16 Killed, 20 Injured in Philippines Airport Bombing

          MANILA: A bomb exploded outside a passenger terminal at Davao airport in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, killing 16 and injuring 20 people, said a report. The explosion went off outside the airport terminal's arrival section shortly after a domestic flight touched down, an air transportation office spokesman said.

Rains Dash Pak Hopes

          BULAWAYO: Pakistan lost its slim hope of joining the Super Six round of the ICC Cricket World Cup Pool A match here on Tuesday between Pakistan and Zimbabwe when the match was abandoned due to intermittent rains. Earlier, Pakistan had scored 73 runs for loss of three wickets. The match points were equally divided between the two teams. Zimbabwe won the third slot in the Pool A and qualified for the Super Six round of the tournament.

Security Council Vote on Iraq Likely Next Week (Go To Top)

          NEW YORK:  The United States and Britain are likely to seek a Security Council vote next week on their draft resolution for opening the way to war, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. The sponsors of the draft, which include Spain, thought there was slightly better than 50-50 chance of a vote in their favour but the odds could change after a briefing by the chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix, expected on Friday.

Alleged Conversions by Punjab Village Church, Tension Mounts (Go To Top)

          NAGOKE (Amritsar): Not everyone in Nagoke, a small hamlet on the Indo-Pakistan border of Punjab's Amritsar district, is happy with the new village church. The church, it seems, has divided the residents of Nagoke and many other villages in the district on the basis of religious conversions by Christian missionaries.

          Residents of these Hindu and Sikh dominated villages said the missionaries were enticing the people to change faith by promising them a better life. However, the converts say their gains have been more on the spiritual plane than on the material level. "It was only after the construction of this church that I got to know about Christianity. There has been a lot of change in my work after the conversion. Now I do not drink alcohol, don't lie and complete my duties properly," said one of them.

           At least six churches have come up in the region in the past few months, leading to a sudden increase in the number of Christian converts, a majority of them economically and socially impoverished Sikhs. Tension between Sikhs and Christians has mounted following the surge in the number of churches.

          "In our (Sikh) religion, we have no preachers but the Christians do. And because of this, people get influenced easily and convert themselves and this is bad for the Sikh religion," said Jaimal Singh, a local Sikh resident.

          Religious conversions by Christian missionaries has been a major sore point with India's Hindu groups who question the motive behind converting the economically and socially backward people. Last year, Tamil Nadu banned religious conversions by "fraudulent means" or "forcible allurement" through legislation.

SP Uproar on Mayawati Tapes; CM Calls It 'Editing Tricks' (Go To Top)

          NEW DELHI: Legislative business was stalled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday for a little over half an hour during the question hour as the Samajwadi Party MPs strongly demanded the resignation of Ms Mayawati, UP chief minister, on grounds of corruption because of her statements recorded in certain video tapes. According to the tapes shown on TV channels on Monday, Mayawati allegedly asked her Bahujan Samaj Party MPs to contribute to the party from their MP local area development (MPLAD) fund.

           Business could be taken up only after Speaker Manohar Joshi directed the Government to make a statement during zero hour. Meanwhile, Mayawati has refuted the allegations that she sought money from her party MLAs from their legislators' development funds by terming the video tapes floated by them as an "editing trick" aimed at defaming her.

Lapang Sworn in New Meghalaya CM (Go To Top)

          SHILLONG: DD Lapang (Congress) along with his 37 colleagues was on Tuesday sworn in as the new chief minister of Meghalaya. Another 27 Cabinet ministers and ten ministers of state were also administered the oaths of office and secrecy by Governor M M Jacob at a simple function at Raj Bhavan here. Lapang will lead a coalition of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance which comprises the Congress with 22 MLAs, United Democratic Party nine, the Meghalaya Democratic Party four, the newly-formed Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement two, the Hill State Peoples' Democratic Party two and three Independent MLAs.

