World News

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks' actor son Colin Hanks has got engaged to his publicist girlfriend Samantha Bryant.

The 31-year-old recently popped the question to the Manhattan-based PR executive and the Hollywood family is ecstatic about the engagement, reports contactmusic.com.

'Rita (Wilson, Colin's mother) gave Samantha a $10,000 handbag to congratulate them,' said a source.

Socialite heiress Paris Hilton has built a luxurious 'mini mutt mansion' for her dogs.

The singer-actress has got the tiny estate, which is a replica of her own Los Angeles mansion, custome-made in her backyard next to her swimming pool, reports mirror.co.uk.

It also features replicas of her own furniture including a chandelier, wardrobes and chic furniture and to top it all, the dog pad is fully air-conditioned.

The reality star proudly posted pictures of the posh kennel on her Twitter page and wrote: 'I love and treat my puppies as if they were my own children...I have to admit, I may have spoiled them a little too much. But how can I not? Just look at those sweet lil' faces, they deserve to be treated like my lil' prince and princesses. I love my babies.'

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has split from his supermodel girlfriend Bar Rafaeli.

The 'Revolutionary Road' star, who has been dating Refaeli on and off since 2005, has decided he needs some space from the Israel-born beauty, reports People.com.

The relationship, according to the magazine, fizzled out because 24-year-old Bar was keen to settle down and set up home with the actor, while DiCaprio didn't feel he was ready to fully commit to her.

'They're taking time off for the time being, they've split. It could just end up as a break but for now they're doing their own thing...She wanted to move faster than he did, she wanted to move in together, so he broke it off,' said a source.

Upscale jeweler Tiffany & Co would have to see at least a five percentage point improvement in U.S. same-store sales in order to call business better, as jewelry remains one of the trickiest things to sell in the recession.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in New York, Tiffany Chief Executive Michael Kowalski said that he has not seen any "game changer" so far in any of its markets.

When asked what the company needs to see to call business better, Kowalski said: "I would say a trend that represents a 5 percentage point comp movement" in the United States.

"If comps went from minus 25 (percent) to minus 15 (percent), we would say that's significant," Kowalski said, pointing to the U.S. market. "We haven't seen that yet."

New York-based Tiffany, known for its blue boxes and flagship store in Manhattan, has faced a huge sales drop recently, as many other luxury retailers have, in the economic slump.

Mounting job losses, tight credit access and the turbulence in stock markets have made matters worse for even affluent consumers. More shoppers are trying to haggle for lower prices at Tiffany stores now, Kowalski said.

Tiffany has vowed that it will not discount its jewelry, as it tries to protect its luxury brand image

Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp has an alternative career lined up should he ever decide to quit acting - he's a secret portrait artiste.

The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor has been nurturing his talent for years and picks up a paintbrush whenever he has difficulty sleeping, reports contactmusic.com.

He's been honing his talents by creating oil portraits of literary heroes and celebrity friends.

'I started painting people I admire, like (author Jack) Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Nelson Algren, Marlon Brando, Patti Smith, my girl (Vanessa Paradis), my kids. I painted (late journalist) Hunter (S. Thompson) a couple of times (and) Keith Richards...What I love to do is paint people's faces, you know, their eyes. Because you want to find that emotion, see what's going on behind their eyes,' he said.

Rumours are rife that pop diva Britney Spears is dating her agent, Jason Trawick.

Mirror.co.uk reports that the 'Toxic' singer, currently in Britain on her 'Circus' tour, was visited by the media man here last weekend and love sparked between the two.

Friends of 27-year-old singer said even her dad Jamie approves of her choice and thinks Trawick apparently makes her very happy and is said to get on well with her two sons, Sean Preston, 3, and Jayden James, 2, by ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Internet reports also claim that Trawick can't wait for Spears to finish her tour so he can take her on a holiday.

For the residents of Dhankawadi slum on the city outskirts, a few minutes of bad transmission is usually forgivable. But on Wednesday evening as residents of Sai Dutta Nagar in Dhanakwadi prepared for the show of all shows, they made sure no such ''crisis-situation'' would interrupt even a few seconds of viewing. For none of them wanted to miss those precious moments when 17-year-old Rahul Mane of their basti garnered accolades from ace choreographer Farah Khan for his performance on the reality show Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. For Mane himself, the class XII student who earns an extra bit of income for his family as a newspaper vendor, the choreographer's compliments were a dream come true.

Bowled over by Mane's performance judges Anu Malik and Farah Khan regarded the act as a commendable one. Applauding the 17 year old's passion for dance the judges congratulated Mane's parents. The dance guru herself requested his parents to allow him to pursue a career in dance. Putting up a unique act — a dance performance with four legs — Mane had Farah Khan asking for an encore and won Rs 10,000 on the show. Elaborating on the act Mane's choreographer Ganesh Jadhav says, "The act gives you the impression that the person is dancing with four legs. The dancer uses two hands to make it look like two other legs and the coat has two artificial hands mad of cotton and thin rods."

Creditably enough the one-minute act was extended by 45 seconds as neither the audience nor judges could get enough of it. "The act was a little different because by attaching two artificial legs, I had to dance like a four-legged dancer. I used my hands to move the artificial legs and performed to the number Behka main behka from Ghajini. When Farah Khan, who has made even King Khan dance to her tunes, complimented me, I could not hold back tears of joy," says Mane. Khan commented that she had never seen something like this before.Calling it a unique concept she added that Mane is a born dancer.

