Iran’s Ahmadinejad calls for TV debate with Obama

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on US President Barack Obama yesterday to face him in a televised one-on-one debate to see who has the best solutions for the world’s problems.

The proposal comes as Iran deals with a new wave of international sanctions driven by Washington aimed at putting pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme.

“Toward the end of summer we will hopefully be there for the (UN) General Assembly and I will be ready for one-on-one talks with Mr Obama, in front of the media of course,” Ahmadinejad told a conference of Iranian expatriates in Tehran.

At least 7 dead in Siberia plane crash

The wreckage of a Russian passenger plane that crashed is seen near the town of Igarka in the Arctic, about 3,000km northeast of Moscow, yesterday, August 2, 2010.

A Russian passenger plane crashed as it came into land near a Siberian oil town yesterday, killing at least seven of the 15 people on board, an Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman said.

Japan checks on elderly as centenarians go missing

An elderly woman is led to a temple in Tokyo in this July 17, 2009 file photo. More than a quarter of Japanese are set to be over 65 by 2015.

Japan’s health minister today called for a nationwide check on the whereabouts of elderly residents in response to a media frenzy over several missing centenarians.

Revelations last week that police had found the mummified remains of a man thought to have been Tokyo’s oldest resident at 111 but actually dead for 30 years shocked a country facing the challenge of a rapidly ageing population.

BP readies killer punch for world’s worst oil spill

BP tested equipment today to deliver the first of two planned killer punches to permanently plug its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well that caused the world’s worst accidental oil spill.

As engineers from the British-based company ironed out last-minute technical hitches before the initial “static kill” operation, which could take place today, new revised US government figures showed that almost five million barrels of oil leaked before the well was provisionally capped in mid-July.

One killed and three injured after rockets fired into Israeli port of Eilat

Attack: Four people were injured after five rockets were fired at the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat this morning

One person has been killed and at least three people have been injured after several rockets were fired into Israel's southern port of Eilat this morning.

Five rockets are believed to have been fired from a location in Egypt during the attack.

Two of the missiles are believed to have overshot their targets and landed in the Red Sea, while another one struck the nearby Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Pakistan spy chief scraps UK trip on ‘terror’ remarks

British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh before their meeting in New Delhi July 29, 2010.

Pakistan’s spy chief has called off a trip to Britain in protest at Prime Minister David Cameron’s remarks on its militant ties, as Islamabad is hit by a barrage of criticism of its alleged links to terror groups.
A spokesman for the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, said today that senior intelligence officials, including ISI head Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, would not go to London on Monday as planned for counter-terrorism talks.

U.S. military chief warns of attack option against Iran

War option: America's top military chief Admiral Mike Mullen said a military strike is an option against Iran

America's top military chief has warned that the country has a plan to attack Iran.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a military strike is an option if Tehran presses ahead with plans to build a nuclear weapon.

While admitting that going to war could destabilise the Middle East, Admiral Mullen said the risk of allowing the Iranian regime's atomic ambitions to continue unchecked was unacceptable.

‘Black box’ recovered from Pakistan crash site

Policemen and soldiers worked through heavy rain to search for bodies and the flight data recorder at the site of the Airblue plane crash in Islamabad’s Margalla Hills on July 29, 2010.

Pakistani investigators found today the data recorder from AirBlue flight 202, which crashed in heavy rain near Islamabad this week killing all 152 people onboard, officials said.

The Airbus 321 crashed on Wednesday into a steep and heavily wooded hillside overlooking the capital shortly before landing after a flight from the southern port city of Karachi.

Two China mine industry accidents kill 17, trap 24

A worker of Liugou Coal Mining Company walks past the explosion site in Shanxi province July 31, 2010 in this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency

At least 17 people were killed and 24 trapped in two separate mining accidents in China today, the official Xinhua news agency said.

An explosion near the dormitory of a coal mine in Linfen city in northern Shanxi province killed 17 people and injured at least 20, Xinhua cited local authorities as saying.

Brazil offers asylum to Iranian woman facing stoning

Lula said the Iranian president would accede to his request if their ties meant anything.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to allow a woman sentenced in Iran to death by stoning to accept an offer of asylum in Brazil, local media reported.

The sentence imposed on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for an extra-marital relationship, which she denies, has caused an international outcry. It has been suspended pending a review by Iran’s judiciary but could still be carried out.

“I call on the supreme leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to permit Brazil to grant asylum to this woman,” state radio reported him as saying yesterday.

Israel strikes Gaza tunnel after rocket launch

Palestinians ride past a smuggling tunnel bombed by an Israeli aircraft.

Israeli aircraft bombed a smuggling tunnel and a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip today after a rocket was fired into Israel from the territory, the Israeli army and militants said.

The air strike caused damage but no casualties were reported. The rocket that militants launched on Saturday caused heavy damage to Israeli buildings close to the border with the Gaza Strip, the army said. Nobody was hurt.

Over 1,000 killed as floods wreak havoc across Pakistan

The death toll from flooding in Pakistan has risen to at least 800,

A man evacuates his children through waist-deep waters after heavy flooding in Nowshera, located in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province August 1, 2010
Floods caused by a week of heavy rain have killed more than 1,000 people in Pakistan’s northwest and rescuers battled yesterday to distribute relief to tens of thousands of trapped people.

A westerly weather system moving in from Iran and Afghanistan, combined with heavy monsoon rain, caused the worst floods on record in Pakistan in the past week, with the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa the worst hit.

UK police hold two over MI6 parcel bomb

A general view of the MI6 headquarters in London

British police questioned two men yesterday after a parcel bomb was sent to the headquarters of the MI6 foreign intelligence service and another was intercepted at a postal sorting office.

“The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating two suspect packages addressed to premises in central London,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said, declining to give details of the devices.

BP begins 'static kill' operation in bid to finally seal Gulf of Mexico oil well

A boat motors through oil sheen from the Deepwater Horizon spill on Saturday. BP are launching a static kill operation to try and permanently seal the oil well


BP today launched an operation to permanently plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well with cement and mud in a bid to bring to an end the worst spill in U.S. history.

Engineers are set to begin a so-called 'static kill' procedure that will see a stream of mud and cement pumped into the well.

The mile-deep underground reservoir is currently temporarily sealed after a containment cap was placed over the well two weeks ago.

Iranian women's rugby team take to the field wearing modesty-preserving headscarves and tracksuits

Arrival: The team enters the playing field for the 'Cortina' seven-a-side tournament

On the ball: Iran's Zohre Eyni, left, is challenged by Italy's Sara Pettinelli during the clash which Italy won

Come back here: Iran's Farzaneh Navab Rad, right, is challenged by Italy's Federica Carlet

If the rugby-playing women of Iran's national sevens team had cauliflower ears, no-one could tell.

Kitted out in tight-fitting headscarves and full tracksuits to protect their modesty, the players caused quite a stir when they played in Europe for the first time.

Taking to the field in a women's seven-a-side tournament in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, they were dealt a 10-0 by the host nation and then suffered a further 33-0 setback in a second game.