BISHKEK - Career diplomat Roza Otunbayeva was sworn in as conflict-torn Kyrgyzstan`s president on Saturday, making her the first female leader in the history of ex-Soviet Central Asia.Standing before a crowd of more than 1,000 cheering onlookers at a packed soviet-era concert hall in the

NEW DELHI - India inaugurated a multi-billion-dollar airport terminal in New Delhi on Saturday -- a shiny glass and steel symbol of the country`s aspirations as an emerging global powerThe state-of-the-art hub, which cost nearly three billion dollars and can handle 34 million passengers a

HONG KONG - Thirteen people were plucked to safety after a private helicopter plunged into Hong Kong harbour on Saturday, police said.Two passengers were slightly injured in the crash, and all on board the helicopter were taken to hospital for observation, including two crew members, a

WASHINGTON: The United States is urging Beijing to be more transparent in its restive northwestern region of Xinjiang ahead of the tense anniversary of China`s worst ethnic bloodshed in decades.Urumqi, the capital of the vast, arid but resource-rich region, erupted in violence on July 5,

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has tightened rules on media relations for the US military, only days after the top general in Afghanistan was sacked over disparaging comments he and aides made in an interview.In a three-page memo sent Friday to senior military and civilian

CLEVELAND: "King" James held court for a second straight day but it was Dwyane Wade rather than LeBron James who had the most tongues wagging as NBA teams continued to woo free agents on Friday.Miami Heat star Wade started his day meeting with the New York Knicks, and said he came away

NEW ORLEANS: New claims against BP from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are pouring in more than twice as fast as the British energy giant is paying them out, US officials said Friday.Analysis by a consulting group hired by Louisiana to track claims and BP payments amid the

WASHINGTON:The US unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent last month as more than half a million people abandoned the job hunt, fueling doubts about the economic recovery.The Labor Department reported on Friday a net loss of 125,000 jobs last month even as unemployment fell to its lowest

SYDNEY: The head of the Catholic Church in Melbourne has offered an "unreserved apology" to victims of sexual abuse by priests, a report said Saturday.Archbishop Denis Hart says in a letter to be read out at services across the city over the weekend that recent abuse scandals have brought

WARSAW: Victory for Bronislaw Komorowski in Poland`s snap presidential election Sunday could end a policy logjam, boosting stalled economic reforms, but also test his governing liberals` mettle, analysts say.Most recent opinion polls have shown Komorowski is the favourite to win the

MEXICO: Sunday`s elections in nearly half of Mexico`s states are expected to serve as an unofficial referendum on President Felipe Calderon`s clampdown on drug violence that is gripping the country. The violence is not only a campaign issue, it has hit the campaign. In the highest-level

MANILA: New Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed Friday to strengthen the armed forces in a bid to crush a Maoist insurgency and Islamist rebellion which have simmered for decades. He said the 130,000-strong force was too small to properly protect a nation of more than 90 million

MINSK: Belarus, Russia sign long-awaited gas transit deal. BDST: 1430 HRS, July 2, 2010

ANKARA: Turkish jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in neighbouring northern Iraq overnight following deadly clashes inside Turkey, the military said Friday. "The targets were hit successfully," it said in an online statement, without any mention of casualties among the separatist

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting his hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday in a bid to mend ties after sidelining him in talks aimed at ending a crisis with Turkey. Israeli Trade Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister

KAMPALA: A fugitive suspect in Rwanda`s 1994 genocide with a five-million dollar reward on his head has been arrested in Uganda, police said on Friday. "He was in (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the people in Arusha were tracking him," Edward Ochom, head of Uganda`s Criminal

WASHINGTON: Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailiani, the first Guantanamo prisoner transferred to the US mainland, is not suffering from mental stress and is fit to stand trial in New York in September, a judge said Thursday.Charged in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,

MATAMOROS: Alex, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, weakened across northeast Mexico Thursday, leaving at least one person dead after disrupting oil clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico.Heavy rainfall remained a major hazard over northeast Mexico and southern Texas, where

MEXICO CITY: A clash between suspected members of rival drug gangs left 21 people dead on Thursday in a rural area of the Mexican state of Sonora, very close to the US border, Mexican justice officials said.The clash involved "two groups of suspected drug traffickers and undocumented"

KUNDUZ: The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide and gun attack on a US aid organisation in northern Afghanistan on Friday that left at least three people dead, including a German national. "This morning six Taliban suicide bombers attacked the United States development