Today, Mane, who went to a low-profile dance school to learn the art and put up with many disparaging comments, stands tall. In a parking space in Bibewadi, Mane's dance teacher Ganesh Jadhav conducted his classes. "Many of us did not even have chappals to wear. Other kids laughed at us. But the passion to learn dance kept us going," reminisces Mane.

However, Mane, who qualified for the one-minute round, could not advance to Friday's grand finale. Nevertheless, his spirits soar high. "I will definitely make a career in dance if supported," he says.

After acting as NRI kids in the Punjabi film Pardesi, sisters Ekta Kapoor and Ritika Kapoor are all set to win several hearts with the roles they have bagged in two Hindi films — Farm House and Ishaq aisa bhi.

While Ekta studies in Class V, Ritika is a student of Class IV at R S Model Senior Secondary School in Shastri Nagar.

Although they are yet to be briefed about their role in Farm House, they have some reason to cheer as they are cast opposite actor Gracy Singh. Regarding Ishaq aisa bhi, we get it from the horse's mouth: "We will fight goons in the film. We are very enthusiastic."

Talking to Newsline, Ekta and Ritika, who have just finished shooting for an advertisement related to computer games, said: "We had been offered many assignments recently. We have also got an opportunity to work in a serial on Colors channel, Char Sikandar, and in Punjabi films — Sifat

Punjab Di, Dildariyan, Buddhu da Aava Pucca and a film based on P N Baba Vadbhag Singh.

Both these talented girls have already worked in Amar Hans' Punjabi venture Pardesi and C L Balani's telefilm Pratibha Ki Kiran.

They have also appeared in several video albums including Aashique Nemanne, Gaddi Challi Paunahari de Dwara Bhagton, Mata Ki Bhetein — the list is exhaustive.

Apart from being budding stars, both sisters shine in academics too. While Ekta wants to learn all the languages and aspires to be a solider along with being a celebrity, Ritika wants to make a career in the field of environmental science.

Like all other children of their age, the sisters spend their free time playing with dolls, kitchen sets and of course friends.

While their proud mother Poonam Kapoor is a councillor at Christian Medical College and Hospital, father Yashpal Kapoor works in a local industrial unit.

Ask them how the children manage their studies along with a jam-packed schedule of shoots, Yashpal Kapoor beams:

"They take leave from school and my wife takes care of their studies during the shooting. We are very proud of our daughters."

The Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, is all set to start cleanliness work on the approximately 1-km long nallah running between Vishvkarma Chowk and the railway crossing of Gurdwara Dukhniwaran. The cleanliness work, to begin from Thursday, will be followed with the construction of slabs to cover the nallah.

It was after a meeting with residents of the areas adjoining the nallah that MC Zonal Commissioner Vinod Sharda decided to undertake cleanliness work of the nallah.

"While the residents suggested that the nallah should be permanently covered, we have decided to construct slabs around the nallah so that periodic cleanliness drives can be undertaken. Closing down of the nallah may result in waterlogging during the ensuing monsoons," said Sharda, while adding that work orders have already been awarded to a contractor.

Interestingly, the stench emanating from the nallah had prompted residents to construct ramps at various points, following which the MC demolished these structures last year in the name of encroachment.

The MC had, thereafter, promised to get the nallah cleaned — an assurance that has not been forthcoming until now.

Superintending Engineer, Operation and Maintenance Cell, Arun Sharma maintained that the entire work will be completed within a month.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) on Wednesday approved setting up of three new colleges and declared an increase of 630 seats in the existing and the new medical colleges in the state from the current academic year.

Sources said the meeting chaired by MCI chairman Dr Ketan Desai cleared setting up of three new medical colleges in the state having 150 seats each.

One of these new colleges will be in Ahmedabad and will be run by the AMC Medical Education Trust. The second medical college will be in Kutch and will be managed by the Adani Trust. The third new medical college in the state will be set up at Bhavnagar and will be run by the K J Mehta Trust.

Moreover, the MCI has decided to allow an increase of 50 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation-run medical college, 50 seats each in Rajkot and

Bhavnagar colleges and 30 seats in Surat Government Medical College.

Western Railway authorities have approached the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) to pay the salary of an additional gatekeeper deployed to man the crossing at Vadsar. The issue will be discussed in the Standing Committee meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday.

VMC officials informed that the local body pays for the salary of the railway gatekeepers as part of the national policy.

In a letter addressed to VMC Commissioner M K Das, railway authorities said that the civic body had not paid the salary of the additional gatekeeper after he was deployed in 2005.

"Since 1978 the Western Railway has been deploying two gatekeepers at Vadsar railway crossing, which connects Vadsar and Makarpura GIDC Road. However, an additional gatekeeper had to be deployed, considering the heavy traffic flow at the crossing. The VMC passed a resolution to have an additional gatekeeper on February 10, 2005, but his salary was not paid till August 2008," said a VMC official.

VMC Commissioner M K Das said: "As per the letter, we will have to pay Rs 5,87,891 to the Western Railway. The final decision will be taken after a discussion at the Standing Committee meeting."

Sources, however, revealed that the issue was taken up earlier as well, but the authorities failed to arrive at a final decision. "We have written a number of letters to the Western Railway between 2005 and 2009, requesting them not to charge us for the gatekeepers, as they are serving the Western Railway," said an official requesting anonymity.

