Amsterdam - Italian national Giuseppe Nirta, aged 35, will remain in custody in the Netherlands until an Amsterdam court has decided whether or not he will be extradited to Italy to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and 18 months for dealing in drugs.

The leader of the so-called 'Ndrangheta clan from Italy is also a suspect for the German police in the gangland-style massacre.

In August 2007, a total of six Italians were murdered in Duisburg.

Wim de Bruin, spokesman of the Dutch public prosecutor, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday that Italy had filed its request for the Nirta's arrest last month.

Geneva - Global concentrations of greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2007, a report issued Tuesday said, with carbon dioxide rates reaching the highest level ever recorded.

The major cause of the gas emissions was human activities like burning fossil fuels and agriculture, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported, adding that methane gas emissions had their greatest increase since 1998.

Zagreb - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic is under fire for saying the state, facing the financial crisis, should save money on military funerals for war veterans, local media reported Tuesday.

"Five veteran funerals each day. The army must send a platoon with full honours, with salvoes, with pay, with wreaths," Mesic said in a regular morning radio interview.

"It means 13,000 soldiers go out each year - we can find something to save there, like to say farewell to soldiers with a wreath," he said.

New Delhi - At least five policemen were on Tuesday killed in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Maoist rebels in India's central state of Chhattisgarh, a news report said.

The explosion that took place in the southern Bastar district of the state blew up a bridge killing five policemen and injuring two other security personnel, the PTI news agency reported quoting senior police official AN Upadhya.

The rebels carried out the blast when the policemen were returning after their election duty at polling booths in the region.

Chhattisgarh is one of the six Indian states holding elections.

Hyderabad, Nov 25 : Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has developed an innovative spinning wheel, which apart from spinning yarn also generates electricity sufficient to energize rural homes for 7-8 hours.

Mahatma Gandhi promoted Charkha (the spinning wheel) during freedom struggle as a symbol of self-reliance and source of income for the rural population.

It is after more than six decades of independence that the KVIC thought of the dual use of the spinning wheel.

It was acute electricity shortage in Indian villages that inspired the making of e-charkha (spinning wheel).

Paris - Representatives of former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal have formally asked the Socialist Party to annul last Friday's vote for party leader, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

According to the still-official vote count, Royal lost the election to Lille Mayor Martine Aubry by 42 votes, out of nearly 135,000 cast, a margin of just 0.04 per cent.