MUMBAI: Leading Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has been accused of fracturing a man's nose in an alleged assault at a luxury hotel restaurant in Mumbai, Indian police said on Wednesday.

A case was registered against Saif after a South African man complained to police that he was punched in the face by the actor at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel's Wasabi Japanese restaurant.

Khan, 41, was dining with his girlfriend, actress Kareena Kapoor, and friends on Tuesday night when he allegedly clashed with Iqbal Sharma.

Police said that Sharma said he was hit on the nose after a "heated argument".

"Investigations are on in the matter and we are trying to trace the actor," assistant police commissioner Iqbal Sheikh told reporters.

Saif, educated at leading Engli...

GAZA CITY: A reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas must be implemented in a "thorough and honest" way, members of Hamas's leadership said on Wednesday.

"We stress the need for thorough and honest implementation of the reconciliation agreements of Cairo and Doha to end the division and unify the national front," they said in a statement after meeting in Cairo.

Their statement came as Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal prepared to hold talks with Fatah head and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on continuing efforts to implement a reconciliation deal the two groups signed in Cairo in May.

The long-time rivals have been struggling to implement the terms of the deal, which calls for the formation of an interim government of independents to pav...

JERUSALEM: Israel’s top court struck down a law designed to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to join the military and the workforce, saying it had backfired by “entrenching” their blanket draft exemptions and protracted seminary studies.

The ruling was welcomed by Israel’s secular majority but could set off rifts in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition government, which includes powerful religious Jewish parties.

The 2002 “Service Deferral Law” offered the ultra-Orthodox, who make up 10 percent of the population and are often welfare dependant, a choice, upon reaching draft-age, between studying in seminaries or working. The latter option entailed first enlisting in the military, with the possibility of s...

GAZA CITY: A reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas must be implemented in a "thorough and honest" way, members of Hamas's leadership said on Wednesday.

"We stress the need for thorough and honest implementation of the reconciliation agreements of Cairo and Doha to end the division and unify the national front," they said in a statement after meeting in Cairo.

Their statement came as Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal prepared to hold talks with Fatah head and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on continuing efforts to implement a reconciliation deal the two groups signed in Cairo in May.

The long-time rivals have been struggling to implement the terms of the deal, which calls for the formation of an interim government of independents to pav...

WASHINGTON: If you knew you would be around to blow out the candles at your 100th birthday party, would that change how you manage your money today?

The answer was yes for three out of four affluent Americans polled in a Merrill Lynch survey released Wednesday. Many will make it there: if you're currently 65 and married, there is a 31 percent chance you or your spouse will live past 95, Merrill said, citing research from the Society of Actuaries.

Living to 100 would be a good thing, according to 58 percent of those polled in Merrill's bi-annual Affluent Insights Survey.

But the prospect of a long life is also causing anxiety. People planning for their later years are thinking about holding off on retiring and are reining in spending today.

"Th...

SEOUL: Isolationist North Korea lashed out at its neighbor on Wednesday for hosting an international nuclear security summit in Seoul next month, calling it a "childish farce" and an "intolerable grave provocation."

The South has said Pyongyang can send a delegate to the conference involving some 50 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, but insists the invitation is conditional on it renouncing its own nuclear program.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, having signed only a truce to end their 1950-53 civil conflict, not a peace treaty, and the United States has some 28,000 troops based in the South.

"It is astonishing that a meeting dealing with the issue of nuclear security is to be convened in south Korea, a nuclear advance ba...

CANBERRA: Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned on Wednesday, saying he could no longer work with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, igniting a new and bitter leadership crisis for the struggling minority government.

Gillard's government has sunk in popularity as Gillard and Rudd, whom she ousted in 2010, have waged a personal feud that has split their Labor Party and alienated voters.

Labor insiders said that while Rudd was more popular with voters, Gillard had stronger support within the party and would easily win a leadership vote, which could come as early as next week.

They differ little on policy, but the battle -- described by Rudd as a "soap opera" -- threatens to trigger an early election and a defeat for Labor's economic reform agenda, inc...

VIENNA/TEHRAN: The U.N. nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran's suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West.

In a defiant response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's nuclear policies would not change despite mounting international pressure against what the West says are Iran's plans to obtain nuclear bombs.

"With God's help, and without paying attention to propaganda, Iran's nuclear course should continue firmly and seriously," he said on state television. "Pressures, sanctions and assassinations will bear no fruit. No obstacles can stop Iran's nuclear work."

As sanctions mount, ordinary Iranians are suffering from the effects of so...

AMMAN: A main opposition group on Wednesday called on Syrians to boycott an upcoming referendum on a new constitution, saying it was an attempt by President Bashar al-Assad to cover up a crackdown.

"The regime is using this proposal to cover up for its massacres. A constitution cannot be prepared unless all political powers and societal groups in Syria participate in drafting it through an elected assembly," the Local Coordination Committees said in a statement.

Assad has called the referendum for next Sunday and if passed, multi-party elections will be held within 90 days. AGENCIES

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) today set conditions to take part in an all-party conference, convened by the government to discuss the Balochistan issue.

According to sources, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has linked his party’s participation in the APC with the arrest of Akbar Bugti’s killers and recovery of missing persons.

Speaking to reporters in Lahore, PML-N MNA Khawaja Saeed said there was no possibility of the conference being result-oriented.

He said Baloch tribal chieftains and politicians are equally responsible for the current situation in Balochistan.

Nobody should have any objection if the province is handed over to army, he said. CNBC