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With Chandrayaan-I creating waves the world over, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was today shown the first pictures sent by India’s maiden unmanned scientific mission to Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair met Singh here this afternoon and briefed him on the lunar mission launched on October 22.

Nair showed Singh the first pictures taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), one of the 11 payloads on Chandrayaan, depicting the northern and southern coasts of Australia.

During the meeting, Singh expressed happiness on the significant milestone in space programme and congratulated Nair and his team for the successful mission.

The TMC was successfully operated on Wednesday through a series of commands issued from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bangalore.

The first image taken at 8:00 am IST from a height of 9,000 km showed the Northern coast of Australia while another taken at 12:30 pm from a height of 70,000 km shows Australia’s Southern Coast.

The Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu on the outskirts of Bangalore received the first images which were processed by Indian Space Science Data Centre.

“The images confirm excellent performance of the camera,” a top ISRO official said.

Nair briefed Singh about the launch sequence and subsequent manoeuvering of the spacecraft to reach the final lunar orbit. The health of the spacecraft is good and all operations so far have been implemented as planned, he said.

Models of PSLV C-11 and Chandrayaan-1 were also presented to the Prime Minister.

U.S. Special Forces soldiers conducting a daring nighttime operation freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers — the first known hostage rescue by American forces in Afghanistan.

The American, who was abducted in mid-August, had been held in a growing insurgent stronghold 30 miles west of Kabul, U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. They said several insurgents were killed in last week’s mission to free him.

Taliban militants have kidnapped dozens of international aid workers, journalists and other foreigners in recent years and have demanded large ransoms or the release of imprisoned Taliban fighters for their freedom. Increasingly aggressive crime syndicates have also raked in big money by kidnapping wealthy Afghans and foreigners and demanding ransoms.

Hostage rescues are rarely attempted and are difficult to pull off successfully. Only two such missions are known to have occurred, both in 2007. In one, both Italian captives were wounded in a raid by Italian commandos.

Last week’s rescue came to the attention of the AP after a U.S. military official sought to bring its successful outcome into the public eye. Officials declined to reveal even the smallest detail or the captive’s identity, saying they did not want to compromise military tactics or the man’s safety.

Three U.S. military officials told the AP that Special Forces troops were able to locate the kidnapper’s hideaway in the Nirkh district of Wardak province outside Kabul, but would not specify how. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

In the case of the rescued American, who had lived in Afghanistan for several years, it was not known whether any ransom demands were made. But a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan said growing insecurity imperils its work to rebuild the country.

“This guy didn’t have any money at all. It was like a personal life mission for him to help others,” said Bruce J. Huffman, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan.

“We all felt sick about it, because he was never going to be able to pay a ransom. He’s over here helping people and they’re trying to make a buck off him.”

News of the rescue comes on the heels of the targeted killing Monday of a British-South African aid worker by Taliban gunmen who accused her of spreading her Christian faith.

“The hard reality is that more areas are insecure today than they were a year ago. There continues to be a wave of kidnapping — even in the last few days,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. ambassador to the U.N. told the U.S.-Afghan Business Matchmaking Conference in Washington on Tuesday. He said attacks are up 30 percent this year.

Mohammad Hazra Janan, the head of the provincial council in Wardak, where the American was kidnapped, said the number of abductions are “rising every day.” He said he knows that large ransoms are being paid.

“There’s no rule of law. The government can’t prevent these crimes,” he said. “Of course the paying of a ransom only encourages that business to grow. But one effect on society is that the businessmen will flee the country.”

The Army Corps of Engineers’ work building roads and projects that provide clean water and power helps extend the reach of the Afghan government and stimulates economic growth.

“Security has been a real problem, and the Corps of Engineers has been working diligently to build facilities for the Afghan National Army and police in order to foster a secure and stable environment,” Huffman said.

The Corps takes precautions to mitigate risk, he said, though he provided no details.

“No one would want to come over here and work if they thought something was going to happen to them,” Huffman said. “All our folks are volunteers. Everyone has different reasons why they volunteer and come, but I think most of the people we have get a lot of joy knowing they’re making a difference and helping to build a nation.”

Chris Klawitter, a German entrepreneur working in Afghanistan, said he knows several Afghan businessmen or their relatives who have been kidnapped.

“Routes are checked more carefully now,” he said. “The issue is not the Taliban or al-Qaida, it’s more criminal activity which is the main obstacle in traveling nowadays.”

