Japan and China agreed on Monday to set up an emergency hotline and set in place ways to prevent maritime friction sparked by Beijing’s growing naval reach from getting out of hand.Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held to Beijing’s cautious stance on the sinking of a South Korean warship, which Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has joined Seoul and Washington in saying was certainly torpedoed by North Korea. Ties between the world’s second- and third-largest economies have improved since 2006, when they set aside years of rancour centred on Japan’s wartime occupation of Asia. At Monday’s summit, wartime historical disputes did not come up. Instead, the two leaders agreed on steps aimed at easing military tensions that have continued to keep a cool distance between the two Asian neighbours. They agreed to resume talks on jointly exploring disputed gas fields in seas between them. Hatoyama came to office less than a year ago, vowing a more equal relationship with the United States and closer ties with China and other Asian powers. The summit with Wen, however, brought small steps, not big breakthroughs. The hotline between Beijing and Tokyo would allow leaders to discuss quickly what Wen called “important issues” between the two nations, a Japanese government official said. Wen later told Japanese business executives the huge economic flows between the two nations, with bilateral trade worth $238.7 billion last year, would cement closer ties. “China and Japan have very close economic and trade ties. One could say they are at the point where neither could do without the other,” said Wen. Despite the displays of goodwill, including an early morning jog by Wen, sources of discord remain. China’s increasing naval activities in seas near Japan have made Tokyo nervous. “I told Premier Wen that Japan is concerned about China’s activities,” Hatoyama told reporters, referring to the naval moves. Wen did not respond directly to Tokyo’s concerns but the two leaders also agreed to set up a crisis management mechanism for maritime incidents, a Japanese official said. Tokyo lodged a protest with Beijing in April after a Chinese helicopter flew near a Japanese destroyer in waters off Okinawa. A group of Chinese warships was spotted earlier that month in the high seas near Okinawa. Beijing said the ships were in the area training and violated no international law. The two nations have also argued over China’s exploration for natural gas in the East China Sea, in areas Japan says could impinge on gas fields in its maritime jurisdiction. In June 2008, they struck a broad agreement intended to solve the row by jointly developing the fields. Informal talks have recently started, but progress has been slow. Wen and Hatoyama agreed to start formal negotiations on the issue as soon as possible. The official said that was a step forward, since China has long said the environment was not ripe for such talks. For Hatoyama, the visit comes amid domestic gloom, since many voters have grown disenchanted with his government, and it may act as a reminder that China could soon displace Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy after the United States. Wen’s visit to Japan, which began on Sunday, has brought no shift in China’s position on North Korea. China shares long-standing bonds with its communist neighbour North Korea and Beijing has been noncommittal about whether Pyongyang was behind the sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan corvette on March 26, which killed 46 sailors. Hatoyama has firmly backed the findings of a multinational investigation that blamed North Korea for torpedoing the ship, and agrees with Seoul that the UN Security Council should censure Pyongyang. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China can veto any proposed resolution or statement. Wen put on a black track suit in the early morning to jog through leafy Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, in a carefully managed effort to show a softer side of China. Accompanied by panting guards and reporters, he greeted sometimes startled residents jogging or walking dogs, and joined some to practise traditional Chinese Taichi exercises. “Do you know who I am?” he asked some of them. They did. “The Chinese people send their greetings,” he told others. When Wen suggested joining some older ladies for their morning exercises, one of them politely noted that it was still ten minutes before their usual starting time.

Mass marriages generally organised by social organisations to cut ceremony costs that are common in India with its billion plus population where the custom of dowry and expensive gifts from the bride's family still prevails among certain segments of society.

Brides sit during a mass marriage ceremony.

Bride grooms clad in white sit during the ceremony.

Bride with bangles and henna-decorated hands takes part in the ceremony in Mumbai.

A decked up bride arrives to take part in a mass marriage ceremony.

Bride slips her henna-decorated and bejeweled feet from her sandals.

Bride grooms clad in white.

