Zhu Weiqun, vice-minister of the Communist party’s United Front Work Department, has clearly stated that China had no interest in engaging with the Dalai Lama’s call for “genuine autonomy” for Tibetans, terming it as an attempt to promote “ethnic splitting.”

Branding the Dalai Lama a would-be ethnic cleanser, the senior Communist party official denounced the Himalayan region’s exiled spiritual leader as a scheming “splittist.” Zhu said the Dalai Lama’s representatives were to blame for the failure last week of the latest talks between the two sides.

The fact that Europe and Russia need each other economically, especially as the global financial crisis reorders priorities, is obvious as the European Union (EU) said Monday that it would resume negotiations with Russia that it had halted during Russia’s war with Georgia.

On September 1, EU leaders decided to postpone the talks indefinitely after Russia, responding to a Georgian attack on the pro-Moscow enclave of South Ossetia, invaded Georgia, and then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Security officers in Baghdad recounted the deadliest bomb blast which rocked the Iraqi capital Monday, killing 28 people, including women and schoolgirls, and leaving dozens wounded.

According to witnesses, Monday’s attack took place on Kassra Street, a road lined with restaurants and tea shops popular for breakfast with Iraqi security forces, as a bus carrying young school girls drove past.  

In a strikingly symbolic moment in the historic transition of power in Washington, the outgoing President Bush and first lady, Laura, greeted President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, with smiles and handshakes, as they stepped from their limousine to begin a tour of their home for the next four years, after Obama is sworn in on January 20.

A handbag containing Rs 35,000 together with a bank passbook has been found this morning, by a mobile team of the 4th IRB posted at Thenggu Chingjin of Koirenggei led by Jemandar Dikambou.

The team found the blue colour bag lying at Diamond Gali in Imphal’s Paona bazaar around 10.30 am today.
 
After checking the bag thoroughly the IRB group showed the bag to reporters and announced that the real owner could produce suitable proof that the money belongs to him and collect the money.

According to a new study, low potassium levels in the urine can contribute to high blood pressure. The lead author of the study Susan Hedayati, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and the Dallas VA Medical Center said, "There has been a lot of publicity about lowering salt or sodium in the diet in order to lower blood pressure, but not enough on increasing dietary potassium."