China demands Japan takes steps to resolve dispute over terrritorial waters

"It is an obstacle in bilateral relations at present and we hope Japan will take concrete actions to eliminate the obstacle," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

"Japan should return the captain immediately to avoid further detriment to bilateral relations."

Japan's embassy and consulates in China issued a warning to its citizens in the country to watch their words and actions so as not to provoke Chinese after nationalistic protests and reports of vandalism at a Japanese school.

The diplomatic spat broke out last week when Japanese authorities arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat after it collided with two Japanese patrol boats near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.

The 14 crew members and the trawler have returned to China. But the captain remains in Japanese custody and could face prosecution for obstructing the coast guards' public duties – triggering harsh criticism from Beijing.

Beijing has said the confrontation could damage its relations with Japan and has summoned Ambassador Uichiro Niwa five times, underlining the sensitivity of the territorial dispute. The incident has also led to protests in Taiwan, which also claims the islands, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, which are located 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Taiwan.

Last week, in a sign of its anger, Beijing postponed talks with Japan on contested undersea deposits in the East China Sea. The talks would have been the second meeting over gas exploration related to the territorial dispute.

Mr Kan's predecessor had met with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao at last year's General Assembly, and leaders of the two nations usually meet at international gatherings. So while it was assumed Kan and Wen would meet, no meeting or agenda had been set.

"At the moment, nothing has been decided, as neither side is making a move to set up (a meeting)," Sengoku said. He cited "the problem involving the Senkaku," as part of the reason why both sides are not arranging talks. He also cited scheduling conflicts on both sides.

"We have not received any request from China, either," he said.

Japan urged its citizens in China to "take full caution" for the time being, especially on Saturday, a sensitive day marking the anniversary of the 1931 "Mukden Incident" that led to the Japanese occupation of China's northeast.

"Watch your words and behavior when you have contact with the Chinese people," the embassy said in a safety notice posted on its Web site. "Refrain from making a scene in a Japanese-only group or other provocative acts."

Last week, a few dozen people gathered in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing to shout slogans and wave flags. Such protests usually occur only with the approval of local police or officials.

Vandalism was reported Sunday at a Japanese school in Tianjin, with graffiti painted on the wall. A Japanese school in Beijing said it has decided to postpone a sports event scheduled for Saturday until October.

During times of periodic tension between the two countries in the past, Japanese schools, stores, restaurants and diplomatic installations in China have been attacked.

Japan stepped up its presence over the disputed islets, with Transport Minister Seiji Maehara inspecting patrol boats on Ishigaki, a Japanese island near the disputed islets, on Thursday. He also visited coast guard personnel to praise their effort to seize the captain.

Photo of US baby goes viral in Japan

Sometime back in 2000, Allen S. Rout, a systems programmer from Gainesville, Fla., posted a few photos of his 5-month-old son, Stephen, on his personal website. They were the kind of photos that every parent takes, but one in particular stood out: Stephen wearing a pair of red overalls, smiling in a crib. "We're really blessed," Mr. Rout wrote as the caption. "Stephen is an amazingly happy baby."

The photo had faded from memory until last July, when Mr. Rout, curious about his online reputation, did a Google search of himself. Deep within the results pages, he found the picture of Stephen. Only, it wasn't exactly the same picture.

He was surrounded by cartoonish word bubbles filled with Japanese writing: "Don't call me baby!" they read. "Call me Mr. Baby!" And there were other images in which the photo was transformed further: Stephen has a pompadour in one, a head full of snakes in another. His face was pasted onto Kurt Cobain's head, carved into Mount Rushmore and tattooed onto David Beckham's torso. He was an eight-bit video game character. He became a three-dimensional sculpture.

Somehow, Stephen's smiling face had permeated a corner of Japanese visual culture. It showed up on wacky television game shows, and occasionally it blotted out images of genitalia in pornography, to comply with Japanese law. There are so many iterations that, for a time, if you did a Google Image search for "happy baby," the original photo of Stephen was the first result.

In other words, the photo of Mr. Rout's son had become an Internet meme: an idea, image, catchphrase or video that goes viral, mutating via amateur remixes into unexpected forms. Often, memes revolve around an inside joke -- say, a screen capture from an obscure video game -- but just as often they make jokes of the source material.



Memes may be image-based, involving a kind of visual pun. Think of LOLcats, the ubiquitous photos of adorable kittens with captions like, "I can has cheezburger?" Or they can be videos, like parodies of the Old Spice ads starring Isaiah Mustafa.

