Neo-Nazi leader ejected from Saxon legislature

Right-wing extremist NPD parliamentarian Holger Apfel has been temporarily banned from the Saxony state parliament following an anti-Semitic outburst on Thursday. He was removed from the building in Dresden by several police officers.

The politician will now be barred from attending the next ten plenary sessions and committee meetings due to the “particular gravity of the rebuke,” parliamentary president Matthias Rößler said. This means he will only be able to attend one session in December before the end of the year. 

The executive committee interrupted the floor debate to hold a special meeting about Apfel’s comments, which were given under the context of an NPD motion entitled “No cooperation with rogue states – end the Saxon-Israeli partnership”.

Bengal on high alert ahead of Maoist protest

Ahead of shutdowns and protests called by Maoists, police stations in all West Bengal districts have been alerted to foil any rebel strikes in view of the completion of one year of joint forces’ operation on Friday against the guerrillas in and around this West Midnapore district belt.

"We are alert to the possibility (of Maoist offensive)," Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh told IANS, the anniversary eve of the joint forces' operation.

While police stations in all the districts have been alerted, special precautionary measures are in place in the three western districts - West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura - which are considered the hotbed of rebel activity in the state. 

"We have basically alerted all police stations. But maximum security has been taken in the areas of these three districts where Maoists are active," Singh said.

 

The joint security forces comprising central paramilitary troopers and crack units of the state armed police had launched the massive operation in and around this belt June 18 last year to flush out the Maoist guerrillas, who had virtually taken over the administration for seven months after torching police camps and driving out the civil administration. 

Cabinet nod for academy of scientific research

The Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for setting up an academy of scientific and innovative research that will offer instruction and degrees in the frontier areas of science and technology.

The bill to set up the academy will be introduced in the coming session of Parliament.

Envisioned as a world-class institution, the academy will primarily focus on research and training that are not ordinarily offered by the existing universities. Its curricula, pedagogy and evaluation will be innovative and aimed at creating highest quality personnel in cross disciplinary areas.

The academy will operate on the hub-and-spoke model, with campuses in 37 CSIR laboratories linked through the National Knowledge Network, which had approved by the Cabinet.

The academy will tap the CSIR's resources and facilities to operate on a self-sustaining mode. The recurring expenses will be Rs.19.10 crore during the 11th Plan and Rs.61.79 crore in the 12th Plan. There will be no need for capital expenditure.

Medvedev says Russia's WTO bid to be in focus of his U.S. visit

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hopes to discuss in details Russia's long-debated accession to the World Trade Organization during his visit to the United States next week.

Russia has been trying to enter the WTO since 1993, while the process normally takes other countries 5-7 years.

"We've been led around by the nose for a long time," Medvedev said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, adding that other countries "whose economies couldn't be called market-based" have already joined the WTO.

He said American partners have promised their support for the Russian bid and that is what he wanted to discuss with his U.S. colleague so that Russia would finally join the organization.

"As people say here [in the United States] — the ball is in the U.S. court," Medvedev added.

In June 2009, the heads of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan said they would join the WTO as a united customs territory. However, in October the same year, the three countries announced they would resume negotiations on joining the WTO separately, but on coordinated positions.

Arubans urge Holloway's father to delay search during Peruvian probe

(CNN) -- Aruban authorities are urging Natalee Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, to delay volunteer search efforts in her disappearance until police get better information on the case from Peruvian investigators who have spoken to Joran van der Sloot, prosecutor Peter Blanken said.

Police do not want their investigation jeopardized or possible evidence contaminated in the Bubali Bird Sanctuary, a swamp area where Joran once said he dumped Holloway's body, Blanken said. Aruban authorities wish to search a more focused area once they receive more information from van der Sloot and his laptop, which may include files linking him to the Holloway disappearance.

Earlier, Blanken said investigators from Aruba would not be able to question van der Sloot until Peruvian authorities finish their probe of the May 30 slaying of Stephany Flores. The formalities of Peruvian law also will determine the time frame, the prosecutor said.

Aruban and Peruvian authorities agreed to "help each other" in the Flores case.

