SANAA: Somali pirates hijacked a Chinese commercial ship off Yemen's western port of Al-Hudaydah, Yemen's interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday. "Somali pirates attacked a commercial Chinese ship named 'Tien Hau' while it was 11 nautical miles off Al-Tair island in Al-Hudaydah province," said the ministry. The pirates "managed to capture the ship" and steered it towards the Somali coast, it quoted Al-Hudaydah coastguards as saying. An investigation has been launched into the fate of the ship and its crew, the ministry added without elaborating further. Heavily armed pirates using speedboats operate in the Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding vessels for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners.

TIRANA, ALBANIA: Thousands of Albanians converged on central Tirana on Friday demanding that the government step down over corruption allegations, two weeks after a similar anti-government demonstration turned violent and left three people dead. Protest marches were also being held in another three cities, including the town of Lezha northwest of Tirana, Vlora to the southwest and Korca to the southeast. The demonstrations come two weeks after three protesters were shot dead in clashes with security forces during anti-government protests in Tirana. Another 150 were injured in the violence. The opposition Socialists are demanding that conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha hold early elections over allegations of corruption and vote rigging in the previous 2009 general election. But Berisha has refused to resign, accusing the opposition of trying to stage a coup. Tensions rose sharply last month when the country's deputy prime minister, Ilir Meta, resigned amid allegations...

YANGON: Myanmar's parliament named the premier of the outgoing military government as the country's new president Friday, handing a key junta member the top job in the post-election administration. The appointment of Thein Sein, 65, was the latest step in Myanmar's self-declared transition to democracy following elections in November, but critics have slammed the process as a sham aimed at cementing military rule. The military's delegates in parliament and their civilian allies hold an 80 percent majority in the new legislature, which handpicked the new president from a pool of three vice presidents named on Thursday. Thein Sein is the most prominent of the three and was seen as a shoe-in for the head of government. An upper house lawmaker, Khin Shwe, contacted inside the parliament said Thein Sein won 408 out of 659 votes. The future role of junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who has wielded absolute power since 1992, remains unclear. But he is expected to remai...

ALMATY: Kazakhstan's veteran leader has called a snap presidential election on April 3, about 20 months before his current term in office is due to end, a decree published in the official Kazakhstanskaya Pravda on Friday said. Nazarbayev, 70, has ruled Kazakhstan for two decades and is almost certain to win the snap election he called after rejecting a plan to let him rule Central Asia's largest economy unopposed until 2020. Nazarbayev, known as " Papa" to many Kazakhs, can run for an unlimited number of terms. Kazakhstan has never held an election judged free and fair by international observers. Many foreign investors, who have poured more than $150 billion into Kazakhstan during Nazarbayev's rule, rate the absence of a clear succession plan as the single biggest threat to political stability in the oil-rich country.

Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the country's 19-year state of emergency would be lifted "in the very near future". The state of emergency was installed solely in response "to the fight against terrorism" and was the only reason it could be upheld legally, he said. His announcement came amid mounting calls by members of civil society and opposition to lift the state of emergency.

Extracting the black gold buried beneath the South Atlantic will be hard. Spending the profits wisely will be harder Brazil's offshore oil Feb 3rd 2011 | CIDADE DE ANGRA DOS REIS | from PRINT EDITION Tweet THE coast of Rio de Janeiro is 290km and 70 minutes away as the helicopter flies. High overhead, gas is flaring; underfoot, enough oil to fill 330,000 barrels is waiting to be offloaded. The ocean floor is 2,150 metres beneath. Drill past 3,000 metres of rock and you will hit a layer of salt 2,140m thick. Only after boring through that fossilised ocean will you strike oil6.5 billion barrels worth in the Lula field alone. (Supposedly, it is named for the Portuguese word for squid, not the former president called Lula for his curly hair.)This is the Cidade de Angra dos Reis, a tanker refitted for oil production and storage, moored by 24 piles torpedoed into the ocean bed. It now pumps 14,0...

