"I just can't talk about it now. It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby."

-- Aretha Franklin

"Six-time GRAMMY winner Whitney Houston was one of the world's greatest pop singers of all time who leaves behind a robust musical soundtrack spanning the past three decades. Her powerful voice graced many memorable and award-winning songs. A light has been dimmed in our music community today, and we extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, fans and all who have been touched by her beautiful voice."

-- Neil Portnow, president and CEO, The Recording Academy

"Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms Whitney Houston."

-- Mariah Carey

"She was just a gift in voice ... She was just so innocent in the business, and that voice was so pure and her life was so pure. That's what I'm holding on to. I think what we're going to do in the long run of her life story is focus on the voice, not the tragedy, but the voice."

-- Lionel Richie told CNN

"I've known Whitney since she was a little girl and I loved her. She was like family to me. I will miss her."

-- Smokey Robinson

"Whitney Houston was not only an amazing artist but also a beautiful person. She was so smart and her knowledge and appreciation for the musical art form was remarkable."

-- Berry Gordy, Motown founder

"It is so so heartbreaking, and we are all filled with sadness. It's a loss of one of the greatest treasures to the world of not only music but to everyone around her, her family, her mother Cissy, her aunt Dionne. It is just a tremendous tragedy for all of us."

-- Tommy Mottola, former CEO and chairman of Sony Music Entertainment, told CNN

"No words! Just tears #Dear Whitney."

-- Rihanna on Twitter

"So devastating. We will always love you Whitney, R.I.P."

-- Katy Perry on Twitter

Following are some key facts about Houston:

* Houston won six Grammys, 30 Billboard awards and 22 American Music Awards in a 25-year career. According to the Guinness Book of Records, she was the most-honored female singer with more than 400 awards.

* She released seven studio albums, the most recent in 2009.

Her best-known hits include "I will Always Love You," "Saving All my Love for You" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and she has sold more than 170 million albums worldwide.

* Houston's movies included "The Bodyguard" in 1992 with Kevin Costner, "The Preacher's Wife" with Denzel Washington and "Waiting to Exhale." She had recently finished filming "Sparkle," described as the musical drama of a girl group dealing with fame and drugs, that is scheduled for release in August.

* Houston started out singing in her church gospel choir in New Jersey at age 11 and released her first album in 1985 after being discovered by record producer Clive Davis. Her extraordinary mezzo-soprano belting voice is credited with influencing singers ranging from Mariah Carey to Celine Dion, Alicia Keys and Beyonce.

* Houston was the cousin of Dionne Warwick. She married Bobby Brown on July 18, 1992, and had a daughter with him. They divorced after a tumultuous, drug-fueled 14 years together.

* The last 10 years of Houston's life were dominated by drug use, rumors of relapses and trips to rehab. In a 2002 TV interview, she admitted using marijuana, cocaine, alcohol and prescription drugs. In 2009, she admitted lacing marijuana with rock cocaine.

She launched a comeback tour in 2009 and in April 2010 she called media reports she was using drugs again "ridiculous." In May 2011, Houston enrolled in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks a Republican Caucus in Sanford, Maine, Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - The Republican Party in US state of Maine announced Saturday that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had won the state's caucuses, giving his campaign a much needed bounce after embarrassing losses earlier this week.

According to state Republican Chairman Charlie Webster, Romney won 2,190 votes, 39 percent in the state's non-binding caucuses, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul, whose campaign has a strong presence in the state, got 1,996 votes, about 36 percent. Only 194 votes separate the two candidates.

Behind the two frontrunners, Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, got 18 percent. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, got 6 percent.

Maine's caucuses began on Feb 4 and runs throughout the week. But the results announced Saturday accounted for just 83 percent of all precincts in the state. Webster said any caucus results that come in after Saturday wouldn't be counted no matter how close the vote turned out to be.

Although the Maine caucuses were non-binding and being described as a "beauty contest," both Romney and Paul badly need a win here. Romney lost Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota earlier this week to Santorum, handing over the political momentum and risks being seen as a fragile frontrunner. Romney, who originally hadn't scheduled any event, made appearances in Maine earlier in the day, and that might have helped him.

Paul, on the other hand, hasn't won any state in the nomination campaign, and commentators have been saying if the Libertarian-leaning Paul can't win in Maine, a state with an independent streak, his campaign's viability would be seriously questioned.

In order to win Maine, Paul's campaign had been putting in a lot of work here, and the candidate himself skipped the annual conference of Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week to campaign in the state.

The GOP will hold primaries in Arizona and Michigan later this month, and 11 states will hold primaries on Super Tuesday on March 6, but only 10 will announce results, as Wyoming's caucuses will run from March 6-10.

Whitney Houston performs before winning for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards, in this file photo taken Feb 23, 2000. [Photo/Agencies]

Singer and actress Whitney Houston, winner of six Grammy Awards including record of the year for "I Will Always Love You" and album of the year for "The Bodyguard," has died at age 48, a spokeswoman for the singer said.

"Unfortunately it is true," said spokeswoman Jill Fritzo.

A Beverly Hills police officer told reporters at a briefing that emergency assistance received a call from the Beverly Hilton at around 3:20 p.m. PST, and the singer was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.

"She has been positively identified by friends and family that were with her at the hotel, and next of kin have already been notified," Lieutenant Mark Rosen told reporters.

No other details were immediately available.

Houston was in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards, the music industry's biggest honors program that will take place on Sunday night. She died hours before she was expected to perform at record producer Clive Davis's annual pre-Grammy party on Saturday, which is held at the Beverly Hilton  

Houston, inspired by soul singers in her New Jersey family, including mother Cissy Houston and cousins Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick, as well as her godmother Aretha Franklin, became one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, taking multiple Emmy, Grammy and Billboard Music awards.

Her popularity soared in the 1980s and 1990s with consecutive No. 1 hits including the smash single "I Will Always Love You," from the soundtrack of the feature film "The Bodyguard," in which she starred.

Immediately, reactions came pouring in from fans and friends in the music industry.

"I am absolutely heartbroken at the news of Whitney's passing," legendary music producer Quincy Jones said in a statement. "... I always regretted not having had the opportunity to work with her. She was a true original and a talent beyond compare. I will miss her terribly."  

Pop star Rihanna posted on Twitter "No words, just tears," and rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted "Jesus Christ, not Whitney Houston. Greatest of all time."

Whitney Houston performs at the Pre-Grammy Gala & Salute to Industry Icons in this file photo taken in Beverly Hills, Feb 12, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston accepts the International Artist of the Year award at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, in this file photo taken Nov 22, 2009. [Photo/Agencies]

South African President Nelson Mandela and American pop star Whitney Houston smile for photographers in Johannesburg in this Nov 10, 1994 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston attends the Pre-Grammy Gala & Salute to Industry Icons in Beverly Hills, California, in this file photo taken Feb 12, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston shows off the seven awards she won Feb 7 at the 21st American Music Awards, in this file photo taken Feb 8, 1994. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston poses with her Grammy after she was named Best Pop Vocal Performer - Female at the 30th annual Grammy Awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall, in this March 2, 1988 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston bows after performing "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" at the 2009 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California, in this Nov 22, 2009 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston gestures at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party in Beverly Hills, California, in this file photo taken Feb 9, 2008. [Photo/Agencies]

Actress and singer Whitney Houston and her husband Bobby Brown pose for photographers as they arrive for the East coast premiere of "Cinderella" in New York City in this Oct 27, 1997 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Singer and actress Whitney Houston (C) poses with her former husband, singer Bobby Brown (R) and their daughter Bobbi (L) at Disneyland in Anaheim, in this file photo taken on Aug 7, 2004. [Photo/Agencies]

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (R) meets with US singer Whitney Houston and her former husband Bobby Brown in Jerusalem, in this file photo taken May 27, 2003. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston performs the song "Try It On My Own" during the "VH1 Divas Duets" concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, in this file photo taken May 22, 2003. [Photo/Agencies]

Whitney Houston emerges from the waters of the River Jordan near the Sea of Galilee during a Holy Land pilgrimage, in this file photo taken May 29, 2003. [Photo/Agencies]

In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, Whitney Houston performs during the Billboard Awards at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in this Dec 7, 1998 handout publicity photo. [Photo/Agencies]

 

Maldivian president Mohamed Waheed Hassan who was newly appointed as the head of the state of Indian Ocean archipelago told media despite political crisis over the week no tourists have been affected.    

"All nationals coming to the Maldives are safe," Waheed who met Robert O. Blake, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs said on Saturday.

"All government offices including police stations and schools are open and all island resorts are safer here. Despite crisis everything continues to function and no foreign national have been affected," Waheed said.

The new president's assurance came amidst travel advisories issued by Australia, Britain, Germany and the United States on the Maldives while China cautioned its holiday makers which account for around 25 percent of foreign visitors to the Maldives.

The Maldives gets about one million visitors a year and the tourist sector accounts for one third of the Maldives' gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 60 percent of foreign currency earnings.

Around 850,000 mostly high-end tourists visited the Maldives last year and the country was voted the world's number one island destination by readers of Conde Nast Traveller in 2011.

Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed (C) waves at his supporters as he walks on a street after a protest in Male, Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

MALE - Amidst the Maldives new president collecting parties to form a coalition government with the international blessing, the supporters of former president Mohamed Nasheed protested in the capital city of Male on Saturday night.

The supporters of Maldevian Democratic Party (MDP) together with Nashhed and his members of parliament gathered to a beach front park and staged a public demonstration demanding the newly appointed president Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to step down and hold an early election.

"We don't accept Waheed as our president. This is a coup government. He is not a people elected president like Nasheed," a party supporters said.

They said that they would continue to protest if Waheed fails to resign and announce an early election.

Supporters of former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed shout slogans as they hold up placards during a protest in Male, Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Nasheed, who alleged he was overthrown by a coup orchestrated by the military and backed by the opposition and former regime, had said he would lead street fights in the island nation until a snap poll is held.

However a number of foreign countries including United States has accepted Waheed's appointment and asked Nasheed to join his proposed coalition government.

The Syrian embassy in Qatar was also closed, and Syrian ambassadors to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have also been called back, Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said during a meeting with reporters.

The expulsion of diplomatic missions of Libya and Tunisia came apparently in retaliation to similar actions taken against Syrian diplomats in those countries.

Tunisia was the first Arab country to announce the decision to expel Syria's ambassador and to cut relations with the Syrian government.

Also, Libyan Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced its decision to expel Syria's charge d'affaires and his staff, adding that it expects all Syrian diplomats to leave the country within the next 72 hours.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have also decided to withdraw their ambassadors in Syria, and in the meantime demand Syrian ambassadors in the Gulf countries to leave, according to a GCC statement issued earlier this month.

The Arab decisions to cut diplomatic relations with Syria came to protest the government's crackdown on protesters.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper pets a panda with his wife Laureen at a zoo in Chongqing Feb 11, 2012. Harper announced two giant pandas, Er Shun and Ji Li, will spend 10 years in two Canadian zoos. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrapped up a visit to China by announcing Saturday that Beijing will loan two of giant pandas to Canadian zoos. The pandas are the first to travel to Canada in more than two decades.

Harper visited a zoo in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality to say that the Chinese government is loaning the panda pair to Canada for the next 10 years, Harper's press secretary Carl Vallee said.

News photos showed Harper looking on as his wife carried a squirming baby panda.

The pandas are expected to arrive in Canada early next year and will go to the Toronto and Calgary zoos for five years each.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks at a panda being held by his wife Laureen at a zoo in Chongqing Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks at a panda being held by his wife Laureen at a zoo in Chongqing Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Giant panda Er Shun is pictured at the zoo in Chongqing Feb 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Palestinian officials talked with US diplomats about the agreement Abbas signed with Khaled Mashaal in Qatar earlier this week, where Abbas will accordingly form and chair an interim government, said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee.

Washington saw that there was no reason for reservations given that Abbas will head the government and its members would be independents, Ashrawi told Xinhua.

The deal, better known as Doha declaration, enables the Islamic Hamas movement and Abbas' Fatah party to implement a reconciliation agreement Egypt has brokered last year.

The interim government will prepare for general and presidential elections to restore political unity in the Palestinian territories. The political split worsened when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza in 2007.

For the United States, Israel and most of Europe, Hamas is seen as a terrorist organization because it doesn't recognize Israel.

Ashrawi noted that the European Union has quickly welcomed the Doha declaration. She rejected Israel's position that the agreement doesn't help push the peace process or improve the living conditions of the Palestinians.

"Israel invents any reason to distract the world's attention from blaming it for the failure of the peace process and the continuation of its program to destroy the two-state solution," Ashrawi said.

Meanwhile, sources said that Abbas has asked the United States and the international Quartet of Middle East peacemakers to press Israel to facilitate Palestinian elections in East Jerusalem.

Abbas has officially sent his request through David Hale, the US Middle East envoy, when they met in Ramallah Wednesday, the sources said.

Israel doesn't allow the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to hold any political activity in East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since 1967.

In 2006, Israel responded to international pressure and allowed East Jerusalem residents to participate in parliamentary elections that Hamas won.

According to the sources, Abbas stressed that there will be no elections without East Jerusalem.

"I am fully committed to an independent investigation," newly appointed President Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan said addressing the international media from the Presidential Office.

"I don't want to set a presidential commission to do that and to influence the process. There is a constitutional mechanism," he said. Waheed reiterated that he came to office according to a constitutional process.

"I am completely open to an independent investigation of what went on," he said. 

President Waheed called on all parties including Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for discussion on how investigations could be conducted into the allegation.

Britain and the US had earlier inquired on the allegations of coup during the process of transfer of power from Nasheed who claimed his resignation was after a military mutiny backed by political powers.

Nasheed's exit from office followed weeks of protests over an arrest of a judge. A day after stepping down, rioting erupted across the city and several atolls and Nasheed announced he was a victim of a military-backed coup. Nasheed has called for fresh elections and threatened street fights against the new administration.

Addressing a crowd in Tehran on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic republic, Ahmadinejad said that "In the following days, the world will witness the inauguration of several big achievements in nuclear fields."

Chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, people in Tehran gathered in the Azadi (liberty) Square and nearby areas to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Ahmadinejad made the remarks addressing a large crowd of people gathered at Tehran's Azadi (liberty) Square on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic republic.

"We have always been ready for (nuclear) talks within the framework of justice and respect" said the Iranian President, adding that, however, "I clearly announce that if you (Westerners) talk in the language of coercion and disrespect (with Iranians), the Iranian nation will never surrender to you" over its nuclear rights.

"The only way you need to observe is to respect the rights of Iranian nation and to come to the negotiation table," said Ahmadinejad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Iran would not give in to any threat by the Western countries over its nuclear program since it has taken the proper precautions to counter every possible scenario, the local satellite Press TV reported on Saturday.

"Our nation should know that the Islamic Republic of Iran takes these threats seriously and we are prepared in every respect and have plans for the worst case scenarios. But we know that nothing will happen," Salehi was quoted as saying on Friday.

Salehi said Iran will announce new nuclear achievements in the coming weeks, stressing the importance of confidence building between the West and Iran over Tehran's atomic case, said the report.

"They should trust us and we will take the required measures within the framework of our nuclear safeguards," he said.

Salehi said Friday that it is possible that nuclear talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (G5+1) are to be held in the near future.

On Saturday, the Iranian president hailed Iran's achievements in diverse scientific areas including space technology and medicine and called as "successful" Iran's economic programs in the past years.  

He also said that Iran will announce new "big" nuclear achievements in the following days.

"In the following days, the world will witness the inauguration of several big achievements in nuclear fields," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians carrying flags and banners in support of the Islamic regime celebrated nationwide the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution on Saturday.

State television showed Iranians in the capital Tehran and other cities swarmed the streets and were carrying images of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, and his successor, incumbent leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, people in Tehran swarmed the Azadi Square and nearby areas to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

The 1979 revolution ended with the toppling of the US-backed regime of Shah.

A diver dressed to look like Poseidon (L), kisses another dressed as the mermaid Marina, during a Valentine's day event inside an aquarium at the ocean park in Manila Feb 11, 2012. Valentine's day is celebrated on Feb 14. [Photo/Agencies]

A diver dressed to look like Poseidon (R), and another dressed as the mermaid Marina, swims during a Valentine's day event inside an aquarium at the ocean park in Manila Feb 11, 2012. Valentine's day is celebrated on Feb 14. [Photo/Agencies]

The survey, released on Saturday, was carried out by UMR Research of 750 people between November 25 and 29 last year and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.

Asians were named by 75 percent of respondents as the most discriminated against group in New Zealand in the survey. That figure has remain relatively unchanged for the past five years.

New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the issue is not new.

He said an active focus on inclusion of Asian New Zealanders in all aspects of New Zealand life was required to break down discrimination.

He said in the 1970s and 1980s Pacific Islanders were more discriminated against, but this changed as the community became more established.

De Bres said he hopes people's attitudes toward Asian New Zealanders will also change over with time.

"Asians are now one of our four largest population groups, and one of the fastest growing. There are very few Asians on the boards of District Health Boards, not enough Asian teachers in our schools, not enough Asian local councillors or community board members and Asian migrants continue to face discrimination in applying for jobs," he said.

Robert Blake, the US assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs who arrived to the island nation on Saturday morning is to meet both Nasheed and present president Dr Mohammed Waheed Hassan.

Blake's visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago comes in the wake of criticism by former president Nasheed who expressed concern over US recognition of new Maldivian administration. Nasheed insisted his resignation on Tuesday was the result of a coup d' etat orchestrated by opposition leaders and the former regime backed by the security forces and Waheed's government.  

Following Friday's criticism by Nasheed, the United States in a quick response said that it would work with the new Maldivian government, but would seek to clarify how power was transferred from Mohamed Nasheed to his successor Mohamed Waheed.

The United States issued the statement as Nasheed voiced disappointment at the US decision to recognize Waheed, whom Nasheed suspects of knowing about the conspiracy to remove him from office.

"We will work with the government of the Maldives, but believe that the circumstances surrounding the transfer of power need to be clarified," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. She added that Blake would see all of the major players and have a chance to talk about an appropriate way forward and reconciliation and national unity mechanism for the nation comprised of 1200 atolls in the Indian Ocean.

Nasheed earlier said the US move would only serve to inflame tensions in the Maldives, which was rocked by several days of violent protests following Nasheed's ouster on Tuesday.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who gave the first press conference, urged Britain to comply with UN resolutions, sit down at the negotiating table and "refrain from this military escalation that they are carrying out in the South Atlantic with the introduction of the latest generation of warships and warplanes, and dispatching a nuclear submarine with the capacity to unload nuclear weapons."

The islands off Argentina's eastern coast, called the Falklands by the British and the Malvinas by Argentineans, have been at the center of the decades-old feud between the two countries.

Tensions have been on the rise between Britain and Argentina as the former announced recently that it would explore for oil in the surrounding waters, as the 30th anniversary of a 1982 war that saw Argentina defeated by Britain is approaching,

Timerman said Argentina firmly believes "that problems between countries must be resolved in a peaceful manner, on (the) basis of peaceful dialogue" and that all parties should "refrain from using arms."

British Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall Grant, who held the second press conference on Friday, called Timerman's statement about British militarization of the islands "manifestly absurd".

"Before 1982 there was a minimal defense presence on the Falkland Islands," he said. "It is only because Argentina illegally invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982 that since then we have had to increase our defense posture. Nothing has changed in that defense posture in recent months and recent years."

Grant defended British presence in the islands, saying Britain has been there since 1765 "before Argentina existed", and the civilians have neither been implanted nor expelled by Britain since that time.

"It is unfortunate that Argentina changed its constitution in the 1990s to make it incumbent upon the Argentinean government to obtain sovereignty," said Grant. "If the Falkland Islands themselves ask for a change in the status, then we would do everything we could to help them achieve it."

Earlier on Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while meeting with the Argentine foreign minister, called upon Argentina and Britain to prevent "an escalation" of tensions over the disputed islets and to "resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue."

"The secretary-general expressed concern about the increasingly strong exchanges between the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom on this issue," said a readout issued here by Ban's spokesman. "He expressed the hope that the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom will avoid an escalation of this dispute and resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue."

On Tuesday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of militarizing the Southern Atlantic, vowing to seek UN help to remove British troops from the region.

The president said Britain maintains a military presence in the waters around the islands and the British deployment risks triggering war games in the region.

She said her government would present once again its arguments to the UN De-colonizing Committee in June, and expressed the belief that with these arguments the sovereignty of the Malvinas would be given to Argentina.

A dead dolphin lies by the shore at a beach in Lambayeque in Peru, Feb 10, 2012. At least 260 dolphins were found dead over an area 106 km (66 miles) long in the Lambayaque region. While the officials are still not sure why the mammals died, they have not ruled out the possibility that they were hunted. The head of Peruvian Sea Institute in Lambayeque, Edward Barriga, ordered samples to be sent to Lima for laboratory studies. [Photo/Reuters] 

A dead dolphin lies by the shore at a beach in Lambayeque in Peru, Feb 10, 2012. At least 260 dolphins were found dead over an area 106 km (66 miles) long in the Lambayaque region. While the officials are still not sure why the mammals died, they have not ruled out the possibility that they were hunted. The head of Peruvian Sea Institute in Lambayeque, Edward Barriga, ordered samples to be sent to Lima for laboratory studies. [Photo/Reuters]

Ten of them were accused of plotting the strike while the rest were arrested for disobedience. The Rio state has about 70,000 officers, including the Military Police, the Civil Police and the firefighters.

The situation in Rio de Janeiro is relatively calm, compared with the chaos and insecurity reported in Bahia state, where police have been going on a strike for 10 days.

President Dilma Roussef said that 14,000 officers from the National Security Forces would support Rio de Janeiro's local government to guarantee the security in this state, to avoid a similar situation to the one reported in Bahia state.

The strike in Rio de Janeiro happens one week before the beginning of the famous carnival festivities, which draw thousands of foreign tourists every year.

The protesters said if India signs an FTA agreement with EU, medical costs for them, especially the supply of generic life- saving drugs, would skyrocket.

The protest was organized by a group called "Ashraya", a registered community based organization comprising sex workers and non-sex workers living with HIV.

The organization said unlike a decade ago, treatment for prolonging the life span of people living with HIV is possible now through Anti-Retroviral Therapy. This has been made possible primarily due to availability of generic drugs that Indian pharmaceutical industry manufactures and supplies at affordable cost to over 96 countries across the globe.

Accepting FTA with EU would mean thousands of people living with HIV in India cannot afford to receive these drugs any more, the organization warned.

India and EU said on Friday they would accelerate pace for signing an FTA at a bilateral summit meeting in the Indian capital.

Tommy, a Yorkshire Terrier, is held by its owner Fred Wolpert in the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City before the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb 10, 2012. The 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the country's oldest and largest dog show competition, takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Feb 13 and 14. [Photo/Reuters] 

Joe Buchannan of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania places his Cavalier King Charles Spaniels into a cage as he is helped by a doorman into the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City to check in for the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb 10, 2012. [Photo/Reuters]

Joan Behrend of Long Island, New York, carries her Pomeranian Honey Nut Cheerio, at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City after arriving for the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb 10, 2012. [Photo/Reuters]

Ronnie Goldberg of New Jersey holds Butterfly Kisses, a Yorkshire Terrier, in the lobby of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York after arriving for the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb 10, 2012. [Photo/Reuters]

Gilbert, a three-year-old Briard breed, leaps on his owner Delores Dement of Memphis, Tennessee as they arrive to check into the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City for the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb 10, 2012. [Photo/Reuters]

A damaged vehicle is seen outside the police headquarters building, one of two bomb blasts sites in Syria's northern city of Aleppo February 10, 2012, in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA. [Photo/Agencies]

ALEPPO, Syria - Two car bombs detonated outside security bases in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, officials said, killing 28 people in the worst violence to hit the country's northern commercial hub in an 11-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

State television showed blood, bodies and shattered concrete strewn across a street in front of a military intelligence building, and a crater several metres wide outside a security force base in the city.

Officials said the blasts were caused by explosives packed in two white minibuses, similar to those used by Syrian security forces. They said the vicitms included soldiers, civilians and children.

The explosions follow three suicide bombings in the capital Damascus in December and January which killed at least 70 people. Syria's government, blaming al Qaeda for at least some of those attacks, vowed an "iron-fist response".

Aleppo had been spared most of the unrest roiling Syria since anti-Assad protests erupted in March, but it has seen increasing protests and violence in recent weeks.

Reporters taken on a government-arranged visit to Aleppo saw a heavily armoured vehicle which had been tossed on its side by the force of one of the blasts. Windows in the five-storey intelligence building, about 50 metres (yards) from the site of the explosion, had been been blown out.

A reporter on state television, in a live broadcast from outside the complex shortly after the bombs shook Aleppo, said at least one blast had been audible 20 km (12 miles) away.

A concrete wall surrounding the buildings was badly damaged.

A damaged vehicle is seen outside the police headquarters building, one of two bomb blasts sites in Syria's northern city of Aleppo February 10, 2012, in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA. [Photo/Agencies]

Lifting blankets and plastic sheets which had been laid over corpses on the pavement, the reporter showed a body with its head blown off and other bloodied human remains including a limbless torso and a blown off foot.

"We apologise for showing these pictures, but this is the terrorism which is targeting us," the reporter said, at times choking with emotion.

He said children were among the dead, showing a single rollerblade left on the pavement.

"Is this the freedom of Hamad and Erdogan?" one man shouted, referring to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who have led the chorus of regional criticism against Assad. "Hamad, you dog," he said.

Syrian television showed similar bloody scenes at the second site, hit by what the reporter said was a car bomb. The blast had gouged a crater several metres (yards) wide, blown a truck onto its side and hurled chunks of concrete over a wide area.

The television showed people pulling body parts out of a black refuse bin for the camera.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 30 people were killed in the explosions, adding that most of those killed were military personnel.

It also said seven people were killed in other districts oc Aleppo on Friday, but gave no further details.

2011 Samuel Aranda of Spain, a photographer working for The New York Times, has won the World Press Photo of the Year 2011 with this picture of a woman holding a wounded relative during protests against president Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen October 15, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

THE HAGUE - Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda on Friday won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year, with a picture showing a Yemeni woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a violence in Yemen.

The picture was taken on October 15, 2011, inside a mosque used as a field hospital during clashes in the city of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.

According to comments of the jury, the winning picture could speak for the situation in the whole region. It also shows a private, intimate side of what went on.

In the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest, the jury gave prizes in nine themed categories, with entries by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries participating and a total of 101,254 pictures submitted.

Aranda will receive his award during an ceremony in Amsterdam on April 21.

An informed source with the Iranian Energy Ministry confirmed on Friday the release of the seven engineers, said the report.

Five of the seven freed Iranians were kidnapped by unknown armed gunmen on their way to the 450-MW power plant in the troubled Syrian city of Homs on December 21.

The technicians have been building the city's Jandar power plant for the past two years.

The two others were abducted one day later while they were on a mission to discover the whereabouts of their missing colleagues, said Press TV.

According to the report, Iranian engineers and experts are currently implementing development projects in Syria, valued at more than 1.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast confirmed on Tuesday the release of other 11 Iranians abducted earlier this month in Syria.

The spokesman said that 11 abducted Iranian pilgrims were released by the help of "friendly countries."

Earlier on Tuesday, local Mehr news agency reported that the kidnapped Iranian pilgrims were freed by the help of Turkey, after they were abducted on a road connecting the Syrian city of Hama to the capital Damascus on February 1.

There have been a string of kidnappings of Iranian citizens over the past several months in Syria. On January 26, a group of unidentified armed men stopped a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims on a road from Damascus to the northwestern city of Aleppo, abducting 11 Iranian men.

Benefiting from the New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement, which has been in force from Oct 2008, NZ's exports to China have grown significantly in the past 3 years. In the year to Oct 2011, they reached $4.6 billion, a 34 percent increase from 2010. NZ is expecting to expand bilateral trade between China to $16 billion by 2015.

"New Zealand's export trade with China over the past two years has grown faster than with any other major nations in New Zealand's trading history," said Mike Arand, Trade Commissioner of New Zealand's Trade & Enterprise Board.

To better strengthen the relationship between the two countries in the Year of the Dragon, Prime Minister John Key launched the latest NZ Inc China Strategy on Feb 3, a vision he said would help to better develop the country's engagement with China.

Arand said the China Strategy has been under preparation for the past few years and aims at pulling different government agencies to work together to focus on one strategy so as to assist businesses seeking opportunities in China.

He said the strategy is to identify key sectors or industries in NZ and to support key industries such as the tourism, food and beverage sectors to be successful.

"The accusations are groundless and we cannot accept them," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a regular news briefing.

"The Chinese government always holds a cautious and responsible attitude toward the export of military goods," said the spokesman.

"(The Chinese government) strictly manages military exports in accordance with international obligations, domestic laws and regulations," he said.

Syrian security and civil defence members inspect the site of an explosion in Syria's northern city of Aleppo February 10, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

DAMASCUS - At least 25 people were killed and another 175 wounded in Friday's twin bombings that targeted security and law-enforcement forces' bases in Syria's northern Aleppo city, according to the health ministry.

Xinhua's correspondent in Damascus reported initial information showed that at least 19 government troops were among the dead, including 11 security agents died in the first explosion at a military security compound and eight law-enforcement members in the second attack against a barrack.

The local Sham FM cited some western media as saying the Free Syrian Army (FSA), under which the allegedly army defectors grouped, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Meanwhile, Syria's state TV aired footages of the blast site, showing some remains of bodies on the streets, some belonging to children who were playing at a nearby park, as well as some damaged buildings in the area.    

The explosions are the first two to have occurred in Aleppo, the second largest city and the economic power house of Syria.

Aleppo has remained mostly calm during the past 11-month-old turmoil in other parts of the country. The Syrian government accuses armed groups of trying to prompt Aleppo to take part in the anti-government movement.

Spokesman Liu Weimin made the remark at a daily press briefing when asked about China's views on boosting dialogue and negotiation in relation to Iran's nuclear issue.

At the invitation of Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Baqeri, Foreign Ministry Assistant Minister Ma Zhaoxu will visit Iran from February 12 to 13. The spokesman said Ma will exchange views with the Iranian side on nuclear issues.

China has been endeavoring to encourage peaceful negotiations, Liu said.

"We consistently stand for the opinion that dialogue and cooperation are the correct way to solve Iran's nuclear issue," Liu said.

The spokesman said it is urgent to relaunch the dialogue process between the group of six international mediators and Iran and promote cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran.

The move aims to prevent a recurrence of the severe gasoline shortage after the March quake and tsunami disaster in some parts of Japan.

The revision to the law added that oil distributors come up with joint plans to cooperate with each other in accommodating oil refineries and tank trucks.

Oil distributors should also compile disaster plans by the end of fiscal 2012 in each of the 10 regions to be designated by the government, according to the revision.

Use of the nation's oil stockpile in times of disaster is also planned to be allowed by the government. The stockpile was previously prepared in case of a disruption in oil supply from overseas.

The reconstruction agency was planed to operate about 10 years until the end of March 2021, mainly dealing with questions about making reconstruction policy, settling down the location of special rebuild area, allotting reconstruction funds, and coordinating with other related departments to promote reconstruction.

"The material of making the wooded tablet outside the reconstruction agency is from the earthquake hit area. We want to take this as a warning that we should always remember the expectations from the residents in earthquake hit area, that's our heavy responsibility," said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda when he attended the lunch ceremony in downtown Tokyo.

The headquarters of the reconstruction agency is located in Akasaka, and there are three local reconstruction bureaus in Morioka, Sendai and Fukushima, the capitals of three worst hit prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima respectively.

Noda appointed Tatsuo Hirano, the former education, culture, sports, science and technology minister, as head of the reconstruction agency one day ahead.

Last December, Japan's lower house of parliament passed the bill on establishing a new agency to bolster efforts to rebuild areas ravaged by the natural disaster and bring cabinet members to a maximum 18 by adding a new member.

The United States has so far frozen all Iranian assets in US financial facilities, and banned foreign companies that traded with the Iranian Central Bank from the US financial market.

The sanctions, which have received positive responses from the EU and the Gulf states, have sent commodity prices soaring and the rial, Iran's currency, tumbling against the greenback.

TOUGH WORDS

With the West trying to tighten the noose with sanctions, Tehran vowed to fight back and denied that the sanctions are hurting the Iranian economy.

Iran's Majlis (parliament) is ready to approve a bill aimed at stopping oil exports to member states of the EU in response to their bid to embargo Iran's oil exports, local TV reported Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the sanctions are old news and have been going on for 30 years.

"The practical outcome of such measures (of sanctioning Iran) is the determination of the Iranian nation in implementing their outstanding goals in the framework of national interests and rights," he said.

But his tough words cannot hide the fact that the sanctions are indeed taking their toll on the country's economy.

Food and living costs have soared in Iran, and imported goods, such as electronic devices, have more than doubled in price from a year before.

With the depreciation of the rial and its limited reserve of hard currencies, Tehran is forced to barter, trading gold and oil with international traders, to maintain a steady food supply in the country.

Iran is also seeking new buyers for its oil to replace the EU, South Korea and Japan, all of which have moved to embargo Iranian oil exports.

OTHER MOTIVES?

Curbing Tehran's controversial nuclear program may not be the only purpose behind the US sanctions.

With his Israeli counterpart making hawkish comments, and the presidential election coming up in November, US President Barack Obama may also be using the sanctions to appease Israel as well as ward off criticism at home calling for harsher measures against Iran.

Robin Wright, a Middle East expert from the US Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center, said Washington is telling Israel not to attack Iran since the stinging effect of sanctions have already kicked in.

Neither the Obama administration nor the US military want to see the United States dragged into yet another war only months after it concluded a decade-long campaign in Iraq last year, Wright said.

LONG-LASTING FEUD

Analysts believed the stalemate around the Persian Gulf may persist if Tehran maintains its hardline stance against the West.

The West and Israel ultimately seek to eliminate the possibility of Tehran gaining nuclear weapons, and will not stop until they achieve that goal.

Therefore a defiant Tehran will no doubt invite harsher sanctions especially from Israel, which sees an Iran in possession of a nuclear weapon as a great security threat.

Economic sanctions will weaken and divide the Iranians, forcing some to compromise, but unremitting military threats are counterproductive as they will lead to a more united and defiant Iran, an analyst from the American Academy of Diplomacy said.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team is scheduled to visit Iran on February 21, after talks between the UN nuclear watchdog and Tehran at the end of January were seen as positive.

Tensions between the Islamic state and the West will ease if Tehran is willing to make concessions on the issue. Yet Iran's belief that it has the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes is in conflict with the West's goal of forcing it to drop its uranium enrichment program, dimming chances that the deadlock will be broken any time soon.

Eight ruling and opposition lawmakers, all members of the parliamentary committees on inter-Korean relations and foreign affairs, crossed the land border earlier in the day on their way to the joint industrial complex in the border town of Keasong.

"I hope the visit will lead to further dialogue, cooperation and progress in inter-Korean relations," Kim Choong-whan of the ruling Saenuri Party said.

During the one-day tour, the lawmakers are scheduled to meet with business owners to hear their grievances, but have no plans to meet with DPRK officials.

The Kaesong industrial complex, opened in 2003, stands as a fragile symbol of reconciliation between the two wartime enemies as tension lingers on the divided peninsula following two deadly border incidents in 2010.

It now houses 123 South Korean firms that employ some 44,000 DPRK workers, but business operators there have said they feel threatened by worsening inter-Korean relations.

Friday's visit marks the first since September last year when former ruling party leader Hong Joon-pyo paid a working visit to the industrial park.

One "terrorist" explosion targeted the military security compound in New Aleppo neighborhood and the other targeted a law- enforcement forces' barrack in Hanano area.

There has been no immediate account of casualties.

The explosions are the first two to have occurred in Aleppo, the second largest city and the economic power house of Syria.

Aleppo has remained mostly calm during the past 11-month-old turmoil in other parts of the country. The Syrian government accuses armed groups of trying to prompt Aleppo to take part in the anti-government movement.

Gilani will now appear before the court on February 13 to be formally charged with failing to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said.

"Our appeal has been rejected," Ahsan told the media after the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who headed an eight- member bench of the Supreme Court, rejected Gilani's the review appeal.

Legal experts are of the view if convicted the Prime Minister may face prison and lose his parliamentary seat and a five-year ban from holding any public office.

The Prime Minister and his ruling Pakistan Peoples Party have refused to write to Swiss authorities to reopen a corruption case against President Zardari. They argue that the President enjoys immunity under the constitution as head of state.

The ruling party also claims that the corruption charges are politically motivated. The Prime Minister appeared before the Supreme Court on January 19 and had announced on February 2 to appear again next week.

He had filed appeal on Wednesday and defense lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, had argued that his Supreme Court appearance on February 13 should be canceled until a decision on the appeal had been delivered.

The defense lawyer did not give any indication during his two- day arguments before the court that the government will write to Swiss officials.

Ins. Gen. Sutarman, head of Police Detective at the National Police Headquarters, told audience of a legal discussion that the right system will prevent loopholes for corruption.

"It could be started by a clear population data collection just like single identity card. The card does not only contain identity of the owners but also their belongings, cars, wealth as well as number of ID card and passport," he said.

Sutarman said that the goal of the system is to detect any increasing wealth so that the country has an authority to automatically take some of the wealth for tax.

"With the system, there would be no contact between tax payers with tax officials. Such contact opens chance for collusion and then corruption," said Sutarman.

He added that if the system runs well, all stakeholders should make a national consensus.

"The consensus, for example, consists of an agreement that any person having money abroad should save in domestic banks so that tax authority could detect the money," said Sutarman, adding that with a successful implementation, the country will not have any foreign debt.

He said that such system would also be useful to prevent misconduct in general elections as there would be no identification duplication.

US First Lady Michelle Obama performs the Interlude dance during an event highlighting her "Let's Move" initiative attended by over 10,000 youths at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb 9, 2012. The first lady is on a three-day trip to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move" initiative.[Photo/Agencies]

US First Lady Michelle Obama (C) performs the Interlude dance during an event highlighting her "Let's Move" initiative attended by over 10,000 youths at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

US First Lady Michelle Obama performs the Interlude dance during an event highlighting her "Let's Move" initiative attended by over 10,000 youths at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

US First Lady Michelle Obama (C) performs the Interlude dance during an event highlighting her "Let's Move" initiative attended by over 10,000 youths at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

"The missile successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface target missile -- a modified version of 'Prithvi' missile -- which was fired first around 10:30 am from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur," the sources said.

The testfiring was part of India's plan to deploy a reliable two-layer ballistic missile defense system.

