Beijing, Jan. 21: China has urged the United State to take concrete steps to put bilateral military ties back on track after relations were derailed because of Pentagon''s arms sales to Taiwan last year.

The Barack Obama administration should clear the way for improved military ties, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.

Washington, Jan 21 : American actor Jamie Foxx has given up his trademark diamond earrings to protest against the use of conflict gems in jewellery.

The Oscar-winner, famous for wearing big stones in each of his ears, has ditched them after learning about the history of jewels mined in warzones and sold to fund conflicts or profit warlords.

"I now wear cubic zirconia. I used to wear real diamonds, but there''s too much issue about blood diamonds," Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

Jerusalem, Jan. 21 : Israel has expressed its concern that the Hizbullah will launch a terror attack against an Israeli or Jewish target ahead of the first anniversary of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh''s assassination.

Mughniyeh, the commander of Hizbullah''s military forces, was assassinated on February 12, 2008 in a car bombing in Damascus.

While Israel did not claim responsibility for the assassination, Hizbullah has declared its intention to avenge Mughniyeh''s death by striking at Israel.

Lucknow, Jan. 21: Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kalyan Singh on Wednesday said that he will campaign for the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Kalyan Singh met SP leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh here, and announced that he would be electioneering for the `cycle symbol' in the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in March -April this year.

However, Mulayam Singh Yadav said that his (Kalyan's) decision is only based on the friendship that the two of them share, and it should not be looked as any political alliance.

"He (Kalyan) will campaign for me only as a friendly gesture. This is new friendship not an electoral alliance," said Singh.

Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Jan. 21: Trine Lilleng, the first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh, has sent out an e-mail to friends, equating Israel''s Gaza offensive to Nazi''s Jew Holocaust.

The e-mail includes a juxtaposition of black-and-white pictures from the Holocaust with color images of Operation Cast Lead.

"The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany," the e-mail states.

A copy of the e-mail was obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

Islamabad, Jan 21: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has warned against disqualification of its top leadership, saying that neither the people of the country nor the party will accept any controversial judgment handed in by the PCO judges.

"Any controversial decision at this point of time would mean another judicial crisis and chaos in the country, the responsibility of which would lie on the Government," PML-N Central Secretary Information Ahsan Iqbal told reporters here.