TULLY, Australia: Australia's biggest cyclone in a century shattered entire towns, pummelling the coast and churning across the country Thursday, terrifying locals but remarkably causing no known fatalities. Shaken residents emerged to check the damage after Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi hit land at around midnight, packing winds of up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour in a region still reeling from record floods. Officials and locals said 90 percent of the main street in the small Queensland town of Tully, south of Cairns, had "extensive damage", while the coastal community of Cardwell also suffered "significant devastation". "There are people now that have lost their homes, they lost their farms, they have lost their crops and they have lost their livelihoods," Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said. Regional hub Cairns, a centre for foreign tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef, was spared Yasi's worst with problems largely restri...

JOHANNESBURG: From hosting lavish parties where sushi is served on models' bodies to quaffing rare whiskys, the display of wealth by South Africa's new black elite is raising eyebrows among the poor majority. The rise of bling culture, most noticeable among politically connected moguls, has prompted soul-searching in one of the most unequal societies in the world, with social activists equating it to "spitting in the face of the poor". The debate was fuelled by pictures on newspaper frontpages of the weekend launch party for a nightclub where sushi was eaten off the bodies of women clad in bikinis and champagne flowed all night. Businessman Kenny Kunene, a convicted fraudster behind the new club in Cape Town, has been lambasted by the ruling African National Congress ( ANC) for his latest show of wealth. The flamboyant entertainment and mining magnate has hosted similar parties in Johannesburg much to the anger of women's activists. "It is the sight o...

MELBOURNE: New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has been slammed for describing British actress and estranged wife of Indian business tycoon Arun Nayar, Liz Hurley, as "hot". Women rights campaigners in New Zealand are infuriated over the 49-year-old prime minister's "sexist" comments on a radio sports show, online media reports said. Well-known women's rights campaigner Sue Kedgeley said remarks are "boorish". "They seem more like 1960s comments," she said. In fact, the sexist row erupted after Key was asked on the radio show if he would like to be Australian cricket star Shane Warne. He replied: "Yeah, well, given his current liaisons with Liz Hurley. I reckon she's hot." The father-of-two, who is married to his childhood sweetheart, Bronagh, went on to name the 45-year-old actress as a "definite" dream date. However, Key, who has two teenagers, Stephie and Max, said that in his dream date top three...

CANBERRA (Australia): An Australian soldier has been killed by an improvised explosive device during a patrol in southern Afghanistan, bringing the Australian death toll to 22. The acting chief of the defence force, Lt. Gen. David Hurley, said 22-year-old Corp. Richard Edward Atkinson was on his first deployment to Afghanistan. A second soldier was seriously wounded in the explosion in Uruzgan province, and is now in satisfactory condition at a military hospital in Tarin Kowt. "The entire Australian Defence Force and defence community is deeply saddened by the death of this fine young Australian soldier," Hurley said of Atkinson, who was engaged to be married. Australia has the largest military commitment in Afghanistan of any country outside NATO, with 1,550 Australian troops there.

MELBOURNE: Australia's worst ever cyclone 'Yasi' today hit the country's flood-ravaged northern Queensland province wrecking havoc and damaging houses. Yasi of category five was travelling at 29 km per hour and was estimated to be 150 km east north-east of Innisfail and 175 km east of Cairns. It was moving in a west-south-west direction. Innisfail Mayor Bill Shannon said he had already seen the roof torn from a building near the council chambers where 500 people are sheltering. "The eye is five hours away and it's already causing damage so it's pretty worrying," he said on the worst cyclone that hit the country since 1918. Cyclone Yasi's arrival has been pushed back until midnight Queensland time. The Bureau of Meteorology said, "The very destructive core of Cyclone Yasi will cross the coast near Innisfail close to midnight, accompanied by a dangerous storm time south of the cyclone centre." Damaging winds with gusts of 90 km per...

