World

Washington, Dec 29: Indian security agencies investigating the case of American terror suspect David Coleman Headley have found that Headley had been in touch with another American national who had been living in India for almost nine years on a tourist visa and had even been running a massage parlour.

“The man has been doing everything from setting up business to running a massage parlour and tourist centre,” sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday defending the recent tightening of visa regulations that stipulate

Washington, December 29: US President Barack Obama Monday condemned Iran for violently cracking down on demonstrations, warning the Islamic state it will not succeed in denying people their universal rights.

“The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens,” Obama said while on winter vacation in Hawaii.

Bratislava, December 29: Russia and Ukraine have resolved a dispute over oil transit issues, averting a disruption of oil supplies to three countries in Europe, Slovakia’s industry minister said Monday.

Industry Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said he had been briefed on the agreement during a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Ivanovich Shmatko.

Earlier, Slovak Premier Robert Fico said Russia had alerted the European Union (EU) to a possible threat to oil supplies to his country and fellow EU members Hungary and the Czech republic.

Los Angeles, December 29: President Barack Obama has urged Americans to keep vigilance against terrorism after the failed terror attack on a US passenger plane last week.

Obama, who is currently on a Hawaii vacation, said Monday the latest attack was “a serious reminder of the danger we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland”, Xinhua reported.

Americans should remain vigilant but also be confident, he said. “We are doing everything in our power to keep you safe.”

Seoul, December 29: An American has been detained for illegal entry into North Korea, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday, in an apparent reference to a Christian rights activist who crossed the border last week.

“An American was detained after illegally entering the DPRK (North Korea) through the DPRK-China border on December 24,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a one-paragraph report.

“He is now under investigation by a relevant organ.”

New York, December 29: Oil prices topped $79 a barrel Monday as investors eye a drop in fuel supplies in a cold winter.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery settled at $78.77 a barrel, trading up 72 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Xinhua reported.

Futures rose to as high as $79.12 a barrel earlier in the session, which is the highest trading price in about five weeks.

Sydney, December 29: Australian teenager Jessica Watson said Tuesday the feared Southern Ocean had given her an easy passage and that her big test would be rounding Cape Horn on the tip of South America.

Watson, 16, left Sydney aboard the 10-metre yacht Ella’s Pink Lady Oct 18 on what she hopes will be an eight-month voyage and a place in the record books as the youngest ever solo circumnavigator.

The Queenslander wrote in her blog that she was near the mid-way point and had around 3,000 km to go before reaching Cape Horn.

Cairo, December 28: The United States is drafting two letters of guarantee for Israel and the Palestinians to serve as a basis for the relaunch of stalled Middle East peace talks, Arab and Western diplomats in Cairo said.

“US special envoy George Mitchell will present two draft letters of guarantee, one for Israel and one to the Palestinian Authority during his next visit to the region,” one Arab diplomat said.

Cairo, December 28: An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was among a group of grandmothers set to begin a hunger strike in Cairo on Monday to protest at Egypt’s refusal to allow a Gaza solidarity march to proceed, organisers said.

American activist Hedy Epstein and other grandmothers participating in the Gaza Freedom March will stage a hunger strike at 1000 GMT, Ann Wright, a march organiser said.

Washington, December 28: The United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against the Al-Qaeda terror network in Yemen, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Citing an unnamed former top CIA official, the newspaper said that a year ago the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country.

At the same time, some of the most secretive special operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, the report said.

Washington, December 28: Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is being held at an undisclosed location as US investigators work on finding out what prompted the British-educated son of a Nigerian bank executive to attack a US plane on Christmas Day.

Abdulmutallab, 23, charged with attempting to set off an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, was released from a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sunday after being treated for burns, the US attorney’s office in Detroit said.

New Delhi, December 28: After midnight on December 31 night when the world might be plunged into a new year party 2010, partial lunar eclipse of the moon almost half the country for a while the earth’s “arms” will appear in Smata.

Head of solar system Sun, Earth and Moon’s “trinity” that unique view of hide and seek once again Nihara will be January 15, 2010.

Sun Moon and Earth during the solar eclipse Khandgras this day will come between.

From ancient times in India during New Year calculate initial astronomical center of Ujjain Jiwaji Observatory is waiting refrain own events.

Abu Dhabi, December 28: The United Arab Emirates has awarded a South Korean-led consortium a $20.4 billion contract to build four nuclear power plants, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) announced Sunday.

The UAE “has determined that the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) team is best equipped to fulfill the government’s partnership requirements in this ambitious program,” ENEC Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak said in a statement.

Kathmandu, December 28: Three people, including two women, were killed while two men were seriously hurt after a bomb went off in southern Nepal along the border with India Monday.

