Seoul, North Korea has apparently completed preparations for a third nuclear test, possibly within two weeks, after firing a long-range rocket this month, a newspaper report said on Saturday. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo said the information came from a government source. It relates to preparations for a test in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri, where the North carried out two previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report. A South Korean government official told AFP on April 8 on condition of anonymity that satellite images showed a new underground tunnel built at the nuclear test site besides two others where the previous tests were conducted. "Heaps of earth and sand which had been piled up outside the new tunnel have disappeared," a government source was quoted as saying by Chosun. "It is highly likely that the North has installed a nuclear device inside the tunnel and sealed it (with the piles of earth and sand)," the source said. Since last year, US and South Korean intelligence authorities have been monitoring the excavation by measuring the amount of soil and rocks dumped from the tunnel, it ...
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Washington, The planned satellite launch later this month by North Korea was provocative, the US government said on Monday. "North Korea's launch of a missile would be highly provocative, it would pose a threat to regional security, and it will be inconsistent with its recent undertakings to refrain from any kind of long-range missile launches," State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. She noted that Washington considered the launch as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718 and 1874, which prohibited Pyongyang from conducting launches that use ballistic missile technology, Xinhua reported. North Korea last month announced its plan to launch an "earth observation" satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th birth anniversary of its founder Kim Il Sung. ...
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New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Friday left for Egypt on a three-day visit during which he is expected to forge relations with the new dispensation in North Africa's most influential country and discuss the Syrian crisis with the Arab League in Cairo. This is the first high-profile visit from India in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that toppled Egypt's longstanding ruler Hosni Mubarak. Ahead of talks with the new Egyptian leadership, Krishna Saturday will meet Nabil El Araby, secretary general of the Arab League and its troika of representatives Qatar, Libya and Iraq in Cairo. With the crisis in Syria worsening, India is expected to lend diplomatic support to the Arab League's initiative to handle the Syria crisis. India voted for the Arab League-backed UN Security Council resolution on Syria and backed the UN General Assembly resolution which condemns the violence and supports democratic transition in that country. Last week, India had sent Rajeev Shahare, joint secretary in charge of West Asia and North Africa in the external affairs ministry, to the Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis. Krishna will also discuss issues relating to Syria ...
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Washington, North Korea agreeing to suspend its nuclear activities is "a modest first step", said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday. "Today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction," Xinhua quoted Clinton as telling the Senate. On Wednesday, North Korea announced it would suspend nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity as agreed with the US in recent bilateral talks. North Korea said it would also allow UN inspectors to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment "while productive dialogues continue". In a statement released earlier Wednesday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described the development as " important, if limited, progress," despite Washington's ongoing "profound concerns" regarding North Korea's ...
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Islamabad, Senior al-Qaeda members are feared to be moving to north Africa to open up a new front after being targeted in Pakistan. A British official said several Al Qaeda members have been killed in US drone attacks and added "only a handful of the key players" remain alive. Sources close to Islamist groups in north Africa told the Guardian at least two senior al-Qaida operatives have already reached Libya, provoking fears that north Africa could become a new "theatre of jihad" in future. "A group of very experienced figures from north Africa left camps in Afghanistan''s [north-eastern] Kunar province where they have been based for several years and travelled back across the Middle East. Some got stopped but a few got through," a source said. It is, however, unclear whether they are shifting to north Africa to achieve greater security or to exploit the current scenario after the Arab spring revolution. The Al Qaeda move might signal shifting of its centre of operations to North Africa, which is the homeland of majority of its members, as increasing number of volunteers are making makeshift bases in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Officials described al-Qaeda''s ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Washington, A small company in North Carolina has created a brain-controlled tool similar to electroencephalograms (EEGs) for training people to stay alert when involved in important tasks. Controlling computers – or anything else -– with the brain has been done using EEGs but they require a skullcap on the head. The system called BodyWave developed by Freer Logic (named for its founder and CEO Peter Freer) is not dissimilar to an ordinary EEG, except it works with sensors that can be put around an arm rather than the head. While it is harder to pick up signals from further away form the head, Freer told Discovery News that the signal strength per se isn’t too much of a problem. “You wouldn’t use this for clinical applications,” he said. So this wouldn’t be any good for a scientist or doctor trying to get a picture of brain activity. But it is fine when trying to detect the activity, called beta waves, that indicates attention. BodyWave can detect when someone is paying attention to something. Freer noted that the system was used to train nuclear power plant workers as well as help understand the best way to design control systems. Connected ...
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Pyongyang, North Korea has warned South Korea that it faces “unexpected consequences” if it displays Christmas lights near their tense border. The South Korean defense ministry is reportedly considering a request by a Seoul church group to put up Christmas lights on a steel tower shaped like a tree atop a military-controlled hill near the border. The North''s official website, Uriminzokkiri, called the plan “a mean attempt for psychological warfare” against the Communist state and threatened to retaliate immediately if the lights are switched on, Fox News reports. “The enemy warmongers should be aware that they should be held responsible entirely for any unexpected consequences that may be caused by their scheme,” the Uriminzokkiri said. “This issue is not something to be ignored quietly,” it added. The North had previously accused the South of displaying Christmas lights to spread Christianity among its people and soldiers. The two nations reached a deal to halt official-level cross-border propaganda in 2004, leading to and the South stopping its annual Christmas illumination ceremony. South Korea resumed the ceremony last December amid high ...
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VALLENAR, CHILE : A strong earthquake struck near a city in northern Chile on early Wednesday evening, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The 5.8-magnitude earthquake at 7.23 p.m. local time (2223 GMT) was centered about 79 kilometers (49 miles) north-northwest of Vallenar, the capital of Huasco Province in the Atacama Region. It struck about 24.4 kilometers (15.1 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the Chilean Seismological Service. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measured the strength of the earthquake at 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale (MMS), estimated that some 1,500 people near the epicenter may have felt 'very strong' to 'severe' shaking. Some 220,000 others may have felt 'moderate' to 'strong shaking.' According to the country's National Office of Emergency of the Interior Ministry (ONEMI), the earthquake was widely felt in the region but said there were no reports of damage. "There have been no reports of damages to basic services and infrastructure or casualties," ONEMI said. Chile is frequently struck by large earthquakes. On May 22, 1960, the 'Great Chilean earthquake' ...
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Moscow,Russian interior forces have eliminated over 300 militants in the Northern Caucasus regions in 2011, the government said Friday. As per a report presented by ministry official Army General Nikolai Rogozhkin, the forces also destroyed 366 hideouts of the militants, seized 1,400 firearms, 17,000 pieces of ammunition and 500 kg of explosives, Xinhua reported. He also noted that the interior troops of Russia have reached the planned size of 170,000 in 2011, 40 percent of them are equipped with modern arms. Militants frequently launch attacks against police officials and authorities in the country's North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of ...
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