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Thursday, September 10, 2009 BEIRUT: Saad Hariri announced on Thursday that he was stepping down as Lebanon's prime minister-designate after the Hezbollah-led opposition rejected a team he proposed earlier this week. "Given that my commitment to forming a government of national unity has run up against difficulties that everyone now knows about, I announce that I have informed the president of the republic that I have abandoned trying to form a government," he told journalists in Beirut. "I worked for 73 days to achieve this objective but each time the rounds of negotiations were hampered one way or another," added Hariri, saying the team he had proposed would have been a "real opportunity" but was "frittered away through conditions imposed" by the minority. Hariri and his allies won a healthy majority of 71 seats in the 128-member parliament in the June election, while the Hezbollah camp got 57. "I hope that this decision will be in the

Thursday, September 10, 2009 LONDON: The University of Bristol has opened a state of the art centre for nanoscience research, featuring what is claimed to be the world's quietest room.The $18 million Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information (NQSI) features specialised laboratories where vibration and acoustic noise levels are among the lowest ever achieved, despite being located in the centre of Bristol City. The basement houses the low noise area with a suite of ultra-low vibration nanoscience laboratories that are anchored to the rock below.Because of the size of the materials involved - between one and 100 nanometers - complete stillness is essential to an experiment's success. There is virtually no air movement inside the lab.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 LONDON: Prince Harry hasn't had the easiest of summers, and his next challenge doesn't promise to be any easier.It all began when Harry lost the "love of his life," Chelsea Davy, a sting from which he hasn't fully recovered. Then the endless headlines about his hard-partying lifestyle made him decide to "knuckle down" and start taking his life and career seriously.Apart from a recent glitch that saw the media uncover his questionable taste in evening attire, it's been pretty plain sailing.But there's one thing still bothering the Prince. He's angry with himself for returning to the evil weed. Cigarettes have played a part in Harry's life since his early school days. He says he wishes he'd never started the foul habit, but alas, it's back, with a vengeance.His father, Prince Charles, who has never smoked, is stunned at Harry's recent return to smoking and is appalled that his son was recaptured by n

September 10, 2009 COPENHAGEN: Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea faster than ever before, the environmental pressure group Greenpeace claimed on Wednesday.Glaciers move when melting occurs from the effects of global warming, causing masses of ice to slide into fjords and the sea.Greenland's Helheim glacier, which measures six kilometres wide (four miles) and is one kilometre thick, moves about 25 metres (yards) a day, Greenpeace said in a statement.The group said that is twice as fast as when its Arctic Sunrise vessel last visited Greenland in 2005.The speed of the other major glacier in Greenland, Kangerdlugssuaq, is even more dramatic. It moves some 38 metres a day or 14 kilometres a year, Greenpeace said."Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier is probably the world's fastest moving glacier," said Dr. Gordon Hamilton, from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute.Hamilton is a member of this year's Greenpeace expedition currently inspecting the gl

Thursday, September 10, 2009 MUMBAI: Jet Airways (India) Ltd. said Thursday it canceled 91 flights, including 21 to overseas destinations, as a standoff between pilots and the airline management entered its third day.The standoff began with pilots taking sick leave to protest the sacking of two of their colleagues in July. Two more pilots were sacked by the airline management Wednesday.The total number of the protesting pilots touched 432 Wednesday out of 760 in the airline.The protesting pilots are part of a recently formed National Aviators Guild, which claims to represent more than 650 pilots.The standoff, which Jet calls a "simulated strike," forced Jet to cancel 174 flights Wednesday to destinations including Bangkok, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Also, the airline shifted half its 14,000 domestic passengers to other carriers.Jet said the pilots went on sick leave despite a continuing conciliation process with the management.The Bombay High Court Tuesday issued a restr

September 10, 2009 NEW DELHI: At least five girls were killed and 31 other students were injured Thursday in a stampede at a state-run school in a crowded area of the Indian capital New Delhi, police said.The stampede happened after the students were asked to vacate the classroom following rumours of electrocution in the rainwater accumulated on the school premises following heavy rains in the national capital. The injured have been rushed to the hospital. The Delhi Govt School is situated in the Khajuri Khas area of East Delhi.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 WASHINGTON: Packed with lower levels of saturated fats, cholesterol reducing and anti-oxidant properties and even essential vitamins, switching to cooking in mustard oil could well be the wisest health investment you can make. Mustard oil is found to have very low levels of artery clogging saturated fatty acid and high levels of good omega 3 fatty acid and mono-unsaturated fatty acid and thus score over other cooking mediums including refined oils, olive oil and soybean oil, US researchers said.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 WASHINGTON: Packed with lower levels of saturated fats, cholesterol reducing and anti-oxidant properties and even essential vitamins, switching to cooking in mustard oil could well be the wisest health investment you can make. Mustard oil is found to have very low levels of artery clogging saturated fatty acid and high levels of good omega 3 fatty acid and mono-unsaturated fatty acid and thus score over other cooking mediums including refined oils, olive oil and soybean oil, US researchers said.