CAIRNS: A terrifying cyclone roaring towards Australia strengthened to the most dangerous threat level Wednesday, as officials warned it could be the deadliest storm in generations. As the winds that heralded Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi's arrival began battering hundreds of kilometres (miles) of Queensland coast, state Premier Anna Bligh told residents it was now too late to escape "the most catastrophic storm to ever hit our coast." Yasi was upgraded to a category five storm from category four as it menaced the populous east coast, where it was expected to hit around 10pm (1200 GMT) on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology said. "This impact is likely to be more life-threatening than any experienced during recent generations," it said in an ominous warning that raised the expected strength of the looming storm. Yasi, packing a 650-kilometre (400-mile) front and an eye measuring about 35 kilometres across, was on course to slam directly into the area betwee...

KATHMANDU: Not ready to rest on his laurels, Apa Sherpa , the mountaineering legend from Nepal, will seek to best his own record on Mt Everest, the world's highest peak, by conquering it again this summer, for an incredible 21st time. The 51-year-old is returning to Nepal in April from his adopted home in Utah, the US, to take part in the Eco Everest Expedition 2011, an initiative by the Kathmandubased Asian Trekking agency. "Last year, Apa carried the banner of Nepal tourism board to the summit of Mt Everest to announce that Nepal will celebrate 2011 as its tourism year," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of Asian Trekking. "This year, he felt he had to return to the peak to complete the work."

LAGOS, Nigeria: An Iranian charged with orchestrating an illegal arms shipment into Nigeria that contained mortars and military grade weapons pleaded not guilty Tuesday during a surprise court hearing. Azim Aghajani and his alleged accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, both maintained their innocence against three charges over the shipment security agents discovered in October. Judge O.J. Okeke ordered the two men to be held by the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police, until a Feb. 15 trial. Israeli officials initially claimed the weapons were bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. But the intended final destination of the weapons appears to be Gambia, a narrow sliver of a country surrounded by Senegal, though Nigerian authorities initially said they believed the weapons were bound for politicians to cause unrest around the country's upcoming April elections. Prosecutors argued that Aghajani, who investigators accuse of being a member of Iran...

SEOUL: Analysts watching the leadership succession process in secretive and bitterly cold North Korea are pondering a potential new clue Kim Jong-un's furry hat. The youngest son and heir apparent of leader Kim Jongil was seen wearing the same pricey otter fur headgear as his father during a visit to an art studio in Pyongyang reported by state media on January 23. A clear sign of Kim Jongun's rising status "is that he now wears the top-quality fur hat reserved for Kim Jongil", said a Seoul government official quoted by Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Saturday. The headgear designed by a foreign craftsman is a luxury only allowed to the leader, it quoted a defector, also unidentified, as saying. "It's an unwritten rule that nobody else can wear such a hat. So if Kim Jong-Un is also wearing one, it means he has now reached almost the same status as his father," the defector said. While other senior staffers sometimes wear similar hats, they are indust...

TOKYO: Hundreds of people living near a Japanese volcano that has been spewing columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the air were forced to evacuate their homes today, a local official said. More than 600 residents of the town of Takaharu in Miyazaki prefecture, on the eastern outskirts of the erupting Mount Shinmoedake, were sheltering in school gyms and community halls, an official said. Municipal authorities had issued an evacuation advisory for 1,158 residents in high-risk districts near the 1,421-metre (4,689-foot) volcano earlier today. The mountain in the Kirishima range in southwestern Japan has been belching smoke and ash into the air since late Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency has widened the area that it fears could be hit by a torrent of high-temperature gas and ash from two kilometres (1.24 miles) to three kilometres from the peak. It added that the dome of lava inside the volcano's crater, which grows as pressure...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI: The United States has no plans to halt aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti in spite of a crisis over who will be the nation's next leader but does insist that the president's chosen successor be dropped from the race, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday. Clinton arrived Sunday in the impoverished Caribbean nation for a brief visit. She met with President Rene Preval and earlier met with each of the three candidates jockeying to replace him. Only two candidates can go on to the delayed second round, now scheduled for March 20. The US is backing an Organization of American States recommendation that the candidate from Preval's party, government construction official Jude Celestin, should be left out in favor of populist rival Michel Martelly. The top US official at the United Nations, Susan Rice, said recently that "sustained support" from the United States required the OAS recommendations be implemented. Many Haitian...

