Will attack South if drill goes ahead: North Korea

Seoul/Beijing: North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-firing drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people. 

The announcement on North Korean official news agency KCNA came as South Korea readied for firing drills on Yeonpyeong island near a disputed maritime border with the North for the first time since November's exchange of artillery fire. 

"The strike will play out a more serious situation than on November 23 in terms of the strength and scope of the strike," KCNA said. 

A leading South Korean defense analyst said he doubted the North would carry out its threat, which rattled financial markets, and South Korea's Defense Ministry said the drill planned for December 18-21 would go ahead. 

The North had said its November shelling was a response to South Korean "provocations" after an artillery battery on the island fired in what Seoul said was a routine drill. 

Japanese defence announcement angers China

Beijing:  Beijing is accusing Japan of making irresponsible remarks in its new defense guidelines targeting China.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu says China is a force for peace and development in Asia and threatens no one.

She accused Japan of falsely claiming to represent international opinion and said no country has the right to make irresponsible comments concerning China's development.

The Japanese guidelines announced on Friday say Tokyo needs to focus on the rise of China and not the Cold War threat of Russia in defining its security goals.

The guidelines, which were approved by the Japanese Cabinet, also call for a stronger alliance 
with the United States - Japan's biggest ally - and expanded security networks with regional partners, including South Korea and Australia. 
 

Dalai Lama’s influence over Tibetans waning: WikiLeaks

London: Amid US fears that the influence of the Dalai Lama over the exiled Tibetan community might be waning, the Buddhist spiritual leader made desperate appeals for American intervention during the 2008 unrest in Lhasa to "make an impact" in China, according to secret US cables published by WikiLeaks.

Cables released by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks show that US diplomats in New Delhi were in for a surprise when the Dalai Lama, instead of harping on the Tibet issue, asked during a meeting that the international community should focus on climate change because environmental problems were more urgent.

US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer felt that the Dalai Lama may be seeking to reframe the Tibet issue "as an environmental concern".

75-year-old Dalai Lama told the US ambassador during a meeting in Delhi in August 2009 that the "political agenda should be sidelined for five to 10 years and the international community should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau", The Guardian reported today. 

Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin sells for $87,469

LOS ANGELES: The simple wooden coffin that was supposed to be John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's final resting place will soon have a new resting place of its own after a mystery bidder bought it at auction for more than $87,000.

The coffin was put on the auction block late last month by a Texas funeral home owner who swapped it with Oswald's family for a new one when the body was briefly exhumed in 1981.

It sold Thursday evening for $87,469, which includes a 20 percent buyers' fee.

``Anything connected to the JFK assassination sells for really high,'' said Nate D. Sanders of Nate D. Sanders Auctions in Santa Monica.

He declined to provide details on the winning bidder, but said the bidder might speak publicly Friday. 

US: Pak action on terror not fast enough

Washington:  Declaring significant progress in disrupting al-Qaida and combating the Taliban, US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the United States will start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in July as promised.

However, he still warned of sobering days, saying the war will remain a "very difficult endeavour."

Assessing the war one year after he ordered a major increase in troops, Obama said the goal is not to defeat every threat to Afghanistan's security or to build up the nation.

Rather, he said, the United States continues to shed blood in the war - one now in its 10th year - to dismantle the al-Qaida network and push back the Taliban.

"We are on track to achieve our goals," Obama told a news briefing at the White House on Thursday.

UAE to host global psychiatric conference

Dubai, Dec 14 : Over 200 psychiatrists from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would take part in an international psychiatric conference that kicks off in Dubai Saturday.

Conducted by the UAE ministry ofhealth, the conference - to be held Dec 18-19 - will have the theme "Psychiatric Health: 2020 Visions".

Mahmoud Fikri, assistant under secretary for health policies, said the ministry's strategy was to maintain a healthy environment for individuals and communities.

