US President Barack Obama called on India on Sunday to bolster peace efforts with Pakistan that have floundered since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, relations seen as crucial to his troubled efforts to win the war in Afghanistan; Kazinform refers to The Arab News.

On the second day of his official visit to India, Obama faces a diplomatic tightrope in fostering ties with the growing global power, while at the same time helping Pakistan with billions of dollars in aid and promoting wider peace in...

Source: KAZINFORM

Vladimir Putin just cannot stay away from manly pursuits; Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The Russian prime minister took a Formula One race car out for a spin on Sunday, reaching speeds of almost 150 mph (240 kph).

Putin signed a deal last month with Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone to bring F1 racing to Russia starting in 2014, and his televised test drive could help raise the profile of the sport in R...

The flooding caused by hurricane Tomas worsened the sanitary situation in Haiti, which has been affected by a cholera epidemic with 501 people being killed, Haitian Public Health Ministry said on Sunday.

According to the information reaching here from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, Artibonite department in the north of the country has been the most affected area by cholera epidemic, where 371 people were killed by the disease.

The Haitian authorities launched an international cam...

Draft Law On ratification of the Additional agreement to the Memorandum of mutual understanding between the Government of Kazakhstan and the Government of the United States of America on the Kazakh-American Program on Economic Development as of May 5, 2006 has been discussed today at an enlarged meeting of the Senate's Committee for Economic and Regional Policy under the chairmanship of Nurlygaiym Dzholdasbayeva.

The Kazakh-American Economic Development Program has been realizing on the b...

NATO has no plans to reduce its nuclear potential, Commander of NATO Allied Command Transformation Gen. Stephane Abrial said.

"Until the world is nuclear-free, the alliance should keep its nuclear weapon," Belgian media cited Abrial as saying.

The issue on NATO's European non-strategic nuclear stockpile is under consideration to be discussed during the upcoming alliance's summit in Lisbon on November 19.

According to experts, five NATO states, including Germany, Be...

Regular session of Deputy Foreign Ministers of the Caspian states on discussion of the draft Agreement on security cooperation in the Caspian Sea was accomplished yesterday.

A press conference with participation of Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Kalaf Khalafov was held upon the results of the sitting. The Azerbaijani Deputy Minister informed on mutual approval of the main aspects of the draft Agreement. As Trend News agency reported, each side is to approve internal procedures of the...

A draft resolution on the settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been withdrawn from the agenda of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, the head of the Armenian delegation said.

Karen Avagyan said the talks on the conflict are held in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group, and Armenia earlier asked NATO to give up plans to discuss the Karabakh problem at the Assembly.

Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are strained over Nagorny Karabakh, a predo...

A Cuban passenger plane has crashed in the centre of the country with 68 people on board, Cuban state TV reports.

It says the aircraft, belonging to the state-run Aero Caribbean airline, was flying from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to the capital Havana when it went down.

Twenty-eight foreigners were reported be among the passengers. Their nationalities are unknown.

There is no word on any survivors.

Source: KAZINFORM...

Group of 20 leaders know they must achieve "concrete agreements" including goals for reducing current account and trade gaps at next week's summit or risk having their leadership of the world economy called into question, South Korea's president said Wednesday.

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the group of leading rich and developing nations met last month in South Korea ahead of the summit scheduled for November 11-12. They vowed to avoid using their currencies...

On November 2-3, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State has sposored sponsor a workshop for journalists, "Influenza and Infectious Disease:  Getting the Story Out" at the Intercontinental Hotel in Almaty.

The U.S. Department of State recently has launched an initiative to assist media in the region to develop accurate and effective methods to communicate health information to the public. Regional and inte...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been named the fourth most powerful person in the world by Forbes magazine.

The World's Most Powerful People in 2010 was released on Wednesday with the Russian leader was eclipsed only by Chinese President Hu Jintao, his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

President Dmitry Medvedev, who heads Russia in "tandem" with Putin, was ranked 12th in the list.

After serving as president for two ter...

Russia has completed its part of a contract on the delivery of A-50 Mainstay AWACS aircraft to India, a Russian aircraft industry official said, Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

India ordered three A-50EI variants, developed on the basis of the Russian Il-76MD military transport plane and fitted with the Israeli-made Phalcon radar system, in 2004. The first two aircraft are already in service with the Indian air force (IAF).

"We have finished retrofitting a [third] transport p[/third]...

US and Mexican officials say they have discovered an elaborate tunnel used by criminals to smuggle drugs across the California-Mexico border.

The tunnel, which is more than 500m long (1,640ft), is equipped with a rail system, ventilation and lighting.

Inside, police found more than 20 tonnes of marijuana.

They said the tunnel connected a warehouse in Otay Mesa with one in Tijuana in Mexico, the main gateway for drugs entering California.

Police say drug traffickers bu...

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wednesday greenlighted a launch of space shuttle Discovery on Thursday, to begin its 11-day mission to the International Space Station.

The Prelaunch Mission Management Team (MMT) now is confident since a main engine controller problem on Discovery has been solved, said Mike Moses, chairman of the MMT. Therefore, the team gave a unanimous "go" for Discovery's launch due to start at 3:29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT) on Thursday...

A proposed plan to legalize the use of marijuana across California seems to be thwarted by voters Tuesday, exit polls show.

Proposition 19, which would allow Californians who are at least 21 years old to possess, cultivate or transport marijuana for personal use, seemed to be thwarted by voters, according to preliminary tabulation results.

Among the nine ballot issues the California voters weighed in, Prop. 19 is the more pronounced and has gained most attention across the country....

