** Daily News **

BANGKOK : Allies of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra laid out an ambitious agenda for a coalition government Monday, even though they refused to reveal which parties had agreed to align with them.

If the pro-Thaksin People Power Party (PPP) succeeds in building a coalition, it could pave the way for the self-made billionaire’s return from his self-imposed exile in Britain.

PPP secretary general Surapong Suebwonglee said that the party and its potential partners had not yet discussed proposals for Thaksin’s return, or an amnesty for him and his top political supporters. Continue Reading »

PARIS - French police Tuesday said 64 officers were injured in a second night of clashes with youths in and around the flashpoint Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, adding that five of them were in critical condition.

The injuries followed rioting in Villiers-le-Bel and the nearby towns of Sarcelles and Garges-les-Gonesses, a police source said.

Violence erupted in Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday after two teenagers died when their motorbike crashed into a police car. The accident sparked six hours of clashes. - AFP/ir

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LONDON : West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green has blamed the increasing popularity of video games among English boys for the country’s failure to reach the finals of the Euro 2008 football championships.

The in-form England international, who saved a penalty to ensure a 1-1 draw with the Hammers top-flight London rivals Tottenham on Sunday, was overlooked by former national coach Steve McClaren for last week’s key qualifier with Croatia at Wembley.

Instead McClaren gave a competitive debut, in a match where England had to get a point to have a chance of making it through to next year’s tournament in Austria and Switzerland, to Aston Villa’s Scott Carson.

Carson gifted the visitors an early lead when when he failed to get his body behind a 30-yard shot from Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar. Continue Reading »

By REUTERS

Published: November 10, 2007

Filed at 6:43 a.m. ET

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Police in the Malaysian capital used water cannon and fired tear gas on Saturday to disperse protesters in one of the nation’s biggest anti-government rallies in nearly a decade.

Police arrested at least a dozen people as tens of thousands of protesters, led by opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, marched in heavy rains to the King’s palace to demand changes to the country’s electoral system. Continue Reading »

N’DJAMENA : French President Nicolas Sarkozy travelled to Chad on Sunday to bring home seven Europeans jailed over a charity’s attempt to fly some 100 children to France.

A Chadian judge ordered the release of three French journalists and four Spanish air hostesses who were among 17 Europeans accused of attempted kidnapping in the case.

The foreigners were jailed along with four Chadians after the French Zoe’s Ark charity was stopped from flying 103 children on October 25 from eastern Chad to France where they were to be placed in the care of host families.

After holding talks with President Idriss Deby Itno, Sarkozy said he hoped the six remaining French nationals — all volunteers for the charity — would face trial in France while recognizing that “this organisation acted so very badly.”
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ISLAMABAD: Up to 500 people have been arrested across Pakistan in a crackdown launched after the declaration of a state of emergency, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Sunday.

Aziz further said that parliament was entitled to delay elections for a year under emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf, but added that the government had not yet made a decision.

“There have been 400 to 500 preventative arrests in the country,” Aziz told a news conference in Islamabad, giving the first confirmed figure since Musharraf announced the emergency on Saturday.

The arrested activists include Javed Hashmi, acting chief of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s party, leading rights activist Asma Jahangir and cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan. Continue Reading »

Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN – The leaders of the five Caspian Sea states are preparing for the Caspian Sea summit, which opens in Tehran today.

Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, plan to discuss how best to divide the resource-rich seabed at the 2nd summit of Caspian Sea Littoral States.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived on Monday morning and was officially welcomed by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

The two presidents also held talks on bilateral ties as well as important regional and international issues.

Ahmadinejad said it is projected that Iran-Kazakhstan trade will hit $10 billion a year in the near future. Continue Reading »

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Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the federal government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale. Sources said the same attack scenario could be used against huge generators that produce the country’s electric power. full story

Viggo Mortensen is known for doing extensive research on his characters — work that comes in handy when he’s playing, say, a Russian gangster in “Eastern Promises.” He’s also found a simpatico collaborator in director David Cronenberg. full story

An Iraqi police colonel was gunned down near his home in Afak on Sunday, marking the third government official killed in the Iraqi Shiite town in five weeks, an Interior Ministry official said. full story