Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi (29), who "shoed" US president George Bush, faces up to seven years in jail for "aggression" but one thing is certain: he won't slip into oblivion in a hurry. Zaidi's soaring popularity across the Arab world would more than make up for the prison term he fa...
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Bangalore: India has culled at least 250,000 birds in Assam to contain an outbreak of bird flu among poultry, a government official said.At least 950 health officials are monitoring the situation in eight of the state's 23 districts where bird flu has been reported, D. Hojai, director of health ...
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MUMBAI (IANS): At least 80 people, including a foreign tourist and four top police officers, were killed and over 250 injured as terrorists struck in yet another series of planned and synchronised gunfire and bomb attacks in the heart of India's financial capital late Wednesday, authorities said...
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Washington: President-elect Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his economic team and promised to take "extraordinary policy responses" to save the world's largest economy from a major financial crisis. New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner will take over the post of next Treasury secr...
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WASHINGTON : Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States, winning an historic election to become the first African American in the White House. He told a vast crowd of supporters at a Chicago park that his election showed the world that the United States real strength was not its mi...
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WASHINGTON: The momentum for Barack Obama is so great now that Democrats are swinging wildly between giddy euphoria and fearful disbelief. "Stick a fork in McCain, he's done!" one Obama supporter chortled on TV. Moments later, he said it ain't over till it's over.Every single poll now sh...
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BAGHDAD: The US military says it has killed a senior al-Qaida leader suspected of masterminding deadly bombings in Baghdad. The military says US troops acting in self-defence also killed his wife in Friday's firefight. Saturday's statement identifies the man killed as Mahir Ahmad Mahmud Judu...
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PARIS: Even as the United States remains unable to finish its internal political process on the proposed Indo-U.S. civil nuclear accord, New Delhi and Paris signed on Tuesday an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation, the first of its kind since the Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to lift internation...
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New York : Injecting a new momentum in the peace process which has come under strain, India and Pakistan today announced a series of confidence building measures, including commencing of cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir from October 21, and vowed to take "severe action" against any elements invo...
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DUBAI: In a special gesture, Oman has decided to allow 2,500 Indians, who were stranded there after expiry of visas, to return home without any penalty. The decision was conveyed by Oman's Inspector General of police and Customs Lt Gen Malik bin Suleiman al Maamari to Minister of State for Ext...
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JALANDHAR,INDIA: It doesn't take rocket science for Indians to disappear in the US. Or does it? In fact, such is the craze for settling abroad that they keep devising new ways to do so ? from joining "bhajan mandlis" or cultural troupes to jumping into containers and even entering into fraudulen...
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NEW DELHI,INDIA: A minor fire broke out on the ground floor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building in the heart of the capital on Sunday. Eight fire-tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire that broke out around 6.25 p.m. was brought under control by 7.05 p.m. "There is no damage to propert...
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NEW DELHI,INDIA: India could expect the support of Japan at the upcoming Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) meeting, with a senior official of the country on Monday saying that Tokyo understands New Delhi's energy needs and would adopt an approach that strengthens the non-proliferation regime. Giving...
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United Nations: The UN Security Council has approved another year of peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region despite sharp divisions over genocide charges against the Sudanese President. The United States supports the mission but abstained from the council's 14-0 vote Thursday night. It object...
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Vienna: After firing a written salvo against the draft Indian safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pakistan has backed off and is all set to join the consensus in favour of approving the text when the nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors meets on August 1.According ...
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LONDON: An Anglo Indian teenager has won a landmark victory in the British High Court upholding her right to wear the kada to school as a symbol of her Sikh faith. Tuesday's victory for Sarika Watkins-Singh, who is half Welsh and half-Sikh, is being seen as groundbreaking as it sets a new benchm...
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WASHINGTON : Barack Obama's aides have removed criticism of President Bush's increase of troops to Iraq from the campaign Web site, part of an effort to update the Democrat's written war plan to reflect changing conditions.Debate over the impact of President Bush's troop "surge"...
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COLOMBO: At least four civilians were killed and 25 injured on Friday when suspected LTTE cadre fired at a passenger bus plying between Monaragala and Kataragama in southern Sri Lanka.A Defence Ministry statement said 19 of the injured were admitted to the General hospital in Hambantota, and the con...
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HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka:This battered harbor town on Sri Lanka's southern tip, with its scrawnymen selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for anemerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuelmuch of the global economy. An impoverished place still recoverin...
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BEIJING: India on Thursday conveyed toChinese leaders that it was not ready to bring the Sikkim issue in the boundarytalks because there was no dispute concerning that portion of the boundary withChina, informed sources said here on Thursday. ( Watch ) Thisis one of the issues that figured during...
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The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US and four other key Al Qaeda suspects have appeared at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay. They are arguably the highest value Al Qaeda figures ever to fall into American hands. They face the death penalty on charges of murder, conspiracy a...
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PANJWAI, AFGHANISTAN : Soldiers based at Masum Ghar, a Canadian forward operating base southwest of Kandahar, call it the "coward hour."It's a certain time of the day, when, like clockwork, Taliban insurgents will launch rockets or rocket-propelled grenades into the hilltop base from nearby...
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KABUL: One Indian and one Nepalese kidnapped bya criminal gang have been released in western Afghan province of Heratafter 27 days in captivity, Indian embassy in Afghanistan said Sunday.     "We are pleased to inform that Mr. SarangMohammed Naeem, an Indian national, along with his N...
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MOSCOW : Russia welcomes the deal reachedbetween Lebanon's Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-ledopposition, and mediated by the Arab League, Russia's Foreign Ministrysaid on Friday. The sides agreed on Thursday to a new nationaldialogue to elect a president and form a unity govern...
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The leader of al-Qaida Osama bin Ladenhas vowed to keep fighting against the Jewish state and its Westernallies on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary in an audioreleased on an Islamist website Friday. "We will continue the fight againstthe Israelis and their allies ... and will not give u...
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LONDON: Identifying the importance that Google accords to theexpanding Indian market, the web search giant has launched Hindi as oneof the languages on its popular Google Translate application.Googlehas announced the addition of ten new languages to its Google Translatefeature, bringing the total of...
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SAN FRANCISCO : Joy and anger greeted California's decision to overturna ban on gay marriage Thursday, with supporters hailing a historicvictory as critics railed against the ruling as an attack on theinstitution of marriage.Thedecision by the California Supreme Court to effectively greenlightsa...
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At least 14 people were wounded ? three of them seriously, includinga child ? when a Grad rocket fired by Gaza militants exploded in ashopping centre in the Mediterranean Israeli city of Ashkelon yesterday. Theattack, one of the most serious from Gaza using longer-range missiles,was ...
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Srinagar/Islamabad : In the first violation of the five-year-oldceasefire, Pakistan troops opened unprovoked fire on an Indian borderpost in Tangdhar region in north Kashmir on Tuesday night but nocasualty was reported. Using heavy machine guns and heavy mortars, Pakistani troopstargeted a forward I...
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CHENGDU, CHINA : A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schoolsand chemical plants Monday in central China, killing nearly 10,000people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel andearth in the country's worst quake in three decades.The 7.9-magnitude quake devastated a region of...
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