India last year conducted a successful test of its ballistic missile defense system when it destroyed an "enemy" ballistic missile with an interceptor missile over the Bay of Bengal off Orissa coast.

"The missile successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface target missile -- a modified version of 'Prithvi' missile -- which was fired first around 10:30 a.m. from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur," the sources said.

The testfiring was part of India's plan to deploy a reliable two-layer ballistic missile defense system.

India last year conducted a successful test of its ballistic missile defense system when it destroyed an "enemy" ballistic missile with an interceptor missile over the Bay of Bengal off Orissa coast.

Forensic technicians and police officers work around the dead body of a man at a crime scene in a neighborhood in Monterrey Feb 9, 2012. Two men were boarding a car when gunmen drove past and killed them, according to local media.[Photo/Agencies]

A police officer stands guard as forensic technicians stand near a taxi with the covered-up body of a dead man inside at a crime scene in Monterrey February 8, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A forensic technician ties a used police line together to seal off a crime scene in Monterrey Feb 8, 2012.A taxi driver was shot dead by gunmen almost at the same time when another group of hitmen attacked three taxi drivers in a different neighborhood, killing two and injuring one, according to local media.[Photo/Agencies]

Police officers from the State Attorney General's Office stand together in a hall before escorting suspects to a presentation to the media, in Monterrey Feb 9, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

News channels broadcast footage showing Karnataka state Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi sharing a porn clip with his colleague CC Patil, the minister for women and child development, while sitting in the state assembly.

Speaking to a Diet committee, Azumi said that the government stepped into the currency market last fall to weaken the yen after the US dollar fell to 75.63 yen and halted the operation when dollar recovered to 78.20 yen, in a rare remark linking specific exchange rates to an intervention, according to local Kyodo News.

But the report later said that Azumi denied he mentioned specific rates for forex intervention.

Azumi added current foreign exchange rates do not reflect Japan's economic fundamentals.

They even called the veto a "travesty" and claimed it would encourage "further bloodshed in Syria."

However harsh and jaw-dropping accusations they may put on, it is themselves who should be blamed for forcing a vote on a highly controversial draft.

One of the key articles of the draft demands Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to handover power to a deputy, which smacks of the long-desired "regime change" in the Arab country by some Western powers.

It's secret to none that the Assad-led Syrian government is viewed as a thorn in the flesh by the West, given Syria's close ties with Iran and Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

If the West could succeed in its endeavor of a "regime change" in Syria, it could further isolate Iran and Hezbollah, which is arguably the strongest Western motive on the Syria issue.

In the unbalanced draft resolution, the West only stressed the immediate step-down of Assad but refused to add articles to bind actions of the opposition or set conditions for the two sides to engage in talks.

China believes that solving disputes or conflict via dialogue is always a better choice and has been working to encourage peaceful talks in Syria.

In stark contrast, some Western countries claimed the time for talks in Syria had been over and with their efforts failed in the UN Security Council, they move to seek legitimacy for their planned "Syria solution" outside the UN.

The 11-month unrest has already cost Syria dearly, but the ramification could be even larger for both Syria and the rest of the world if hasty actions are taken by outsiders before the Syrian government and the opposition have a chance to work out an inclusive plan addressing calls of all Syrian people.

The drug trade considered Cape Town "a very lucrative place to  do business," said  Dan Plato, the city's Community Safety MEC  (Member of the Executive Council).  

He made the remarks after police released figures which showed  that drugs valued at almost 12 billion rand (about $1.6 billion) had been seized in the Western Cape since April 2010.  

"We are far, far ahead of other cities in terms of drug crime stats. We're making a grave mistake by underestimating the drug  problem in this city, because it's bigger than anyone thinks,"  Plato said.  

"The wide range of anti-drug measures needed constant hard work and vigilance", he said.  

"We need to continue to hit the drug cartels very hard. We can  do much, much better. But we've had a recent glimpse into the  underworld and at least we know they are now scared."  

Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer told lawmakers on  Wednesday that the drugs trade was contributing hugely to crime  figures and that the Western Cape was seen as the province that  used drugs the most.  

"Every single day we confiscate drugs," Lamoer said, adding  that drugs worth more than 50 million rand (about $6.5 million) had been confiscated from buses in one week in January  when drug routes into the province were blocked.  

"The violent crime and the gangsterism in the Western Cape are  all linked to one thing – drugs. If we can stop the drugs, crime  will come down radically, and people will be safe."  

The Western Cape recorded a 1.6 percent increase in murders,  from 2, 274 between April 2009 and March 2010, to 2,311 between  April 2010 and March last year, according to the local newspaper Cape Argus.  

For the same period, attempted murders rose by 26.7 percent, from 1, 707 to 2,162.

Shortly before noon, a minibus from the Free State town of Ladybrand suddenly lost its control and crashed head-on into an on- coming car as it tried to negotiate a sharp curve on the downhill road, local media quoted the police as saying.

The minibus carrying 15 passengers rolled several times and caught fire, causing five of the passengers burnt to death and ten passengers hurt. Among four occupants of the car, three were killed on the scene and one was injured, said the police.

The local police rushed to the scene and sent the injured people to local hospitals for treatment, according to the police.

The cause of the failure of the minibus control was not available.

"Major Alkadr al-Humaidy, head of the Criminal Investigation Department in al-Houta, the capital city of Lahj, was gunned down Thursday evening by motorcycle(-riding) gunmen when he was on his way home on the outskirts of the city," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"Initial investigations showed that the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida militants," he said.

Several members of the state security and intelligence units in a number of southern provinces have been killed over the past few months in similar attacks that were probably carried out by the Yemen-based regional terrorist network, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The terrorist group has stepped up attacks on the government security personnel and seized several cities in the country's lawless southern regions, where the central government's control has been weakened by one-year protests against the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The continued attacks showed the country's fragile security situation just less than two weeks ahead of the presidential election that aimed at ending the months-long unrest.

Earlier this week, Yemen's acting President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi launched his advertising campaign as the sole presidential candidate for the February 21 polls, under a UN-backed power transfer deal brokered by neighboring oil-rich Gulf countries to end months of protests.

In a meeting with foreign diplomats to Yemen on Wednesday, Hadi reaffirmed his government's position towards combating terrorism. "We will not negotiate or seek compromise with terrorist groups... and our battles will continue to eliminate them with all possible ways," he was quoted by official Saba news agency as saying.

Five brigade-level maneuvers that were planned to begin in April have been axed, and the army is weighing whether to call off one division-level exercise, according to senior officers who spoke with the Yediot Aharonot daily.

As well, the army will downsize drills that have already been approved, cut back on the amount of live ammunition used in training and reduce the number of reserve units called up for operations in the West Bank and along the border with the Gaza Strip, the newspaper said.

Defense officials warned that the damage to the military's training routine could have severe ramifications.

"In light of the prospect of a regional deterioration this year, we should be training more than ever before ... the responsibility lies entirely with the political echelon," one official said.

"The military cannot regress to the years that preceded the 2006 Lebanon War (during which training was kept to a minimum due to budgetary constraints)," he said.

Israel's defense budget, among the highest in the world per capita, has been the subject of heated public debate ever since record numbers of Israelis took to the street last summer to protest mounting housing and living costs.

Last September, a government panel recommended the implementation of major social reforms at the expense of military spending, sparking a bitter altercation between the defense and finance ministries.

Defense Ministry officials said they expected their budget to shrink by 15 billion shekels (about $4 billion) in the next three years, 20 percent of which will be trimmed this year, the Globes business daily reported last week.

"The budget distress requires painful decisions," said one official, referring to media reports that the Defense Ministry was considering to scrap production of the Merkava Mark IV, the army's main battle tank.

According to Thursday's report, the budget cuts would not affect the procurement of advanced weapons systems, the training of regular army units and stipends paid to disabled combat veterans. The hardest-hit are expected to be reserve field units staffed by civilian volunteers.

Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos attends a Eurogroup meeting at the European Union council headquarters in Brussels Feb 9, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - Eurozone finance ministers said late Thursday that the Greek authorities have not done enough to convince international lenders to approve a crucial new bailout package.

"Despite the important progress achieved over the last days, we did not yet have all necessary elements on the table to take decisions today," Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a press conference after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

Juncker made the comments hours after Greece's prime minister Lucas Papademos announced in Athens the conclusion of "a general agreement" on the contents of a second bailout program without disclosing details.

Greece urged to do more

Juncker first called upon the Greek parliament to approve on Sunday the policy package agreed between Greece and the "troika," and asked the Greek government to rapidly identify a additional structural expenditure reductions of 325 million euro in 2012 as part of a 3.3-billion-euro (about $4.4 billion) austerity plan.

"We would also need to obtain strong political assurances from the leaders of the coalition parties on the implementation of the programme," the president added.

Due to the failure of the Greek government to implement many of the reforms agreed as part of the first bailout package in May 2010, the "troika" has been insisting major political parties in the Greek government make firm commitment to "painful" structural reforms and austerity measures before signing on the bailout program.

The 130 billion-euro bailout package, offered by the "troika," namely, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, is crucial for Greece to avoid default or a potential exit from the eurozone on March 20 when 14.5 billion euro of bonds come due.

"These three elements, those I mentioned, need to be in place before we can take decisions. We welcomed the assurances provided by the Greek government that all the necessary elements will be put in place in the coming days," Juncker told reporters.

Speaking on his arrival for the meeting, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters that "We have come very far, but we are still not far enough.And it is good to tell the Greek authorities what the conditions for a second bailout program during the meeting."

The German finance minister also urged Greece to "implement what it has not implemented from the first programme before we can decide on a second."

"My knowledge is that we still haven't got the conditions that were clearly demanded by EU leaders," including reducing Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio to 120 percent by 2020 and limiting the amount of the bailout by 130 billion euros,said Schaeuble.

Stronger monitoring

EU officials also stressed the importance of effective implementation of the bailout program and proposed stronger monitoring measures during the meeting.

"The second Greek programme needs genuine ownership by the Greek political parties and it needs stronger and more effective implementation," Olli Rehn, EU's Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, told the press conference.

"Therefore we will need to further strengthen our capacity on the ground in Athens, both for monitoring and for assistance," added Rehn, who said this was one of the issues the ministers discussed very intensively by the finance ministers.

The European Commission had also received endorsement to reinforce its tools in order to ensure "effective monitoring and reinforced technical assistance," the commissioner said.

He pointed to fighting tax evasion, reforming the tax administration, implementing privatisation and better absorption of structural funds, as areas where monitoring would need to be reinforced.

The finance ministers also discussed a proposal by Germany and France to create an "escrow account" to control some of the bailout fund to make sure that the Greek government would make it a priority to pay its creditors.

"This proposal on an escrow account, or priority of debt service, is being explored by the Commission and the Eurogroup Working Group, and we are considering it seriously, because it is one relevant possibility of enforcing surveillance and ensuring effective implementation of the programme," Rehn said.

Forensic technicians and police officers work around the dead body of a man at a crime scene in a neighborhood in Monterrey Feb 9, 2012. Two men were boarding a car when gunmen drove past and killed them, according to local media.[Photo/Agencies]

A police officer stands guard as forensic technicians stand near a taxi with the covered-up body of a dead man inside at a crime scene in Monterrey February 8, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A forensic technician ties a used police line together to seal off a crime scene in Monterrey Feb 8, 2012.A taxi driver was shot dead by gunmen almost at the same time when another group of hitmen attacked three taxi drivers in a different neighborhood, killing two and injuring one, according to local media.[Photo/Agencies]

Police officers from the State Attorney General's Office stand together in a hall before escorting suspects to a presentation to the media, in Monterrey Feb 9, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

"It's the worst thing I've ever seen," said Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece, who has worked in local law enforcement for 27 years. "We've had murders, but nothing like this. This is just senseless."

He said Billy Clay Payne, Jr and Billie Jean Hayworth were killed last month after they deleted Jenelle Potter, the daughter of one of the suspects, from their "friends" list. Both were shot in the head and the man had his throat cut.

The couple's 8-month-old baby was in the mother's arms, unharmed, when the bodies were found. 

Marvin Enoch "Buddy" Potter Jr, 60, and Jamie Lynn Curd, 38, were each charged on Wednesday in Mountain City in northeastern Tennessee with two counts of first-degree murder. The men were arrested on Tuesday.

The case was not the first involving violence linked to Facebook. Last year in Iowa, a woman was arrested on accusations of setting fire to a friend's garage after she was defriended on the social network site, local media reported.

In Texas, a man was accused of hitting his wife after she failed to "like" a Facebook post he wrote about the anniversary of his mother's death, according to media reports.

Curd's attorney, R.O. Smith, an assistant public defender, said of the Tennessee case that it was "safe to say there's more to it than the Facebook problem, it appears."

US President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti after their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington Feb 9, 2012. Obama assured Monti on Thursday that the United States will do whatever it can to help stabilize the situation in the euro zone.[Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Thursday praised visiting Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti for his efforts to fight the debt crisis and boost market confidence.

Obama said he appreciated Monti's "strong start" as Italy's newly-named prime minister and the "very effective measures" he was promoting in his country.

With stewardship, experience and his knowledge of economics, Monti has boosted confidence within Italy for a reform agenda, and has also generated confidence across Europe and the world markets, Obama said.

Obama assured Monti, who assumed his post last November to address Italy's debt crisis and restore fiscal stability, that the United States would do whatever it could to help stabilize the situation in the eurozone.

"It has not been a crisis of the euro," Monti said in a speech at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics before his meeting with Obama, adding that the euro has shown remarkable stability and solidity.

Monti said Italy doesn't need financial support at present. "But it needs better governance and wants to contribute to better governance," the prime minister said.

Monti said budgetary consolidation, labor reform, liberalization and competition are the three pillars for economic growth in Italy. "If markets see the improvements in the policy outlook for Italy and sustainability of the budget, they will deliver a benefit to Italy in the form of lower interest rates," Monti said.

He said he was confident European integration will be strengthened through the crisis.

According to reports by the Center of Volcanology and Geological Danger Mitigation (PVMBG) of Geological Agency at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the eruption was followed by roaring noise and thick and grey ashes emitted to 2,000 meters above the volcano's Tompaluan crater heading southeast.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of the Center of Data Information and Public Relation at the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), said in a statement his office has recommended that there should be no public activity within 2.5 kilometers below the crater.

He urged people to keep alert and prepare for Mount Lokon's further activities that might happen.

Previously, Mount Lokon erupted on December 27, 2011 and January 6, 2012.

The Bolivian president said the spying is done under the cover of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

"I am convinced that some NGOs, especially those funded by the USAID, are the fifth column of espionage in Bolivia, not only in Bolivia, but also in all of Latin America," Morales said during a press conference in Oruro, a southwestern Bolivian city.

Morales said the United States, through the cover of development aid operations of those organizations, knows "all the details of the activities of the social sectors and union leaders" in those Latin American countries.

The president regretted that some union leaders were allegedly used by these NGOs to stir disputes such as the one over a highway project in an indigenous territory in his country.

Morales has ordered to temporarily suspend the construction of the new highway amid strong public criticism for police crackdown on indigenous protesters in September last year.

Also at the press conference, the Bolivian president pledged to resolve the indigenous conflict through broad consultations based on international rules established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Bolivian Constitution.

Models present creations from the Richard Chai Love Fall/Winter 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Actress Rose McGowan presents a dress by designer Marc Bouwer for the Heart Truth's Red Dress Fashion Show in New York, Feb 8, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Canadian artist Rick Genest, also known as "Zombie Boy", attends the show at the Duckie Brown Fall/Winter 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A model presents a creation from the BCBG Max Azria Fall/Winter 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A model presents a creation from the BCBG Max Azria Fall/Winter 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A model presents a creation at the Costello Tagliapietra Fall/Winter 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week Feb 9, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The index of corporate goods prices was down 0.1 percent from December, on a month-on-month basis, the central bank said in a preliminary report released on Friday.

The index stayed at 104.5 against the 2005 base of 100, according to the report.

US President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti after their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington February 9, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Thursday praised Italy's cooperation on Afghanistan, Syria and Iran, saying that the two countries aim to end the "outrageous bloodshed" in Syria.

Emerging from his first meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti at his Oval Office, Obama told reporters that "We discussed a wide range of diplomatic concerns, including the situation in Syria, where we both have a great interest in ending the outrageous bloodshed that we've seen and seeing a transition from the current government that has been assaulting its people."

Calling Italy "one of our most important friends and allies," Obama praised "the sacrifices and outstanding work" made by Italian forces in Afghanistan, saying "We reaffirmed our commitment to the Lisbon schedule in which we transition to full Afghan lead by the end of 2014."

At their Lisbon summit in November 2010, NATO leaders agreed on a gradual drawdown of the allied forces from Afghanistan and transferring security to the Afghan government by the end of 2014.

However, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said early this month that the US hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of 2013, prompting government officials to try to make clear of US strategy.

Obama also claimed that "We could not have been successful in our Libya campaign" without the "extraordinary" contributions of Italy, saying that they expressed their interest in working with Libya's transitional government to create a stable pathway toward democracy and economic prosperity.

He thanked Italy for its support of strong sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program, saying that "We also both said that we would work as hard as we can to find a diplomatic resolution to that very difficult situation."

Hailing the alliance with the US, Monti said that he promised Obama "the renewed intention" of Italy to provide not only the necessary resources and manpower for the tasks facing the two countries and their allies, but also "the knowledge and expertise" that Italy may have, as regards particularly some countries in the Mediterranean and Middle East region.

Police spokesman Abdul Mannan Yusuf refused to disclose the grounds for the criminal court's warrant, or say when Nasheed - who is living at his Male home, surrounded by supporters - would be arrested. Later, Police Commissioner Abdullah Riaz said it was not clear if the warrant was constitutional. He declined to provide details, but said the warrant's legality was still being examined.

Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed (center) reaches out to a supporter at his residence in the capital island Male on Thursday. A criminal court in the Maldives has issued an arrest order for former president Mohamed Nasheed and his former defense minister, party officials said. Ishara S. Kodikara / Agence France-Presse

Rioters had rampaged through the streets of the Maldives capital on Wednesday to demand Nasheed's return, and more had attacked police stations in remote parts of this 1,200-island archipelago nation off the southern coast of India.

Nasheed says he was forced to resign on Tuesday while his successor's government maintains he left voluntarily. About 200 supporters stood under umbrellas in the pouring rain outside as Mohamed Nasheed spoke to reporters at his home in Male, capital of the islands renowned for their luxury getaway resorts.

"The home minister has pledged (I will be) the first former president to spend all my life in jail," said Nasheed, who was relaxed and smiling and showed no signs of his reported beating on Wednesday.

"I hope the international community will take note of what is happening in the Maldives."

He said he hoped the international community would act quickly as "the facts on the ground are that tomorrow I will be in jail".

AP-Reuters-AFP

Washington's Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire said she looked forward to signing the measure and "putting into law an end to an era of discrimination" even as opponents, led by religious conservatives, vowed to seek its repeal at the polls in November.

The approval in the state House of Representatives came a day after gay marriage advocates won a key legal victory in California when a federal appeals court declared a voter-approved gay marriage ban in that state unconstitutional.

The measure cleared the state House of Representatives 55-43, a week after it was passed by the state Senate by a 28-21 vote. Democrats, accounting for the lion's share of support for the bill, control both legislative bodies in the state capital Olympia but enjoy a bigger majority in the 98-seat House.

Two Republicans joined 53 Democrats in voting for the bill, while two Democrats sided with 41 Republicans in opposition.

Democratic Representative Jamie Pedersen, a gay lawmaker from Seattle who has sponsored gay rights bills in the House for several years, said domestic partnership laws, as the state has had for years, are "a pale and inadequate substitute for marriage".

Pedersen, during his remarks on the House floor, read from Tuesday's ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, citing a section that stated "marriage is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between two adults".

Reuters-AP

The Foreign Ministry also said Libyan's National Transitional Council now stands in solidarity with the Syrian National Council, an umbrella opposition group, and voiced its condemnation against the unabated bloodshed plaguing Syria.

Libya joined Tunisia, another nation in the region, in its move on Saturday to demand the departure of Syria's diplomats to protest the Syrian government's handling of the unrest in the country.

Since March 2011, Syria has been gripped by turmoil in which confrontation between the government forces and armed groups took a heavy toll on civilians' lives.

The Syrian government said more than 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed during the months-long unrest, while the United Nations put the death toll in the country at more than 5,400.

According to a report by technology news site AllThingsD, sources said the next generation iPad will be pretty much what have been said in Apple rumor reports, like similar form to iPad 2, faster chips and better graphics.

AllThingsD said the new tablet, which will probably be named iPad 3, will feature a 20481536 Retina Display or something close to it. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S have Retina Display. As the human eye can only see around 300 pixels per inch, the screen of these smartphones have 326 pixels per inch, making texts and images look more similar to a high quality printed version.

The report did not say when the iPad 3 will hit stores. It expected the device to follow the same schedule as that of the iPad 2, which was available for purchase about a week after the event.

Apple has declined to comment on the timing of the event.

"Talks amongst the government and troika on the issue that had remained open, were concluded today successfully. Political leaders agreed to the result of these deliberations. Therefore, there is a broad agreement on the content of the new program ahead of tonight's Eurogroup meeting," said a statement issued by the prime minister's office.

On early Thursday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and leaders of the two major parties backing the interim administration, head of the socialist PASOK party George Papandreou and conservative New Democracy party chief Antonis Samaras, had clinched an in principle deal on all points of the program, except further cuts on pensions, as foreign inspectors in Athens requested.

The third coalition party leader, George Karatzaferis, of the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), had expressed "severe reservations" on the terms of the deal.

According to local media, the final deal was achieved following telephone conversations between Papademos and party leaders on Thursday, shortly before Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos' presentation at a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on the policies.

Greek media, citing government sources, said the leaders had objected to 15-percent cuts on basic and auxiliary pensions, demanded by EU/IMF inspectors, and eventually agreed to cuts in defense spending and other sectors as an alternative solution to save extra 300 million euros (398.64 million US dollars) this year.

Following difficult marathon talks with EU/IMF auditors, the agreement is expected to unlock a critical second aid package to debt-ridden Greece to avert a default on March 20, when a bond repayment comes due, which could have a significant impact on European and global economy.

Spokesman Liu Weimin made the remark at a daily press briefing in response to a question about a recent visit to China by a Syrian opposition delegation.

At the invitation of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, a delegation of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB) visited China from February 6 to 9.

During the visit, the delegation met with Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun and had talks with senior officials from the Foreign Ministry's Asian and African affairs departments.

The two sides exchanged views on the current situation in Syria, with the delegation representing the NCB's views and opinions on the turmoil, Liu said, adding that the delegation appreciates China's long-time position on Middle Eastern affairs that upholds the righteousness.

The delegation expressed a hope to beef up communication with China and expects the Chinese side to play a more important role in resolving the Syrian crisis.

Liu said the visit has been planned for some time and China has maintained contact with major Syrian opposition groups for "a period of time."

According to Liu, Chinese special envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike previously met with leaders of various Syrian opposition groups, including the NCB.

China has also established and maintained contact with Syria's opposition National Council, Liu confirmed.

China is a friend of all Syrian people, Liu said, adding that China has no private interests regarding Syria and has been working to encourage peaceful negotiations.

Liu said China does not deliberately shield or oppose any side in the situation and believes in maintaining the fundamental interests of the  Syrian people, maintaining peace and stability of the Middle East, and maintaining relevant rules in international relations.

"We call on Syrian authorities and other relevant parties to stop any violence and take practical measures to ease tension and avoid casualties," Liu said.

The spokesman said the Syrian people's "reasonable desire" for change and the protection of self-interest should be respected.

He urged the Syrian government to fulfill promises of reform and create an inclusive political process to be participated in by all relevant parties.

China hopes relevant parties will solve their differences through dialogue and negotiation, Liu said.

China hopes to continue to improve its communication with relevant Syrian parties and will make unremitting efforts to properly and peacefully solve the crisis in Syria, Liu added.

Police spokesman Abdul Mannan Yoosuf told Xinhua that Nasheed would be arrested within Thursday together with former defence minister.

"We have obtained an order from the Criminal Court to arrest former president," said Yoosuf.

"On security reasons, we can not reveal on what allegation the arrest is to be made,"he added.

The arrest order was made following a string of arson attacks on police stations and court houses by supporters of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on Wednesday.

"We have agreed about transit through Russian territory of the troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan," Ambassador Jean de Gliniasty told the local Kommersant daily.

This follows a statement Wednesday by Russian Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov that Russia and NATO had discussed additional routes for cargo transport via Russian territory to supply international forces in Afghanistan.

Lavrov said the transit would be conducted by rail and air using an airfield in the city of Ulyanovsk in Central Russia.

"We are guided by the desire to assist the international forces to execute their mandate in full," Lavrov said.

The US Defense Ministry has said it plans to complete combat operations in Afghanistan in 2013 and to start withdrawal in 2014.

In the phone conversation initiated by Paris, the Russian leader stressed that the international community's position on Syria should be objective and balanced.

"In context of continuing the difficult work, including by the UN Security Council, to regulate the Syrian crisis, Medvedev called on Russia's partners to avoid any hasty unilateral steps," the Kremlin press service said.

Medvedev informed the French president about Russian efforts to stop any violence in Syria as soon as possible through comprehensive dialogues between the confronting parties and facilitating democratic reforms in that country.

He also briefed Sarkozy on the results of the talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held on Tuesday in Damascus.

"Moscow said it was ready to continue mediatory efforts but considered any bloodshed unacceptable," the Kremlin said.

A visitor touches the power button of a heart sculpture at Times Square on Feb 7, 2011. Times Square is gearing up for Valentine's Day. Encouraging the city's lovers to visit the heart of Manhattan itself, the giant red installation is designed to pulsate brightly alongside the intense lights of New York. Ten feet tall and 10 feet wide, the cube is illuminated by LED lights that shine from the base when people touch the power button. [Photo/CFP] 

Visitors watch the heart sculpture installed at Times Square on Feb 7. [Photo/CFP]

Visitors touch the power button of a heart sculpture at Times Square on Feb 7. [Photo/CFP]

The power button encourages people to light up the heart sculpture at Times Square. [Photo/CFP]

They took a commercial flight to fly from the Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Beijing.

First lady Michelle Obama participates in a tug of war with Jimmy Fallon (L) in the Blue Room of the White House Feb 7, 2012 during a "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" taping for the second anniversary of the White House "Let's Move!" initiative.[Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Michelle Obama and "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon turned the White House into a playground to promote the first lady's "Let's Move!" fitness campaign.

Mrs Obama and Fallon did pushups and twirled hula hoops. They competed at dodge ball and tug-of-war. And the first lady triumphed over the comedian in a climactic potato sack race.

After a defeated Fallon said, "It doesn't matter if you won or lost," the first lady replied, "It matters."

The segment was taped last month and aired early Wednesday on NBC's "Late Night" TV talk show program.

Mrs. Obama has been making the talk-show rounds to celebrate the second anniversary of her campaign against childhood obesity. In the past few weeks she has appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Rachael Ray."

Voluntary recall would be made for 2,231 vehicles with faulty cooling pumps designed to blow more air into engines for better combustion, according to the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs. The defective control system of the pumps may cause fire, and in turn make dangerous driving conditions.

The cars subject to recall were MINI Cooper S models with an engine capacity of 1.6 liters manufactured between March 1, 2007 and January 18, 2011 in the British plant, according to the ministry.

Owners of the defective vehicles can contact the service centers operated by BMW Group Korea for free repairs from Friday, while those who had their cars repaired in advance can be reimbursed for their costs, the ministry said.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the main point of contention _ cuts in pensions _ has not been resolved.

He says there must be an agreement before a planned meeting of eurozone finance ministers later Thursday.

Venizelos will be leaving for Brussels at 7 am local (0500 GMT). The finance ministers are scheduled to meet at 1700 GMT.

It appears likely that another meeting of the three political leaders whose parties back Greece's coalition government will be held Thursday.

"The Mekong Riverine Operation Unit (MROU) will be beefed up with more personnel and boats, pending approval of a request. While waiting, we have to rotate our manpower between boat stations in the area," the Bangkok Post online quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

Sorracha Sornprathum, the MROU commander, said the unit needs more personnel and facilities for both suppression and intelligence operations because more drugs are smuggled across the Thai-Lao border in addition to the traditional routes, indicating the remote region covering the Thai-Myanmar border which is notorious for illicit activities such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.

The MROU is responsible for patrolling on the 917 km section of Mekong River in Thailand and has four main bases in Chiang Rai, Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Ubon Ratchathani. Its branch in Chiang Rai includes three patrol boats, eight assault boats and 200 soldiers.

President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, the former vice-president, was sworn in on Tuesday when Mohamed Nasheed, the ex-president, resigned after police joined widening street protests against his government.

Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, Hassan denied claims he was behind a plot to oust Nasheed. He said he had not prepared to take over the country and he called for the creation of a unity coalition.

"Together, I am confident, we'll be able to build a stable and democratic country," he said, adding that his government intended to respect the rule of law.

Hassan, who had promised to protect Nasheed from retribution, said his predecessor was not under any restriction and was free to leave the country.

The Maldives' new President Mohammed Waheed Hassan (left) smiles after a news conference in Male, the Maldives, on Wednesday. Eranga Jayawardena / Associated Press

However, he said he would not interfere with any police or court action against Nasheed.

Police were investigating the discovery of at least 100 bottles of alcohol inside a truck removing garbage on Tuesday from the presidential residence as Nasheed prepared to relinquish power, the police spokesman Ahmed Shyam said. Consuming alcohol outside tourist resorts is a crime in this Muslim nation.

Authorities said Nasheed was under police and army watch at an undisclosed location on Wednesday, but denied he was under house arrest. "Mr Nasheed is protected by the current government because there might be some people wanting to harm him," Shyam said. "He's in a safe place now, but any other action will be decided by the government."

But Nasheed said on Wednesday he was forced to step down at gunpoint and urged his successor to step down.

"Yes, I was forced to resign at gunpoint," Nasheed told reporters after his party meeting a day after his resignation. "There were guns all around me and they told me they wouldn't hesitate to use them if I didn't resign.

"I call on the chief justice to look into the matter of who was behind this coup. We will try our best to bring back the lawful government."

China, as a friendly neighbor of the Maldives, hopes the island nation can maintain peace, stability and development, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said on Wednesday.

There have been no reports of injuries and casualties of Chinese nationals or damage to Chinese-funded agencies in the country so far, and the Chinese embassy in Maldives has asked Chinese citizens and organizations to strengthen security measures and stay away from demonstrations, according to Liu.

Agencies/China Daily

"I feel responsible for the problems involving myself and intend to resign," Park said in a statement read by parliamentary spokesman Han Jong-tae.

"Please let me be held responsible when others are found to have been involved in the scandal," Park said in the statement.

Park has been under pressure to resign after Koh Seung-duk of the ruling Saenuri Party, formerly the Grand National Party, claimed Park's aide offered him an envelope containing three million won ($2,688) in an attempt to buy his vote before the party leadership contest.

Park, who has denied his involvement in the alleged vote-buying scandal, was elected head of the conservative ruling party after the 2008 convention.

The scandal has been a blow to the ruling party, which struggles to recover from election defeats and rejuvenate itself before key polls this year.

Park is expected to be summoned by prosecutors for questioning.

 

Fishermen use cranes to pull the carcass of a whale shark from the waters at a harbor in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday. The 14-meter whale, weighing about 6 to 7 tons, was found dead in the Arabian Sea near Karachi. Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remark during a meeting with visiting Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna. Zhou recalled his visit to India in 2010, saying the visit showcased the growing momentum of China-India relations.

Zhou said China and India, as the world's largest developing economies, have multiple opportunities for national development and bilateral cooperation, expressing his hope that both nations can expand cooperation in infrastructure construction, information technology and manufacturing in order to boost two-way trade to $100 billion by 2015.

Zhou also said he hoped the two sides can deepen political trust, improve personnel exchanges, properly handle questions left over by history, such as the border issue, and jointly safeguard peace and harmony in border areas.

Zhou, who is also secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, also expressed his appreciation for India's firm support for China on Tibet issues, stating that the issues concern China's national interests and that the Chinese government will crack down on secessionists and safeguard its territorial integrity according to relevant laws.

Echoing Zhou's views on bilateral relations, Krishna hailed the achievements made by both sides in recent years, saying that India and China have forged effective means of coordination in dealing with major regional and international issues.

The Indian government is committed to consolidating and promoting India-China friendly and cooperative relations, Krishna said, reiterating that India recognizes Tibet as a part of China and will not tolerate "anti-China activities" on Indian territory.

Krishna arrived in China on Tuesday, attending an opening ceremony for India's newly-built embassy in China and holding talks with his counterpart Yang Jiechi.

The IRGC said in an announcement that it will display the maquette in the demonstrations which will be held on February 11 to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic republic.

It did not say whether the maquette will be shown only in Tehran or in other cities too. The demonstrations to mark the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979 are held every year nationwide in Iran.

In December 2011, Iranian media reported that the Iranian military downed the US RQ-170 stealth aircraft in the eastern part of the country after finding it transgressing the eastern border. The country's state TV later showed the footage of the drone.

Lavrov, who just wrapped up his visit to Damascus, told a press conference that Syrians should seek themselves ways of national reconciliation.

"Any outcome of national dialogue should become the results of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all the Syrians," Lavrov said.

"It is necessary to call on the government and the opposition to start negotiations. Bashar al-Assad has instructed Vice President (Farouk) al-Sharaa to begin such dialogue," he added.

The foreign minister also said that recall of ambassadors from Syria does not help create favorable conditions for carrying out Arab League's peace initiative.

"Japanese officials underscored the Japanese government's readiness to engage with the United States on a range of issues going forward," spokeswoman Carol Guthrie from the office of the US Trade Representative said in a statement.

"As a next step, both governments agreed to hold a follow-up meeting at the working level on February 21 to 22 in Washington, D.C., as the consultative process continues," she added.

Japan's bid faces strong opposition from US auto makers and labor unions who doubted whether Tokyo was ready to open its market to more car imports.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement that the Japanese domestic market was "fully open" and that consumer choice is the main reason behind Japan's low level of imports.

"We have to go through a very deliberative process," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said recently.

The United States and other current TPP members hope to conclude the agreement before the end of this year. But the pact has also met strong opposition from Japanese farmers.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has demanded that London 2012 terminates its deal with the US firm Dow Chemical because of its links to India's 1984 Bhopal gas disaster.

Last month Meredith Alexander, a member of the body that overseas the sustainability of the London Olympics, quit in protest, saying people should be able to enjoy the Games without "a toxic legacy on their conscience".

"It would be great to be controversy free, but as I talk to other sponsors and other parts of the Olympic organization you realize that over the years the Olympics has been a free platform for organizations and individuals to make their points," said George Hamilton, vice-president for Dow Olympic Operations, on Tuesday.

"It's a free country and people are allowed to state their case and then take actions, they are allowed to do that."

"I can't speak for what people's motivations are but it is what it is....this is not going to deter us, we are committed to our Olympic partnership, both in London and future Games and we are committed to delivering technology that makes it the most successful Games in the history of the Olympics."

Dow denies any responsibility for the accident that activists say killed up to 25,000 people in the aftermath of the leak at a pesticides factory then owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide.

Dow only completed a deal to buy Union Carbide in 2001 but campaigners have demanded that it boosts a 1989 compensation package for those affected by the disaster.

Hamilton said the compensation paid by Union Carbide and UCIL in 1989, a sum of $470 million, was twice upheld by the Supreme Court and that Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary in 1994 and "exited India".

He said that Dow, one of the International Olympic Committee's most recent partners, was looking forward to strengthening its partnership in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and at Rio in 2016 and was undeterred by recent bad publicity.

"We had no association with Bhopal, we bought a company that was an investor so why would we take action that would imply that we were connected or doing something out of guilt," he said. "We recognized when we became a sponsor that organizations and individuals would try and associate Dow with legacy issues.

"We were prepared for that. It's gone on longer than I would have anticipated but it doesn't change our resolve."

Dow's plastics divison is providing the material for 336 panels that will adorn the outside of the Olympic Stadium during Games time before they are dismantled and reused elsewhere.

Hamilton said the decorative wrap, initially scrapped by the British government to save around seven million pounds, was effectively a gift to British public.

"What we are trying to do is to throw in a little more light and colour," he said of the 25 meter high vertical panels which, under IOC rules, will have no Dow company branding.

"The London organizing committee, the designers, the engineers, artists and architects said that the wrap was neccesaary, let's not just pull it and leave this stark structure that would not have been a good image.

"Dow stepped in and addressed this not just on an aesthetic point but also on a costing point, we relieved a financial burden to the tax payer by contributing this wrap."

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the rainfall is indicating the end of winter and beginning of spring season across the country.

Senior weather expert Rajendra Prasad Shrestha said that the rainfall is timely."The rainfall has occurred in time this year. We can expect the rain all day on Wednesday," Shrestha said.

He also said that the weather will be clear from Thursday.

Kathmandu recorded a rainfall of 8.1 millimeters of rainfall Tuesday night.

According to the division, although the weather will remain cold for a few days in the mornings, warmer weather can be expected after that.

The recorded temperature of Kathmandu on Wednesday morning was 9.7 degrees Celsius.

London's police will close a handful of boating routes near the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, East of the capital, and put in place a controlled zone covering some canals.

British Waterways, which manages the canals, will introduce mooring charges during the July 27-Aug 12 Olympics and the Paralympics that follow.

"A lot of people on the boats are definitely feeling as if we are being excluded," said Steve Hatch, 59, a retired fireman who lives on a narrow boat while moving around London's canals.

"Whenever you look at any publicity about the Olympics, they show nice pictures of the canals and the stadium itself with boats in the background.

"So they want to use us as a backdrop for the Olympics and what they are projecting for London, the East End and Stratford, but they don't want us to be there as it happens."

London's meandering canals pierce through much of the East End of the city, with some passing less than 100 metres from the Olympic Stadium.

Some 3,500 vessels are estimated to operate as 'continuous boaters', run by individuals who do not have a permanent mooring and can generally stay along the canals for free as long as they move on every 14 days.

However, for 10 weeks this year, they will need to buy a mooring licence if they want to be near Olympic sites, with prices starting from around 50 pounds ($79.10) per week.

British Waterways said those with permanent moorings would not be affected.

"We have 35,000 boats on our canals and people from all over the country have shown an interest in coming to London for the Olympics. We have to ensure the moorings and wider security are managed effectively," a spokesman said.

"We are not looking to make any money out of this. We are just looking to cover our operational costs."

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum addresses an energy summit at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum was projected to have won two of the three GOP nomination contests Tuesday.

With 97 percent of the precincts reporting, the former Pennsylvania senator won 55 percent of the votes in the Missouri primary, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with 25 percent, according to US broadcaster CNN.