Memes may bear little resemblance to the original material, such as when a local news segment in Alabama about an attempted rape ("He's climbin' in your windows, he's snatchin' your people up," ranted the victim's brother, Antoine Dodson) mutated into the song, "Bed Intruder," by Auto-Tune the News, which made the Billboard charts.

So how did an innocent baby photo become a Japanese meme? That's a question for KnowYourMeme.com, a Web site that catalogs Internet memes and produces funny videos that explain how certain memes came into existence. When a reporter asked about the Stephen Rout meme in August, KnowYourMeme sprang into action, creating a page for what it dubbed "Aka-San" ("Mr. Baby" in Japanese).

With the help of its multilingual readers and Google Insights, a tool that tracks Web searches by time and location, KnowYourMeme pieced together a timeline: It started in 2004, on 2chan.net, a so-called imageboard in Japan that allows users to post images anonymously -- essentially a petri dish for meme manipulators.

Who first found Stephen's picture is not known, nor how it was found. What's known is that a 2chan user superimposed Stephen's face over an illustration from a manga comic book, and turned it into an image macro -- a simple Web form that allowed users to put words into a cartoon-like thought bubble. The meme-ification of Stephen began.

As Mr. Rout uncovered new permutations of the meme, he was anything but freaked out. An Internet dweller since the days of Usenet, he wasn't afraid for Stephen's safety. Plus, he knew that there was nothing he, or any parent, could do to prevent the use (or misuse) of an image of his child, once it was uploaded to the Web.

Furthermore, Mr. Rout, now an information technology expert at the University of Florida, understood that the meme really had nothing to do with Stephen qua Stephen -- the photo was being treated as a kind of open-source stock image, stripped of any identifier or context.

"The meaning that a piece of work has, comes as much from what the observer brings to it as it comes from what the artist put into it," Mr. Rout said. "I'm perhaps over-dignifying baby pictures when I talk about them as art, but I think the abstraction applies."

Mr. Rout's laissez-faire response was a far cry from that of other parents whose children became Internet memes. Take Ghyslain Raza, the chubby 15-year-old from Canada who earned Internet infamy in 2003 when his classmates secretly uploaded an embarrassing video of him whipping around a golf-ball retriever as if it was a light saber. The clip was remixed and mashed up: Mr. Raza doing battle with Agent Smith from "The Matrix," kayaking through whitewater rapids, and satirized on the animated series "American Dad."

THE "Star Wars Kid," as the video was nicknamed, was viewed 900 million times by 2006, according an estimate by the Viral Factory, a London-based marketing firm. The blitz of attention caused Mr. Raza so much stress he left school and was eventually treated for depression, according to court documents his parents filed in a lawsuit against the classmates' families. (The parties settled out of court.) According to recent news reports, Mr. Raza is now studying law at McGill University in Montreal.

At another end of the spectrum is David DeVore, who recorded his groggy son, also named David, in the backseat of their car after a dental appointment asking existential questions like "Is this real life?" and "Why is this happening to me?" Mr. DeVore uploaded the video, "David After Dentist," to YouTube, where it went viral, with more than 67 million views.

Within weeks, there were a rash of parodies, including one of Darth Vader asking similar life-searching questions, and a satire by the Upright Citizens Brigade called "David After the Divorce," in which a young man is dazed after signing divorce papers. It has been viewed on YouTube more than 4 million times.

The DeVore family has reportedly made $150,000 off YouTube advertising and related merchandise. David even appeared in a low-budget commercial for a toothbrush manufacturer, FireFly, disguised (sort of) as a follow-up video. As for the Routs (who are, it turns out, friends of friends of the DeVores), neither lawsuits nor money seems to be in the offing. "Everybody says, 'There's got to be money in this' But gosh, what a vile response," Mr. Rout said. "I don't want to use this as an opportunity to squeeze some money out of somebody for some purpose. It's an amusement."

Stephen, who is now 10, echoed his father's sentiment and seems to have taken his meme notoriety in stride, spending his summer instead on karate lessons and the Honor Harrington series of science-fiction novels. "Surprised and really amazed and really weirded out" is how Stephen described the experience by telephone.

