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Sunday, January 31, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haitian police were holding 10 US citizens Sunday on suspicion they tried to slip out of the country with 31 Haitian children in a trafficking scheme, a government minister said. Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said the police arrested five men and five women with US passports, and two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the Dominican Republic with the children Friday night. He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in Atlanta, Georgia. "This is an abduction, not an adoption," said Christallin. Christallin said the US citizens did not have the proper documents to take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorization from their parents. The children were aged two months to 12 years and had come from different places, he said. "What is important for us in Haiti is that a child needs to have an authorization from this ministry to leave the country," he said. US embassy offic...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops, in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one more innocent Kashmiri youth in Rajouri district. According to Kashmir Media Service, personnel of 63 Rashtriya Rifles during a crackdown operation shot dead the youth at Baji Maal area of the district. Dead body of a 75-year-old civilian was recovered from Nadimarg in Kulgam. Paramilitary troopers of Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) beat up and injured 11 persons when they were protesting against the Indian state terrorism in Nowhatta, Rajouri Kadal and Kawdara areas of Srinagar city.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LAS VEGAS: Caressa Cameron, Miss Virginia, has won the 2010 Miss America crown, sporting a yellow dress. Ms. Cameron won the prestigious event as well as the diamond crown. Cameron, 22, won a $50,000 scholarship and the crown in Las Vegas after a pageant that started with 53 contestants. She outlasted her opponents in swimsuit, evening gown, talent and interview competitions. Cameron is broadcast journalism student at Virginia Commonwealth University, and wants to become a news anchor. When asked during the interview portion of the competition her thoughts on fighting childhood obesity, Cameron said parents should curb television and video games. "We need to get our kids back outside, playing with sticks in the street like I did when I was little," she said. "Expand your mind, go outside and get to see what this world is like." Cameron said her win was a testament to her family's strength.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LONDON: Britain has temporarily suspended student visa applications from Northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The UK Border Agency, according to a report by a British media, took this step apparently as a precaution to a surge of applications. According to reports, student visa applications from Bangladesh, Nepal and northern India, have been put on hold for at least a month for now. British officials were quoted saying that the system had been overwhelmed with the number of applications. There also concerns that many cases were not genuine. Director of a student counselling agency, also an approved partner of the British high commission in Dhaka, providing counselling services for prospective UK students, confirmed what the UK officials said. Wishing to remain anonymous, this student counsellor said the high commission had admitted to serious backlogs. He was not surprised with the suspension either. The student counsellor said, "The UK Bor...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 DHANYAKURIA: Palatial mansions and small castles featuring an amalgamation of Gothic and Islamic architecture are features that distinguish Dhanyakuria village in India's eastern state of West Bengal. The village, in North 24 Parganas district, stands witness to the past glory, which has been a symbol of the development since pre-independence. Built by merchants who had settled in the place 170 years ago, the castles and mansions are highly influenced by the European lifestyle. Boasting of splendid domes, intricate filigree-work, gothic carvings, huge turrets and towers, the buildings are a visual feast for tourists and locals alike. The descendents of the merchants' families, despite having moved to India and abroad, have maintained close ties with the villagers. "I took a prompt action to accumulate all the young generations, along with the past generations to make a communication so that our heritage - not only our heritage but it is t...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 KABUL: For the US Marines deployed to the battlefields of southern Afghanistan, life is fragile and thoughts focus on the day they see their families again, but something about this war is different. They are preparing for an offensive on Marjah, one of the Taliban's big urban strongholds in the southern province of Helmand, but progress is slow with the militants apparently preferring fight to flight. The Marines will soon be joined by tens of thousands more soldiers, the lion's share of the 30,000-strong troop surge promised by US President Barack Obama in December to try and turn around the grinding Afghan war. A foot patrol for one platoon of Marines ends with a dash under a hail of bullets across a heavily-mined poppy field. The soldiers have been pinned down in a muddy mound, the thorny weeds cutting through skin. They recover soon enough, however, manoeuvring away from the Taliban's crosshairs and driving them away with heavy machin...

Sunday, January 31, 2010 LIMA: Heavy flooding in southern Peru, which trapped thousands of tourists visiting the Inca city of Machu Picchu, has killed 20 and left at least five missing, Peru's Civil Defense force said Saturday. Thousands of others have been affected by heavy rains, the worst to hit the country in five years. In the Cusco region, the downpours prompted landslides that trapped 3,500 visitors in and around the picturesque mountaintop tourist site of Machu Picchu. Peruvian authorities used 12 helicopters and 40 pilots over four days to evacuate all the travelers trapped near the site, Latin America's top tourist destination. The evacuation of all visitors ended late Friday. "The good news is that Machu Picchu, along with all the ancient sites, is intact," said Carlos Millas, president of the chamber of commerce in Cusco, a region heavily dependent on the income from visiting tourists. But the railway that ferries 90 percent of the 1,000 peop...