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SEMNAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran has test-fired a new medium-range surface-to-surface missile. "The defence minister Mohammad Mostafa Najjar told me today that we launched a Sejil-2 missile, which is a two-stage missile and it has reached the intended target," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northern town of Semnan. "I was told that the missile is able to go beyond the atmosphere then come back and hit its target. It works on solid fuel," Ahamdinejad added to cheers from the crowd. He did not specify the missile's range.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's earthquake monitoring service is urging residents of several villages in the kingdom's western region to evacuate after it recorded a temblor measuring5.39 on the Richter scale. The Saudi National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanos said in a statement Wednesday the pre-dawn quake caused no damage or injuries. But it urged residents of five villages west of the holy city of Medina to head to tent camps and shelters set up by authorities. Arab satellite new channels had reported that many have already fled the area. Authorities have been distributing surgical masks after many complaints about unpleasant odors emanating from the fissures caused by the quake. Earlier, a magnitude 4.9 quake was registered in the same area.

BAGHDAD: A car bomb exploded Wednesday near several restaurants in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, killing41 people and injuring more than 70, police and hospital officials said. No group claimed responsibility for the horrific blast but the style and location of the attack suggested it was carried out by Sunni extremists, such as al-Qaida in Iraq, in an apparent bid tore kindle sectarian warfare as the U.S. draws down forces in the capital.The blast appeared timed for maximum civilian casualties, going off about 7 p.m. when many Baghdad residents take advantage of cooler evening temperatures for shopping and dining in outdoor kebab restaurants. It was the first major car-bombing in the capital since May 6,when 15 people were killed at a produce market in south Baghdad, and the deadliest in the city since twin car blasts killed 51 people in another Shiite neighborhood, Sadr City, on April 29. Nearly 200 people were killed in major bombings in Baghdad alone last month. That

NEW DELHI: The unexpected landslide victory of the Congress Party in India's general elections has unshackled the incoming government from the tricky task of managing its earlier coalition for political survival, especially the rabidly anti-American Left parties. There is little doubt that the team of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, all-powerful Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi -- who led the election campaign -- will look to firm up some of their earlier aims, given the near-majority and stability that the party and its allies now command.In fact, the new government can no longer offer excuses for not delivering on its promises -- whether in pushing for further economic reforms, building infrastructure, implementing security measures and diplomatic initiatives, and developing education and healthcare frameworks that benefit all.If the election results deliver a message, it is that the people of India are looking to their political representatives for a

NEW DELHI: The clear victory for the Congress-led alliance in recent general elections has sidelined an array of regional and left leaning parties, which came to the center stage of Indian politics over the last two decades as national parties lost influence. The elections have also paved the way for the Congress Party to recover its position as India's dominant political force. Days after the Congress Party-led alliance won comfortably in the general elections, Mayawati, the head of a caste-based regional group known as the Bahujan Samaj Party, pledged her party's support to the coalition. Mayawati says she is making the offer to extend a friendly hand to the Congress Party "without any conditions."Hers is among several regional and caste based parties which have volunteered to support the Congress-led alliance, which is returning for its second term in office. This is not what any of these parties had expected to do. Rather they had nurtured ambitions of being wooed

NEW YORK: Four men were arrested on charges linked with planning attacks against a Jewish synagogue and New York military bases, the US district attorney said in a statement Wednesday.

WASHINGTON: An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials. The report, a copy of which was made available to The New York Times, says the Pentagon believes that 74 prisoners released from Guantánamo have returned to terrorism or militant activity, making for a recidivism rate of nearly 14 percent.Among the 74 former prisoners that the report says are again engaged in terrorism, 29 have been identified by name by the Pentagon, including 16 named for the first time in the report. The Pentagon has said that the remaining 45 could not be named because of national security and intelligence-gathering concerns.In the report, the Pentagon confirmed that two former Guantánamo prisoners whose terrorist activities had been previously reported had indeed returned to the fight. They are Said Ali al-

SYDNEY: Tens of thousands of homes were without power and hundreds of schools closed on Thursday as a wild storm front lashed Australia's northeast coast.A state of emergency was declared overnight in Queensland state, which was pounded by gale-force winds exceeding 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour and torrential rains. A 46-year-old was killed when freak winds ripped a sheet of metal from a building on the Gold Coast tourist strip and it smashed through his office window, police said.Up to 75,000 homes and businesses suffered blackouts as gusting winds felled trees and power lines, and the region received one-third of its annual rainfall in a single day, sparking landslides and causing roads to collapse. Enough rain fell over 48 hours in Brisbane, the state's capital, to supply drinking water for more than a year. Massive ocean swells up of up to 15 meters (50 feet) hammered the coastline, with waves at Currmbin so powerful a car was swept from a beach car park into the surf.

