TEHRAN: Iran has submitted "evidence" to the Swiss embassy that its nuclear scientist was abducted by US intelligence agents, the English language Press TV website reported on Sunday.

"The evidence related to the abduction of Shahram Amiri by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has been handed over to the Swiss embassy in Tehran," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanaparast was quoted as saying.

The Swiss embassy manages US interests in Iran since Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic ties.

"We expect that based on the US administration's obligations... the US authorities will announce the results of their investigation regarding this Iranian national," Mehmanaparast said.

Iranian officials have long maintained that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents from Saudi Arabia last year.

On June 29, Iranian television had screened a video of a man claiming to be Amiri and saying that he had managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia.

"I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents... I am not free and I'm not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible," he said.

"I ask Iranian officials and organisations that defend human rights to raise pressure on the US government for my release and return to my country," the man said, adding he has not "betrayed" Iran.

A US official on Tuesday dismissed the allegations in the Iranian broadcast. Amiri disappeared in June 2009 after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage. Iran accused US agents of abducting him with the help of Saudi intelligence services.

ABC news in the United States reported in March that Amiri had defected and was working with the CIA. US officials have rejected these allegations.

AFP

Microsoft chief Bill Gates and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi arrived in Jais on Tuesday for a day-long visit aimed at giving the global philanthropist a glimpse of social development work in the two 'Gandhi constituencies' of Rae Bareli and Amethi.

While Rae Bareli is Congress president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency, her son Rahul represents Amethi.

Gates and Rahul Gandhi, both dressed in white, flew in a chartered aircraft from New Delhi and landed at the Indira Gandhi Flying Academy in Fursatganj town, in Rae Bareli.

They drove down to Jais, named after famous Sufi poet Malik Mohammad Jaisi, where Gates, accompanied by an entourage of eight, and Gandhi visited the Rajiv Gandhi Women's Training Centre run by the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

There was heavy security as the group interacted with about 300 women actively associated with the women's self help groups formed here with Gandhi's personal initiative.

Women involved with different NGOs funded by the charitable trust gathered at the training centre well before the arrival of the VVIPs.

While Gandhi and Gates were driven inside the tall gates at the centre, the rest of their entourage followed them on foot after disembarking outside.

More than 100 police personnel were detailed to provide security cover from outside while Gandhi and Gates also had their own personal guards to maintain the inner ring around them.

Gandhi, who chose to keep the Gates visit a closely guarded secret, completely shunned the media as well as party workers. Even state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi learnt about the visit through the media.

Local Congress leaders said Gandhi will also take Gates to a village in his constituency Amethi where a similar self-help group activity is to be showcased before the Microsoft boss. They will also visit a health camp run by the Rajiv Gandhi trust.

Gates and Gandhi then drove down to Amethi. They will fly back to New Delhi later in the afternoon after the Congress MP's condolence visit to the residence of a Congress worker who was murdered recently.

Press Trust of India

The sea which has shrunk by 90 per cent has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wasterlands. The sea shrank largely due to a Soviet project to boost cottong production in the arid region.

Its evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.

Ban Ki-Moon toured the sea by helicopter as part of a visit to the five countries of former Soviet Central Asia. His trip included a touchdown in Muynak, Uzbekistan, a town once on the shore where a pier stretches eerily over gray desert and camels stand near the hulks of stranded ships.

"On the pier, I wasn't seeing anything, I could see only a graveyard of ships," he said after arriving in the city of Nukus, the capital of the autonomous Karakalpak region.

"It is clearly one of the worst disasters, environmental disasters of the world. I was so shocked," he said.

The Aral Sea catastrophe is one of Ban's top concerns on his six-day trip through the region and he is calling on the countries' leaders to set aside rivalries to cooperate on repairing some of the damage.

"I urge all the leaders ... to sit down together and try to find the solutions," he said, promising United Nations support.

However, cooperation is hampered by disagreements over who has rights to scarce water and how it should be used.

In a presentation to Ban before his flyover, Uzbek officials complained that dam projects in Tajikistan will severely reduce the amount of water flowing into Uzbekistan. Impoverished Tajikistan sees the hydroelectric projects as potential key revenue earners.

Competition for water could become increasingly heated as global warming and rising populations further reduce the amount of water available per capita.

AP/ Telegraph

China has confirmed it carried out a test that destroyed a satellite, in a move that caused international alarm.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said a test had been carried out but insisted China was committed to the "peaceful development of outer space".

The US backed reports last week that China had used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite.

A senior Taiwanese politician said he viewed it as an aggressive act.

It is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years.

Several countries, including Japan, Australia and the US, have expressed concern at the test, amid worries it could trigger a space arms race.

Until Tuesday, China had refused to confirm or deny the 11 January test.


International concern

Liu Jianchao told reporters that China had notified "other parties and... the American side" of its test.

"But China stresses that it has consistently advocated the peaceful development of outer space and it opposes the arming of space and military competition in space," he told a news conference.

"China has never, and will never, participate in any form of space arms race."

However, Dr Joseph Wu, head of the body responsible for Taiwan's relations with China, viewed it differently.

"This is an aggressive act by the Chinese side," he told the BBC on a visit to Japan.

"I don't think it's just limited to Taiwan only but of course... Taiwan stands out to be the first country that might have to suffer if a future conflict were to erupt between China and some other countries."

China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force if the island ever moved to declare formal independence.

The US, which is committed to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, supports the status quo.

US spy satellites watch over the Taiwan Straits, and coordinating any defence against a possible Chinese invasion would be made much harder if those spy satellites were destroyed.