But certain aspects of his overseas fame intrigued him -- the appearance of his baby face on Japanese television, his placement on Mount Rushmore and particularly the plastic bust created by a fan. "It gets weirder the more you look into it," he said.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/photo-of-us-baby-goes-viral-in-japan-52451?cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/photo-of-us-baby-goes-viral-in-japan-52451?cp

Eiffel Tower reopens after bomb threat

The area under Paris' Eiffel Tower has been opened up to tourists again after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat and police combed through the famous monument looking for suspicious objects.

Police have not found a bomb or other suspicious package following the anonymous phone threat that spurred the evacuation of 2,000 visitors, NBC News has learned.

Around midnight in Paris, people were walking around and riding bikes under the tower. The tower itself usually closes at 11 p.m.

About 150 members of the police force, including bomb experts, responded to the call placed to the company that manages the famous landmark.

The Eiffel Tower and its immediate surroundings were evacuated following the bomb threat. The French media said two subway stations also were briefly evacuated, though transportation officials said subways are once again running.

An AP photographer on the site saw several busloads of police officers under the famous tower.

French media reported that the anonymous call was traced to a phone booth in a multicultural neighborhood in northeast Paris.

The 1,063-foot tower, built in 1889, is one of the world's most popular tourist attractions. Last year, 6.6 million people visited the landmark.

The Eiffel Tower was last evacuated on Oct. 10, 2005, due to a bomb threat. Before that, the landmark was last evacuated on July 22, 2003, due to a fire.

The subway stops affected included the Saint-Michel station near Notre Dame Cathedral. The station was the target of a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed eight and injured scores of people.

Bomb scares are frequent in Paris, and the city has experienced terrorism firsthand. Algerian Islamic insurgents bombed the Saint-Michel station on July 25, 1995, killing eight people and injuring 150.

It was the first attack in a campaign of violence that terrorized Paris subway commuters for a time. Gas cooking canisters loaded with nails, sometimes hidden in garbage cans, were used in many of the bombings.

Plane carrying 51 crashes in Venezuela; 36 survive

A plane carrying 51 people crashed Monday in a steel mill yard in eastern Venezuela, killing 15 people on board, officials said.

Workers at the state-run Sidor steel foundry pulled people from the smoking wreckage of the plane owned by Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, and officials said 36 passengers and crew survived.

Foundry worker Frank Oliveros, 44, said he saw a huge billow of smoke after the crash, then saw the wreckage through the smoke and joined dozens of fellow employees and firefighters who rushed to the scene.

"I don't remember names ... faces," Oliveros told The Associated Press by telephone. "Our only interest was getting all the people out of there alive."

The partially scorched fuselage of French-built ATR 42 rested among barrels and shipping containers.

At least 15 people were killed after the crash about six miles (10 kilometers) from the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, Bolivar state Gov. Francisco Rangel Gomez told reporters. Forensic experts have yet to identify six of the bodies, he said.

"A miracle occurred today," said Rangel Gomez, referring to the number of survivors.

The bodies of all the victims have been located, but authorities have not yet identified them all, Rangel Gomez said.

It was unclear what caused the crash.

The plane, a twin-engine turboprop, was carrying 47 passengers and four crew members, Rangel Gomez said. Only one of the crew members survived, he said.

He said that Conviasa Flight 2350 had taken off from Margarita Island - a Caribbean island that is one of Venezuela's top tourist destinations - and crashed shortly before reaching its destination, the airport of Puerto Ordaz.

The state airline, Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronauticas y Servicios Aeros SA, began operations in 2004. It says it serves destinations in Venezuela, the Caribbean, Argentina, Iran and Syria.

Transportation Minister Francisco Garces told state television that President Hugo Chavez has been closely monitoring the situation.

Record U.S. Arms Deal With Saudis Advances

The Obama administration is set to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest U.S. arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

The administration plans to tout the $60 billion package as a major job creator—supporting at least 75,000 jobs, according to company estimates—and sees the sale of advanced fighter jets and military helicopters to key Middle Eastern ally Riyadh as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran.

The talks between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have been widely known for months, but many new details are only now coming into focus. These include the number and type of aircraft, how much the Saudis intend to spend in an initial installment, and the ongoing negotiations to also upgrade the kingdom's navy and missile defenses.

The $60 billion in fighter jets and helicopters is the top-line amount requested by the Saudis, even though the kingdom is likely to commit initially to buying only about half that amount.

In a notification to Congress, expected to be submitted this week or next, the administration will authorize the Saudis to buy as many as 84 new F-15 fighters, upgrade 70 more, and purchase three types of helicopters—70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds, officials said.

