International News

Wellington, Nov 23 (DPA) New Zealand's glaciers are melting away, according to an annual survey of the snowline on 50 glaciers in the South Island, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) announced Monday.

Brazil's government should hear native Indians before deciding on the construction of a controversial $17.3 billion hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, rock star and environmental activist Sting said on Sunday.

Melbourne, Nov 22 (ANI): An Aussie housemistress has been charged with 34 counts of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecency after seven boys at the boarding school came forward with allegations of rape.

Adelaide (Australia), Nov.22 (ANI): South Australian Premier Mike Rann has opted to remain silent and out of the public eye over allegations that he had secret intimate meetings with a married Parliament House barmaid.

Oil-exporting Venezuela is in recession, its socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday, adding that the capitalist system of measuring economic growth was established in the United States.

Hamilton, Nov 22 (IANS) There has been a nearly six-fold increase in the number of Indians who have been approved residence through business categories in New Zealand, authorities said.

Geneva, Nov.21 (ANI): United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leaders and cadres will be given safe passage and a chance to return to mainstream society only if they give up the path of violence and unconditionally lay down their arms, sources here have said.

Geneva, Nov.22 (ANI): The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, is likely to use his four-day visit to Washington commencing from today, to firmly and emphatically reiterate and re-emphasise to the American leadership, that New Delhi does not see a role for China in South Asia, nor will it tolerate attempted third party guardianship initiatives in the region by Beijing.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday ruled out any military retaliation against Venezuela after Venezuelan troops dynamited two cross-border footbridges.

Sydney, November 21 (ANI): Online dating sites have done substantial amount of harm to the Australian sex industry, according to a report.

Melbourne, Nov 21 (ANI): Swimming champ Stephanie Rice likes guys who are decent and fun to be with.

Adelaide, Nov. 21 (ANI): The Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, has been dragged into a sex scandal after a former parliament barmaid revealed that her clandestine affair with Rann had involved sex in his Parliament House office on several occasions when parliament was sitting.

Honduras's post-coup de facto leader said on Friday he would give up his presidential duties for a week, a step Washington welcomed as a way to help ease a five-month-old political crisis.

The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited on Friday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite its neighbor's aggressive rhetoric and dynamiting of two border bridges, Colombia's defense minister said on Friday.

Six people, including two children, were killed when suspected Colombian FARC guerrillas stopped and set fire to bus traveling in the south of the country, a local state governor said on Friday.

Islamabad, Nov 20 (IANS) The alleged mastermind of the suicide attacks on the World Food Programme office and on a police helpline office here has been arrested, police said Friday.

Sydney, Nov 20 (DPA) An Australian who strangled his wife for waking up his dog and then went out for a drink at his local pub was sentenced to prison Friday by a Melbourne court.

Venezuelan soldiers on Thursday blew up two makeshift foot bridges that stretched across the border to Colombia in the latest incident to stoke a diplomatic dispute between the Andean neighbors.