Washington, Nov. 4 : An al-Qaeda propagandist who promised endless war against the United States was sentenced to life in prison on Monday by a Guantanamo Bay jury on 35 counts of solicitation to commit murder, providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy.

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, a 39-year-old Yemeni, was the second person to be convicted by a military jury, the Washington Post reports.

The jury deliberated for four hours before convicting Bahlul and took less than an hour to hand out a life sentence.

Bahlul refused to defend himself at the weeklong trial and instructed his military attorney to remain silent throughout the proceedings, an order that the lawyer said he followed with great reluctance.

Johannesburg - A crisis summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss the nearly two-month impasse in Zimbabwe's power-sharing negotiations will be held this weekend in South Africa, the department of foreign affairs confirmed Tuesday.

"It (the summit) will be held Sunday in South Africa," foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Asked if all 15 SADC members would be attending, Mamoepa said, "As far as we're aware, yes."

On the Zimbabwean side, "I'm sure all the political parties that are involved in the negotiations will be invited - (President Robert Mugabe's) Zanu-PF and the two (Movement for Democratic Change) MDC formations," he said.

The ruling BJP in Karnataka has won all the three seats in the bypolls held for the Legislative Council from local bodies constituencies.
This is seen as a crucial victory ahead of by-elections to eight assembly seats of State assembly.

BJP candidates-- former minister Sashikant Akkappa Naik won the Belgaum seat, while Shivraj Sajjanar was declared elected from Dharwad, and S G Medappa from Kodagu.

They all defeated their nearest congress rivals. Though the main opposition Congress got the support of JD (S) but it performed miserably in all the three seats.

JD(S) withdrew its nominees to support Congress candidates.

To join the league of search giants Google and Yahoo, Software giant Microsoft India has rolled out its map services, named Live Search Maps for India.

The latest offering by Microsoft consists of detailed listings and street maps for nine (9) cities, business listings across 29 cities and access to highway networks to 20,000 cities and towns.

The notification for the assembly polls in Delhi will be issued today.

Lt. Governor of Delhi Tejinder Khanna will issue the notification.

After the formal notification, nomination for the polls will begin. Voting for Delhi is scheduled to be held on November 29.

Last date for nomination is 11 November. Scrutiny of papers will be done on the next day 12 Nov. November 14 has been fixed for as the date for withdrawal of nominations.

Counting of votes will be done on 8th of December. The term of present assembly will come to an end on December 17.

Washington, Nov 4 : Researchers have used two million pounds of scrap iron to detoxify pollutants in industrial wastewater in Shanghai, China.

The research was led by Wei-xian Zhang, a professor of civil and environmental engineering from Tongji University in Shanghai.

The project, carried out in Shanghai, was the largest in history to use iron in an environmental application.

The iron, called zero valent iron (ZVI) because it is not oxidized, was obtained in the form of shavings or turnings from local metal-processing shops for less than 15 cents a pound.