The entire Canada was being hammered by a variety of weather systems on the first day of winter (December 21), with storms and blowing snow gripping much of provinces of Ontario and Quebec, while wind-chill warnings are in effect through most of the prairies and Western Canada. High winds are forecast throughout Atlantic Canada.
Extreme wind chill warnings remained in effect for large part of the Prairies egion, with temperatures expected to drop as low at -40 C and remain frigid for another four days.
Up to 40 cm of snow was …

The Government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a US$3.3 billion contract for American-made Patriot missiles which will further deepen the military ties between the US and the UAE.  The agreement, signed with the US defence contractor Raytheon, includes technology, training and supply of the medium-range missile system, which is part of a multi-tiered defensive shield the UAE Armed Forces is building to protect the nation from perceived threats in the region.
Analysts say the UAE faces no imminent threats, but add that the intensifying standoff between the UN and Iran over its …

Real estate analysts and buyers urging that Property developers in the UAE should provide investors “an affordable exit route to ward off distress sales” that could further rock the depressed market. With the real estate sector facing a sudden slump in the backdrop of a sweeping global financial turmoil, it is imperative that developers as well as authorities should take a series of measures to restore investor confidence, analysts further added.
A leading banker, who wanted to remain unidentified, said a possible initiative from the government which could restore confidence and …

Indian Minority Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Antulay resgined after giving in to pressures within the Indian government and demands by the Barathia Janatha Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena. The step was taken following statements he made after Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare was killed during the 26 November terrorist attacks in Mumbai suggesting that the latter was the victim of a plot. According to Antulay, Karkare could have been killed because of the involvement of Hindu extremists in recent attacks in Maharashtra and Gujarat blasts that he and his …

Social networking site Facebook closed down a Serbian group that celebrated the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica after online appeals from about 14,000 people in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.The group “Noz Zica Srebrenica” (The Knife The Wire Srebrenica), written in Serbian cyrillic script, extolled the detention and killing of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by fugitive General Ratko Mladic. “For all those who respect the acts of Ratko Mladic,” said the 1,000-member-strong nationalist group, “For all those who think …

The Prime Minister of Canada, in an interview with CTV News in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada has confirmed first time that his Conservative government’s January 2009 budget would push Canada into a deficit, while including billions of dollars in spending. “The truth is, I’ve never seen such uncertainty …,” the Globe and Mail quoted Harper as saying in the interview. “I’m very worried about the Canadian economy.”
The Prime Minister also raised the possibility that a depression — loosely defined as prolonged recession where output declines more than 10 percent — …

The UN security council authorized countries to use “all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” to stop anyone using Somalian territory to plan or carry out piracy in the nearby waters traversed each year by thousands of cargo ships sailing between Asia and the Suez Canal. That includes the use of Somalia’s airspace, even though the United States appeased Indonesia, a council member, by removing direct mention of it, U.S. officials said.
Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Jama, whose government asked for the help, said he was “heartened” by the …

An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush “a dog” and threw his footwear, just missing the president.
With his second shoe, which the president also managed to dodge, Mr Zaidi said: “This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq.”
Mr Zaidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, was then wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away. “If you want the facts, it’s a size 10 shoe that he threw,” Mr Bush joked afterwards.
What a surprise …

ERIC MARGOLIS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. strategic think tank, RAND Corp, estimated a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan initially would kill two million, wound 100 million and send clouds of radioactive dust around the globe. That was a decade ago. Since then India and Pakistan have quadrupled their nuclear forces, which are now on a hair-trigger alert.
Fears an enraged India would attack Pakistan in revenge for the Mumbai massacre provoked great alarm here in Washington. So, too, the threat Islamabad would withdraw two Pakistani army corps supporting the U.S. …

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can financially afford to is required to perform it at least once in his or her lifetime. About three million Muslim pilgrims from nearly 100 countries have gthered in a valley just outside the holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia as they began the hajj.
The pilgrims left Makkah on Saturday after completing the first ritual of the hajj by circling the sacred Kaaba seven times inside the Grand Mosque. Dressed in white, pilgrims piled into and on top …