There are at least three manned crossings, including Vadsar, Lal Baugh and Kalali. "We have to shell out funds for the gate keepers, right from their salary to other miscellaneous expenses, which is not justified," the official added.

Divisional Railway Manager Suhas Kumar said: "It is true that the payment has been held up for some reasons, but we meet every month with the top VMC officials and sort out all such pending issues. Similarly this issue will also be solved in the near future. In any case, it is only a question of few months because the Vadsar crossing will be closed after the construction of the Vadsar Rail Over Bridge gets over."

In the backdrop of the unrest in the Valley over the rape and murder of two young women in South Kashmir's Shopian district, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will chair a high-level meeting of the Unified Command Council in Srinagar on Thursday.

While Chidambaram, in his two-day visit, is expected to review the overall security situation in JandK, sources say that the rape and killing of two women and the aftermath of the incident will be on top of his agenda. Thursday's meeting will be attended by CM Omar Abdullah as well as top officers from the Police, CRPF, Army and various intelligence agencies. Police officials will be briefing the Home Minister about the incident and steps taken by the administration to trace the persons involved in the brutal murders.

Sources said Chidambaram had initially planned to also go to Shopian, but this visit appears to have been cancelled. "We don't have any information about the Home Minister's visit to the town," said a senior district official.

Amid a spate of racial attacks on students that have dented its image, Australia today named an Indian-Australian as its new envoy to New Delhi in an apparent bid to assuage feelings in India. Peter Varghese, Australia's intelligence chief and a close aide of Premier Kevin Rudd, has been nominated as the new High Commissioner to India even as an incident of a beating up of an Indian student was reported while a stand-off broke out between the police and students in Sydney.

Varghese, the current head of the Office of National Assessments (ONA), will take over in August from John McCarthy, who has served in the job since 2004. The announcement comes as Kamal Jit, a 23-year-old Indian student, was beaten up for the second time in a fortnight by a group of youths here.

At least 300 members of the community today staged a sit in Harris Park in Sydney, triggering a stand-off with the police as the students sought the immediate release of a colleague arrested by the authorities. Meanwhile, a group of Indian students allegedly stabbed a 20-year-old man in a western suburb here after they were racially abused.

Varghese' appointment has been made at a sensitive time in bilateral relations with the billion dollar foreign student market under threat due to spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney. More than 90,000 Indians are currently studying in Australia.

The number of bodies recovered from the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last week rose to 24, Brazilian authorities said.

Another eight bodies from the flight that had been carrying 228 people were found Monday, the Brazilian Navy and Air Force said in the northeastern city of Recife.

The teams have also discovered hundreds of large and small pieces of the Airbus A330-200 that disappeared June 1 while on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris as well as personal belongings of its passengers, they said.

The remains were found about 440 km northeast of Brazil's tiny, unpopulated Atlantic island group, the St Peter and St Paul Rocks. The sea is about 3,500 metres deep at that location.

Six ships and 14 planes have been deployed round the clock in the search area about 1,200 km northeast of the Brazilian coastline.

The Brazilian recovery frigate Constituicao was returning to land and was on its way to the island of Fernando de Noronha, where it was expected to arrive Tuesday at the earliest with the 16 bodies discovered over the weekend.

The bodies were to receive an initial examination on Fernando de Noronha, about 350 km from the mainland. They then would be flown to Recife, where the process of identification would begin.

Relatives were asked to provide hair and blood samples to aid in the identifications through DNA comparisons.

Boats were fishing debris and belongings from the sea, which included bags, laptop computers, video and digital cameras, passenger seats and plastic fittings from the cabin. Television footage showed wreckage marked with 'Air France'.

Where the wreck of Flight 447 exactly lies was unknown as was what caused it to go down.

A French submarine was dispatched to help search for the plane's black boxes, which record a plane's instrument readings and cockpit conversations, to help in the investigation.

The wreckage was believed to lie at a depth of more than 3,000 metres, and experts said they believed the recovery of the black boxes was unlikely.

Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon Sunday named an ambassador for the victim's families, his office said.

Pierre-Jean Vandoorne is to assist the relatives of the 216 passengers from 32 countries and 12 crew members who died in the accident in their dealings with governments, bureaucracies and Air France.

Vandoorne would also try to facilitate cooperation between French authorities and officials in the countries affected by the crash.

Universities Australia has adopted a ten point action plan for student safety from recommendations developed by the Deputy and Pro Vice-Chancellors (International) from Australian universities, as part of a meeting convened by Universities Australia in Canberra on June 4 and 5. The plan emphasises strong law enforcement plus necessary complementary actions.

University leaders met with members of the Canberra diplomatic community during the meeting, and guests included the Indian High Commissioner to Australia Mrs Sujatha Singh, as well as Commonwealth officials.

Universities Australia's Lead Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Daryl Le Grew, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, also addressed the meeting.

"The meeting affirmed the crucial importance of international integration through education. It unreservedly condemned the deplorable attacks that have been reported involving international students studying at Australian universities or at vocational education and training institutions, both public and private," Universities Australia's Chief Executive Dr Glennithers said today.

"Universities believe that the situation requires a national response and close cooperation between all education providers and the Commonwealth government, state authorities, foreign governments and their diplomatic representatives and other partners, to find solutions which will enhance the total educational experience including ensuring the present and futureafety of all students," Dr Withers said.