PORT-AU-PRINCE: The United States has no plans to halt aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti in spite of a crisis over who will be the nation's next leader but does insist that the president's chosen successor be dropped from the race, US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday. Clinton arrived Sunday in the impoverished Caribbean nation for a brief visit. She is scheduled to meet with President Rene Preval and earlier met with each of the three candidates jockeying to replace him. Only two candidates can go on to the delayed second round, now scheduled for March 20. The US is backing an Organization of American States recommendation that the candidate from Preval's party, government construction official Jude Celestin, should be left out in favor of populist rival Michel Martelly. The top US official at the United Nations, Susan Rice, said recently that "sustained support" from the United States required the OAS recommendations be implemented. M...

KANO: Clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria last week have left 35 people dead, police said on Sunday, as fresh violence flared up in the flashpoint city of Jos. The incidents were the latest in a cycle of violence in volatile central Nigeria, where religious rioting has killed scores in recent years. "Thirty-five people have been killed in sectarian violence in Tafawa Balewa on Thursday," Bauchi police commissioner Abdulkadir Mohammed Indabawa, said. Only last week police had reported riots that had killed four people and arson attacks that had destroyed five mosques and 50 houses. In neighbouring Plateau state's capital of Jos meanwhile, more than a dozen people had died after clashes sparked by the stabbing Friday of university students by Muslim villagers, Muslim and Christian community leaders said. Churches, mosques, filling stations, houses and food kiosks were set ablaze over the weekend. On Sunday the military sent in reinforcements aid...

TUNIS: Thousands of Tunisians turned out on Sunday to welcome home an Islamist leader whose return from 22 years of exile indicated that his party would emerge as a major force in Tunisia after the ousting of its president. The reception for Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, at Tunis airport was the biggest showing by the Islamists in two decades, during which thousands of them were jailed or exiled by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Ghannouchi was exiled in 1989 by Ben Ali, who was toppled on Jan 14 by popular protests that have sent tremors through an Arab world where similarly autocratic leaders have long sought to suppress Islamist groups. Protesters in Egypt demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule have been inspired by the example of Tunisia. Ennahda is expected to contest future legislative but not presidential elections, dates for which have yet to be set. The Islamists were Tunisia's strongest opposition force at the t...

SEOUL: Five Somali pirates were arrested on Sunday to be questioned over the hijacking of a South Korean chemical ship in the Arabian Sea and attempting a murder of the carrier's captain, local media reported. South Korea's navy rescued all 21 crew members aboard the chemical carrier Samho Jewelry on January 21 and captured the five pirates alive. Eight other pirates were killed. The five pirates, who the new agency said are at age between 19 and mid-20s, were flown to Busan, South Korea's southeastern port city, earlier in the day, to become the first pirates to stand trial in the country for seizing a South Korean vessel. The Busan District Court issued warrants to arrest the five pirates that the South Korean police have asked for on charges of maritime robbery and attempted murder, Yonhap news reported. Officials at the court and prosecutors' office in Busan were not immediately available for comment. They are accused of hijacking the 11,500-tonne ship this...

CARACAS: A fire set off a series of explosions at a military arms depot in the city of Maracay in central Venezuela today, injuring about 40 people and leading authorities to evacuate the area, an official said. Residents were being evacuated from areas within six kilometres (about four miles) surrounding the arms depot, Aragua state governor Rafael Isea told state television. He said about 40 people were reported injured in the explosions. The cause of the fire was unclear. Information minister Andres Izarra went on state television calling for calm and saying that authorities were tending to the situation. Isea said smaller explosions were continuing today morning and that firefighters would wait until they had subsided to approach those areas.

