Jerusalem - The ultra-Orthodox Shas party decided Friday morning not to join a coalition led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, dealing a serious blow to her efforts to form the government by early next week, Israel Radio reported.

The party's Council of Torah Sages, headed by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph, decided in a conference call Friday morning to reject the final offer she had made for raising child allowances for large families, a top priority for the party.

New Delhi - At least eight militants were killed in separate clashes with security forces in India's north-eastern state of Manipur, police said Friday.

"Police commandos and paramilitary forces killed five militants from the banned Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) in an encounter near a village 30 kilometres from state capital Imphal on Thursday night," a state police officer said by telephone, requesting anonymity.

Copenhagen - Denmark's central bank increased the lending rate by 0.50 percentage points to 5.5 per cent Friday in a move to "support the Danish krone," the bank said.

Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham is ready to entice Indian fans as cover girl for Vogue India’s November issue wearing a traditional Indian Bridal Sari.

According to sources, the magazine will hit the stands within a week.

While commenting upon her new image, she said, “I’ve never played safe with my image.”

Beckham, who has been living in Hollywood for the last 18 months with her family, has been working on her fashion ranges.
 
When she slipped on a Tarun Tahiliani lehenga, Victoria exclaimed, “I feel like an Indian princess!”

The Maharastra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a sadhvi in connection with the Malegaon blasts. She is identified as Pragya Singh Thakur.  Five people were killed in Malegaon blasts in last September.

Earlier ATS claimed that extremist Hindu groups were behind the Malegaon blasts. This has triggered a political controversy in the state.

According to an Official of ATS, "same group could also be behind the blast in Modasa in Gujarat the same day."

ATS got the links through the motor cycle used in the blast.

The BJP denied the charges made by ATS. Party general secretary Gopinath Munde said, "Hindu groups cannot be involved in blasts."

Washington, Oct 24 : A new study from the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine in the UK has found that people with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness.

"It was previously known that people with OSA severe enough to affect their daytime alertness and manifest in other ways are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but this finding suggests that many more people—some of whom may be completely unaware that they even have OSA—are at risk than previously thought," said lead author of the study, Malcolm Kohler, M. D.