Traditional fruit cake to sweeten royal wedding

LONDON: Prince William and Kate Middleton have picked an ornate multi-tiered fruit cake for their wedding on April 29, royal officials said on Sunday.

The traditional cake — which is usually made with candied or dried fruit, nuts, spices and sometimes spirits — will be decorated with cream and white icing and will have “a strong British floral theme,” Clarence House and St James’s Palace said in a statement.

The website of the chosen cake designer, Fiona Cairns, who is based in a village in central England, shows cakes decorated with three-dimensional designs of roses, leaves and birds.

Prince William has also asked McVitie’s Cake Company, now part of United Biscuits, to make a chocolate biscuit cake from a royal family recipe for the wedding reception at Buckingham Palace.

McVitie’s has made many of the wedding and christening cakes for members of the royal family since the marriage of the future King George V and Queen Mary in 1893. AGENCIES

Philippines floods toll rises to 51; fishermen missing

MANILA: The death toll from more than two weeks of heavy rains in the central and southern Philippines has risen to 51, disaster officials said on Sunday, as authorities stepped up their search for another 16 people missing at sea.

Agriculture and infrastructure damage now exceeds 1.6 billion pesos ($36 million) after floodwaters inundated rural communities in about a third of the country’s 80 provinces, said Benito Ramos, head of the government’s disaster agency.

Major rice and corn production areas in the north and western parts of the country have been spared from the damaging impact of the persistent rains that began in late December.

Most of the dead either drowned or were buried by mudslides, Ramos said. Nearly 20 people are still missing.

“We’re expecting the number of casualties to increase because more people have gone missing,”

Rihanna equals Elvis record with 5th UK Number 1

LONDON: R&B singer Rihanna took the pop music charts by storm this week with a number one single, album and two other songs in the charts.

The Official Charts Company said on Sunday the Barbadian singer had re-written the record books becoming first female solo artist in chart history to achieve five number one singles in consecutive years with “What’s My Name”.

The only other solo artist to equal this achievement was Elvis Presley in the 1950s, it said.

The 22-year-old singer knocked X Factor champion Matt Cardle’s “When We Collide” from the top spot to number two after three weeks at number one.

Her Album “Loud” held on to its number one slot beating off competition from British rapper Plan B’s “The Defamation of Strickland Banks” which had been ahead in the race for pole position last week.

Saudi king to get medical treatment in U.S.

KUWAIT/JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s elderly King Abdullah will leave for the United States on Monday for medical checks for a back ailment, and Crown Prince Sultan is returning from holiday abroad, state media said on Sunday.

Western diplomats in Riyadh said the prince’s return indicate that kingdom, which has no political parties or elected parliament, is trying to prevent a power vacuum and reassure Washington and other allies.

A day before his departure, the king reappointed several officials close to him, including Saudi Arabia’s relatively moderate top Islamic scholar and the ambassador to Washington.

Prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi said the court’s fourth medical bulletin in little more than a week showed the desert kingdom, known for its secrecy, wanted to dispel any rumours.

“They want to make a point that there is no room for rumours.

Israeli govt seen accepting new settlement freeze

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will probably win narrow approval from his coalition government for a U.S. proposal to extend a freeze on West Bank settlement building, Israeli political sources said on Sunday.

The Palestinians halted peace talks after the 10-month Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired in September. The Obama administration has offered Israel diplomatic and defence perks to renew the freeze for 90 days.

Netanyahu, who visited the United States last week, convened his cabinet to outline the proposal, which he said was still being drafted with the Americans. Once ready, it would be put to a vote in Israel’s 15-minister security cabinet, he said.

“In any event, I insist that any proposal meet the State of Israel’s security needs, both in the immediate term and vis-a-vis the threats that we will face in the coming

Abducted Afghan diplomat freed after two years

KABUL: A senior Afghan diplomat in Pakistan, kidnapped two years ago by gunmen, has been freed, the Afghan government said on Sunday.

Abdul Khaliq Farahi, the Afghan consul general in Pakistan, was seized after gunmen ambushed his car and killed his driver in September 2008 in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

“I can confirm that he was freed yesterday and he is in Afghanistan,” Siyamak Herawi, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said. AGENCIES

Iran says nuclear talks could happen in Turkey

TEHRAN: Talks between Iran and major world powers, which have stalled for more than a year, could resume in Turkey “as soon as possible”, Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday.

The P5+1 group, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, had proposed holding talks with Iran over its nuclear programme on Nov. 15-17 in Vienna. Iran indicated it was open to that idea but never formally agreed.

“We have told our Turkish friends that we are in agreement with regard to holding these talks in Turkey,” Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. He said the venue, date and agenda were still under discussion. AGENCIES

Obama will discuss Pakistan in India parliament: official

MUMBAI: U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss Pakistan in the context of regional security and counterterrorism in his speech to the Indian parliament on Monday, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

“The president will definitely discuss Pakistan”, the official said, but declined to go further than that because he did not want to get ahead of the president’s remarks.

Obama draw criticism on Saturday after he paid tribute to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks but made no reference in his remarks to India’s traditional foe Pakistan, which New Delhi blames for harbouring anti-India militants.

Pakistan-based militants killed 166 people in a 60-hour rampage through Mumbai, India’s financial hub, gunning down their victims at luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre. India says elements in the Pakistan state were behind the

Haiti: Cholera death toll tops 250

A cholera epidemic in Haiti has killed more than 250 people, the government said on Sunday, but it added the outbreak which has sickened more than 3,000 may be stabilizing with fewer deaths and new cases reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 3,015 in the most affected region. This is the official count of lower Artibonite plus the Central Plateau and 253 dead, Director-General of Haiti’s Health Department, told a news conference. Doctors attending to cholera patients in the countryside said the steady stream of sick has not let up. The epidemic is the second emergency to strike the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere this year. Despite the reports of a stabilizing trend in the cholera outbreak, foreign aid agencies were preparing for a possible worst-case scenario of the epidemic spreading across the country, including the densely populated capital. Experts see Port-au-Prince’s sprawling, squalid slums and tent and tarpaulin camps housing some 1.3 million homeless quake survivors as vulnerable to the cholera, which is transmitted through contaminated water and food.

Nawaz warns Zardari over clash with judiciary

Staff Report

LONDON: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday that the present government has not accepted judiciary, saying that the government will be in trouble because of the clash with the apex court.

He said, during a news conference in London, that President Asif Ali Zardari has used democracy because he wanted to protect his wrong steps.

The PML-N chief warned that all conspiracies would be discouraged against democracy. SAMAA

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