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Rome  - An armed operation to rescue hostages on board an Italian tugboat held by Somali pirates would be too risky, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini indicated Tuesday.

Frattini discussed the plight of the 16-man crew of the Buccaneer in talks with Somali Prime Minister Umar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke during an international meeting in Rome to discuss the escalating violence in the Horn of Africa nation.

London  - An oil painting depicting a naked Madonna with her ex-husband Guy Ritchie has sold to a foreign buyer for more than 15,000 pounds (24,300 dollars) after it failed to sell at an earlier auction, it was announced Tuesday.

Auction house McTear's Auctioneers in Glasgow, Scotland, said the painting, Madonna & Guy, by Scottish painter Peter Howson, had sold for a record price.

But the private buyer, who wanted to remain anonymous, had asked for the exact sum to be kept secret.

New Delhi, June 9 : RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday opposed the present structure of Women''s Reservation Bill, saying it is aimed at preventing the political progress of backward sections and would "finish" regional parties.

"Mulayam Singh had said there was a conspiracy (in bringing the bill in its present form) and I am now exposing it," the RJD chief said in the Lok Sabha.

It has been reported that the notorious United Liberation Front of Assam militant Paresh Baruah has been seen in China looking for arms and to have a respite from the pressure that he was facing in Bangladesh by the Sheikh Hasina government, which was cracking down on anti-India groups.

That Paresh Baruah will feel at `home' in China should not surprise anyone in India. The Chinese have provided shelter to many insurgent groups functioning in northeast India since the sixties.

Singapore  - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the second biggest drugmaker worldwide, said it plans to start producing vaccines against life-threatening childhood diseases in a new plant opened Tuesday in Singapore from 2011 onwards.

With total costs of 600 million Singapore dollars (411 million US dollars), "the new plant is GSK'S first primary vaccine manufacturing facility and its biggest investment in Asia," the London-based company said.

Berlin - The leaders of Germany and the Czech Republic said Tuesday they hoped to see progress on climate protection at next week's European Union summit in Brussels.

"We want to have a good position we can present to the talks in Copenhagen," Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said in reference to the UN climate conference taking place in the Danish capital in December.