Two hurt in parcel bomb at Swiss nuclear lobby

(Reuters) - Two people were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in the offices of the Swiss nuclear lobby, police said on Thursday.

The two female employees of Swissnuclear were taken to hospital with superficial burns and hearing damage, a police spokesman said, adding the mail had exploded on Thursday morning but police did not yet know who sent it.

Police cordoned off the office of Swissnuclear in the northern Swiss town of Olten and the spokesman said they had forensic specialists on the ground.

Earlier this month, Switzerland suspended the approvals process for three new nuclear power stations so safety standards could be reviewed, afterJapan's earthquake and tsunami sparked a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Switzerland derived about 10 percent of its energy from nuclear generation in 2009, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

(Reporting by Christian Hartmann and Sven Egenter; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Gaddafi forces push rebels back

Rebels in Libya are struggling to hold their front line after Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces recaptured several towns in the east of the country.

The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad. However, reports say the fighting is continuing in the area.

In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say.

US President Barack Obama earlier said he did not rule out arming the rebels.

France and the US say they are sending envoys to the rebel-held city of Benghazi in the east to liaise with the interim administration there.

And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a UK diplomat met Libyan rebel leaders in Benghazi earlier this week.

The UK has also made moves to expel five Libyan diplomats based in London, Mr Hague told MPs on Wednesday.

Allied friction

Mr Obama told reporters on Tuesday that Col Gaddafi had been greatly weakened by the coalition air strikes and would ultimately step down.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday that the RAF had flown 24 sorties over Libya on Tuesday night.

These had destroyed artillery and an armoured vehicle near the strategic city of Sirte, which is Col Gaddafi's birthplace.

It lies on Libya's northern coast roughly half way between the capital Tripoli and Benghazi.

As fighting intensified on Wednesday, the BBC's Ben Brown in Ajdabiya said he had seen the rebels sending reinforcements to the front line, including four Katyusha rocket systems.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr Hague both suggested the UN resolution authorising international action in Libya could also permit the supply of weapons.

This message was reinforced by Mr Cameron in his comments to MPs on Wednesday, in which he said that as the UN ceasefire was clearly being breached it was right to keep up pressure from the air, while not ruling out the option of arming the rebels.

"UN [Security Council Resolution] 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas, and our view is this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances," he said.

"We do not rule it out, but we have not taken the decision to do so."

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied UN Security Resolution 1973 gave a mandate to arm the rebels.

"The Nato Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen declared that the operation in Libya was being staged to protect the population and not to arm it - and here, we completely agree with the Nato secretary general," he said.

In a separate development, an international conference on Libya in London has agreed to set up a contact group involving Arab governments to co-ordinate help for a post-Gaddafi Libya.

Several thousand people have been killed and thousands wounded since the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule began more than six weeks ago.

Jackie Chan's stunt director trained Darsheel

Child star Darsheel Safary is said to have performed some daring action sequences in his upcoming film "Zokkomon" under the guidance ofHollywood actor Jackie Chan's stunt director William Ong.The 

15-year-old, who made his Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's " Taare Zameen Par", is playing a superhero in the film. 

He has performed all the stunts himself, and he will be seen in a never-seen-before avatar, says a source. 

"Darsheel trained for months to perfect his moves with international stunt director William Ong, who has worked with the legendary Jackie Chan," said the source. 

Darsheel says he had an enjoyable time training and shooting for the movie, 

"I loved doing the action sequences. I am thrilled to see myself as Zokkomon, all the special effects and action sequences are something I haven't done before," said Darsheel. 

"Zokkomon", directed by Satyajit Bhatkal, is an action adventure film about an ordinary boy who meets extraordinary challenges. The movie, releasing April 22, also features veteran actor Anupam Kher and actress Manjari Fadnis. 

Maharashtra to ban controversial book on Gandhi

Mumbai: Maharashtra government will initiate steps to ban sale of a controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Joseph Lelyveld.

"Gandhiji was a respected leader and is known as the father of nation. He led the freedom movement of India. The government will initiate steps to ensure that the book is not published in the state," Industries Minister Narayan Rane told the Legislative Council today.

The minister also informed that the state government would write to the Centre for not publishing the controversial book.

Congress MLC and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Manikrao Thakre said in the upper house that the book 'Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India' has maligned the character of the Father of Nation.

"This is very serious that the author of the book has raised questions about the character of Gandhiji who initiated non-violence movement. I condemn the book and this should not be made available," Thakre said.

The MPCC president also appealed to members of the House to join hands on the issue. Thakre said he would request the central government on behalf of the Council members to take strict "action" on the issue.

The book written by Joseph Lelyveld reportedly carries controversial references about the Mahatma.

Supporting the demand by Thakre, Chairman of the House Shivajirao Deshmukh said that the government should enquire the matter in detail and take appropriate action.

Maharashtra government to ban sale of a controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi by Joseph Lelyveld.

Libyan woman claims she was raped, abused by Gaddafi soldiers

In a bizarre event in the ongoing crisis in Libya, a distraught and disturbed Libyan woman sought out western reporters in a Tripoli hotel to claim she had been gang-raped for two days by fifteen members of a paramilitary force loyal to Moammar Gaddafi.

