confrontations are taking place,'' military spokesman Brig.Udaya Nanayakkara said. ``We are moving forward.'' The assault came amid growing diplomatic pressure for a cease-fire to allow tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone to escape to safety.The top U.N. humanitarian official, John Holmes, met Sri Lanka's foreign minister Monday to express concern for the estimated 50,000 trappe

ISLAMABAD: Indian troops, in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one youth in Poonch district in occupied Kashmir, on Monday.According to Kashmir Media service, troops during siege and search operations killed the youth at Mendher in the district. On the other hand, an Indian trooper assaulted and critically injured a civilian, Manzoor Ahmad Khan at Beerwah in Budgam while an Indian policeman thrashed Irshad Ahmad Dar, a driver of mini-bus, near Lazbal in Islamabad without any provocation. Meanwhile, a complete shutdown is being observed in Islamabad and Pulwama districts of south Kashmir in protest against the visit of the General Secretary of Indian Congress, Rahul Gandhi. "This protest strike is not against the Gandhi but against the party which he represents. Former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had promised to the people of Kashmir that they would be given right of self-determination. The promise is yet to be fulfilled. So it is a message for the India's

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Varun Gandhi, who recently triggered a controversy by his hate-speech, said that people should know him by his work rather than his Gandhi tag. "People ask me that I am from the Gandhi family and so how do I feel. I tell everyone that I want to be known by my work, not by my name. I want to be seen as 'Gandhi by work', not 'Gandhi by name'," he said. Mr. Gandhi was addressing an election meeting at Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh. He is contesting Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from the Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh. The 29-year-old BJP leader had run into a controversy after he delivered a hate-speech against Muslims during a public meeting in Pilibhit on March 7. He was later arrested after being booked under the NSA.

LUXEMBOURG: European Union foreign ministers were assessing the implications of a deadly strain of swine flu in Mexico at talks Monday to ease public concerns over the outbreak.European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said from Athens that EU officials and experts were ``following the situation very closely'' and reassured Europeans that the health emergency was still limited to the North American continent.The EU's Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou was to brief the EU's 27 foreign ministers here on what the EU could do to coordinate preventative measures against the flu, which is suspected in more than 100 deaths in Mexico. ``There need to be maximum European coordination,'' said British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

KABUL: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Afghanistan on Monday for talks with President Hamid Karzai on a new strategy to fight the "crucible of terrorism" in the border district with Pakistan. Brown said the new approach, due to be officially unveiled Wednesday, would treat Afghanistan and Pakistan together as "different but complimentary".He visited British troops at Camp Bastion in the southern province of Helmand, and the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, before meeting the head of the Western-backed Afghan government in Kabul, said foreign news agency.