The notification triggers a congressional review. Lawmakers could push for changes or seek to impose conditions, and potentially block the deal, though that is not expected.

On top of the $60 billion package of fighter jets and helicopters, U.S. officials are discussing a potential $30 billion package to upgrade Saudi Arabia's naval forces. An official described these as "discreet, bilateral conversations" in which no agreement has yet been reached. That deal could include littoral combat ships, surface vessels intended for operations close to shore, the official said.

National Interest Homes Ablaze After Blast Near San Francisco

A massive fire destroyed more than 50 homes as it roared through a mostly residential neighborhood in the hills south of San Francisco following a loud explosion that shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet into the air and sent frightened residents fleeing for safety Thursday.

At least one person was killed and dozens more were injured in the blast, local media reported.

Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility company that serves the San Francisco Bay area, says one of its gas lines ruptured in the area, incinerating at least 53 homes and damaging more than 120 others just after 6 p.m.

"We believe it's a high-pressure gas line that's blown," San Bruno Fire Chief Dennis Haag told KPIX-TV.

Following the initial blast, flames reached as high as 60 feet in the air as the fire fueled itself on burning homes. Planes and helicopters flew over the neighborhood dumping water in an effort to stanch the flames.

Witnesses said the blaze was preceded by a loud explosion and huge fireball. They described seeing residents fleeing for safety and rushing to get belongings out of their burning homes.

Connie Bushman returned home to find her block was on fire. She said she ran into her house looking for her 80-year-old father but could not find him. A firefighter told her he had left, but she had not been able to track him down.

"I don't know where my father is, I don't know where my husband is, I don't know where to go," Bushman said.

Victims suffering from serious burns began arriving at San Francisco Bay area hospitals shortly after the blast. An estimate of the number of injured was not immediately available. Hospitals reported receiving at least four victims in critical condition but anticipated more.

Jane Porcelli, 62, said she lives on a hill above where the fire is centered. She said she thought she heard a plane overhead with a struggling engine.

"And then you heard this bang. And everything shook except the floor, so we knew it wasn't an earthquake," Porcelli said.

"I feel helpless that I can't do anything. I just gotta sit by and watch."

Stephanie Mullen, Associated Press news editor for photos based in San Francisco, was attending children's soccer practice with her two children and husband at Crestmoor High School when she saw the blast at 6:14 p.m.

"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said. "Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky.

"Everybody grabbed their children and ran and put their children in their cars," Mullen said. "It was very clear something awful had happened."

Several minutes later, Mullen was near the fire scene, about a half-mile away in a middle-class neighborhood of 1960s-era homes in hills overlooking San Francisco, the bay and the airport. She said she could feel the heat of the fire on her face although she was three or four blocks away from the blaze. It appeared the fireball was big enough to have engulfed at least several homes.

"I could see families in the backyards of the homes next to where the fire was, bundling their children and trying to get them out of the backyards," she recounted.

She said people in the neighborhood were yelling, "This is awful," "I live down there," and "My family is down there."

Judy and Frank Serrsseque were walking down a hill away from the flames with a makeshift wagon carrying important documents, medication and three cats.

Judy Serrsseque said she heard an explosion, saw that fire was headed toward their home and knew they had to leave. As they fled, they said they saw people burned and people struggling to get their things out of burning houses.

"We got everything together, and we just got out," Judy Serrsseque. "Mostly we're wondering if we have a house to go back to."

Obama to end tax breaks for firms creating jobs abroad

Accusing opposition Republicans of pushing bankrupt economic policies and putting politics ahead of national welfare, President Barack Obama has vowed to end Bush era tax cuts encouraging companies to "create jobs and profits in other countries".

"I think if we're going to give tax breaks to companies, they should go to companies that create jobs in America - not that create jobs overseas," he said on a mid-term campaign in the perennial swing state of Ohio Wednesday.

"That's one difference between the Republican vision and the Democratic vision. That's what this election is all about," he said vowing to stand by his plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making over $250,000, while extending the cuts for those making less.

Obama also pushed a new $350 billion plan to lift the sagging economy, including $200 billion in tax cuts for businesses to purchase new equipment and write off 100 percent of new investments through the end of 2011.

The president also highlighted a $50 billion proposal for infrastructure investment, as well as $100 billion to permanently extend tax credits to businesses for research and development.

Republicans are trying to ride a wave of "fear and anger all the way to Election Day", Obama said. The election is about "fear versus hope (and) the past versus the future. It's still a choice between sliding backward and moving forward. That's what this election is about. That's the choice you'll face in November."