Texas congressman Ron Paul finished third with 12 percent, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was not on the ballot.

The Missouri contest was seen as Santorum's best chance to regain momentum in the race for the Republican presidential nomination as the absence of Gingrich gave him the opportunity to consolidate the conservative votes and go head-to-head with Romney.

Winning the Iowa caucuses did inject some momentum to Santorum's campaign, but it turned out to be short-lived and did not translate into real votes in the following contests.

The Missouri primary was a matter more of momentum rather than of delegates. No delegate was at stake in this so-called "beauty contest" primary. The Republican Party of the state will hold caucuses on March 17 which will determine the allocation of 52 delegates sent to the GOP national convention in August.

Tuesday was the first day so far in this election cycle with multiple contests. Apart from Missouri, the candidates also battled in Minnesota and Colorado, both in the form of caucuses. Forty delegates were at stake in Minnesota and 36 in Colorado.

Santorum also performed well in the Minnesota caucuses, where conservatives account for a large portion of the electorate and the former senator has been a favorite.

With 44 percent of the precincts reporting, Santorum captured 45 percent of the votes, with Paul coming in second at 27 percent. Romney won 17 percent and Gingrich had 11 percent.

Romney won Minnesota in his failed White House bid in 2008, beating his nearest rival John McCain by a double-digit margin. But he did not poll strong in the run-up to Tuesday's race and did not put much resources there.

The long-time GOP front-runner was essentially counting on a victory in Colorado. But with a little more than 10 percent of the votes counted, he and Santorum turned out to be in dead heat -- both winning 37 percent of the votes.

At least 1,144 delegates are needed for a Republican presidential candidate to secure the nomination. Romney, who claimed victories in New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada, has so far amassed 100 delegates, followed by Gingrich with 35, according to CNN calculations.

Paul has garnered 15 and Santorum with 11.

"We're still fragile when it comes to food security. Demand is increasing because of the rising population. An increase in the middle class will also mean more food will be consumed as purchasing power gets stronger," Yudhoyono said.

He made the remarks to a group of agriculture and food experts during the Food Security Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center on Tuesday.

Yudhoyono said that his administration would remain cautious over the issue, but had taken some measures to help provide enough food to the population.

Indonesia is home to 240 million people and is the world's fourth-largest country after China, India and the United States. Its population has been growing by about 1.5 percent annually, according to the National Demography and Family Planning Agency ( BKKBN). That population growth is among the highest in Southeast Asia.

"With a large population, we're still facing problems of low agricultural productivity and low purchasing power among farmers," Yudhoyono said as quoted by the Jakarta Post.

Indonesia has allocated about 37 trillion rupiah (about $4.1 billion) in food subsidies this year. Those subsidies are for such things as seeds, fertilizers and a food-price stabilization program, according to Deputy Finance Minister Mahendra Siregar.

Those subsidies, however, were 5 percent lower than they were last year.

"We still need to expand infrastructure to support agricultural activities in order to help boost food production," Deputy Public Works Minister Hermanto Dardak said.

He added that irrigation systems managed by local administrations also needed improvement.

"Less than half of the irrigation systems managed by the provincial and municipal governments are in a damaged condition. If they are not doing something about it, I fear it will disturb our rice production target," he said.

The government aims to produce 70 million tons of unhusked rice this year, up by around 7 percent from last year's 65.3 million tons.

According to the report by local TV channel ARY, the attack was launched early in the morning when a US drone fired two missiles at a militants' hideout in Spalga village of North Waziristan, a militancy-hit tribal area at Pak-Afghan borderlands.

The report said that the death toll may further rise as the injured are in critical condition.

Wednesday morning's drone strike came just one day after Defense Minister of Pakistan Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said that the issue of US drone attacks is unresolved and Pakistan would continue raising the issue to the United States.

Washington believes that the Northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan is a militant-insurgent area and these militants are a continuous source of headache to NATO forces operating in Afghanistan.

Wiping out suspected militants from Northwestern Pakistan is also vital to win the long war against terrorism carried out by both Washington and Islamabad.

Anger against the US drone strikes in the Waziristan tribal areas runs high in Pakistan  because the attacks have killed hundreds of innocent people including women and kids since 2004.

This is the fifth strike of its kind in northwestern tribal area of Pakistan since the beginning of 2012. To date, 36 people have been killed and several others injured in 13 missile strikes launched by US drones.

Harper arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night and will meet with Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday.

Presidents of several key Canadian oil and gas companies are traveling with Harper on this trip, which many in Canada expect will boost oil exports from the North American nation to China.

Xinhua News Agency said Harper's trip will "enhance the Sino-Canadian strategic partnership". Meanwhile, Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, was quoted as saying by Postmedia News that Harper "is regularizing contact between Beijing and Ottawa at the highest level and making China a part of the Canadian prime minister's diplomatic routine".

A self-proclaimed emerging "energy superpower", Canada was recently hit by a delay to a proposed oil pipeline project after it was rejected by Washington, its primary energy customer.

In an interview with Postmedia News and the National Post last week, Harper called Canada's exclusive reliance on energy exports to the US a "weakness" and vulnerability, and said it was "a national priority" for Ottawa to export energy to other markets, particularly Asia.

China has become an important factor in Canada's economic growth, Harper said in the interview, while stressing that Canada will diversify its trade with China.

Leaders from the Canadian agricultural, education and transportation sectors are also part of Harper's entourage, which will also travel to Guangzhou and Chongqing.

Deepening ties with China and the Asia-Pacific in general will help create more jobs and foster long-term economic growth, Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for the Canadian prime minister, said earlier.

David Mulroney, Canada's ambassador to China, has said relations between Ottawa and Beijing are in "a golden period".

Peter Harder, president of the Canada-China Business Council and a former top official at the Department of Foreign Affairs, earlier said the United States will always be Canada's No 1 trading partner, but China will be No 2.

"And the question is how big that No 2 will be," he told CBC News.

"There is a growing appreciation of our mutual dependency and complementarity Harper's trip is an investment in the future," a recent editorial in the Toronto Star newspaper said.

Mandarin and Cantonese are the third most spoken languages in Canada, after the country's two official languages, English and French. More than 1.3 million Canadian residents are of Chinese origin.

Between 2005 and 2010, Canadian merchandise exports to China grew by some 83 percent, from $7.26 billion to $13.25 billion.

Bilateral trade in 2010 reached $57.8 billion, accounting for 7.2 percent of Canada's trade and representing a 13.7 percent increase over 2009.

A State Department spokeswoman told reporters in Washington the objective was to reduce the cost of the overall mission, which includes roughly 2,000 diplomats as well as 14,000 contractors who do everything from provide security to run the kitchens.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the US government was preparing to slash its diplomatic presence, which includes consulate operations in Basra, Arbil and Kirkuk, by as much as one half.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said there were no plans to slash the number of diplomats in half, although some reduction was possible, and that she could not predict what cuts there might be in the number of contractors.

"What we are doing ... is looking at how we can 'right-size' our embassy in Iraq and particularly how we can do more for that mission through the hiring of local employees rather than having to be as dependent as we have been in the past on very expensive contractors," Nuland told reporters in Washington.

"What ultimate numbers will result from this in reductions in contractors, we don't know yet. This process has just begun," she added. "But we are trying to ensure that it is rigorous and that it gets us to a much more normal embassy like some of our big embassies around the world."

Talks to reduce the size of the US mission in Baghdad come after negotiations to keep around 3,000 American troops in Iraq as trainers fell apart over the sensitive issue of immunity from local prosecution for soldiers involved in crimes.

Since the US troop withdrawal, foreign contractors in Iraq, particularly those involved in security, have complained about increasing difficulty in securing visas and permits to work in the country.

Many Iraqis have memories of abuses committed by US troops and contractors after the March 2003 US-led invasion such as the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the 2007 incident in which 14 Iraqi civilians were killed by Blackwater private security contractors.

The US embassy in Baghdad, which sits inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, houses diplomats and thousands of support staff and security contractors.

A handful of US military personnel remain in the country, working with the embassy to help with arms sales and training for Iraqi forces. US officials say there are about 16,000 people involved in the American diplomatic effort in Iraq.

Chinese workers kidnapped in Sudan arrive in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The 29 workers were freed on Tuesday, after being abducted by rebels on Jan 28 in Sudan's South Kordofan state, where clashes between the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North and the Sudanese army have been going on for months. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese workers get off a plane chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross after being held for more than 10 days in Sudan, Feb 7, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese workers kidnapped by Sudanese anti-government forces last month arrive in Nairobi, Feb 7, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Freed Chinese workers get in a van after arriving in Nairobi, Feb 7, 2012. The workers will receive a physical examination and have a brief rest in Nairobi before flying home, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is the first official confirmation of a breakthrough in the India-Iran crude payment dialogue, necessitated by the likely disruption of the current mode of payment through a Turkish bank because of US and EU sanctions, said local daily The Times of India.

Iran's Ambassador to India Seyed Mehdi Nabizadeh said Tuesday both countries were fully satisfied with the new mechanism.

Nabizadeh confirmed that Iran has opened accounts in Indian banks, including UCO Bank, to facilitate the rupee payment.

"Fortunately, Iran's central bank and RBI (Reserve Bank of India) have together arrived at a mechanism which is suitable and agreeable to both the countries,'' Nabizadeh was quoted as saying.

He ruled out the possibility of using gold for payment.

Iran is India's second largest oil provider, with 12 percent of the country's crude oil import coming from Iran.

Saleh said he would return immediately after the completion of his treatment in New York.

The Yemeni leader was seriously injured in a bomb attack targeting his palace on June 3, 2011, for which he was hospitalized for months in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Saleh's remarks came hours after his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the sole candidate for the Feb. 21 presidential polls, launched his advertising campaign in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

Saleh left Yemen last month after the parliament approved a law granting him complete immunity from prosecution in accordance to a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Despite the agreed political settlement, the deal's immunity clause sparked nationwide protests demanding Saleh and his aides be prosecuted for "killing people during the year of protests."

Washington granted Saleh diplomatic immunity and a limited visa for him to seek medical treatment in the United States.

Under the GCC deal signed by Saleh and the opposition last November, after months of deadly protests aimed at his ouster, Saleh should resign in return for immunity from prosecution.

After 33 years in power, Saleh remains to be an honorary leader until Hadi is officially elected as president for a two-year interim period.

"We're not considering that step right now," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at a regular news briefing.

"We're exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians, and we're working with our partners, again, to ratchet up the pressure, ratchet up the isolation on Assad and his regime," he said.

US Senator John McCain on Tuesday called for arming the Syrian opposition, saying "We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The bloodletting has got to stop. "

The call came as the UN Security Council failed to agree over the weekend on a resolution backing an Arab League initiative that seeks the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a political transition.

"We don't think more arms into Syria is the answer," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We think the answer is to get to a national democratic dialogue, for the violence to stop, for the regime's tanks to come out of the cities, and then for monitors to be able to go back," she said at a regular news briefing.

She rejected a comparison with Libya, where the opposition toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi under the cover of NATO air strikes, saying "Libya was a completely different situation."

Assad's remarks were made during a meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who arrived at Syria earlier in the day to deliver a message from the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Assad.

Assad stressed his country's determination to achieve a national dialogue with the participation of representatives from the government, opponents and independent figures, said SANA.

According to the report, Assad had briefed Lavrov on the course of events in Syria and the terrorism practiced on the Syrian people and the governmental institution by "terrorists who are supported by external parties."

Assad stressed that his country had welcomed all efforts aiming at supporting a solution to the crisis and fully cooperated with the Arab League (AL) observers despite the obstacles caused by some Arab countries, according to SANA.

Lavrov said that the meeting was "important," during which he voiced his country's readiness to help Syria to get out of the current unrest in accordance with the AL initiative, according to SANA.

He said that Syria needs peace and that a national reconciliation should be achieved away from foreign interference.

"President al-Assad affirmed his commitment as per the Arab plan to the task of putting an end to violence regardless of its source. To this end, Syria affirms its interest in continuing work with the Arab League observer mission and increasing observers' number to cover all points and verify any breaches or violations to the principle of not allowing violence regardless of source," he said.

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed an Arab-European draft resolution that backs an Arab League plan to promote a regime change in Syria. Russia said the draft contains imposition of conditions on the dialogue and called for measures to influence not only the government but also armed groups.

"We categorically reject such statements, which constitute a new round of interference in Cuba's internal affairs," Elio Rodriguez, director of European relations at the foreign ministry, told local media.

The comments came after a statement by the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who on Saturday said a "recent outbreak of temporary arrests of peaceful protesters in Cuba" had raised concerns in EU member countries.

Ashton also called on Havana to ensure Cuba would move towards "full respect of civil and political rights, including freedom of expression" of its 10 million population.

"Mrs. Ashton interferes in issues that only concern Cubans," said Rodriguez, adding "Cuban authorities do not recognize moral or political authority" of the EU in criticizing such internal matters.

He urged the EU to first "solve its own serious problems," which included the ongoing debt crisis in the eurozone, the EU's growing anti-immigration policy, and the increasing social exclusion of the unemployed and low-income earners.

Cuba has for the past several weeks rejected what it says is a "defamation campaign" against the island over human rights issues led by the United States, the EU and Chile following the death of prison inmate Wilman Villa.

Human rights activists said Villa was a political prisoner who died because of a prolonged hunger strike, but Cuban authorities said he was convicted to 4 years in jail after being found guilty of beating his wife.

The committee would submit the draft constitution to President Bashar al-Assad in light of constitutional measures, SANA quoted a statement by the committee as saying.

The Syrian president on October 15, 2011 decreed the formation of a national committee providing for preparing a draft constitution to Syria within four months. The committee comprises of 29 academics, lawyers and opposition figures.

Amending the constitution has been one of the main demands by Syrian protestors, particularly canceling Section Eight in the constitution which states that the Baath party is the leader of the nation and the society.

The amendment of Section Eight would open the way for the formation of parties besides the Baath party and 11 other closely associated parties known as the National Progressive Front.

President Assad, in a national speech on January 10, pledged that the upcoming constitution would be focused on political, party pluralism and institutions, and said there would be a referendum at the beginning of March.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens to Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the State Department in Washington, February 7, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday discussed with her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman a wide range of issues, including Iran, bilateral ties and the peace talks with the Palestinians.

In their meeting that lasted about 40 minutes, the pair discussed some seven topics, "just a little bit on each," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"With regard to Iran, they talked extensively about the impact that the new sanctions are having in our efforts to work with countries around the world to wean them from Iranian oil and, obviously, our mutual commitment to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and to increase the pressure through these sanctions," Nuland told reporters at a regular news briefing.

Following the European Union's decision last month to target Iran's oil exports for sanctions, US President Barack Obama ordered on Sunday to freeze all property of the Iranian government and the financial institutions under US jurisdiction, including that of the Central Bank of Iran, in an effort to tighten the pressure on the Islamic republic over its controversial nuclear program.

The Obama administration prefers a diplomatic approach to Iran' s alleged attempt to acquire nuclear weapons, while rumors are growing about an imminent strike by Israel on the Islamic republic 's nuclear facilities.

Nuland noted that in her meeting with Lieberman, Clinton reaffirmed "our unshakable commitment" to the relationship with Israel, not only to Israel's security, but to its democracy.

She said on the peace talks with the Palestinians, Lieberman reaffirmed Israel's commitment to the two-state solution and its interest in continuing the process of "trying to get to direct talks."

The Israelis and the Palestinians had five exploratory meetings in Amman, Jordan from Jan. 3 to Jan. 25, as the Quartet mediators, comprising the US, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, have been pushing for renewed direct talks between them.

"Our expectation is that this process will resume back in Jordan, and we hope that'll be as soon as possible," Nuland said.

She said Clinton and Lieberman also discussed the deal signed a day earlier between Fatah and Hamas to form a unity government, agreeing that "It's not particularly clear what this agreement will change."

"Our red lines about Hamas are the same red lines that the Israelis have -- recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and agreeing to all of the past Palestinian agreements. So that hasn't changed on either side," Nuland said.

The US and Israel regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.

"The Chinese Government has made representations to the Libyan side," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a regular news briefing. "And the Libyan side has expressed regret about the incident and promises to strengthen the embassy's security."

Syrian and Libyan demonstrators in Tripoli on Monday hurled rocks, eggs and tomatoes at the Chinese embassy, after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution backing an Arab League plan urging Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to cede power, according to Reuters.

A similar incident took place on Sunday outside the Russian embassy.

China and Russia blocked a draft of a UN resolution on Saturday urging Assad to quit. China has already defended its veto, saying the vote was called before differences in the resolution were bridged.

Demonstrators said they wanted to take down the Chinese flag and replace it with the Syrian opposition's flag and the red, black and green flag of Libya's National Transitional Council, which came to power after a civil war last year that toppled Muammar Gadhafi's rule.

On the situation in Syria, Liu reiterated that China would continue to support the constructive and positive role played by the Arab League. "The Chinese people are friends of both the Syrian and the Arab peoples. We have always worked together and coordinated on all sorts of problems," Liu said.

The government is trying to encourage businesses to vary their working patterns during the July 27-August 12 Games to ease the strain on an already crowded public transport system.

However, government advice to business also warns of the risk of disruption to Internet services during the Games because of increased demand, potentially compromising home working.

"The Government wants to deliver a great 2012 Olympic Games and keep London and the UK moving at the same time - that's why we are currently encouraging businesses and commuters to plan ahead and consider their travel options," a Department for Transport spokesman said.

"This is about encouraging staff to reduce the impact of their travel by either walking or cycling, changing their route of travel to and from work, re-timing their working day to avoid the busiest periods or working from home," he added.

Working from home could prove an attractive option this week, with transport likely to be disrupted after the first major snowstorm of the winter hit London over the weekend.

However, home workers could find themselves battling for bandwith with sports fans trying to follow the Games online in the coing summer.

As a consequence, businesses are being told to consult Internet Service Providers to check on the impact on services.

Government advice warns that some ISPs may introduce caps on data during peak times to spread the load and allow access for as many people as possible.

MWB Business Exchange, a company which specializes in supplying ready-made office space, has highlighted the issue as it seeks to tempt businesses to relocate temporarily from the busiest parts of central London.

"Traffic hotspots have received a lot of media coverage but we've heard very little about potential internet traffic problems," said Kathryn Hunt, who is head of Olympic operations for MWB Business Exchange,

"There's a major risk that home workers are unable to work effectively due to internet over-capacity and being out of the office environment for over a month," she added.

Londoners have been warned they face queues of up to 30 minutes on the "Tube" underground rail network at peak times during the Games.

Commuters have been advised to delay their journeys home by lingering in a pub for a beer or enjoying a meal out to soak up the atmosphere of what city officials are promoting as "A Summer Like No Other".

Pakistan had blocked the NATO supply route to Afghanistan after a NATO cross-border attack at two Pakistani check posts near Pak- Afghan border last November left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead.

The minister did not explained the conditions to be put forward by the government for negotiation, but some unconfirmed reports earlier last month said that Pakistan would impose taxes on NATO tankers for using the country's land route.

Talking to media the Defense minister said that Pakistan is trying to build good relationships with all countries including the United States.

"There should not be any misunderstandings with America, the two countries have enjoyed good ties and it is our duty to mend relations," he said.

Answering a query regarding drone attacks, the minister said the issue of drone attacks is still unresolved and Pakistan would continue raising the issue to the United States.

Earlier talking to media on Thursday, Foreign Minister of Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar also hinted about the reopening of NATO supply routes in the first half of February.

Addressing a public gathering on December 30, the religious parties in Pakistan had threatened the government that if it decides to reopen the NATO supply route to Afghanistan, they would surround the parliament and will not allow the parliamentarians to move outside unless they change their decision.

According to media reports, nearly 70 percent of the NATO supplies were shipped into Afghanistan via the land route of Pakistan.

The NATO supplies to Afghanistan were first sent to Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi and then transported into Afghanistan for over 140,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan through the two border checkpoints via the land route of Pakistan.

"French authorities have decided to recall our ambassador in Syria for consultations," the spokesman said.

France was in favour of a UN Security Council resolution which would have backed an Arab League plan for Assad to give up powers.    

The two were detained earlier Tuesday in Berlin, while another six alleged confederate were under investigation, the Karlsruhe-based Federal Prosecutors' Office said.

One suspect is a 34-year-old Syrian and the other is a 47-year-old German-Lebanese double national. Both of them have been observed for a period by German domestic intelligence and will be brought to court on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Earlier in the day, some 70 police raided on apartments of the suspects for further evidence.

Maldives' Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik speaks in Male, in this still image taken from video February 7, 2012. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives resigned on Tuesday after weeks of protests erupted into a police mutiny, leaving the man widely credited with bringing democracy to the paradise islands accused of being as dictatorial as his predecessor. Nasheed handed power over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Manik, who was sworn in in the afternoon, explaining that continuing in office.[Photo/Agencies]

COLOMBO - Maldives Vice-President Hassan on Tuesday took oath as president after Mohamed Nasheed announced resignation amid protests.

Mohamed Nasheed who just resigned as president of the Maldives is in custody and will face charges, an opposition spokesman said.

Hussain Shareef, chief spokesperson and member of the interim council of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) said Nasheed is in the custody of army and will be granted the constitutional rights.

Nasheed announced his resignation at a televised press conference on Tuesday following overnight protests and demonstrations.

Nasheed said at a time of chaos he believes the best for the country would be his resignation adding that he does not want to see further unrest and bloodshed to continue in the country.

He urged all parties to adhere to democratic values and the constitution.

His resignation came after opposition protesters continued antigovernment rallies in the capital for 22 consecutive nights, triggered after the detention of criminal court judge Abdullah Mohamed.

Violence broke out on Monday night as the army and police were deployed to break up protesters at Republic Square.Jamal claimed that a majority of the policemen later supported the protest seeking the removal of Nasheed and this led to a confrontation between the army and police.

Maldives' Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik (2nd L) is sworn in as the new President in Male, in this still image taken from video February 7, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

People gather outside a building in Male, as news breaks that mutinying police has taken over the state broadcaster, in this still image taken from video February 7, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The Chinese delegation, led by Wang Shenyang, director of the ministry's Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Department, is seeking China's participation in Libya's post-war reconstruction and to negotiate on obstacles facing Chinese companies resuming projects here.

Omran Ghali, director of International and Economic Cooperation at the Libyan Ministry of Economy, hailed the remarkable cooperation between the two countries and said he hoped for more foreign investment covering construction, agriculture and tourism.

Referring to projects interrupted by the country's civil war, Libyan Deputy Minister of Housing Facilities Ali Abdul Hafiz said the new government respected all contracts signed with foreign companies and had formed a special committee to review them and solve remaining problems in order to protect foreign investors' rights.

But he said priority would be given to contracts according to their importance to the needs of the Libyan people, with subordinate consideration given to the projects' time limits and the nation's equity in them.

He also said Libyan companies were expected to restart business from February and foreign companies from May. If any company wanted to resume operation sooner, the Libya government would provide support to overcome difficulties, but only if it had no preconditions, including settlement of past accounts and contract changes.

The delegation specified Chinese companies' difficulties, such as visa, financial accounts and export problems, which could not be solved without the Libyan government's help.

China supported Libya's effort in creating a committee to solve all the problems, said the Chinese delegation, adding that China would maintain contact with it.

However, releasing money and activating accounts were priorities for getting back to work as some Chinese companies were too badly affected by the war to operate without help, the Chinese delegation stressed, calling it the biggest divergence between the two sides.

Libya affirmed Chinese companies' right to reclaim their money, but the problem could not be solved immediately because of the shortage of government's funds.

Before the war, China had contracts in Libya worth some $20 billion and had built more than 100,000 housing units, some of which were 10 to 80 percent completed.

The Chinese delegation arrived here Saturday night. During the five-day tour, it will visit Tripoli and Benghazi to assess losses of Chinese assets and discuss restarting projects in the country.

"Can't call this a coup, but a political settlement within the political framework" of the Maldives, local TV Times Now quoted a Ministry of External Affairs source as saying.

The source also said that all Indian diplomats and nationals are safe in the island nation.

Live TV showed divers in debris-filled water as emergency services waited at the top of the 30 meter wide entrance to the tunnel at Mizushima oil refinery in Okayama prefecture after the men, aged 38 to 61, went missing when it flooded with seawater.

One worker escaped from the tunnel, said a spokesman for operator JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, Japan's biggest refiner.

"Debris and oil were floating all over. There was no visibility at all," an Okayama police official said. "There was a risk of divers being involved in a secondary accident."  

It was unclear when they would resume rescue operations, he said.      

The tunnel, 35m deep and 820m long, is to connect Mizushima refinery-B to refinery-A and carry pipelines used to transport oil and semi-finished products. JX launched the project two years ago.  

Operations and shipments from the 365,000 barrels per day refinery were not affected by the accident, the spokesman said.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, he said.  

The refinery is located at a coastal industrial zone where petrochemical, steel and other factories also exist.    

Talking to reporters in his weekly press briefing, Mehmanparast said the sanctions that western countries and the United States are pursuing against Iran are not new subjects and they have been going on for the past 30 years.

"These sanctions are considered as hostile moves and it shows that the westerners and especially the United States have not known Iranians," he said.

US President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the freezing of Iran's property under US jurisdiction, including that of the country's central bank, as the US and its allies are pressing hard over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.

Calling them "additional steps" against Iran, the president ordered "all property and interests in property of" the government of Iran as well as the republic's financial institutions under US jurisdiction, including the Central Bank of Iran, to be "blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in."

The property of persons determined to have links to those already under US sanctions is ordered to be frozen as well.

In his executive order, Obama said the move aims in particular to counter the "deceptive practices" of Iran's central bank and other banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation, and the "continuing and unacceptable" risk posed to the international financial system by Iran's activities.

Obama's order, which became effective at 12:01 am EST on Monday (1701 GMT), came amid heightened tensions between Western countries and Iran over the latter's nuclear program and growing rumors about an imminent strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The Iranian spokesman said Tuesday that if the Americans and their allies want to stop the progress of the Islamic Republic and prevent it from achieving its rights "by resorting to illogical pressures and inhumane means, our nations will respond properly."

"The practical outcome of such measures (of sanctioning Iran) is the determination of Iranian nation in implementing their outstanding goals in the framework of national interests and rights," he added.

The source said President Mohamed Nasheed is going to resign officially soon and Vice President will make acting president. However, Maldives High Commission in Colombo said earlier that President Nasheed already resigned, which was denied by an official from the president's office.

Brig. Ahmed Shiyam told reporters Tuesday that Nasheed has agreed to step down and hand over the presidency to his deputy Mohammed Waheed Hassan.

There was no immediate comment from Nasheed, a former pro-democracy campaigner.

The news channel quoted unnamed official sources here as saying that India will let Pakistanis to visit five Indian cities instead of three as was restricted earlier, and the Pakistanis who enter one Indian city can exit from another in a widening of access by them to Indian territory.

Meanwhile, children, elderly, women and physically challenged as well as people with close relatives in India will be given priority in visa issuing, while business groups and tourist groups are also expected to see easier norms for visa application, said the report.

Devotees chant as they carry milk jugs during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore Feb 7, 2012. Thaipusam, a Hindu festival observed on the day of the full moon during the Tamil month of Thai, is celebrated in honour of Lord Murugan.[Photo/Agencies]

Yashswini, a two-year-old girl, has her head shaved during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore Feb 7, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A devotee walks with his Kavadi, accompanied by his family members singing songs and playing drums, during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore Feb 7, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A devotee looks on after having his cheeks pierced with a trident skewer during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore Feb 7, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Brazilian army soldiers fire tear gas to keep striking police officers from entering the Legislative Assembly which hundreds of their colleagues are occupying in protest, in Salvador da Bahia, Feb 6, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

RIO DE JANEIRO - Six people were wounded Monday after a confrontation between government troops and local policemen who had been on a strike for a week in northeastern Brazil.

Demanding better pay and working conditions, the policemen have been camping at the Bahia state' s assembly building in Salvador since a week ago and were now surrounded by Army troops called in to reinforce security in the state capital.

The clash erupted after Army troops used rubber bullets against the policemen and cut out water and electricity supply to the building. There were three brawls between the two sides before the incident.

The police strike led to a crime wave on unprecedented scale in Salvador as a total of 93 people were murdered since February 1 and there were many reports of muggings and looting in the city.

However, authorities vowed not to give in to the police protesters. In an interview published Monday on local daily Folha de Sao Paulo, state governor Jacques Wagner said he will not grant any rise beyond what' s already been granted to all state servants, adding that no amnesty would be granted to the protesting policemen.

Government troops were called in to reinforce security of the streets, ports and airports in the city.

The clash occurred merely a week before the beginning of the Carnival holiday, during which Salvador gets completely crowded with tourists. The local US consulate has already recommended that US citizens avoid all non-essential trips to Bahia until situation is defused.

The beginning of the school year has also been postponed, as local teachers' union recommended members not to work until the strike is over.

"More than 1.3 million Americans have donated to the campaign and we constantly review those contributions for any issues," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an email after a New York Times report on the decision appeared late on Monday.

"On the basis of the questions that have been raised, we will return the contributions from these individuals and from any other donors they brought to the campaign," LaBolt said.

Brothers Carlos and Alberto Rojas Cardona, who live and work in Chicago, began raising money for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee last fall, the New York Times reported, adding that neither had a history of prior political donations.

Their brother Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, also known as Pepe Cardona, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, fleeing drug and fraud charges in the United States, the New York Times said.  

The money Alberto Cardona raised put him in the upper tiers of fund-raisers known as bundlers, according to a list released last month by the campaign, the Times reported.

A State Department cable in 2009 said Pepe Cardona was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials, according to the article.

The New York Times cited Obama campaign officials as saying that said most of the donations of about $200,000 came from the Cardonas brothers themselves and other relatives. The campaign was identifying other donations, believed to total less than $100,000, that was bundled from other people, the newspaper said.

Last year, brothers Carlos Cardona arranged for the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to seek a pardon from the governor for Pepe Cardona, The New York Times reported, citing Iowa prosecutors. The report said no pardon was forthcoming.    

The consortium of ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, northeast explorer Oil India Ltd and refiner-marketer Indian Oil Corporation, promised in 2011 to develop the Farsi offshore block with $5 billion, according to the report quoting unnamed sources.

But it did not sign a contract for fear of being blacklisted by the United States under the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of the U. S. which barred any entity to invest more than $20 million in any 12-month period in Iran, according to the report.

About 12 percent of India's crude oil import come from Iran.

India is reportedly routing oil payments through a Turkish bank. New Delhi has also refused to endorse EU-US sanctions on Iran.

Mimi Alford, who was 19 when she started her internship at the White House in 1962, discussed her secret sexual affair with the president in her book "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy."  

She told NBC's Meredith Vieira that she decided to write the book to stop her secret becoming "deadly."

"It's not so much that I feel that I'm exposing myself, it's that I'm really unburdening myself - it was a very difficult thing for me to do," Alford said in an interview to be broadcast on Wednesday.

The former intern discussed details including swimming with the president just four days into her internship, and doing her homework en route to Washington to have sex with Kennedy.

"I should have felt guilty. He was married to Mrs Kennedy. But I didn't at the time -feel guilty," Alford said.

There have been numerous reports since his 1963 assassination of Kennedy having had extra-marital affairs with several other women, including allegations of a dalliance with Marilyn Monroe.

"I think that's probably partly what makes me feel sad when I look back. It made me feel very special," Alford said of reports of Kennedy's other affairs.

The full interview with Vieira will air on NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams" on Wednesday.  

Aerial view of an isolated village cut off by snow in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina Feb 6, 2012. Europe's bitterly cold weather killed another 33 people on Monday, with Bosnia recording its eighth victim after an 87-year- old woman died of hypothermia. Farmers were having problems feeding cattle because of the snow and milk production had dropped by 15 to 30 percent in the country, the Bosnia's farmers association said.[Photo/Agencies]

The frozen Elbe river is pictured at the container terminal Altenwerder in the harbour of Hamburg, Feb 6, 2012. Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday, brought widespread disruption to transport services, and left thousands without power with warnings that low temperatures would continue into next week.[Photo/Agencies]

An Easyjet passenger aircraft undergoes de-icing before takeoff at Schoenefeld airport in Berlin Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Fishing boats are seen on a frozen lagoon in Venice, Feb 6, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Google India informed the court of additional civil judge Praveen Singh that as per its directions, the search giant has removed the contents, the daily The Times of India reported.

The court had last December directed Google and 21 other websites, many foreign-based, to remove all the objectionable content in the form of photographs, videos or texts which might hurt religious sentiments.

Meanwhile, Facebook India told the court that it does not control or operate the servers that host the website available at www.facebook.com, which are located in the United States.

In fact, the court's order was in the wake of a civil case filed by a man who sought removal of "anti-religious" or "anti-social" content in the form of photographs, videos or texts which might hurt religious sentiments.

While Facebook and Google India filed their compliance reports, Yahoo! and Microsoft filed applications for deletion of their names from the civil complaint stating that there was no allegation against them of webcasting any objectionable content, the report said.

After the hearing, the court directed the accused to file compliance report within 15 days from the date of the order while fixing the matter for further arguments on March 1.

Daraa, which has been shown in amateur videos spreading the internet as a turbulent city strewn with burnt vehicles, dead bodies and armed troops, appeared quiet and peaceful, as Xinhua reporters toured the city with escort of the Syrian government.

"No town is out of the government's control," Khaled Hanous, governor of Daraa, told reporters, touting the normalcy and order enjoyed by his citizens while blaming some international TV channels which he said fabricated stories that hindered the city's peace and order.

In mid-March last year, Daraa became the cradle of Syria's turmoil as thousands of angry people took to the street after 15 teenagers were arrested for painting anti-government graffiti on their school walls. It was alleged that the youth were tortured when imprisoned.

The present Daraa governor, who replaced the former one in last April amid the unrest, told Xinhua on Monday that the arrested young people had  never been tortured, adding a few media outlets were making up stories as they had interviewed none of the teenagers.

He said normalcy has largely been restored in Daraa and security forces and army troops which entered the city to protect citizens from violence were withdrawn in last May.

During Xinhua reporters' tour of the streets of central and suburban Daraa, they saw no large presence of troops, armored vehicles or tanks.

Only a handful of army posts with fully-armed soldiers on the streets were standing behind sandbag bunkers, while some policemen were guarding the public facilities.

Most shops and restaurants on the streets were open, attracting the strolling people.

One of the main squares in the heart of Daraa, where conflicts among thousands of people took place in late March last year, appeared to be in order with a few vendors selling Arabic snacks and hot drinks.

Anwar, who owned a shop selling electronic products, said he had been keeping his shop open since last May, adding that the block he lived in were peaceful and normal.

However, a sense of gloom and tension was still noticeable. Streets and squares were strangely quiet an hour before noon and the usually fun-chasing Arabs rarely laughed or spoke out loud as usual.

An anonymous young woman in traditional Arab headwear told reporters in the square that "the situation is not good ... We fear to walk on streets, and we need safety and stability to be restored as it was."

When the Xinhua reporters were visiting the city's justice palace, which the government said had been ransomed and set ablaze by "armed terrorists," three teenagers with school bags approached reporters and whispered "we want freedom," and then quickly ran away.

Hanous, the governor of Daraa, confirmed the occasional incidents which he blamed on "armed gangs," saying that "there are masked gunmen on the ground shooting at law-enforcement forces. They hit and run, and rarely confront."

Xinhua reporters also visited a TV and radio station, which, according to its boss, was demolished by "armed groups" after its camera captured militants shooting at civilians.

The two-story building's windows were shattered and walls were blackened, while computers and stationery were scattering on the floor.

Naief al-Obeidat, head of the TV station, said the equipment and his staff had been moved to a government building for security concerns.

During the government-escorted tour in Daraa, which has lasted for several hours, Xinhua reporters neither heard gunshots nor saw any protests.

Students take cover under their desks during an earthquake drill at the Baclaran Elementary School Unit-1 in Paranaque city, metro Manila Feb 7, 2012. The drill aims to help students and school staff learn how to react properly during high-intensity earthquakes. A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the central Philippine island of Negros on Monday, triggering landslides that toppled houses.[Photo/Agencies]

Students cover their heads as they run out of the school building during an earthquake drill at the Baclaran Elementary School Unit-1 in Paranaque city, metro Manila Feb 7, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The decision to back Priorities USA, a fundraising group that has failed to gather steam, represents a tactical shift for Obama, who opposed the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling that erased longstanding limits on corporate and union money in federal elections as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.

Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina said in an email to supporters that campaign and White House officials as well as some members of Obama's cabinet would now attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events.

The president, first lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden would not be part of the effort and would focus their fundraising activities on events specifically for the campaign.

"Over the last few months, Super PACs affiliated with Republican presidential candidates have spent more than $40 million on television and radio, almost all of it for negative ads," Messina said in the email.

"With so much at stake, we can't allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm."

Democrats had complained that Obama's distaste for the Supreme Court decision in the so-called Citizens United case that spawned Super PACs had affected the success of the same groups formed to help him.

Restore our Future, a group supporting Republican presidential frontrunner and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, raised $30.2 million in 2011 and had cash on hand of $23.6 million at the end of the year, according to filings submitted last month.

By contrast, Priorities USA Action raised $4.2 million by the end of 2011 and had $1.5 million in cash on hand.

Those figures confirmed fears within the Obama orbit that the eventual Republican nominee and his supporters could outspend the president in the general election, despite the Obama campaign's own fundraising strength.

Bill Burton, a former White House deputy spokesman who helps run the Obama PAC, said the group was "committed to providing a balance" to the groups working on the Republican side.

"As has become evident in the past month, the only enthusiasm in the Republican Party is among oil company billionaires and investment bankers on Wall Street looking to defeat President Obama," he said in an email.

In a survey of middle and high school students used as the basis for the study, published in Pediatrics, close to one-third said they'd driven in a car with someone who was smoking in the previous week.  

"The alarming fact of it is, there's about one in five (non-smoking children) that are still exposed in this environment," said Brian King at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who led the study.

"We have evidence that there's no safe level of exposure."

King and his colleagues analyzed data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, covering more than 20,000 children in grades six through twelve every few years between 2000 and 2009.

Students were asked if they smoked themselves, as well as if they'd been in the car with someone who was smoking in the past week.

By 2009, almost nine in every ten youths said they didn't smoke. And during the study period, the number of participants who reported recently being exposed to secondhand smoke in the car dropped from 48 percent to 30 percent overall.

Among smokers, that rate fell from 82 percent to 76 percent, and in non-smokers, from 39 percent to 23 percent.

"Jurisdictions should expand comprehensive smoke-free policies that prohibit smoking in worksites and public places to also prohibit smoking in motor vehicles occupied by youths," King and his colleagues wrote.  

