Yahoo! News India

By Terril Yue Jones and Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - A North Korean envoy told China's president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take "positive actions" to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks. Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, met Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, in the highest-ranking visit by an official from Pyongyang in about six months. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Jet Airways, which recently agreed to sell a 24 percent stake to Gulf carrier Etihad, reported a wider quarterly loss, hurt by higher costs. Jet said its net loss was 4.96 billion rupees for its fiscal fourth-quarter ended March, compared with a net loss of 2.98 billion rupees reported a year earlier. Etihad's about $370 million investment in Jet is the first by an overseas operator in an Indian airline since ownership rules were relaxed and provides Jet with a deep-pocketed global partner as well as cash to retire debt. ($1 = 55. ...

By Lavinia Mo HONG KONG (Reuters) - The H7N9 bird flu virus may be capable of spreading from human to human and can be transmitted not only through direct contact but also through airborne exposure, researchers at the University of Hong Kong have found. The researchers found in a study, presented at a news briefing on Friday, that three ferrets - the main animal used for research into human influenza - that were placed in close contact with ferrets injected with H7N9 contracted the virus. One out of three that were kept in different cages became infected through airborne exposure. ...

By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex snapped a four-day losing streak to edge higher on Friday, rebounding as Tata Steel surged after its March-quarter operating profit beat analyst estimates and as recently beaten-down blue-chips such as Larsen & Toubro recovered. Sentiment improved after foreign institutional investors extended their record net purchases of Indian stocks to a twenty-sixth consecutive session on Thursday, despite worries the Fed may unwind its stimulus earlier than expected. ...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may claim to be a champion of transparency, but when an Oscar-winning filmmaker wanted to shine a light on his rise to fame after publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, Assange was none too pleased. Alex Gibney set out to uncover the story behind Assange, 41, and the website he founded in 2006 to leak classified information submitted by anonymous sources, but received little cooperation from the former computer hacker. ...

By Yantoultra Ngui KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan is exploring an IPO of British soccer team Cardiff City for as early as this year, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a deal that would follow the team's recent promotion to the Premier League. The process is in its early stages, the people said, with details on the timing, size and listing venue subject to change. A listing would come after Manchester United Plc's debut on the New York Stock Exchange last year, which raised $233.2 million in the largest sports team IPO ever. ...

By Douglas Busvine MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's leading online social network was briefly banned on Friday, in a move dismissed as a "mistake" but which follows intensifying official pressure on the company as President Vladimir Putin consolidates his power. VKontakte (www.vk.com), Europe's largest homegrown social network with 210 million registered users, was put overnight on a "black list" of sites barred from distributing content inside Russia. Hours later, the ban was lifted. ...

By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) - World share markets looked vulnerable to further falls on Friday, with better economic news from Europe doing little to encourage investors who are worried that central bank stimulus may curtailed. MSCI's world equity index, which shed 1.4 percent for its second biggest daily loss of the year on Thursday, was virtually unchanged, with losses in Europe cancelling out a rise of nearly one percent in Japan's turbulent Nikkei. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian gold futures edged lower on Friday as a strong rupee offset gains in the world market, while demand was lacklustre in the physical market after many weeks of hectic buying. "We are entering into a lean season in India, so physical buyers will be on the sidelines as we have seen huge buying in April and May," said a trader with a private-run bank. ...

By Mike Collett LONDON (Reuters) - UEFA president Michel Platini renewed his call for the formation of a European sports police force on Friday, telling delegates at the opening of the UEFA Congress he was upset that his appeal for one had been ignored for six years. "Six years ago now, in response to...problems of betting, corruption and match-fixing, as well as the problems of hooliganism and doping, I called for the establishment of a European sports police force," Platini said. "There has been no response to those calls so far. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in Wockhardt Ltd plummeted as much as 19.3 percent on Friday to their lowest since August 2012, continuing to reel for the second day, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed an "import alert" on a plant operated by the generic drugmaker. Wockhardt shares had already slumped by their daily limit of 20 percent on Thursday on the U.S. FDA action. An "import alert", effectively a ban, results in detention without physical examination of drugs from firms that have not met so-called good manufacturing practices, according to the FDA website. ...

By Yoshiyuki Osada OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Two elderly South Korean women forced to work in Japanese war-time military brothels cancelled a meeting on Friday with the mayor of the city of Osaka after he refused to withdraw remarks asserting the brothels were "necessary" at the time. The mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, an outspoken populist who has often stirred controversy, sparked a storm of criticism at home and abroad when he said last week that the military brothels had been needed, and Japan has been unfairly singled out for wartime practices common among other militaries. ...

REUTERS - Former Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Friday. Italian Di Luca, who had a previous positive for the same banned substance in 2009, failed an out-of-competition test taken on April 29 at his home, five days before the start of this year's Giro. The 37-year-old Di Luca, who joined the Vini-Fantini team last month, won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic and the Giro in 2007. ...

New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Delhi unit Friday staged a sit-in protest near Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's official residence here, demanding her resignation over alleged misuse of public money for "political purposes" ahead of the 2008 assembly polls.

Shimla, May 24 (IANS) President Pranab Mukherjee Friday expressed concern over repeated disruptions in parliament and state legislatures.

Islamabad, May 24 (IANS) Pakistani government Friday reiterated its opposition to US drone strikes on its territory, saying the strikes were "counter-productive" and "entail loss of innocent civilian lives".

Bangalore, May 24 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will induct Congress legislator S. R. Patil into his ministry Saturday, four days ahead of the state legislature's first session after the party wrested power from BJP early this month.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) "100 Ek Shunya Shunya", a new crime show, is in line to show the real investigations on the small screen. It will take the audiences into the world of police - control rooms, lock-ups, etc.

Ghaziabad, May 24 (IANS) A doctor was kidnapped for ransom here, police said Friday. The doctor's wife received a ransom call for Rs.50 lakh.

Lucknow, May 24 (IANS) The son of an Uttar Pradesh minister has gone missing from Bareilly city, police said Friday, adding a manhunt has been launched to trace him.

Ranchi, May 24 (IANS) Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, allegedly at the centre of a Rs.2,500 crore money laundering scam, surrendered in a court here Friday after his bail period ended and was sent to 14 days in judicial custody.

Beijing, May 24 (IANS) President Xi Jinping Friday reaffirmed China's stance of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula while stressing that targets should be met by all parties involved irrespective of how the situation evolved.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Costume designer Neerushaa, who has been designing for the television industry for the last 12 years, talks about lack of freedom as they have to "go though many people" and admits it is "much harder" to work for TV projects.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Actors Arjun Rampal and Irrfan, who play RAW agents in Nikhil Advani's forthcoming thriller "D-Day", trained with Hollywood stunt director Tom Struthers for real action sequences in the film. Arjun calls him the "backbone" of the movie.

Chennai, May 24 (IANS) Gurunath Meiyappan, the chief of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of Indian cricket board president N. Srinivasan, is expected to appear before Mumbai police Friday evening.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Actor Abhishek Bachchan, an avid football fan, wishes that the Indian football team qualifies for the FIFA finals slated for 2014.