Obama spoke longingly of a proud Republican tradition of producing "serious leaders for serious times". Current Republican leaders, he said, are more interested in "playing games and scoring points".

Giving examples of different Democratic and Republican approaches, Obama said: "One of the keys to job creation is to encourage companies to invest more in the United States. But for years, our tax code has actually given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to create jobs and profits in other countries."

"I want to change that," he said amidst applause. "We see a future where we invest in American innovation and American ingenuity."

"Because I don't want to see new solar panels or electric cars or advanced batteries manufactured in Europe or Asia. I want to see them made right here in the US of A by American workers," he said.

Shiney never raped me: Maid

After making it to the national headlines, Shiney Ahuja's maid has told told the fast track court that the actor never raped her. She admitted slapping false charges on the actor on the instructions of the woman who helped her in getting the job with Ahujas.

Meanwhile, Shiney Ahuja, who is fighting an alleged rape case hurled at him by his maid servant, has faced a big setback on his professional front.

TOI has learned that the makers of his highly anticipated projected Har Pall (who were contemplating releasing the film soon), that stars Preity Zinta in the lead, have decided to push back the release until the court passes its verdict. With the timeline of when the case will be resolved yet unavailable, it is not good news for the actor who is hoping to come back to the industry and reclaim his ground with this movie as well as Accident in which he is paired opposite Soha Ali Khan.

"With such negative publicity against Shiney still grabbing headlines, the makers of Har Pall are wary of releasing the film. They feel it will get disastrous box office results if they release it now. According to perception, many pundits feel that audiences will reject Shiney's film as he still hasn't been pronounced free of the charges of raping his domestic servant. Shiney's brand name needs to get positive light somehow to resurrect his acting career," says a top trade source on conditions of anonymity.

"For the makers it is important that Shiney gets a verdict in favour of him. They will quickly release the film by riding on the positive wave. If not, they will then plan how they can still release it as lots of money is at stake. They will have to go ahead and promote the film with or without Shiney. The film is completely ready which means the producers have kept their investment locked and that's not good," the source adds. The director of Har Pall, Jahnu Barua, confirms TOI's news and adds, "The situation is such that we have to wait and watch."

Julia Gillard to form minority government in Australia

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labour party on Tuesday won the support of two king-maker independents and would be forming a minority government with their support.

Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, the two independent lawmakers, said that they will support the Labor party, ending weeks of political instability following a hung parliament, first since 1940.

“I intend with my vote, for what it’s worth, to support the Labour Party,” Mr. Windsor told reporters in Canberra.

Mr. Oakeshott said his decision depended on which party would be able to run a stable and long parliament.

Earlier, the other key independent MP Bob Katter had announced his support for opposition leader Tony Abbott.

Labour now controls 76 votes in Parliament’s 150-member lower house, with the Coalition on 74.

The three MPs arrived at Parliament House in Canberra this morning for consideration of “final documents” from both Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

After delivering a long speech, Mr. Oakeshott finally confirmed his support for Labour.

“I did not try and make it all about... my wants and needs,” he said, adding “This is for 20 years of vision.”

“To miss the opportunity for millions of Australians, I thought was to good an opportunity to miss,” Windsor said.

Mr. Oakeshott said his support for Ms. Gillard was not an endorsement of her and Labour and said both the electorate and the independents were “thoroughly unimpressed” with both major parties.

“I want to be very clear and up-front that this is not a mandate for any government,” Mr. Oakeshott said.

“This parliament is going to be different. No one party has dominance over the executive or the parliament. This is a hard decision, there is no question about it,” Mr. Oakeshott said, adding the decision on who to support was extremely close.

“This could not get any closer,” he said. “My four and six year old are split on this.”

Mr. Oakeshott said Ms. Gillard’s first task was to bring Australia together.

He also vowed to “turbo-charge” regional Australia with a promised package for the bush.

Suicide car bomb hits Pakistan police station, kills 17

A suicide bomber on Monday rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a police station in Pakistan’s north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, killing 17 people and injuring dozens more, police said.

The bombing, in Lucky Marwat district close to the country’s militancy-plagued tribal region, demolished parts of the police station building and damaged a nearby school van.

“Seventeen people have been killed in the attack. Among them are eight civilians, including four school girls, and nine policemen,” said Khalid Khan, an official at the city’s central police control room. “Forty-six, including 20 policemen, are injured.” Television footages showed rescue workers sifting through the rubble to find survivors or dead bodies.