King's team speculated in its study that the declines may be due to more smoke-free laws and fewer people smoking in the United States in general, as well as changing public attitudes about the appropriateness of smoking near children.

Four states -- Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine -- have bans on smoking in cars carrying children younger than 13 to 18 years-old, depending on the law. Puerto Rico also bars the practice.

Experts said that parents and other drivers may not realize that even when the windows are down, smoking in a vehicle can create toxic levels of circulating smoke.

"The concentrations just get very high -- they get as high as in a very, very smoky bar," said Ana Navas-Acien, who has studied secondhand smoke in cars at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Publich Health in Baltimore but was not involved in the study.

"It's important for children, definitely, but it's a problem for everybody."  

* Canada PM leading biggest trade mission since 1998

OTTAWA - Canada will focus on exporting oil and other goods to China and other booming Asian economies even if Washington overturns its decision to block a pipeline that would have sent more Canadian crude to the United States.

Speaking ahead of Canada's most high-powered trade mission to Beijing for almost 15 years, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Reuters that Canada must focus on markets that are growing, regardless of the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is proposed to carry crude from the Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries.

The US State Department blocked Keystone last month, saying they didn't have time for a thorough environmental review.

"I think we need to be clear. As much as I want to see that Keystone project proceed, I think this incident ... underscore(s) the fact that it is in this country's national interest to be able to sell products beyond the United States," Harper told Reuters in an interview.

"And I don't think a reversal of an American decision can change that fundamental reality. So I think it is absolutely essential that we find ways of being able to sell our products to the biggest growing markets in the world, and those are in Asia."

Canada - the largest supplier of energy to the United States - was profoundly disappointed by Washington's decision to veto TransCanada Corp's Keystone project. The United States - which is by far Canada's largest trading partner - is unlikely to look at it again until next year.   

At 170 billion barrels, Canada's oil sands are the third-largest crude deposit in the world, and Canadian exports to bigger markets will be a focal point of Harper's meetings in China, where he will be accompanied by five cabinet ministers and the heads of major corporations seeking business.

China does not currently import Canadian crude. Enbridge Inc wants to build a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific but it could take years to approve and complete the project.

China's international oil firms, taking a more long-term view, have spent or pledged to invest more than C$11 billion ($11.1 billion) in Canada's energy patch since 2005.

The Canadian mission, which will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday, is the largest of its kind since 1998. Guests include top executives from Shell Canada, Enbridge and Canadian Oil Sands as well as uranium producer Cameco Corp and mining firm Teck Resources Ltd.

Other firms include plane and train maker Bombardier Inc , Air Canada, Eldorado Gold Corp, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, Canfor Corp and West Fraser Timber Co Ltd.

Harper cited problems in the United States and Europe as a reason for focusing on Asia medium-term growth potential.

"That doesn't mean we're going to pass on the developed world ... but I think all the experts agree that the prospects for the greatest global growth are in Asia and we want to make sure we exploit this," he said.

Reyes said 10 others died due to a landslide on the Guihulngan national road.

A nine-year-old girl was killed when a wall collapsed in nearby Tayasan township while 12 other fatalities were listed by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Roel Degamo, governor of Negros Oriental, said the earthquake had damaged eight bridges, three of which were no longer passable.

Degamo said soldiers and police are now conducting rescue and relief operations. The governor also suspended all classes and work in government offices for the rest of the day.

By Tuesday morning, residents of Negros Oriental province were allowed to return to their homes. Degamo ordered the local rescue organ to prepare relief goods for local residents.

The Philippines sits in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire with frequent earthquakes and volcanic activities.

The deadliest earthquake in the country happened on August 16, 1976 when an ensuing tsunami killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people in the Moro Gulf region in southern Philippines.

A man is evacuated in the village of Biser, southern Bulgaria Feb 6, 2012. A dam wall broke and flooded a village in southern Bulgaria following heavy rains and snow melting. Four people drowned and over 50 were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said. Four more people died when their cars were swept away by high waters.[Photo/Agencies]

Europe's bitterly cold weather killed another 33 people on Monday and melting snow caused a dam wall to break and flood an entire village in Bulgaria.

Gas supplies to the European Union from Russia improved at the weekend but have not fully recovered, the European Commission said, as Italy convened a crisis committee to handle what it called critical shortages of Russian gas.

The dam wall broke and flooded the village in southern Bulgaria following heavy rain and snow melting. Four people drowned and more than 50 were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said. Four more people died when their cars were swept away by high waters.

"There are demolished houses and people in distress," the ministry said in a statement.

Bulgaria warned neighbouring Greece and Turkey that two other dams were expected to overflow later on Monday.

The cold snap has killed hundreds of people in Europe.

Nine died over the past 24 hours in Poland, bringing the total to 62 since the end of January. Temperatures fell to minus 24 Celsius at night in northeastern parts of the country.

In Croatia's Dalmatia region, more than 100 villages were cut off by snow in the hinterland of the Adriatic coast, the emergency service centre said, and more snow was forecast.

Rescuers reached some of the Dalmatian villages on Sunday.

In one village, a woman gave birth in her house with the help of a neighbour, while a midwife from a nearby town gave them instructions by telephone.

"The baby girl is fine and beautiful and I'll probably name her Snow White, given the circumstances," the mother, Marta Glavota, told 24sata news website.

Ten people have died in Serbia so far, Montenegro reported its second death and Croatia said four people had died.

In Serbia, where 11,000 people remain cut off and a state of emergency has been declared, temperatures were forecast to stay below zero until mid-February.

Bosnia was paralysed for the fourth day with snow blocking cities. Helicopters were delivering baby food and aid packages to isolated villages in eastern parts.

Farmers were having problems feeding cattle and the president of Bosnia's farmers association, Vladimir Usorac, said milk production has dropped by 15 to 30 percent in the country.

"People are trying to get through and feed the cattle. It's very difficult because of 2-metre snow and even 5-metre snow drifts so there is no access to cattle feed," he said.

Bosnia recorded on Monday its eighth victim, after an 87-year- old woman died of hypothermia.

DUTCH SKATE

But in The Netherlands, suffering its coldest spell in 15 years, the snow was good news for some.

Ice skaters swarmed onto frozen ponds and canals and National television broadcaster NOS on Monday launched the daily "Ice News" to report about skating conditions.

Skaters were hoping for the right conditions to hold the Elfstedentocht - the famous Dutch "Eleven Cities Tour" which is a 200-km race on natural ice - for the first time since 1997.

In the Czech Republic, temperatures of minus 39.4C were recorded in the southwest along the German border. Meteorologists expect temperatures to fall more overnight.

At least 20 people have died in the Czech Republic, after two homeless people were reported dead overnight.

A burst pipe temporarily shut down an important western rail corridor between Prague and the German border town of Cheb.

The cold weather has increased demand for gas, and the European Commission said on Monday Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Greece were now receiving normal import levels, while supplies to Romania, Germany and Italy were increasing, but were not yet fully restored.

"It has become better over the weekend. We are in close contact with the member states," EU energy spokeswoman Marlene Holzner told a regular briefing.

The Commission says the situation does not constitute a crisis, with countries being able to meet their needs using storage facilities and other market measures.

A dead horse which died of drowning lies on the ground in the village of Biser, southern Bulgaria Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

People stand near a destroyed house in the village of Biser, southern Bulgaria Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A Bulgarian army helicopter flies over the flooded village of Biser, southern Bulgaria Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The Bulgarian army rescues two men stranded on their car on a flooded road near the village of Biser, southern Bulgaria Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Residents drive past cracks in a road caused by an earthquake in Negros Oriental, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the central Philippine island of Negros on Monday. [Photo/Agencies]

Workers and students run after they feel the magnitude 6.7 earthquake along a main street of Honkera, Cebu city, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Residents and their children evacuate their shanties after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Dumaguete city, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A woman cries after experiencing the magnitude 6.7 earthquake along a main street of Honkera, Cebu city, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Residents look at the damage caused by an earthquake in Negros Oriental, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Broken bottles are scattered on the ground after an earthquake in Negros Oriental, central Philippines Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up in different colors to represent the 150 countries that will participate in the World Youth Day on July 23-28, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up in different colors to represent the 150 countries that will participate in the World Youth Day on July 23-28, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up in different colors to represent the 150 countries that will participate in the World Youth Day on July 23-28, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up in different colors to represent the 150 countries that will participate in the World Youth Day on July 23-28, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro Feb 6, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

European Union (EU) officials say the full package must be agreed with Greece and approved by the euro zone, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund before February 15 to allow time for complex legal procedures involved in the bond swap to be completed in time for a March 20 bond redemption.  

In some euro zone countries, including Germany and Finland, parliamentary approval is required to raise the bailout money.

In Paris, German Chancellor Angel Merkel on Monday expressed the exasperation among euro zone leaders at seemingly endless arguing in Athens that has yet to produce a definitive acceptance of the austerity and reform demanded by the lenders.

"I honestly can't understand how additional days will help. Time is of the essence. A lot is at stake for the entire euro zone," she told a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

But leaders of the three parties in the coalition government appeared to need at least one additional day.

The office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former central banker who heads a government of politicians, said that a meeting of leaders from the conservative, socialist and far-right parties due on Monday had been postponed to Tuesday.

No reason was given for the delay. Papademos held further talks with the "troika" of lenders - the European Commission, ECB and IMF - on Monday.

The party leaders, positioning themselves for a likely general election in April, have balked at accepting another package of deeply unpopular wage and pension reductions, job cuts and tougher tax enforcement measures.

Alarmed by the prospect of yet more budget cuts, Greece's two main trade unions said they will hold a 24-hour strike on Tuesday in protest against policies they say have only driven the economy into a downward spiral.  

Demonstrations are planned in central Athens.  

Members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue team tend to a pair of common dolphins that were found stranded on Herring Cove Beach near Provincetown, Massachusetts in this Jan 16, 2012 handout photo obtained by Reuters on Feb 6, 2012. The hundreds of dolphins beaching themselves along the Cape Cod shores south of Boston since mid-January represent the largest stranding of a single species in the northeastern United States, according to animal welfare advocates. [Photo/Agencies]

Members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue team tend to a pair of common dolphins that were found stranded on Herring Cove Beach near Provincetown, Massachusetts in this Jan 16, 2012 handout photo obtained by Reuters on Feb 6, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue team tend to a pair of common dolphins that were found stranded on Herring Cove Beach near Provincetown, Massachusetts in this Jan 16, 2012 handout photo obtained by Reuters on Feb 6, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

China and the US need to be in close contact to assure there are no misunderstandings "in a difficult era whose pace of change is unprecedented in human history", Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state, told the International Conference in Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Shanghai Communique.

Hill said that the US' return to Asia "has less to do with China, and much more to do with the fact that the Obama administration is disengaging from wars in the Middle East and South Asia".

Through rebalancing relationships with Southeast Asia, Hill noted, the US does not intend to make countries choose between the US and China, as Beijing is widely perceived as a vital engine for the economic development for these nations.

Richard Solomon, a witness to the signing of the Shanghai Communique four decades ago, said that then US president Richard Nixon's landmark visit to China in 1972 was "the week that changed the world".

The document "fundamentally changed the political dynamic of the Cold War - to the benefit of the security of both our countries. The decision to break out of two decades of confrontation is one of the few great diplomatic initiatives of the 20th century", Solomon, who now presides over the United States Institute of Peace, said at the event.

The significance of the policy was that in this confrontational environment, leaders from both countries took a far-sighted initiative to normalize relations, Solomon said.

But he pointed out that more endeavors are needed to reshape the new international environment to the mutual benefit of both sides.

"The US is rebalancing its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. But history tells us that 'equilibrium' or 'balance', if not well managed, can degenerate into confrontation. So there is the risk that we could again become adversaries," Solomon warned.

There are a number of well-institutionalized bilateral and international forums and dispute-management procedures for dealing with these issues - most notably the annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, he said.

Hill advocated that both countries address the lack of strategic trust through more consultations, so that "when the US and China have moments of disagreements, the military consultations will need to be continued".

Hill, who once headed the US delegation to the Six-Party Talks, said the situation on the Korean Peninsula should not be seen in the context of a zero-sum game, but rather in terms of a win-win situation.

On the economic front, Hill said China's economy is important to Americans in ways that the authors of the Shanghai Communique could only have dreamed about.

Bilateral trade rocketed to $500 billion by the end of 2011 from a mere $5 million 40 years ago. Data from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai showed more than 7,000 US firms have established operations in Shanghai and 6,000 in the Yangtze Delta Region, the country's most robust business hub.

"China is highly concerned about the development of the situation in Syria, and we have always urged the various parties in Syria to cease violence and avoid casualties among innocent civilians," Liu said at a regular news briefing.

The vote on the United Nations resolution was forced despite the serious differences among various parties, he said, emphasizing that such practices do not help maintain the unity and authority of the UN Security Council, nor are they conducive to the proper resolution of the issue.

"Therefore, China voted against the draft resolution," he said.

"As a responsible major power and permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will make concerted efforts with the international community and play a positive and constructive role in settling this issue."

Asked about an accusation made by the US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice that China would have "blood on its hands" over its veto of the resolution, Liu said: "China does not accept such accusations. We uphold objective justice and take a responsible attitude."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the same day that the Western-Arab draft UN Security Council resolution on Syria made demands of the government and its forces but required little of the opposition.

Speaking after talks with Bahrain's foreign minister, Lavrov said Russia was pressing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to implement political reforms more swiftly, noting that some of Assad's opponents were using the protest movement in Syria to seek a violent "regime change".

However, he declined to say what message he would take to Assad when he travels to Damascus on Tuesday as an envoy of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Also on Monday, a second explosion in a week ripped through an oil pipeline feeding a main refinery in the city of Homs.

A plume of smoke was seen rising from the site, residents said.

The authorities and opponents of Assad have blamed each other for the explosions.

Regarding civilian casualties, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, said "mistakes" had been made by the government and those responsible would be held accountable.

"We will be holding everyone, whoever it is, accountable. We have a judicial committee and there are more than 4,000 cases before it," he added.

The Arab League and Syria signed a protocol to supervise the situation in Syria, and the league sent its mission to the country in January.

When Syria agreed to extend the observers' mission for another month, the league suspended its work due to the deteriorating situation and worsening violence.

"From our side, we want to help the mission accomplish its tasks, and we are ready to continue supporting them because we have never stopped our support," Makdissi added.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on Monday, one day after the government announced a nationwide state of emergency, visited Sjenica, the hardest hit city by the prolonged snow and frigid temperatures. He pledged to allocate 10 tons of fuel and five snow removal machines for the municipality.

"An additional 3,000 people have been engaged in clearing roads throughout Serbia," Dacic said, "The Army gave us an additional 14,000 people and we expect to clear close to 6,000 kilometers of impassible local roads in Serbia."

With more snow expected, Dacic said the government would relieve some of the pressure on local communities overwhelmed by the extreme conditions. He said the Serbian government would bear all costs for the additional manpower and equipment.

"Given the weather forecast for the next few days, it is clear that municipalities cannot cope with such problems, and are therefore engaging the joint capacity of the state," said Dacic.

The situation is said to be particularly difficult in the mountainous regions of the municipalities of Prijepolje, Nova Varos, Ivanjica, Brus, Kursumlija, Medvedja, Vlasotince and Crna Trava, the swath of Serbian territory that extends from the Montenegrin border to Bulgaria where more than a meter of snow has fallen in many parts.

After five days of clearing, and with the assistance of the army, the roads are now passable to remote households in mountainous villages near Mali Zvornik on the River Drina.

According to the law defining a state of emergency, able-bodied citizens are required to assist state institutions in the performance of protection and rescue activities.

Specialized civil defense units can be mobilized and deployed by the military. The partial or complete evacuation of a population in a potentially high risk situation can also be ordered.

The decision came following a meeting between Chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Hussein Tantawi and Farouk Sultan, head of the Supreme Constitutional Court and PEC chief, according to the official news agency MENA.

Tantawi urged the commission to speedily finish the legal procedures which are necessary for the beginning of presidential nomination, MENA added.

The commission also decided to enable the parties which win seats in the parliament to choose a candidate for the presidency.

The ruling military council had previously said that candidacy nomination for presidential polls would start in mid-April.

Hundreds of pilots, flight attendants and ground staff joined the demonstration at Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, stopping traffic between terminals.

To limit the damage from the strike, the Paris airports authority said carriers like Air France had cancelled or rescheduled roughly 100 flights in advance.

The country's leading carrier also advised its passengers to check the company's website at least 24 hours before leaving to catch their flights.

As the strike is going to enter its second day, Air France expects to fly over 50 percent of its long-haul flights on Tuesday.

French aviation unions called for the strike over a draft law approved by France's lower house in January which requires aviation workers to give 48 hours notice before going on strike so as to ensure minimum service during industrial actions.

But the unions see these requirements as extra pressure on employees choosing to strike, worrying that the impact of strikes would be lessened.

Among the victims, 29 died in an earthquke-triggered landslide in Planas village. Ten others died in other parts of Guihulngan City. Two others were killed in Tayasan town, while Bindoy and Jimamalud recorded one death each, said Francisco Zosimo Patrimonio, commander of the Army's 302nd Brigade.

Roel Degamo, governor of Negros Oriental in central Philippines, said the earthquake has damaged eight bridges, three of which are no longer passable.

Degamo said soldiers and police are now conducting rescue and relief operations. The governor also suspended all classes and work in government offices for the rest of the day.

The presidential palace has advised residents of Negros Oriental to "remain calm and watchful" and to cooperate with their local officials.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the authorities have not ordered any forced evacuation but requested the residents in Negros to "remain vigilant and take necessary safety precautions".

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II has ordered Coast Guard Chief Edmund Tan to prevent fishermen from going out to sea for the duration of the alert.

National Police Chief Nicanor Bartolome has instructed local police officials "to keep the population away from the shoreline, and to ensure the maintenance of peace and order" during the period.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development is on standby to provide relief and support to those affected

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has put the earthquake at magnitude 6.9, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) put the earthquake's magnitude at 6.7.

Several aftershocks with the strongest of magnitude 6.2 occurred after the strong tremor, which was felt in the provinces of Negros Occidental, Aklan, Iloilo, Antique, Leyte, Masbate, Eastern Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Albay, Sorsogon, Agusan del Norte, Camiguin, Cagayan de Oro city and Zamboanga del Norte.

In its latest report, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said two school age children, respectively 9 and 11, were killed when a concrete wall collapsed during the quake. Both were residents of Tayasan, Negros Oriental.

The NDRRMC reported the earthquake damaged several houses, roads and beach cottages in Negros oriental. A three-storey building in the municipality of La Libertad collapsed.  

NDRRMC said the Phivolcs issued level 2 alter tsunami warning soon after the quake, but cancelled the tsunami alert in the afternoon as there were no reports of unusual sea level changes. However, it urges people to stay away from the shoreline and asked residents living near the coastal areas of Negros and Cebu Islands to be watchful.

According to a statement posted on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the Sudanese side will hand over the body to China as soon as possible, and the Chinese Embassy in Sudan will assist relevant company and the worker's relatives in the follow-up matters.

A group belonging to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) northern sector on Jan 28 attacked a camp of a Chinese company operating at road construction site in South Kordofan State.

The rebels abducted 29 of the total 47 Chinese workers in the camp, while the other 18 workers fled to the neighboring areas. The Sudanese army found the 17 Chinese workers later and transported them to a safe area, but one worker went missing.

The property of persons determined to have links to those already under US sanctions is ordered to be frozen as well.

In his executive order, Obama said the move aims in particular to counter the "deceptive practices" of Iran's central bank and other banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation, and the "continuing and unacceptable" risk posed to the international financial system by Iran's activities.

Obama's order, which becomes effective at 12:01 am EST on Monday (1701GMT), came amid heightened tensions between Western countries and Iran over the latter's nuclear program and growing rumors about an imminent strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities.

In an interview with the NBC television network on Sunday, Obama said the US will work with Israel to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, and urged Iran to "stand down" on the current standoff.

When asked if Israel is determined to attack Iran, Obama said he didn't think that Israel has made such a decision. He emphasized his goal of resolving the standoff diplomatically, while reiterating that he was not taking any options off the table.

The US and its European allies have expanded their sanctions against Iran to target its oil exports, the lifeline of the country's economy, prompting threats by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical oil route.

The Washington Post, quoting US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, reported last Thursday that Israel might strike Iran as early as this spring.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned the next day against any war threats on Iran, saying "Threats of war is for the loss of the United States and the war itself is ten times for the loss of the United States."

"I am proud to announce today that we have finally put these burdensome and potentially damaging trade disputes behind us," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement on the "zeroing" deal struck with the European Union and Japan.

"What this means for the American people and the country as a whole is that American farmers and businesses can invest in job-creating export markets without the uncertainty of possible trade retaliation," Kirk said.

The United States has lost numerous cases at the World Trade Organization in the past decade over a practice called "zeroing" used to calculate anti-dumping duties on products it says are being sold in the United States at less than fair value.

"This understanding solves this longstanding dispute," said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in a statement.

"It will bring immediate relief to EU exporters who will no longer have to pay excessive anti-dumping duties; some of them will not pay any anti-dumping duties at all," he said.

Countries typically calculate anti-dumping duties by comparing prices on different batches of goods.

But in zeroing, authorities ignore examples where the price of the imported good is actually higher than the domestic one, which critics says unfairly inflates the duties.

The United States has long defended the practice and still believes is consistent with WTO rules despite repeated rulings against in cases by a number of countries.

Under the new deal, Washington will finally completely eliminate zeroing in a number of duties against steel and other imports from the EU and Japan, in exchange for Brussels and Tokyo dropping their retaliation claims.

The State Department, which warned late last month that it would close the embassy unless security concerns were addressed, said it had suspended embassy operations and withdrawn all embassy personnel including Ambassador Robert Ford.

"We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Nuland said that Ford would retain his position as the US ambassador to Syria and would work together with his team from Washington.  

"We want this accord," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. "Greece's leaders have made commitments and they must respect them scrupulously ... Europe is a place where everyone has their rights and duties. Time is running out, it needs to be concluded, it needs to be signed."

He and German leader Angela Merkel held a news conference after an annual meeting of top government ministers from both countries where they kept pressure up on Greece to meet reform  suggestions set out by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as "the troika".

"We want Greece to stay in the euro. To say it clearly, this is the opinion of both of us," German Chancellor Merkel said.

"But I also say -- there can be no new Greece programme if agreement is not reached with the Troika ... All those who bear responsibility in Greece must know -- we will not deviate from this position."   

Iran welcomes enhanced cooperation with Europe in political, economic and parliamentary field, Boroujerdi said in a meeting with Danish Ambassador Anders Christian Hougaard on Sunday.

However, not long ago, Iranian lawmakers were reportedly discussing cuts on oil exports to the EU as a preemptive move in response to the bloc's fresh sanctions targeting its oil sales.

Iranian Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani said on Sunday that the idea of oil export cuts needs further discussion and the final decision will be announced in the future.

On another related note, Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Saturday that Tehran will definitely stop its oil exports to certain European countries.

Qasemi has called on the EU to review its decision to embargo Iran's oil sales, dismissing the threat of such a move as limited because the EU only imports one fifth of the total foreign sales of Iran's oil.

Themed "A World In Disarray -- Shifting Powers -- Lack Of Strategies," the 48th MSC addressed a wide spectrum of topics ranging from the repositioning of US military power to the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and to the mounting difficulties in sustaining security under increasing financial pressure.

This year's conference was attended by over 350 delegates from more than 70 countries, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun.

Changes in European security

In a defense strategy published in January, US President Barack Obama said his country will shift its focus eastward to the rising Asia-Pacific region, which has invited whispers that the United States is abandoning its old allies in Europe.

Washington's recent announcement that it would withdraw two brigades from Europe has given rise to even more concerns over the prospect of the trans-Atlantic partnership.

In a gesture to assure their European counterparts that the United States would not abandon its allies, Clinton and Panetta both appeared at the conference and restated that the United States will stay engaged on the continent.

"That's not only because the peace and prosperity of Europe is critically important to the US, but because Europe remains our security partner of choice," Panetta said.

Facing a daunting military budget cut of 470 billion US dollars in the next 10 years, the United States also urged Europe to shoulder more responsibility and better coordinate with the United States in handling global and regional security issues.

"We must all continue to invest in national defense and in the shared responsibility and capabilities of NATO in order to best manage the security challenges of the future," Panetta said.

Conference Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger agreed that the trans-Atlantic community should not limit its mission to the Europe-Atlantic region.

But still some participants voiced their skepticism, saying that, with the debt crisis as a stumbling block, European states face immense difficulties in making a breakthrough in enhancing their defense.

Shift of focus to Asia

With Asian countries becoming more crucial players in the global economy and politics, the United States announced in last month's defense strategy that it would increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

A MSC forum themed "The United States, Europe and Rising Asia" addressed the US initiative, which could potentially reshape global politics.

Speaking at the forum, Zhang, the Chinese vice foreign minister, stressed China's dedication to maintaining regional stability, and also warned against outside interference in regional affairs.

Countries outside Asia should fully respect the will of the Asian people and follow the development trend in Asia, he said.

He pointed out that any move to hype the military and security agenda, create tension or strengthen a military presence or military alliance runs counter to the trend of the times and popular will in Asia.

US Senator John McCain, on the same panel with Zhang, acknowledged China's concerns. "A renewed US focus on the Asia-Pacific should not be focused on any one country. The continued peaceful development of China is in our interest," McCain said.

While the United States is shifting its focus, Europe must adopt a positive policy towards Asia, Ischinger said, adding that Europe should act not only as an exporter of advanced technologies and automobiles to Asia, but also as a political and security partner.

Tackling difficulties

As the greater part of the world has been struggling with financial woes in recent years, defense building is inevitably slipping on many countries' priority lists.

In Europe, the financial hardship is not only straining the military budget, but also eroding mutual trust between European Union members. Mutual trust must be reestablished if the bloc wants to solidify its integrated defense projects.

The eurozone must avoid stoking discontent among its members in dealing with the debt crisis, said Italy's Monti.

For his part, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for new approaches and extensive participation in what he called Smart Defense: to "utilize limited resources more intelligently and efficiently" against the background of the contagious and chronic eurozone debt crisis.

Financial trouble is surely not the only threat against global security, as waves of unrest swept through the Middle East last year, toppling long-standing leaders and bringing profound changes to the region.

Syria, now the hottest spot in the regional turmoil, was spared of UN sanctions Saturday. But as the Arab League, the United States and the European Union have vowed to take drastic measures against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, military confrontation in the Middle East remains a threat.

Bridging differences

As the bite of Western sanctions is taking its toll on the Iranian economy and people, delegates are debating the appropriate approach to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Delegates from both Turkey and Qatar favored a diplomatic approach, warning a military showdown is an ineffective solution that may prove catastrophic to the region.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman took a hawkish stance, saying that the United States will use all measures, including attacking Iran, to stop the country's alleged quest for nuclear weapons.

Another thorny issue at the conference is the European missile project that has drawn strong protest from Russia, which accuses the project of posing a threat to its strategic interests.

Despite previous expectations, Western and Russian diplomats failed to to reach consensus during the conference to resume negotiations.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO will proceed with the missile project regardless of the outcome of the negotiations with Russia.

The first batch of equipment will be put into use this May, he said.

The committee said in the report that besides prisons, universities or places of worship, internet is also one of the most significant sites for promoting violent radicalism. It played a part in most, if not all, cases of violent radicalization.

Although Britain's law enforcement agencies have tried to remove unlawful things from the internet, the Committee still recommends that internet providers should be more active in monitoring internet contents.

For that purpose, the government should work with internet providers to develop a series of practice in removing violent extremism contents, the report said.

It suggested the government give more support to civil society groups which oppose on-line extremism.

The committee also highlighted the threat from the far-right, which consists mostly of solitary, disaffected individuals rather than organized terrorist units.

"The July 7th bombings in London, carried out by four men from West Yorkshire, were a powerful demonstration of the devastating and far-reaching impact of home-grown radicalization," said Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee.

"We remain concerned by the growing support for non-violent extremism and more extreme and violent forms of far-right ideology," Vaz added.

Four men from London and Cardiff confessed last week to plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange and launching a Mumbai-style atrocity in the streets of London.

Vaz said the fact that they radicalized through the internet showed "we cannot let our vigilance slip and more resources need to be directed to these threats and to preventing radicalization through the internet and in private spaces," which have been "the fertile breeding grounds for terrorism."

The report named Roots of Violent Radicalization, is the result of a wide-ranging inquiry that began in May 2011.

The ministry will draw up a blueprint aimed at expanding exchanges between separated families on both sides of the border, the ministry said in a report to the parliament.

The ministry plans to diversify avenues of reunion by expanding letter exchanges and bringing more families together at reunion events.

More than 78,000 people are awaiting a rare chance for family reunion, 80 percent of them are 70 years old or above.

Government-arranged reunions, last held in 2010, were put on hold after the two Koreas clashed over repatriation of DPRK defectors last year.

South Korea is expected to propose inter-Korean Red Cross talks over holding a new round of family reunion, according to local reports.

Big freeze kills over 260

ROME - The death toll from the vicious cold snap across Europe has risen to more than 260, with the winter misery set to hit thousands of those seeking to escape it on Sunday as air traffic was hit.

Egyptian Football Association president Samir Zaher also was reportedly banned from leaving Egypt pending an investigation into the country's worst outburst of soccer violence.

Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri announced the decision during Thursday's emergency parliamentary session, a day after a match between Cairo giants Al-Ahly and host city's Al-Masry soccer teams in the Mediterranean city of Port Said turned deadly.

El-Ganzouri also says the governor of Port Said province and the area's police chief have resigned.

Witnesses had said that riot police stood by as supporters of home team Al-Masry rushed the field after their 3-1 win over Al-Ahly.

The incident, the highest number of victims in Egypt since last year, was the worst soccer disaster in the country and most of the deaths were among people trampled in the crush of the panicking crowd.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, FIFA, soccer's world governing body, has demanded a full report into the violence amid claims that security forces and police did not do enough to intervene.

FIFA to reinstate EFA officials

FIFA chief Sepp Blatter said on Sunday they will take steps to reinstate Egypt's Football Association (EFA).

Blatter, attending an extraordinary congress of the South American Football Confederation at its Paraguay headquarters, said the EFA's suspension after Wednesday's violence was a direct intervention into soccer affairs which FIFA could not accept.

"The information we have received at FIFA confirms the number of dead as 74. It was also confirmed that the (Egyptian) government intervened directly by suspending the (country's) soccer association," Blatter told a news conference.

"We are going to take up the case from tomorrow (Monday) so that this association is reinstated because it is the (body) that has the responsibility to organize the competitions and it must carry on (its work)," the president of world soccer's governing body said.

Commenting on the UN Security Council vote on Syria on Saturday, The Hindu daily said in an editorial that the West has only itself to blame for alienating what could have been powerful and influential allies -- China and Russia -- in this terrible and protracted crisis in Syria.

"Russia's unwillingness to go along with a US-led process stems, in large measure, from its anger at western conduct over Libya," said the paper. "The UN resolution in March 2011 (on Libya) imposed only a no-fly zone but served, in reality, as a cover for NATO's aim of violent regime change there."

The newspaper said that Washington's approach, which has included strident calls for President Bashar al-Assad to go, does not open a path for an urgent political solution to the violence in Syria.

"One of the problems is that the opposition to the regime is severely fragmented. Furthermore, with the regime in Damascus drawn from the 10 percent Alawite Shia (Shi'ite) minority, Sunni extremist groups have jumped into the fray," said the newspaper.

It called on UN Security Council, the Arab League, and India- Brazil-South Africa group to "go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan of action that can end the violence and set the stage for a Syrian-led political solution".

Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company and the country's National Electric Power Company are currently working on securing necessary amount of fuel derivatives to continue the generation of power to citizens, Jordan's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Qutaibah Abu Qura said Sunday.

Jordan used to receive 2.5 million cubic meters of gas per day before the attack against the pipeline, said the minister, adding that talks are underway with the Egyptian authorities to assess the damages.

A fire is seen on a gas pipeline in the Massaeed area west of the Mediterranean coastal town of al-Arish, North of Sinai, February 5, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan in Egypt's Arish was bombed in the early hours on Sunday. About ten armed men put the explosives under the pipeline, west of Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula and bombed it at around 1 am on Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday), a security source told Xinhua.

The explosion caused a blaze as there was gas in the pipeline. No casualties were reported in the explosion.

This was the 12th explosion targeting the pipeline since February 2011.

Over the past three years, about 80 percent of power generated in the energy-poor kingdom, which imports about 96 percent of its energy needs annually, relied on the Egyptian gas. In 2010, Jordan imported about 6.8 million cubic meters of gas per day from Egypt.

The 85-year-old monarch ascended the throne when her father, George VI, died on February 6, 1952. She is the longest-serving monarch after Queen Victoria, who reigned for more than 63 years.

Before a year's worth of festivities to celebrate her milestone, the queen said she and her husband have been "deeply moved" to receive so many kind messages about her Diamond Jubilee.

A file photo of Queen Elizabeth II standing in the 1844 Room of Buckingham Palace.  [Photo/Agencies]

"I am writing to thank you for the wonderful support and encouragement that you have given to me and Prince Phillip over these years," she wrote in a message to the nation. "In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope that we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighborliness, examples of which I have been fortunate to see throughout my reign."

The queen's Diamond Jubilee will be feted with a series of regional, national and international events throughout 2012.

Over the course of 2012, members of the royal family - including Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge - will fan out across the globe and travel to Commonwealth countries including Canada, Jamaica and Belize in honor of the queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The queen and Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, will stay closer to home, touring the UK from March to July.

The 2012 Diamond Jubilee weekend will be held from June 2-5, with the main highlight likely to be a huge pageant on the Thames river featuring a 1,000-strong flotilla.

Elizabeth expressed hope that the coming year will be a time to give thanks "for the great advances" since she took the throne and "look forward to the future with a clear head and warm heart."

Later Monday, the queen is slated to tour a nursery school and meet pupils there before watching a play about her 60 years as sovereign.

"The latest ten to twelve years demonstrated that the potential is huge, and lots have been realized. The liberalization that has occurred has allowed the trade flow to increase dramatically in this direction," Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Trade between China and the United States has a solid development base. China's trade with the United States, the country's second largest trade partner, rose to $446.7 billion in 2011, a 15.9-percent growth over 2010 and a sharp increase from the 80.5 billion ten years ago.

Lardy said that while the global economy is facing intensified downside risks, it is of great importance for China and United States, the two biggest economies in the world, to further expand bilateral economic cooperation.

The two sides need more coordination as they act "in parallel" against the risks, he said, adding that both China and the United States should adopt appropriate policies to sustain economic growth to help the world economy mitigate the negative impact of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Lardy also argued that the economic cooperation should be more "market oriented" rather than government-promoted. The increase of US exports to China was mainly driven by market, Lardy said, "because China is growing so fast, its demand is high, some of the demand is satisfied by imports."

"Let the market play the role," he stressed, because "when this happens, the trade expands."

China is currently the third largest exporting market for the United States. China's import from the US surged to 122.1 billion in 2011, up 19.6 percent from a year earlier, despite the faltering world economy.

Talking about the US plan to double its exports by the end of 2014 from the basis of 2009, Lardy said his country should export more high-tech products to China.

Lardy has done a long-time research on China's economy and is called "everybody's guru on China" by US National Journal. He has written or edited a number of books on China.

In his latest book, which is entitled "Sustaining China's Economic Growth After the Global Financial Crisis", Lardy said China has emerged successfully from the global financial and economic crisis but must undertake fundamental reforms to sustain its economic growth and help the rest of the world recover.

During the interview, Lardy noted that China needs a consumption-based, rather than an export-led model of growth. "China needs to encourage other growth sources than exports," he said.

He suggested Chinese policymakers increase expenditure on social welfare programs to stimulate domestic demand. "The potential for generating more growth from consumption is enormous for China," he added.

In a joint press conference together with Borissov, Clinton said she had a very productive meeting with the Bulgarian prime minister, and underscored the depth and range of the partnership between the two countries.

She said Bulgaria and the United States had worked alongside around the world to address critical issues, from ensuring a successful transition in Afghanistan, keeping the peace in Kosovo, to diversifying and securing energy supplies.

"We are partners working to advance Bulgaria's energy independence and security, and to protect Bulgarian beautiful environment," Clinton said.

Bulgaria in January decided to prohibit the US Chevron Corporation from making oil and gas exploration in the country by using hydraulic fracturing.

Addressing Sunday's press conference, Borissov said the US and the Bulgarian government would present the best new technologies to Bulgarian people, and that they would convince the public of their safety. Until then, the moratorium on exploration and production of shale gas in Bulgaria would be a fact.

"I would say the same for nuclear energy," Borissov added.

In the meantime, Clinton described Bulgaria as an extremely important, productive partner of the NATO, and said her country was committed to Bulgarian security and was looking to expand its military collaboration with Bulgaria.

She said they were looking for ways to deepen military cooperation and carry out a comprehensive review of what the status quo of this cooperation was, and where it would go in the future.

In 2006, the United States gained military access to four Bulgarian military facilities, including two air bases. In 2011, Bulgaria said it was ready to host the future NATO missile defense system.

Asked to comment on the situation in Syria, Clinton said the US would increase the diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime, and work with the friends of the democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition.

Earlier on Sunday, Clinton also met with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev.

In a television interview, Obama also said he did not believe Tehran had the "intentions or capabilities" to attack the United States, playing down the threats from Tehran and saying he wanted a diplomatic end to the nuclear standoff.

"Any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices. We've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran. And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic," Obama said.      

His comments echoed concerns expressed by earlier by Iran's neighbor Turkey that an attack on Iran would be disastrous.

Obama, who is up for re-election in November, has ended the US war in Iraq and is winding down combat in Afghanistan amid growing public discontent about American war spending at a time when the economy remains shaky.

He said Israel had not yet decided what to do in response to the escalating tension but was "rightly" concerned about Tehran's plans.

"My number one priority continues to be the security of the United States, but also the security of Israel, and we are going to make sure that we work in lockstep as we proceed to try to solve this, hopefully diplomatically," he told NBC.

Iranian leaders have responded sharply to speculation that Israel could bomb Iran within months to stop it from assembling nuclear weapons, threatening to retaliate against any country that launches an attack against the Islamic Republic.

Iran says its nuclear program is meant to produce energy, not weapons.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem February 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet on Sunday approved plans to construct a rail line linking Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast to the Red Sea port of Eilat.  

The 350-kilometer project is part of a comprehensive push to revamp the country's transport infrastructure, and is due to begin operations five years from the start of construction.  