The ministry has started new initiatives to merge psychiatric health services through its primary healthcare centres, he said.

Factory fire kills 22 in Bangladesh

DHAKA: A devastating fire tore through a multi-storeyed garment factory near here killing at least 22 people and trapping over 50 others on the roof of the building.

"The fire is still raging... firefighters are trying to douse the huge blaze," an official monitoring the fire said.

Television channels reported at least 22 people died and more than 50 others were trapped on the roof of the factory at the Ashulia Industrial Zone in Savar sub-district on the outskirts of capital Dhaka.

Officials and witnesses said the fire broke out around 2 pm in 'Dhats It Sportswear Ltd' of the Ha Meem group. Fire brigade officials said they were yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze that originated at the 10th floor of the building.

A nurse at the nearby Enam Medical College Hospital said that two workers had died at the hospital of their injuries, while a doctor at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital said two other fatalities had been brought in.

Germany mounts raids against Islamists in three cities

Berlin:  German authorities on Tuesday mounted raids against Islamic extremist groups suspected of seeking to overthrow the government and establish a religious state, the Interior Ministry said.

The searches targeted sites linked to Salafi jihadist groups Invitation to Paradise (EZP) in the western cities of Braunschweig and Moenchengladbach and the Islamic Cultural Center Bremen (IKZB) in northern Germany.

"The EZP and the IKZB are accused of opposing the constitutional order with the aim of replacing it in Germany with an Islamic religious state," the Ministry said in a statement.

It said it saw no link to warnings of potential impending terrorist attacks issued last month by Interior

Minister Thomas de Maiziere, adding that the raids were planned long in advance.

The groups reject parliamentary democracy and believe that Islamic law should replace the constitution.

"In a well-fortified democracy it is advisable and necessary not to wait for jihad in the form of an armed struggle before taking action against anti-constitutional groups," the Ministry said.

Assange gets bail, to stay in custody as Sweden appeals

London: Swedish authorities Tuesday lodged an appeal against a British court decision to free on bail WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, preventing his release from custody, his lawyer said Tuesday. 

"This really is turning into a show trial," lawyer Mark Stephens said in London, after receiving confirmation of the Swedish move. The appeal will be heard at the High Court in London over the next 48 hours. 

Supporters of Assange said it was becoming increasingly clear that there was a "political element" to Sweden's demand for his extradition on allegations of sex offences against two women. 

Earlier Tuesday, a judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London had granted Assange bail against a cash sum of at least 200,000 pounds ($315,000). 

Italy PM Berlusconi wins first confidence vote

Rome:  Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi knows a good crisis when he sees one. As he faced a crucial no-confidence vote Tuesday that could upend his leadership, he was betting that the financial problems engulfing Europe will provide yet another miraculous salvation for his political career. 

With the debt crisis that began in Greece skipping across southern Europe, Mr. Berlusconi warned lawmakers Monday that bringing down his government would be "political folly," creating a vacuum at the top that could expose Italy to the unwelcome dynamics of economic contagion.

On Tuesday, the Italian leader won a first round of voting in the Senate, where he has a majority, by a margin of 162 to 135, news reports said. But what was expected to be a far closer vote was scheduled in the lower house within hours.

Paras is first Nepal royal to be arrested

KATHMANDU: The long arm of the law finally caught up with Nepal's former crown prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah on Tuesday, a decade after his car mowed down popular Nepali singer Praveen Gurung. He has been arrested for a drunken brawl on Saturday night at a popular resort in Chitwan, where he threatened an influential guest and let fly with his pistol.

Nepal's official media said the 39-year-old had been formally charged with attempted murder in Chitwan, the dream destination for tourists in southern Nepal where a party thrown to celebrate his daughter's birthday landed Paras in deep trouble. The celebrations at the famed Tiger Tops wildlife resort in Chitwan turned into violence and panic after Paras got into an argument with a fellow guest, who also happened to be a foreigner and the son-in-law of Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala. 

