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.

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.

GENEVA, Nov 21 — Four years after cartoons of Prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery — essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

Algeria and Pakistan are believed to be taking the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly.

If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a fundamental right, such a treaty would require them to limit free speech if it risks seriously offending religious believers. The process, though, will take years and no showdown is imminent.

BOGOTA, Nov 21 — Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite its neighbor’s aggressive rhetoric and dynamiting of two border bridges, Colombia’s defense minister said yesterday.

“We will not be provoked. The insults bounce off us,” Gabriel Silva said a day after Venezuelan troops blew up two wooden plank pedestrian bridges connecting the countries.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez this month ordered his army to prepare for war after Colombia signed a military cooperation pact with Washington allowing US troops greater access to its territory to run anti-narcotics surveillance flights.

HAVANA, Nov 21 — The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited  yesterday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

Sanchez, whose writing about the hardships of Cuban life were praised this week by US President Barack Obama, said men believed to be government agents forced her into a car and hit her repeatedly in a brief detention on Nov 6.

Reinaldo Escobar, also a blogger, said he had gone to a Havana intersection hoping that state security agents would respond to a challenge he issued earlier to meet there for a “verbal duel” about his wife’s incident.

JAKARTA, Nov 21 — Even as three scandals rage across Indonesia and tarnish the government’s efforts to root out graft, there is one positive takeaway from the mess: Indonesia’s civil society and media are free, open and thriving.

In the months since the scandals erupted, the print media — in front-page articles and editorials — had taken a strong stance against the alleged unsavoury actions of the police and courts.

The media had also admonished President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration for being slow to take action against them.

IDAHO, Nov 21 - Singapore’s already-strong friendship with the United States has reached another milestone with the opening of a new long-term defence training detachment in the American state of Idaho.

The detachment — the country’s fourth in the US — will enable Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) personnel to carry out training on its newest F-15 fighter jet in the wide open spaces of the American Northwest.

Under an agreement, 12 RSAF F-15SG fighter jets will be based at the vast Mountain Home Air Force Base, which has an airspace of more than 19,000 sq km — six times the size of Singapore’s.

BEIJING, Nov 21 — China said it will punish officials caught concealing deaths from the H1N1 flu, after a doctor — famous for exposing the extent of the 2003 Sars epidemic — said suspect cases may have been covered up by local governments.

The Health Ministry said it has adopted a new H1N1 accounting method earlier this month. If a person was confirmed with H1N1 and then died, the case should be reported as death from H1N1, whether or not there was another condition.

Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said it was “strictly prohibited to conceal, omit, or delay reports of Influenza A (H1N1) deaths”, adding that those who did so would be held accountable, according to a notice on the ministry’s website posted late on Thursday.