Taipei - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is negotiating to buy Taiwan's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, a newspaper said Thursday.

Three parties are seeking to buy the loss-making China Times Group, but Lai's Next Media Group was seen as the likely winner because it is willing to accept a package sale while the other two bidders only want to buy the China Times Group's two profit-making television stations, the Economic Daily News said.

The takeover talks were near completion and Next Media was expected to announce the takeover in early November, the News quoted unnamed industry sources as saying.

Both Next Media and the China Times Group refused to comment on the news report.

Kuala Lumpur - Five Malaysian policemen were caught playing the Chinese board game mahjong while on patrol duty, a news report said Thursday.

The suspects had gathered in a home in the southern Johor state and were gambling when a team of fellow officers from the national police headquarters raided the building, the Star daily said.

The five officers, in their 20s and 30s, were dressed in their uniforms and were supposed to be on patrol duty in various parts of the state.

The suspects have been suspended from duty and will face disciplinary action, sources were quoted as saying by the report.

New Delhi - At least five people were killed and 50 injured in a series of 10 bombings that rocked India's north-eastern state of Assam on Thursday, news reports said.

Several blasts targeted crowded market areas and a court complex in the state's main city of Guwahati, the IANS news agency reported.

There were 10 blasts in all including explosions in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Barpeta areas, the report said.

Several militant outfits with demands ranging from autonomy to secession are active in the north-eastern state.

New Delhi, Oct 30 : President Pratibha Patil will visit Aurangabad on November 2 to attend the concluding ceremony of the golden jubilee of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University.

Maharashtra Governor and Chancellor of the University S C Jamir, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, Guardian Minister Patangrao Kadam, Higher and Technical Education Minister Dilip Valse Patil will also attend the function.

Big TV, the Direct-to-Home (DTH) service of Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCom), claimed that it has become the fastest growing DTH player in the country, as it has crossed the magic figure of 500,000 subscribers within two months of its launch.  

According to the company's CEO Arun Kapoor, crossing the 5-lakh customer milestone within two months is indeed a testimony to the superior value proposition offered by BIG TV, and its success in accelerating the growth momentum of DTH sector in India.”

Washington, Oct 30 : A county sheriff has revealed that a phone call from a concerned parent had helped disrupt two skinheads’ plot to kill Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and behead scores of blacks across the country.

Haywood County Sheriff Melvin Bond said that a woman called his office worried about her daughter. “As the investigation led on, we found out who these individuals were,” foxnews. com quoted the Tennessee lawman as saying.