World pays tribute to Holbrooke; Taliban hopes for US roll back

Brussels: They remembered him as "The Bulldozer", a US diplomat with such a forceful persona he could drag politicians, military brass and even warlords to the negotiating table in a quest for peace. 

World leaders on Tuesday praised US envoy Richard Holbrooke for engineering the end of the 1992-1995 Bosnia war, Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, and for seeking to bring stability to war-torn Afghanistan. 

On the other hand Taliban said it hoped that the death of Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, would prompt the withdrawal of American troops. 

Holbrooke's death in Washington after suffering a torn aorta "could have a didactic effect on the American strategists, teaching them many things to learn," a spokesman for the Afghan insurgents said in a statement emailed to a news agency. 

UNSC permanent seat for India possible next year, says Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday said a reformed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) with India as a permanent member should come about next year and once at the high table, it will need to commit more troops for UN-mandated missions to defend peace.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy with wife Carla Bruni during their India visit. Photo-AP

Calling the 35-year-long standstill over reforming the UNSC as "audacious", Sarkozy said a reformed body could be in place in 2011 itself.

"It is time in 2011, not even in 2012," the French president said during an address to business leaders at hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai before ending his four-day trip to India.

Sarkozy said changing the global high table "is not a matter of choice" and added, "If you demand it, no one can resist".

Sarkozy, who while backing India's quest for the UNSC permanent membership had earlier said that a rising power with a population of over 1 billion cannot be kept away from the global high table, also reminded India of the increased responsibilities that would come its way.

"You will have to send troops beyond your borders to defend peace," he said, adding, this definitely comes at a cost as precious lives can be lost.

"We (France) have also lost lives, it is painful. That is the price you pay (for being a big power)," he said in his 30-minute extempore address.

"You will have to shoulder responsibilities and we will help you doing so," Sarkozy said.

Indians booze the least: Survey

Britons are the world's heaviest tipplers while Indians drink the least, a survey has found.

Britain is the most boozy nation in the world, with more people drinking, and more regularly, than any other country, a leading UK daily reported quoting the survey.

Around 84 per cent of Britons are drinkers, way ahead of the lowest nation India, where just 27 per cent ever have a tipple compared to the international average of 71 per cent.

The survey found nearly one in ten Britons admit to drinking every day, almost twice the number in France.

Around 41 per cent of Britons drink regularly, more than our nearest rivals in Australia, 27 per cent, and the international average of 17 per cent.

Around one in three Britons exercise for less than an hour a week, and one in four smoke.

The UK is fourth in the obesity league, with obesity rates at 33 per cent, after the US which tops the table with 53 per cent, Mexico 44 per cent and Australia 34 per cent.

Dr Annabel Bentley, of Bupa Health and Wellbeing, said: "It's shocking to see us trailing behind so many other countries when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle."

"People might be surprised to hear that being inactive is as harmful to your heart as smoking cigarettes," she said.

"Maybe sofas, as well as cigarette packets, should carry a health warning," she said.

Australia says US responsible for Wikileaks

Brisbane: The Australian government on Wednesday blamed the United States, not WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, for the unauthorised release of about 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables and said those who originally leaked the documents were legally liable. 

Foreign minister Kevin Rudd also said the leaks raised questions over the "adequacy" of US security over the cables. 

"Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorised release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network," Rudd told a news agency in an interview. 

"The Americans are responsible for that," said Rudd.

'Musharraf responsible for Agra Summit’s collapse'

New Delhi: Joining issue with Pervez Musharraf who has blamed a top External Ministry official for failure of the Indo-Pak talks in Agra, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Wednesday said the former Pakistan president was responsible for the collapse of the summit. 

In a twitter message, she said the Agra summit collapsed as Indian political leadership did not accept Musharraf's effort to bring Kashmir as 'core issue' and no mention of 'cross-border terrorism' in the agreed statement. 

