Three people were killed and five missing Wednesday after floods carrying volcanic debris swept through a town in eastern Indonesia, a government official said. "Following heavy rains during the night, volcanic floods hit early morning at 2:00 am (1700 GMT)," national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. Two people were also injured as the floodwaters rampaged, damaging at least 20 homes in Ternate City in North …

The launch in India of a new BlackBerry by Research In Motion Ltd is not just a nod to its lower-end users who love it less for its security, push email and seamless roaming than for its simplicity and its Messaging. It's a strategy the Canadian company hopes will help fill both a hole in its balance sheet and a half-year wait for its next big thing - the BlackBerry 10 platform. But will it work? The handset itself won't impress devotees: …

Measured by environmental impact, a humble shrimp cocktail could be the most costly part of a typical restaurant meal, scientists said Friday. If the seafood is produced on a typical Asian fish farm, a 100-gram (3.5 ounce) serving "has an ecosystem carbon footprint of an astounding 198 kilograms (436 pounds) of CO2," biologist J. Boone Kauffman said. A one-pound (454-gram) bag of frozen shrimp produces one ton of carbon dioxide, said Kauffman, …

China's defence budget will double between 2011 and 2015 and outstrip the combined spending of all other key defence markets in the Asia-Pacific region, global research group IHS said Tuesday. China's defence budget stood at $119.8 billion last year and will rise to $238.2 billion in 2015, marking a combined annual growth rate of 18.75 percent during the period, the US-based IHS said in a forecast. The 2015 figure exceeds the combined total of …

Suriya's 7aum Arivu has had a successful run at the box office and the 50th day celebrations will be happening soon. The latest is that the film directed by AR Murugadoss aill be screened at various international film festivals to be held in Europe and also in some of the Asian countries like Indonesia and Thailand. A special cut of the film has been readied to better suit the tastes of a global audience. The makers believe that 7aum Arivu will …

The world population will reach seven billion later this year, with increases in the number of people in Africa off-setting birth rate drops elsewhere, according to a new French study published Thursday. Looking much further ahead, the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) predicts a continuing rise in the overall population figures until the total stabilises somewhere between 9-10 billion worldwide by the end of the century. From six …

The world wide web has broadcast dire warnings about how the movement of the moon will trigger tidal waves and volcanic eruptions on March 19. The conspiracy theorists claim that on March 19, the moon will be closer to Earth than at any time since 1992, just 221,567 miles away, and that its gravitational pull will bring chaos on Earth. The tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia happened two weeks before such a ’supermoon’ …

India’s second largest infotech company Infosys Technologies Monday said it had won the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) awards in the global, Asian and Indian categories for 2010. “The MAKE selection panel recognised our company for creating a corporate knowledge-driven culture and a learning organization, transforming knowledge into shareholder value,” Infosys vice-president Srikantan Moorthy said in a statement here. The MAKE awards …

Mount Bromo volcano on Indonesia’s Java island spewed ash into the air from a series of minor eruptions Sunday, prompting scientists to warn of possible danger to flights. Gede Suantika, head of the Centre of Vulcanology and Geological Mitigation, said the ash had reached the Abdurahman Saleh Airport in nearby city of Malang. Mount Bromo’s status was upgraded to top alert Friday and placed off-limits to visitors, but no evacuation order was issued …

Medals tally on the 11th day of the Asian Games here Tuesday: Rank Country G S B T 1 China 165 85 79 329 2 South Korea 64 55 74 193 3 Japan 34 64 68 166 4 Chinese Taipei 12 11 29 52 5 Iran 12 9 15 36 6 Hong Kong 8 14 14 36 7 Kazakhstan 7 14 26 47 8 India 7 12 20 39 9 Thailand 7 7 26 40 10 Malaysia 6 13 8 27 11 Uzbekistan 5 13 17 35 12 North Korea 5 10 15 30 13 Indonesia 4 8 10 22 14 Singapore 4 6 6 16 15 Bahrain 3 0 3 6 16 IOC Kuwait 2 3 0 5 17 …