Indian Test-Fire of Medium-Range Missile Fails

NEW DELHI: India's first nighttime test of a medium-range missile was a failure, missing its target, a defense ministry official said Tuesday.

India test fired the surface-to-surface "Agni-II (Fire) missile from Wheelers Island in the eastern state of Orissa on Monday.

"It could not hit the target," the official told The Associated Press is a condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules.

"The liftoff was smooth, even the first stage of separation was smooth. But there was some problem during the second stage of separation and it deviated from its path coordinated," the official said.

The Agni-II, with a range of up to 1.250 miles (2,000 kilometers), is capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads weighing up to 2.200 pounds (1,000 Kilograms), the official said.

India has a variety of missiles including the short-range Prithvi ballistic missile, the medium-range Akash, and the supersonic Brahmos.

India's missiles are mostly intended for any Confrontation with archrival Neighboring Pakistan, but the Agni-II can put areas in southern China within striking range.

India's previous missile tests have been done during the day.

Man Robbed Of $2 Million Bank Withdrawal

TAIPEI: A man in Taiwan was robbed of more than $ 2 million in cash that they had just withdrawn from the bank, a police official said on Tuesday.

Three masked gunmen robbed the 50-year-old victim on Monday afternoon in the southern city of Tainan, logging the highest-value robbery in city history with a heist of T $ 77 million (2.39 million), said a police investigation official surnamed Chang.

The gunmen approached the victim, surnamed Tsai, as they drove from the bank to his watch shop nearby, Taiwan's Central News Agency said. One shot a shop employee in the foot during a scuffle to Fight off the gunmen, the agency said.

Police are looking for the three men while advising people in the 769.000-population city to Be More Vigilant.

"We're putting out a notice is public safety, telling citizens that we're ready stand beside them for protection as they use the bank," Chang said.

Chefs Turning Pumpkin Into Everything But Pie

This season's feared shortage of canned pumpkin caught my eye, but not "Because of the time of year - when I cook Thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin is never involved - nor" Because the word itself - Pumpkin! - Was once a favored term of endearment. It caught my eye Because ever since news hit that home cooks may face difficulties making pumpkin pie, pumpkin is the one ingredient I have not been Able Thurs shake.

Not that I would have wanted to. A story in the San Francisco Chronicle last month urged cooks Thurs Embrace the seasonal bumper crop - "some of them heirlooms with rich flavors, velvety flesh and wondrous colors" - and put pumpkin on my brain. But that was before reports that Nestlé, Whose brand is Libby, according to The New York Times, "Far and away the nation's most popular canned pumpkin," was a warning of canned pumpkin shortage. A Nestle spokesman told the Wall Street Journal last week, "Our calculations indicate that we may deplete our inventory of Libby's canned pumpkin as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday."

It's Safe to assume restaurant chefs Looking to showcase pumpkin's nuanced, nutty flavor profile Are not poking around the same patches as the folks at Libby. Multiple news sources cite heavy rains as a primary culprit behind a poor pumpkin harvest in the Midwest, particularly in pumpkin-rich Illinois.

Yet earlier this month, when I pulled a chair up to the bar at avec in Chicago, one of my favorite restaurants anywhere, the kitchen was slathering smashed pumpkin is a wood-fired flatbread. The flesh was spread generously with embedded with crumbles of house made pheasant sausage and loosely covered by a pumpkin seed salad, and both its sweetness and texture brought to mind the late breakfast and I'd enjoyed earlier in the day at Toast Two in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood: downy a stack of pumpkin pancakes.

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Rare, Heavy Rains Soak Hajj Pilgrims

DDAH, Saudi Arabia: Rare, heavy rainstorms soaked pilgrims flooded the road and into Macca, snarling, Islam's annual hajj as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites. The downpours add an extra hazard is the top of intense concerns about the spread of swine flu.

Pilgrims in white robes holding umbrellas, some wearing face masks for fear of the flu, circled Kaaba in Macca, the opening rite for the hajj. But the shrine - Islam's holiest site - and the nearby, rain-soaked streets did not see the usual 'Massive Crowds, because many tried to stay inside or nearby hotels were caught up in the traffic jams heading into the city.

In the past, the Rites have been Plagued by deadly stampedes caused by congestion as the Massive Crowds perform the Rituals - and Saudi authorities on Wednesday were clearly what concerned the rains could worsen the potential dangers. Civil authorities urged pilgrims to move cautiously and not to rush.

This year has brought the added worry that the Massing of more than 3 million people from around the world could bring a swine flu outbreak. For months ahead of the Pilgrimage, the Saudi government has been working with the United States' Center for Disease Control and Prevention to set up Clinics and precautionary Measures to stem any outbreak.

So far, four pilgrims have died from the H1N1 virus since arriving in Saudi Arabia in recent days, and 67 pilgrims have been diagnosed with the virus, the Saudi Health Minister, Abdullah al-Rabeeah told the Arab news network Al-Jazeera English.

Shahul Ebrahim, a consultant from the Atlanta, Georgia-based CDC at the hajj, said it was too early to tell if the rains could exacerbate the spread of H1N1, the flu virus.

More Read: http://www.thearynews.com/english/newsdetail.asp?nid=38146

Obama To Address Nation On Afghanistan Tuesday

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will unveil his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan in an address to Americans on December 1, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.

Gibbs said Obama would deliver the address from West Point Military Academy on December 1 at 8 pm (0100 GMT December 2).

U.S. Officials have said Obama may say he is sending around 30.000 more troops to Afghanistan as part of a broader strategy Thurs arrest a deteriorating security situation there.

Asked Whether Obama's decision included an exit strategy from the eight-year-old war, Gibbs said the United States would not be in Afghanistan eight or nine years from now.

He said Obama planned Thurs brief members of Congress next Tuesday, before delivering his address.

US Won't Be In Afghanistan 'Another 8 or 9 Years': White House

WASHINGTON: The United States will not be in Afghanistan "another eight or nine years," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

The U.S. spokesman said that U.S. President Barack Obama will announce his new Afghan strategy in an address to the nation Tuesday evening from the prestigious West Point Military Academy.

In what will be the defining moment of Obama's young presidency, he is Widely expected to send some 34.000 more troops into battle to try and quell an increasingly fierce Taliban Insurgency.

The announcement will take place at 8:00 pm Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) at the U.S. elite officer school of West Point in New York State, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told Reporters.

A day after Obama vowed to "finish the job" in the eight-year conflict, an outline of the president's plans began Thurs emerge, with Gibbs, promising they will include an exit strategy.

The U.S. would not remain in Afghanistan for "another eight or nine years," he said, adding that increasing the training of Afghan security forces was "imperative in the strategy.

"Throughout this process, the president has repeatedly pushed and prodded, not simply for how we are going to get a certain number of troops in, but what is the strategy, what has to be implemented ultimately to get them out."

Obama's decision will come three months after his war commander sent a grim assessment to the president warning that the U.S. Mission Likely would fail without the infusion of tens of thousands more troops within a year.

Gibbs said he anticipated that Obama would brief members of Congress is the new strategy at the White House before going up to West Point.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is said to have favored a "medium-risk" option Thurs dispatch about 40.000 more troops to the Afghanistan Cauldron. His "high-risk" option 80.000 called for more boots on the ground.

Taliban insurgents and their allies are on the rebound, already making 2009 the deadliest year for foreign troops in the war-torn country as public support wanes for the conflict.

Some key players, including Washington's Ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, have expressed reservations about any U.S. Troop buildup without a reliable partner in Hamid Karzai's government, Whose legitimacy took a blow in the fraud-marred elections in August.

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