ATHENS: Greek police fired tear gas Thursday at hundreds of Muslim immigrants in Athens protesting reports that an officer had torn up Holy Qura’n during an identity check the day before. Around 1,500 demonstrators marched through the working class district of Kypseli towards the Omonia Square in the city centre, where there were scuffles with officers and tear gas was fired, said police. Some demonstrators also threw dustbins and stones at the police station in Kypseli district, injuring one officer and damaging a car. Officers fired tear gas to break up the crowd.Demonstrators said that on Wednesday, as police officers stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their papers, one of the officers had torn up Holy Qura’n and stamped on it.But after word spread of the alleged incident, the local Muslim immigrant community, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, organised Thursday's protest. Immigrants rights groups have called another protest for Friday. Police said they had opened an in

SYDNEY: Australian authorities declared a state of emergency in Queensland Wednesday as torrential rain and gale force winds caused extensive flooding and left one man dead.Almost 30,000 homes were without power in the state's southeast, where some areas recorded 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain in 24 hours and wind gusts exceeding 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour.Ambulance officers said a 46-year-old man was killed by flying glass when a freak wind gust smashed in a window on a building on the Gold Coast tourist strip.Queensland Premier Anna Bligh declared a state of emergency including the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast and extending inland to Toowoomba.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the federal government was ready to offer assistance if required.Rudd said he had received a briefing on the emergency and was told the floods were causing havoc on roads in southeast Queensland."There are quite a large number of people who are at this stage isolated in their vehicles and

NEW DELHI: Dr. Manmohan Singh will be sworn-in as India's Prime Minister second consecutive term on Friday, May 22, in New Delhi.Dr. Singh is armed with the support of 322 MPs, including those of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).The oath-taking ceremony of the new UPA government will be held at the Central Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan (Presidential Palace). The President will administer Oaths of Office and Secrecy.The council of ministers is likely to be dominated by the Congress who has won 200 seats alone, is expected to keep the key cabinet portfolios, after the party's election sweep. The outgoing council of ministers had 78 members comprising 30 cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with independent charge and 40 ministers of state or junior ministers.Indian President having satisfied herself, on the basis of various letters of support received, that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) alliance,

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to be sworn in for a second term Friday, following the resounding election victory of his Congress-led alliance.The 76-year-old, soft-spoken economist and his 60-strong cabinet were scheduled to take their oath of office from Indian president Pratibha Patil at the presidential palace in New Delhi on Friday evening. Singh is the first prime minister since the country's post-independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to be returned to office after completing a full term. His coalition won 262 seats in the 543-member national parliament, just 10 short of the 272 needed for a working majority. The alliance quickly garnered pledges of support from independents and others to take its voting strength to 322.

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinian activists were killed early Friday on the edge of the Gaza Strip as they were preparing to carry out an attack, an Israeli military source said.The two armed-men were shot dead by soldiers right beside the border of the Strip. They had an explosive device, the source said.

FLORIDA: Astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis are preparing to return to Earth after an ambitious and risky mission to re-fit the Hubble telescope.There are two chances to land on Friday: one at 1500 BST (1000 EDT) and a second at 1639 BST (1139 EDT). If bad weather scuppers either of those opportunities, the shuttle will try to land on Saturday in Florida or at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The mission was intended to give a new lease of life to Hubble. The orbiting observatory is regarded as one of the most important scientific tools ever built. The fifth and final mission to service Hubble has been hailed as a great success. Over five spacewalks, astronauts installed new instruments and thermal blankets, repaired two existing instruments, replaced gyroscopes and batteries. The only disappointment was the failure to restore the high-resolution channel (one of three) on Hubble's main camera - the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Cloudy skies and stormy weather could ye

