Indian-origin family of four found dead in Australia

Melbourne: An Indian-origin family of four, including two children, was found dead in Melbourne on Tuesday and Australian police are treating it as a murder-suicide case.

The bodies of Nilesh Sharma, 34, his wife Pritika, 32, five-year-old Divesh and three-year-old Divya were found at their Glen Waverley home in the city's eastern outskirts.

Nilesh, an accountant, was found in a hallway, the others in their bedrooms.

The Fijian-Indian family, which moved to Australia over a decade ago, had lived in Glen Waverley for at least two years and appeared to have been a normal, happy couple, Australian news agency AAP reported.

Police say the four deaths are being treated as a murder-suicide with officers stressing that no suspects are being sought.

Bangladesh hopeful of clinching Teesta water accord

Kolkata: Stressing that people of Bangladesh wanted the Teesta water sharing accord signed with India, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Sunday hoped the pact will be inked, saying the two countries were continuing discussions on the issue.

"We are hopeful that the Teesta water sharing accord will be signed. The two countries have continued the bilateral relation and communication that is needed for the accord to see the light of the day," Moni told media persons on the sidelines of a programme here.

The visiting foreign minister said there exists a deep bond between the two neighbours, to queries whether the failure to sign the Teesta accord would adversely hit bilateral ties.

"The relations between the two countries are deep, and there is a deep bonding between the two nations. And the dialogues and agreements between India and Bangladesh take place on the basis of the bond between us".

"Water is an important issue. And the people of Bangladesh want the Teesta accord to be signed," she said.

Attack on Christians in Nigeria kills 15: witness

Kano: Gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded many more on Sunday in an attack on a university theatre being used by Christian worshippers in Kano, a northern Nigerian city where hundreds have died in Islamist attacks this year.

Security sources said gunmen arrived on motorbikes and threw small homemade bombs into the theatre before shooting fleeing worshippers. There was sporadic gunfire in other parts of the city later on from attackers driven from the university by the army, the sources said.

"I counted at least 15 dead bodies. I think they were being taken to the Amino Kano teaching hospital," said a witness who did not wish to be identified. He said he saw many more people being treated for injuries.

A security source said at least 15 people were dead and a source at the hospital said by telephone he had seen 10-15 dead bodies brought in with gunshot wounds and dozens more wounded were being treated.

Bayero University spokesman, Mustapha Zahradeen, said two university professors had been killed in the attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi condemned the attacks.

"The latest terror attacks in Nigeria ... during Christian religious celebrations are horrible and despicable acts to be condemned in the strongest possible way," he said in a statement.

Sudan declares emergency on border with south

Khartoum: Sudan declared a state of emergency on Sunday in areas bordering South Sudan, giving authorities wide powers of arrest a day after they detained three foreigners in a flashpoint town along the frontier.

The detentions and state of emergency increased tensions even further along the border between the old rivals, who in the past month came to the brink of an all-out war because of renewed fighting in disputed areas.

Sudanese officials have accused South Sudan of using foreigner fighters during its assault on the oil-rich Heglig region, which Sudan claims. Southern Sudanese troops briefly captured the area, amid rising international concerns of an escalation in the fighting between the two countries.

Sudanese army spokesman Col Sawarmy Khaled claimed on state television late Saturday that four people arrested in the Heglig region, including a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese, had military backgrounds. He alleged they were carrying out military activities in Heglig, but did not elaborate. Khaled said the arrests prove its government claims that South Sudan uses foreign fighters.

But a representative for one of the three said Sunday that they were on a humanitarian mine-clearing mission.

Blind Chinese activist under US protection: Group

Beijing: A blind legal activist who escaped house arrest in his Chinese village is under the protection of American officials, activists said on Saturday, creating a diplomatic dilemma for the US and Beijing days ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Chen Guangcheng, who has exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in villages as a result of China's one-child policy, fled from his guarded home a week ago in Shandong province in eastern China. Chinese-based activists say he was driven away by supporters and then handed over to others who brought him to Beijing.

The US and Chinese governments have not confirmed reports that he was at the US Embassy in Beijing, which declined comment on Saturday. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, originally due in Beijing next week, arrived early Sunday. He too did not comment to reporters.

