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At least 28 people were killed in the central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan after severe flooding and a helicopter crash, local media reported Friday.

In the village of Kysyl-Agasch, in the eastern Almaty region, the river Karatal burst its banks, flooding dozens of houses and drowning 20 people.

A rescue helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the village of Makanchi, killing all eight people on board. The causes of the crash were not yet known.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev set up a government commission to help victims.

The Pakistani Supreme Court Friday expressed unhappiness over the lack of action in reopening a Swiss money laundering case involving President Asif Ali Zardari. It has asked the country’s anti-corruption watchdog to speed up matters.

At a hearing, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted that it was hampered in its efforts because records relating to the case had gone missing during the tenure of then president Pervez Musharraf.

Dissatisfied with this statement, judge Tariq Pervez said the court was not interested in individuals and asked the NAB to recover the missing records, Geo TV reported.

In August 2008, Swiss judicial authorities, acting on the request of the Pakistani government, closed the money-laundering case against Zardari and released $60 million frozen in Swiss accounts.

The Pakistani government had cited an amnesty against graft promulgated by Musharraf as the reason for seeking closure of the case.

Musharraf had promulgated the amnesty, in the form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), primarily to enable former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Zardari, who faced a slew of corruption cases, to return home from self-imposed exile.

Some 250 other politicians, retired army officers and bureaucrats also benefited from the NRO.

The Supreme Court had in December 2009 termed the NRO unconstitutional and ordered the reopening of all the cases closed after its promulgation.

Zardari and his aides have been blowing hot and cold since then. While he says he is ready to face the courts, his aides insist he enjoys presidential immunity, at least as long as he is in office.

A massive bomb blast shook the Pakistani city of Lahore Friday, Xinhua news agency reported. The explosion took place near a bus stand.

The Pakistan Navy tested missiles and torpedoes in the Arabian Sea, authorities said Friday.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the missiles and torpedoes were fired from F22 Frigate, P3c and Agosta 90 b submarine, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US has praised the Indian government for its human rights record, but expressed concern over reported extra-judicial killings of people in custody, disappearances, and torture and rape by police and other security forces.

“The (Indian) government generally respected the rights of its citizens and made progress in reducing incidents of communal violence,” said the Congressionally mandated Annual Report on Human Rights for 2009 covering 194 countries.

The report released by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday also took note of India’s progress in “expanding efforts against human trafficking, and reducing the exploitation of indentured, bonded, and child workers” but said “serious problems remained”.

“Major problems included reported extra-judicial killings of persons in custody, disappearances, and torture and rape by police and other security forces.

“Separatist insurgents and terrorists in Kashmir, the Northeast, and the Naxalite (Maoist) belt committed numerous serious abuses, including killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials, and civilians,” the report prepared by the State Department noted.

“Insurgents engaged in widespread torture, rape, beheadings, kidnapping, and extortion. The number of incidents declined compared with the previous year,” it said.

“Investigations into individual abuses and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred,” the report acknowledged. “But for many abuses, a lack of accountability created an atmosphere of impunity. Poor prison conditions and lengthy detentions were significant problems.”

Some officials used anti-terrorism legislation to justify excessive use of force, the report said. “Corruption existed at all levels of government and police. While there were no large-scale attacks against minorities during the year, there were reports of delays in obtaining legal redress for past incidents.”

“Some states promulgated laws restricting religious conversion. Violence associated with caste-based discrimination occurred,” the report said.

“Domestic violence, child marriage, dowry-related deaths, honour crimes, and female foeticide remained serious problems.”

The State Department said there were credible reports that the “government and its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extra-judicial killings of suspected criminals and insurgents”.

“A high rate of extrajudicial killings, in which security forces shot and killed alleged criminals or insurgents in staged encounters, occurred in the Northeast, particularly in the states of Assam and Manipur,” it said.

Unnamed sources cited by the report also alleged shootout killings in Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh.

The report highlighted the increased toll conflicts have inflicted on civilian populations in 2009, including in Afghanistan, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Among other countries, the report most critically faulted human rights practices in Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria and Russia.

US President Barack Obama has donated the $1.4 million that came with winning the Nobel Peace Prize to charity, the White House said Thursday.

Obama divided the money up among 10 charities, with Fisher House, a non-profit that provides housing for families of patients being treated at military and veteran hospital, receiving the most at $250,000.

The Haiti relief fund set up by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will receive $200,000.

The rest of the money will go to the College Summit, Posse Foundation, United Negro College Fund, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, American Indian College Fund, AfriCare and the Central Asia Institute.