"In the coming decade, new powers will rise and the State of Israel must create vital interests from a national point-of-view," Netanyahu's bureau quoted him as saying in a statement.

The prime minister said the rail line would constitute an alternative transportation route that bypasses the Suez Canal, significantly shortening the current route freight ships use to reach the Mediterranean.

"This is an insurance policy. Israel must become a continental land crossing route and create great power interests," Netanyahu said.

The Israeli government seeks to double the population of the Negev, a vast desert region largely uninhibited, to 1.2 million by 2025. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, devoted much of his career to realizing his vision of inhabiting the area. The railway's planners say it would help spur regional development, including housing and new employment opportunities, and entice Israelis to leave the country's congested center.

Once in place, the railway will cut travel time from Eilat, at Israel's southernmost tip, to the country's center down to two hours. Eilat's hoteliers say that would dramatically raise tourism to their city, with visitors currently forced to drive near four hours or take a commuter flight.

"It will change the face of the country. For 63 years, there has been talk about linking the periphery to the center, but nothing was done," Netanyahu said, adding, "The railway and Israel 's natural gas resources can forge strong economic links."

Netanyahu said he tasked the director-general of his office, Harel Locker, to head a team that will review options for financing the 27 billion USD project, whether through state funding, cooperation with the private sector, or an inter- governmental agreement between Israel and another government with which Israel maintains economic and strategic interests.

At a meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming in Israel last March, Netanyahu proposed that the two countries cooperate in such a project, after a Chinese firm last year completed a tunnel in the northern port city of Haifa ahead of schedule.

Another Chinese group has been awarded a contract to build a railway between Haifa and city of Carmiel in the Upper Galilee.

"Europe will further tighten sanctions which are imposed on the Syrian regime and then we will try to mount the international pressure (on Bashar al-Assad regime)," Juppe told local channel BFMTV.

"It will be a moment when the regime will be forced to recognize that it is completely isolated and can not continue," he added.

The French top diplomat noted that Paris and its European partners are working to help Syrian opposition to be more structured and organized but ruled out a military intervention in Syria.

"We will not use military force if we will not have a mandate of the Security Council," the minister said.

On Saturday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the creation of "Friends of the Syrian People Group" to find enough international support to implement the Arab League plan urging al-Assad to give up power.

The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it warned residents along coastal areas to be on the watch for unusual waves as it raised a tsunami alert at level 2.

No evacuation was ordered yet.

The institute also warned structurally weak buildings may sustain damages. The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that based on all available data a Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected.

The quake, with depth of about 10 kms (6.2 miles), according to the institute, and centered just 5 kms off the shore of Tayasan, Negros Oriental, was felt at intensity 7 in Dumaguete City and intensity 6 in Bacolod City, according to the institute.

The USGS put the quake at 6.7 in magnitude and a depth of 12.4 miles (19.8 kms).

Two aftershocks, of 4.8 and 5.6 magnitude on the USGS scale, followed within 30 minutes of the earthquake.

"Damage is possible in areas hit by at least intensity 5 and if the buildings are structurally weak," Renato Solidum, head of the volcanology and seismology institute said in a radio interview.    

40 years ago in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm, history was made at a UN conference on the future of humanity and the planet. Amid rising concern over pollution over the air, the land and the seas; the growing loss of species and the dying of forests as a result of acid rain, governments agreed that a UN body charged with coordinating a global response to such challenges should be established.

Between June 1972 and the UN General Assembly that year, many countries lobbied to house this new environmental body called the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In the end, Kenya won the diplomatic debate and in doing so became the first developing country to host a UN headquarters.

Black and white photographs taken on 2 October 1973 at the inaugural celebrations show Kenya's President Kenyatta, flanked by forest rangers and game wardens, waving his signature fly whisk while 43 year-old Canadian Maurice Strong, UNEP's first Executive Director, stands to attention.

China was among the first to become a member of the UNEP Governing Council that year and began making a voluntary contribution to UNEP's Environment Fund which grew to US$100,000 by 1976. That same year China also established its Permanent Mission to UNEP in Nairobi, allowing for closer collaboration.

By the 1980s, China was co-sponsoring UNEP training courses on a range of important environmental issues, including small hydropower development projects. Seven years later China and UNEP established the International Desertification Control Research and Training Center in Lanzhou in northwestern Gansu province.

In May 2002, UNEP and Shanghai's Tongji University signed an agreement which led to the establishment of the joint UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD). Then on 19 September 2003, UNEP formally opened its China Office in Beijing and since then the organization's work in the country has expanded on a number of levels and in a number of areas.

UNEP was originally set up to coordinate the rest of the UN system's activities on environmental issues and to provide the science to member states on emerging trends in environmental change.

The emphasis on science has perhaps been among UNEP's most important contributions that in turn has led to governments negotiating key global treaties to address emerging environmental crises.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer—the protective shield that filters out dangerous levels of the sun's ultra violet rays—is a case in point. It became clear in the 1980s that certain chemicals used in products such as refrigerators to fire-fighting equipment were attacking the ozone layer. China signed the Protocol as early as September 1987. By 2010, this UNEP treaty had coordinated the phase-out of over 100 of these harmful gases.

Without the Montreal Protocol, atmospheric levels of ozone-depleting substances could have increased tenfold by 2050 which in turn could have led to up to 20 million more cases of skin cancer and 130 million more cases of eye cataracts, not to speak of damage to human immune systems, wildlife and agriculture.

UNEP continues to this day to bring forward the science and convening treaty negotiations.

Only a few months ago, governments from across the world met in UNEP to push forward plans for a global agreement on mercury—a notorious heavy metal that damages the nervous system.

The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was so-called because hat makers once used mercury to strengthen the brims of hats and breathed in the fumes.

In the late 1980s, as the world was struggling to understand the implications of rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

UNEP's scientific work has become the premier risk assessment and reference work for governments on the likely trends and impacts of global warming and the Panel's findings played a key role in the decision to establish the UN climate convention and its emission reduction treaty, the Kyoto Protocol.

Since 2008, UNEP has been championing the Green Economy as a way of generating development and employment but in a way that keeps humanity's footprint within ecological boundaries.

A growing number of countries, such as China, are undertaking activities to accelerate this transition towards sustainability and a Green Economy. China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy, overtaking Spain in 2009 and spending US$49 billion in 2010. Overall, China is committed to spending US$468 billion over the next five years, more than double the previous five years, on key industries, including renewable energy, clean technologies and waste management.

So what of the future? As Environment Ministers gather in Nairobi for their annual meeting of the UNEP Governing Council this month, all eyes are on the follow-up to the Earth Summit of 1992.

Rio+20, taking place in June, may prove to be an opportunity where the Green Economy initiative is translated into a fresh and forward-looking way of finally realizing sustainable development for seven billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050.

Some governments are also signaling that the time has come to strengthen UNEP itself perhaps into a World Environment Organization.

40 years ago many of the challenges facing people and the planet were still theoretical today they are fast becoming reality.

The emergence of UNEP from Stockholm in 1972 was for some a surprise package—whether June 2012 will evolve the UNEP story onto a higher level, only time will tell.

Niinisto, 63, won 62.6 percent of the votes, while his competitor Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto bagged 37.4 percent. Niinisto had failed to secure more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round of voting held on January 22.

A veteran politician, Niinisto had served as a member of the Finnish Parliament in 1987. From 1994 to 2001, he was the chairman of the National Coalition Party of Finland. He served as Minister of Justice in the following two years, and from 1996 to 2003, he was the Minister of Finance. From 2007 to 2011, he also served as the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament.

Niinisto will be sworn in on March 1, replacing Tarja Halonen, the country's first female president, who has served for two six-year terms. His victory ended the Finnish Social Democratic Party's three-decade-long holding of the country's presidency.

Under the Finnish Constitution, the president is elected directly by citizens for a term of six years. No president may serve for more than two consecutive terms.

Powers of the Finnish president have diminished rapidly over the past 20 years, whilst powers of the cabinet and parliament were significantly strengthened.

The president no longer has the right to individually set foreign policies, which are to be jointly formulated by the president and the cabinet. However, the president still plays an important role in the fields of foreign and security policy making in Finland.

In terms of internal affairs, the Finnish president's influence is also quite limited. The president can only appoint the prime minister according to the parliament's proposal.

Niinisto's victory in Finland's presidential election is not expected to lead to dramatic changes to the course of the country's foreign policies.

Niinisto has previously emphasized that Finland would open to the whole world, and continue to further relations with all countries in the global community.

Above all, the country would maintain close relations with neighboring Russia, and further strengthen cooperation with other Nordic countries. In the mean time, it will also seek to continue to keep good relations with the United States, and enhance friendly ties with China.

Niinisto also maintained that Finland should play a constructive role in Europe, amid an escalating sovereign debt crisis that has plagued the 17-member eurozone for more than two years, and threatened to spark a financial maelstrom across the world.

He claimed that the eurozone should return to the no-aid principle, which means member states should not provide any aid to their troubled peers who had fallen into a financial crisis.

Commenting on Finland's potential NATO membership, Niinisto said if the country were to join the intergovernmental military alliance in the future, the issue should be resolved by a way of referendum.

On internal policies, Niinisto has promised to focus on youth employment, and to make greater efforts to improve the living conditions of young Finns.

He has also called on Finns to work hard and promote innovation in order to boost the country's economic recovery and growth.

A variety of events were held by Chinese organizations in Houston to mark the festival, which falls on January 15 of China's lunar calendar.

It has been the ninth year since the Wong Family Benevolent Association of Houston began to hold its annual lantern festival gala, where an array of Chinese traditional customs could be appreciated, such as riddle-guessing, dragon dance, singing and dancing, and the must-have for lantern festival -- rice ball.

The most eye-catching at Sunday's gala were the parents of famous Chinese basketball star Yao Ming and his 20-month-old daughter Yao Qinlei. The trio took to the stage, where little Qinlei wished everyone a happy year of the Dragon.

Chinese Consul General in Houston Xu Erwen attended the celebration and wished all overseas Chinese in the city a happy new year.

Representatives of US Congresspersons Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee also joined the event and sent best wishes to local Chinese in the Year of the Dragon.

Netanyahu will give a speech in front of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Israeli President Shimon Peres will also attend the event and be honored this year for his work, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The prime minister's spokesmen did not confirm to Xinhua whether Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Barak Obama.

However, the newspaper said rising tensions with Iran in the last months would make a meeting between the two leaders likely.

"There is reason to believe a meeting will be set up with President Obama," an official source within the Israeli Foreign Ministry told the newspaper.

Also on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was slated to travel to the United States and was expected to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials.

Lieberman would tell his hosts that "there's a feeling in Israel that sanctions against Iran are well-received and we welcome their implementation," a foreign ministry official told Xinhua Sunday.

Youssef ordered preparations of the Tora Prison urgently, possibly in order to receive former president Hosni Mubarak, who is now in the International Medical Center in the eastern suburbs of Cairo.

Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, his former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli and others of his former assistants were imprisoned in the Tora Prison.

Recent protests called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which manages the country for the transition period, to move Mubarak's aids into different prisons to avoid further contacts among them that could harm their trial proceedings.

Mubarak and his aides began to stand trial last August. They were accused of ordering to kill protestors and corruption.

A new wave of protests, triggered by a football riot in Port Said which left 74 dead, have hit the capital Cairo and some other cities.  At least 12 people have died in the latest clashes between security forces and protestors.

"G5+1 is not the source of arbitration on Iran's nuclear activities and only International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the major source of arbitration in this regard," Salehi was quoted as saying.

The recent trip of the IAEA team to Iran has nothing to do with G5+1, he told reporters on Sunday.  

The high-ranking delegation of the IAEA held talks with Iranian officials on the controversial nuclear program of the country here last week.

"In the recent trip of the IAEA delegation to Iran and during the talks, the first step was taken to decrease the differences and to enhance shared points," Salehi said according to IRNA.

The IAEA team will make another trip to Iran three weeks later, he said adding that both sides will continue the talks in order to reach "an understanding and shared points."

"The Islamic Republic has announced its viewpoints to the IAEA delegation and they should take the next steps in their next trip to Iran," said the Iranian foreign minister.

The IAEA said last Wednesday that another meeting between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran over its nuclear program will take place in Tehran from February 21 to February 22.

"The Agency is committed to intensifying dialogue. It remains essential to make progress on substantive issues," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said in a statement.

The announcement came after a high-ranking IAEA delegation returned to the agency's headquarters in Vienna following a trip to Iran.

"The IAEA explained its concerns and identified its priorities, which focus on the clarification of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," Amano said.

During the newly-concluded talks, the IAEA also discussed with Iran the topics and initial steps to be taken, as well as associated modalities, he added.

The spirit dominating the three-day talks between Iranian officials and the IAEA team was "positive and constructive," Iran's official IRNA news agency said last Tuesday, quoting an unnamed source.

The report also said the IAEA delegation, headed by chief inspector Herman Nackaerts, did not visit or inspect any nuclear site in Iran.

The talks were held behind closed doors and no details about its process or outcome were released.

Last November, the board of the IAEA adopted a resolution on Iran's nuclear program suspected of having weapons-related activities, and called for intensified dialogue to find solutions to unresolved issues.

However, Iran has said the resolution will not stop its nuclear program which it insists is peaceful in nature despite the West's accusation of military purposes.

KIEV/LONDON - Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday, brought widespread disruption to transport services, and left thousands without power with warnings that low temperatures would continue into next week.

Hundreds have lost their lives in eastern Europe as freezing weather sweeps across the continent westwards, while major airports warned that services would be delayed or cancelled.

Icicles form on a vehicle covered in snow and ice in Bucharest, February 5, 2012. Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday and brought widespread disruption to transport services, with warnings that the chilling temperatures would remain into next week.  [Photo/Agencies]

Steven Keates, a weather forecaster at Britain's Met Office, said the severe wintry conditions were expected to last, and spread to other areas.  

"It will still be very cold, maybe not quite the exceptional temperatures we've seen this last week, but still very cold," he told Reuters.

"(It will be) perhaps turning increasingly unsettled across southern and eastern Europe, so that will probably bring a risk of snow for Italy across to Greece and up round the Balkan countries."

A state of emergency was declared in Bosnia after the cold snap claimed its seventh victim, and avalanches and strong winds cut off hundreds of villages in eastern parts.  

Helicopters were needed to deliver aid packages to mountainous areas and take the sick to hospital.

Greece also declared an emergency situation in the western Peloponnese peninsula after heavy rain caused flooding and an 82-year old woman drowned while trying to escape her house.  

Nine more deaths from freezing temperatures were registered in Ukraine overnight, emergency services said, taking the death toll to 131 from a nine-day cold spell, the most severe in the country for six years with night temperatures down as low as minus 33 Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit) in parts.

HELP FOR HOMELESS

Many of the dead were homeless people with bodies being found in the streets under snow, in rivers and in doorways. More than 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country to provide makeshift accommodation for the homeless.

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked local authorities to waive the ban on admitting inebriated individuals to homeless shelters as eight more people died taking the death toll to 53, PAP news agency reported.  

The extreme cold also caused the death of at least three people in Hungary, national news agency MTI said, and at least five people froze to death in Lithuania over the weekend in Lithuania as the temperature fell below -30 Celsius overnight.

Transport networks were also badly hit as the chilling weather moved west, prompting severe weather warnings to be issued across much of France and Britain.

London's Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said it had cancelled about half of its normal services as more than 15cm (6 inches) of snow fell in parts of England overnight and temperatures dropped to almost -10 Celsius.  

Many of Britain's other airports were forced to shut runways overnight and warned of further disruption, while rail services were affected and motorways near London were brought to a standstill, forcing some divers to abandon their vehicles.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower received a coating of snow and more downfalls were expected to bring problems to the French capital's main airports.

The French death toll rose to five, after a 12-year old boy died of hypothermia after falling into a frozen pond in eastern France and two homeless people were found dead.  

Meanwhile about 86,000 Italians were left without power because of trees falling on power lines, Livio Gallo, head of state power company Enel told SkyTG24 television.

The deaths of 13 people were blamed on the bad weather, Italian police said, including three men who died of heart attacks while shoveling snow.

Two highways in central Italy that cross the Apenines remained closed, the Interior Ministry said, while in Rome, schools and public offices are to remain closed until at least Tuesday, Mayor Gianni Alemanno said.  

He urged people to get out and clean sidewalks, and said the city had handed out 2,350 free shovels.  

FUN FOR SOME

While the cold snap has brought death and misery across Europe, some made the most of the conditions.

Snowboarders took to the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo after it was blanketed by a record snowfall of 107 cm.

The traditional Sartai horse race on ice also went ahead in Lithuania and local media reported more than a dozen men and women from a health club went swimming in a lake near Vilnius.

Meanwhile in Belgium, police found that overnight temperatures of about -10 Celsius were so low that machines to test motorists' alcohol levels did not work.

A cyclist rides his bicycle on frozen river near Ragana February 5, 2012. Many weather observation stations across Latvia registered new record-cold temperatures on Sunday according to the information from the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center.  [Photo/Agencies]

Heads and scarves are on display outside of a store in Istanbul February 5, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

A fisherman tries to clear the ice at a pond near the Ada Ciganlija lake in Belgrade February 5, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

A car door handle is pictured on an ice covered vehicle on the bank of Leman Lake in Versoix near Geneva February 5, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

A man jogs during snow fall in a park in Bucharest February 5, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

A girl walks on the ice covered pavement along the bank of Leman Lake in Versoix near Geneva February 5, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

A spokesman for BAA, which owns Heathrow as well as five other airports in Britain, said the decision was taken "with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance."

"By cancelling flights in advance airlines have been able to rebook some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not," the spokesman added.

Heathrow Chief Operating Officer Normand Boivin said that "this decision ensures that the greatest number of passengers can fly with the minimum amount of disruption."

"It also means that those passengers whose flights are cancelled will know in advance, and can make alternative arrangements or rebook in relative comfort," he said.

Operations at the airport were further restricted in the evening when freezing fog settled in the area.

Heathrow Airport, in the western suburbs of London, is the largest in Britain and one of the busiest airports in the world. On a normal Sunday it handles about 1300 flights.

Heathrow Airport and its operators were severely criticized during a period of very cold weather and snow in 2010 for poor handling of the situation. At that time, runways and taxiing areas were covered in snow and ice, and many planes were trapped at the 200 plane stands at Heathrow, unable to take off.

This led to cancellation of outgoing flights, and the airport seized up and was unable to accept many incoming flights.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, said Sunday that the airport's snow plan set in motion on Saturday "had worked well" as "airplanes are taking off and landing, the runways and tarmac are clear of snow."

BEIJING / United Nations - The veto by China and Russia of a draft UN resolution to promote regime change in Syria will win more time for a political solution to the crisis, experts said.

But the diplomatic divide on the Syrian issue will remain and possibly worsen, they said.

Taleb Ibrahim, a Syrian political analyst, said in Damascus that the veto on Saturday by China and Russia would usher in a new balance of global power. "The UN will no longer be a tool in the hands of the US and its allies to pass their military schemes."

The veto will help restore peace and stability in the country and will also save Syrian lives, Ibrahim said.

The draft resolution was in accordance with an Arab League plan that demanded a government change in Syria. The resolution, tabled by Morocco and backed by the US and some European powers, received 13 votes from the 15 UN Security Council members.

It was the second time since October that China and Russia joined hands to block a UN resolution on Syria.

China's veto follows the principle of non-interference in internal affairs as stated in the UN Charter, said Dong Manyuan, vice-president at the China Institute of International Studies. The UN does not have the right to request a regime change or military intervention in a sovereign state, he said.

The Chinese move was an attempt to seek a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis and prevent it from escalating, Dong said.

China's ambassador to the UN, Li Baodong, said that while the international community should provide constructive assistance to help achieve peace in Syria, "the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria should be fully respected".

Li added that pressuring the Syrian government or imposing any sanctions would not help.

"To push through a vote when parties are still seriously divided over the issue will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help properly resolve the issue. In this context, China voted against the draft resolution," Li said.

China supports proposals suggested by Russia, Li said.

Hours before the Security Council's vote on the draft, Russia circulated an amended resolution, which it said "aims to fix two basic problems".

The first was the imposition of conditions on dialogue, and the second was that measures must be taken to influence not only the government but also anti-government armed groups.

The draft resolution said that the Security Council "fully supports" the Arab League's plan to ask Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

"If the draft resolution was passed by the UN and President Assad refuses to transfer power, Syria would become a second Libya within two months," Dong said.

The UN put the death toll in Syria during the unrest, after nearly a year, at more than 5,400, while the Syrian government said more than 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed.

China has maintained that the Syrian crisis should be solved within the framework of the Arab League, but the league itself is split, Dong said.

Some members, such as Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, do not agree with the draft resolution, Dong said.

Tunisia on Sunday urged other Arab nations to follow its lead a day after it said it was expelling Syria's ambassador and withdrawing recognition of the Assad government.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday said that France was consulting with Arab and European countries to create a contact group on Syria to find a solution to the crisis.

"France is not giving up," he said in a statement, saying Paris was in touch with Arab and European partners to create a "Friends of the Syrian People Group" that would marshal international support to implement the Arab League plan.

The Syrian government's efforts to establish dialogue have been hampered by the West that wants to see the current regime collapse, said An Huihou, former Chinese ambassador to Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt.

"If the principle of not intervening in a country's internal affairs is violated, the bottom line of sovereignty for many medium- and small-sized countries will be damaged," he said. "Every country has a right to decide its own development path and administration method."

He added that no consensus had been reached among opposition parties either inside or outside Syria and that increased the difficulty of establishing political dialogue between the government and opposition.

The veto was used to avoid an escalation of the conflict and prevent civil war, he said.

Xinhua and Li Lianxing in Beijing contributed to this story.

Among the victims, there were two clochards in Rome and Milan, as well as a few elderly people found frozen to death at their homes, according to local media.

A 51-year-old man died of heart attack while shoveling snow in central Mosciano, while another young man was found dead in his car covered in snow in southern Isernia.

Extraordinary snowfall that had not occurred since 1985 especially affected central Italy, where the army had to intervene in five regions to clean roads and several cities were put on ice alert.

To cope with snow emergency, authorities in L'Aquila - the town that was struck by a deadly earthquake in 2009 - decided to requisition gasoline from distributors to only deliver it to snowplows and emergency vehicles.

Cars in Rome without snow chains or snow tyres were banned from the roads covered by snow, while schools and public offices stayed closed in the capital and other cities to prevent casualties.

According to local media reports, many places in central Italy remained completely isolated and over 75,000 families were left without electricity.

Sub-zero temperatures made many highways and roads blocked, while flights and trains throughout the country were delayed or cancelled.

According to forecasts, snowfalls will continue to affect Italy the next week.

The Arctic weather pattern that has gripped the region for more than a week has led to nine deaths, with an estimated 70,000 people in outlying and remote Serbian villages severely affected.

An estimated 5,000 kilometers of roads are impassible, according to Predrag Maric, chief of emergency services for the Ministry of Interior.

Thirty-seven Serbian municipalities, mostly along the swath of territory between Montenegro and Bulgaria, had already declared states of emergency.

Maric said under the nation-wide state of emergency all snow removal vehicles and equipment, private as well as public, will be engaged in clearing snow for the next seven to ten days.

"During the next seven to ten days, 75 million dinars (940,000 dollars) will be allocated, for fuel and allowances," stated Maric.

Djordje Babic, deputy chief of police and emergency services, said the state of emergency was called to "clear roads and provide a supply of basic food to vulnerable populations."

Minister of Education Zarko Obradovic recommended that all schools in Serbia be closed for the next five days for an estimated 90,000 students and 120,000 employees. University exams are to be rescheduled.

Government officials stressed the need for people to continue to go to work where they can.

"Regrettably, the authors of the Syrian draft resolution did not want to make additional efforts to reach a consensus. And the result is known," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on his Twitter account Sunday.

In a separate statement Sunday, the Russian foreign ministry also expressed regrets over the outcome of the work on Syria at the UN Security Council.

It said an agreement could have been reached if the political will had existed to gain a consolidated position among the international community.

"Russia and China were forced to vote against the unbalanced draft resolution," the statement said.

"Russia, together with other countries, is determined to seek the soonest possible stabilization of the situation in Syria along the path toward pressing democratic transformations," it said.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Damascus on February 7 on President Dmitry Medvedev's orders to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and urge him to launch democratic reforms.

The ministry said Moscow still advocated continuation of the Arab League mission in Syria and broader intra-Syrian dialogue.

The draft resolution, which was brokered by Morocco and backed by the United States and other major Western nations, included a call for al-Assad to step down.

Lieberman will tell his hosts, inter alia, that "there's a feeling in Israel that sanctions against Iran are well-received and we welcome their implementation," a Foreign Ministry official said Sunday.

However, the official cautioned that the slow pace of putting banking and other measures into place "will allow Iran to move forward with critical element of their weapons program."

His words echoed those of a series of senior Israeli officials, who in recent days have publicly ratcheted up warnings of a potential Israeli military strike to foil Teheran's clandestine nuclear arms program.

"Today, unlike in the past, there is widespread global understanding that if the sanctions don't achieve their goal of halting Iran's nuclear weapons program, there will arise the need of weighing an operation," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday at a major political-defense strategy conference here.

In an address to the Herzliya Conference, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, said that Israel "must be willing to deploy" to stop Iran.

In addition to suggesting a tightening of sanctions, Lieberman will broach the option of taking steps to help bring about the fall of the current Iranian government, according to Israel Radio.

No matter what options are decided upon in Israel and abroad, " One thing is clear," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said last week. "If Iran becomes nuclear then it's the end of world order as we know it ... This is what we have to think about, and not about what will happen in case some action is being taken," Ayalon said.

Lieberman also plans to meet with US Senators and Congressional representatives during the week-long visit, among them Florida Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ministry official said.

As the House's ranking Republican, Ros-Lehtinen also chairs the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, and is considered a strong conservative supporter of Israel, who she has called "an indispensable ally and friend of the United States."

"This is an idea which is being matured in the Majlis and we are discussing it in the parliament," Larijani told Fars.

Meanwhile, "we are consulting other sources" about the plan, he was quoted as saying.

In the past weeks, Iranian lawmakers said that they were discussing the issue of oil export cuts to EU with officials from the Oil Ministry.

In the future, the final opinion of the Majlis concerning the cut of oil exports to EU will be announced, Larijani said according to Fars.

"Most of the lawmakers' opinion is in favor of cutting oil exports to EU," he said.

EU leaders endorsed last week the latest restrictive sanction measures on Iran's oil exports adopted by the bloc's foreign ministers on Jan 23.

On Saturday, Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Tehran will definitely stop its oil exports to certain European countries. Qasemi called on the EU states to review their decision on the oil embargo on Iran, saying that EU states' oil imports from the Islamic republic "just" comprises 18 percent of its total oil exports.

Late in January, Qasemi said that "less than 20 percent of Iran 's oil exports are destined for Europe" and the EU sanctions will take a heavy toll on the European people.

The two countries agreed in 2006 to transfer some 8,000 Marines to Guam and also move the US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to less crowded Henoko, which is also on the Japanese island.

But the implementation of the planned roadmap has been delayed because successive Japanese governments have not yet win over the residents on the island for the acceptation of the deal.

Japan and the United States have already agreed to separate the planned transfer of Okinawa-based Marines to Guam from the issue of relocating the Futenma base by moving 4,700 of the roughly 8, 000 Marines in Okinawa to the US territory in the Pacific without waiting for the relocation of the base, Kyodo News reported.

The remaining 3,300 Marines will be shifted to elsewhere in the Pacific, such as Hawaii, Australia and the Philippines, according to Kyodo report.

Currently, about half of the 47,000 US forces in Japan are deployed in Okinawa and the island's politicians have resisted further efforts by Tokyo to have more troops stationed there.

The US bases have been long blamed for generating noise and pollution by many residents on the sub-tropical island, who refuse to accept the plan to shift the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another part of the island.

Hossein Salami, the deputy head of IRGC, told Fars that "Any location which is used by the enemy for raids against the Islamic republic will be targeted by the IRGC forces."

Salami made the remarks during IRGC's military drills underway near Iran's southern waters.

IRGC announced on Saturday that the country started "Hamiane Velayat" (supporters of Velayat) military drills in southern Iran.

"The national police in coordination with NATO-led forces discovered a weapon cache containing 150 pieces of anti-tank mines in Khawja Dad village of Musa Qala district on Saturday and defused on the place,"the press release said.

No security personnel or civilians had been hurt during the operation, it added.

Berlin is experiencing the coldest conditions seen this winter, with flurries of snow and a temperature of minus 15 degrees Celsius on Sunday, as the cold snap that has swept across Europe continues to cause deaths and traffic disruption. However, warmer temperatures are unlikely in the coming days, according to the German Weather Service.

Pigeons sit on top of a frozen fountain in Munich Feb 5, 2012. Snow and temperatures close to -14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) have hit parts of southern Germany in the last few days. German met office DWD expects the icy high pressure front from northern Russia to last well into next week. [Photo/Agencies]

During the past week, several deaths caused by the cold spell have been reported in Germany, including a homeless man in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt who was found dead on Thursday and an elderly woman in the neighboring state of Lower Saxony that died on Wednesday. A Dutch national went missing after falling through the ice while skating on a lake Friday in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia.

The rigid weather also hampered water transport in Germany in recent days, as authorities cancelled ferry service on the Elbe River in northern Germany.

The death toll from the frigid temperatures and snowfall across Europe has risen to more than 260, local media reported, as the severe cold continues to freeze the continent.

A race steward checks motorbikes covered with snow, few hours before the start of the "Enduropale" motorcycle endurance race, on the beach of Le Touquet, France, Feb 5, 2012. About 1,000 motorbike and 500 quad bike riders gather in Le Touquet every year for the event. [Photo/Agencies]

A worker clears the entrance of the a hotel in Le Touquet, northern France, after heavy snowfall Feb 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Pigeons sit on top of a frozen fountain in Munich Feb 5, 2012. Snow and temperatures close to -14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) have hit parts of southern Germany in the last few days. German met office DWD expects the icy high pressure front from northern Russia to last well into next week. [Photo/Agencies]

A man rides his bicycle past a jogger in the freshly-fallen snow in Vertou in France as sub-freezing winter temperatures continue in Europe, Feb 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A children is pulled through the snow on a dog-sled in Vertou in France as sub-freezing winter temperatures continue in Europe Feb 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A woman looks at a frozen pond in Vertou as sub-freezing winter temperatures continue in Europe Fe 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A man walks in freshly-fallen snow in Vertou in France as sub-freezing winter temperatures continue in Europe, Feb 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Stable girl Emily Keogh leads a horse out to a field at a livery in Henton, southern England Feb 5, 2012. Heavy snow fell in some areas of Britain overnight, causing road closures and flight cancellations, and the Met Office warned of icy conditions, local media reported. [Photo/Agencies]

"A car bomb carried out by the enemies and hit Kandahar city at noon time today claimed the lives of seven people including two civilians and five policemen," the statement said.

Nineteen more people including six policemen and 13 civilians were injured in the blast, it added.

A child is also among those killed in the blast, the statement said, adding two women and three children are among the injured.

The statement blamed the attack on enemies of peace, a term used by Afghan officials for Taliban militants. However, the outfits fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan have yet to make comment.

Meanwhile, talking to journalists, governor of Kandahar province Tooryali Weesa strongly condemned the attack, calling it "coward, un-Islamic and inhuman."

Kandahar, the birthplace and the former stronghold of Taliban militants, has been the scene of increasing violent incidents over the past few years.

Australia Capital Territory (ACT) Police received an emergency call about 9:35 pm Saturday. A number of men forced their way into the Syrian embassy compound in  Canberra suburb of O'Malley. The embassy's front doors were damaged and three front windows were smashed. Attackers have not been identified, said a police report.

An investigation was underway. "It's very difficult to ascertain how many people (were involved). We don't have a number at this stage," a ACT police spokesman said.

None of the staff members was assaulted, he added.

The Australian Federal Police has tightened security around the embassy area.

The incident occurred following similar attacks on Syrian embassies in Europe and the Middle East.

Xie Jinbiao remembers one of the defining moments of his secondary school days. "I wasn't a good student. I was OK in year one and two, but then I took up smoking, drinking and playing up," Xie says.

Xie Jinbiao, the owner of a panda-themed shop in London, takes Hello Kitty as a role model for his Ho-Panda. Zhang Chunyan / China Daily

"I caused the biggest melee in the history of my school - dozens of boys and girls from four classes ended up fighting each other just outside the dormitories. It was total chaos."

Xie, 26, is originally from Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Sipping a bottle of beer and wearing a luxury Longines watch, Xie recalls how he found many of his schoolmates either having gone to prison or "getting on the way there" when he went back to China last year.

He might have been one of them if his father had not insisted on sending him abroad after just one year in high school.

Instead, Xie is now a prominent post-1980s Chinese businessman who runs what is considered the only panda-themed toy and souvenir store of its kind in London. He has become the proverbial prodigal son, someone the Chinese describe as "more precious than gold".

Xie's Ho-Panda store is in London Trocadero, an entertainment complex and shopping center in London's Piccadilly Circus area.

Opened in November 2010, the 40-square-meter store now sells more than 900 items, including mobile phone accessories, key rings, notebooks, mugs, T-shirts and, mainly, plush toy pandas of different sizes. It is possibly the only panda-themed shop run by a Chinese in Britain.

Xie is not just the boss, but also the oldest staff member. He employs eight other people - two are locals and the rest are Chinese students working part time. The youngest is 17.

"Our customers are mainly tourists, especially those from the Middle East," Xie says as he packs a small plush toy panda for a little girl.

Christmas was a great time for Xie. Apart from the sales season and holidays, there has also been a panda fever across Britain generated by the arrival of two pandas at the Edinburgh Zoo, on a 10-year loan from the Chinese government.

Tian Tian and Yang Guang are receiving hundreds of visitors every day at the zoo. A total of 10,000 tickets have already been reserved until the end of this month to see the pandas, according to the zoo.

The BBC even included Tian Tian as its "female face" for December nationwide in an online feature, causing some controversy across the country.

But this is all good news for Xie, who says the panda fever has boosted sales at his shop. He has also received quite a few interview requests from local media to feature stories on his business.

But Xie says his shop, which cost him about 2 million yuan ($317,000) to launch, isn't yet in the black.

"We make some profit in good months, but lose money in bad ones," Xie says, adding that a short-term profit is not the most important thing for him as he cares more about the future. He points to Hello Kitty, a Japanese cartoon character many will recognize as a white bobtail cat with a red ribbon from the 1970s, as a role model and target for Ho-Panda.

"I have my shop and logo now. Next, I hope to make it a famous panda brand, a name card for Sichuan (where pandas are originally from), and China," Xie says.

Ho-Panda started out with some difficulties. When it opened last fall it was not even in a proper shop - selling a little over 100 items from a stall. "The size of the stall was only one-seventh of my shop today," Xie says.

He had no employees at that time. So he and his wife did everything from decorating the shop to cleaning up after closing time, with the help of one friend. Xie says none of them had seen a real panda.

At the start, sales were disastrous. Feeling the pinch, Xie went back to China last April, five months after his shop opened. During the trip, he spent most of the time traveling, visiting successful panda-themed toy and souvenir shops and manufacturers in East China.

Into its third year, Ho-Panda has become a well-known brand, at least in London's Chinatown area, five minutes' walk from the shop.

He says he had never imagined he would be doing all this today, since he could hardly speak English when he first arrived in Britain more than eight years ago.

Now the master's graduate from Brunel University faces more difficult situations and tougher questions from the occasional "unfriendly shopper".

One of the toughest questions posed to him was: "Were your products made by child labor?"

Xie says all the items in his shop are carefully selected from quality manufacturers. Xie got one of his local employees, a British girl, to answer the question.

"It won't work if I, as a Chinese, explain. But if I have a local person do it, once is enough," Xie says.

Profit is also not his only or top priority. He says, joking, that he is a "civilian" promoter of Chinese soft power. "It took Hello Kitty decades to reach its influence today," he says. "How long do you think it will take me?"

You can contact the writer at zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn.

After all polls closed in the Western state, major US television networks including CNN, Fox and MSNBC projected the former Massachusetts governor winner in the state, gaining a commanding lead with over 40 percent of projected support.

US Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney shakes hands with supporters while giving a speech at his Nevada caucus night rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, Feb 4, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

In his victory speech to supporters, Romney used his front runner status to cement a nominee-in-waiting image, hammering President Barack Obama for leading the country in the wrong direction, touting himself as the right man to lead the country back to greatness.

"This is not the first time you've given me your vote of confidence, and this time I'm going to take it to the White House, " said Romney.

Behind Romney, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul were battling for the second place with about 20 percent of projected support each. That race remained too close to call.

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, stayed a distant fourth with about 10 percent of projected support. The full tally is not expected before late into the night.

The win came four days after a crushing victory for Romney in Florida.

Nevada's big Mormon population seemed to benefit him. About one fourth of Republican caucus goers in Nevada are Mormons. Santorum said Nevada is Romney's "home court."

Nevada has one of the highest unemployment in the country, and it is also one of the hardest hit in the housing bubble bust. Romney's experience in the private economy is seen as an asset there.

There are 28 delegates at stake in Nevada caucuses. The state allocates its delegates proportionally.

The Paramount Pictures-distributed movie, director Gore Verbinski's first animated film, took home top prizes including Best Animated Feature, Member's Favorite Award, Writing and Character Design in a Feature Production.

Craig Wood, the editor on "Rango," nabbed the inaugural Annie Awards for editing, which was also handed out at a ceremony held at the UCLA's Royce Hall and hosted by comedian Patton Oswald.

Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin," which failed to win a nomination for the 84th Academy Awards to be presented on February 26, won two Annie Awards - best music and animated effects.

Top-grossing feature "Kung Fu Panda 2," which led the field with 12 nods, tied with a pair of awards. The film's director Jennifer Yuh Nelson walked away with Directing in a Feature Production and Raymond Zibach took Production Design.

"Rango" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" are both nominated for the Oscar best animated feature, along with Annie nominees "Puss in Boots," "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico & Rita."

"Acting on intelligence report, police raided a hideout in Haqtash village of Khanabad district last night and killed a Taliban commander, namely Qari Bashir on the spot," said Syed Sarwar Hussaini, police spokesman in the province.

A number of arms and ammunitions, including explosives, were also seized during the operation, he said, adding there were no casualties on policemen and civilians.

Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops have yet to make any comment.

