The Malaysian Insider

GENEVA, Nov 21 – After a year’s delay, scientists at the world’s biggest accelerator have restarted an experiment to recreate “Big Bang” conditions that had sparked suggestions the earth would be sucked in by millions of black holes.

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) have established circulating particle beams in both directions in the underground Large Hadron Collider, a step that is already beyond where the experiment stalled during a first attempt in September 2008, CERN spokesman James Gillies said.

The high-profile experiment, through which tiny particles are smashed in a bid to learn more about the birth of the universe, failed just nine days after it was launched due to a technical problem that took longer than expected to fix.

UPDATED

KABUL, Nov 21 – A rocket hit the outside wall of the Serena luxury hotel in the Afghan capital on Saturday wounding one Afghan soldier on the street outside, another soldier at the scene told Reuters.

A police source said two people were wounded. An employee of the hotel said there was no damage to the hotel.

No more details were immediately available.

DHAKA, Nov 21 – Bangladesh police said they had raided a secret training centre and arrested 14 suspected Islamist militants on Saturday.

Training materials, communication equipments and jihadi books were also seized during the raid near Jenaidah 250km west of the capital Dhaka.

“We believe that the training centre has been run by the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and the detained people were new recruits of the group,” a senior police officer said without giving further details.

ROME, Nov 21 — A Brazilian transsexual caught up in a scandal which prompted the resignation of a senior Italian politician — the centre-left governor of Lazio region, which includes Rome — was found burnt to death in his home on Friday.

Police found a body following a fire in a basement flat in a neighbourhood frequented by transsexual sex-workers and court sources said magistrates were treating the death as murder.

Forensic tests were expected to identify the remains as those of a transsexual known only as Brenda, police said.

HARBIN, Nov 21 – A gas explosion killed 42 miners in a Chinese mine on Saturday and 66 remain trapped hundreds of metres underground after the latest accident to hit the world's deadliest mining industry, state media said.

The blast ripped through the mine at about 2.30am when there were 528 people at work, but more than 400 have now got out safely, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing rescue team spokesman Zhang Jinguang.

The blast was so violent it shook the surrounding area. Buildings near the mine mouth have partially collapsed, and some survivors were knocked unconscious temporarily.