However, before she could tell the whole story, Iman al-Obeidi was dragged out of the Rixos hotel by Libyan officials and hotel employees.

She alleged that she had been detained at a checkpoint, tied her up, sexually abused her and then led her away to be gang-raped.

"They tied me up ... they even defecated and urinated on me," she said. "The Gaddafi militiamen violated my honor."

She said she was victimized because she is from the eastern city of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

She yelled: "Easterners - we're all Libyan brothers, we are supposed to be treated the same, but this is what the Gaddafi militiamen did to me, they violated my honor."

Her allegations could not be independently verified.

At a press conference following the incident, Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said investigators informed him the woman was drunk and possibly mentally ill.

“She seems, this is initial reports, to be suffering mentally. They are dealing with her. They are investigating, checking where her family is, who she is. She is refusing to tell them who she is, who her family are, her father, sister, brothers…as for physically handling her to take her out, this would be done anywhere in the world, if someone storms a place,” he said.

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, said: "The government initially suggested that she was drunk ... but when they [officials] came back to the journalists later to reassure them that she was being well cared for ... they did describe this as a case of rape."

The woman clearly had scratches on her face and bruises on her body. She claimed she was able to escape her captors with help from neighbors in the area where she was detained.

The Associated Press reported that during the melee hotel waiters called her a traitor and told her to shut up.

As she was being led away, she screamed: "Look at what happens - Gaddafi's militiamen kidnap women at gunpoint, and rape them ... they rape them.”

She was bundled into a car outside the hotel and driven to an undisclosed location.

During the hotel disturbance several foreign journalists were manhandled and some had their cameras broken.

Mega Millions $312M Winner in Albany, New York

Winning Tickets Were Bought In at Convenience Store in Upstate New York

The winning jackpot ticket for Friday's drawing was sold at Coulson's News Center in Albany, N.Y. According to the Mega Millions website, the jackpot is the sixth-highest in the game's history. The largest jackpot was $390 million in March 2007.

The jackpot has increased every Tuesday and Friday since Feb. 1, when the previous winners, the Bolke family of Illinois and a group postal workers in Michigan, split a $93 million jackpot.

And despite the astronomically small chances of winning the growing jackpot, Mega Millions will still draw plenty of early retirement dreamers.

But given the long odds of winning tonight's $312 million Mega Millions jackpot, the lottery's website welcome page message to use your payout to "Save For Retirement" is a curious one -- and possibly a dangerous one, gambling experts say.

Those three words are etched above the image of a piggy bank against a clear blue sky on the Mega Millions website. It's one of a series of serving suggestions for your lottery "dreams" along with exotic trips and gifts. Click here to see the homepage image.

But, you'll have better luck getting struck by lightning. And, given your life span you might have better odds of getting struck by lightning more than 5,000 times before winning the big prize Friday.

Asked about the homepage message, a spokeswoman for the 12-state lottery was quick to defend its 176 million-to-1 odds retirement plan.

"Whether you're dreaming about retirement or buying a home, the idea is to place your dream in that photo," said Carolyn Hapeman, Mega Millions spokesperson for New York state. "Playing the Mega Millions is not the way someone should try to better their financial situation but it's a nice way to save for your retirement should you win. It's a very bad idea to think you're going to better your situation with a wager on any lottery game."

The penny-saving piggy bank retirement graphic as a part of the "Your Dream Here" advertisement for the lottery game is a cause for concern to gambling experts.

"Given the odds of winning the lottery that's a terrible strategy," says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

"I think it's a disappointing ad because the lottery is not a good way to save for retirement," says Whyte. "We believe lottery advertisements should encourage people to play recreationally and responsibly. We're concerned about ads that imply lottery playing or gambling in general is a good way to make money -- especially over a long period of time," says Whyte.

In fact, with the very low chances of winning a substantial prize -- and the lottery's payback of just 50 percent of proceeds in winnings -- lotteries are a sure-fire way to lose money.

Since its inception in May 2002, Mega Millions has sold more than 21.88 billion tickets and 110 people have won the jackpot. Let's do the math: The cost of playing the Mega Millions is $1. Imagine you have a $25 a week lottery habit and the cost each year is $1,300. If you take that same $25 a week from the age of 21 to 65 years old and invest in a Roth IRA with a 7 percent return rate, you'll accumulate $346,000.

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Malaysian auto group sees record sales in 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Malaysia's auto sales are on track to grow 2 percent to a record 618,000 vehicles this year, although production could be disrupted by parts shortages following Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Last year, sales in Southeast Asia's largest passenger car market rose 12.7 percent to a record high of 605,156 vehicles. Malaysian Automotive Association president Aishah Ahmad said Friday that sales were up 4 percent in the first two months of this year with demand still going strong.

Japanese models account for about a third of vehicles sold in Malaysia, led by Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The three carmakers say their Malaysian factories are operating normally with sufficient stockpiles for about 3 months but prospects are clouded after that.