"Musharraf is wrong to blame Vivek Katju (who is now Secretary, West) for failure of Agra talks. Katju was then Jt. Secy in MEA," said the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. 

"The truth is that Musharraf wanted Kashmir as 'core issue' and no mention of 'cross-border terrorism' in the agreed statement. This was not acceptable to the political leadership then. This is not acceptable even today," Swaraj said. 

While referring to the summit meeting, Musharraf, in an interview to an Indian TV channel, had said that things were progressing fine during his talks with the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee till Katju intervened. 

"There was someone from the Foreign Ministry sitting there named Katju. He may still be there, he created a lot of hurdles," he had said. 

Katju, who is now Secretary (West), yesterday dismissed Musharraf's claim that he created a "lot of hurdles" during the Agra peace talks. 

Katju, a 1974 batch IFS officer, was then joint secretary in-charge of Pakistani division in the External Affairs Ministry. 

Vajpayee and Musharraf met in Agra on July 15 and 16, 2001 to resolve outstanding issues between India and Pakistan. 

But the summit collapsed as the two sides couldn't arrive at any agreement, despite five one-to-one rounds between the two leaders and hours of discussion between the two delegations. 

Key oil spill panel nears final stretch of probe

A key federal investigative panel is nearing the final stretch in its quest to assign blame for the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion and worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The panel is set to question BP and Transocean officials, as well as technicians responsible for alerting rig workers when gas levels may be too high in drilling mud.

Three days of hearings were to begin Tuesday at an airport hotel in Houston before the joint U.S. Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement panel.

It's the panel's sixth series of hearings, and at least one more is expected after this one before the panel issues its report, which is due by March 27. The panel is still awaiting the results of forensic testing on a key piece of evidence — the blowout preventer that failed to stop the spill. Investigators are analyzing it at a NASA facility in New Orleans.

Besides issuing conclusions on the cause of the explosion, the panel also was expected to make recommendations on how to improve regulation, safety and oversight.

Top Israel rabbis: Don't sell property to non-Jews

Three dozen top Israeli rabbis threw their support Tuesday behind a religious ruling barring Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews — an indication of growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

The action by the clerics — who are chief rabbis in some of Israel's largest cities and influential among the devout — quickly fueled charges of racism. It was also likely to deepen the feelings of alienation growing between Israel's majority Jews and minority Arabs, and widen the schism between secular and religious Jews.

The religious opinion first became a focus of controversy last year when the chief rabbi of Safed — a town in northern Israel that has a large concentration of devout Jews — urged that it be applied specifically to Arabs.

Israel: Talks on settlement curbs postponed

Israeli talks with Washington meant to curb settlement construction and restart negotiations with the Palestinians have been put on hold, Israel's defense minister said Tuesday.

The U.S. has pressed Israel to renew a moratorium on new settlement construction in exchange for security and diplomatic assurances. But Israel wants a written pledge that disputed east Jerusalem will be exempted from the moratorium.

Palestinians say they won't return to stalled peace talks unless Israel halts all building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands they want for part of their future state.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that talks with the American side have been postponed because Washington was busy dealing with fallout from secret documents released on the WikiLeaks website, as well as with tensions between North and South Korea.

Pakistan government transfers five ministries to provinces

Islamabad, Dec 7 (IANS) The federal government in Pakistan transferred five ministries to the provinces Tuesday in the first phase of the devolution plan agreed in the 18th amendment of the country's constitution invoked in July this year.

The ministries are of: Local Government and Rural Development, Population Welfare, Zakat and Ushar, Youth Affairs, and Special Initiatives.

The federal government has handed over lists of employees while the finance ministry will take care of the budgetary details, Dunya TV reported.

Under the plan, as many as 3,700 employees of the federal government have now been placed in the surplus pool and will now be placed in different attached departments, the channel said. The provinces had refused to accommodate these employees without provision of extra funds.