JERUSALEM: Israel's national airline has whisked some 200 Israelis, including families of Israeli diplomats, out of Egypt on board an emergency flight to escape the chaos engulfing the Arab country. An Israeli official said Saturday's flight included dozens of tourists as well as diplomat's families. The official said Israeli diplomats would remain in Egypt for the time being. A Cairo airport official confirmed that El Al arranged the special flight. El Al does not usually fly on the Jewish sabbath to appease observant Jewish passengers who do not travel on the day of rest. The flight reflects Israel's concerns over the situation in Egypt the first Arab country to reach peace with Israel. Israel watched fearfully as anti-government unrest roiled Egypt, one of its most important allies and a bridge to the wider Arab world. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered government spokesmen to keep silent. Officials speaking anonymously nonethless expressed concern violence...

BANGKOK: As slogans blared from megaphones denouncing Thailand's leaders at a recent "red shirt" anti-government protest, one group waved baguettes and held up French placards in solidarity with a popular revolt in Tunisia. While motivations of Thailand's protesters differ from those in Tunisia, the image illustrates how one protest can quickly feed off another thousands of miles away.

DAVOS: Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi told a gathering of the world business elite at the Swiss resort of Davos that her countrymen "yearn to be a part of the global community." "I would like to speak on behalf of the 55 million people of Burma who have for the most part been left behind," she said, in an audio address to the World Economic Forum, the world's most influential annual networking event. "We yearn to be a part of the global community: not only to be economically and socially connected, but also to achieve the domestic political stability and national reconciliation that would enable us to fully address the needs of our people," she added. Suu Kyi said her isolated, junta-ruled country has already "missed so many opportunities because of political conflicts" over the last five decades. But she acknowledged that without political stability and national reconciliation, the country could not be integrated in the glo...

NAIROBI: Somali pirates appear to have released a Thai fishing vessel and its 28 crew eight months after the ship was hijacked, the European Union Naval Force said Friday. The circumstances surrounding the release of the Tai Yuan 227 were unclear but the owner of the ship had received a call from the master saying it had been freed, although he did not know why, according to a statement from the force. The EU had not had direct contact with the ship. The vessel has 28 crew onboard from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kenya and Mozambique. It was attacked on May 6, 2010, northeast of the island nation of the Seychelles. The crew were provided with fresh food and water by a U.S. warship after the release. The vessel is currently sailing away from Somalia. Meanwhile, South Korea said it would bring home a ship captain shot by Somali pirates during a rescue operation last week. A Foreign Ministry official said an air ambulance carrying the captain will arrive in Seoul on ...

JOHANNESBURG: Doctors discharged Nelson Mandela from hospital on Friday after he was successfully treated for breathing difficulties during a two-day stay where he laughed and joked with visitors. The country's surgeon general told reporters that the anti-apartheid hero had suffered an acute respiratory infection but was now sufficiently well to be treated at home, ending considerable concern about his health. "He has been discharged," said Vejaynand Ramlakan, who leads the team of military doctors assigned to care for the former resistance leader who left prison in 1990 and became the country's first black leader four years later. "Dr Mandela is in high spirits. For a 92-year-old he surprises us on a daily basis with his powers of recovery. "He is stable, but will be subject to intense monitoring," Ramlakan added, when asked about the follow-up treatment Mandela would receive. An ambulance was later seen arriving at the ex-president's home i...

SYDNEY: A top Australian medical body warned a renowned brain surgeon on Friday he risked turning his work into a "spectator sport" by offering people a chance to watch him operate to raise money for charity. Sydney-based neurosurgeon Charlie Teo said he auctioned a day in his company as a prize several times a year to raise money for cancer research. The winner would visit patients with him and possibly watch him perform surgery. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said it was against the idea. "We're not in favour of selling seats for surgery. We are not in favour of non-medical people being in an operating room just for the sake of viewing," said John Quinn, the college's executive director of surgical affairs. "It does raise ethical problems about spectator sport if your like, about the ethical issues of confidentiality and privacy and the ethical issue of selling seats for public viewing." Quinn said the days of surgeons perfo...