China’s top legislator meets Pakistani chief of army staff

BEIJING, June 17 (APP):  Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo said here Thursday that his country would work with Pakistan to promote a strategic cooperative partnership between the two neighbors. “We should work together to deepen bilateral cooperation in defense security and other sectors,” Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said when meeting with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, reports Xinhua news agency.

Hailing the good-neighborly friendship between the two nations, Wu said the bilateral all-weather friendship and all-round cooperation accorded with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and played an important role in safeguarding regional peace and promoting common development.

Wu also spoke highly of the fruitful exchanges and cooperation between the two armed forces, saying that the joint anti-terrorist cooperation in combatting the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement,” a terrorist group, indicated that China-Pakistan relations were strategically on track.

Speaking on the occasion General Kayani said Pakistan was ready to seek stronger relationship with China.

Pakistan Ambassador to China Masood Khan was also present on the occasion.

General Kayani is here on a 5-day official visit.

Tax bonanza coming up, hints Pranab

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told TOI that he is in favour of a moderate tax regime for individuals, giving a strong indication that the government may stick to the lower tax slabs proposed in the original draft of the Direct Tax Code (DTC). 

The first draft of the DTC, released in August 2009, had proposed to tax incomes up to Rs 10 lakh per annum at 10%, incomes above Rs 10 lakh and up to Rs 25 lakh at 20% and incomes beyond Rs 25 lakh at 30%. 

However, the revised draft released on Tuesday suggested that some tax concessions that were proposed to be done away with might now be retained. This had led to apprehensions that tax slabs too might be changed from the original proposal to make up for potential revenue loss. 

However, in an exclusive interview to TOI, the first after the revised DTC was released, the FM said any loss on account of concessions granted in the revised draft of the DTC would be made up through better tax compliance rather than holding them as reasons for raising the tax rates.

The life of an Anglo-Saxon princess

The unearthing of Eadgyth, the Anglo-Saxon princess, was an emotional moment for historian Michael Wood. She was the Diana of the dark ages – charismatic, with the common touch

For anyone interested in the kings and queens of England it was a touching moment last year to see the heavy tomb cover lifted in Magdeburg Cathedral. The inscription said the occupant was Eadgyth, queen of the Germans, the Anglo-Saxon granddaughter of Alfred the Great, sister of Athelstan the first king of a united England. But was it really her? Now the results of the scientific examination are through: isotopes from her tooth enamel confirm that this early medieval woman, a regular horse rider who died in her mid-30s, had indeed spent her first years in southern England. It is her, after all.

As a long-time Athelstan watcher (I'm writing a book on him), I confess I almost felt my eyes prickle when I saw the startling image of the open lead coffin: an ivory silk shroud covering (or at least so I imagined with narrowed eyes) an almost discernible human shape. Under the crumpled folds was a small slim frame slightly bent at the knees, like a child asleep. Buried first in July 946, she had been reburied in this tomb in 1510. As blue bloods go, she was second to none: her grandfather, her father Edward and her brother were three of the greatest rulers in British history (well, why not the greatest?). I must say I was glad not to see the forensic close-ups of her bones and skull: the respect afforded by the antique silk shroud had the strange effect of giving her back something of her life.

Canada's Air India probe highlights 'series of errors'

A "cascading series of errors" led to the bombing of an Air India airliner in June 1985, an inquiry in Canada has concluded.

Former Supreme Court Judge John Major, who led a four-year investigation, also called for better co-ordination between Canada's security agencies.

Air India flight 182, flying from Canada to India, plunged into the Atlantic killing all 329 on board.

Two Canadian men were tried in the case 20 years later and found not guilty.

Canadian police said the plane was bombed by Sikh militants fighting for an independent homeland in India.

"This was the largest mass murder in Canadian history," Mr Major said, delivering the investigation's final report.

"A cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of our police and our security forces to prevent this atrocity... various institutions and organisations did not fulfil their responsibilities".

Facebook '09 revenue neared $800 million

(Reuters) - Facebook's financial performance is stronger than previously believed, as the Internet social network's explosive growth in users and advertisers boosted 2009 revenue to as much as $800 million, according to two sources familiar with the situation

The company also earned a solid net profit, in the tens of millions of dollars last year, one of the sources said.

