US says China's Baidu, Taobao markets for piracy

The U.S. government has labeled China's top search engine, Baidu, and a accepted e-commerce platform "notorious markets" connected to sales of plagiarized and fake goods.

The two companies were amongst 33 websites or public markets in China, Russia, India and additional countries that the U.S. Trade legislative body office said Monday make easy trade in music, clothing and other goods that are false or unauthorized copies.

China is a leading basis of fake and counterfeit goods in spite of repeated government crackdowns. Beijing launched its latest enforcement attempt in October and says it hopes to attain lasting results.

The USTR statement said Baidu links to websites that sell pirated or imitation goods while external merchants use Taobao, an e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group Ltd., to sell infringing items. It said the list was not a legal judgment but an effort to call concentration to abuses and encourage governments to end them.

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Opposition leaders arrested after riots in capital

In the biggest confront to demanding leader Alexander Lukashenko in 16 years in power, thousands of demonstrators massed outside the main government office to protest supposed vote fraud in Sunday's presidential election, but club-swinging riot police troop them off and hammer many.

The brutal night left in doubt the next step for Belarus, which is of concentration to the Kremlin because of its place as a buffer between Russia and the West. The West, for its part, has been insulted by Lukashenko's harsh rule and his struggle to change.

Three of the candidates who ran against Lukashenko were under arrested and the top resistance leader, Vladimir Neklyayev, was powerfully taken from the hospital by mysterious men in civilian clothes, activists said.

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Somalia tops terrorism risk list, Yemen danger up

Somalia has reinstated Iraq as the state the majority at risk from terrorist attack, according to a ranking by global analyst Maplecroft, which sees threats also rising in Russia, Greece and Yemen other than falling in India and Algeria.

A statement by the consultancy about its latest Terrorism Risk directory said increased danger seen in Somalia and Yemen were cause by al Qaeda-associated violence while those in Russia stemmed from attacks by separatists from the North Caucasus.

The main change in the rankings was Greece, which enthused from 57 to 24 to become the European country the majority at risk, a trend the consultancy said was due to violent left-wing groups.

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US approval of arms pact with Russia looking shaky

Senate endorsement of President Barack Obama's nuclear arms agreement with Russia, which once looked close up to a sure thing, is now in danger.

The management is scrambling to get enough Republican hold up in the Senate to ratify the New START treaty before the Democrats' preponderance shrinks by six in January. Except Republicans have little enticement to give Obama a big following boost after leaving him reeling from their brawny gains in last week's congressional election.

A letdown to win passage possibly will trip up one of the administration's top foreign policy goals: improving relations with Russia. The agreement, signed in April by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, has been the most touchable sign of success, and failure to get it ratified could be viewed as a reprimand in Moscow. It also would leave Obama's push for even greater limits on the world's nuclear arsenal in uncertainty.

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Iran to fire up first nuclear power plant next week

Iran is to start on its first nuclear power reactor next week, the Islamic democracy and Russia which helped construct the plant said on Friday after years of delays to the highly responsive project.

"We are getting ready to transfer the fuel within the plant next week... Then we will need seven to eight days to relocate it to the reactor (core)," said Iran's atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi.

"Taking place August 21, the fuel will be transferred inside the building in which the engine" of the Bushehr power position in southern Iran is located, he said, lined by Iran's Fars news agency.

Salehi added that Iran had invited superintendents from the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to attend the start ceremony.

"The fuel is preserved and IAEA inspectors must be in attendance to remove them," he said.

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Russia bomb kills 6; more than 40 hurt

Moscow, Russia -- A bombing outside a planned performance in a dance company from the restive Russian republic of Chechnya left six people dead and more than 40 wounded on Wednesday, state media reported.

The bomb went off outside a community center in the southwestern Russian city of Stavropol, according to the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office, which is called the explosion "an act of terror." The blast happened about 6.45 p.m. (10:45 a.m. ET), 15 minutes before the Chechen dance company Vainakh was scheduled to perform, the committee reported.

One of the dead included a preteen girl, according to state-run news agency RIA-Novosti.

Early reports indicate the bomb was detonated by remote control and used about 200 grams (7 ounces) of explosives, said Yekaterina Danilova, a spokeswoman for the committee. The device was packed with small metal objects meant to inflict maximum harm, she said.

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