Beirut, May 31
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad raised the prospect of opening a front against Israel on the Golan and said Russia was committed to supplying his regime with advanced missiles, in an interview.

Washington said such a move by Moscow would only prolong the conflict between government forces and Assad's foes in Syria, where activists say more than 94,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

"There is clear popular pressure to open a new front of resistance in the Golan," Assad told Al-Manar television of his close ally, Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah which is fighting alongside his forces.

"There are several factors, including repeated Israeli aggression," he said, referring to reported Israeli air strikes on Syria.

"We have informed all the parties who have contacted us that we will respond to any Israeli aggression next time," he said.

There was no immediate comment on Assad's remarks from Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, since when the armistice line has remained calm despite some spillover from the Syrian conflict.

Assad, whose forces are battling alongside Hezbollah fighters to recapture the key town of Qusayr near the border with Lebanon, said he was "very confident" of victory.

"There is a world war being waged against Syria and the policy of (anti-Israeli) resistance... (but) we are very confident of victory," he said in the interview.

Earlier, Syrian state television said the Arjun district in northern Qusayr, one of the few remaining rebel strong points, had been taken, leaving rebels there little chance to escape. — AFP

Beijing, May 31
Firming up its ties with Sri Lanka, China has granted fresh development loan worth $2.2 billion for infrastructure projects and agreed to provide defence technology as well as training to the island nation's army.

Both sides agreed to further deepen defence cooperation and maintain exchanges between the two defence ministries and would continue to carry out cooperating in defence technology, personal training and other fields, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told mediapersons here today.

He was replying to questions on the just-concluded visit by Sri Lankan President Mahenda Rajapaksa during which both the nations signed a defence agreement besides a host of deals to beef up infrastructure projects in the country, deepening China's foothold there.

Hong did not disclose the details of the agreements including the one related to development of Colombo port and read out some of the highlights from joint statement issued by both the countries.

According to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G L Peiris, China has offered $2.2 billion worth of new loans.

The countries agreed on $1.5 billion investment of private sector in the northern express highway linking Kandy in the central part of Sri Lanka to Jaffna in the north, he earlier told the media here.

The two sides agreed on the extension of a railway, the southern highway and the development of the port of Colombo, Peiris said.

This is in addition to the construction of Hambantota Port with the multi billion dollar assistance of China. — PTI

Washington, May 31
A threatening letter laced with deadly poison ricin, addressed to US President Barack Obama, has been intercepted by the FBI and authorities are questioning a person in Texas in connection with the case.

The letter, similar to a suspected poison letter sent to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was intercepted by the federal agency before it could reach its destination.

"The US Secret Service can confirm that the White House mail screening facility intercepted a letter addressed to the White House that were similar to letters previously addressed to Mayor Bloomberg in New York," Edwin M Donovan, the Secret Service spokesperson, said.

"This letter has been turned over to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation," Donovan said.

The text of that mailing was identical to the letters sent to the mayor and his gun group, which threatened: "What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you," NBC News quoted police and law enforcement sources as saying.

Authorities were interviewing a person in Texas in connection with the letters sent to Obama and Bloomberg.

Authorities were questioning the man to see if he had information related to the threatening letters.

The interview with the man is just one possible lead in the case, and officials emphasise the development is still part of the early stages of their investigation, the sources said. — PTI 

Islamabad, May 31
The new Chief Minister of Pakistan's militancy-hit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province today called on Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif to forge a decisive policy to end terrorism and to stop US drone strikes in the country's northwest.

"The real problem for the country at this moment is terrorism. We can't tackle this problem on our own...We ask the central government and Nawaz Sharif to make a clear policy against drones and terrorism and for peace," Pervez Khan Khattak said after he was elected the Chief Minister this afternoon.

Khattak is a senior leader of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and this is the first time the party has formed government in a Pakistani province.

During the campaign for the May 11 polls, Khan's party had pledged it would shoot down US drones if it was voted to power at the centre. — PTI

Cape Canaveral, May 31
A large asteroid accompanied by its own small moon was approaching Earth on Friday, the latest in a string of celestial visitors drawing attention to the potential dangers of objects in space.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 is about 2.7 km in diameter, about nine times as long as the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner.

It is far bigger than the small asteroid that blasted through the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, leaving more than 1,500 people injured by flying glass and debris.

That same day, another asteroid, about 45m in diameter, passed about 27,700 km from Earth — closer than the networks of communication satellites that ring the planet.

At its closest approach, which will occur at 2059 GMT, asteroid 1998 QE2 will be about 5.8 million km from Earth, which is roughly 15 times farther away than Earth’s moon.

“For an asteroid of this size, it’s a close shave,” said Paul Chodas, a scientist with NASA’s Near Earth Object programme office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA is tracking 95 per cent of the large asteroids with orbits that come relatively close to Earth. — Reuters