Month: April 2010

Washington, April 30: The nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea pose a threat to a key nuclear treaty designed to prevent the spread of atomic weapons, a top US official warned Thursday.

North Korea’s withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 and Iran’s intent to develop nuclear weapons by masking it as an energy programme undermine the goals of the treaty, said Ellen Tauscher, under secretary of state for arms control.

Havana, April 30: More than 200 artists from 20 countries will participate in an international cultural festival in the eastern Cuban city of Holguin in May.

Artists from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Canada and the Caribbean countries will participate, Prensa Latina reported Thursday.

Poets, folklore groups and fine arts creators will take part. Exhibitions, film shows and musical programmes will be organised.

Beijing, April 30: China will offer discounted loans and other incentives to companies to boost foreign investment in the country’s inland regions, the commerce ministry has said.

The government is eyeing investment in sectors like agriculture, processing industry, finance, education, culture and tourism, among others, in the provinces of Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan, Xinhua reported Thursday citing the ministry.

London, April 30: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown laughed off a campaign gaffe and stressed his economic credentials in a final election debate, trying to convince voters he was the man to secure future growth.

The economy is a key issue ahead the May 6 election as Britain struggles with sluggish growth and a deficit running at more than 11 percent of GDP.

The run-up to Thursday’s debate had been overshadowed by a blaze of bad publicity after Brown, whose ruling Labour party are behind in the opinion polls, was caught calling a supporter of his Labour Party “bigoted” on Wednesday.

Athens, April 30: Police fired teargas to disperse a few hundred protesters outside Greece’s finance ministry who were demonstrating against austerity measures.

“There were minor scuffles and rounds of teargas fired,” a police official said.

The protesters, mostly supporters of the Coalition of the Left opposition party carried anti-IMF banners.

Greece’s socialist government is negotiating the terms of an emergency funding package with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to deal with its debt crisis.

—Agencies

Washington, April 30: The Navy announced on Thursday that women will start serving on U.S. submarines as early as next year, lifting a symbolically important barrier to women in the U.S. armed forces.

Women, who account for about 15 percent of the more than 336,000 members of the U.S. Navy, can already serve on its surface ships.

But critics long argued that submarines were different, pointing to long deployments below the sea and cramped quarters where some crews share beds in shifts — a practice known as “hot bunking.”

Washington, April 30: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran’s president on Thursday he will not get a warm welcome at U.N. nonproliferation talks next week if he seeks to sow confusion about Iran’s nuclear program.

The United States and some of its Western allies believe that Iran is using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, something Tehran committed not to do under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

California, April 30: Wikipedia has strongly rejected its departed co-founder’s accusation that the online encyclopedia is knowingly distributing child pornography in their products.

“Our community abhors issues around pornography and pedophilia and they don’t want to provide opportunities for these things to take place,” The Age quoted Jay Walsh, Wikipedia spokesman, as saying.

“We don’t have material we would deem to be illegal. If we did, we would remove it,” he added.