KUALA LUMPUR: Ethnic Indian activists in Malaysia have decried a government decision to retain a high school textbook that refers to the Hindu caste system. The dispute has aggravated many among Malaysia's ethnic Indian minority who complain that authorities in this mostly Malay Muslim country fail to respect their sensitivities. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said late Thursday that a special panel will propose amendments that can be made to the book before it eventually becomes compulsory for high school literature classes. Mohan Shan, president of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam organization, said the book should be withdrawn entirely because it allegedly portrays ethnic Indians as coming from inferior communities.

CAIRO: "Maalish" is a favourite expression with Egyptians. Effectively used by the bumbling taxi driver who grazes over your foot, the seller who sold you a lemon, or a colleague who came in late and ruined the business deal of a lifetime. It means "never mind" . Living in the halo of their ancestors, with a sense of humour to get past the present, Egyptians are a verbose, slightly cynical, carefree lot. How then did 90,000 Egyptians gather on the streets on Tuesday to scream for change? What happened in Tunisia over the past weeks has been an inspiring revolution whose impact has not only rocked the banks of the Nile, but the entire Arab world. Egyptians at large looked on in wonder as the ordinary citizens of Tunisia were able to come together and bring down a totalitarian regime. While intellectuals whispered that the Arab world had just witnessed its first modern, civilian revolt, they agreed that Egypt shared some of the characteristics that led to the T...

TUNIS: Tunisia on Thursday unveiled major changes to its interim government in a bid to put an end to daily protests against figures linked to ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who stayed on in key posts. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, who also served under Ben Ali, said on state television that he would remain but the crucial defence, foreign and interior ministry posts were replaced with new figures. "This is a temporary government with a clear mission -- to allow a transition to democracy. Its mission is to organise elections in which the people will be completely free to choose," Ghannouchi said in his address. "The situation is difficult and we must concentrate our efforts for the country to re-start... I hope everyone will get back to work," he said, after a wave of protests that came in the wake of Ben Ali's downfall on January 14. Hundreds of protesters who have camped out in front of Ghannouchi's offices for five days applauded a...

KAMPALA: A Ugandan gay rights activist who was late last year featured with other gays in a newspaper article headlined "Hang them" has been beaten to death in his Kampala home, rights groups said on Thursday. David Kato was one of three people featured in Uganda's Rolling Stone newspaper who this month won an injunction barring it from continuing its anti-gay campaign. "Witnesses told police that a man entered Kato's home in Mukono at around 1pm on January 26, 2011, hit him twice in the head and departed in a vehicle," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "Kato died on his way to Kawolo hospital. Police told Kato's lawyer that they had the registration number of the vehicle and were looking for it." Police were unavailable for comment. It is not clear whether the murder is linked to Kato's activism or to his outing in the newspaper. Kato claimed to have received death threats since its publication. Friends of Kato...

JOHANNESBURG: Former South African President Nelson Mandela was in the hospital Thursday for what his office said were routine tests, as the 92-year-old anti-apartheid icon's overnight stay drew extraordinary media attention. Mandela undergoes regular hospital checkups, but his latest visit starting Wednesday stretched into an unusually long stay. Journalists were standing outside the hospital Thursday, watching Mandela's relatives and friends enter for visits. Current South African President Jacob Zuma's office cautioned reporters not to put pressure on Mandela's doctors, and to give him "the respect that he is entitled to." "President Mandela is comfortable and is well looked after by a good team of medical specialists," said a statement from Zuma's office, adding Zuma was being updated on Mandela while at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Mandela's office has released only a brief statement saying the hospital visit was for ...

