Briefly world

Renowned Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal worked for Israels Mossad spy agency,providing information on war criminals and Germans working in Arab countries.

Nazi hunter or Mossad agent?

Renowned Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal worked for Israels Mossad spy agency,providing information on war criminals and Germans working in Arab countries,claims a new book on Thursday.

The claim in Wiesenthal 8211; The Life and Legends shed a different light on the Holocaust survivor previously believed to have conducted a lone quest to bring war criminals to justice. Author Tom Segev said Wiesenthal worked with Israeli agents even before Mossad was established. In 1948,Wiesenthal helped a forerunner of Mossad mount a failed attempt to capture top Nazi Adolf Eichmann. He continued to provide intelligence to Israel through the 1950s,but his steady relationship with Mossad only began in the run-up to the 1960 operation which resulted in the capture of Eichmann.

Oil rig explodes in US Gulf again,13 crew rescued

HOUSTON: An oil and gas platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc was on fire off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday,but no oil was visible in the water and the 13 workers aboard the facility were rescued. The site of the fire was located west of BPs ruptured well that killed 11 people and caused the worlds worst offshore oil spill. One worker was injured. The platform was not producing at the time of the fire,Patrick Cassidy,a spokesman for Mariner Energy told CNBC television.

Manmohan Singh is wonderful PM: Blair

LONDON: Former British premier Tony Blair describes Manmohan Singh as the wonderful Indian Prime Minister in his best-selling memoirs titled My Journey. Blair,who interacted with Singh on several occasions during his tenure as the British prime minister from 1997 to 2007,says that Singh had advised him that Britain could not afford to be out of Europe. Blair recalls meeting the Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew,who he described as the smartest leader I think I ever met.

Karzai says airstrike killed civilians

KABUL: NATO said an airstrike in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed about a dozen insurgents,but President Hamid Karzai said the victims were campaign workers seeking votes in this months parliamentary polls. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates,meanwhile,arrived in Kabul to meet Karzai and NATO commander Gen David Petraeus. NATO said its airstrike on a car in Takhar provinces Rustaq district killed or wounded as many as 12 insurgents,including a Taliban commander.