Islamabad, Feb. 2: A key aide of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that he might quit if his opponents win the February 18 elections.

“Obviously, he (Musharraf) is not as strong as he was before,” the presidential aide said, adding that Musharraf would make his critical decisions if anti-Musharraf forces returned to power.

Of late, the demand for Musharraf’s resignation is mounting from different segments of the society, including politicians, lawyers, intelligentsia, top religious scholars and even Musharraf’s ex-servicemen colleagues.

After taking a pause on Monday, the domestic stock market finally regained its strength and closed the day with strong gains backed by the comments from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India can achieve a growth of 8% to 9% with a high savings rate.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 461.08 points or 3.14% at 15,127 while NSE Nifty settled at 4,550.95, up 121.05 points or 2.73%. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,161.22 and intraday low of 14,526.69.

Event:"Horton Hears a Who!" World Premiere - Arrivals
Venue & Location:Westwood Village Theater / Westwood, CA, USA
Event Date:3/8/2008
Photographer:© Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Event:"I Love You, Man" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals
Venue & Location:Mann's Village Theater / Westwood, CA. USA
Event Date:3/17/2009
Photographer:Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Nairobi - Somali pirates are leaving a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons as they prepare to release it, a maritime group said Thursday.

The MV Faina was seized off the coast of Somalia in September and is carrying a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other armaments.

"We know now they are leaving the ship in small groups," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Event:2009 Miss USA Pageant - Arrivals
Venue & Location:Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino / Las Vegas, NV, USA
Event Date:4/19/2009
Exclusive / Restrictions:Non-Exclusive Rights Managed Image
Photographer:PRN / PR Photos

Goa, Oct 27 : Commerce and Trade Minister Kamal Nath has said that the launch of the fourth round of tariff negotiations would deepen and widen trade ties among participating countries.

"We'll be expanding the content of this agreement. We have also decided to explore the options to widen the scope of this agreement not only of goods, but to non-tariff measures, services and investments," Kamal said at the second ministerial meeting of Asia-Pacific countries, which concluded on Friday.

Brussels  - The European Commission on Sunday welcomed the unilateral ceasefire announced by Israel and called on Hamas to refrain from violence so that human suffering in Gaza could end.

The ceasefire was indispensable, said External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The stop in violence was also necessary to allow the EU and other donors to help the people in Gaza.

"Our priority is a permanent peace," she said, adding that she hoped that the crossings into Gaza would be opened again soon and that all Israeli soldiers would be withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.

London, January 3: Oscar-winning Hollywood star John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, has passed away.

The boy, who was plagued by fits, was found dead in a bathtub.

Jett was staying with his father, mother Kelly Preston, and eight-year-old sister Ella Bleu at their Bahamas holiday home.

According to reports, he fell ill and hit his head.

He was rushed to hospital in Freeport from the Old Bahama Bay Resort on Grand Bahama island, but he was dead on arrival.

Tokyo  - The Tokyo market bounced back Friday after machinery orders data for March came in better than expected.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 151.24 points, or 1.66 per cent, to 9,244.97 in morning trading, and the broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 16.02 points, or 1.86 per cent, at 878.68.

Islamabad, June 6 : PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said he has no personal animosity with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, and is only working for the restoration of democracy.

Sharif said Pakistan has no real democracy, and is still running under a system that is an extension of the Musharraf regime.

Real democracy could be restored by abolishing of the 17th Amendment and implementation of the Charter of Democracy, the Daily Times quoted him, as saying.

Washington  - A local Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Cheney and former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges connected to alleged abuse of inmates in a private prison system, a Texas newspaper reported late Monday on its website.

The Brownsville Herald reported that the grand jury in Willacy County, hearing evidence presented by District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, returned several counts against Cheney and Gonzales as well as Texas officials including a state senator and state district judges.

Yahoo! announced to add variety of commercial models in its BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) service, from recently announced free-based models to revenue sharing through advertising and co-branding of sites.

David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo, in sidelines of Yahoo's Open Hack Day in Bangalore, said, "We will look at a variety of options."

New York, Oct. 13 : A civil rights veteran and a Democrat representing the state of Georgia, has accused Republican presidential candidate John McCain of sowing seeds of hatred during his campaign.

Representative John Lewis said that the negative tone of McCain’s campaign reminds him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Governor George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 
1960s.

Republican candidate John McCain on Saturday called Lewis'' remarks "shocking and beyond the pale."

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell back nearly 3 per cent Friday as jittery investors waited to see if the US economic rescue package would be approved in Washington.

The Hang Seng Index lost 528.71 points, or 2.9 per cent, to close the week at 17,682.4 points, one of its lowest levels for two years. Turnover was a weak 53.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.84 billion US dollars.)

Washington, Nov 6 : In a new study, scientists have found that a therapy targeting a protein, called cyclin D1, may block the expansion of breast cancer stem cells.

The study shows how stem cell expansion in breast cancer (called Notch activity) takes place.

Breast cancer stem cells are known to be involved in therapy resistance and the recurrence of cancerous tumours.

Headed by Dr. Richard Pestell and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University, the study was the first to show that cyclin d1 is required for breast cancer growth in mice.

New Delhi, Apr 15 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said that no effort can be made to have peace talks with Pakistan unless Islamabad takes strict action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Interacting with members of the Editors Guild of India, Dr. Singh rejected as "not true" Pakistan's contention that India has not provided sufficient evidence to Pakistan in connection with the 26/11 attacks.

Kuala Lumpur  - A Malaysian army corporal was sentenced to a total of 140 years jail and 40 strokes of the cane for sexually assaulting his two underage daughters, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The 43-year old man had earlier pleaded guilty to raping and molesting two of his daughters, now aged 16 and 15, at their home in the capital Kuala Lumpur since January 2006, the Star daily reported.

It said the father repeatedly sexually assaulted the girls when their mother was working at a private clinic.

London  - The government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to give nervous British consumers an early Christmas present on Monday, when he is expected to cut Value Added Tax (VAT) in an effort to lift the national economy out of recession, media reports said on Sunday.

The consumption tax is expected to be cut from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent, as part of a comprehensive fiscal stimulus package to be unveiled by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, Britain's finance minister.

Such a tax cut is expected to cost the government some 12.5 billion pounds (18.5 billion dollars). In total the government will support the national economy to the tune of at least 15 billion pounds.