“It is believed that there might be still some people under the rubble. When the bombing took place more than 40 policemen were inside the building,” Khan said.

The bomber drove into the rear wall of the station, district police chief Gul Wali Khan said. Several nearby buildings were also damaged by the explosion, which left a large crater in the ground.

It was the third suicide attack in around a week in the country.

More than 100 people died and over 400 were injured in bombings in eastern city of Lahore and south-western town of Quetta.

The Taliban took the responsibility for both bombings and threatened to carry out more. The bombings ended a brief lull after recent floods devastated large areas in Pakistan, killing 1,700 and affecting more than 17 million.

Two pilots killed in cargo plane crash in Dubai

Two pilots were killed on Friday when a Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed on a road just two minutes after it took off from Dubai airport, police said. The plane which took off for Cologne in Germany came down in a ball of fire at about 8 pm near the Nad Al Sheba military camp close to the GlobalVillage, just 20 km from the airport, according to Khaleej Times.

Both pilots died and their bodies have been recovered, police sources said.

Eyewitnesses said the jumbo jet streaking flames roared over the Emirates Road setting some cars on fire, but there is no report of injuries on the ground.

Col. Omer Al Shamsi, Deputy Director of Operations Room of the Dubai Police, said the cargo plane belonged to UPS, a US cargo company.

"This incident is very unfortunate and we will do everything we can to find the cause," said Lekites of UPS. "Our thoughts go out to the crew members involved in the incident and their families."

According to sources, both pilots were Americans and the cargo plane was carrying electronics items and toys.

The "GO" team of the US National Transportation Safety Board, also known as Tin Kickers, is expected to arrive soon in Dubai to ascertain the cause of the crash.

Deputy Director of the Dubai Civil Defence, Col. Ahmed Al Sayegh, said the rescue team is yet to find the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of the plane.

Mexico army kills dozens of drug suspects

Soldiers killed 25 suspected drug cartel members yesterday in a raid and gun battle in a Mexican state near the US border that has seen a surge in gang violence, the military said.

Mexico's defence department said soldiers on a reconnaissance flight over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state saw several gunmen in front of a property. When troops on the ground moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gunbattle that killed 25 suspected cartel members, according to the military. The statement said two soldiers were injured.

Authorities rescued three people believed to be kidnap victims in the raid, according to the statement. The military said troops seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.

The raid came after President Felipe Calderón tried to rally frustrated Mexicans behind the increasingly bloody drug war yesterday, saying he knows violence has surged under his watch, but arguing that it is the price of confronting powerful and brutal cartels.

Calderón delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address two days after his government brought down the third major kingpin in less than a year. But it also came less than two weeks after the massacre of 72 migrants near the US border, which laid bare how freely drug traffickers operate in pockets of the country.

"I am well aware that over the past year, violence has worsened," Calderón said. "But we must battle on."

Calderón has struggled to maintain support for a fight that was hugely popular when he first deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police to drug-cartel strongholds across the country in late 2006.

Since then, gang violence has become more shocking, with beheaded bodies found hanged from bridges and police discovering pits filled with dozens of slain cartel victims. Gangs have employed warfare tactics previously unseen in Mexico, including car bombs and blockades in front of police stations and army garrisons.

North-east Mexico has been particularly violent this year since the powerful Zetas cartel broke ranks with their former employer, the Gulf cartel, making the state of Tamaulipas one of the country's most dangerous battlegrounds.

In June gunmen ambushed and killed the leading candidate for state governor a week before the elections. And in May a mayoral candidate in Tamaulipas was assassinated.

In August Mexican marines discovered the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants believed to have been gunned down by the Zetas after refusing to smuggle drugs, in what may be the deadliest cartel massacre to date. The dead migrants were discovered at a ranch about 100 miles (160km) from the US border in Tamaulipas.

Sonia to become Cong president for 4th time

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will file her nomination for another term in office as party chief on Thursday, Sep 2, between 11 am and 3 pm at her residence.

Top Congress leaders from all states will present her the nomination papers for acceptance. These papers will be then submitted to the election authority, and the next day, she will come to the party headquarters to receive the certificate of election.

The last date for filing nominations for the post of Congress president is Sep 2, according to the election schedule declared by the party.

This would be Sonia’s fourth term as Congress president after she first became the party head in 1998.

Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving party president in the 125-year history of the Congress.