COLOMBO: More than 6,200 soldiers died and nearly 30,000 have been wounded since the last phase of Sri Lanka's 25-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began in July 2006, the defence secretary has said.Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave the figures for the first time during an interview late on Thursday with the state-run Independent Television Network.By comparison, in the six years and one month since the United States went to war in Iraq, nearly 4,600 U.S., British and other nations' troops have been killed.Sri Lanka had only given its own casualty figures erratically if at all during the final 34-month phase of the war, dubbed Eelam War IV, and stopped giving them altogether last year.The military had said several months ago it had killed at least 15,000 Tamil Tigers in the course of fighting but has not given a final tally.Much of the fighting over the last year took place as troops crossed tall earthen dams and moats to break through into LTTE-

SYDNEY: Australian and US scientists have successfully tested hypersonic aircraft technology, which could revolutionise international flight, officials said Friday.The trial was the first of up to 10 tests to be conducted at the Woomera desert range as part of a joint US-Australian military research operation, said Defence Science Minister Warren Snowdon. The programme, called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE), is investigating hypersonics technology and its potential for next generation aeronautics. "Hypersonics is the study of flight exceeding approximately five times the speed of sound, and this trial has successfully tested the flight and mission control systems that will be used in future experiments," Snowdon said.The test vehicle was carried into space aboard a rocket launched from Woomera and then dived back into the atmosphere to test the hypersonic flight technology. Nitrogen gas valves were used as thrusters to manoeuvre the craft in

BRUSSELS: Belgium's foreign minister says his government remains committed to taking in several detainees from Guantanamo Bay when the U.S. military prison closes down. Speaking to La Premiere radio during his current trip to Washington, D.C., Karel De Gucht says it remains to be seen how many former inmates may be taken in. De Gucht says in Friday's broadcast that he spoke to the White House's national security adviser Gen. James Jones about the issue. He says the matter is complicated by the free travel regulations within the European Union, which would allow the former prisoners to change their country of residence without informing the authorities.Belgium first offered to accept ``a certain number'' of prisoners freed from Guantanamo when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Brussels in March.

BRUSSELS: Belgium's foreign minister says his government remains committed to taking in several detainees from Guantanamo Bay when the U.S. military prison closes down. Speaking to La Premiere radio during his current trip to Washington, D.C., Karel De Gucht says it remains to be seen how many former inmates may be taken in. De Gucht says in Friday's broadcast that he spoke to the White House's national security adviser Gen. James Jones about the issue. He says the matter is complicated by the free travel regulations within the European Union, which would allow the former prisoners to change their country of residence without informing the authorities.Belgium first offered to accept ``a certain number'' of prisoners freed from Guantanamo when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Brussels in March.

CALIFORNIA: A U.S. military jet crashed during a training mission over the Mojave Desert, killing the pilot and injuring another crewman who ejected, the Air Force said Friday. Capt. Mark P. Graziano, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene after his T-38A jet went down at about 1:15 p.m. Thursday near California City, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Edwards Air Force Base.Maj. Lee V. Jones, a senior navigator, ejected from the twin-engine plane. He was listed in stable condition at a Bakersfield hospital, a statement from the base said.Both men were assigned to the Test Pilot School at the base. Graziano was training to be a test pilot and Jones was training to become a test navigator.

CALIFORNIA: A U.S. military jet crashed during a training mission over the Mojave Desert, killing the pilot and injuring another crewman who ejected, the Air Force said Friday. Capt. Mark P. Graziano, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene after his T-38A jet went down at about 1:15 p.m. Thursday near California City, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Edwards Air Force Base.Maj. Lee V. Jones, a senior navigator, ejected from the twin-engine plane. He was listed in stable condition at a Bakersfield hospital, a statement from the base said.Both men were assigned to the Test Pilot School at the base. Graziano was training to be a test pilot and Jones was training to become a test navigator.

KABUL: Afghan and U.S. forces have killed 34 militants, almost half of them in air strikes, and made one of the country's largest drug hauls during an operation in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military has said.Almost 15 tonnes of narcotics including opium, heroin and morphine were seized over the course of the operation, which started on Tuesday, along with supplies of poppy seeds and drug refining products, the military said in a statement issued late on Thursday. The operation, which included air strikes that killed 16militants, was aimed at securing the Loy Cherah Bazaar in Marjeh city, a narcotics processing hub and militant stronghold in Helmand province.Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, most of it in the Taliban's southern heartland. U.S.military officials have estimated the opium trade provides between $80 million and $400 million a year to the Taliban.

Manmohan Singh was sworn in on Friday for a second term as India's prime minister in a ceremony at the presidential palace in New Delhi.