Kathmandu- Private Nepalese television stations Thursday announced several hours of cuts to regular broadcasts, citing growing power outages.

Television Broadcasters' Nepal, an umbrella body of five private stations, said they would no longer be able to keep up round-the- clock broadcasts due to power outages.

The government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) earlier Thursday announced 12 hours of power cuts across the country, saying it was unable to meet demand.

Oslo- A record number of exploration oil wells were drilled 2008 on the Norwegian continental shelf in the wake of record high oil prices, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said Thursday.

Oil production from the Norwegian continental shelf is continuing to decline but 2008 oil production was almost 4 per cent higher than the agency's previous forecast.

The production increase equalled 70,000 barrels per day.

In 2008, 242.2 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents were produced, down roughly 12 per cent compared to the record year 2004 but slightly more than in 2007.

Buenos Aires - French motorcyclist Pascal Terry who died during the Darar Rally could have been saved if he had been discovered earlier, Argentinian authorities have said.

French media voiced criticism Thursday after it emerged that a mix-up and a communications breakdown had delayed the search for the rider.

The 49-year-old Yamaha rider had gone missing during the second stage between Santa Rosa and Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut on Sunday.

His body was found in the early hours of Wednesday about 15 metres from his bike around 300 metres from the stage route.

Damascus  - An Egyptian proposal to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip would serve Israel rather than help Hamas, a statement by the Islamist Palestinian movement said Thursday.

"This initiative seeks limiting the Palestinian resistance while freeing the Israeli occupation and helping it achieve some of the goals it failed to achieve by its military attack," Hamas said.

"We also refuse to deploy international forces in the strip or international supervisors," the statement added.

Taipei- Taiwan is mulling sending warships to protect Taiwanese ships from Somali pirates, a politically sensitive move that needs China's approval, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Thursday.

Chao Chien-min, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, told a news conference that "related government agencies are evaluating if Taiwan should send warships to the Gulf of Aden to carry out patrol work," according to CNA.

"As when to send the warships, it depends on the outcome of the evaluation," CNA quoted him as saying.

Rome - Luciano Moggi, former general manager of Juventus, and his son Alessandro Thursday were found guilty of threatening several footballers in a corruption trial, Italian media reported.

Luciano Moggi was sentenced to 18 months and his son to 14, but neither will be imprisoned, as their offence was pardoned by a law in 2006.

The Moggis were among the founders of GEA, a firm of footballers' agents, which handled the contract of many Serie A and Serie B players between 2001 and 2006.