A Texas-based activist group that has been promoting Chen's case said on Saturday that he was in US care and Beijing and Washington were discussing the situation.

"Chen is under US protection and high-level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen's status," said a statement from the ChinaAid Association. The group said it was in contact with a person with knowledge of the situation.

ISI claims it tipped off CIA on Osama hideout

Washington: Stung by lingering suspicions that it was complicit in sheltering Osama bin Laden, Pakistan's spy agency has claimed credit for helping US intelligence agencies locate the high-walled hideout of the terror mastermind.

"The lead and the information actually came from US," a senior official of the Inter-Services Intelligence told Washington Post, in what the paper said was a push for recognition ahead of the anniversary of the stealth raid that killed bin Laden.

The official claimed that it was ISI which had provided CIA with a cellphone number that eventually led to an al Qaeda courier Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, the paper said.

"Any hit on al-Qaeda anywhere in the world as happened with our help," the official said. "They knew who the number belonged to," the official said, adding that he had worked closely with the CIA and turned over thousands of suspect numbers. "But after that, their cooperation with us ended."

"It is the story of an extreme trust deficit and betrayal," the official lamented. But the Post said that US officials disputed the ISI version.

UK: Dog fetches phone, saves owner's life

London: A dog saved the life of his owner who fell off the roof at his house in Britain. The animal fetched him a phone to call for help.

James Epps, a 40-year-old former policeman, broke his hip, pelvis and elbow when he fell 10 feet on to concrete at his home in Gillingham, Kent.

Epps managed to drag himself indoors but collapsed, the Daily Express reported.

But his Italian spinone gun dog Basso had been trained to fetch slippers, and Epps sent him for the phone.

"James is so grateful (to his dog)," his mother Dianey said.

Epps is recovering in hospital.

Osama planned major attacks in Pak before being killed: Report

Islamabad: Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had planned to mount indiscriminate attacks on the Pakistani soil before his killing in a covert US raid in Abbottabad, the documents seized by the Americans from the slain terrorist's compound in the Pakistani garrison city have suggested.

The CIA shared intelligence about possible al Qaeda attacks inside Pakistan when officials of the two countries met to explore the way forward in resetting bilateral ties, the Dawn newspaper reported quoting its sources.

The information was "based on documents seized by US Navy SEALs during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound" in the garrison town of Abbottabad in May last year.

Some details of the intelligence "revealed that before being killed in the May 2 raid, bin Laden, along with Ayman Al-Zawahiri... and other senior leaders of the terror outfit had planned to mount indiscriminate attacks on Pakistani soil," the daily reported.

The report further said there were "conflicting reports about the shared intelligence."

Muslim lawyer pledges to 'cover Russia in blood'

Moscow: Police in the Russian capital said on Wednesday they will examine a video in which a prominent Muslim lawyer pledges to "cover Russia in blood" if the authorities refuse to establish courts to implement Islamic law.

"May be you are foreigners here, and this is our home. We will set our rules, whether you want this or not," Dagir Khasavov, a lawyer and aide to an Upper House committee chairman, said in an interview with the REN TV channel.

"Any attempts to stop this will result in blood. We will turn the city (Moscow) into a second dead sea," he was quoted as saying.

Russian Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin condemned Khasavov's statement.

Geidar Dzhemal, head of an influential group called Islamic Committee, said there might have been a "misunderstanding".

Sergei Mitrokhin, co-head of the liberal Yabloko party, wrote on Twitter that he would ask prosecutors to bring extremist charges against Khasavov.

Khasavov recently announced plans to establish an international Muslim union to be governed by a system of Shariat courts.

Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin warned against "restricting the Islamic community in living by their own rules" but said it was unacceptable to "impose these rules on others outside your community".

Stricter visa conditions for Indian students who want to work in UK

New Delhi: Indian students who wish to work after their studies in the UK will now need to apply for a job with a licensed Tire 2 sponsor, the government said on Wednesday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Human resource Development D Purandeswari said the Post-Study Work visa, which earlier allowed students to work in the UK for two years after they completed their studies, is closed from April 6, 2012.

"Students who intend to work after their studies now need to apply for a job with a licensed Tire 2 sponsor if they do so before their student visa expires," Mr Purandeswari said.

