LATEST NEWS OUTSIDE INDIA

12 dead in Thailand factory blast

Bangkok: Twelve people died in a blast at a petrochemical factory in southern Thailand, the authorities said Sunday. The explosion occurred around 3.30 p.m. Saturday in Map Ta Phut industrial estate of Rayong province, Xinhua reported. Nearly 130 others were injured. The injured were shifted to hospitals, Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said. The government will bear the cost of their treatment.


Arrests and clashes at Anti-Putin protests

Moscow: Police in Moscow have arrested top opposition figures along with demonstrators after a protest march on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration as president tried to reach the Kremlin. The march by about 20,000 people to an island adjacent to the Kremlin proceeded peacefully Sunday afternoon until a small group tried to break off and cross a bridge across the Moscow River, which was blocked by police. As more people crowded toward the bridge, police sent reinforcements to the cordon, pushed demonstrators back to the rally site and began seizing demonstrators. At the rally site, opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov, Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov were detained. 
Italy votes in local election, first since Monti

Rome: Italians voted on Sunday in the first elections since Mario Monti was tapped to save Italy from its debt crisis, balloting seen as a gauge of public anger over parties supporting his austerity measures and disillusionment over Italy's traditional political blocs. Some 9.5 million Italians were eligible to vote for 942 city councils and mayorships across Italy in balloting today and tomorrow. By noon today, turnout was at 13 per cent, lower than the last time such administrative elections were held. Analysts have suggested a low turnout may reflect a protest vote. Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom party and the centre-left Democratic Party have both supported Monti, who was appointed in November after markets lost faith in Berlusconi's ability to reign in debt and spur growth. Monti's technical government has pushed through tax hikes, budget cuts and pension reforms deemed necessary by the EU and markets to restore Italy's financial footing. But public anger is growing over the austerity measures and increasing unemployment, with a rash of suicides and other desperate acts blamed on Italians' financial troubles. Just yesterday, an elderly man in Naples shot himself in the head, purportedly because of anxiety over unpaid taxes. He remains hospitalised. Earlier in the week, an armed man took hostages in the Bergamo office of Italy's tax collection agency before being apprehended; he too owed the tax man.Monti has vowed not to run for office in national elections scheduled for 2013, and his government of technocrats wasn't being judged in the elections. But the parties that support him were and the results should be a gage of whether Italians will punish them or simply stay home. In addition, the voting marked the first time the Northern League, long a Berlusconi ally, will test voter sentiment after a party funding scandal that saw its leader Umberto Bossi and his son resign. The League should have been able to capitalize on the election because of its opposition to Monti's government. But the scandal may prove more important to its voter base. Another sign of anger at the EU-demanded austerity measures is the popularity of stand-up comic Beppe Grillo, who is leading a populist movement against the euro. Political commentator Angelo Panebianco said Grillo's popularity was both a reflection of anti-European sentiment brewing in Italy as well as disillusionment over Italy's traditional political blocs. "In the end, what works for Europe works for Italian parties," he wrote in Corriere della Sera on Sunday. "Either they find credible, serious solutions to our problems, or they'll be slapped in the face harder and harder by voters who are disoriented and in search of alternatives that are more or less illusory." 
Chen’s ‘future is in America’, says Joe Biden

Washington: US Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Chinese dissident Chen Guancheng could get a US visa “right away” and that his future is in America. In an interview to a news channel, Biden said that China must keep its commitment and let Chen go abroad and take up a fellowship at New York University. "I think his future is in America. He has an opportunity to go to NYU ... and we're prepared to give (him) a visa right away. He's going to be able to take his family," said Biden. Biden’s comments make it clear that Chen could soon head to America also as the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a statement allowing Chen Guangcheng to study abroad. But the situation for Chen in China, may not be that rosy. 40-year-old Chen is reportedly confined in a hospital here, where he was admitted after being driven out by US Ambassador to China Garry Locke on May 02, after a week-long stay in the US mission. Chen had made a plea for US protection from his hospital bed as he fears his situation is ''dangerous” there. He also revealed that American officials have been barred from seeing him for two days, adding that his friends who have tried to visit him have been beaten up. Chen last week escaped his rural home where local officials had kept him under house arrest for years. He made it to the US embassy, where he stayed for six days before the US and China reached a deal that would allow him to stay in China but in a new location, as he had requested. But hours after leaving the embassy on Wednesday he said he and his family would not be safe unless they left the country. A self-taught lawyer, the 40-year-old Chen became an international human rights figure and inspiration to many ordinary Chinese after running afoul of local government officials for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations carried out as part of China's one-child policy. Until his escape last week, his nearly seven years in prison and abusive house arrest with his wife, six-year-old daughter and mother fuelled outrage and added to his stature — and in turn upped the stakes for Washington in helping him. The issue has cast a shadow over this week's visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for talks intended to improve ties between the two countries. On Friday, she told Chinese President Hu Jintao that the ties between the US and China were the strongest they had ever been. But China has publicly ridiculed US meddling in the issue. 
America's National Christmas Tree dead!