PARIS: Defending champion Roger Federer moved into the quarterfinals of French Open by beating Stanislas Wawrinka, while second-seeded Venus Williams and No. 4 Andy Murray lost. Federer beat fellow Swiss Wawrinka 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 on a windy and cold Court Philippe Chatrier. Czech Tomas Berdych knocked Britain’s Murray out of the fourth round, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in a rain delayed match. Venus Williams’ quest for a first French Open title ended in the fourth round against Nadia Petrova of Russia, 6-4, 6-3. Four-time champion Justine Henin won. Robin Soderling beat Croatia’s Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Henin beat former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in a match delayed by darkness last night. Olympic gold medalist and fifth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia beat South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-1, 6-3. No. 17 Francesca Schiavone of Italy defeated Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-4. The Russian had ousted defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous round. U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark needed three hours to overcome Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-2. The world No. 3 moves to her first quarterfinal at Roland Garros, where she’ll meet Schiavone.

BP engineers scrambled on Sunday to implement another high-risk plan to stem the devastating Gulf oil spill now being described as likely the worst environmental disaster in US history. Hours after the British oil giant acknowledged failure in its “top kill” attempt to plug the underwater well, company officials said it could take a week to implement the next bid — placing a cap over the leak. “Right now we are going to a containment operation,” BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told CNN’s “State of the Union” program of the latest attempt to deal with the ruptured well nearly a mile (1,600 meters) under water. “Because this is being done at 5,000 feet with robots, we’re going to take our time, do it extremely carefully. By the end of the week, we should have this in place,” Dudley said. While the “top kill” plan would have sealed the well using a combination of heavy drilling fluid and eventually cement, the new effort aims only to reduce the leak, and might temporarily increase the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, officials said. The well will only be sealed when BP finishes drilling two relief wells, but they are not expected to be ready until August. In the meantime, thousands of gallons of oil spew uncontrolled into the sea each day. At least 20 million gallons are now estimated to have leaked into the ocean since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 and sank, killing 11 workers. President Barack Obama’s top environmental advisor, Carol Browner, said on Sunday that the spill was “probably the biggest environmental disaster we’ve ever faced in this country.” “I think what the American people need to know is that it is possible that we will have oil leaking from this well until August when the relief wells will be finished,” she said. The bid underway Sunday involves using robots to sever a damaged “riser” pipe carrying oil the from the wellhead and placing a containment device called a Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) over the leak. Oil would then be siphoned from the device up to a container ship at the surface. But the process could actually increase the amount of oil leaking into the sea, and it is uncertain how much oil would be contained, Browner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation. “When you cut the riser, the kink may be holding some of the oil in and so we could see an increase, experts are saying, of as much as 20 percent,” she said, adding the increase could last four to seven days as the cap is prepared. “Once the cap is on, the question is how snug is that fit? If its a snug fit then there could be very, very little oil, if they’re not able to get a snug fit then there could be more.” That is a nightmare scenario for a region under siege and increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress. On Friday, Obama visited Louisiana for the second time since the spill began, and he pledged Saturday to do whatever it takes to help those whose livelihoods have been upended by the catastrophe. “We will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole,” he said. He ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other top environmental officials to return to the region next week. Since the spill began, an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of crude have leaked into the Gulf each day. The disaster has already closed stretches of coastal fishing waters, endangering the seafood industry and tourism, and threatening a catastrophe for Louisiana marshes, home to many rare species. Government data released Thursday suggested between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf — far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. The spill has been a public relations nightmare for BP, which faced new allegations of negligence Sunday after The New York Times said internal company files showed the firm had serious concerns about the Deepwater rig weeks before the April accident. Congressman Ed Markey, who forced BP to make available a live video feed of the oil leak, said Sunday he had “no confidence whatsoever in BP.” “BP has been making it up as they go along the whole way,” he said on “Face the Nation.” I don’t think that people should really believe what BP are saying."