The Central Asia Institute promotes community based education and literacy in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a special focus on girls.

The Nobel committee awarded Obama the prize in October, pointing to the change of tone in Washington but prompting critics to question the pick less than a year into his presidency.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived here Thursday night on a 22-hour visit during which India and Russia are to sign over a dozen agreements, including an umbrella civil nuclear pact.

Putin was accompanied by a high-powered delegation comprising senior ministers and senior officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin, Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina and Minister of Energy Sergei Shmatko.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will Friday evening holds talks with Putin, who is seen here as a close friend of India and a co-architect of India-Russia strategic partnership.

The two sides are expected to sign over a dozen pacts, including an umbrella inter-governmental civil nuclear agreement and another accord freezing the price of the refurbished aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov as well as a clutch of defence deals and a visa pact, sources said.

Setting a positive tone for Friday’s talks, India’s cabinet committee on security (CCS) cleared the $2.35 billion fresh price for the Admiral Gorshkov. The long-delayed renegotiated pact for the carrier, renamed INS Vikramaditya, will be among the defence deals worth $4 billion that are expected to be finalised during Putin’s visit.

Pacts on setting up joint pharmaceutical ventures and visa simplification are also expected to be signed during the visit.

India has announced a cash contribution of $5 million for relief and rehabilitation in Chile in a show of solidarity with the people of the earthquake-hit country.

“As a country familiar with the consequences of natural disasters, we fully understand the trauma and suffering that our Chilean brethren are living through,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said here Wednesday.

Speaking at an informal meeting of the plenary of the United Nations General Assembly for a briefing by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he said immediately on hearing the news of the Feb 27earthquake, the Indian government initiated measures to show solidarity with the people of Chile.

Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed to the Chilean president, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, that India would be making a modest cash contribution of US$ 5 million for relief and rehabilitation work following the earthquake, Puri said.

Conveying India’s sincere condolences to the family members of those who have lost their lives and its sympathy and support for the injured, he said:

“We have no doubt that the people of Chile have the strength and resilience to overcome this natural disaster.”

Appreciating the leadership displayed by Ban in coordinating the UN’s response to the Chilean earthquake, Puri said: “This is truly commendable.”

After a recent spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, it was the turn of a wheelchair-bound Canadian man who was beaten by Australian teenagers in Sydney Tuesday, reports here said.

Heath Proden, 35, from Winnipeg suffered skull fracture in the assault and is waiting for surgery in a Sydney hospital, reports said Wednesday. Proden, who got incapacitated at the age of 10, was in Sydney to attend a concert by his friends’ band called Doc Walker Tuesday night.

His anxious mother Shellan Proden told the Canadian media Wednesday that she was shocked to receive a call about the assault on her disabled son.

“I was devastated. He was having such a good time there,” she said from Winnipeg Beach where her son lived with her.

Canada’s Canwest News Service said Proden was waiting for a train in Sydney following the concert when he was approached and verbally harassed by two teenage boys.

Proden tried to leave but he was punched in the face and knocked from his wheelchair.

Video surveillance of the attack shows the teens stomped on Proden and then hit him with a metal bar they had pried from his wheelchair. They ran off but then returned and beat him some more.

The agency quoted police superintendent Wayne Cox of Sydney’s Mount Druitt police station as saying, “Two young men then came back on a number of occasions into the lift well where he was located.

“They have taken a piece off the wheelchair and used that as a weapon and struck him several times.”

The police superintendent called the attack one of the most serious seen in the area, “particularly when you’re looking at a person that’s confined to a wheelchair.”

Police said a 16-year-old boy faces assault and robbery charges and a second teenage boy has surrendered to authorities.

Top US and Indian business executives will meet here Monday to address critical issues affecting US-India High Technology Cooperation in areas like defence/strategic trade, civil nuclear cooperation, biotechnology, nano-technology and civil aviation.

The private sector business interactions hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) are expected to inform the official level bilateral discussions at a meeting of the US-India High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) Tuesday.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will address the business-to-business session convened by the USIBC in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Rao and US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dennis F. Hightower will co-chair HTCG meeting, the first meeting of the group since President Barack Obama took office.

The Keynote Address at the business session will be given by Michael Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs and Development.

HTCG was conceived in November 2001 with a joint statement by then President George W. Bush and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who affirmed their commitment to transform and deepen US-India relations.

Both countries agreed to take cooperative steps to create the requisite political, economic, and legal structures for successful high-technology commerce.

Apart from meetings in the Commerce Department, Rao will also be meeting senior members of the US Administration as well as the US Congress during her five-day stay in Washington.