The sponsor would be a UK-based organisation that wants to employ overseas applicants from countries outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

As per the new rules, the applicants "can only work only in areas commensurate to their field of study subject to a minimum salary threshold of 35,000 pounds per year", the Minister noted.

Changes to UK student visas, which have come into force from April 6, were announced on March 22, 2011.

Rocket in Syria's Hama kills 12, wounds dozens

Beirut: Security forces fired rockets that ripped through a building in Syria's central city of Hama on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, activists said, in a bloody violation of the shaky ceasefire in the country.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Hama district of Mashaa al-Teran had been hit by heavy fire. The grassroots Local Coordination Committee put the death toll from the shelling at 15, with 30 wounded.

Hama, a centre of revolt in the year-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, is hosting a small team of United Nations observers, who are preparing the way for a larger UN mission which will arrive to monitor the ceasefire.

N Korea leader spent 9 years in Switzerland: papers

Zurich: North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un spent more of his childhood being educated under a pseudonym in Switzerland than originally thought, Swiss newspapers reported on Sunday.

Jong-un first travelled to Switzerland in 1991, aged eight or nine, rather than in 1998 as has previously been established, Le Matin Dimanche and the SonntagsZeitung reported, citing official Swiss police documents.

Little is known about the leader of the reclusive communist state, who took over from the late Kim Jong-il last year, not even his exact age.

Local education director Ueli Studer told Reuters in December that a boy known as Pak Un, registered as the child of a North Korean embassy employee, had attended a school in Berne from 1998 until late 2000.

School friends have identified Pak Un as Kim Jong-un and Swiss newspapers say they have proven - through a scientific comparison of a school photo and current pictures of the North Korean leader - that the two were one in the same.

Norway custody row: Court may send kids to India

Oslo: If all goes well for the Bhattacharya family, then a Norwegian court could send the two Indian children – Abhigyan and Aishwariya – with their uncle back home to India.

A court judgment in favour got a major boost last week when the Norwegian Child Welfare Services said it was in the best interest of the children if they returned to India.

The two children have been in the custody of the Child Welfare Services for nearly a year.

The authorities cited emotional disconnect between the parents and the children while taking custody of the children in May 2011.

The Indian government had then stepped in and diplomatic efforts were intensified. However, there was a setback when the parents said they were separating.

There was a further twist when the uncle then refused to take custody of the children. Finally the parents made a joint claim for custody to clear the matter

Iran woos oil buyers with easy credit

London: Iran is trying to skirt US and European sanctions by luring nations to buy its oil on highly advantageous credit terms, say officials in the industry.

Tehran has been offering a handful of potential customers in Asia, including India, 180 days of free credit, according to the officials. They estimate that each month of credit amounts to a discount of roughly $1.2 to $1.5 a barrel.

But Gulf-based officials and European traders said Tehran was struggling to find new customers despite its generous credit terms. Nations in the European Union, as well as Turkey, Japan, South Korea and China, have all announced hefty cuts in their purchases of Iranian oil.

Iran's marketing offer is the latest sign that its oil industry is struggling under the impact of the sanctions. Its move comes before crucial talks between Tehran and western countries to discuss the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

The US and Europe have imposed sanctions on Tehran's crude oil exports amid concerns that it is trying to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran insists its nuclear work is for peaceful civilian purposes to generate electricity.

Jim Yong Kim chosen to head World Bank

Washington: The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington's grip on the job and leaving developing countries questioning the selection process.

Kim, 52, won the job over Nigeria's widely respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the support of Washington's allies in Western Europe, Japan, Canada and some emerging market economies, including Russia, Mexico and South Korea.

Unlike previous World Bank elections, the decision was not unanimous. "The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high caliber of the candidates," the Bank said in announcing its board's decision.

Kim, president of Dartmouth College, will assume his new post on July 1 after the Bank's current president, Robert Zoellick, steps down.

The United States has held the presidency since the World Bank's founding after World War Two, while a European has always led its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

Unlike previous heads of the World Bank, Kim is not a politician, a banker or diplomat. He is a trained physician and anthropologist who has worked to bring health care to the poor in developing countries, whether fighting tuberculosis in Haiti and Peru or tackling HIV/AIDS in Russian prisons.

