Melbourne, Feb 12 (ANI): A woman has filed a massive 4-billion dollar class action suit against Miley Cyrus, who was recently pictured mocking Asians by slanting her eyes.

Lucie J. Kim, who lives in Los Angles, claimed when Cyrus posed for the photo she “knew or should have known that her image would be publicly disseminated via the media,” reports TMZ.com.

Kim says in the suit that each Asian Pacific Islander is entitled to the minimum damages for a civil rights violation – 4,000 dollars, that’s about 4 billion dollars, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Following the controversy, Cyrus has apologized for the second time after initially saying she was only trying to pull a funny face in the pictures. (ANI)

London, Feb 12 (ANI): Hollywood actor Adam Sandler has teamed up with fellow stars Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, David Spade and Kevin James to appear in an upcoming flick.

The ‘Click’ actor has joined hands with writer Fred Wolf to pen the screenplay.

The flick is based on five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later for America’s Independence Day celebrations, reports The Daily Express.

Director Dennis Dugan will take control of the as-yet-untitled project, with shooting expected to begin this summer (09). (ANI)

London, Feb.7 (ANI): After almost nine years of insurgency in Iraq, the security condition of the second largest city of the country, Basra is improving, and the crime rate has in-fact come down below some of the major cities of Britain.

According to Maj. Gen. Andy Salmon, who is commanding the British troops in Iraq has said that the rate of violent crime and murder in Basra has fallen below some major British cities.

“On a per capita basis, if you look at the violence statistics, it is less dangerous than Manchester,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Salmon, as saying.

“In a nutshell, Basra is stable,” he added.

British officials in Iraq have also claimed that the security condition of Basra has improved tremendously in the recent times, and the peaceful elections conducted last month is a testimony to the fact.

Salmon, while divulging the reason behind the stability of the city said the change was largely due to the presence of very large Iraqi army and police forces.

“There are more than 30,000 Iraqi security forces in a city of more than 2 million,” he said.

According to British military estimates, the murder rate in Basra fell from 22 in October to 11 in January. Only one of January’s deaths has been linked to extremist groups; the rest were “old-fashioned” crimes.

British troops are set to withdraw from Iraq in March 2009, with only 400 troops remaining to train Iraqi forces.

Maj Gen Andy Salmon will be the last British general officer commanding forces in Iraq. (ANI)

Islamabad, Feb 6 (ANI): The Law Ministry has submitted a summary of findings of a Pakistani probe into the Mumbai terrorist attacks to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

A high-level Federal Investigation Agency team was tasked to probe the attacks in the light of a dossier of evidence that India shared with Pakistan.

Sources privy to the investigation said the submission was made after consultations with the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Law Department, the Daily Times reported.

They said no Pakistan-based groups were directly or indirectly involved in the planning, financing or execution of the attacks according to the findings.

They said investigators have also questioned the Indian claims that the gunmen entered India via sea from Karachi, saying that the route had always been heavily guarded by the Pakistani and Indian maritime security forces and navies.

According to the sources, Pakistani authorities have demanded access to the crime scene and joint investigations.

Earlier, Pakistani investigators probing the Mumbai attacks have alleged a Bangladeshi connection in the terror strikes.

They claim to have evidence of the banned Bangladesh based militant organisation, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami playing a major role in planning the attack and training the terrorists.

Information in this regard will soon be shared with India in the form of a reciprocal dossier made by Pakistan’s premier investigation agency, the FIA, the Dawn reported.

Preliminary investigations are likely to indicate that the Mumbai attack was the handiwork of an ‘international network of Muslim fundamentalists’ present in South Asia and spread all the way to Middle East.

Sources privy to the report say that it underlines that the Mumbai incident is not strictly a Pakistan-India issue. Even Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan has indicated that the report indicates that terrorist attack was not planned in Pakistan. It could mean that at least one of the Mumbai attackers was of Bangladesh origin.

A senior western diplomat confirming this said there is a strong possibility that one of the attackers was a Bangladeshi national.

Although, the report highlights the Bangladeshi link in the attack, it also indicates that some of the planning for the strike was done in Dubai. There is also an element of local Indian support.

Referring to copies of the high-level exchanges between FIA and FBI, the paper said the FIA had sought access to some Indian terrorists through the FBI.

The FBI quizzed Fahim Arshad Ansari and Sabbauddin, who were arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police some time between February and March. (ANI)

London, Feb. 6 (ANI): Global public perceptions of Pakistan’s influence has been rated among the most negative along with Iran and Israel, according to BBC World Service radio’s annual poll of 21 countries.