The adoption of this action plan follows longer-standing advocacy for such measures by Universities Australia, more recent Universities Australia statements of condemnation of the attacks on international students, and support for new Commonwealth Government international education initiatives.

In relation to the recent violent incidents, Universities Australia welcomes the response from the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister, the Minister for Trade, the Leader of the Opposition, and State Premiers.

"To implement this plan, the University sector is ready to be involved in working with national and state/territory authorities and other stakeholders such as other education providers, community representatives and those who employ student workers," Dr Withers said.

The 10-point action plan is as follows:

1. Support proactive, preventive approaches to assuring student safety; and collaborate with local law enforcement authorities to increase levels of security including through improved cultural awareness and via increased visibility of police and security officers in locations where international students study, work, travel and live, and with suitable complaints bodies being in place to respond to concerns over inaction.

2. Work with diplomatic missions and the Australian government to streamline and enhance existing reporting processes for missions regarding student safety. At the same time work in partnership with Australia's own diplomatic posts as required, developing fully integrated communication processes to advise and support students on living and studying in Australia upon receipt of their student visas.

3. Cooperate with governments, local authorities and housing industry representatives to ensure the availability of sufficient affordable and secure accommodation for all students including international students upon arrival. Consider innovative finance mechanisms to assist both the students and the construction arrangements e.g. a Fund akin to the Educationnvestment Fund to support this at appropriately sustainable levels.

4. Advocate that all state and territory authorities immediately make available travel concessions for all students to help enhance their safety and security when moving between campuses, accommodation and workplaces, and improve public transport safety for all, and encourage employer and union support for assuring safe travel conditions for student workers.

5. Sustain and expand the current provision of information by all education providers on student security and safety from pre-departure programs, arrival and orientation through to graduation; and encourage students themselves to act on this information by taking safety precautions whenever possible.

6. Reinforce strategies for the integration of students of all nationalities and backgrounds on our campuses and in our communities, and promote a greater understanding of international cultures and languages in Australia through collaboration between the Australian Government, overseas governments and international agencies.

7. Cooperate with authorities in student source countries to ensure that university recruitment agents accurately represent all aspects of the international student experience, including safety aspects and the cost of living, and ensure that visa issue by Australian authorities is focussed on genuine and suitable educational objectives.

8. Enhance campus-based student support programs in health, child care, counselling, and employment services and expand specific safety programs including through ongoing input from local authorities, such as police commands, road and traffic authorities, real estate institutes and employers. Passage of the Student Services and Amenities Bill by the current parliament would assist this process immeasurably.

9. Encourage campus and national student leadership to take a pro-active role in representing and supporting international students to enable them to raise important issues regarding the quality of the student experience.

10. Engage strongly in the forthcoming ESOS review and establishment of TEQSA to ensure that appropriate accreditation and quality assurance of all international education providers in Australia is guaranteed, including via strong and effective enforcement mechanisms. The action plan adopted here anticipates a further more detailed Position Paper on the Student Experience and Student Safety to be issued shortly by Universities Australia.

The police chief of Australia's Victoria state on Tuesday admitted that some of the attacks on Indian students across the country were racially motivated, as claimed by most of the Indian victims.

Victoria's chief commissioner of police Simon Overland said that some of the robbery attacks were racially motivated and others are were opportunistic.

"Whatever the motivation, the attacks are not okay. Violence is not okay, being robbed is not okay," Overland said.

Overland also highlighted that there is no place for racism in the community.

"There is a shared responsibility between police and the media to provide important messages to the public and to have an open dialogue to understand where the other is coming from, and finding suitable solutions to problems," Overland said.

Despite Australia's claims that the recent attacks on Indians are not racist in nature, figures revealed by police chief commissioner show that crimes against Indians have risen considerably in the past two years.

Earlier, Victoria police officials had released figures, which revealed that there were 1,083 reported cases of robbery and assault against Indians in 2007-08.

Recovery teams have pulled an additional 17 bodies out of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil, bringing the total number of bodies retrieved after last week's Air France plane crash to 41.

The airliner, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board, crashed into the ocean in the early hours of June 1 about 1,300 km northeast of Brazil's coast, in a region beset by rough seas and tumultuous storms, which have hindered recovery efforts.

As the Brazilian military continued to look for more bodies, the remains of 16 people that were recovered from the ocean over the weekend were brought to the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, located near the crash site. The bodies will later be transferred to mainland Brazil, where they were to be examined by forensic experts from Brazil and France.

Brazilian civil aviation spokesman, Brigadier Ramon Cardoso, said the 25 bodies recovered Monday and Tuesday were also being taken to the island.

Beginning Wednesday the search area would be expanded to the north towards the Saint Paul and Saint Peter Rocks archipelago, in an area under the control of Senegal, Cardoso said.

The African country had authorised the activities of search aircraft and ships in that region, where the bodies of other occupants of the crashed Airbus A330-200 were believed to have been carried by marine currents.

The Brazilian military was also retrieving debris from the airliner, which would eventually be handed over to French authorities investigating the cause of the crash.

On Tuesday, they showed a photograph of one such portion of the plane - apparently a wing - which is aboard the recovery ship Constituicao, although they warned that it may be some time before such debris is transferred to Fernando de Noronha.

