With nuclear dispute at stake, world reacts cautiously to Iranian hard-liner’s re-election

VIENNA — The U.S. and Canada challenged Iran’s claims that hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election, but much of the rest of the world remained silent Saturday despite claims of fraud and scenes of clashes on the streets of Tehran.

Iranian filmmaker alleges presidential poll fix

VIENNA - Celebrated Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf alleged Saturday that the Iranian election result had been fixed by the country’s interior ministry.

India seeks ‘more credible, effective’ Security Council (Lead)

UNITED NATIONS - India has proposed expansion of the UN Security Council to 25 members with 11 permanent and 14 non-permanent members as “the most optimal option” to provide greater representation without making it unwieldy.

GOP blasts plan to limit climate-changing gases and calls for nuclear plants, oil drilling

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Saturday slammed a Democratic bill before the House that seeks to address climate change, arguing that it amounts to an energy tax on consumers.

Brazil: Race to gather black boxes, debris from airliner gains urgency; 6 more bodies found

RECIFE, Brazil — The search for bodies and debris from Air France Flight 447 took on renewed urgency as experts questioned how much longer efforts would prove fruitful, even as six more bodies were pulled from the Atlantic Ocean.

North Korea threatens to launch strikes against South Korea

SEOUL - North Korea on Wednesday threatened to launch military strikes against South Korea if any of its ships were stopped or searched as part of an American-led operation to intercept vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.

Goa has its first tigress, with cub

PANAJI - Even as the Royal Bengal tiger appears to have virtually disappeared from renowned reserve forests like Sariska and Ranthambore in Rajasthan, pug marks of a tigress and a cub have been spotted for the first time in Goa’s Mhadei wildlife sanctuary.

The British Empire was terrified of Punjab’s last Maharani

LONDON - It has now been revealed that at the height of its power in the middle of the nineteenth century, the British Empire was wary and quite terrified of Punjab’s last Maharani (Queen), Jind Kaur, who was the fourth wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

New Nepal PM to be sworn in Monday (Lead)

KATHMANDU - Nepal’s third largest party, the Communists, Sunday said their senior leader and new prime minister-elect Madhav Kumar Nepal will be administered oath of office Monday, heralding an end to a three-week-long political vacuum that had engulfed the Himalayan republic after its Maoist government fell due to a row with the army.

Samajwadi Party to support UPA

NEW DELHI - Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh on Tuesday submitted a letter pledging support for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Indian Navy to induct its sixth landing ship tank

NEW DELHI - In a bid to boost its amphibious capabilities, the Indian Navy will Tuesday commission its sixth landing ship tank (LST), which can carry upto 10 tanks, 11 combat trucks and 500 troops, and has a considerable range and endurance at sea, a naval official said here Monday.

Yucca Mountain, the nation’s nuclear waste repository, gets the ax but is still funded

LAS VEGAS — These days, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prefers nothing so much as a one-word description for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository long planned for his state: dead.

Two more eyewitnesses to be examined in Kasab case today

MUMBAI - Two eyewitnesses will be examined in connection with the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks today.

‘US-Pak-Afghan summit did not produce any new solution’

WASHINGTON - The trilateral Afghan-Pak-US summit did not produce any new solutions or significant policy initiatives for the ongoing conflict with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a leading US based news daily.

Congressman seeks to end online gambling ban, pushes bill to regulate industry

WASHINGTON — It’s time to regulate gambling on the Internet rather than outlaw it, says Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

NC woman returns fragment taken from Rome _ 25 years after husband found it near Colosseum

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina woman who returned a chunk of ancient Rome to Italian authorities 25 years after her husband pocketed it said Thursday she never felt comfortable keeping the terra cotta fragment, but her eldest son’s death prompted her to set things right.

Sexting may land teens in legal trouble

WASHINGTON - Police officials in Virginia have warned that sexting-a term used to describe the act of sending sexually explicit photos by cellular phones-may land teens in legal fix.

Moscow, NATO seek to limit damage to relations after expelling each other’s envoys

MOSCOW — Russia and NATO sought to limit damage to their relationship Wednesday, after expelling each other’s envoys and despite Moscow’s criticism of military exercises in former Soviet Georgia.

NY’s Schumer filing legislation making it mandatory for airports to report bird strikes

WASHINGTON — New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that each time a bird hits an airplane, it should be reported to the Federal Aviation Administration.

UN issues report critical of Gaza campaign, prompting Israeli condemnation

JERUSALEM — A new United Nations report criticizes Israel for attacking U.N. installations during the Gaza campaign, according to an Israeli description Tuesday of the still unreleased document, which it called “tendentious and entirely unbalanced.”

No corporate rivalry behind Ambani chopper sabotage, say police

MUMBAI - Ruling out corporate rivalry behind the attempt to sabotage industrialist Anil Ambani’s helicopter, Mumbai police Monday claimed to have cracked the sensational case and arrested two employees of the firm that maintained the chopper.

Feds move to dismiss espionage-related charges against former pro-Israel lobbyists

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue.

Goa archbishop asks industry, government to tackle labour unrest

PANAJI - Increasing unrest in Goa’s labour sector has caught the attention of the Roman Catholic church, and Archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao has appealed to the state government, private sector and other organisations to immediately tackle the grim scenario in the sector.

UK police trebled stop and search of Muslims in 2008

LONDON - British Police anti-terror stop and search powers trebled last year, prompting fears that the policy is alienating the country’s Muslim community.

Car crashes into spectators at Dutch parade, apparently deliberately; 4 dead

APELDOORN, Netherlands — A speeding car raced toward an open bus carrying Dutch Queen Beatrix and her family during a holiday parade Thursday and plowed into spectators, killing four people and injuring 13 others, authorities said.

Pageant PR rep denies telling Miss California to apologize for gay marriage statement

SAN FRANCISCO — A spokesman for the Miss California pageant on Monday denied that contest officials told the reigning beauty queen to publicly apologize for her statement opposing same-sex marriage during the Miss USA pageant.

Former Indian Bank chairman sentenced to 14 years in prison

CHENNAI - A fast track court here Monday sentenced former chairman and managing director of the state-run Indian Bank M. Gopalakrishnan to 14 years imprisonment for fraud.

Taliban behind ‘Toy’ bombing: Rahman Malik

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Sunday accused the Taliban of carrying out the ‘toy bombing’ in a northwesten district that took the lives of 13 innocent school children.

Bickering among finance officials over how to provide more money for key lending institution

WASHINGTON — World finance officials are bickering over the best way to get the International Monetary Fund more money for its revitalized role in helping shore up capital-starved countries.

Obama administration to release photos detailing US abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq

WASHINGTON — The White House vowed Friday it will not be distracted by an upcoming disclosure sure to gain attention at home and abroad: hundreds of photos showing U.S. personnel allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in the post-Sept. 11 environment.