That growth in profit and revenue underscores how Facebook is increasingly making money off its 6-year-old service, which ranks as the world's largest Web social network with nearly half a billion users.

That sort of performance is likely to whet the appetites of investors keen for a public share float, despite the company's insistence that an IPO is not a near-term priority.

Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, the booming social networking site dreamed up by Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, is privately held and has released only very limited nuggets of financial information.

Times Square car bomb suspect indicted on 10 counts

(CNN) -- A federal grand jury in New York on Thursday indicted a suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt on 10 counts, some of which carry a mandatory life sentence.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, faces charges of conspiracy and attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy and attempt to commit international terrorism and other counts, according to a Department of Justice statement.

Six of the charges carry a maximum life sentence if convicted, including two that bring a mandatory life sentence, the Justice Department said.

North Korean players get a Chinese cheering section

Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) -- North Korea's tenacious World Cup football team needs all the help it can get. So it went across the border and rustled up a star-studded cheering section in South Africa.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that the Sports Committee of North Korea distributed 1,000 tickets to a so-called "Chinese football fan volunteer army".

Citing the China Sports Event Management Group, Xinhua reported that the army mainly consists of well-known Chinese pop stars and actors, but garden variety football fanatics were recruited as well.

The fans, who competed with the overwhelming buzz in the stands of the vuvuzela trumpets, watched Brazil edge North Korea, 2-1 on Tuesday in Johannesburg and are to attend the North Korean-Portugal match on Monday in Cape Town.

North Korea is known for its restrictions on people leaving the impoverished and totalitarian nation. It last played in the World Cup in 1966, and China didn't qualify this year. South Korea and Japan are in the tournament.

Lakers vs. Celtics Game 7 live updates

Can't catch the game on TV, or want to follow along with other basketball fans? Join us here for updates throughout the game tonight

Game 7, End of First Quarter: Celtics 23, Lakers 14

The Celtics shot a whopping 59% from the field to take a nine-point lead over the Lakers after the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the Lakers shot only 22% from the field.

Sweden approves new nuclear reactors

Sweden's parliament on Thursday narrowly passed a landmark government proposal allowing the replacement of nuclear reactors at the end of their life span.

The centre-right government announced in February 2009 that it was reversing a decision to phase out nuclear power as part of an ambitious new climate programme.

The country had voted in a 1980 non-binding referendum to phase out its 12 reactors by 2010, a target which was later abandoned by officials.

Since 1999, two of the reactors have been closed. The 10 remaining reactors, at three power stations, account for about half of Sweden's electricity production.

The measure was backed by the four parties in the coalition government, including the Centre Party which traditionally has been opposed to nuclear power.

Apple shares hit new high on iPhone 4 pre-orders

SEATTLE — Shares of Apple Inc. touched an all-time high Thursday after pre-orders for the upcoming iPhone 4 exceeded expectations.

The new iPhone officially goes on sale June 24, but Apple started taking orders in advance on Tuesday. The swell of people trying to reserve the smart phone online and in stores bogged down Apple and AT&T websites. Prospective buyers quickly exhausted the supply of phones that were to be available for shipping on launch day, and Apple said it took more than 600,000 orders. Now, people who pre-order are told the gadget will ship by July 14.

"Momentum appears beyond our bullish expectations," wrote Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros. analyst in a research note Thursday. "Based on our analysis of demand trends and supply chain data, we are raising our already above-consensus estimates, which frankly we find remarkable as we are arguably still in a recession".

Wu, who has a "Buy" rating on the stock, raised his price target to $340 from $320.

Apple's stock reached an all-time high of $272.90 in morning trading Thursday before paring some of its gains. In early afternoon trading, Apple shares had gained $4.49, or 1.7 percent, to $271.74.

GoM on Bhopal to meet today

NEW DELHI: The reconstituted Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal, which was asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to report back to the Cabinet by June 24, will meet on Friday and again on Saturday with the object of wrapping up its work as expeditiously as possible, government sources said.

According to NGOs which have been tracking the gas leak case through the years, successive GoMs on Bhopal have met just 17 times in the last 19 years since 1991.