TUNIS: Tunisia plans to overhaul the lineup of its interim government on Thursday, a move expected to see key loyalists of ousted leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali step aside in a bid to end persistent protests. Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14 when weeks of violent protests against poverty, repression and corruption toppled him after 23 years in power. Since then, an interim government that includes many former ruling party officials has struggled to impose order. Protesters have been demanding for days that the makeshift coalition government be purged of Ben Ali's allies. They clashed with police again on Wednesday. "The reshuffle will be announced tomorrow, Thursday," government spokesman Taieb Bakouch was quoted as saying on the Tunisian state news agency on Wednesday. Political sources said the interior, defense and foreign ministers were to be replaced. Tunisia's uprising has electrified Arabs across the Middle East and North Africa, where many ...

BOGOTA: At least 20 miners were killed and six injured in a gas explosion inside a coal mine in Colombia, an official said. The blast occurred Wednesday at the La Preciosa mine in the northeastern town of Sardinata, Colombia's Ingeominas regulatory agency official, Marisa Fernandez, said. While four bodies were recovered, 15 workers trapped to death inside the mine and one died on way to a hospital, the official said. Preliminary investigations indicate the blast was caused by a build-up of methane gas, also blamed for an explosion four years ago at the same mine that left nearly 30 dead. Colombia's worst mining accident in recent years occurred last June at a coal mine in the northwestern town of Amaga, where 73 workers died after an explosion trapped them in a tunnel.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict said public officials would do well to model themselves on Joan of Arc, French saint who was tried for heresy and burned at the stake for her convictions. Benedict highlighted the life of the 15th century mystic in his weekly general audience. For several months he has used his Wednesday catechisms to promote an important woman in the church's history. Joan of Arc led the French to several victories over the English during the Hundred Years War. She had said she heard voices from a trio of saints telling her to deliver France from the English. She was tried for heresy and witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1431, though her conviction was later annulled. She was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. "Hers is a beautiful example of holiness for lay people working in public life, particularly during the most difficult situations," Benedict said. Benedict expressed bitterness at how Joan of Arc had been treated by the church, saying her h...

TUNIS: Tunisia has asked Interpol to help find and arrest ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family so they can be tried for theft and currency offences. Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan 14 when weeks of violent protests against poverty, repression and corruption toppled him after 23 years in power. The uprising has electrified Arabs across the Middle East and North Africa, where many countries face similar problems. The French-based international police organisation said it had issued a global alert to seek the location and arrest of Ben Ali and six of his relatives. In Tunis, justice minister Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said the interim government which came to power after the revolt wanted to bring to justice Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other family members. "We are asking Interpol to find all those who fled, including the president and this woman, for trial in Tunisia," he said. Under this type of alert, Interpol said it had requested member...

SYDNEY: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was named " un-Australian of the Year"by a men's magazine on Monday for publishing thousands of US diplomatic cables on his whistleblowing site. Australian-born Assange edged out God, Denmark's princess Mary and Prime Minister Julia Gillard to take Australian lads' title Zoo Weekly's dubious award for promising to dump 250,000 secret memos on WikiLeaks. "Dress it up any way you like but the WikiLeaks founder broke that famous rule 'What goes in the memo stays in the memo',"Zoo wrote. "Don't expect any buck's night invites anytime soon Jules." Assange is on bail in UK awaiting an extradition hearing. He is wanted in Sweden for questioning on sexual assault allegations. He has released classified documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and from US diplomats. afp

SANTIAGO: Chile's billionaire president has a reputation for taking risks, insisting on flying his own helicopter against the advice of his security detail. But his unplanned landing on a remote highway this weekend had various members of congress saying "enough" on Monday. Sebastian Pinera had tried to minimize Saturday's incident, denying that it was an emergency landing and saying he planned all along to refuel near Cobquecura, a small town near the epicenter of last year's devastating earthquake. "Unfortunately, cars and helicopters need gas," he said Sunday, laughing it off. But video of the incident shot by a local resident suggests the pit stop was hardly planned. The footage shows Pinera asking locals where they were and explaining that he had to land on the highway because the aircraft was running out of gas. He then makes a call for help describing the spot _ on a remote stretch of road about 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside Cobquecura _ a...