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s three main parties held talks on Sunday to try to hammer out a new coalition government after the prime minister agreed to resign to avert a political crisis. Madhav Kumar Nepal said he would step down in a last-minute deal to secure support of Maoist lawmakers for a bill to extend parliament’s term, which was due to expire Friday, leaving the country without a functioning legislature. The opposition Maoists won 2008 elections, but their government fell last year in a disagreement over the integration of their former fighters into the national army, and they have been agitating for a return to power ever since. “Leaders of the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Maoists are in deep discussions on how to take Friday’s agreement forward,” UML leader Pradeep Gyawali told AFP. “They are also discussing the PM’s resignation and they hope to create a work plan on the next possible steps.” As the largest party in parliament the Maoists are likely to take a lead role in the next power-sharing government, but the prime minister’s office said that many issues needed to be addressed first. The Maoists fought a decade-long civil war against the state before agreeing to lay down their arms in a 2006 peace agreement. However four years later, many of the terms of that deal remain unfulfilled. These include the integration of thousands of former Maoist fighters into the national army and the disbanding of the party’s armed youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL), which rival parties say is an obstacle to lasting peace. The prime minister had been in discussions with many of the country’s smaller parties which made up the coalition government that ruled since May 2009, his spokesman Bishnu Rijal told AFP. “They agreed that army integration, YCL disbandment and the appointment of a new leader to head the national unity government are urgent,” Rijal said on Sunday. “The prime minister’s resignation will come only after all this is agreed.” Analysts said that although the extension of the parliament, or “Constituent Assembly”, had averted a political crisis, there now was a risk of further paralysis. “All sides are battling it out,” Prashant Jha, a political analyst, told AFP. “Until there is compromise on an alternative candidate (for prime minister), the political deadlock will continue.” Karin Landgren, representative of the UN Secretary-General to Nepal, welcomed the extension of the Constituent Assembly as it “secures the continuation of the peace process.”

The US House of Representatives approved President Barack Obama’s request for $205 million to spur Israel’s production of a system to counter short-range rockets of the type used by Hamas and Hizbullah. The authorisation for the extra funding was part of a defence spending bill that would provide $726 billion next year for US national defence programmes, including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House gave the bill final passage on Friday by a vote of 229 to 186. The Senate Armed Services Committee likewise voted to provide $205 million for the Israeli system, known as “Iron Dome,” panel chairman Carl Levin told reporters on Friday. Levin said he hoped his committee’s bill would reach the Senate floor before the July 4 Independence Day recess. A congressional staff member said the request for the funding “seems to have come directly from the commander in chief,” Obama. It was not entirely clear what prompted it. Produced by Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., Iron Dome uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of between 3 miles and 45 miles (5-70 km), as well as mortar bombs, in mid-air. Its development was spurred by the 2006 conflict in Lebanon with Hizbullah, and the Gaza Strip war against Hamas a year ago. In both cases, Israeli towns within reach of short-range rockets were in some ways defenseless. A White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said earlier this month Obama recognised “the threat missiles and rockets fired by Hamas and Hizbullah pose to Israelis.” As a result, he decided to seek funding from Congress to support the production of the Iron Dome system, Vietor said. Two Iron Dome batteries are under construction, an Israeli defence official said in February. Designed to be towed by vehicle, they will be available for any Israeli front at a few hours’ notice. The Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency has three initiatives with Israel to boost its home-grown capability to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The so-called David’s Sling Weapon System is for short-range defence; the Arrow Weapons System targets medium-range missiles; and the Arrow-3 interceptor is an upper-tier system under development. The United States is also developing interoperability between the US ballistic missile defence system and the Israeli architecture to make sure Israeli systems can be stitched in to a global umbrella. In addition, the Obama administration is working toward a Middle East missile defence that envisions adding an advanced radar site in a Gulf state to one already in Israel to thwart any Iranian attack, US officials have told Reuters.The House voted to authorise $10.3 billion for ballistic missile defences overall, $361.6 million more than Obama’s request. The extra funds will strengthen defences against “the most immediate threats from nations such as Iran and North Korea,” said Rep. James Langevin, the Strategic Forces subcommittee chairman.