'Rescuing bodies remains our priority,' Tabosa said.

The cause of the worst commercial aviation disaster since 2001 remains a mystery. Eight days after the Airbus A330-200 plunged into the sea, the attention of investigators remained focused on the plane's airspeed sensors, which apparently malfunctioned in the final minutes of the doomed flight.

Because of the crash, Air France has presented its pilots with a schedule for replacing the sensors, called Pitot tubes, on its fleet of Airbus A330 and A340 planes, the online edition of the weekly Le Point reported Tuesday.

According to a spokesman for a union representing Air France personnel, the replacement of two of three Pitot tubes on each plane is to take place in a few days.

Pitot tubes provide information about ambient air pressure and therefore aid in measuring the airspeed of an aircraft.

Although no link between a malfunction of the Pitot tubes and the crash has yet been made, investigators are concentrating on their condition minutes before the crash, when the doomed Airbus A330-200 sent out a series of inconsistent airspeed readings.

But the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Tuesday that the breakdown of the Pitot tubes was probably not the reason for the accident.

The EASA nevertheless issued a safety advisory to airline pilots that they must rely on other flight data if the devices break down. The advisory from the Cologne, Germany-based agency went to all operators of intercontinental flights.

Another Air France union has told the carrier's pilots not to take command of any Airbus A330 or A340 plane in which at least two of the sensors have not been replaced.

Since 1995, there have been a number of cases in which the Pitot tubes indicated an incorrect airspeed, which prompted the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) in 2001 to order repairs to the devices, Le Figaro reported.

The measure was justified by the possibility of 'the loss of or fluctuations in airspeed indications in extreme weather conditions', the DGAC said at the time.

It is believed the doomed Air France flight encountered a violent storm just before it fell out of the sky.

The international police agency Interpol said Tuesday that it would aid in coordinating international efforts to identify the 228 victims, who came from 32 countries.

This will involve the collection of data from the recovered remains, such as tattoos, fingerprints, surgical implants and dental X-rays, Interpol said.

Recovery efforts involved 825 members of the Brazilian military, 14 aircraft - two of them French - and six ships, including one French ship. More Brazilian, French and US ships are expected in the coming days.

The French nuclear-powered submarine Emeraude and the amphibian ship Mistral were to join the efforts Wednesday with a focus on finding the flight recorders in an area where the ocean floor is as much as 3,500 metres deep.

Four white Canadians were Tuesday charged with a racial assault on a group of Indians at Langley on the outskirts of Vancouver.

According to police, the six Indian-origin men were playing tennis at the weekend when the four suspects approached them and started shouting 'racially based expletives.''

The assailants, who included three young men and a woman, went on to pull fence boards even as they continued shouting racial 'obscenities and threats.''

Police said: 'The suspects attempted to enter the tennis court which was now barricaded by the tennis players. They were able to force their way into the tennis court and intimidated the victims until they were backed into a corner.

'One of the suspects threw a fence board at the group of tennis players hitting one of them in the head.''

Before fleeing, the assailants took away personal belongings of the victims.

They were later arrested and the stolen belongings of the Indians recovered, police said. The suspects were Tuesday formally charged with assault with a weapon, robbery, causing physical harm and uttering threats.

While 19-year-old Rodney Mercieca was remanded to police custody till his bail hearing June 12, the three others - Lesley Rothwell, 18, and two boys aged 15 and 16 who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act - were released to appear in court later.

All the six victims come from the nearby city of Abbotsford where Indians, mostly Punjabis, constitute about 25 percent of the city's population of about 100,000.

The provincial police's hate crime unit is also involved in the investigation.

In the recent past, the Indian Canadian community in the Vancouver has been subjected many deadly racial attacks.

Two elderly Sikh men were killed in two separate attacks by white youths at a park in the city of Surrey near here five years ago.

Earlier, another elderly Sikh, who worked at a temple in Surrey, was also killed in a racial attack.

Pakistan has reduced the number of troops on its border with India to levels below what was deployed in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, US Special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said. "I will say that the number of troops that have been moved West is clearly larger than the number that were moved East after the Mumbai bombing.

And I don't believe there would be any question on that," Holbrooke told State Department reporters at a press briefing today. In the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan that followed the terror strike on Mumbai, the border between the countries saw significant troop build up.

However, Holbrooke refused to give any further details about the recent movement of troops by Pakistan in the wake of its military action against the Taliban in the Swat valley and adjoining areas. "It is for the Pakistan government to announce their own force deployments, not for me to make a headline here," Holbrooke said in response to a question.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused rival Conservatives on Wednesday of planning big public spending cuts, trying to regain the initiative after he quelled a rebellion in his ruling Labour party.

Brown also proposed measures to reform parliament to rebuild public trust in politics after an expenses scandal which damaged all the main parties in last week's European elections. Labour, in power since 1997, was hardest him and came third.

Labour was destined to lose a general election due by mid-2010 long before the political turmoil of the past week and a convincing Conservative victory would be the best outcome for markets, a Reuters poll of economists found.

One area bound to dominate the run-up to the vote will be how best to tackle record government borrowing when Britain's economy starts to recover.

Analysts say the Conservatives will act more swiftly than Labour, but the opposition has yet to outline its plans.

"The choice, whenever it comes, is between a government which is prepared to invest in the future and the Conservative party that is going to cut," Brown told parliament, seizing on remarks by a Conservative health spokesman suggesting some departments face 10 percent budget cuts over 3 years from 2011.