Relatives of Tunisia's ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have arrived in Canada, a government official in Ottawa said. One of Ben Ali's many brothers-in-law arrived in Montreal on Saturday aboard a private jet accompanied by his wife, their children and a governess, the official said, confirming a media report.

NUEVO LAREDO (Mexico): Ten alleged drug cartel members were killed in a clash with Mexican soldiers in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, which borders the United States, the Mexican army said on Sunday. Soldiers on patrol on Friday in a rural area near the border area of Valle Hermoso found a camp of armed men, who opened fire on them. In the shootout "10 presumed aggressors were killed," the Secretariat of National Defense said in a statement. At the camp the soldiers found a rocket launcher, some 20 grenades, two grenade launchers, 24 rifles and a handgun, the statement read. The Mexican government sent thousands of soldiers and police in November to crack down on drug trafficking violence and strengthen security in Tamaulipas and the nearby border state of Nuevo Leon. At least three groups -- the Zetas, the Sinaloa and the Gulf drug cartels -- have been battling for control of area smuggling routes into the lucrative US market, and control of the local northeast...

SEOUL: South Korean navy commandos on Friday stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the 21 crew and killing eight pirates, military officials said. The SEAL special forces boarded the South Korean ship before dawn, freeing all the hostages and killing the pirates in cabin-to-cabin battles, they said. Five other pirates were captured. "This operation demonstrated our government's strong will that we won't tolerate illegal activities by pirates any more," Lieutenant-General Lee Sung-Ho of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a news briefing. The South Korean skipper of the chemical freighter suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach during the raid but his condition is not life-threatening , the military said. No commandos were hurt. The rescue about 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) off northeast Somalia was seen as a major morale boost for the South's military. It has faced strong domestic criticism for a perceived weak response to ...

SAO PAULO: Brazilian officials say about 400 people are registered as missing after mudslides last week that killed 767 people. The Rio de Janeiro public prosecutor's office is tallying the list. The death toll from slides triggered by deluges in mountain towns just north of Rio ticked up Friday as recovery teams reached isolated areas and slowly dug out victims. Roads and bridges are washed out across the region, hampering the ability to get heavy machinery into the areas to speed up the recovery of bodies. The slides are the deadliest natural disaster to hit Brazil since flooding killed 785 people four decades ago.

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities arrested 33 members of toppled leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's family as protesters rallied again to demand the rooting out of the dictator's former ruling party. The arrests were announced on state television, which showed footage of luxury watches, jewellery and credit cards seized in raids on homes of the former first family. Authorities had opened an investigation against them for plundering the nation's resources, it said. The mass arrest of Ben Ali's relatives showed how his influence has melted away since he dramatically fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday , following weeks of riots in the north African nation. The accusations include illegal property acquisitions and currency transfers . Charges of corruption and revelations of the Ben Ali family's lavish lifestyle helped fuel the anger of the protests against his 23-year rule which culminated in his toppling.

SEOUL: South Korea on Thursday accepted North Korea's offer of high-level military talks after months of tensions, the unification ministry said. Seoul was responding to a message earlier Thursday from the North's defence minister Kim Yong-Chun to his counterpart in the South, Kim Kwan-Jin. The ministry, which handles cross-border affairs, said it also accepted the North's suggestion of lower-level preparatory talks. Seoul also proposed separate discussions between high-ranking government officials to discuss the issue of denuclearisation. In a statement, the ministry restated Seoul's terms for dialogue -- that the North accept responsibility for two attacks over the past 10 months and show sincerity about nuclear disarmament. The ministry said it would come to the talks "on condition North Korea takes responsible measures concerning the sinking of the Cheonan and the attack on Yeonpyeong island and promise(s) to prevent any recurrence". "Separate ...