Auto giant Renault-Nissan could increase its stake in Russia's largest car maker, AvtoVAZ, to a controlling interest in two to three years, head of Russian state hi-tech corporation Russian Technologies Sergei Chemezov said on Wednesday.

"This will happen in two or three years," Chemezov said when asked when the deal could take place.

Chemezov said AvtoVAZ would go ahead with the planned second stage of the auto giant's new share issue in 2012 despite the prospect for Re...

Andrew Cuomo was elected the 56th governor of New York on Tuesday night, according to results of several exit polls.

In a race which had been expected to be close, Cuomo, the current attorney general, slowly crept up in the polls to take a double digit lead over his Republican opponent, Carl P. Paladino, who was plagued by controversy in the final weeks of his campaign.

Cuomo will succeed Governor David Patterson who did not seek re-election.

Cuomo has vowed to pull together...

Japan's ambassador to Russia Masaharu Kono is to leave for Tokyo shortly, Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.

"The ambassador will return to Tokyo shortly to clear up all circumstances connected with the Russian president's trip to Kunashiri," the Japanese embassy spokesman Akira Imamura said.

He added that the date the ambassador's return to Moscow has not been set yet.

Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara recalled temporarily the Japanese ambassador to M...

Panamanian Health Ministry launched a campaign Monday by deploying 1,495 staff members to prevent a cholera outbreak during the nationwide celebration of Independence Day that falls on Wednesday.

The ministry said that the campaign is part of the mobilization launched by the Pan American Health Organization to prevent the cholera outbreak as happened in Haiti.

Health authorities will mobilize some 80 health centers, 68 ambulances and 13 ambulance ships for the campaign. The health ...

A carrier rocket in the family of modernized Soyuz-2 carriers lifted off from the Plesetsk space center at 03:38 Moscow Standard Time /00:38 GMT/ to bring into space the Meridian probe.

The latter has been launched in the interests of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, an official spokesman for the Russian Space Troops said.

Source: KAZINFORM

The Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to meet the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev later this month, amid a territorial dispute.

Japan's chief spokespersion Yoshito Sengoku said he believed the meeting at an Asia Pacific summit would go ahead.

This is despite the sudden flaring of a long-standing row between Japan and Russia over the Kuril Islands.

Mr Medvedev visited one of the four disputed islands on Monday, a move Japan said was "regrettable".

The...

Russia's consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor rejected 655,000 liters of imported Moldovan wine in October due to safety reasons, the Russian chief sanitary doctor said.

"We have allowed 6.08 liters [of wine] and rejected as defective 655,000 liters," Gennady Onishchenko said.

Russia, previously the importer of 80 percent of all wine produced in Moldova, embargoed deliveries in March 2006. In 2007, over 40 Moldovan wine producing enterprises passed sanitation and epid[/of]...

A village watchman in the central Philippines allegedly mistook an actor playing a masked gunman in a British film for a real assassin and fatally shot him, police said Monday.

Watchman Eddie Cuizon tried to accost Filipino actor Kirk Abella late Saturday then shot him as the actor was directed to speed away on a motorcycle with a masked driver, said community police chief Alexis Relado of central Cebu city's Parian district.

Cuizon, 52, told police he was sleeping and was woken up...

The UK and France are to sign a treaty agreeing to the joint development and testing of nuclear warheads.

The plans will see one centre set up in the UK to develop technology and another in France to carry out testing.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy will also outline plans, at a London summit, for a joint army expeditionary force.

Downing Street called the measures "practical", but Labour said they left "big questions" over the...

Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff will attend the upcoming G20 summit with outgoing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, state media reported.

Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo, quoted by the Brazilian official news agency, confirmed the arrangement on Monday after a meeting with Lula and Rousseff on Sunday night.

At the meeting of the G20 economies in Seoul, Lula will reiterate his government's call for concerted international efforts to prevent currency wars, he added.
...

The first results of the Ukrainian regional elections will be submitted to the Central Elections Commission on Monday, November 1, Central Elections Commission Chairman Vladimir Shapoval said; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.

"We will acquire some results on Monday. The count of votes may be over by Friday, November 5," he said.

In the words of Shapoval, the Central Elections Commission has not received reports on gross violations of election laws.

Source: ...

China early Monday morning successfully launched its sixth orbiter which will form part of its indigenous satellite-navigation and -positioning network.

A Long March-3C carrier rocket carrying the "Beidou," or Compass, navigation satellite took off at 0:26 a.m. Monday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

It will join five other satellites already in orbit to form a network. which will eventually consist of 35 satellites.

T...

An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale jolted New Britain region, Papua New Guinea, at 05:16 GMT on Monday, the second in the day, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 15.70 km, was initially determined to be at 6.56 degrees south latitude and 150.31 degrees east longitude.

There were no immediate reports of casualties and damage.

In the early morning, another earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit New Britain region, Pa...

The Kyrgyz Ata-Zhurt opposition party has won the parliamentary election with 8.47% of the vote, the Central Electoral Commission said on Monday.

In all, five parties have made it into parliament, clearing the 5% hurdle.

The pro-government Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, led by first Deputy Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, placed second with 7.83%.

The opposition Ar-Namys party, headed by former Prime Minister Feliks Kulov, came in third with 7.57%.

Respublik...

The new embassy of Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan will be located on the left bank of Astana, a source in the diplomatic office told Trend.

"An agreement was reached to allocate a land plot to build the Azerbaijani Embassy in Kazakhstan on the left bank of the Kazakh capital, which is under construction, during the meeting between Azerbaijani ambassador Zakir Hashimov  with Akim of Astana Imangali Tasmagambetov," a representative of the embassy said.

At present, the embass...