North Korea suffers blow as rocket launch fails

Seoul: North Korea's much hyped long-range rocket apparently crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch on Friday, South Korean and other officials said, dealing a blow to the prestige of the reclusive and impoverished state.

Pyongyang had defied international pressure from the United States and others to push ahead with the launch, which even its close ally China had warned against.

According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, citing a defence ministry source in Tokyo, the rocket flew for 120 km (75 miles) and then broke up into four pieces, crashing into waters off the west coast of the Korean peninsula.

South Korea's army said debris had crashed into the sea some 200 km off the western coast of South Korea.

"South Korean and US intelligence understand that North Korea's missile launch failed," a spokesman for the South's defence ministry told reporters at a briefing.

North Korea said it wanted the Unha-3 rocket to put a weather satellite into orbit, although critics believed it was designed to enhance the capacity of North Korea to design a ballistic missile deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States.

Fresh tsunami alert issued after second earthquake hits Indonesia

Banda Aceh: Hours after the massive 8.6-magnitude earthquake hit waters off Indonesia on Wednesday, another massive quake measuring 8.2 on the Richter Scale hit the Aceh province in the country.

Following the second earthquake, Indonesia issued a fresh tsunami warning, which extended for two hours. Notably, Indonesia had earlier scaled down the tsunami warning which was issued after the 8.6 quake.

The first 8.6-magnitude quake off Aceh province, hours earlier, had spawned a wave around 30 inches (80 centimeters) high but caused no serious damage.

The US Geological Survey had said the strong temblor that followed was centered 10 miles (16 kilometers) beneath the ocean around 380 miles (615 kilometers) from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Harjadi, a local official who goes by only one name, said the new tsunami warning was for residents living along the western coast of the country.

It included Sumatra island and the Mentawai islands.

Miss Universe changes rules to include transgender women

New Delhi: The Miss Universe pageant is changing its rules and will allow transgender women to take part in all of its competitions starting in 2013, the organization and gay rights group GLAAD said on Tuesday. Tuesday's decision follows a media outcry over the disqualification of Canadian contestant Jenna Talackova from the upcoming Miss Universe Canada contest because she was not a 'naturally born female.'

Talackova 23, who underwent gender reassignment surgery when she was 19, was reinstated to the Canadian competition last week by businessman Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe organization. Talackova has a Canadian passport, driver's license and other documents that identify her as a woman

Following consultations with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Miss Universe 'discussed a policy change that includes transgender women in time for the start of this fall's 2013 pageant season; a time when most of the competitions around the world begin to take place,' the two groups said in a joint statement.

India has already given proof against Saeed to Pakistan: Government sources

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New Delhi: Government sources have hit back at Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's statements about India giving Pakistan solid evidence on Lashkar-e-Toiba founder and alleged 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Government sources have told CNN-IBN that concrete evidence against Hafiz Saeed has already been given to Pakistan. Sources say the evidence includes Ajmal Kasab's statement that Hafiz Saeed was present during the selection and training of terrorists behind the 26/11 attack.

Sources also point out that David Coleman Headley's statements about Hafiz Saeed saying the Mumbai mission was critical have also been sent out.

Sources in the government said that it was now time for Pakistan to act on the evidence provided.

This came after Gilani reacted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Delhi on Sunday, linking progress in bilateral talks to action against the alleged 26/11 mastermind.

Gilani had said, "We are serious on the issue of Saeed but the question is how to proceed against him without evidence. Courts here are independent and we need substantial evidence against him."

Furious US girl tears boyfriend's genital

London: A lovers' tiff in the US hurt a man quite badly as his agitated girlfriend tore his scrotum after bursting into his home.

Christina Reber, 43, is claimed to have marched into her former partner's home and grabbed hold of his genitalia and squeezed "as hard as she could", leaving the 57-year-old with a long and wide tear to his scrotum in the US city of Muncie in Indiana, reported Daily Mail citing The Smoking Gunman website.

The man had ended their eight-month relationship just days before she allegedly carried out the attack.

Reber was arrested on suspicion of several offences following the incident last Friday.

According to the police report, the wound is still bleeding - and doctors still do not know whether he will be permanently wounded.