The Peace Corps will return to war-ravaged Liberia on Sunday for the first time since fighting erupted nearly two decades ago, its goal to help rebuild the West African nation’s shattered education system.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, has struggled to turn itself around since the brutal war ended in 2003 and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office two years later. The return of the Peace Corps, which pulled out shortly after rebels invaded the country in late 1989, is a sign of confidence in Sirleaf, a Harvard-edcuated economist and Africa’s first elected female head of state.

“Sirleaf has done a tremendous job of bringing this country back from chaos and we want to be part of moving her country forward as rapidly as possible,” Peace Corps director Ronald A. Tschetter told The Associated Press in an interview from Washington, D.C. “This is a huge step for us to go back.”

Liberia’s back-to-back wars, which lasted from 1989 to 2003, sparked vicious factional fighting that killed an estimated 250,000 and displaced millions. Charles Taylor, who launched the 1989 invasion, is now jailed in The Hague facing war crimes charges.

Tschetter said Sirleaf had been calling for the Peace Corps to return and urged it to focus on what she saw as the most crucial need: education.

The 12 volunteers arrive Sunday and will be sworn in the following day. They come from a program called Peace Corps Response, which mobilizes former volunteers for short-term humanitarian assignments worldwide. Tschetter said he hopes their experience will enable them to “hit the ground running” and get the program moving faster.

Volunteers normally serve two-year stints, but the first group will stay eight or nine months — about the same length as the school year — as the program begins rebuilding. Their numbers are expected to double or triple by the end of 2009, and if all goes well, the program will reach 75 to 200 volunteers within a few years, Tschetter said.

The volunteers, aged 24 to 68, will be assigned to rural teacher training institutes where they will mentor administrators attempting to revitalize the country’s teacher training infrastructure, the Peace Corps said in a statement. Others will work with local libraries, parent teacher associations, local high schools, and health training programs.

The statement quoted Sirleaf as saying “such short-term projects aimed at raising the capacities and capabilities of Liberian teachers would have a profound impact upon civil society as a whole.”

Earlier Wednesday, Tschetter met with Sirleaf in Washington and said two officials with her — the Economics minister and Liberia’s U.S. ambassador — had been taught by Peace Corps volunteers in the 1980s. “Clearly the 4,400 who have served (before in Liberia) have made a tremendous impact,” Tschetter said.

Late U.S. President John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps in 1961, challenging college students to serve their country in the cause of peace. Since then, the Peace Corps has sent more than 190,000 volunteers to 139 countries around the world to help people in developing nations and serve as goodwill ambassadors for America.

About 8,000 American volunteers are currently serving overseas.

Political spats or conflict have forced the suspension of several programs this year. After Bolivia’s president expelled the U.S. ambassador for allegedly inciting opposition protests in September, the Peace Corps pulled out its 113 volunteers.

The Corps’ program in Georgia was also suspended when Russian tanks and warplanes invaded in August. The Kenya program was suspended at the start of this year after disputed presidential elections sparked nationwide violence, but volunteers began returning in June, Tschetter said.

Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani Friday condemned the killing of Shia lawmaker Saleh al-Ugaily by militants Thursday and called on all Iraqis to join forces against terrorism.

‘We have received with deep sadness the news of the martyrdom of Saleh al-Ugaily, a lawmaker from Sadr political movement,’ Talabani said in a statement Friday.

Ugaily died Thursday after his motorcade was hit by a roadside bomb in Habibiyah neighbourhood in eastern part of the Iraqi capital.

Two of his bodyguards were also killed in the attack.

All Iraqis must unite in the fight against terrorism, the statement quoted Talabani as saying.

‘Those who committed this heinous crime are the enemies of the Iraqis,’ he said.

On Friday, thousands of people loyal to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in eastern Baghdad to condemn and mourn the killing of Ugaily.

A Tennessee university student has been indicted for hacking into a personal email account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

David Kernell, 20, turned himself in to the authorities in Tennessee after he was indicted by a federal grand jury and was to be arraigned before a magistrate, the Justice Department said in a statement.

It said Kernell was charged in a single-count indictment with gaining “unauthorized access to Gov. Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password” around September 16.

“Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the email directory, email content and other personal information.

“According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the emails and other personal information to a public Web site,” the Justice Department added.

Kernell’s father is Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis, Tennessee. The elder Kernell has said he was unaware of the actions of his son, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

The McCain campaign denounced the attack on Palin’s private email as a “shocking invasion of the governor’s privacy.”

If convicted, Kernell faces up to five years in prison, a 250,000 dollar fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

Authorities did not immediately set a trial date.

Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa urged his opponents Monday to join his efforts to build a more just society, saying the overwhelming victory of his constitutional referendum gives him a broad mandate.

“Thank God my triumph was so convincing and so crushing, beyond all our expectations,” he told international reporters at a breakfast. “Let’s hope they reflect and let the country advance peacefully.”

With 90 percent of ballots counted, 64 percent of Ecuadorean voters approved the measure, according to official results. Correa got the majority he needed in all but two of Ecuador’s 24 provinces.

The 20th constitution in the history of this chronically unstable nation considerably broadens Correa’s powers and will let him run for two more consecutive terms, consolidating what he calls a citizen’s revolution.

Although nowhere near as radical as similar projects in Venezuela and Bolivia, critics complain it gives Correa far too much control over the economy and the judicial and legislative branches.

The new constitution also gives the government greater fiscal control over local and provincial authorities, eroding their power over public works projects and bureaucracies.

Even in Guayaquil — a center of opposition that is Ecuador’s largest city — the constitution was approved by 51 percent.

Correa, 45, said Monday that his government must now determine the cost of new programs the constitution enshrines, including pensions for stay-at-home mothers and free education for all through college.

Ecuador gets substantial oil income as Latin America’s fifth-largest oil producer, but Correa on Monday repeated his threat to reduce payments on Ecuador’s US$10 billion foreign debt if domestic priorities are more pressing.

Correa seeks a social safety net for the 38 percent of Ecuadoreans who live below the poverty line. He also has said the document will help to eradicate a political class that made Ecuador one of Latin America’s most corrupt countries.

Presidential and congressional elections are expected as early as February, and a Correa presidency is now possible through 2017. But the president was coy Monday when asked if he would run, saying it would be up to his Alianza Pais movement.

“I’m only here to serve my homeland. I’m not interested in power,” he told the foreign correspondents.

Correa is expected to swiftly overhaul the judiciary, the Central Bank and other key institutions, giving the U.S.- and European-trained economist greater liberty to fashion what he calls a “new political model.” Soaring oil prices have helped him build it.

Some in Correa’s badly splintered and debilitated opposition contend he’s creating a Venezuela-style autocracy.

But Correa has kept the Venezuelan president at arm’s length. And unlike Chavez and Morales, Correa has not moved to nationalize telecommunications and electrical utility companies.

In an attempt to ensure the nuclear deal is ready for signature when President George W. Bush meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later this week, the Bush administration has told Congress that India has committed itself to buy nuclear reactors from US firms and to devote ‘at least two sites’ for them.

William Burns, US under secretary of state for political affairs, in his testimony before the US Congress last week said a ’strong Letter of Intent’ has been given by the Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in which he made this commitment.

‘The Indian government has provided the US with a strong Letter of Intent, stating its intention to purchase reactors with at least 10,000 Mwe worth of new power generation capacity from US firms,’ Burns has told Congress.

He added, ‘India has committed to devoting at least two sites to US firms.’

The nuclear deal is now before the US Congress for its final nod. It can only be ready for signature once it gets the approval of Congress.

But all attempts are being made by the Bush administration to ensure Congress passes the 123 agreement without further delay.

President Bush will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington Thursday.

The prime minister who left for the US Monday afternoon said he ‘looked forward to the meeting with President Bush’ that will allow the two sides to discuss the entire range of their bilateral relations including cooperation on civil nuclear energy.

Burns has argued before the US Congress that any delay on their part to clear the 123 agreement will unnecessarily put American firms in a disadvantageous position vis-a-vis other international companies.

‘International competition will, inevitably, be intense and we want to avoid exposing US firms to any unnecessary delays,’ Burns said.

The external affairs ministry had issued a statement last week saying that it had already begun negotiations with the US, French and Russian firms on civil nuclear energy cooperation.

Sources said that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPC) has already begun talks with Westinghouse and GE-two leading American firms in the field of civil nuclear energy.

Talks are also on with some leading French and Russian companies whose expertise in the field of civil nuclear energy are well known.

From the US, Manmohan Singh will also visit France to participate in the India-European Union Summit in Marseilles Sep 29 and for a bilateral meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris the next day.

One of the main focus of his talks with the French leader will be on civil nuclear energy cooperation.

India and France have ‘initialled’ an agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation, were yet to conclude it. The agreement may be concluded during the prime minister’s visit to Paris.

The French government has already made it clear that it was willing to offer India its ‘first generation’ EPR nuclear reactor that was being built by Areva.