Eighteen countries had mainly negative views of Pakistan’s influence according to the survey, almost all of which was conducted just after the attacks on Mumbai, widely believed to have been carried out by Pakistani-based guerrillas.

The survey, which questioned some 13,500 respondents in 21 countries around the world, found that perceptions of Iran and Israel’s influence also became considerably more negative this year, the Daily Times reported.

The poll also revealed a slight improvement in views of the US, but they remained largely negative despite Barack Obama’s election as the US president.

America’s positive rating rose five points to 40 percent while negatives dipped four points to 43 percent, the poll said.

Germany was voted most favourable, with positives at 61 percent against 15 percent negatives.

In 13 out of 21 countries polled, the view of Russia was most commonly negative, while in only four countries, most notably China (74 percent positive) and India (39 percent positive, 12 percent negative), were they found to be predominantly positive.

Positive views fell particularly sharply in Britain, while negative views grew steeply in the U.S., France, Germany, Egypt, Turkey, and Nigeria.

Against last year’s poll ratings, Russia and China’s popularity standing in the world had slipped. (ANI)

Washington, Jan 17 (ANI): White supremacists across the United States are closely being watched by hate crimes experts and law enforcement officials as Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in as the first Black president of the United States next week.

So far, there is no known organized effort to express opposition to Obama’s rise to the presidency — other than a call by the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for its members to wear black armbands and fly the US flag upside down on Inauguration Day and Obama’s first full day in office, the Daily News reported.

“The level of vitriol, I expect, will go up a bit more around inauguration time,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

There “is concern” about White supremacist groups during the inauguration, said Joe Persichini, the assistant FBI director who is helping to oversee security during the inauguration.

The inauguration of the nation’s first minority president increases any potential threat, “particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement,” said a recent intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

But law enforcement has the appropriate resources to respond if needed, Persichini said. “We have seen a lot of chatter. We have seen a lot of discussions,” he said.

“We have seen some information via the Internet. But those are discussions. We look at the vulnerabilities and whether or not the groups are taking action. You have freedom of speech,” he added.

Anger, violence and interest in racist ideology did increase in the hours and days after Obama was elected president in November, hate groups experts said.

Three New York men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights — accused of targeting and attacking African-Americans in a brutal crime spree soon after Obama was declared the winner on November 4. (ANI)

Washington, Jan 17 (ANI): White supremacists across the United States are closely being watched by hate crimes experts and law enforcement officials as Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in as the first Black president of the United States next week.

So far, there is no known organized effort to express opposition to Obama’s rise to the presidency — other than a call by the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for its members to wear black armbands and fly the US flag upside down on Inauguration Day and Obama’s first full day in office, the Daily News reported.

“The level of vitriol, I expect, will go up a bit more around inauguration time,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

There “is concern” about White supremacist groups during the inauguration, said Joe Persichini, the assistant FBI director who is helping to oversee security during the inauguration.

The inauguration of the nation’s first minority president increases any potential threat, “particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement,” said a recent intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

But law enforcement has the appropriate resources to respond if needed, Persichini said. “We have seen a lot of chatter. We have seen a lot of discussions,” he said.

“We have seen some information via the Internet. But those are discussions. We look at the vulnerabilities and whether or not the groups are taking action. You have freedom of speech,” he added.

Anger, violence and interest in racist ideology did increase in the hours and days after Obama was elected president in November, hate groups experts said.

Three New York men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights — accused of targeting and attacking African-Americans in a brutal crime spree soon after Obama was declared the winner on November 4. (ANI)

Washington, Jan 17 (ANI): White supremacists across the United States are closely being watched by hate crimes experts and law enforcement officials as Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in as the first Black president of the United States next week.

So far, there is no known organized effort to express opposition to Obama’s rise to the presidency — other than a call by the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for its members to wear black armbands and fly the US flag upside down on Inauguration Day and Obama’s first full day in office, the Daily News reported.

“The level of vitriol, I expect, will go up a bit more around inauguration time,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

There “is concern” about White supremacist groups during the inauguration, said Joe Persichini, the assistant FBI director who is helping to oversee security during the inauguration.

The inauguration of the nation’s first minority president increases any potential threat, “particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement,” said a recent intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

But law enforcement has the appropriate resources to respond if needed, Persichini said. “We have seen a lot of chatter. We have seen a lot of discussions,” he said.

“We have seen some information via the Internet. But those are discussions. We look at the vulnerabilities and whether or not the groups are taking action. You have freedom of speech,” he added.

Anger, violence and interest in racist ideology did increase in the hours and days after Obama was elected president in November, hate groups experts said.

Three New York men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights — accused of targeting and attacking African-Americans in a brutal crime spree soon after Obama was declared the winner on November 4. (ANI)