The opposition denied such swingeing cuts were planned. Conservative leader David Cameron said Labour was also planning to reduce spending and not being honest with the public.

Brown is seeking to reassert his authority and galvanise his party after several senior cabinet ministers resigned, and following disastrous European elections which saw Labour win its smallest share of a national vote since 1910.

The debate over the future of public spending coincided with a report by managers of Britain's state-funded health service that said its survival was under threat because of a looming funding crisis.

British government borrowing is forecast to hit a record 175 billion pounds this year due to the recession and bank bailouts.

Finance minister Alistair Darling, who is expecting an economic recovery towards the end of the year, has said he does not expect to balance the books for nearly a decade.

There have been signs that Britain could be emerging from recession far soon than expected.

The economy shrank 1.9 percent in the first three months of 2009, the third straight quarter of contraction, but a respected economic think tank said on Wednesday the economy was already growing in April and May.

Public faith in the political system has slumped because of disclosures about outlandish, taxpayer-funded expenses claims by members of parliament from across the political spectrum.

Brown said the government would push ahead with reforming the unelected upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords and said all MPs expenses would be published on the Internet.

His proposals were seen to be aimed at defusing calls by Scottish and Welsh nationalists for an early national election as the only way to clean up parliament after the scandal over politicians' expense claims.

A motion tabled by the two nationalist parties, calling for the dissolution of parliament to pave the way for a national election, was defeated on Thursday by 340 votes to 268, a majority of 72.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, on his first visit to Italy, brazenly wore a picture of a legendary resistance hero whom Italian occupiers hanged in 1931, but later hailed the former colonial ruler for apologising for its past.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi personally welcomed Gaddafi on Wednesday on a trip Rome hopes will close a painful chapter in the two countries' past, and the Libyan leader obliged by praising Italy's efforts and a $5 billion reparations deal.

"Italy is the only former colonial state today, the only state, that we cannot reprimand any more," he said at a news conference where he spoke at length about colonial-era crimes.

"It has cleaned up, purified, its imperialist past."

The visit by Gaddafi, his first to Italy since taking power in a 1969 coup, is one of the few to the West since economic sanctions were lifted after Libya vowed to stop sponsoring terrorism.

Rome has pulled out all the stops for Gaddafi, whose North African country supplies a quarter of Italy's oil and is a source of much-needed capital for Italian companies suffering from the global financial crisis.

But, to the chagrin of some of his Italian hosts, Gaddafi arrived with a picture pinned to his chest that was a stark reminder of Italy's past as a repressive colonial power.

To the right of a battery of multi-coloured insignia on his military jacket was a picture of Libyan resistance hero Omar al-Mukhtar in chains alongside his Italian captors.

"For us, that image is like the cross some of you wear," he later told the news conference, likening it to the cross that Jesus Christ bore.

Just for good measure Gaddafi brought along al-Mukhtar's son, now an elderly man who had to be helped off the plane by a bevy of security men.

"A long, painful chapter with Libya has been closed," Berlusconi told reporters at the airport before Gaddafi went to a state lunch with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Berlusconi said the two leaders had agreed that Libya would supply more oil to Italy, while Italian firms would be "in pole position" to win infrastructure contracts in Libya.

Symbolically, Italian television will screen on Thursday "Lion of the Desert", a 1981 film on al-Mukhtar which has until now been banned in Italy.

A well-known Argentine priest was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for sexually abusing a boy at his "Happy Children" foundation, in the latest pedophilia case to hit the Roman Catholic Church.

After a nine-month trial, a court in a Buenos Aires suburb found Father Julio Grassi guilty of sexually abusing one boy during the 1990s but absolved him of molesting two others.

Leftist protesters waving signs calling Grassi a rapist demonstrated outside the tribunal, scuffling with the priest's supporters in the street after the verdict was given.

"I'm astounded, frozen and embittered by this," Grassi, 52, told a local television station.

A media-savvy priest known for founding the "Felices los Ninos" foundation for poor and troubled youth, Grassi has always proclaimed his innocence.

His lawyer vowed to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors said they were considering an appeal on behalf of the two plaintiffs whose sexual abuse accusations were dropped. They complained that the court did not order Grassi's imprisonment while any appeals are pending.

"The risks are clear, all the expert findings indicate that this person can't control his sexuality ... the court has decided to allow a known pedophile, in charge of a foundation for children, to remain free. It's nonsense," said Juan Pablo Gallego, a lawyer supporting the plaintiffs' case.

Latin America is home to nearly half the world's Roman Catholics. Argentina is predominantly Catholic but many criticize the Church for its inaction during the 1976-83 "Dirty War," when some priests openly supported military rule.

Last month, an Irish report detailed decades of child abuse in Catholic-run state schools and orphanages, the latest chapter in sex abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church around the world.

* Russia expects North Korea to carry out new missile test

* Vote on resolution could come on Friday - diplomat

* Draft resolution reflects compromises with Russia, China

World powers on Wednesday agreed to expand sanctions to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test and weapons program, as Russia said it expected the North to launch another provocative missile test.

The draft U.N. sanctions resolution, written by the United States and endorsed by the four other permanent Security Council members, plus Japan and South Korea, was discussed at a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council.