Virbhadra Is Himachal CLP Leader (Go To Top)

          SHIMLA: Virbhadra Singh was on Tuesday unanimously elected leader of the Congress legislature party, paving the way for his becoming the next chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. His election took place at a meeting of the newly elected Congress legislators here. All the 40 party MLAs were present at the meeting. The meeting was attended by party observers Mohsina Kidwai, Moti Lal Vora and RK Dhawan. The Congress bagged 40 seats in the Assembly elections held for 65 of the 68 seats on February 26.

US and South Korean Troops Start Major War Games (Go To Top)

          SEOUL: US and South Korean troops began major joint war games Tuesday to deter North Korea's military threat amid tensions heightened by North Korean fighters, which had intercepted a US spy plane, a news agency reported. The annual exercises, called RSOI/FE 03, will be staged throughout South Korea until April 2, backed by a US aircraft carrier to be deployed near the Korean peninsula.

Men Look for Lips Full, Red and Warm: Study (Go To Top)

          LONDON: Having an hourglass figure or manly muscles is not the only factor that attracts opposite sex towards each other. Instead, these days it is all about luscious lips, says a 15-year study. Prof Michael Cunningham, from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, has found that couples are attracted by the size of each other's lips.

           "Larger lips are better-looking than smaller lips up to a certain point," he said. "It is possible to go a little too far and then be unattractive. But generally speaking, big is better than small." In this study, the researcher suggests what men and women look for in each other's partners and added that both have different tastes about the size of lips that they prefer, according to a report in the Telegraph.

           "When women are looking at men, they are simultaneously looking for sensuality and ruggedness," he said. "And that is, the man should look virile, which means that he shouldn't look too sensual. He shouldn't look too feminine in his lips. At the same time, there should be some hint of generosity and warmth. So medium-sized lips are probably better on men, than either too small or too large," Prof Cunningham told Radio 4's programme 'The Kiss'. He further said that men are looking for lips that have "fullness, redness and warmth". "If a woman is holding her lips very tightly clenched, that is not a good sign that she is really interested in getting to know you better," he said. Since the mid-1980s, Prof Cunningham has devoted much of his working life to the science of attractiveness.

Curtains Down on Fred-Brit Spat (Go To Top)

          LONDON: Fred Durst has finally asserted to end all dispute with Britney Spears, saying: "I don't want to fight with her." According to a report in the Sun, Limp Bizkit's singer Durst called up the pop diva and agreed to halt their public brawl. The decision was taken after he saw a report in the paper, which quoted Britney as saying that romance was one-way affair and "he leaped in too quick". Fred has also appealed to fans to drop the subject of his affair with Britney in a bid to prevent further embarrassment. He ranted on the Internet: "Enough about the Fred and Britney thing. I'm gonna do my best to put it behind me.''

Michael Sheen, Kate Split (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON: Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale have split, according to Sheen who admitted recently that the decision was "final and complete". Sheen has wasted no time in getting back into the swing of things - the actor is romancing a younger woman in London, while 29-year-old Kate is in Prague, filming her latest movie Van Helsing. Causes of the breakup are being so far blamed on the usual suspects: Kate's more successful acting career and a large amount of time apart. Sheen (no relation to Martin, Charlie Sheen) has just finished filming 'Bright Young Things', an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel Vile Bodies, directed by Stephen Fry and also starring Jim Broadbent and Peter O'Toole. The ex-couple have a four-year-old daughter Lily.

Another of 'Magnificent Seven' Dead (Go To Top)

          LONDON: Actor Horst Buchholz, who featured in 'Magnificent Seven', died on Monday here after a long illness. Buchholz, 69, played handsome youngster Chico who lives to the end of the classic 1960 movie and stays in the rescued Mexican village with his girlfriend. Buchholz's fellow Seven star Brad Dexter, 85 - who played Harry Luck - died last December. The month before that James Coburn (Britt) died at 74. Yul Brynner, who was the Seven's leader Chris, and Steve McQueen, who played his sidekick Vin, are also dead. Still living are Charles Bronson, 80, who was big-hearted Bernardo O'Reilly and Robert Vaughn, 70, who was coward-turned-hero Lee. Horst - a shoemaker's son dubbed the German James Dean - starred in many movies in his homeland. One of his last was Life Is Beautiful in 1997.

-ANI