Tokyo - Japan's trade surplus in the six months from April to September hit the lowest mark in more than 26 years as high energy prices pushed up import costs and slowed exports amid the global financial crisis, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.

Davao City, Philippines - One pro-government militiaman and one communist rebel were killed Thursday in a clash in the outskirts of a southern Philippine City, a military spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres said the fighting erupted before dawn when about 50 communist rebels attacked a pro-government militia outpost in Davao City, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Torres said three other militiamen were wounded in the fighting that lasted for several hours.

"We suffered one killed in action and three others were wounded," he said. "But the rebels suffered undetermined number of casualties and they were repulsed. One of the slain rebels was recovered."

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, rejected a plea for CBI probe into the rape of a nun in Kandhamal district of Orissa. At the same time the Court has asked the Nun to co-operate in Crime Branch enquiry.

A three judge bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan also asked the Orissa government to take generous view in re- building churches in the riot-hit Kandhamal.

The bench, consisting of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice J.M. Panchal, rejected the plea for a CBI probe of Cuttack Archbishop Raphel Cheenath saying that the state police have already arrested nine accused.  

Budgam (J-K), Oct 23: Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference (NC) kick-started its election campaign ahead of the seven-phase polls from November 17 to December 24.

Party chief Omar Abdullah questioned the credibility of his main rivals, the Congress and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which shared power to face voters again.

"We are essentially fighting this election as an opposition party. The last parties in the government were the Congress and the PDP. Therefore, they''ll have to be made to explain an account of their track record of the last six years," Abdullah told a rally in Budgam.

Sydney - Westfield Group founder Frank Lowy, whose two great loves are making money from building shopping malls and running the game of football in Australia, reckons the global recession will hit professional sport hard.

Attendances will be down, the dollar-value of television broadcast contracts will fall and clubs will struggle to survive as the turnstiles spin more slowly.

"There's only so much money to go around," the country's richest man and the chairman of its Football Federation said. "I think the world will have to contract, so will sport have to contract, it's as simple as that."

But, as other recessions have shown, it's not as simple at that at all.

Sydney - Some are calling sleep the new s