Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of

Brussels - The European Union's executive body is set Wednesday to give its verdict on the progress Turkey and a number of Balkan states have made towards joining the union, and to sum up the state of the bloc's relations with Russia.

"We want to see Turkey focus truly and with determination on its European journey, with a clear sense of direction. Preparing for future membership means creating new opportunities for citizens in a more open society," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a speech Tuesday.

Washington, Nov 5: The United States thwarted a suspect shipment from North Korea to Iran by persuading the Indian Government to deny clearance for the North Korean flight to travel through Indian airspace, US officials have said.

Nine weeks after the flight was diverted in August, the Bush Administration removed North Korea from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism in a bid to salvage an accord to end Pyongyang’s nuclear programs, the Washington Post reported.

US officials suspect that the North Korean plane, an Ilyushin-62 jet owned by the North Korean state airline, was carrying sophisticated technology -- such as ballistic missile parts -- that could be used in a program for weapons of mass destruction.

Washington, Nov 5: Pakistan embassy in the US has reportedly said that there was no “secret agreement” achieved between the two countries regarding Predator bombings in Pakistan’s tribal areas, as being reported in a section of the American press.

A portion of the US media had repeatedly carried reports recently that Islamabad and Washington had agreed to a secret pact, according to which the former would continue to publicly protest against the US drone strikes on its tribal areas, “but privately would have no objection”.

Reacting to such reports in the American press, a spokesman at the Pakistan embassy said that the understanding between the two countries was “open and public”, reported the Daily Times.

London, Nov. 4 : A public official is sacked or reprimanded virtually every single working day for losing data or breaching protection rules, official figures show.

According to The Telegraph, parliamentary answers from three Government Departments reveal that up to 260 officials were disciplined or dismissed "for alleged breaches of data protection requirements and inappropriate use of personal or sensitive data" in the past year.

Most of the people - 192 - were disciplined or dismissed at HM Revenue and Customs, which last November admitted losing personal details of 25 million people from the child benefit database.

Jakarta, Nov 4 : Unidentified terrorists have reportedly threatened to blow up the US and Australian embassies in Indonesia if the three Bali bombers were executed.

The three are expected to be executed in a day or two by placing them before a firing squad. Two days ago their relatives were asked to meet them in jail.

Following the threat from unidentified location, the Indonesian Police were investigating to trace those behind it.

“A bomb threat against the U. S. and Australian embassies was sent via a mobile phone text message,” The News quoted National Police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira as saying.

He added that an investigation was underway into the threat.