Washington: America's National Christmas Tree planted near the White House has died due to complications from "transplant shock." The National Park Service said that it removed the Colorado blue spruce from the White House grounds yesterday. The Colorado blue spruce died of "transplant shock," it said. The tree replaced one that had stood on the Ellipse since 1978 but was destroyed during a wind storm in February 2011. The Park Service said it always has a replacement tree lined up to make sure one is in place for the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting event held each December. The new tree is also a Colorado spruce but will not be planted until late October. 
'Firebomb Australia'

Sydney: An online terrorism magazine, which is linked with al Qaeda, has named Australia as a specific target for pyro-terrorism in its latest edition. Pyro-Terrorism is the act of setting fire to large amounts of land or property for political reasons. Its purpose is to destroy a particular country or region’s local economy and kill innocent civilians in a way that prevents the arsonist from being easily identified or captured. A picture of the Opera House with smoke clouds behind it, captioned ‘Sydney city on fire’ has been used to exemplify a story that promotes the use of bushfires as terrorist attacks. The article in Inspire magazine has been titled ‘It is of your freedom to ignite a firebomb’, gives a bit by bit guide to make an ‘ember bomb’, which it supports as the best way to start destructive fires. Australian Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, damned the article’s release yesterday, and said there was no looming threat against the country. Roxon said it was an opportune reminder, one year since the death of Osama bin Laden that the threat of violent extremism in Australia still exists. “I have instructed my department to draw this material to the attention of relevant authorities, including the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Communications and Media Authority,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Roxon, as saying. Inspire is an English-language magazine published by associates of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen and said to have been involved in many high-profile terrorist attacks including an attempted car bombing in Times Square, New York, in 2010. 
Was Lenin poisoned to death by Stalin?

London: Vladmir Lenin, the founder of Russian Communism, was poisoned to death by his political successor Joseph Stalin, a sensational new theory has claimed. Russian historian Lev Lurie believes that while Lenin was already in poor health having suffered several strokes, Stalin may have finished him off after a bitter feud. Lenin, who had initially supported Stalin's rise to power, later began aligning himself with Leon Trotsky. In notes dictated before his death, Lenin criticises Stalin's rude manners and ambitious nature. He even suggested that Stalin should be removed from his position of General Secretary of the Communist Party, the Daily Mail reported. Poisoning would later become Stalin's preferred method for dealing with his enemies, Lurie points out. "The funny thing is that the brain of Lenin still is preserved in Moscow, so we can investigate," he added. Popular theory maintains that Lenin died from the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis. His embalmed body still lies on public display in a Red Square mausoleum almost 20 years after the collapse of the communist state he helped bring to life. Lurie and UCLA neurologist, Dr Harry Vinters, reviewed Lenin's records for an annual conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on famous people's deaths. Vinters put forward a separate theory, maintaining that stress or a family medical history could have accounted for Lenin's death. Prior to his death, the 53-year-old Soviet leader's health had been growing worse over time. In 1921, he forgot the words of a major speech and he had to learn to speak again and write with his left hand after one stroke. A subsequent major stroke later left him paralysed on one side and unable to speak. Vinters, who reviewed autopsy records and the leader's clinical history, said toxicology tests that might have revealed poisoning were not conducted during the autopsy. Reports from the time also show Lenin was active and talking a few hours before his death. "And then he experienced a series of really, really bad convulsions which is quite unusual for someone who has a stroke," Vinters said. The conference is held yearly at the school, where researchers in the past have re-examined the diagnoses of figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Simon Bolivar and Abraham Lincoln. 
Scotland Yard arrests 8 touts ahead of UK Olympics

London: Eight suspected ticket touts have been arrested as part of a police clamp down ahead of the London Olympic Games. Plain clothes officers from the Metropolitan Police's 'Operation Podium' went into action near Wembley Stadium shortly before the FA Cup Final. Eight men, between 22 and 45 years old, were arrested and are being held at a north London police station, the BBC reported. The Met says people who want to see the Games from July 27 to August 12 should buy tickets from approved sellers or risk disappointment. 'Operation Podium' is designed to tackle fraud in relation to the Olympics and on Saturday a 35-year-old man from Northampton appeared in court charged with four counts of fraud in relation to a separate alleged Olympics scam. Detective Superintendent Nick Downing warned the public: "If you buy tickets from unofficial places, you run the risk of paying over the odds for a non-existent ticket, ending up disappointed by not getting to see the game that you paid for, and risk having your personal and credit card details stolen for use in other crimes. "Don't let this happen to you. Only visit official sites for a list of genuine sellers who are authorised to sell legitimate tickets." "We are determined that ticket touts won't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," Home Office minister James Brokenshire said. "That's why we've increased the fine for touting Olympic tickets from 5,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds. "My clear message to the touts is that you're not welcome and if you take the risk you will be caught."