September 10, 2009 BERLIN: The German officer who called in an air strike in Afghanistan that authorities say killed dozens of people did not have the right to give the order, according to preliminary NATO findings, a newspaper said on Wednesday.German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said a report from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had found that Colonel Georg Klein had overstepped his command in ordering the attack in Kunduz last week.The paper quoted a senior NATO officer as saying it was "crystal clear" that Klein had not kept to the prescribed chain of command, and that he should not have made the decision without checking back with ISAF headquarters.A spokesman for Germany's Defence Ministry, which has been heavily criticised over the incident, said the officer's remarks were based on initial ISAF findings amounting to "a kind of inspection report" that contained unsubstantiated speculation.Before investigations into the matter

September 10, 2009 BERLIN: The German officer who called in an air strike in Afghanistan that authorities say killed dozens of people did not have the right to give the order, according to preliminary NATO findings, a newspaper said on Wednesday.German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said a report from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had found that Colonel Georg Klein had overstepped his command in ordering the attack in Kunduz last week.The paper quoted a senior NATO officer as saying it was "crystal clear" that Klein had not kept to the prescribed chain of command, and that he should not have made the decision without checking back with ISAF headquarters.A spokesman for Germany's Defence Ministry, which has been heavily criticised over the incident, said the officer's remarks were based on initial ISAF findings amounting to "a kind of inspection report" that contained unsubstantiated speculation.Before investigations into the matter

Thursday, September 10, 2009 MOSUL: A suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a Kurdish village in northern Iraq before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 19 villagers and wounding 13, police said. Police said the initial death toll was likely to rise and that women and children were among the dead.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 MEXICO CITY: Some of the passengers from a hijacked Aero Mexico flight were seen leaving the plane Wednesday, witnesses said. Passengers have been freed from a hijacked airplane in Mexico City, but the crew remains aboard. Passenger Adriana Romero told media that all passengers have been released unharmed from the Cancun-to-Mexico City flight, Aero Mexico Flight 576, but the crew is still being held hostage. The airplane is sitting on the runway at Mexico City's international airport. The airport remains open. Mexican news media report the hijackers are three Bolivian citizens who are demanding to talk with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, though Romero says she saw only one hijacker.Mexican network TV says the plane was carrying 104 passengers. Mexican television shows police leading at least 5 handcuffed men from hijacked jetliner.

September 10, 2009 ISTANBUL: Record floods left at least 31 people dead and large parts of Istanbul under water on Wednesday as desperate motorists caught in flash floods clambered up trees to save themselves from drowning. Turkey's Interior Minister Besir Atalay expressed fear that the death toll may rise as the waters began receding from large swathes of the city after several hours of flash flooding triggered by record rainfall overnight. "Twenty-four people have died in Istanbul and seven others" in the province of Tekirdag, to the west of the city, Atalay told a press conference here. The biggest loss of life occurred in Istanbul on Wednesday where 21 people died in the European quarter of the city straddling the Bosphorus Strait, a day after three people lost their lives in outlying western suburbs. Istanbul governor Muammer Guler had said earlier in the day that eight people were still unaccounted for. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul to observe

September 10, 2009 ISTANBUL: Record floods left at least 31 people dead and large parts of Istanbul under water on Wednesday as desperate motorists caught in flash floods clambered up trees to save themselves from drowning. Turkey's Interior Minister Besir Atalay expressed fear that the death toll may rise as the waters began receding from large swathes of the city after several hours of flash flooding triggered by record rainfall overnight. "Twenty-four people have died in Istanbul and seven others" in the province of Tekirdag, to the west of the city, Atalay told a press conference here. The biggest loss of life occurred in Istanbul on Wednesday where 21 people died in the European quarter of the city straddling the Bosphorus Strait, a day after three people lost their lives in outlying western suburbs. Istanbul governor Muammer Guler had said earlier in the day that eight people were still unaccounted for. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Istanbul to observe

