Wednesday 19 June 2013
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International

Karzai to boycott talks with Taliban

Hamid Karzai. Reuters Image.
The Afghan government will not take part in peace talks with the Taliban unless the process is "Afghan-led", President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday...

UN's Ban meets China's Xi for talks

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, shakes hand with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they pose for photographers during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Ban is on a three-day visit to China to meet with Xi and Premier Li Keqiang. Their discussions are expected to include China's growing involvement in U.N. affairs, along with international topics including tensions on the Korean Peninsula. AP Photo.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Chinese president Xi Jinping for talks today, with North Korea and Syria expected to dominate discussions.

Kabul lashes out over prospective Taliban-US talks

President Hamid Karzai. Reuters Image
The Afghan government today lashed out at US efforts to broker peace with the Taliban, suspending crucial security talks with Washington and threatening...

5,000 Indian expats in Saudi Arabia get new jobs

Reuters Image.
Around 5,000 expatriate Indians in Saudi Arabia, affected by a new labour policy in the Gulf nation, have found new jobs, the Indian consul general in Jeddah said.

Radioactive element found in groundwater near Japan n-plant

A worker walks in front of water tanks at Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture in this June 12, 2013 file photo. High levels of a toxic substance called strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that operates the facility said on Wednesday. Testing of groundwater outside the turbine building of reactor No. 2 had shown the level of strontium-90 had increased by more than 100 times between December 2012 and May this year, Toshihiko Fukuda, a general manager at TEPCO, told a news conference. REUTERS
High levels of a toxic radioactive isotope have been found in groundwater near the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, the plant operator said Wednesday.

Bribery trial of former Finmeccanica CEO opens

Ennio Amodio, defence attorney of the former Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi, speaks at the opening of a corruption trial against Finmeccanica, at the Busto Arsizio court, northern Italy, Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Trial opened Wednesday against the former head of the Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica accused of corruption in a case involving alleged bribery to win a 560 million euro (670 million dollars) helicopter contract in India. Giuseppe Orsi, who resigned in February, faces charges of fraud and corruption in a case that has both tarnished the international image of the state-controlled company, Italy's second-largest industrial concern, and jeopardized the defense contractor's strategy to expand in India as the nation upgrades its military. Defendants in Italy are not required to appear their own trials and Orsi did not attend the opening session. AP Photo.
The former head of Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica, accused by prosecutors of making bribery part of the company culture...

Taliban defy peace bid with deadly attack on Americans

File AP Photo
The Taliban today claimed an audacious attack in Afghanistan that killed four US troops mere hours after Washington said it would talk to the insurgents about ...

US cyber spying foiled terrorist plots in 20 countries

The controversial secret cyber spying programme run by America's National Security Agency (NSA) foiled more than 50 potential terrorist plots in as many as 20 countries, including India.

US House passes bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks

People marching against abortion at a protest in New York Reuters Image
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives has approved a legislation to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, one of the most ...

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks must resume: China

Chinese Assistance Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, center, delivers a speech along with Palestinian envoy Bassam al-Salhi, left, and Abdou Salam Diallo, right, chairman of Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, during the opening session of the United Nations international meeting in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace in Beijing Tuesday, June 18, 2013. AP Photo
China called for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians at a conference in Beijing today...

US, Taliban to meet in Doha

Muhammad Naeem (L), a spokesman for the Office of the Taliban of Afghanistan speaks during the opening of the Taliban Afghanistan Political Office in Doha June 18, 2013. The Afghan Taliban opened an office in Qatar on Tuesday to help restart talks on ending the 12-year-old war, saying it wanted a political solution that would bring about a just government and end foreign occupation. Taliban representative Mohammed Naeem told a news conference at the office in the capital Doha that the Islamist insurgency wanted good relations with Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. REUTERS
The US will meet the Taliban in Qatari capital Doha for talks on the peace process in Afghanistan, US officials said Tuesday.

'Mass hysteria' hits Bangladesh garment workers

Bangladesh garment workers arrive for work in the morning in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, June 13, 2013. Bangladeshi garment factories are routinely built without consulting engineers. Many are located in commercial or residential buildings not designed to withstand the stress of heavy manufacturing. Some add illegal extra floors atop support columns too weak to hold them, according to a survey of scores of factories by an engineering university that was shown to The Associated Press. AP Photo
Hundreds of Bangladesh factory workers who fell sick in recent weeks could have been struck down by a mysterious illness described as a type of "mass hysteria," officials said today.

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Sadhus performing Bhajan kirtan at Kamakhya temple ahead of the Ambubachi mela in Guwahati...

A view of submerged buildings in the flooded river Ganga in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand on Wednesday.

A view of submerged buildings in the flooded river Ganga in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand on Wednesday.

A dock worker walks past shipping containers at the main Sri Lankan port in Colombo June 19...

A dock worker walks past shipping containers at the main Sri Lankan port in Colombo June 19...

A view of collapsed road in Rishikesh after heavy flooding destroyed it in Rishikesh on Wednesday.

A view of collapsed road in Rishikesh after heavy flooding destroyed it in Rishikesh on Wednesday.

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A member of the rescue operation team of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) or Armed Border Force walks...

West Bengal Governor M K Naryanan , Dadasaheb Phalke awardee actor, Soumitra Chatterjee(C) ...

West Bengal Governor M K Naryanan , Dadasaheb Phalke awardee actor, Soumitra Chatterjee(C) ...

Buses and trucks are submerged in the rising waters of the Yamuna River in New Delhi, India...

Buses and trucks are submerged in the rising waters of the Yamuna River in New Delhi, India...