Given the new sense of urgency in the government, with Opposition parties still in attack mode, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told journalists that the GoM, which would meet for two hours on Friday afternoon, would focus on “reaching out to those people who unfortunately have not got adequate compensation”.

Government sources said this additional compensation would be paid through a centrally empowered body, such as an empowered commission suggested by the previous GoM, which proposal was, however, was rejected by the Madhya Pradesh government.

The daily World Cup roundup

The Local’s World Cup blog offers an outsider’s perspective on Germanfootball as Die Mannschaft goes for glory in South Africa. Don’t miss our daily roundup!

Knowing it can't always be sweetness and light, our bloggers looked at the dark side of the beautiful game on Thursday. 

UN says 400,000 uprooted by Kyrgyz ethnic violence

SURATASH, Kyrgyzstan: Makeshift camps on both sides of Kyrgyzstan's border with Uzbekistan are home to 400,000 refugees uprooted by ethnic violence, the United Nations said on Thursday, and the area remains extremely tense.

Many refugees are running short of basic supplies and fear fresh attacks. In one camp, clay houses were crammed with dozens of refugees and many others are having to sleep rough.

At least 191 people have been killed since June 10 in south Kyrgyzstan in clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz. The government says the death toll is several times higher.

In Osh, the epicenter of the clashes, people in Uzbek neighborhoods have built barricades, in effect demarcation lines separating them from Kyrgyz parts of the city.

The army has set up checkpoints around Osh but its security presence is low. Groups of men armed with AK-47s patrolled the streets. It was unclear where their allegiance lay.

Before duty called: pictures show Aung San Suu Kyi as a wife and mother

Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate's family life in Britain is depicted in photographs released for her 65th birthday

She is known to the world as a human rights activist who has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest as punishment for demanding democracy in her home country. But in these photographs Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is shown not as the fearless campaigner who has given up her liberty for the sake of her nation, but as a young woman in love and a doting mother.

Many of these pictures come from the private collection of her late husband, the Oxford academic Michael Aris, who died from prostate cancer in 1999. Almost all are today published for the first time, and now belong to the private Aris family trust, which has released them to the Guardian to mark and celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday tomorrow.

As she has done for most of the past two decades, the Nobel laureate will celebrate not with her two sons and family, but in her crumbling villa on University Avenue in Rangoon, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers. Under the terms of her current imprisonment she will not be released until early 2011, though many of her supporters fear Burma's military rulers will find, yet again, a new spurious reason to keep her locked away once she has served her term.

Gates: Budget request reflects Pentagon's reform agenda

WASHINGTON (June 16, 2010) -- The fiscal 2011 defense budget request continues and builds on the reforms of the fiscal 2010 budget, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense today.

The proposed base budget request is $549 billion, a 3.4 percent increase over the current fiscal year. The budget request allows real growth of 1.8 percent, reflecting the administration's commitment to modest, steady and sustainable real growth in defense spending, Gates said.

The secretary testified alongside Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The request takes aim at programs that were excessive or performing poorly. These include ending the Navy's EPX intelligence aircraft, the third-generation infrared surveillance program, the next generation CGX cruiser, the net-enabled and controlled command and control program, and the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System. The request completes the C-17 airlifter program and closes the production line.

The request ends the second engine for the F-35 joint strike fighter, "as whatever benefits might accrue are more than offset by excess costs, complexity and associated risks," Gates said.

The secretary was precise in spelling out his opposition to the last two of those programs in particular.

Sydney girl wins Miss Australia

Jesinta Campbell has been hailed as the most beautiful in the land.

The 18-year-old model-turned-beauty-queen, from Potts Point in Sydney, was crowned as Miss Universe Australia 2010 on Thursday night, outdoing 29 other finalists.

She will now move on as the nation's representative in the upcoming international Miss Universe pageant that will be held in Las Vegas on August 23.

Campbell was wearing a flowing white, sparkling gown when the announcement of winners was made. She beamed with surprise after finding out that she won the crown.

"I feel so privileged to be able to represent my country overseas at an international level, it's absolutely incredible," she told AAP.