Islamabad - A Pakistani court on Monday removed government restrictions on disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and allowed him to travel within the country to meet relatives but asked his not to give interviews on proliferation. 

Khan, who is still regarded as a national hero for spearheading Pakistan's nuclear programme, gave a series of telephone interviews in recent months, lending credence to the view that the blame for proliferation goes to the army which controls the nuclear programme. 

Berlin - Europe's biggest utility group E. ON AG said Monday it had joined Danish power group Dong Energy to take control of the world's largest offshore wind farm.

Washington, July 21: US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman (JCSC) Admiral Mike Mullen has warned that there is a “joining and a syndication of various extremist and terrorist groups” in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which could pose an internal threat to that country in the near future.

In an interview on Fox Television, Admiral Mullen, who recently visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, said there is “no firm evidence that Al Qaeda is shifting its fighters from Iraq to Afghanistan.”

He said that during his visit to the region, the whole issue of FATA and safe havens for foreign fighters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban had come up.

New Delhi, July 21: Ending more than 40 years of negotiations, Russia will soon return 174 sq km of territory on the northeast border to China.

The two countries will sign an agreement to this effect during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s two-day visit to Beijing that starts today.

According to the agreement to be signed, Russia will return Yinlong Island (Tarabarov Island) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island).

The islands are at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and the Wusulijiang rivers that serve as the natural border between the two countries, the China Daily reported.

Tel Aviv - An Israeli soldier who fired a rubber-coated bullet at a handcuffed Palestinian was arrested and the officer holding the man was detained for questioning, Israeli media reported on Monday.

On Sunday video footage of the incident was released by the Israeli rights organization B'tselem. It was filmed July 7 by a 14-year-old Palestinian school girl during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nil'in against the building of Israel's separation barrier.

In the clip, the Palestinian, Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, is seen standing, blindfolded and handcuffed, next to a military jeep. A soldier takes aim, checks it twice, and then apparently fires at or near his foot from a very close distance.

London, July 21: Western intelligence agencies have reportedly claimed that Afghanistan was fast turning into a safe haven for foreign militants, after the fall of Iraq, as more and more young militants were getting attracted to Afghanistan to take part in a “more pristine” jihad over there.

“Iraq is seen as a defeat. The image of Afghanistan is seen as a more pristine jihad,” timesonline. com quoted Brian Glyn Williams, who researches jihadist websites for the Combating Terrorism Centre at the US military academy at West Point, as saying.