People form a human chain to commemorate World Cancer Day at Zocalo Square in Mexico City Feb 4, 2012. 5,298 people formed the chain during the event, according to the organisers. [Photo/Agencies] 

People holding yellow balloons commemorate World Cancer Day at Zocalo Square in Mexico City Feb 4, 2012. 5,298 people formed a human chain during the event, according to the organisers. [Photo/Agencies]

People form a chain of bras along Agua Dulce beach to represent Peruvians uniting in their battle against breast cancer, on World Cancer Day in Lima, Feb 4, 2012. Close to 220 bras were used in the event. [Photo/Agencies]

People form a chain of bras along Agua Dulce beach to represent Peruvians uniting in their battle against breast cancer, on World Cancer Day in Lima, Feb 4, 2012. Close to 220 bras were used in the event. [Photo/Agencies]

People dance under a chain of bras made to represent Peruvians uniting in their battle against breast cancer, on World Cancer Day at Agua Dulce beach in Lima, February 4, 2012. Close to 220 bras were used in the event. [Photo/Agencies]

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

LAS VEGAS - Republican front-runner Mitt Romney cruised to an easy victory in Nevada on Saturday, crushing his three remaining rivals and taking firm command of the party's volatile presidential nominating race.

Romney captured 44 percent of the vote with about 43 percent of precincts counted, taking about a 20-point lead over his closest rivals, former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich and US Representative Ron Paul, who were battling for second place.

The victory was Romney's second in a row and his third in the first five contests in the state-by-state battle to find a Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in November's general election.

It propels Romney into the next contests - in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri on Tuesday - on a huge wave of momentum.

Gingrich held a news conference after the results were announced to head off any speculation that he might put an early end to his campaign.

"I'm not going to withdraw," Gingrich told reporters, repeating his frequent vow to continue his campaign all the way to the nominating convention in Florida in August. "I'm actually pretty happy with where we are."

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, took control of the Nevada contest early after recapturing his front-runner status with a convincing win over Gingrich in Florida last Tuesday.

He benefited from a huge financial and organizational edge in Nevada, which he won with 51 percent of the vote during his failed 2008 presidential bid. With a faltering economy and a big bloc of Mormon voters, the state was friendly terrain for Romney, a Mormon and former head of a private equity firm.

Romney stressed his business background as a cure for the state's ailing economy, which suffers from the country's highest unemployment rate, 12.6 percent in December, and the highest home foreclosure rate.

Entrance polls in Nevada showed that was a persuasive argument, with the economy ranking as the top issue and Romney winning nearly two-thirds of the voters who listed it as their top concern.

"America needs a president who can fix the economy because he understands the economy, and I do and I will," Romney told cheering supporters at a Las Vegas casino hotel, aiming his criticism at Obama and ignoring his Republican rivals.

The entrance polls showed Romney won a wide cross-section of Nevada voters, capturing moderates, conservatives, men, women, Tea Party supporters and those who believed the most important quality in a candidate was the ability to beat Obama.

The police arrived before dawn at McPherson Square, where the protesters have been camping for about four months, and began carrying the tents away from the site. The removal went on for most part of the day.

Heavy police presence were witnessed at the site, with mounted police, helicopter, police in riot gear and even forklifts. Park Police even set up their own tent on the southwest side of McPherson Square, where they investigated items confiscated from the camp. Police said they wanted to make sure items taken from the camp are not hazardous. Some roads near the square were also closed.

The police arrested four people in the early morning, and later arrested two more. "Occupy DC" protesters will still be allowed to protest on McPherson Square. However, they will no longer be allowed to sleep over at the park.

Police handed out a letter to protesters last Monday, warning them about the raid. Protesters had about a week to prepare for the removal of their sleeping supplies, according to the police.

The books, with about 1,000 pages, were the result of Castro's conversation with Cuban journalist Katiuska Blanco, who wrote two other books on Castro "All the Time of Cedars" and "Angel."

The official daily Granma reported the "historic revolutionary leader," 86, stressed he needs to seize the time, because with the aging, his memory runs out and he wants to do his best to do something useful for the next generations.

Asked about his opinion about politics, Castro said, "I prefer old watches, old boots and old glasses, but in politics I prefer everything new."

Castro started in 1956 a guerrilla revolutionary movement, which finally ousted the administration of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.

During his 48-year governance of the island country, he defied US economic sanctions and survived hundreds of attempts against his life.

In 2006, he handed over power to his younger brother Raul Castro, who is the current Cuban president, due to a critical intestinal surgery.

In 2010, he presented autobiography books on his guerrilla life in the Sierra Maestra mountains: "The Strategic Victory" and "The Strategic Counteroffensive," covering the last six months of the war against Batista.

"The secretary-general deeply regrets that the Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution supported by the League of Arab States to bring an early end to the violence and the killing in Syria," said a statement released here by Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky.

The council failed to pass a draft resolution regarding Syria on Saturday, with 13 members voting for the measure, none abstaining, and two, Russia and China, voting against the measure. Russia and China exercised their veto power as permanent members of the council.

"As Syria's crisis deepens, bringing escalating violence and suffering to the Syrian people, the Security Council has lost an opportunity to take unified action that could help end this crisis and forge a peaceful future, with democracy and dignity, for all of the Syrian people," the statement said.

Ban's statement added that the violence that has plagued Syria since protests began against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 should cease.

"All violence and human rights violations, especially those carried out by the Syrian authorities, must end immediately," said the statement. "This is the common yearning of people around the Arab world. The Syrian people deserve no less."

According to the statement, Ban has called for the international community to redouble its efforts to help Syria achieve a nationally-led transition to democracy.

"The United Nations stands ready to step up its efforts to work closely with the League of Arab States and others in the international community to find a peaceful and durable solution which will bring the violence and the killing in Syria to a halt," said the statement.

The Arab-European draft resolution came in accordance with an Arab League (AL) plan which demands a government change in unrest- hit Syria. The draft resolution, tabled by Morocco and backed by the United States and some European powers, received 13 votes in favor.

Taleb Ibrahim, a Syrian political analyst, said that the double veto would usher in a new balance of global power. He said that " the UN will no longer be a tool in the hands of the United States and its allies to pass their military schemes."

The veto would be conducive to restoring peace and stability in Syria and would also save the lives of Syrians, Ibrahim said.

George Gabbour, another analyst, considered the double veto as "a new invitation for all Syrian parties to embark on a dialogue, which is the best solution to the current crisis."

He told Xinhua that "those who reject the dialogue want nothing but more violence and bloodshed."

However, different voices emerged. "This is wrong so long as the draft resolution didn't include any item that would allow foreign military intervention in Syria," Hasan Abdul-Azim, head of the opposition National Coordination Committee, told Xinhua by phone.

"This veto could be explained as a biased stance in favor of the Syrian regime against the Syrian people's demands of freedom and justice," he said.

Another opponent, Loai Hussain, head of the "Building Syria State" party, called the Chinese-Russian veto "unwarranted," suggesting that it came as part of Russia's conflict with the West.

But Hussain also confessed that the Syrian opposition is "fractured," pointing out that the opposition should unify its efforts and conclude a road map to deal with the current administration and prepare for a new transitional phase.

In the UN Security Council on Saturday, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that he vetoed the Arab-European draft resolution as "it sends an unbalanced signal to Syria." He called for an "objective" UN resolution which could "truly help" end the current political crisis in the Middle East country.

For his part, Li Baodong, the Chinese permanent representative to the UN, expressed Beijing's regrets that Moscow's "reasonable" revision proposal on a Syria draft resolution was not taken into account.

"To push through a vote when parties are still seriously divided over the issue will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help resolve the issue," Li said.

Ambassadors of the 15 UN Security Council members met behind closed doors on Saturday morning for an unusual weekend session to consider the Arab-European draft resolution, which backs an AL plan to promote political transition in Syria. The draft was jointly drawn up by Arab states, Britain, France and Germany.

Last Thursday, at the end of the four-hour hard negotiations at the council behind closed doors, sponsors of the draft dropped a specific reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ceding of power.

Russia and China staged double veto on October 4, 2011, against a European draft resolution, which meant to strongly condemn "the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities" and threatened punitive measures against the country.

China's Ambassador Li Baodong (front) votes during a UN Security Council meeting on an Arab-European draft resolution on Syria backing an Arab League plan which demands a regime change in the Middle East country, New York February 4, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China on Saturday joined hands in vetoing an Arab-European draft resolution which backs an Arab League plan to promote a regime change in Syria.

It was the second time since October 2011 that Russia and China used double veto to block a UN Security Council resolution on Syria, which they deemed not the best choice to promote peace in the Middle East country.

The unadopted draft resolution meant to say that the Security Council "fully supports" the January 22 Arab League plan to ask Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, one of the major stumbling blocks in pre-vote consultations which Russia strongly opposed.

The draft also urged efforts to "facilitate a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system ... including through commencing a serious political dialogue between the Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition."

At the unusual weekend council meeting, 13 council members voted in favor of the draft resolution. But, in order to be adopted, a UN draft needs nine votes in favor and no veto by any of the five permanent members of the 15-nation council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Russia-China concerns

Russia and China, two veto-wielding council members who have both been closely following the situation in Syria, used the double veto on the ground that more consultations were needed to achieve a proper settlement of the Syrian issue.

They argued that the co-sponsors, including Arab states and the United States, Britain and France, failed to take into account the reasonable concerns of Russia, which insisted that the draft resolution, tabled by Morocco, be amended.

Hours before the council entered into the scheduled meeting on Saturday morning, with Western powers pushing for a council vote on the draft, Russia circulated an amended resolution which, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "aims to fix two basic problems."

There were "(first,) the imposition of conditions on dialogue, and second, measures must be taken to influence not only the government but also armed groups," Lavrov said at a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, adding that these two issues are "of crucial importance" from the view of Russia.

The co-sponsors of the resolution, however, did not taken into account these concerns.

"The draft resolution that was put to a vote did not adequately reflect the real state of affairs in Syria and has sent an unbalanced signal to the Syrian parties," Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after the vote.

Churkin said that Russia will continue to work for a solution to the crisis in Syria because "bloodshed and violence in Syria has to be ended immediately."

According to Churkin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Mikhail Fradkov, the director of the service for external intelligence of Russia, to travel to Syria on February 7 to meet with Syrian President Bashar al- Assad.

"We believe that intensive efforts of the international community with a view to putting an immediate end to the violence and having a successful beginning and conclusion of an exclusively Syrian political process and withdrawal of the country from this crisis will be continued," said Churkin.

For his part, Li Baodong, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, regretted that the Russian amendments were ignored.

"China supports the revision proposals raised by Russia, and has taken note that Russian Foreign Minister (Sergei Lavrov) will visit Syria next week," Li told the council. "The request for continued consultation on the draft by some council members is reasonable."

"It is regrettable that these reasonable concerns are not taken into account," he said.  "To push through a vote when parties are still seriously divided over the issue will not help maintain the unity and authority of the Security Council, or help resolve the issue."    

"In this context, China voted against the draft resolution," Li said.

International responses

UN Secretary-General voiced his deep regrets over the council's failure to adopt the draft resolution.

"The secretary-general deeply regrets that the Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution supported by the League of Arab States to bring an early end to the violence and the killing in Syria," said a statement released here by Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Morocco's UN envoy, Mohammed Loulichiki, voiced his "deep regret and disappointment," saying that he was "extremely frustrated" by the failure of the resolution.

Furthermore, the United States and France responded to the double veto with fury.

"The United States is disgusted that a couple of members of this Council continue to prevent us from fulfilling our sole purpose here -- addressing an ever-deepening crisis in Syria and a growing threat to regional peace and security," said US Ambassador Susan Rice.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud said it was "a sad day for the Security Council." France, together with other Western powers, pushed for an early council vote despite strong Russian calls for more consultations to amend the draft.

Syria, which has all along voiced strong opposition to any foreign intervention in its internal affairs, on Saturday reiterated that Damascus prefers to see a political settlement within Syrians themselves and the Arab family.

"Given our firm belief in the Pan-Arab role, we had hoped that the examination of the question of Syria first exclusively in the Syrian household and then in the larger, supporting Arab structure, " Syria's permanent representative to the UN Bashar Jafaari told the Security Council.

"But the rush by some parties to invite international intervention, which we know in advance the objectives of its dealing with Arab issues, first and foremost the question of Palestine and the Israeli occupation of Arab territories is a cause for concern," he added

About ten armed men put the explosives under the pipeline, west of Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula and bombed it at around 1 a.m. on Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday), said the source. The explosion caused a blaze as there was gas in the pipeline.

A Xinhua reporter, who lives in Arish town, said he heard a big explosion and saw high flames at the site, about 10 km from his house.

No casualties were reported in the explosion.

This was the 12th explosion targeting the pipeline since February 2011.

Prior to the repeated explosions of the pipeline, Egypt provided 80 percent of Jordan's natural gas for power and about 40 percent of Israel's for the same purpose.

Xie Jinbiao remembers one of the defining moments of his secondary school days. "I wasn't a good student. I was OK in year one and two, but then I took up smoking, drinking and playing up," Xie says.

Xie Jinbiao, the owner of a panda-themed shop in London, takes Hello Kitty as a role model for his Ho-Panda. Zhang Chunyan / China Daily

"I caused the biggest melee in the history of my school - dozens of boys and girls from four classes ended up fighting each other just outside the dormitories. It was total chaos."

Xie, 26, is originally from Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Sipping a bottle of beer and wearing a luxury Longines watch, Xie recalls how he found many of his schoolmates either having gone to prison or "getting on the way there" when he went back to China last year.

He might have been one of them if his father had not insisted on sending him abroad after just one year in high school.

Instead, Xie is now a prominent post-1980s Chinese businessman who runs what is considered the only panda-themed toy and souvenir store of its kind in London. He has become the proverbial prodigal son, someone the Chinese describe as "more precious than gold".

Xie's Ho-Panda store is in London Trocadero, an entertainment complex and shopping center in London's Piccadilly Circus area.

Opened in November 2010, the 40-square-meter store now sells more than 900 items, including mobile phone accessories, key rings, notebooks, mugs, T-shirts and, mainly, plush toy pandas of different sizes. It is possibly the only panda-themed shop run by a Chinese in Britain.

Xie is not just the boss, but also the oldest staff member. He employs eight other people - two are locals and the rest are Chinese students working part time. The youngest is 17.

"Our customers are mainly tourists, especially those from the Middle East," Xie says as he packs a small plush toy panda for a little girl.

Christmas was a great time for Xie. Apart from the sales season and holidays, there has also been a panda fever across Britain generated by the arrival of two pandas at the Edinburgh Zoo, on a 10-year loan from the Chinese government.

Tian Tian and Yang Guang are receiving hundreds of visitors every day at the zoo. A total of 10,000 tickets have already been reserved until the end of this month to see the pandas, according to the zoo.

The BBC even included Tian Tian as its "female face" for December nationwide in an online feature, causing some controversy across the country.

But this is all good news for Xie, who says the panda fever has boosted sales at his shop. He has also received quite a few interview requests from local media to feature stories on his business.

But Xie says his shop, which cost him about 2 million yuan ($317,000) to launch, isn't yet in the black.

"We make some profit in good months, but lose money in bad ones," Xie says, adding that a short-term profit is not the most important thing for him as he cares more about the future. He points to Hello Kitty, a Japanese cartoon character many will recognize as a white bobtail cat with a red ribbon from the 1970s, as a role model and target for Ho-Panda.

"I have my shop and logo now. Next, I hope to make it a famous panda brand, a name card for Sichuan (where pandas are originally from), and China," Xie says.

Ho-Panda started out with some difficulties. When it opened last fall it was not even in a proper shop - selling a little over 100 items from a stall. "The size of the stall was only one-seventh of my shop today," Xie says.

He had no employees at that time. So he and his wife did everything from decorating the shop to cleaning up after closing time, with the help of one friend. Xie says none of them had seen a real panda.

At the start, sales were disastrous. Feeling the pinch, Xie went back to China last April, five months after his shop opened. During the trip, he spent most of the time traveling, visiting successful panda-themed toy and souvenir shops and manufacturers in East China.

Into its third year, Ho-Panda has become a well-known brand, at least in London's Chinatown area, five minutes' walk from the shop.

He says he had never imagined he would be doing all this today, since he could hardly speak English when he first arrived in Britain more than eight years ago.

Now the master's graduate from Brunel University faces more difficult situations and tougher questions from the occasional "unfriendly shopper".

One of the toughest questions posed to him was: "Were your products made by child labor?"

Xie says all the items in his shop are carefully selected from quality manufacturers. Xie got one of his local employees, a British girl, to answer the question.

"It won't work if I, as a Chinese, explain. But if I have a local person do it, once is enough," Xie says.

Profit is also not his only or top priority. He says, joking, that he is a "civilian" promoter of Chinese soft power. "It took Hello Kitty decades to reach its influence today," he says. "How long do you think it will take me?"

You can contact the writer at zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn.

A fisherman waits for a catch in steam from an industrial outlet in the River Moscow in temperatures around minus 20 degree Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow Feb 3, 2012. Russia is experiencing a cold weather spell that has spread across western Europe, disrupting transport and claiming over 130 lives. [Photo/Agencies]

Snowflakes collect on a girl's face in Inner Mongolia. [Photo/Xinhua]

A young woman peers through a bus window in frigid Serbia. [Photo/Xinhua]

The scenes repeated across the Northern Hemisphere as severe cold winter swept many regions, with warnings of more cold weather to come.

A vicious cold snap has claimed over 250 lives across Europe. Ukraine has suffered the heaviest toll of 122 deaths, including many people who froze to death in the streets, as temperatures plunged to as low as minus 38 C. Nine Romanian children were taken into care after a baby died in an unheated house on Friday.

Japan also experienced record low temperatures.

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi on Saturday called on the EU states to review their decision on the oil embargo on Iran.

He made the remarks referring to the recent EU endorsement of the latest restrictive sanction measures on Iran's oil exports adopted by the EU foreign ministers on January 23.

He said that EU states' oil imports from the Islamic republic is not significant and it "just" comprises 18 percent of its total oil exports.

"Generally, sanctioning Iran's oil is not a practical option since it will have a significant impact on the (energy prices) in the market ... and the prices will rise dramatically," said the minister during a press conference.

Late in January, Qasemi said that according to the Iranian Oil Ministry's future plans, "we will cut our exports to certain countries" in response to EU's recent oil embargo against Iran.

On Saturday, Qasemi said that Iran will not retreat from its position even if it cannot sell a drop of oil.

Qasemi said that "Because of political and propaganda pressures, we will not give in or retreat from right position even if we cannot sell a drop of oil."

The Western countries, especially the United States, are thinking that under the pressures Iran will surrender, but Iran, by no means, will give up its inalienable rights of advancing with technology, said the Iranian minister, adding that it is better for them to cooperate with Iran.

Qasemi said that Iran will definitely stop its oil exports to certain European countries, but he did not identify the countries.

Asked about the possibility of closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the Islamic Republic, he said that Iran is not after creating tensions. In the meantime, he added that the Oil Ministry is not dealing with political issues.

Qasemi on Saturday asked member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) not to compensate for the market shortage if the EU puts an oil embargo on Iran.

In a letter forwarded to Iraq which is holding the rotating presidency of the OPEC, Iran asked the OPEC members to respect other members' interests and obligations and not to increase their output in a compensation for the West's oil embargo on Iran, said Qasemi.

He also called on Saudi Arabia to abide by the agreements in the OPEC and do not raise its production if the allies of the West do not want to buy Iran's oil.

Earlier, Saudi officials announced their readiness to make up for any shortage in the market if Iran's oil exports undergo Western sanctions.  

Iran has already criticized and threatened those countries which might intend to boost their production to meet the energy demands if the West imposes sanctions on Iran's oil.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei dismissed on Friday Western sanctions and warned against the US war threats against the Islamic Republic.

Iran benefits from Western sanctions, Khamenei made the remarks in Tehran when leading the Friday prayers.

In response to Western sanctions on the country, including the recent US and EU embargo on Iran's oil exports, Khamenei said that the sanctions have helped the potentials within the country bloom and prompted the country to grow domestically.

He said that in face of Western sanctions Iran has proved that it "turns to the internal potentials and grows domestically."

A number of Iranian lawmakers told Xinhua Wednesday that Iran's parliament would discuss a delayed plan to cut oil exports to the EU in the following week.

Mohammad Zabeti, said that "The study of the plan to cut oil exports to the EU has been postponed to the next week ... and it is possible that over 50 percent of the lawmakers to vote for it. And the reason why it will gain votes is that Iranian people have always been in favor of dialogue and friendship, but unfortunately the Europeans, following the US steps, in the past years have always behaved in an arrogant manner."    

Also, Seyyed Salman Zaker, a member of Legal and Judiciary Commission of the Iranian parliament, told Xinhua that "National Security (and Foreign Policy) Commission of parliament is pursing the oil exports ban to EU. This plan is very important from the Iranian nation and parliament's point of view. Because the decision that EU makes hurts the Iranian rights."

Another lawmaker, Seyyed Mostafa Zolqadr, a member of Economic Commission of parliament said that "I don't think the Europeans could be able to impose sanctions on Iran because their life has been tied to our oil. If they do like this (slapping sanctions on Iran's oil exports), we will stop our imports from Europe. And if our imports from Europe are stopped, hundreds of their factories, especially from France, will be closed and thousands of their workers will be fired."

On Saturday, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) started a military drill near its southern waters.

The Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said Saturday the country started "Hamiane Velayat" (Supporters of Velayat) drill in southern Iran, the Sepah news website affiliated to the IRGC reported.

Pakpour said that the war game is aimed at keeping and promoting the readiness of IRGC forces to confront any threats.

The report did not specify the accurate location and duration of the drill. However, Iran already announced that its exercises in the southern waters or near the area are aimed at maintaining readiness to confront threats in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz which is an important passage for the oil tankers.

Iran has threatened to close the strait if it cannot sell oil in face of Western oil sanctions.

On Thursday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reaffirmed China believes dialogue and cooperation is the only correct and effective solution to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, and that sanctions will not fundamentally address the problem.

Wen made the remarks when holding a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing.

"China firmly safeguards the international non-proliferation regime and opposes Iran and any of the Mideast countries developing nuclear weapons," said Wen.

The US State Department said on Friday that the United States believes there is still "time and space" for its two-track approach of diplomacy and pressure to work toward the resolution of Iran's controversial nuclear program.

In response to press reports about Israel's imminent strike on Iran, department spokesman Mark Toner said that as "unprecedented" pressure has been placed on Iran, "we believe there's still time and space to pursue diplomacy and to allow the sanctions that are in place ... to take hold."

"These are unprecedented sanctions that I think everyone agrees are having a chilling effect on the Iranian economy," he told reporters at a regular news briefing.

A pro-Putin rally held in western Moscow attracted some 138,000 participants while an opposition rally near the Kremlin gathered about 36,000 people, police said.

Organizers of the opposition rally, however, claimed that more than 120,000 people participated.p   The pro-Putin rally urged opposition organizers not to attempt a Color Revolution in Russia. The opposition in turn demanded "fairness" in the upcoming election.

Putin on Friday thanked the supporters who held rallies for his presidential bid, saying "I share their views."

A high school teacher who only gave his name as Boris told Xinhua that Russians don't want a repeat of the trouble that enveloped the country in the 1990s.

"We just want a stability in the country but not another chaos like the one in the 1990s. I love my country and hope she could become stronger but not divided by 'orange' or 'pink' revolutions, " Boris said.

The opposition on Saturday rallied for the third time in Moscow since December's parliamentary elections, which they claim was tainted by vote fraud that favored Putin's ruling United Russia party.

Business woman Natalia Konashenova told Xinhua that protesters were not unpatriotic but just wanted honest elections and an end to Putin's days in office.

A view of the frozen River Dnieper in an air temperature around minus 18 degree Celsius in snow covered central Kiev, Feb 3, 2012.  [Photo/Agencies]

Ukraine is experiencing the coldest winter in six years, registering overnight temperatures down as low as minus 33 Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit).  

The ministry said that of the 122 people who have died over the past eight days, 78 were found dead on the streets, 32 in their homes and 12 succumbed while receiving medical treatment.  

Many of the victims are homeless people who live rough through the year, according to the ministry. Hundreds of others have been treated in hospital for frostbite and hypothermia.  

Nearly 1,600 people are being given hospital treatment for cold-related ailments, the ministry said.

In the capital, Kiev, which had night temperatures down to minus 20 C, there was a heavy snowfall. Its metro stations have become sanctuaries overnight for the homeless to find warmth.

More than 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country to provide makeshift accommodation and dispense food and drinks to homeless people.

Snow sits on a statue representing the friendship between the Russian and Ukranian people in an air temperature around minus 18 degree Celsius in central Kiev, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

A bird flies past a snow covered statue of Ukrianian poet Taras Shevchenko in an air temperature around minus 18 degree Celsius in central Kiev, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

But he also called on the European Union, which accounted for a quarter of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011, to review its decision last week to bank Iranian oil imports from July 1.

"We will not abandon our just nuclear course, even if we cannot sell one drop of oil," Rostam Qasemi told reporters, according to IRNA.

Tension with the West rose last month when Washington and the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions yet on Iran in a bid to force it to provide more information on its nuclear programme. The measures are aimed at shutting off the second-biggest OPEC oil exporters' sales of crude.  

Qasemi said Iran would cut oil exports to some nations in Europe - he did not specify which - in retaliation for the 27-state EU's decision to stop importing Iranian crude.

"Our oil exports will certainly be cut to some European countries ... We will decide about other European countries later," Qasemi told a news conference, IRNA reported.  

He urged Europe to reconsider its ban, and said the oil market is in balance now but would be thrown into turmoil without Iranian crude supplies.

"Unfortunately the EU has succumbed to America's pressure. I hope they would review their decision on sanctioning Iran's oil exports," Qasemi said.  

"The international crude market will experience turmoil in the absence of Iranian oil with unforeseen consequences on oil prices," he said.

However, analysts say the global oil market would not be greatly affected if Iran were to turn off the oil tap to Europe.

The EU's ban on Iranian oil came after U.S. President Barack Obama signed new sanctions into law on New Year's Eve that would block any institution dealing with Iran's central bank from the U.S. financial system.

If fully implemented, these measures will make it impossible for countries to buy Iranian oil.  

Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival, has promised to make up any shortfall in supply.  

Iranian officials have said sanctions have had no impact on it, while the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened on Friday to retaliate against the West for sanctions.

Qasemi also played down the importance of Europe as a market for its exports.

"We have no problem to find other crude buyers to replace the European countries," he was quoted as saying.  

The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to develop weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear programme. But Iran denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.  

Washington and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the standoff. Iran has warned of firm retaliation if attacked, including targeting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf and closing off the vital oil shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.  

But Qasemi played down the possibility of Iran blocking the crucial waterway.  

"Iran is not after tension, and closure of the Strait is a politically motivated issue," he said.

Cars in Rome unprovided with snow chains or snow tyres were banned from the roads covered by feet of snow, while schools and public offices stayed closed in the capital and other cities to prevent casualties and allow teams of snowplows to clean roads.

Women stand in snow on a road in Rome, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

"The situation inside Rome is under control, but the real problem is the capital being isolated from the outside as highways are blocked," Mayor Gianni Alemanno told Rai state television. He said such an extraordinary snowfall had not occurred since 1985.

The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill remained closed to prevent accidents, Director of the Colosseum Rossella Rea was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

A number of trains were cancelled or delayed, stranding thousands of passengers at stations for hours. In northern Milan, the railway station was temporarily left open in the night to protect tens of clochards from below-zero temperatures, after one of them was found frozen to death.

Bologna and Ancona international airports were temporarily closed, while many flights were grounded or delayed throughout the country.

According to local media reports, many places in the northern hinterland of Rome remained completely isolated and were left without electricity as power lines were cut.

"We are in absolute emergency, with some districts of our town totally submerged by meters of snow," Mayor of the town of Meldola in Emilia Romagna Gian Luca Zattini told Rai.

"Some nearby places remained completely isolated and without electric current, so that emergency teams had to bring medicines to elderly and ill people blocked for hours at their homes," he said.

Temperatures were around 10 degrees below zero in many cities, reaching 30 degrees below zero on Mount Rosa.

In the worst hit regions, such as central Emilia Romagna and Marche, local authorities were running short of salt used to melt the ice and snow.

According to local media, five people were killed in Italy following the wave of bad weather, including a man who was found dead in his car covered in snow in southern Isernia, and an elderly woman who froze to death at night in northern Savona.

According to forecasts, snowfalls will affect the capital also on Saturday.

Because of the bad weather, a number of Italian Serie A and B soccer matches were also cancelled or postponed to later this month.

A man walks in snow in Rome, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Qasemi did not identify the countries but his remarks came after the European Union (EU) leaders endorsed last Monday the latest restrictive sanction measures on Iran's oil exports adopted by the EU foreign ministers on January 23.

During a press conference on Saturday he called on the EU states to review their decision on the oil embargo on Iran, saying that EU states' oil imports from the Islamic republic "just" comprises 18 percent of its total oil exports.

Late in January, Qasemi said that according to the Iranian Oil Ministry's future plans, "we will cut our exports to certain countries" in response to EU's recent oil embargo against Iran.

"Less than 20 percent of Iran's oil exports are destined for Europe" and the EU sanctions will take a heavy toll on the European people, Qasemi said, adding that the embargo would not create a problem for Iran's oil exports even if sales to Europe were halted.

Park rangers, fishermen and residents push a whale into deep water after it was found at the Paracas National Reserve in Pisco, south of Lima February 3, 2012. The whale, which belongs to the Ziphius cavirostris species, is 7 metres (23 ft.) long and weighs 2,500 kg (5,512 lb), according to National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP). It was found by park rangers close to the shore on a beach in Paracas. [Photo/Agencies] 

Rallies also broke out outside Syrian embassies in Britain, Germany and the United States after human rights activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling by government forces in the city of Homs.

In Cairo, embassy official Ammar Mohamed said he had been told by security officials about the overnight attack and arrived at the site to assess the damage. The scene was calm by early morning and Egyptian police were guarding the embassy.

It was the second such attack on the mission. The embassy was broken into last week in another demonstration against President Bashar al-Assad who has turned his army against demonstrators seeking an end to his rule.

Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered at a police station a few streets from the Cairo embassy to demand the release of as many as 11 Syrians and an Egyptian who they said were detained during the protest at the mission.

"God you are so strong, help us secure victory over Bashar," chanted protesters outside the Cairo police station where they said the detainees from the demonstration were taken.

The gate of the embassy in central Cairo was broken and furniture and computers were smashed on the second floor of the building, a Reuters witness said, viewing the site after the attack. Parts of the first floor were burned, he said.

At the United Nations, the Security Council was due to meet later in the day to vote on a European-Arab draft resolution endorsing an Arab League plan calling for Assad to resign.  

In London, more than 100 people hurled stones at the Syrian embassy, smashing windows and shouting slogans, and five people were arrested after trying to break in, according to TV reports.

A live internet stream from the Washington rally showed dozens of people shouting "Syria soon will be free".

Syrians have also held regular protests outside the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, which has suspended Syria's membership, imposed sanctions and sent Arab monitors to Syria to assess whether the government was heeding an Arab peace plan.

The League called on Assad to step aside and hand powers to a deputy to start a dialogue with the opposition. Arab officials travelled to New York to seek UN Security Council backing for the resolution.

Indian disaster response personnel search as onlookers gather around derailed cars of a passenger train following an accident at Sathi Sarapa village near Gauhati, India, Feb 3, 2012. At least three people are confirmed dead while more others are feared killed and over 50 were injured in a train mishap near the northeastern Indian state of Assam's capital Gauhati Friday morning, said witnesses and officials. [Photo/Xinhua] 

Indian disaster response personnel search as onlookers gather around derailed cars of a passenger train following an accident at Sathi Sarapa village near Gauhati, India, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Indian disaster response personnel search as onlookers gather around derailed cars of a passenger train following an accident at Sathi Sarapa village near Gauhati, India, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Indian disaster response personnel search as onlookers gather around derailed cars of a passenger train following an accident at Sathi Sarapa village near Gauhati, India, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Khamenei's defiant speech to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution was the first direct response to tighter sanctions imposed by the West in recent weeks to force Teheran to abandon a nuclear program it says has purely peaceful ends.

"Threatening Iran and attacking Iran will harm America ... Sanctions will not have any impact on our determination to continue our nuclear course ... In response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats to impose at the right time," Khamenei told worshippers in a speech broadcast live on state television.

US media reports said US Defense Secretary Panetta believed there was a growing possibility Israel would attack Iran as early as April to stop it from building a nuclear bomb.

The Washington Post first reported on Thursday that Panetta was concerned about an increased likelihood Israel would launch an attack over the next few months. CNN said it confirmed the report, citing a senior Obama administration official, who declined to be identified.

"Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb," columnist David Ignatius wrote.

"Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon - and only the United States could then stop them militarily," Ignatius wrote.

Panetta and the Pentagon both declined comment on the Post report.

Khamenei said any US military strike against Iran would backfire and that the "painful and crippling" Western sanctions would only increase the resilience of Iran.

"Americans say all options are on the table even the option of military strike (against Iran) ... Any military strike is 10 times more harmful for America. Such threats show that they have no sufficient discourse against Iran's logic and discourse."

Reuters

Pakistan's UN envoy said on Thursday that the council was "two words away" from an agreement, and the council chairman from Togo said a consensus was near on an amended version of a draft backing an Arab League plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

But Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told a closed-door session of the world body that Moscow would veto the draft if it were submitted on Friday with a phrase saying the council "fully supports" the plan, several Western diplomats told Reuters.

European and Arab drafters of the text planned to revise the text in a last-ditch attempt to allay Russian concerns and submit an amended version of the resolution to the council, diplomats said.

Morocco's UN envoy Mohammed Loulichki told reporters after Thursday's council meeting that he would deliver the new draft to the council and seek a vote "as soon as possible".

US Ambassador Susan Rice made clear that the council had once again failed to reach an agreement. "We had what I would characterize as sometimes difficult but ultimately useful discussions," she said. "We're still working. This is not done."

Churkin told reporters that Thursday's inconclusive negotiations were "something of a roller-coaster".

"We have a text which we are going to report to our capitals," he said. He declined to provide details but suggested how Russia might vote remained an open question. He said the fact that the draft could reach the council "does not pre-judge anything in any way".

Colombian Ambassador Nestor Osorio said council members would continue their discussions on Friday.

Submitting what some diplomats say is a final draft resolution does not necessarily mean a vote is imminent and further revisions could follow. France said it expects a vote on Friday, Saturday or Monday at the latest.

Russia has balked at any language that would open to door to "regime change" in Syria.

On Friday, three children were killed when an explosive device planted by unidentified gunmen went off in Syria's northern province of Idlib, according to private al- Ekhbariah TV.

An eyewitness in the area confirmed the blast, saying that he heard a loud explosion in the area.

The Sham FM radio put the death toll of the blast at four civilians, without giving further details. A day earlier, an unidentified group fired a mortar shell which landed near a hospital in Idlib, but no injuries were reported, according to Sham FM.

Reuters-Xinhua

So far, 246 people have been plucked to safety in a joint rescue operation conducted by PNG and neighboring Australia after the MV Rabaul Queen sank on Thursday morning, but scores more are unaccounted for.

The passengers were PNG locals, many of them students studying in Lae, the ship's final destination and home to a large university.

"Updated reports from the five rescue vessels indicate there were approximately 246 survivors recovered on Thursday," Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

"PNG officials are processing the survivors on arrival in Lae."

AMSA, which estimated that the doomed ship went down about 9 km off the coast, said three merchant vessels remained on the scene searching, assisted by two Australian planes and two local helicopters.

But rescue coordinator Captain Nurur Rahman said conditions were tough.

"The winds have picked up and the seas are rough, making it very hard to see anything other than white-cap waves," he said, but added that the sea temperature was warm, "which makes the possible survival times longer".

Another rescue official, Rony Naigu from PNG's National Maritime Safety Authority, was quoted by Australian broadcaster ABC as saying about 100 people were thought to have been trapped inside when the ship went down.

A third maritime official said no new survivors were found on Friday.

A passenger, Philip Batari, had updated his Facebook page during the voyage, saying: "Having a rough time at sea on board Rabaul Queen", posting photos showing wild seas.

His last post read: "Bloody experiencing the worse moment of my life."

It is not clear what happened to him.

PNG's safety authority said that the incident was one of the worst sea accidents involving passengers, adding that "there is concern for the 100-plus passengers who are still unaccounted for".

It said it was impossible to say what caused the ship to sink, but identified "prevailing weather conditions, the age of the vessel and its capability of taking voyage in this kind of weather" as possible factors.

PNG-based Rabaul Shipping, the owner of the vessel, said it lost contact with the MV Rabaul Queen while it was traveling between Kimbe and Lae.

In a statement, it said there were 350 passengers and 12 crew onboard the Japanese-built vessel. Rahman said it was licensed to carry 310.

"We are stunned and utterly devastated by what has happened," Peter Sharp, managing director at Rabaul Shipping, said amid reports that the company's office in Kimbe was pelted with rocks by frustrated relatives of passengers.

Reuters

The harshest winter in decades has seen temperatures in some regions dropping to -30 C and below, and has caused power outages, traffic chaos and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries and airports.

A woman looks out of a window covered in frost on a bus in Bucharest, Romania, on Thursday. [Photo/Agencies]

The stranded in Serbia are stuck in some 6,500 homes in remote areas that cannot be reached due to icy, snow-clogged roads with banks reaching up to 5 meters. Emergency crews were pressing hard to try to clear the snow to deliver badly needed supplies, and helicopters were dispatched to some particularly remote areas in Serbia and neighboring Bosnia.

On Bosnia's Mt Romanija, near Sarajevo, a chopper thumped down in the small hamlet of Ozerkovici, where a single nun lives in a Serb Christian Orthodox monastery surrounded by just a few village residents.

Wrapped tight in a black jacket and a scarf, Sister Justina greeted aid workers at her monastery: "I live alone here," she said, but noted "God will help me".

In Serbia, relief efforts are concentrated on evacuating the sick, on food delivery and gasoline distribution.

"We are trying everything to unblock the roads since more snow and blizzards are expected in the coming days," Serbian emergency police official Predrag Maric said.

He said "the most dramatic" situation is near Serbia's southwestern town of Sijenica, where it has been freezing cold or snowing for 26 days, and diesel fuel supplies used by snowplows are running low.

Newly reported deaths on Thursday included 20 in Ukraine, nine in Poland, eight in Romania, and one more each in Serbia and the Czech Republic.

Martyna, pregnant and unemployed, said she was grateful to find a place there after her family rejected her and her partner.

"This is the only safe place for me, where I can live and hide - from this sudden cold, too," the 22-year-old said. "I have nowhere else to go." She refused to give her last name, saying she didn't want anyone to know she was staying there.

In Japan, heavy snow triggered avalanches, disrupted transport networks and left at least 56 people dead, officials said on Thursday.

