SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard pledged on Tuesday to work towards a minority government and rejected a quick return to the polls after national elections failed to produce a clear winner.Gillard, in her first major speech since the August 21 election weekend, outlined a

Beijing: Beijing has urged parents to register the birth of their second child before Nov 1 -- if they don`t, they will be liable to pay fines, a media report said Monday.China`s family planning policies encourages urban residents to limit their family size to one child.Families who

COLOMBO:  Sri Lanka`s cabinet on Monday backed changing the constitution to allow President Mahinda Rajapakse to run for office for a third term, opening the way for a vote in parliament.Rajapakse, who oversaw the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels last year after decades of civil war, has

ISLAMABAD: Flood-striken Pakistan urgently needs more international aid to combat potential instability and extremism, a U.S. official said, as hunger and disease threaten millions of victims.In an commentary published in Monday`s International Herald Tribune, Senator John Kerry wrote

COPIAPO: Chile`s 33 trapped miners spoke for the first time with their loved ones, reassuring each other in brief but moving conversations by radio-telephone after 24 days underground."To hear his voice was a balm to my heart," said Jessica Chille after speaking to her husband, Dario

PATNA: Maoist guerrillas killed six policemen in a gunfight in India`s eastern state of Bihar, police said on Monday, in the latest of a series of rebel attacks on security forces.More than 150 Maoists battled with the police, who were on patrol in forests about 150 kilometres (100 miles)

LISBON: Many parents give their children too large or frequent doses of non-prescription medicines for fever, coughs and colds, putting their health at risk, according to an Australian study released Monday."Many children are being put at risk by parents’ over-use of widely-available

Quito: At least 42 people were killed and 11 injured Sunday in Ecuador when a bus carrying 53 passengers fell off a cliff, the Ecuadorian Red Cross said.The accident occurred Sunday morning in the Andean region of Ecuador, Xinhua reported.Most of the injured were in serious conditions and

MOSCOW: Nine elderly people died and one was injured Monday when flames swept through a retirement home in the Tver region northwest of Moscow, a local official of the emergencies ministry said, quoted by Russian news agencies.The fire broke out at 0105 GMT in the retirement home in the

SEOUL: A convoy believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived at a train station in the Chinese industrial city of Harbin on Monday during his prolonged surprise trip to China, a report said.A convoy of 35 cars believed to be carrying Kim and his entourage left Tai Yang

RAMALLAH:  Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on television on Sunday Israel would be to blame if resumed direct talks with Israel failed over the Jewish settlements issue."I have to say, and we told all parties including the United States before accepting renewed talks, that the

JERUSALEM: Israel and the Palestinians are set to resume direct peace talks in Washington on September 2. Seventeen years after the Oslo peace accords were signed, the two sides remain far apart on these key issues.PALESTINIAN STATE AND POWERSThe Palestinians want an independent and fully

BRUSSELS: The man who would be Belgium`s next prime minister agreed Sunday to keep trying to form a coalition government, despite an ongoing deadlock between Flemish and francophone political parties.Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo, asked by King Albert II on July 9 to cobble together a

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland is chief among essential components for a peace deal, days ahead of renewed direct talks.Netanyahu repeated his conditions for a settlement ahead of Thursday`s summit

NUEVO LAREDO: Unidentified gunmen murdered the mayor of a small town in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas where 72 migrants were massacred last week, a source in the state prosecutor`s office said Sunday."They`ve just killed the municipal president (mayor) of Hidalgo," the source

Washington: US President Barack Obama says he`s not concerned about rumours about his birthplace or faith blaming an online campaign of misinformation by his conservative enemies for perpetuating the myth that he`s a Muslim.There`s "a network of misinformation that in a new media era can

LISBON: Many parents give their children too large or frequent doses of non-prescription medicines for fever, coughs and colds, putting their health at risk, according to an Australian study released Monday."Many children are being put at risk by parents’ over-use of widely-available

SEOUL: North Korea`s ruling party holds its biggest meeting in 30 years early next month to pick a new leadership and likely anoint an heir to the dynasty as Kim Jong-il`s health deteriorates.Kim, suspected of suffering a stroke in 2008, is believed to have accelerated succession plans,

JOHANNESBURG: A powerful South African labour leader threatened on Sunday to withdraw support for President Jacob Zuma`s African National Congress, ending a long- standing alliance strained by a nearly three-week-old strike.Adding to the pressure, a union representing tyre makers

London: More than nine million adults in Britain have never used the internet, says a survey.The elderly, widowed and people in lower economic strata were less likely to be net savvy, says the the survey by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).A ‘digital divide’ in the country is