"If all goes well we're expecting a vote on the resolution on Friday," a U.N. diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Delegations will now send the draft to their capitals to see if it is acceptable.

The agreement ended more than two weeks of closed-door negotiations. The United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea all demanded tough sanctions against Pyongyang for its May nuclear test, but Russia and China held out for a milder resolution to avoid provoking North Korea.

The draft "condemns in the strongest terms" North Korea's nuclear test last month and "demands that (it) not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology."

The end result reflected compromises to satisfy Chinese and Russian objections. Beijing and Moscow had opposed language in earlier drafts requiring all countries to inspect North Korea ships carrying suspicious cargo that might violate a partial U.N. trade and arms embargo.

In the latest version, the Security Council "calls upon" states to inspect suspicious sea, air and land cargoes but does not demand it. However, the draft resolution would require countries to deny fuel to any suspicious North Korean ships and direct them to dock at "an appropriate and convenient port."

Once docked, the draft says local authorities would conduct a "required inspection" and must seize and destroy any cargo transported in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin explained this point, saying that for the country controlling the port, "it is your responsibility and you are being called upon by the Security Council to do this inspection."

An Indian has won Nordic carrier Finnair's award for best envisaging how flying would look and feel like in the future, besting 1,000 competitors from around the world.

The prize, Finnair tickets between Europe and Asia, was won by Dattatray Kuvalekar from India, the airline said in a statement here Wednesday.

To mark the 85th anniversary of its founding, Finnair joined aircraft manufacturer Airbus and other industry experts in envisioning what flying would be like in 2093.

'Around 1,000 visionaries submitted their views on the flying of the future,' said the statement.

In the competition launched in March, people had the opportunity to vote on which aircraft of the future was the most captivating and to present their own visions of what flying of the future might be like.

'The wing-shaped Finnair A600-850, intended for short-haul routes, was voted the most enchanting design,' the statement said.

In Kuvalekar's vision, flying in the future will be fast and, of course, neutral in terms of its environmental impact.

New technology will guarantee a smooth and efficient travel experienc, he said.

A U.S.-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt.

The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word.

It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.

This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.

There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms.

"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound.

"If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.

He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.

The list also included "cloud computing", meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral", a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer.

"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.

The Supreme Court Wednesday rebuked a lawyer for misusing the judicial process and filing more than one lawsuit for the same purpose - which the law does not permit.

A vacation bench of Justice Sudershan Reddy and Justice Aftab Alam also threatened to impose a penalty of Rs.100,000 on lawyer Dushyant Parashar for misusing the judicial process.

'Is this what you have learnt? Please don't test our patience. If you speak one word more, we will impose a cost of Rs.100,000 on you,' the bench told Parashar.

The remarks came after the bench found that the lawyer had moved the court against a judicial order to his client to vacate a tenanted premises. The advocate had filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the constitution, which empowers a citizen to move the apex court directly in case fundamental rights are violated.

But the court detected that the lawyer had already earlier exhausted his options for moving the court as he had first filed a special leave petition (SLP) challenging the high court order for eviction of the tenant. An SLP is filed to challenge a high court order.

The bench found that after the SLP was dismissed, the lawyer had also utilised his option to challenge the high court order through a review petition before the apex court.

And when the review petition too was dismissed, the lawyer moved the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the constitution.

After a 24-hour search, security personnel today found the wreckage of an IAF An-32 transport aircraft that crashed near a village in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh and recovered the charred bodies of all the 13 defence personnel killed in the mishap. The aircraft had crashed over the Rinchi Hill above Heyo village, about 30 km from Mechuka advance landing ground in the district located about 60 km from the Indo-Chinese Line of Actual Control, State police and IAF officials said here.

Among the seven IAF men and six Army personnel on board the ill-fated aircraft were two wing commanders, two squadron leaders and a flight lieutenant. "The IAF search team reached the air crash site and has recovered the bodies of the personnel, who were on board the aircraft," an IAF spokesperson said in New Delhi.

The aircraft, belonging to a squadron in Jorhat in Assam, was on a routine sortie for air maintenance of troops and had landed in Mechuka yesterday morning. It was on its flight to Mohanbari airbase in Assam and had taken off from Mechuka around 1400 hours and soon went missing from the radar, the spokesperson said.

The police quoted some local residents as saying they heard a loud noise and saw thick smoke billowing from the distant hills. Body parts of crew-members were found strewn around the wreckage of the mangled aircraft, Additional Superintendent of Police H Lanin told PTI over telephone from Aalo, headquarters of the West Siang district.

A ten-year-old girl, disabled in right leg due to a bullet injury sustained in 26/11 terror attack, today identified Ajmal Kasab as one of the two gunmen, even as her emotionally-charged father broke down in the court pleading that the accused be hanged for ruining her life. The father-daughter duo was among the four eye witnesses who identified Kasab in the court, saying he was one of the two who had fired indiscriminately at people in Chhatrapati Shivaji rail Terminus (52 were killed and close to 90 injured).

The other witnesses were a police officer and a native of Jalgaon who were also hit by bullets. Devika, the youngest witness in this case, was brought to the court by father Natwarlal Rotawan in his lap.

In the court, Devika, walked with crutches to the witness box and took oath in the name of God to tell the truth. Emotional scenes were witnessed in the courtroom of Special Judge M L Tahaliyani when Devika promptly answered in Hindi the questions put to her by prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

Asked if she could identify the gunman among the three accused present in the dock the little girl pointed towards Kasab, the lone surviving gunman. He, however, did not react.