France has also indicated its willingness to consider any request that India may make on cooperation in enrichment and reprocessing technology.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to resign after his ruling ANC announced that it would remove him from office before the end of his term, Mbeki’s office said on Saturday.

“Following the decision of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress to recall President Thabo Mbeki, the President has obliged and will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met,” the presidency said.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday signed a power-sharing deal that will end months of political crisis and violence after bitterly-disputed elections.

Mugabe, 84, was greeted with some jeers as he entered the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare for a ceremony, which was attended by several southern African leaders.

Tsvangirai was applauded by the audience, made up mostly of members of the opposition-dominated parliament.

After signing the accord, the two men shook hands to general applause Mugabe keeping a straight face but Tsvangirai doing so with a beaming smile.

The leader of a splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition, Arthur Mutambara, also signed the agreement.

Tsvangirai said the agreement provided the best hope for Zimbabwe and called on President Mugabe to work together to implement the deal.

Mugabe said he was committed to national unity and would do “his best”.

The agreement was signed in front of some 3,000 invited guests in Harare’s International Conference Centre.

“I’ve signed this agreement because I believe it represents the best opportunity for us to build a peaceful and prosperous democratic Zimbabwe,” said Tsvangirai

Under the terms of the agreement, Mugabe will continue as president while Tsvangirai will be the country’s prime minister.

Mugabe said there were “lots of things” in the deal that neither leader liked but that they would work together to “find our way”.

Under the deal, Mugabe will be the president, the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, will chair meetings of the cabinet and his Zanu-PF will have 15 ministers in the cabinet.

Morgan Tsvangirai will be the Prime Minister, will chair meetings of the council of ministers, control the police force and his MDC party will have 16 ministers, three of whom will be from a smaller faction of the MDC

Tsvangirai said the agreement was a “product of painful compromises” and that it did not provide “an instant cure” to the fortunes of Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai called for the support of the international community and African neighbours in helping to rebuild the country - healthcare, education and economy.

Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara, said the compromise agreement was a victory for Zimbabwe.

The deal opens the way for international donors to help to revive Zimbabwe’s economy, where inflation is at more than 11,000,000 percent.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he supported a new US strategy in the war against terror, which includes military operations inside Pakistan, and called for more international aid and training for his country’s security forces.

‘The new strategy is something that me and my colleagues in the Afghan government have talked about three and a half years ago,’ Karzai said at a press conference marking the seventh anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks for which the Al Qaeda terror network claimed responsibility.

‘We believe that the change of strategy is important, meaning that we should go to places where are training centres, where are safe havens so that we jointly eliminate them [the terrorists],’ the president said.

His comments came a day after US Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the US Congress he was not ‘convinced we’re winning it in Afghanistan,’ and suggested a ‘new, more comprehensive strategy’ to cover the entire region.

The US-led coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, toppling the Taliban government after the Islamic regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks, and his associates.

Thousands of militants fled from the country and re-organised themselves in tribal areas along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, sending hundreds of fighters to stage attacks against Afghan and international forces.

Allegations by the Afghan government of cross-border infiltration by militants based inside Pakistan have strained relations between the two Islamic countries, both main allies of the US in its war against terrorism.

Karzai had been at loggerheads over the issue with former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who resigned late last month. Both presidents traded accusations that the other side was not doing enough to eliminate the menace of terrorism in the region.

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad, however, apparently improved after Karzai attended Tuesday’s oath-taking ceremony of new President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.

‘We hope that the goodwill, which is between the two leaders and have always been between the peoples of the two countries, will turn into a practical struggle and effective fight against terrorism so that with the help of the international community we could bring an ideal peace for the people of this region,’ Karzai said.

Seven years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan is far from a stable and democratic country despite the flow of billions of dollars in aid and the deaths of several hundred international forces, who have been fighting the resurgent Taliban.

Mullah Omar, the elusive Taliban leader, and Osama bin Laden remain at large. Taliban militants have advanced this year from their main hotbeds in southern and eastern regions to areas close to the capital Kabul.

As part of the renewed focus on the country, US President George W. Bush Wednesday announced the deployment of 4,500 additional troops and vowed to boost the size of the Afghan Army to more than 130,000 up from the initial planned 86,000.

There are more than 30,000 US forces in Afghanistan, more than half of them under the banner of NATO-led troops, which has some 53,000 forces from 40 nations stationed in the country.

Karzai welcomed the deployment of extra US forces. ‘These troops will add to the fight against terrorism, I hope they are deployed where they are the most needed in this war against terrorism,’ he said.