Thursday, September 10, 2009 WASHINGTON: Outbreaks on college campuses are signaling swine flu hot spots as fast-spreading H1N1 swine flu gives an early start to the fall flu season.College campuses as far apart as Emory in urban Atlanta and Washington State in rural Pullman report explosive outbreaks of swine flu. The action isn't all on campus, Elementary and high schools are also seeing a lot of flu; 24 schools last week dismissed 25,000 students because of flu outbreaks.One of the CDC's main indicators of flu season is the number of people seeing a doctor for flu-like illness. That statistic last week shot sharply up. That uptick was mainly because of swine-flu hot spots in the Southeastern U.S., with flare-ups in widely separated communities across the nation. "It is time to pay attention," the CDC's disease chief, Anne Schuchat, MD, said today at a news conference.The CDC can't predict where swine flu will strike next, how long it will linger in communit

September 10, 2009 MEXICO CITY: Hijackers are holding a flight from Cancun to Mexico City.Mexico Communications Secretary Juan Molinar says the plane is sitting on the runway at the Mexico City international airport.Mexican news media report the hijackers are three Bolivian citizens who are demanding to talk with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Mexican network TV reported that the flight Wednesday was carrying 104 passengers.Some of the passengers from a hijacked Aero Mexico flight were seen leaving the plane Wednesday, witnesses said. Passengers have been freed from a hijacked airplane in Mexico City, but the crew remains aboard. Passenger Adriana Romero told media that all passengers have been released unharmed from the Cancun-to-Mexico City flight, Aero Mexico Flight 576, but the crew is still being held hostage. The airplane is sitting on the runway at Mexico City's international airport. The airport remains open. Mexican news media report the hijackers are three Bolivian ci

Thursday, September 10, 2009 CARAVACA DE LA CRUZ, Spain: American Tyler Farrar won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain in a mass sprint finish on Wednesday, as controversial Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde retained the leader's golden jersey.The Garmin rider edged Belgian Philippe Gilbert and Italy's Marco Marcato to the line after a 200-kilometre ride from Murcia to Caravaca de la Cruz in southeastern Spain, which included a first category hill climb.All three were among a group of 49 riders, including Valverde, to record the same time.The stage was marked by a breakaway after around 65 kilometres by Frenchman David Moncoutie, Spain's Amets Txurruka and Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland.The three built up a lead of more than eight minutes but were caught by the peleton around 50 kilometres before the finish.Frenchman Remy di Gregorio also launched a late and short-lived attack.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 NEW YORK: Roger Federer will play Novak Djokovic in the US Open semi-finals on Saturday, their third consecutive clash at Flushing Meadows after the final of 2007 and the semi-finals of last year. Top seed and defending champion Federer reached the last four for a record 22nd time in a Grand Slam tournament despite a stirring late show from Robin Soderling, winning 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (8/6). Fourth-seeded Djokovic won a dour, stamina-sapping encounter with Spain's Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7/2), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals for the third consecutive year. Teen upstarts Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium fought through the tension to reach their first Grand Slam semi-finals with nerve-testing US Open triumphs. Ninth seed Wozniacki, until now the top-ranked woman never in a Slam final eight, ousted 70th-ranked US teen Melanie Oudin 6-2, 6-2 while Wickmayer, never before past a Slam second round, beat Ukraine's Ka

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 NEW YORK: Oil prices jumped Tuesday ahead of OPEC talks on the back of buoyant gold demand, a weakening US dollar and confidence that the global economy will recover from a sharp downturn. Comments by oil kingpin Saudi Arabia that the crude market was "very stable and healthy" were also seen providing support for prices, analysts said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, jumped 3.08 dollars from last Friday's close to end at 71.01 dollars. London's Brent North Sea crude for October climbed 2.89 dollars to 69.42 dollars."A weak dollar spreads the idea that oil can be a hedge against the dollar (and) we're talking about stronger economic performance now and oil is one of the commodities that benefits from that," said Bart Melek of BMO Capital Markets. "The dollar is certainly a big factor," Melek said. A weaker dollar makes dollar-priced oil cheaper for buyers using stronger currenci

Updated at: 1903 PST, Thursday, September 10, 2009 KARACHI: The country’s foreign exchange reserves have downscaled to $14.243 billion with the decrease of $64 million, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan shows Thursday. The reserves held by the SBP witnessed a decrease of $52.6 million to go down to $10.73 billion on the week ending on September 5. The reserves held by the banks other than SBP recorded a decrease of $10.6 million to climbed down at $3.504 billion.The experts said the national forex reserves shrank owing to the payments of international loans.