The bomb went off around 10.30 a. m. in the Sunderbasti area of Chitwan, a popular tourist destination in Nepal’s Terai plains now in the headlines due to sports like elephant races, polo and football.

The bomb was hidden in a toilet in the house of Sukh Bahadur Rai, police said.

The three people killed by the blast have been identified as Januka Rai, 45, Ramumaya Rai, 18, and Dev Bahadur Rai.

Washington, December 28: A flight from Amsterdam to Detroit requested emergency assistance beacuse of a disruptive passenger on Sunday, two days after an attempted terrorist attack aboard the same flight.

The Nigerian passenger was questioned by investigators in Detroit after he reportedly spent more than an hour in the plane’s restroom, and became “verbally disruptive” when flight attendants questioned him, CNN reported. No explosives were found on the man and he deemed not to be a threat.

Washington, December 28: Those behind the 9/11 terror strikes are still in the Af-Pak region and planning more attacks against the United States, country’s top officials said on Monday.

White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the Obama administration has re-oriented its focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan, the place were 9/11 attacks originated.

“We are drawing down in Iraq and focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan, the place where the attacks of 9/11 originated and where people sit in caves and in houses today planning more attacks on this country,” Gibbs told the NBC channel.

Beijing, December 28: A Chinese cargo ship was released off the coast of Somalia on Monday, more than two months after it was hijacked, state media reported.

The De Xin Hai was now under the protection of a Chinese naval fleet, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

A ransom of around 4 million dollars was paid to the pirates, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

“A helicopter dropped the ransom money onto the ship. We have received 4 million dollars,” a pirate named Hassan was quoted as saying.

Beijing, December 28: Five coal mine executives were detained after 12 people died in an explosion in a mine in north China’s Shanxi province, authorities said Monday.

The accident occurred at 11.30 p. m. Sunday when 16 miners were working in a shaft in the Donggou Colliery Co. Ltd. in Jiexiu city, said a spokesman with the Shanxi Provincial Work Safety Administration, Xinhua reported.

Detroit, December 28: The FBI has cleared Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to return to the air after a second incident within 48 hours was deemed to be not serious.

Security officials at Detroit Metropolitan Airport said that the incident on Sunday of an unruly passenger aboard the same Northwest Flight 253 that a Nigerian national attempted to blow up on Christmas Day (Friday) was a “non-serious incident.”

Lagos, December 27: Nigeria called a halt today to security shortcuts for “sacred cows” and said all passengers would be screened after it emerged Lagos was the starting point for a failed bombing of a US plane.

Nigerian media reports said security at the country’s airports was lax, with so-called “big men” and their families often allowed to skip screening.

The Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said security checks would now be enforced for all passengers.

Philipines, December 27: Twenty-five people are missing after a small inter-island ferry sank in waters just south of the Philippine capital, the coast guard said on Sunday.

The MV Baleno-9, carrying 88 passengers and crew, began listing and went down just before midnight near Batangas City south of the capital, the coast guard report said.

Ships in the area rescued 63 of the passengers of the stricken ferry but 25 are still unaccounted for, the coast guard said.

Passengers told the coast guard that the MV Baleno-9, a roll-on ferry, began taking on water from the bow ramp.

Phillipines, December 27: Rescue teams are searching waters off the central Philippines for at least 21 people still missing from a ferry that sank, the second such accident in less than a week, officials said.

Four people were confirmed dead.

Three ships passing through the area picked up most of the 63 crew and passengers who survived, Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo said, as coast guard planes and helicopters joined in the search and rescue operations in waters off Verde island.

Washington, December 27: The man who grappled with a passenger allegedly trying to detonate explosives on a flight to the US is achieving cult status as a Hollywood-style hero.

Dutch video producer and director Jasper Schuringa is being dubbed the hero of flight 253, which landed safely in Detroit on Christmas Day after the alleged bomb attack was foiled.

Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has been charged over the alleged attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, carrying 290 passengers.

New York, December 27: Ivana Trump has been booted off a flight to New York after she started yelling at children on the plane, TMZ reported.

The former wife of billionaire Donald Trump was escorted off the US flight at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on Saturday by Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies.

According to police, Trump, who was sitting in first class, became upset when a few screaming children started running up and down the aisle, TMZ has reported.

Australia, December 27: The Bangladeshi mother of the separated twins Krishna and Trishna will soon fly to Australia to see her daughters, the babies’ legal guardian says.

Mahfuzur Rahman Atom, known as Atom Rahman among his Australian friends, is the legal guardian in Bangladesh of the formerly conjoined twins and arranged the girls’ travel to Australia for treatment in 2007.