In one of the country's coldest winters in recent years, 43 people have died as they removed snow from roofs or roads, while seven more were crushed by heavy loads of snow falling from buildings or other structures, the disaster management agency said.

Some experts have warned that worse days are still ahead.

In particular, Habibullo Ismailovich Abdussamatov, head of the space research laboratory at Russia's Pulkovo Observatory, is convinced that "the next bicentennial cycle of deep cooling with a Little Ice Age" between 2044 and 2066 will start in about three years.

"In the nearest future we will observe a transition (between global warming and global cooling) period of unstable climate changes with the global temperature fluctuating around its maximum value reached in 1998 to 2005," he wrote in the February edition of Applied Physics Research journal.

AP-AFP-China Daily

The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement that the vessels are en route for the western Pacific Ocean as part of a regular training exercise.

"China enjoys legal rights including sailing through international waters, and the naval exercise has conformed to international laws and regulations," the statement said.

According to Kyodo News Agency, four Chinese frigates sailed between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island in southern Japan. Japan's coast guard has its surveillance aircraft and ships on alert and monitoring the situation.

The reported route is expected to go between the two islands through a channel of international waters, which is about 300 km wide.

Osamu Fujimura, Japan's cabinet secretary, said on Friday afternoon that the ships "have yet to enter the territorial waters (of Japan)", and they "have not been confirmed as dangerous or made movements that violate international laws", Japan's Jiji Press News Agency reported.

Experts said Tokyo is "overreacting" and exaggerating the matter.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor of Japanese studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said the channel is "the most convenient route" to the Pacific Ocean for Chinese ships.

"The regular naval drill in the western Pacific Ocean is no harm to Japan's security," Zhou said.

Also on Friday, Beijing expressed strong dissatisfaction over remarks by Japanese senior officials about China's Tianwaitian gas and oil deposit. Liu Weimin, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the country's stance on the East China Sea issue has been clear and consistent.

The deposit is located in undisputed Chinese territorial waters and does not apply to the principles of consensus concerning the East China Sea issue.

The Tianwaitian operation is "justifiable and reasonable", Liu said. He urged Japan to correctly apply the principles of consensus between the two countries.

Japanese media has accused Beijing of "violating the agreements reached by both countries" and "unilaterally developing" the Tianwaitian deposit.

Total US nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, beating economists' expectations of about 150,000.

Private-sector employment grew by 257,000 last month, with governments at all levels trimming 14,000 jobs.

The total number of unemployed people in the nation dropped to 12.8 million in January, said the department.

The unemployment rate declined to a near three-year low since February 2009, an indication that the US economy was on a stronger footing.

The professional and business sector including accounting and consulting services added 70,000 jobs in January, while employment in leisure and hospitality sector rose by 44,000.

In January, health care employment continued to grow by 31,000, while employment in both retail and wholesale trade continued to trend up.

Employment in construction increased by 21,000 in January, following a gain of 31,000 in the previous month.

The daily named sugar trader and owner of world's largest palm oil listed company Wilmar International, Robert Kuok as the richest, with a net worth of 30.28 billion ringgit ($10 billion).

The 89-year-old, the world's 33rd richest man who also holds stakes in Hong Kong-based Shangri-la Hotels beat the second richest, casino mogul Lim Kok Thay by 10 billion ringgit ($3.3 billion ) in net worth.

Lim Kok Thay, who has a net worth of 20.2 billion ringgit ($6.7 billion) inherited the casino operator Genting Group from his late father and company founder Lim Goh Tong, who was once the richest man in the country.

Telecommunication mogul Ananda Krishnan, who owns Malaysia's telecommunications giant Maxis and satellite television Astro was named the third richest with a net worth of 18 billion ringgit ($5.9 billion).

The daily named 82-year-old bank founder Teh Hong Piao, who started Malaysia's Public Bank at the age of 35 as the fourth richest with a net worth of 12.5 billion ringgit ($4.15 billion).

Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, owner of energy-to-property conglomerate MMC Corp. owner and auto-assembler DRB Hicom, was ranked 6th with a net worth of 8.7 billion ringgit ($2.89 billion).

Budget airline AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes was ranked 28th with a net worth of 938 million ringgit ($311.5 million).

Nanyang said the top 10 richest men in the country have a combined net worth of 126.9 billion ringgit ($42.1 billion) and 80 percent of the 40 wealthiest people in the country were ethnic Chinese, most of whom run diversified conglomerates.

The ethnic Chinese make up 22.5 percent of Malaysia's 27.5 million population.

Google said in January it was simplifying its privacy regulations, consolidating 60 guidelines into a single policy that will function across all its services, including YouTube, Gmail and Google+, its social network site.

The Article 29 Working Party, an independent body that brings together data protection authorities from each of the EU's 27 countries and the EU's executive European Commission, said it needed to examine Google's plans more thoroughly before the search group's policy comes into effect on March 1.

"Given the wide range of services you offer, and the popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most or all of the EU member states," the group wrote to Google Chief Executive Larry Page on February 2.

"We wish to check the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data of these citizens in a coordinated way," it said, explaining that France's data protection authority would be in charge of the investigation.

"In light of the above, we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google's commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis."

The European commissioner in charge of data protection, Viviane Reding, welcomed the move, saying it was a necessary to establish that EU data rules were being firmly applied.

"The Commission therefore calls on Europe's data protection authorities to ensure that EU law is fully complied with in Google's new privacy policy," she said in a statement.

Google said the raising of concerns came as a surprise.

"We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to our announcement," said Al Verney, Google's spokesman in Brussels.

"None of them expressed substantial concerns at the time, but of course we're happy to speak with any data protection authority that has questions."

Google's director of public policy has exdplained the new policy as a commitment to simplicity, with the company trying to explain its guidelines far more concisely.

The new policy explains what information Google collects from the millions of people who use its services every day, why the information is collected, how it is used and what choices are then offered to limit how it is accessed and updated.

While Google is not obliged to wait for the conclusion of the Article 29 Working Group's investigation before adopting its new policy, the company has tended in the past to be as cooperative as possible with European authorities.

Security in the isolated desert region has deteriorated since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last February. South Sinai's Red Sea coast is a major tourism hub for Egypt.  

The two tourists were among a party of five travelling from Saint Catherine's monastery in central Sinai to the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh when a vehicle carrying men armed with machineguns stopped their small bus, the sources said.

The gunmen first took all the tourists' money and valuables and then, as an apparent afterthought, grabbed the two women, forced them into their vehicle and fled into the mountains, the security officials said.  

Two army and police search parties had gone into the area to try to track them down, the officials said.  

Bedouin in the Sinai, who complain of neglect and discrimination by the authorities in Cairo, have attacked police stations and blocked access to towns to show their discontent and press for the release of fellow tribesmen from prison.  

Last month, Bedouin seized 50 German and British tourists whose coach accidentally crossed a roadblock they had set up as a protest against the governor of South Sinai.  

Those tourists, who were also on a trip to the monastery, were released a few hours later.

Four armed men also attacked a hotel in an Egyptian Red Sea resort popular with Israeli holidaymakers last month before fleeing when police returned fire.  

Riot police stand guard as soccer fans chant anti-ministry of interior slogans during a protest condemning the death that happened on Wednesday at Port Said stadium, near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, in front of the parliament in Cairo February 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO - Egyptian Health Ministry said Friday that some 1,482 were wounded in clashes that erupted Thursday night between police and protesters near the Interior Ministry building in central Cairo.

The ministry said 835 of the injured were treated on the spot, while the other 647 were sent to hospitals, according to official MENA news agency.

During the clashes, the security forces fired tear gas canisters to prevent the crowds from reaching the building.

A new wave of protests has hit several areas of Egypt. In Suez, two people died and dozens were injured after protests erupted outside the provincial government institutions.

Local security authorities said thugs should be blamed for the clashes.

The protests were triggered by a riot of football fans in Egypt's Port Said Stadium after a match on Wednesday night, in which 74 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Protesters chant anti-government slogans during a protest condemning the death of soccer fans at Port Said stadium, near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, February 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Khamenei made the remarks in Tehran when leading the Friday prayers that was broadcast live by the state TV.

"Threats of war (against Iran) is for the loss of the US and the war itself is ten times for the loss of the US," he said.

Referring to the military threats and sanction threats by certain Western countries over Iran's controversial nuclear program, Khamenei said that the United States and other Western countries should know that Iran also has "threats to make, which will be made in its due time."

The Iranian leader said that his country will not step back in the face of the Western sanction threats. These sanctions will be fired back by the Islamic republic, he added.

Sony's incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai (L) and current CEO Howard Stringer take part in a news conference in Tokyo Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The new management may aim to save the company's TV business from losing. At the same press conference, Sony Corp. released its earning report for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2011.

The electronics maker lowered down the earnings revisions of this fiscal year for the more-than-expected huge loss on TV.

Hirai has settled down four goals for Sony in the next fiscal year, including to strengthen the core electronics business, to accelerate the innovation to create new business and to turn around the TV business to bring Sony back on track.

Stringer, the current chairman, CEO and president, who recommended Hirai to the Sony Board of Directors as new generation management, will continue his chairman job until his ascension to the board chairmanship in June.

"It's a heavy responsibility under such a hard situation," Hirai, the youngest Sony president to be aside from co-founders, told the press conference.

Hirai also mentioned about considering cooperation with other companies and vowed to build a strong future for customers, shareholders, partners and employees.

Sony's incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai (L) and current CEO Howard Stringer take part in a news conference in Tokyo Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Sony's incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai takes part in a news conference in Tokyo Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Protesters chant anti-government slogans during a protest condemning the death of soccer fans at Port Said stadium, near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, February 2, 2012. Egyptians incensed by the deaths of 74 people in soccer violence staged protests in central Cairo on Thursday as the army-led government came under fire for failing to prevent the deadliest incident since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. [Photo/Agencies]

Two were killed and 30 others injured in a shooting that occurred from Thursday evening until early Friday in Suez, official MENA news agency reported.

Local security authorities claimed that outlaws should be blamed for the deaths, the report said.

Meanwhile, 628 people were injured in clashes between police and protestors near the Interior Ministry building in Cairo on Thursday night. The police used tear gas canisters to prevent the crowds from reaching the building.

At least 74 people were killed and hundreds injured in a riot of football fans in Egypt's Port Said Stadium after a match on Wednesday night. The country declared a three-day mourning from Thursday to Saturday.

Ukraine is experiencing the coldest winter in six years, with overnight temperatures sinking as low as minus 33 Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit).

The ministry said that of the 101 people who have died over the past seven days, 64 were found dead on the streets, 26 in their homes and 11 died while receiving medical care.

Most of the victims were homeless people who live rough most of the year, according to the ministry. Hundreds of others have been treated in hospital for frostbite, hypothermia and other cold-related ailments.

About 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country to provide makeshift accommodation and dispense food and drinks to homeless people.

The Asahi daily said that Tokyo could in the fiscal year starting in April sign up to the US-led plan, under which countries would pay money into a shared fund they could draw on if they suffered a nuclear accident.

The government has decided to join after an earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the country's northeast, triggering power shortages and radiation leaks that caused mass evacuations and widespread contamination. It had previously resisted, arguing that nuclear accidents were highly unlikely in the country, the paper said.  

If damage claims exceeded 37 billion yen ($486 million) after a nuclear accident in another member country, Japan would be on the hook for around 7-8 billion yen, the Asahi reported, without citing sources.

Morocco, Romania and Argentina have already joined the scheme, dubbed the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, which also lays out legal guidelines for compensation claims related to atomic disasters.

Under the agreement, firms that export nuclear plant technology to member countries would not be liable for claims related to any accidents at facilities using the equipment, with the operator forced to shoulder the burden.

The treaty needs at least five states that have a minimum of 400,000 megawatts of combined nuclear capacity to go into effect, and the United States had asked Japan join, the Asahi said.

With only three of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors currently running, the government is striving to persuade a wary public that it is safe to restart some of the reactors, in order to avoid a power crunch in the summer.

The findings, based on a study of thousands of people and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, do not prove that smoking causes psoriasis in some people -- but it is clear the smoking came before the skin condition, said senior researcher Abrar Qureshi.

"I think if there's one message, it's that for now, smoking seems to be a risk factor for new-onset psoriasis," added Qureshi, at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.  

Experts believe psoriasis is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the body's own cells, and some studies have suggested that smokers are more vulnerable, possibly because smoking can affect immune activity.

But most research has looked at people only at one point in time, which makes it hard to be sure the smoking came before the psoriasis.

For the current study, researchers used data from three large, long-running studies of US health professionals, following nearly 186,000 men and women for 12 to 20 years.

Of those, 2,410 developed psoriasis during that time.

People who were current smokers at the study's start were almost twice as likely as lifelong non-smokers to develop psoriasis. Past smokers had a 39 percent higher risk than non-smokers.

Past studies have found links between psoriasis and both obesity and heavy drinking, but even after accounting for those factors, the smoking-psoriasis link remained, Qureshi told Reuters Health.

Other studies have pointed to some reasons that smoking could contribute to psoriasis, mainly due to its effects on immune system activity and inflammation. Smokers, for instance, tend to have higher levels of "autoantibodies" -- immune defenses that are mistakenly aimed at the body's own cells.

About 7.5 million people in the United States have psoriasis, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Type 1 psoriasis arises in teenagers and young adults, and is strongly related to family history of the disease, while type 2 arises later in life and tends to be milder.

Qureshi said the current findings don't speak directly to whether quitting smoking will help people who already have psoriasis.

But since psoriasis patients have been shown to have an increased risk of heart disease, and smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease, quitting smoking seems especially important for them, Qureshi added.

Israel Defence minister Ehud Barak delivers his speech at the Herzliya Conference in Herzliya near Tel Aviv February 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

JERUSALEM - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that if sanctions on Iran do not prove effective, Israel will consider initiating military action to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

"Should sanctions fail to stop Iran's nuclear program, there will be a need to consider taking action," Barak said.

Addressing the public at the closing of the Herzliya Conference, Barak noted that Israel is willing to take action before it is " too late."

"There is widespread international belief that it is vital to prevent Iran from turning 'nuclear' and that no option should be taken off the table," he said.

Barak noted the need for action before Tehran reaches nuclear capacity, which Iran insists is only for civilian purposes, in order to prevent Iran from becoming a global menace, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported.

"Whoever says 'later', could find that it is too late," Barak said.

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon also warned on Thursday against the consequences of an "nuclear Iran", stressing that it could be a "nightmare to the free world."

However, Ya'alon, who is also the Israeli strategic affairs minister and former Israel Defense Force chief of staff, said that the West could carry out a military strike against any of Iran's nuclear facilities.

"Any facility defended by a human being can be penetrated," he said, "Any facility in Iran can be hit, and I speak from experience as the IDF chief of staff."

Earlier Thursday, Israel's director of military intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, told the Herzliya conference that Iran is prepared now to produce nuclear bombs.

Brussels' famous Manneken-Pis statue is seen in central Brussels Feb 2, 2012. The Manneken-Pis, a bronze statue of a young boy urinating that is a symbol of Brussels and a major tourist attraction, has had to stop peeing because of sub-zero temperatures, Belgium's tourist office said on Wednesday.[Photo/Agencies]

A tourist poses for a photograph in front of Brussels' famous Manneken-Pis statue in central Brussels Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Life rafts carrying survivors float on rough waters after the MV Rabaul Queen ferry sank off Papua New Guinea Feb 2, 2012. About 100 people are feared trapped inside a ferry that sank in rough weather off Papua New Guinea, a rescue official said on Friday, a day after the crowded boat went down with about 350 people on board. [Photo/Agencies]

SYDNEY - The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Friday almost 250 survivors had been rescued after a ferry sank off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Thursday.

AMSA said updated reports from the five vessels with survivors on board indicated that there were about 246 survivors recovered on Thursday.

It said the five ships carried the survivors to the town of Lae in PNG on Thursday night.

Four AMSA search and rescue personnel arrived in Lae on Thursday evening to provide further assistance to the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC), AMSA said.

Rony Naigu, a rescue official from PNG's maritime safety authority, said on Friday that about 100 people were believed to have been trapped inside the MV Rabaul Queen when it was hit by three large waves and sank off the PNG's coast.

Earlier on Friday, Rabaul Shipping Company, the owner of the sunken ferry, confirmed there were 350 people and 12 crew members on board.

Three ships, two helicopters and two planes sent from Australia are continuing the search for survivors.

AMSA said it continued to provide assistance to the PNG Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC).

"AMSA and the Australian Government Crisis Coordination Center are working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby," AMSA said in an incident update published on its website on Friday.

The spacecraft, named Navid (Herald), weighs 50 kilograms and can take pictures in low attitudes of about 250 to 375 km from the Earth, it said.

The satellite was completely designed and built by Iranian experts at the Science and Technology University in Tehran, Mohammadsaeid Jabalameli, head of the university, was quoted as saying.

Iran, a founding member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, launched its first domestically-made data-processing satellite, the Omid (Hope) into space in 2009.

African and Brazilian immigrants in Argentina take part in a ceremony praying for blessings from the god of water along La Plata river in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Xinhua]

African and Brazilian immigrants in Argentina take part in a ceremony praying for blessings from the god of water along La Plata river in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Xinhua]

African and Brazilian immigrants in Argentina take part in a ceremony praying for blessings from the god of water along La Plata river in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Xinhua]

African and Brazilian immigrants in Argentina take part in a ceremony praying for blessings from the god of water along La Plata river in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Xinhua]

African and Brazilian immigrants in Argentina take part in a ceremony praying for blessings from the god of water along La Plata river in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Xinhua]

Flood waters are seen near the town of Moree, some 610 Km (379 miles) north of Sydney Feb 3, 2012. An Australian military aircraft on Friday was due to deliver needed supplies to a flood-stricken town hit by the worst of summer flooding in eastern parts of the country, with coal mining and agriculture also affected.[Photo/Agencies]

Flood waters are seen near the town of Moree, some 610 Km (379 miles) north of Sydney Feb 3, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Locals walk through flood waters in Moree, some 610 km (379 miles) north of Sydney Feb 3, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The fisherman, Zhong Jinyin, boarded a flight of China Eastern Airlines and left Japan around 13:00 pm local time (0400 GMT), the officials at the Chinese Consulate-General in Nagasaki told Xinhua.

Zhong was sentenced to six months in prison, which was suspended for three years by a local court on January 31.

The fisherman was the captain of a fishing boat that was found carrying out operation in Japanese territorial waters off Goto Islands in southwestern Nagasaki Prefecture by local coast guards.

Zhong was taken to the coast guard office in the city of Nagasaki on December 20 and had been detained there since.

The other 10 crew members on board were brought to the city on the following day. They were released on December 29.

The local court ruled that the fisherman offended the country's fishing order by operating illegally in Japanese territorial waters for coral. Zhong accepted the ruling.

The Chinese consulate-general said it had urged the Japanese authorities to ensure the safety of the Chinese fishermen and make sure their legal rights be protected throughout the case.

The epicenter, with a depth of 30 km, was initially determined to be at 17.4 degrees south latitude and 167.3 degrees east longitude, the center said.

Riot police stand guard as soccer fans chant anti-ministry of interior slogans during a protest condemning the death that happened on Wednesday at Port Said stadium, near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, in front of the parliament in Cairo, Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Attorney General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud and his two aides on Thursday inspected the Port Said Stadium, the scene of the clashes between fans of two rival teams on Wednesday night upon the end of a premier league match, the official MENA news agency reported.

The top prosecutor ordered TV satellite channels or individuals who shot the match hand over their video tapes, the report added.

The Interior Ministry said 47 people have been arrested after the riot.

Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council, has ordered the formation of a fact-finding committee to probe the clashes in the Port Said Stadium. He said police should be responsible for the security of games.

Meanwhile, new clashes between Egyptian riot police and protestors in Cairo have left 388 people injured on Thursday night, state TV reported.

Security forces fired tear gas at protestors to prevent them from reaching the Interior Ministry building near Tahrir Square. The protestors chanted slogans against police and held them accountable for allowing fans to enter the stadium with sticks and knives.

On Friday, a big rally is called for in Cairo, which makes the country face fresh protests due to the latest violent event.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) announced a three-day national mourning over the incident from Thursday to Saturday.

The military council held an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss the handling of the most tragic event in the country's soccer history.

The military also condemned the criticism against them after the riot occurred.

Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri on Thursday sacked Port Said Governor Mohamed Abdel Hashem. Provincial security chief Essam Samak and the board of the Egyptian Football Association were also fired.

At an emergency session of the People's Assembly (lower house of parliament) over the riot, Ganzouri extended deep condolences to the Egyptian people over the incident. He said he shouldered the political responsibility for the violence and was ready to face any investigation.

Blood is seen on a chair one day after supporters clashed at the Port Said stadium, Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

On Wednesday night, fans rushed to the Port Said Stadium field where el-Masry, a Port Said team, beat the most popular national team el-Ahly three to one.

Many fans entered the stadium with sticks in their hands and supporters of the two rival teams started fighting each other. Two Ahly players are reportedly slightly injured in the clash.

The riot was caused by some insulting posters carried by the Ahly fans, Nile TV reported.

SCAF chief Hussein Tantawi ordered two military helicopters to Port Said to transfer the players, fans and the injured to the capital Cairo.

The premier league has been postponed indefinitely due to the incident.

Mohammed AlBaradei, former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, denounced the incident on his twitter account, saying all security bodies in Egypt should be restructured and any delay in this regard is "a betrayal to the nation".

Egypt's Stock Exchange suffered heavy losses on Thursday, due to the impact of the Port Said soccer riot. Benchmark EGX 30 index fell 4.6 percent.

People pray as others wait for the arrival of those wounded in clashes in Port Said stadium, at Ramses metro station in Cairo early, Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Protesters chant anti-government slogans during a protest condemning the death of soccer fans at Port Said stadium, near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Key called for more investment between the two nations and said New Zealand was on track to doubling its two-way trade with China to 20 billion NZ dollars ($17 billion) by 2015 at the launch of NZ Inc China Strategy,

"We have a strong relationship with China and have seen good growth in trade over the past few years. The launch of the strategy today will help further strengthen that relationship," Key said.

"The goal of doubling two-way trade from 10 billion NZ dollars to 20 billion NZ dollars by 2015 was agreed when I visited Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2010."

"We are on track to meet that goal. Bilateral trade in the year to last September was up 22 percent on the year before, largely helped by the Free Trade Agreement that came into force in late 2008," Key added.

New Zealand was the first, and is still the only Western economy, that has a free trade agreement in place with China. It is also the first time for New Zealand to launch a China Strategy.

Setting out ambitious medium-term goals with China

Key said New Zealand's China Strategy launched on Friday sets out ambitious medium- term goals and provides a clear direction for the whole of government effort over a five year period.

"Trade with China is one of the success stories of the New Zealand export sector over the past decade or so. China is also New Zealand's largest source of foreign students, and our fourth biggest tourist market and we plan to develop these areas further. "

The strength of the relationship with China is underpinned by the Chinese communities in New Zealand, which number more than 147, 000 and are still growing.

Key said it is fitting that the China Strategy is being launched at the beginning of the auspicious Year of the Dragon, and also the year marking the 40th anniversary of New Zealand's diplomatic relations with China.

"There are good reasons for a strategy. China is the world's second largest economy and is still growing relatively fast. It is also a major influencer in the Asia Pacific region."

The strategy brings government agencies together to work collectively. It has a strong trade and economic focus but also looks at building political and diplomatic ties. The Strategy outlines why New Zealand businesses should be looking at China and gives them some of the information they need to do business there.

The strategy includes a set of five goals that specify action such as increasing trade and developing more high-quality science and technology collaborations.

The strategy document, named "Opening Doors to China", said that giving the amount of trade between the countries, investment by each in the other is low.

It says New Zealand would benefit from greater Chinese investment and the New Zealand government will take steps to get more of it.

Those steps include bolstering staff from the Government's inward investment agency at New Zealand's missions in China.

The strategy also reiterates both countries' aim of doubling trade to 20 billion NZ dollars by 2015 and increasing tourism by 60 percent.

It says the New Zealand Treasury and the Reserve Bank will hold regular talks with their Chinese counterparts for the first time.

Stepping up of contact between political and business leaders will also be encouraged.

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser told Xinhua that the New Zealand and China relations is quite "exceptional" and "We think China could be in transformation of New Zealand's future."

China Strategy welcomed by NZ finance sectors

The launch of China's Strategy is widely welcomed by New Zealand's business and finance sectors.

David Green, managing director of Australia and New Zealand ( ANZ) Bank's Institutional Sector, told Xinhua that it is " fantastic" to see the launch of the China Strategy. There have been a lot of investment and trade and close political relations between New Zealand and China. Today is a great opportunity to consolidate the ties.

"I think we need more New Zealanders to appreciate what opportunities for our country presented by China and doing more business together. In recent years, ANZ Bank has rapidly increased its business in China and Asia. "

Following New Zealand government announcement of its NZ Inc China Strategy, PwC reiterated its support for the policy directions and partnership objectives.

PwC Partner and China sector spokesperson Colum Rice said he believes China will be an important source of funding for New Zealand business and infrastructure.

"New Zealand has benefited from China being our second largest trading partner. China has continued to grow strongly when most of the rest of the world has faltered. The Government has recognized the importance of the relationship with China for the future economic prosperity of New Zealand. The Government is committing resources to take economic ties with China to a new level," said Rice.

Gary Cross, head of Trade and Supply Chain, at HSBC New Zealand said: "2012 marks the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with China and the auspicious Year of the Dragon, so it is fitting that we now have a formal strategy in place to double trade between the two countries by 2015."

"We warmly welcome the announcement of today's plan which will see numerous government agencies collaborating together to achieve the desired outcomes outlined in today's vision," said Cross.

"HSBC's is predicting that New Zealand's trade with China is set to grow at an annualized rate of 6.86 percent over the next five years. China is already New Zealand's second largest trading partner and going forward. Our economy is going to be intrinsically linked with the Asian superpower as it continues to grow," he added.

The Scarabeo-9 oil rig began its operation on Tuesday night and drilled about 30 miles off shore northwest of Havana, the company Repsol-YPF said.

The oil platform, with a drilling capability of 3,600 meters deep, will be used to drill over 1,524 meters here in Cuba.

Experts said the drilling of such wells takes about 60 days to complete.

This would be the first of the five oil wells planned by the Cuban oil authorities to be drilled in 2012 and 2013.

Official figures show Cuba produced 4 million tons of oil and gas in 2011, which only satisfied half of its domestic need. The rest is bought from Venezuela in exchange for professional services.

Cuban state-run oil company Cubapetroleo claims to have a reserve of 20,000 million barrels of oil in its northern waters at the Gulf of Mexico, while the US Geological Survey estimates a more modest figure of 5,000 million barrels.

The plaque of the Deutsche Boerse AG is pictured at the entrance of the Frankfurt stock exchange February 1, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK - NYSE Euronext announced Thursday the termination of its mega-merger deal with German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse after European regulators vetoed the deal.

"NYSE Euronext announced today that in light of the decision by the European Commission to block the proposed merger agreement, both companies have agreed to a mutual termination of the business combination agreement originally signed by the companies on February 15, 2011," NYSE said in a brief statement.

The European Commission issued a verdict Wednesday saying no to the proposed merger between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext.

According to a statement by the Commission, the proposed merger "would have resulted in a quasi-monopoly in the area of European financial derivatives traded globally on exchanges."

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse approved in July 2011 the 9. 53-billion-dollar takeover deal, which would have created the world's biggest exchange group.

The move of the company aims to focus on more profitable activities and boost its services, said a statement posted on Lafarge's website.

According to the statement, the cut will affect staff working on research and development, marketing, engineering, human resources and communications "with a voluntary redundancy plan."

"The new Group organization will enable Lafarge to be more focused on the needs of its markets and its customers, and to accelerate the development of the Group through organic growth and innovation," the group said.

Lafarge employs 76,000 workers in 78 countries and regions across the world. In 2010, the group posted a turnover of 16.2 billion euros ($21.3 billion).

The targets included a smuggling tunnel beneath Gaza's southern border with Egypt, an empty house in the nearby Rafah city, an open land and a house in northern Gaza Strip, the witnesses said.

A four-year-old girl and a man suffered minor injuries in the airstrike near the house in northern town of Beit Lahiya, Adham Abu Selmia, an emergency spokesperson, told reporters.

F-16 jets and helicopters participate in carrying out at least five raids.

The Israeli raids came a day after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets on southern Israel territories. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, apparently to avoid frictions with Gaza's Hamas rulers who always seek to stay calm.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza on Thursday and called for maintaining the fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian groups.

Models present creations by Vicky Martin Berrocal during the International Flamenco Fashion Show SIMOF in the Andalusian capital of Seville Feb 2, 2012. The show will run until Feb 5. [Photo/Agencies]

A model wears a creation from designer Andres Sarda's Fall/Winter 2012 collection during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Models present creations by Vicky Martin Berrocal during the International Flamenco Fashion Show SIMOF in the Andalusian capital of Seville Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Models present creations by David Alvarez & Purificacion Ramos during the International Flamenco Fashion Show SIMOF in the Andalusian capital of Seville Feb 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Models present creations by Arte y Compas during the International Flamenco Fashion Show SIMOF in the Andalusian capital of Seville Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Models wearing creations by Curro Duran are seen backstage during the International Flamenco Fashion Show SIMOF in the Andalusian capital of Seville Feb 2, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The US first lady accepted a push-up challenge from Ellen DeGeneres on the comedian's TV talk show, and completed 25 in front of a studio audience on Wednesday.

DeGeneres was beaten.  

"I thought it wouldn't be good to show off the first lady so I stopped," quipped DeGeneres after quitting. "I thought this looks bad that I'm going to beat her. I'm 54 and you're 48."

Obama has been in Los Angeles promoting her "Let's Move" campaign and on one of her stops, she brought food from the White House kitchen garden for to show host Jay Leno in a visit to "The Tonight Show" on Tuesday. She also visited a neighborhood market that plans to increase the availability of fruits and vegetables to customers.

Her chat with Ellen on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" will be broadcast on Thursday.

Obama also revealed some bedroom secrets regarding husband, the president.

He can be somewhat messy.

"He doesn't pick up his socks," she said in response to a question sent in from a viewer.

"He thinks he's neat but he has people who help him. I'm like, 'it's not you that's neat. It's the people who pick up your socks. Those are the neat people,'" she told DeGeneres.

The Washington Post story said: "Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb."

The newspaper's columnist David Ignatius wrote in the article that US President Barack Obama and Panetta "are said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold."

However, the White House hasn't yet decided how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack, the story added.

The story continued: "US officials see two possible ways to dissuade the Israelis from such an attack: Tehran could finally open serious negotiations for a formula to verifiably guarantee that its nuclear program will remain a civilian one; or the United States could step up its covert actions to degrade the program so much that Israelis would decide that military action wasn't necessary."

The story said that US officials don't think that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made a final decision to attack. But the senior US officials doubt that the Israelis are bluffing, worrying about "the guns of spring - and the unintended consequences."

DAMASCUS, Syria - Any UN resolution on the Syrian crisis should support ongoing political dialogue among the local people, a senior government official said, stressing that Damascus is doing what it can to facilitate the process.

Referring to the UN Security Council debates on Syria in New York, Jihad Makdissi, spokesman for the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the aim of any such move should be to help Syrians.

"Yes, we do have a crisis. But overcoming the crisis definitely (should) not (be done) by pressuring Syria and dictating Syria what to do," he told China Daily in an exclusive interview. "It (should be done) by engaging and encouraging the opposition to come and talk, because the way out is to have political dialogue and resolution."

Arab and Western powers on Tuesday urged the Security Council to pass a resolution that, backing an Arab League proposal, requires Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hand powers to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprisings.

China on Tuesday said it firmly opposes forcefully pushing for a regime change in Damascus because it would violate "the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations".

Meanwhile, in Damascus, Makdissi said the government had declared a reform agenda, is rewriting the Constitution and that a referendum would soon be published.

"We have achieved our local administration and we have a parliamentary election coming, and we also have a new law for peaceful demonstration, as well as a new law for political parties that has already been issued, which we want the opposition to engage in," he said.

He added that the country's ruling party will host a conference this month to elect new leadership.

Epicenter of the crisis

Echoing earlier views by Russia and China, the Syrian official said there is no reason to internationalize the events unfolding in his country. Damascus is cooperating with any initiative that will help Syria out of the crisis, he said.

Viable solutions to the current crisis should include more than just a resolution, and incorporate mechanisms that will allow Syrians to sit around the same table and "talk to each other without precondition", Makdissi said.

The official said the greatest obstacle facing Damascus is that forces of "external opposition" refuse to have meaningful dialogue.

"So what we want is to let the West encourage the government to welcome any reform initiative instead of saying this is not enough and it's too late," he said, adding: "This is what they do with other Gulf countries."

As government forces reclaimed the eastern suburb of its capital Damascus, the opposition is still active in other cities, including Homs and Hama, as well as in the provinces of Deraa and Idlib, where frequent clashes have been reported.

Even in the streets of Damascus, where the opposition has yet to gain ground, people find themselves increasingly taking sides.

Taxi driver Bader Baltargy, 34, is a vocal Assad supporter who calls the crisis "a conspiracy of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the West".

"The government and our president are the only ones that can save the country, and we are ready to defend our nation," he said.

But other locals believe there must be an immediate reshuffling of the administration to end the crisis.

"The officials are so corrupt, and our business is getting more difficult in this country," said Abdul Bassam, owner of a construction company in Damascus. "It's time to have a new government."

Bassam Abu Abdullah, an international affairs professor at Damascus University, said the crisis is a political conspiracy, but one that emerged in the wake of deep-seated political and economic woes.

Assad, the first leader in Syrian history to raise the issue of political reform, has been bound by an aging political mechanism that is too old to do the job, he said.

At the same time, however, the professor said the deepening crisis in Syria is rapidly evolving into a "proxy war" against Damascus, particularly considering Syria's geopolitical position in the Middle East.

"There are 23 million Syrians, but why do they only support the opposition who are holding foreign passports and have nothing to do with the country?"

China Daily

After visiting the Museum of Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses in northwestern China's Shaanxi province during her last visit in 2010, Merkel visited a traditional Chinese hutong area on Thursday.

Merkel walked through the 1,000-meter Nanluoguxiang, a lane in eastern Beijing with more than 700 years of history. It is home to many bars, stores, restaurants and traditional courtyard homes called siheyuan.

She had a brief tour of Courtyard 7, a hotel with 300 years of history located in the central area of Nanluoguxiang, and was introduced to it by its manager.

Despite repairs, Courtyard 7, previously owned by a high-ranking minister in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is a well-preserved example of traditional Chinese architecture.

Many Germans are interested in Chinese culture and history, and activities like the 2012 Chinese Culture Year in Germany, launched on Monday, will further deepen understanding of each other, said Merkel in a speech to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Thursday morning.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Nanluoguxiang, a traditional hutong area in Beijing, on Thursday. Merkel is in China on an official visit from Thursday to Saturday. David Gray / Reuters

Michel Sutyadi, a 35-year-old Germany-born-Chinese, co-founded his first fashion shop on the street in 2008.

"We chose to locate our first shop here because of the perfect location, a place of galleries and workshops that combines the historical architecture of the street with an artistic atmosphere," said Sutyadi.

Both the street and the shop have witnessed a boom since 2008, the year Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.

"It feels like we moved in at the right time because the rent went up ever since and it is expensive now," Sutyadi said.

Currently ties between Beijing and Berlin are quite good, Sutyadi said, adding that Merkel is visiting China against the backdrop of the European debt crisis, which is expected to encourage her to call for more investment from China.

During the 2012 Chinese Culture Year in Germany, Chinese artists will stage more than 500 programs featuring Chinese music, theater, literature and films, as well as cultural dialogues, forums and seminars in more than 30 German cities.

The culture year is aimed at enhancing bilateral relations and enhancing friendship and cooperation between more than 60 pairs of sister states (provinces) and sister cities on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Sino-German diplomatic relations.

China Daily

BEIJING - German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the euro while asking for more time to solve the debt crisis in Europe, during a speech at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Thursday.

"As our common currency, the euro has made Europe stronger, and Germany itself has benefited from the currency ... The European Union, especially those states that have adopted the euro, has made considerable progress in the last two years," Merkel said.

"The common currency must be defended together (by the countries in EU)," said Merkel, responding to doubts over the EU's ability to overcome the difficulties.

The fiscal compact treaty signed by 25 EU members in Brussels on Jan 30 at the latest EU summit will help ease the debt crisis in Europe, she added.

The treaty will require governments to introduce laws on balanced budgets and impose near-automatic sanctions on countries that violate the deficit rules.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech on the global economy and Sino-German relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on Thursday. Du Yang / China News Agency

Europe is racing against time, and it is trying to attract more investment and get rid of bureaucracy, but people have to be patient to see favorable results from these measures, said Merkel.

"Just like the measures on labor force reform taken by former German chancellor (Gerhard) Schroeder in 2003 and 2004, the results were not seen until 2006 and 2007," Merkel said.

If people treat the debt crisis with undue haste, worries will be created among people, which will have no positive influence on the situation, Merkel added.

Speaking highly of Sino-German ties since the establishment of the government consultation mechanism last year, the chancellor also called for more political and economic cooperation, including the development of new energy technologies, reform of the international monetary system, and exchanges between Chinese and German small- and medium-sized enterprises.

China and Germany should improve fiscal cooperation, said Merkel, noting that a lack of financial market supervision was one of the reasons for the current financial crisis.

Merkel's speech also covered the different views held by China and Germany on sanctions on Iran, as well as the Syria issue.

"The main task for Merkel during this visit is to show confidence in the euro to Beijing and the Chinese people," said Cui Hongjian, an expert on European studies at China Institute of International Studies.

"We should scrap the mode of thinking that China can only help Europe through buying its bonds. We could also focus on how China and Germany can cooperate in boosting economic growth and creating more job opportunities," Cui told China Daily after Merkel's speech.

China Daily

The US economy has been gradually recovering from the recent deep recession, but the pace of the recovery has been " frustratingly slow", particularly from the perspective of the millions of workers who remain unemployed or under-employed, Bernanke said in his testimony before the House Budget Committee.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before the House Budget committee hearing on the state of the Economy on Capitol Hill in Washington February 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The sluggish expansion has left the US economy vulnerable to shocks, including the supply chain disruptions stemming from the earthquake in Japan last year, a surge in the prices of oil and other commodities, and spillovers from the eurozone debt crisis, according to his written testimony.

Over the past few months, indicators of spending, production and job market activity have shown some signs of improvement, but "the outlook remains uncertain and close monitoring of economic developments will remain necessary", Bernanke added.