Undeclared nuclear power Israel on Saturday denounced the “hypocrisy” of a UN call for a nuclear-free Middle East that singled it out but ignored Iran, which is suspected of seeking the bomb and which welcomed the document. “This accord has the hallmark of hypocrisy. Only Israel is mentioned, while the text is silent about other countries like India, Pakistan and North Korea, which have nuclear arms, or even more seriously, Iran, which is seeking to obtain them,” a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The fact that no reference is made to Iran is even more shocking, given that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has disclosed more and more information in recent months on the military character of Iranian nuclear projects,” the official added. Separately, an unnamed senior official was quoted on public radio as saying the decision was a “negative change for Israel,” but also expressing doubt that it would lead to anything concrete. In New York on Friday, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s 189 signatory nations proposed new steps towards disarmament and making the Middle East free of atomic weapons.Diplomats approved a document that laid out action plans on the three pillars of the treaty — disarmament, non-proliferation and promoting peaceful atomic energy. The NPT called on Israel to join the treaty, which would oblige the Jewish state to do away with the nuclear weapons it is widely believed to have but does not acknowledge. It mentioned (the importance of Israel’s accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. US President Barack Obama welcomed the statement as strengthening “the global non-proliferation regime,” but said he “strongly” opposed singling out Israel. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton praised the deal, and said the European Union would “immediately engage in the preparation of its contribution to the process for the implementation of the Middle East resolution.”French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also expressed reservations about the accord for not being more “inclusive... particularly on the Iranian crisis which is the focus of the international community’s concerns.” Iran’s IAEA representative Ali Asghar Soltanieh told state news agency IRNA that the United States, despite opposing the text on Israel, would have to fall in line with other countries. “The US reservation is symbolic and it is obliged to go along with the world’s request, which is that Israel must join the NPT and open its installations to IAEA inspectors,” he said. The United States and other countries suspect Iran of using its nuclear energy programme as a cover for building an atomic weapon, a charge Tehran denies. They are continuing efforts to impose a fourth set of UN sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium, a process that can produce nuclear fuel but in more refined form can provide the fissile core for a bomb. “The greatest threat to proliferation in the Middle East, and to the NPT, is Iran’s failure to live up to its NPT obligations,” Obama said. Soltanieh dismissed the US leader’s stance. “Of course this was to be expected... The Americans are isolating themselves, since Iran’s nuclear file is an (IAEA) agency issue. This conference was about the NPT and its future.” The document came after a month of deliberations that looked set to fail until almost the very last hour, with Israel’s arch-foe Iran seeking tougher anti-Israeli language. Soltanieh, whom many feared would veto the consensus text, said that despite its “limited” nature, the final statement was (a step forward... towards our common goal of nuclear disarmament.”The wording on the Middle East called for a conference in 2012 “to be attended by all states of the Middle East, leading to the establishment( of such a nuclear-weapons-free zone. Washington has vowed to work for a successful meeting in 2012.

US President Barack Obama has ordered a tripling of manpower in coastal areas where oil has washed ashore or threatens to within 24 hours.
Speaking on a tour of oil-hit areas, Mr Obama said the US would "do whatever it takes" to help those affected.
The oil company BP says operations to seal the hole in the damaged well is continuing.
BP chief executive Tony Hayward said the outcome would not be clear for another 48 hours.
He said the new "top kill" effort - untested before at this depth of 5,000ft (1.5km) - was "going pretty well according to plan".
Mr Obama said the additional manpower would lay more booms, clean beaches and monitor stricken wildlife.

He said US Energy Secretary Steven Chu was leading a team of "the world's top scientists, engineers and experts" in devising a contingency plan should the "top kill" attempt fail.
"Our response will continue with its full force regardless of the outcome of the top-kill approach," he told reporters.
Mr Obama said he would take responsibility for "solving this crisis", though he said BP would be held financially accountable for the "enormous damage".
"I'm the president and the buck stops with me," he said.

"I give the people of this community and the entire gulf my word that we're going to hold ourselves accountable to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this catastrophe, to defend our natural resources, to repair the damage and to keep this region on its feet."
Earlier on the tour, Mr Obama visited a beach guarded by a protective boom, and was seen stooping to inspect the sand and picking up a handful of tar balls.
Thousands of barrels of oil have been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico after a Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last month, killing 11 employees.
The thick crude oil has already permeated more than 110km (70 miles) of Louisiana's coastline, threatening fragile wetlands and putting the vital fishing industry at risk.
Earlier, Mr Hayward has said that BP engineers had successfully completed a second phase of the "top kill" procedure - pumping in debris, known as a "junk shot" - which would next allow them to pump in more heavyweight mud.
If the mud works in stopping the flow, BP can then pour cement to seal the well for good.

New estimates from a panel of US scientists said at least 12,000 barrels (504,000 gallons) were leaking into the gulf every day, making it the worst leak in US history.
In a shake-up of the offshore oil industry, Mr Obama on Thursday suspended test drilling on 33 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as halting exploratory deepwater drilling for another six months.
In addition, he cancelled the sale of some offshore leases off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia.
Correspondents say the move marks a shift in policy since March, when President Obama gave the go-ahead to widen the scope for offshore drilling in order to reduce dependency on oil imports.