Lawyer Abbas Kazmi did not cross examine looking at her tender age, but the court asked the girl if her testimony was true to which Devika replied, "It is not correct to say that I am telling lies about Kasab opening fire. I have taken oath in the name of God and will not tell lies.

Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was tortured by the Sri Lankan military before being killed, a leading human rights body said in a report released Wednesday.

The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) quoted high-level military sources as saying that Prabhakaran was tortured in the presence of 'a Tamil government politician and a general'.

The torture, it said, took place probably at the headquarters of the army's 53 Division, which battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before crushing it last month.

'Several army sources have said that Prabhakaran's (younger) 12-year-old son Balachandran was killed after capture. Our (sources) said that he was killed in front of his father,' said UTHR, which has always been critical of excesses both by the military and the LTTE.

'These sources added that this information is correct unless officers at the highest level are fibbing to one another.

'Our sources in addition to several others have said that all the LTTE persons remaining in the NFZ (No Fire Zone) were massacred,' it added in a 48-page report, an advance copy of which was made available to IANS.

Sri Lanka announced May 18 that Prabhakaran, founder leader of the LTTE, was killed in a lonely coastal stretch in the northeastern district of Mullaitivu where the Tigers had massed their forces before going down.

His body was put on display, placed on a stretcher, the back of the head blown off.

Sri Lankan minister Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a former confidant of Prabhakaran, had told IANS that the LTTE chief was shot dead with 18 of his guards.

Prabhakaran's death marked the end of the LTTE's dragging conflict that claimed 90,000 lives since 1983.

UTHR said: 'Information seeping into the public domain from within the army points to capture or surrender, but the official responses dismissing this are a rehash of stories that public no longer finds credible. It is left to an impartial enquiry to answer this and related questions.'

UTHR pointed out that the government was evasive about the fate of Prabhakaran's wife Mathivathani.

It quotes a brigadier as saying: 'We had to look for Prabhakaran's body because the world was interested in seeing it. But the body of his wife is not of any importance to us.'

The UTHR report said: 'That would be the fate of the unknown hundreds of civilians and militants killed in those last days (of fighting).'

According to the report, among the LTTE leaders who surrendered to the army included Baby Subramaniam, a member of the group since 1976 and one of Prabhakaran's oldest associates.

Others reportedly now in government custody included former eastern province political leader Karikalan, former spokesman Yogaratnam Yogi, former head of the LTTE international secretariat Lawrence Thilakar, political advisor V. Balakumar, Jaffna leader Ilamparithi and Trincomalee political leader Elilan.

Union Tourism minister Kumari Selja on Wednesday postponed her next-month visit to Australia the series of attacks on Indian students in that country.

"I am not going to Australia for the tourism promotional event scheduled in July," Selja said in the capital.

Selja was to attend a series of promotional programmes in Australian cities in July, which the tourism ministry had planned to showcase India as an attractive adventure tourism destination.

"The prevailing atmosphere is not conducive for such promotional event and the ministry will work out a new schedule after the situation improves," Selja said.

The Tourism ministry has already carried out a series of roadshows in collaboration with Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) in 22 cities across the globe including Melbourne, Singapore, London, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo and New York.

"The ministry had finalised a package offering trekking, river rafting and mountaineering to attract Australians as part of adventure tourism destinations in India," said a senior tourism ministry official.

A French nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment began searching on Wednesday for the flight recorders of an Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic last week, the French military said.

The Emeraude was sent to the area to hunt the "black box" recorders, which may help explain the disaster and which are believed to lie on the ocean floor.

Investigators face a long search for clues to what went wrong when the Airbus A330 jet disappeared on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris killing all 228 people on board, French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said.

"Up to now, the time frame for the search for victims and debris has been of the order of days or a week. Here, at the very least, it's going to be of the order of weeks or months," he told LCI television.

The Air France flight is believed to have run into trouble when it hit a violent storm midway over the Atlantic Ocean and potential problems with speed sensors have become one of the focal points of the inquiry.

Other causes have not been ruled out, but France's interior ministry said on Wednesday that two passengers whose names had been identified as suspicious turned out not to be a concern. The website of the French weekly L'Express had quoted a French military spokesman as saying the names could be linked to Islamic terrorism

India seamer Zaheer Khan took four for 19 to set up a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Ireland in the final group match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday.

Both teams had already qualified for the second round of the tournament.

Left-arm swing bowler Zaheer helped restrict Ireland to just 112 for eight after the match was was reduced to 18-overs a side following a rain delay.

Man-of-the-match Zaheer was well supported by spinner Pragyan Ojha, who completed figures of two for 18 from four overs.

Rohit Sharma (52 not out) and Gautam Gambhir (37) put on 77 for the first wicket for defending champions India who reached 113 for two with 15 deliveries remaining under the Trent Bridge floodlights.

Hi guys.Wish you all advanced valentines day
If you are teenagers then this is a apt article for you
Ø Blue- I’m free

Ø Green- I’m waiting

Ø Orange- going to propose

Ø Pink- accepted just now!!!

Ø Black- proposal rejected

Ø White- already booked

Ø Yellow- broke up!!!

Ø Gray- not interested…

Ø Red- leave me