The US central bank chief cautioned that policymakers should balance their efforts of fiscal consolidation and sustaining economic growth, as some investors were worried about the spiking public debt in the United States.

"Even as fiscal policymakers address the urgent issue of fiscal sustainability, they should take care not to unnecessarily impede the current economic recovery," Bernanke said.

The two goals of achieving long-term fiscal sustainability and avoiding additional fiscal headwinds for the current recovery were "fully compatible" and "mutually reinforcing", he argued.

"On the one hand, a more robust recovery will lead to lower deficits and debt in coming years. On the other hand, a plan that clearly and credibly puts fiscal policy on a path to sustainability could help keep longer-term interest rates low and improve household and business confidence, thereby supporting improved economic performance today," Bernanke noted.

Menan, at a press conference to brief the press on the council's work program for this month, said,  "We are going to be talking about a new draft this afternoon. I think a lot has been done by the co-sponsors of the draft resolution."

"We'll see this afternoon what direction the council is going to take over the discussion of this topic," he said.

Togo assumed the council presidency on Wednesday, the first time for the West African country to take the helm of the council since it was elected last year as a non-permanent member of the most powerful UN body.    

The new draft resolution resulted from the revision of an Arab- European draft, tabled by Morocco on Friday last week, in the negotiations among 15 council members while Russia, a veto- wielding council member, vowed it will veto any proposal " unacceptable" to Moscow.

In October, Russia, together with China which is one of the five permanent council members, vetoed an European draft resolution on Syria.

The draft resolution, jointly drew up by Arab states and Britain, France and Germany, demanded Syrian President Basahr al-Assad to surrender his power to his deputy in order to pave the way for the new national unity government and elections in the Middle East country, which has been plunged into a political crisis since March last year.    

Russia has warned some countries against meddling in the internal affairs of Syria in order to avoid a replay of the Libya model, in which foreign military interventions helped oust strongman Muammar Qaddafi.

Security forces fired tear gas at protestors to prevent them from reaching the Interior Ministry building near Tahrir Square. The protestors chanted slogans against police and held them accountable for allowing fans to enter the stadium with sticks and knives.

Clashes also erupted between protestors and police in Suez governorate on Thursday, state TV said.

Post-match riots between fans of the football teams of el-Masry and el-Ahly in Port Said on Wednesday night left 74 dead and hundreds injured.

The Interior Ministry said 47 people have been arrested.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced a three-day national mourning over the tragedy from Thursday to Saturday.

Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council, has ordered the formation of a fact-finding committee to probe the clashes in the Port Said Stadium. He said police should be responsible for the security of games.

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri on Thursday sacked Port Said Governor Mohamed Abdel Hashem. The provincial security chief, Essam Samak, and the board of the Egyptian Football Association were also fired.

At an emergency session of the People's Assembly over the deadly football riot, Ganzouri extended deep condolences to the Egyptian people over the incident and said he shouldered the political responsibility for the violence.

On Friday, a big rally is called for in Cairo. The country faces fresh protests due to the latest violent event.

"Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid- to the later part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role," Panetta was quoted by the Washington Post as telling US reporters Wednesday en route to a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Panetta's remarks reflected a growing sentiment within the Obama administration that its approach to Iraq, where the official end of US combat operations came 16 months before the final troop withdrawal in December, may provide a useful model for winding down operations in Afghanistan, the Post reported.

According to the NATO strategy reached at a summit in Lisbon in November 2010, the coalition forces will gradually shift to a training, advisory and assistance role with the Afghan military on the way to withdrawing all combat troops by the end of 2014. NATO hasn't yet agreed on the pace of that process.

A Panetta spokesman traveling with the defense chief issued a statement later Wednesday, saying the US troops could still be involved in at least some combat operations in partnership with Afghan forces in 2014.

Panetta's comments about an accelerated change in the US mission in Afghanistan were the latest sign that the US and its NATO allies are seeking to hasten the end of their involvement in the unpopular war, said the Post.

In Brussels, NATO defense ministers discussed on Thursday the US plans to end combat operations in Afghanistan in 2013 and a shift in the role of its troops there. The meeting was held after French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Jan 27 that France would speed up its combat drawdown in Afghanistan this year.

Wen made the remarks when holding a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing.

"China firmly safeguards the international non-proliferation regime and  opposes Iran and any of the Mideast countries developing nuclear weapons," said Wen.

The Iran nuclear issue is complicated and sensitive, and involves the peace, security and stability of the region and the world, said Wen, noting the use of force will cause turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East and the world, and that would be detrimental to all parties.

China has been relentlessly promoting dialogue and negotiation between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Germany, and urged Iran to enhance cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said.

As Iran has recently expressed willingness to resume dialogues with the group of six international mediators, the top priority for all parties is to seize the opportunity and seek a comprehensive, long-term and appropriate solution for the issue through dialogue and negotiation, he added.

Wen said the overall objective for China and Germany on the Iran nuclear issue was consistent, noting that the two countries should enhance communication and coordination, so as to jointly play a constructive role in resolving the problem.

China has maintained normal economic and trade cooperation with Iran in view of its need for economic development, said Wen, adding China opposes the politicizing of the normal trade relationship.

He said China has maintained normal trade ties with Iran, including crude oil trade, and will not do things that go against international laws and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

He stressed that China will not trade its principles for profits, and normal trade relations between countries should be protected.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov at a press conference Thursday the exercises were likely to take place in Germany, possibly in March, the exact date had yet to be set.

Russia and NATO agreed on the drills during the Lisbon summit in November 2010, he said.

Antonov, however, expressed regret NATO had tried to use the exercises to paper over the dispute over the US-led European anti-missile issues.

"There is no progress (in the talks). The situation has not been changed. Our US and NATO colleagues are unable to understand Russia's concerns," he said.

Moscow has long opposed the deployment of US-led NATO missile defense facilities near its borders and wants legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO the missile shield is not targeting Russia.

"When the attack took place, 18 Chinese workers hid in a farm of mango trees. The embassy informed the Sudanese government of their hiding place and requested rescue operations," the official told Xinhua.

"On January 29, a patrol of the Sudanese came to rescue the workers in the farm," said the official, adding that when the workers started to leave the area, rebels opened fire on them and one worker was injured and went missing.

He further said that the Sudanese army has managed, through four operations, to rescue the rest 17 workers, who were later transferred to the capital Khartoum.

"The Sudanese army is continuing its search for the missing Chinese worker, but after five days since his injury, the possibility of finding him alive seems very small," he said.

Meanwhile, another 29 Chinese workers were seized by the rebel group in the attack and have been held captive.

On January 28, the Sudan People's Liberation Army's (SPLA) northern sector assaulted a road construction site of a Chinese company in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan.

The embassy official said that the Chinese side has been urging the Sudanese government to work for the release of the Chinese workers in a manner that ensures their safety.

"The Chinese side has also asked the rebels to ensure the safety of the Chinese workers and release them as soon as possible, " he added.

According to media reports, the rebels affirmed that the Chinese workers are in good health.

South Kordofan, located on the Sudan-South Sudan border, has been witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the SPLA's northern sector since June last year.  

Khartoum accuses South Sudan of supporting the rebels on the borderline between the two countries, particularly in Blue Nile and South Kordofan States.

In a phone interview, Noel Coballes, commander of the military's Western Mindanao Command, said troops on the ground confirmed the death of the 15 terrorists though he said their bodies have not been retrieved.

The fatalities included Abu Sayyaf leader Gumbahali Jumdail, known as Dr. Abu, and JI personalities Zulkipli Abdul Hir, alias Marwan and Ibrahim; and Mumamda Ali, alias Muawiya. The identities of the 12 others were not immediately known.

Jose Tony Villarete, commander of the 3rd Air Division, said two OV-10 bomber planes were dispatched from Zamboanga City at around 3 am and dropped four bombs on the terrorist lair.

"They (pilots) hit the target given by Wesmincom. This is a joint operation with Wesmincom...Our three targets were hit," said Villarete, referring to the three terrorists.

Coballes said the airstrike targeted a temporary camp of the terrorists at the village of Duyan Kabau. "It's a deliberate, fully-planned attack from our forces...They (terrorists) were temporarily camped in that area," he said.

"Based on our report, there were at least 15 killed, including the three leaders... This has a very big (negative) impact on them because three of their leaders were hit. That would have a very big impact on the capability of the terrorists," he said.

The official said at least 15 other terrorists fled after the airstrike but returned later to retrieve their dead. Coballes hinted that the remnants of the group fled to a camp of the Moro National Liberation Front which has signed a peace accord with the government in 1996.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos told a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo that a number of bodies were recovered. "According to the ground troops and the Philippine National Police (PNP), the three are positive (to be dead)," he said.

Burgos said Jumdail, one of the senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, is facing kidnapping and serious illegal detention cases before the courts.

Jumdail is one of the terrorists wanted by the U.S. government which has offered a 140,000 U.S. dollars for his neutralization. On the other hand, the Philippine government has earmarked 7.4 million pesos (172,500 U.S. dollars) for his capture.

Jumdail is involved in the April 2000 kidnapping of 21, mostly Caucasian tourists from the Sipadan diving resort in Malaysia. The victims were brought to Basilan and subsequently released after payment of large amount of ransom.

Meanwhile, Burgos described Marwan, a Malaysian, as the " overall leader" of the JI in the Philippines and an improvised explosive device expert. The United States and the Philippines have offered a reward 5.2 million U.S. dollars and 7.4 million pesos, respectively, for his neutralization

Mauiyah, on the other hand, is a Singaporean and a former member of the Singaporean military with the rank of major. He has a 50,000-dollar reward offered by the US for his neutralization, said Burgos.

Customers look at a large high heel made by cholocate displayed at the Hyundai Department Store in Seoul on Feb 1, 2012. The 2-meter-high shoe, in time for Valentine’s Day, took 14 days and 60 kilograms of chocolate to make. [Photo/Xinhua]

Customers look at a large chocolate high heel displayed at the Hyundai Department Store in Seoul on Feb 1, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Customers look at a large chocolate high heel displayed at the Hyundai Department Store in Seoul on Feb 1, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

* Demands intervention be ruled out

* UN diplomats see days of negotiations ahead

MOSCOW - Russia said on Wednesday it would veto any UN resolution on Syria that it finds unacceptable, after demanding any measure rule out military intervention to halt the bloodshed touched off by protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The political violence in Syria has killed at least 5,000 people in the past 10 months and activists say Assad's forces have stepped up operations this week on opposition strongholds, from Damascus suburbs to the cities of Hama, Homs and the border provinces of Deraa and Idlib.

Arab and Western states urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to act swiftly on a resolution backing an Arab League plan calling for Assad to hand powers to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprising against his family's dynastic rule.

"If the text will be unacceptable for us we will vote against it, of course," Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters in Moscow via a videolink from New York.

"If it is a text that we consider erroneous, that will lead to a worsening of the crisis, we will not allow it to be passed. That is unequivocal," he said.  

His remarks came hours after Russia's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted unless it expressly rejected armed intervention.

UN Security Council ambassadors met in New York on Wednesday to discuss ways to overcome their disagreements on the wording of the European-Arab draft resolution that Morocco submitted to council members on Friday.

The closed-door negotiations ended without a final agreement and will resume on Thursday, Germany's UN mission said. The draft will be updated to reflect Wednesday's discussions, which the mission said were "rather constructive."

A council diplomat at the meeting told Reuters, however, that Churkin reiterated to council members that the expression of full support for the Arab League plan in the current draft was "unacceptable." He also made clear Moscow could not accept the expression of concern in the draft about arms sales to Syria unless there was a waver for weapons transfers to the Syrian government, the diplomat said.

"It's way too soon in my judgment to know whether ultimately there will be agreement," US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told reporters, adding, "It's long past time for this council to take meaningful action."  

Despite the Russian comments, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said a "window of hope" had opened. "We will work furiously in the next few days to try and get a resolution that will allow the Arab League to forge ahead in finding a solution," he told parliament in Paris.

Russia says the West exploited fuzzy wording in a March 2011 UN Security Council resolution on Libya to turn a mandate to protect civilians in the North African country's uprising into a push to remove the government, backed by NATO air strikes, that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia has also expressed concern that the draft's threat of further measures against Syria could lead to sanctions, which it opposes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the policy of isolation and trying to remove the government risked igniting a "much bigger drama" in the Middle East.  

"The people who are obsessed with removing regimes in the region, they should be really thinking about the broader picture," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"And I'm afraid that if this vigor to change regimes persists, we are going to witness a very bad situation much, much, much broader than just Syria, Libya, Egypt or any other single country."    

A zoo official prepares to tie the mouth of Oni, an African lion, after it was successfully anesthetized at Taman Satwa Jurug in Solo, Indonesia's central Java province, Jan 31, 2012. Oni escaped from his cage and then attacked and killed a camel before he was subdued and anesthetized on Tuesday, local media reported.[Photo/Agencies]

Zoo officials examine a dead camel after it was attacked by an African lion at Taman Satwa Jurug in Solo, Indonesia's central Java province, Jan 31, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

US State Department Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Robert Einhorn and Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser are meeting in Washington this week with a Japanese delegation, which includes officials from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Finance, to continue discussions on imposing sanctions on Iran, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland at the daily press briefing.

"The United States and Japan reaffirm their shared interest in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and the importance of a dual-track strategy in dealing with Iran: both pressure and engagement, to persuade Iran to address the international community' s serious concerns about its nuclear program," Nuland said.

The meetings in Washington will build upon the "constructive and productive conversations" held last month in Tokyo between senior officials of both governments, she added.

The United States has been rallying its allies in imposing crippling sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which Tehran describes as solely for peaceful use of nuclear energy while the United States and its Western allies suspect as an attempt to acquire nuclear weapons.

On Dec 31, US President Barack Obama signed a bill on imposing new sanctions on Iran, targeting foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, the main conduit for its oil revenues.

Last week, the European Union (EU) imposed further sanctions against Iran's oil exports as well as its central bank, following the US steps.

US Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus, who testified Tuesday at a Senate hearing, said new sanctions on Iran "have been biting much, much more in recent weeks," though it remained to be seen whether they would force Iran to change its course on its nuclear program.

The Port Nakhodka-bound train from Skovorodino consisted of 68 tank-cars, 17 of which ran off the track in the Amur region Tuesday morning. Thirteen of the tank-cars caught fire.

The crew then disconnected the burning tank-cars from the train, which they then drove away to a safe distance.

The accident destroyed two 250-meter-long railway tracks, and oil spilled over an area of up to 1,000 square meters, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

Repairmen from Russian Railways are working at the site to clean up the mess and gather the oil. The operation is expected to be completed on February 6.

The oil spill posed no threat to local dwellers and didn't leak into the water sources. Experts from the federal environment monitoring agency have been assessing the environmental damage.

The repair work was completed Wednesday, and railway traffic on the Trans-Siberian main line has returned to normal.

The ESM will be introduced in mid-2012, which is one year earlier than originally planned.

In contrast to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which was based only on collateral provided by individual eurozone member-countries, the ESM will have a total subscribed capital of 700 billion euros, of which 80 billion euros will be in the form of paid-in capital, while 620 billion euros will be represented by committed accessible capital.

The total amount of subscribed capital provided by Slovakia will reach 5.768 billion euros.

The ESM treaty is a presidential treaty, so it must be ratified both by parliament and the president before it comes into force.

The Finance Ministry has pointed out that the treaty will require the setting-up of a broad framework in a wider scope than was required when joining the EFSF.

This is the first working relationship on the high seas between the Indian Navy and the People's Liberation Army of China navy forces, said the report.

"The Naval arrangement cooperation started a month ago and has provided more safety and better utilization of resources. It is a working-level meeting to ensure effective communication and cooperation," the paper quoted Rear Admiral Monty Khanna, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff for foreign cooperation and intelligence as saying.

A man is being gored by a bull as others run during the annual Candlemas celebrations in Tlacotalpan Feb 1, 2012. A pack of bulls is let loose to rampage through the streets for hours as crowds taunt them as part of the week-long religious celebration.[Photo/Agencies]

People take refuge on top of a car from a bull during the annual Candlemas celebrations in Tlacotalpan Feb 1, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A man pours beer at an exhausted and bleeding bull during the annual Candlemas celebrations in Tlacotalpan Feb 1, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

The work team, led by Wang Shenyang, director of the ministry's foreign investment and economic cooperation department, will visit Libya from February 4 to February 8, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The team also includes representatives from Chinese companies that have business operations in Libya.

The visit was first planned in October, but was delayed due to the Libyan civil war.

The work team will visit Tripoli and Benghazi to check the damage to Chinese companies' assets caused by Libya's political conflicts and exchange views with Libyan officials on the future operation of projects which Chinese companies had already undertaken before the civil war, according to the statement.

Making appropriate arrangements for the projects' implementation is beneficial to the improvement of Libyan people's livelihoods as the projects mainly involve housing, railways and telecommunications, the ministry said in the statement.

China encourages Chinese companies to participate in Libya's reconstruction and it is willing to deepen economic and trade ties with Libya, the ministry said.

Judging by the living standards measures (LSMs), 19 percent of blacks were living in the highest category, LSM 10, last year, up from three percent in 2001, said the survey conducted by the SA Institute of Race Relations.

Divided into 10 categories, LSMs are a marketing tool developed by the SA Advertising Research Foundation with an aim to help define markets. It does not measure income but gathers data based on where people live and whether they own certain appliances and vehicles.

Compared with blacks, whites made up 65 percent of adults in LSM 10 -- the highest living standards -- in 2010, down from 87 percent in 2001.

"The data shows that the racial differences have narrowed slightly, with more representation of Africans in the top LSM groups than 10 years ago, demonstrating a growing African middle class," the institute's Lucy Holborn said.

But Holborn said this was considered an under-representation because blacks made up 76 percent of the adult population.

"There has been a shift to the higher LSMs but it is still racially skewed," she said.

Despite an increase in the number of blacks in the middle class, blacks still made up the bulk of poor in the country.

Last year, 98 percent of black people were in LSM 1, the lowest living standards, a slight decrease from 99.7 percent in 2001, the survey showed.

The biggest change took place among adults. In 2001, 11 percent of adults were in LSM 1, but by 2010, only 2 percent were in the lower LSM.

The proportion of adults in the top three LSM categories - eight to 10 - had also increased by 25 percent, according to the survey.

In 2001, 16 percent of adults were in LSMs eight to 10, while by 2010 this had increased to 20 percent, or one in five adults.

CBK Governor Njuguna Ndungu who chaired the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Wednesday, said the retention of the benchmark rate should slowdown private sector credit growth to help dampen demand-related inflation pressures.

"The Committee decided to retain the Central Bank Rate at 18.0 percent. This will allow time for the policy measures in place to work out and deliver decisive results on inflation and inflation expectations," Ndungu said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The Committee noted that overall inflation continued to gradually decline for the second consecutive month, dropping from 18.93 percent in December 2011 to 18.31 percent in January.

This, the country's top monetary policy organ said, was mainly on account of easing food and fuel prices supported by the appreciation of the Kenya shilling, adding that the private sector credit growth declined in December 2011 in response to the tight monetary policy.

"Private sector credit growth has declined but needs to slow down further to dampen demand-related inflation pressures," the committee said.

The Committee observed that inflation is expected to continue to ease in the coming months on account of the current monetary policy stance, stability of the exchange rate, decline in oil prices, and continued easing of demand pressures with the slowdown in private sector credit growth.

"Furthermore, reduced credit to finance imports is expected to ease pressure on the exchange rate," MPC said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on January 18 forecast that inflation will decline to 7 percent by 2012/13 from current projection of 16.2 percent in 2011/12.

Economic analysts say the IMF forecast is likely to improve Kenya's economic image as it prepares to arrange for a syndicated loan of 600 million U.S. dollars from several global banks in the next two weeks. The money is meant to cover the budget deficit.

The top monetary policy organ said the banking sector remains stable with a limited threat of loan defaults following the recent measures taken by the Kenya Bankers Association to cushion borrowers against high interest rates.

"The government's planned external commercial financing as part of its domestic borrowing requirement in the fiscal year 2011/12 is expected to dampen upward pressure on interest rates," MPC said.

"In addition, the continued coordination of fiscal and monetary policies will sustain the growth potential."

However, the apex bank said the geo-political risks associated with oil movement through the Strait of Hormuz could interrupt crude oil supply and affect fuel prices globally.

It also said a continued increase in Diaspora remittances signals confidence in the economy despite the recent external shocks.

The MPC observed that the balance of payment pressures and the persistent uncertainty in the global financial markets due to the debt crisis in the eurozone remain the main risks to the inflation outlook and exchange rate pressure.

It said a recent forecast of a dry spell in most parts of the east Africa nation by the Meteorological Department presents risks to agricultural production and food supply.

A cafe employee poses for a picture as she drinks from a cup, containing coffee latte with cinnamon powder illustration of Russia's Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin seen on the milk skin, at the Kofein cafe in Moscow Feb 1, 2012. The coffee chain offered its visitors to take part in a symbolic presidential election by ordering a cup of coffee displaying their favorite candidates, while showing the results of votes on a screen nearby. The Russian presidential elections are scheduled for March 4. [Photo/Agencies]

Cups, containing coffee latte, are on display, with cinnamon powder illustrations of presidential candidates Vladimir Putin (C top), Gennady Zyuganov (R top), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (L bottom), Sergei Mironov (R bottom) and Mikhail Prokhorov seen on the milk skin, at the Kofein cafe in Moscow Feb 1, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Cups, containing coffee latte, are on display, with cinnamon powder illustrations of presidential candidates Vladimir Putin (C top), Gennady Zyuganov (R top), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (L bottom), Sergei Mironov (R bottom) and Mikhail Prokhorov seen on the milk skin, at the Kofein cafe in Moscow Feb 1, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

"This is obviously a major tragedy - 350 people on board a ship that has gone down," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in Melbourne.

"It is likely a very high loss of life here."

Australia's Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said six merchant ships and three helicopters were at the scene, and 50 people had been rescued.

Papua New Guinea's maritime authority said earlier at least 28 people had been rescued, with many more floating in the sea near where the ferry went down.

The ship, MV Rabaul Queen, reportedly sank about 9 nautical miles (16 km) off Finschhafen on PNG's north coast while on its way from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to the mainland city of Lae, AMSA said.

An Australian search and rescue plane from the northeastern Australian city of Cairns, with multiple life rafts it can drop into the sea, also arrived at the scene.

The operator of the ferry, Star Ships, said it had lost contact with the MV Rabaul Queen earlier on Thursday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Papua New Guinea, Australia's nearest neighbour, is largely undeveloped, with poor infrastructure and limited facilities despite enormous resources wealth.

The majority of Papua New Guinea's six million people eke out subsistence lifestyles in villages clinging to jungle-clad mountainsides or scattered around its many islands.

The MBA said that the Market Composite Index of US mortgage applications, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased by 2.9 percent in the week ending January 27, 2012 on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week.

The Refinance Index decreased 3.6 percent from the previous week, while the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index declined 1.7 percent.

However, the four-week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index edged up 4.11 percent from the previous week. The four-week moving average climbed 4.22 percent for the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index, while this average ticked up 2.48 percent for the Purchase Index, according to the survey.

In addition, the association said that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages last week decreased to 3.96 percent from 3.97 percent, while the average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 3.36 percent from 3.40 percent."

Although total application volume dropped on an adjusted basis relative to last week, refinance volume remains high, with survey participants reporting that the expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) continued to roughly 10 percent of their refinance activity," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics.

The US government last October announced a series of changes to the HARP to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgage loans, which is considered to stimulate mortgage refinance activities.

US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was sending Congress a new plan that lowered the standard to all mortgages, including private-held ones. It also streamlined the refinancing process and simplified the mortgage disclosure forms.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all US retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.

The Security Council's meeting on Tuesday, attended by Arab League (AL) chief Nabil al-Arabi, discussed the recent AL plan calling on the Syrian president to step down, as well as a resolution urging peace efforts in the country.

As the violence escalates in Syria, the Security Council is regarded as the last political means at disposal to resolve the crisis.

Unofficial reports put the Syrian death toll at around 7000, while the government estimates at least 3,000 deaths of military and security personnel have taken place since the start of the crisis last march.

The Syrian army stepped up its crackdown in the central area and Damascus' suburbs in the past few days. The central province of Homs witnesses most of the military operations. The Baba Amro area in Homs, where the army and defectors are fiercely battling, has seen numerous deaths and injuries.

At Tuesday's meeting at the Security Council, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that the violence in Syria threatens to spiral out of control and called on President Bashar al-Assad, who she believes is pushing Syria to a sectarian war, to step down and transfer power to his deputy.

The European Union followed Washington's suits by imploring the Security Council to bear its responsibilities regarding the Syrian crisis.

Among the Arab countries, Qatar pleaded for an international interference in the crisis, a stance viewed by observers as an attempt by the kingdom to seek a firm foothold in the Arab world.

The Gulf country warned the continuation of the status quo in Syria jeopardizes the entire region's security and called for actions to impose economic pressure on it.

The AL chief al-Arabi, while urged a swift and decisive solution to end the violence, showed some leniency in calling on the Syrian opposition to agree to a dialogue with the government.

Al-Arabi stressed that the AL hopes to see a national reconciliation through a political process to achieve Syrians' aspiration for freedom and democracy.

Russia, on the other hand, voiced entirely different positions and expressed its support to the reforms in Syria and a diplomatic solution within the AL frame.

Russia also went on to warn that it would veto any " inappropriate" UN resolution against Syria.

Earlier, Russia extended its goodwill and offered to host a national dialogue for Syria but the move was rejected by the opposition as an "attempt to salvage the regime."  

In the coming few days, the Syrian government has a great deal at stake in the bickering and compromise of the powers at play at the UN Security Council. Its fate hinges on whether the AL plan would win the world body's support.

Protective eyewear is displayed at the Marine West Military Expo at Camp Pendleton, California Feb 1, 2012. The expo is one of the year's largest annual display of new military equipment.[Photo/Agencies]

A soldier looks at a MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) robot at the Marine West Military Expo at Camp Pendleton, California Feb 1, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A soldier walks past a display of weapons at the Marine West Military Expo at Camp Pendleton, California Feb 1, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

A soldier looks at knives at the Marine West Military Expo at Camp Pendleton, California Feb 1, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Video footage of the riot in Port Said between fans of the home side Al Masry and Egypt's most successful team Al Ahli was seen by millions around the world on the internet within minutes of it unfolding.

Moscow's disaster, which claimed 340 people's lives, took place on Oct 20, 1982 when Moscow Spartak played Harlem of the Netherlands in a UEFA Cup match at the Luzhniki Stadium.

Those fans died after Spartak scored a late goal and fans leaving the stadium were crushed on an open stairway and in a corridor when departing spectators surged back into the stadium only to be met by fans leaving the ground.

That was also found to be the main cause of the Ibrox Stadium disaster in Glasgow on Jan 2, 1971 when 66 people were trampled to death at the end of a match between Scottish rivals Rangers and Celtic.

Departing fans turned back to the stadium after hearing the roar of a late goal, causing dozens of people to tumble over those climbing up the stairs and sending them all to their deaths.

The world's second worst stadium disaster was recorded as taking place in Lima, Peru in 1964 when 318 fans died and hundreds more were injured after a goal was disallowed in an Olympic qualifier between Peru and Argentina.

Fans rioted, soldiers fired tear-gas, chaos reigned and hundreds died.

There have been other significant death tallies after riots in Nepal's national stadium in 1988 when over 100 died, in South Africa in 1991 when 43 people were killed at a Kaizer Chiefs-Orlando Pirates match and in February 1974 in Egypt when 49 fans were killed trying to gain access to see Zamalek play Dulkla Prague of the former Czechoslovakia.

Africa's worst tragedy before Wednesday's occurred in May 2001 when around 126 people were killed in a stampede in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.

Massive impact

Three serious tragedies had a massive impact on safety at European stadiums in the 1980s.

Saftey and security were generally tightened everywhere following the Bradford City fire in England in 1985 which claimed 56 lives, the Heysel Stadium disaster two weeks later in which 39 died and the Hillsborough disaster in England in 1989 when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield when Liverpool played Nottingham Forest.

Ironically, Wednesday's incident in Egypt comes two days after the French FA said that no matches would be played on May 5 this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster in Corsica in 1992 when 18 fans were killed at a French Cup semi-final between Bastia and Marseille when a temporary stand collapsed.

Those kind of stands would not be allowed at a major match today.

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, recently issued a guide to "quality stadiums" in which its general secretary Gianni Infantino expressed the need for the best design and construction to ensure that stadiums were safe.

"Stadium design in Europe is already of a very high standard and a number of excellent quality venues have been developed. Everything we can do at UEFA to help support, nurture and encourage good and conscientious stadium design and building will be of enormous benefit to football and local communities," he said.

The Stadium in Port Said, a multi-use 18,000 all-seater venue, was built in 1955 and more than met FIFA's standards after modern improvements and hosted matches in the 2006 African Cup of Nations and the World Under-20 Cup in 2009.

Unlike other disasters the stadium could not be faulted for the resulting loss of life which appears to be due entirely to human failings.

"These kind of events can happen anywhere in the world but we will not let those behind this get away," Tantawi said, speaking to the sports television channel owned by Al Ahli, one of the teams playing. He said victims would receive compensation after their cases were examined.

"We will get through this stage. Egypt will be stable. We have a roadmap to transfer power to elected civilians. If anyone is plotting instability in Egypt they will not succeed. Everyone will get what they deserve," he said, adding that securing the game was the responsibility of the police force.

Italy is accompanying Somalia in the "delicate process of pacification and reconciliation," Monti said according to a statement released from his cabinet.

He pointed out the Somali reconciliation conference in London on February 23 will be an important step to gain support from the international community for the pacification of the African country torn by a 20-year-long civil war.

For his part, the Somali premier assured a commitment in fighting terrorism and piracy.

"Monti stressed the need for rapid and effective action against piracy, reiterating his hope that the Somali authorities do everything in their power to free the Italian ship Enrico Ievoli, "the statement said.

The ship was seized by pirates off the coast of Oman last December with 18 people on board, including six Italians, five Ukrainians and seven Indians.

According to a joint statement issued by the State Department, the two reviewed "the array of close bilateral, regional and global engagement" between the two countries.

"We introduced new mechanisms to further strengthen our partnership and cooperation for the benefit of the Asia-Pacific region," said the statement.

The statement said the two countries' strategic partnership will be rooted in enhanced political and economic dialogue aimed at meaningful cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The top diplomats looked forward to continued cooperation "on economic, political and military, environment, security, education and cultural exchanges that benefit our countries, the Asia- Pacific region and globally," said the statement.

"In all of these areas and the new ones, we will jointly explore solutions to emerging 21st century challenges, and rely on our shared beliefs and aspirations when applying dynamic and practical solutions," said the statement.

Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a two-day visit involving attendance at a forum organized by the Korea Society.

"We are open to diplomacy with the DPRK, but there is a very clear set of steps that we think are necessary," the diplomat said after meeting with Lim Sung-nam, the Republic of Korea's (ROK) top envoy to stalled talks over ending Pyongyang's nuclear program, and Vice-Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin.

"We agreed the path is open to the DPRK toward the resumption of talks and improved relations with the United States and the ROK," Campbell said. "(But) the road to improve these relations runs through Seoul for the DPRK."

His remarks came as the ROK steps up calls for dialogue with the DPRK, an attempt to mend cross-border ties that reached their lowest ebb in 2010 following two deadly border conflicts.

The US and its allies Japan and the ROK "are still waiting to see whether the new government in the DPRK is prepared to take the necessary steps", Campbell told reporters.

DPRK leader Kim Jong-un (center) visits Unit 1017 of the People's Army Air Force in an undisclosed location in this undated recent picture released by the DPRK's KCNA in Pyongyang on Tuesday. KCNA / Reuters

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean Studies at Party School of Central Committee of Communist Party of China, told China Daily that Campbell's remark on Wednesday shows Washington's "pertinency" in policymaking in response to Pyongyang's recent attitudes toward the peninsula's nuclear issue.

The DPRK has stressed that its policy remains unchanged after the death of Pyongyang's former leader Kim Jong-il last December, and the takeover by his youngest son Jong-un.

However, Pyongyang recently vowed never to deal with Seoul's conservative leader Lee Myung-bak, regularly censured by Pyongyang's state media for his hardline policy.

"Given Pyongyang's recent stances toward denuclearization and its ties with Seoul, it may not give a positive response to the possible accesses proposed by Campbell to either the resumption of Six-Party Talks or the improvement of DPRK-ROK ties," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, the US special representative for the DPRK policy Glyn Davies is paying a visit to Russia from Tuesday to deepen cooperation and share perspectives on Pyongyang, according to the US Department of State.

Lim, the envoy with Seoul, is expected to visit Russia next week to meet his Russian counterpart and Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, Yonhap News Agency said on Tuesday, adding that the schedule has not been finalized.

Recent frequent exchanges of views among the related parties in the Six-Party Talks show that the countries concerned "have decided to wrap up hesitation" after the death of Kim Jong-il , Zhang said.

The nuclear talks grouping the DPRK, the ROK, China, Japan, Russia and the US were last held in December 2008. Pyongyang walked out in April 2009.

China Daily-Xinhua-AFP

Europe had enjoyed a relatively mild winter up until last weekend, but a Siberian system swinging in from the east brought that to an abrupt halt.

A woman out jogging wears warm winter clothes during a freezing cold afternoon in Zurich, February 1, 2012. The cold snap which has gripped Europe and killed 89 people in the east is set to lift European power and gas prices further as energy demand for heating surges while temperatures are expected to stay below freezing point. [Photo/Agencies]

A source at Russian gas export monopoly, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas imports, said it was getting more requests from export markets than it could physically accommodate as demand from Russia spikes.  

The company however sought to reassure clients on Wednesday. "Despite increasing gas consumption in Russia due to heavy frosts, Gazprom continues implementing its contractual obligations to European clients," it said in e-mailed comments.  

In Ukraine, 43 people have died in the past five days, its emergency ministry said, as the country shivered through its coldest winter in six years. Overnight temperatures sank as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit) and hundreds of heated tents have been put up to shelter the homeless.  

"They say the whole February will be cold, and the first half of March, so we have to get ready for this somehow," said Viktor, who is living on the streets of Kiev.

European weather alert network Meteoalarm warned of "extremely dangerous" conditions in several parts of eastern Europe, including Serbia, where a fourth person was found dead overnight in the southwestern mountain areas.

Security forces there, and in neighbouring Bosnia, have used helicopters to ferry supplies to areas cut off by deep snow and to evacuate the elderly. The forecast across the Balkans is for conditions to worsen through the week.

Meteoalarm said severe cold was likely to persist in many parts of continental Europe including Germany and especially in southeastern Europe.

The world's largest social network, a dorm room project for Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg that exploded in popularity and vaulted to Silicon Valley's top tier within 8 years, said in its preliminary filing that its net income rose 65 percent to $1 billion in 2011, off revenue of $3.71 billion.

The long-awaited submission kicks off a months-long process that will culminate in Silicon Valley's biggest coming-out party since the heyday of the dotcom boom and bust.

Facebook, which said it now has 845 million active users, appointed Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan its lead underwriters. Other bookrunners included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Allen & Co.

"We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television," Zuckerberg said in a letter accompanying the documents.

"Today, our society has reached another tipping point."

"There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future," said Zuckerberg, whose $500,000 base salary will drop to a dollar from Jan 1, 2013.

"The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented."

Facebook had previously been expected to raise $10 billion in what would have been the fourth-largest IPO in US history, after Visa Inc, General Motors, and AT&T Wireless, according to Thomson Reuters data.

As expected, the prospectus underscored how the lion's share of Facebook's revenue, 85 percent, was derived from advertising in 2011. Last year, social-gaming company Zynga , the creator of Farmville, accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue.

The announcement was made after the Texas-based company had a meeting with representatives of its three biggest unions, according to The New York Times.

American Airlines said the move would reduce its overall costs by $2 billion a year, including 1.25 billion dollars from employees.

The planned job cuts would amount to 16 percent of the company's work force of more than 80,000. Of the total job cuts, 4,600 would be mechanics jobs, 4,200 ground service positions, 2,300 flight attendants and 400 pilots. Another 1,400 jobs would be cut in management and support services, according to The New York Times.

American Airline parent AMR is the latest of several large US airlines to go through bankruptcy in an effort to reduce costs and debt. Over the last decade, other major US airlines have used bankruptcy proceedings to renegotiate labor contracts, freeze or terminate pensions, and cut debts.

In a letter to employees, American Airlines CEO Thomas W. Horton said the company had lost its competitive edge over the years.

"The world has changed around us and this is our moment to adapt or lose the opportunity forever," he said.

"Our industry is now defined by the changes our competitors made in restructuring to secure their futures, and the landscape is littered with those airlines that failed to change."

American Airllines' labor costs are said to be the highest compared with its major competitors.

Besides the job cuts, Horton said Wednesday the carrier could also ground older planes and buy hundreds of new aircraft, in an effort to cut fuel costs.

Though other major US airlines have been profitable in the past two years, AMR lost $884 million in the first nine months of 2011. In December alone, the company's losses amounted to 904 million dollars. It has lost more than $11 billion since 2001.

AMR, the third-largest US airlines after United Continental Holdings and Delta, filed for bankruptcy protection in November last year. US Airways Group is evaluating the possibility of a merger with AMR, according to earlier US media reports.

"Preparatory work has been done to go ahead with nuclear talks and consultations are underway to take next steps. I hope negotiations with the G5+1 will be held in the near future," Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, Salehi also told the semi-official Fars news agency that Iran is ready to resume negotiations with the G5+1 and announced that Tehran will soon send a letter to the six world powers to announce its readiness for talks.

"Mr. (Saeed) Jalili as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator had earlier announced his readiness to hold talks with the G5+1 and he will announce this once again,"  Salehi said, adding: "We hope that the meeting will be held not in a far future."  

Nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 in Istanbul in January 2011 failed to reach any agreement as Tehran rejected any notion of suspending enrichment in exchange for trade and technology benefits, as called for by several UN Security Council resolutions passed since 2006.

On Sunday, a high-ranking delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headed by its chief IAEA inspector Herman Nackaerts arrived in Tehran for a three-day negotiation on the country's controversial nuclear program, amid rising tensions between Iran and Western countries over a string of incidents.

Talking about the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran, Salehi said the team of experts from the IAEA did not inspect Iranian nuclear sites although Iran were prepared to make arrangements for that.

Iranian official media termed the three-day talks between Iran and the IAEA team as "positive and constructive".

The IAEA said Wednesday that another meeting between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran over its nuclear program will take place in Tehran from February 21 to 22.