Berlin - The Berlin Academy for the Arts plans to offer a speaking engagement to Roberto Saviano, the Italian author who is in hiding for fear of retribution by organized crime, an official said Wednesday.

Klaus Staeck, the academy president, said he had offered a year ago to engage Saviano to speak at a seminar on the Mafia, but the author had ruled he could not travel safely. Staeck said he would try again to book him.

Shanghai - World number one tennis player Rafael Nadal is suffering from serious physical problems, the president of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Francesco Ricci Bitti, said on Wednesday.

"Nadal has a very serious problem," Ricci Bitti told a small group of media, including Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, at the Masters Cup tournament in Shanghai.

Dhaka- A Bangladeshi court on Wednesday granted bail to three former ministers of Bangladesh's predecessor government run by a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led alliance, two days after their detention in a graft case, court officials said.

Brussels - The European Commission on Wednesday proposed tough rules designed to impr

Geneva - Norway is the country closest to closing the gaps between men and women, a new report released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum said.

Finland, Sweden and Iceland were the next ranking countries, according to the Gender Gap Index, with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen listing at the bottom of the 130 countries surveyed.

New Zealand was the top ranking non-European country, making it to fifth place, followed by the Philippines.

Pahalgam (J-K)/Bangalore, Nov 12 : In the backdrop of the arrest of an army officer in connection to the Malegaon blasts, Army Chief Deepak Kapoor said on Wednesday that army would put in place more checks on postings and connectivities.

Kapoor was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a function in Pahalgam of Jammu and Kashmir today.