London: A 22-year-old man in Sydney has been fined for waving the Australian flag from between his buttocks during a visit by Queen Elizabeth to the country last year. Liam Lloyd Warriner, a barman, was fined Tuesday by a Brisbane court a sum of 500 pounds for creating public nuisance. [...]

New Delhi: Iran Monday rubbished Israeli accusations about its alleged involvement in attacks on Israeli personnel in India and Georgia, saying they are “untrue and sheer lies.” “Any terrorist attack is condemned (by Iran) and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official,” Iran’s Ambassador to India Seyed [...]

Moscow: Russia may lose from 20 to 50 percent of its vineyard harvest this year because of bitter cold as temperatures have dipped to below minus 20 degrees Celsius, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday quoting winemakers. Andrei Kulko, general director of the South Wine Company, a subsidiary of Ochakovo brewery [...]

Kabul: Seven Taliban militants have been killed, two injured and 18 detained as suspects since Saturday in joint operations launched by the Afghan forces backed by NATO-led coalition troops, the Afghan interior ministry said Sunday. “Afghan police, army and coalition forces launched nine joint operations in Kabul, Helmand, Uruzgan, Ghazni, [...]

Mexico City: Eighty-one people have so far died of swine flu in Mexico this year, while at least 3,522 have been infected with the virus, health officials said. From Jan 1 till Feb 9, there have been 3,882 confirmed flu cases, the health secretariat said in a statement. Three seasonal [...]

London: A factory in Britain that produces heart-shaped, sugar-coated sweets has a total of 500 employees, of which 122 — or 61 couples — are in a relationship. The Swizzels Matlow factory in Derbyshire that makes “Love Hearts” has been dubbed the country’s most romantic workplace, according to the Daily [...]

London: Photography giant Kodak has said it will stop making digital cameras in the next six months, a media report said Sunday. The 130-year-old Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the digital camera in 1975, has now said it will try to licence its brand to other camera manufacturers, the Daily [...]

Aden (Yemen): Two Saudi nationals and a Yemeni — all members of the Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing — were Sunday publicly executed for allegedly spying for the Yemeni army and US intelligence agencies, Xinhua reported. The Al Qaeda also accused the three of collaborating with intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia. [...]

Male: Ending a week of political turmoil, the Maldives Saturday invited tourists to its world’s top luxury resort destinations assuring complete safety and protection. Maldivian president Mohamed Waheed Hassan who was newly appointed as the head of the state of Indian Ocean archipelago told media despite political crisis over the [...]

Tbilisi:The Georgian capital Saturday experienced its coldest day in almost four decades at minus nine degrees Celsius, the meteorological agency said. Temperatures in some parts of the country plummeted to minus 20 degrees Celsius Saturday, while the mountainous Caucasus region hit minus 25 degrees Celsius. The agency warned that the [...]