As the sun rises, cool blues and grays begin their slow transition to glowing golds and ambers. Like a child's pop-up book, dimension is added and a valley is transformed.
To look upon this beauty in the western U.S. state of Oregon is to understand what people mean when they say this is God's country, and that's exactly why Brother Gregory lives here.
He is part of a wider movement of conservative Christians who are choosing to live their lives on the edge of society, unplugged from civilization as much as they can, living under basic biblical principles.
Brother Gregory -- the "Brother" is more of a nickname than an occupational title -- ministers from the Oregon desert where he lives with his wife, some of his grown children and grandchildren.
Like other conservative Christians in this growing movement, Brother Gregory believes that Christianity has strayed too far from its roots, and has given its role in people's lives over to the government -- as with welfare programs or health care.
"We are not living off the grid as much as we are creating a new grid, a more wholesome grid," he said.
"We are following a different path that we think is healthier, promotes better families, and better communities."
He doesn't believe a church needs four walls and a roof. Rather, a church is people who believe in taking care of each other -- living under the biblical principles of faith, hope and charity.

"Christians should be looking for a way to take care of one another without forcing their neighbor to contribute to their welfare. In essence that's coveting your neighbor's goods through the agency of the governments you create."
And that is a sin.
Brother Gregory runs the web site for "His Holy Church," and he explains that he is not what you would typically think of as a minister. He doesn't regularly get up and speak before a congregation, for example.
"'His Holy Church' is a phrase. It's 'His', meaning Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ established the Church 2,000 years ago. It's 'Holy' because it's separate. It's separate from the world. It's in the world but not of the world. And it's a 'Church', which actually comes from the Greek 'ekklesia', meaning 'called out'. They're called out to do the will of Jesus Christ and the Father in Heaven."
Brother Gregory, a shepherd in the literal sense at his ranch in Summer Lake, Oregon, sees echoes of that in his religious life as a minister.
"Sheep teach the shepherd to be a good shepherd," he says, "and in that sense, that's what people need. They need a good shepherd who's not going to rule over them but guide them in the good ways, the ways of life."
There are others with similar views to Brother Gregory. But while Brother Gregory is content spreading his gospel over the internet and simply living out his life on his ranch in Oregon, these Christians take things a step further.
There is a group called Christian Exodus, and while they too believe modern Christianity is corrupt, they are a little more fired up about the role government plays. Mainly, that it shouldn't have any role at all.
Keith Humphrey is the executive director of Christian Exodus. His long Amish-style beard gives a very visible clue to his beliefs. He would love to live in simpler times, when government was virtually non-existent.
"Making the government an idol is the problem. That's what stands in the way of Christian sanctification," Humphrey says. "It's hands off mainly things like our family, our children, our bodies, our health, and even our money, the fruits of our labor. These don't belong to government."
Christian Exodus considers itself a movement. In 2004, it tried to get its members -- some 1,500 or so who have signed up online -- to move together to South Carolina, form a community and secede from the United States.
"We originally anticipated thousands and thousands of people overwhelming these smaller counties," Humphrey says. "We had people moving, that were moving, but they were kind of putting the cart before the horse, because they weren't living independently. They were just showing up and saying 'Okay, where's my house and where's my job?' We're like, 'Uh, no, it doesn't work like that. '"
When the idea didn't work out, Christian Exodus then started trying to pull members together into micro-communities, through social networking, and encouraging its members to live through what it calls 'personal secession'.
"Personal secession are things like homeschooling, house churches, home gardening, home-based economics, just regaining privacy and a sense of community rather than worrying about what's going on in Washington, D.C... What's the latest thing from the Supreme Court?
"You know, who cares? I don't care about what they're saying in D.C. because they don't represent me hardly more than Pyongyang."
His Holy Church and Christian Exodus each say it is hard to track how many followers they may have, because many people who believe in their movements also don't like to be tracked.
They live "off the grid" in every aspect. But each group has thousands of members signed up online, and each says many more could be unregistered followers. They exist on the edge of society, living as they believe Christians did in the beginning.