Russian denies global spam scheme

Russian denies global spam scheme

Russian denies global spam scheme

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 01:03 AM PST

A Russian man accused of operating an e-mail spam business that at times accounted for one third of global spam has pleaded not guilty in a federal court in the US state of Wisconsin.


Spain threatens ‘state of alert’ over walk-out

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:56 AM PST

MADRID, Dec 4 – Spain's government said today it considered declaring a "state of alert" if air traffic controllers did not return to their posts following a mass walk-out. "If the situation doesn't normalise, the government will declare a state of alert," Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Rubalcaba told an emergency Cabinet meeting. "The controllers ...


Clinton 'regrets' criticism of UK troops

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 02:45 PM PST

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she "regrets" suggestions by US officials that British troops were not up to the job in Afghanistan.


Wikileaks: UK seen as paranoid by US

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:43 AM PST

Newly released files by Wikileaks highlight what is described as the UK's "paranoia" about its so-called special relationship with the US.


Strike causes Spain air travel chaos

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 10:40 PM PST

Spain's military has taken over the country's air traffic control after civilian traffic controllers called in sick en masse.


Touchscreen tech developed for blind

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:18 AM PST

Disability correspondent Geoff Adams-Spink looks at what mobile phone manufacturers are doing to assist vision-impaired people who use smartphones.


Violinist to play for Nobel winner

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 01:32 PM PST

A Chinese American violinist will play in tribute to Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, at the award ceremony in Oslo next Friday.


Man pulled from path of incoming train

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 06:51 PM PST

Spanish police have released CCTV footage showing an off-duty policeman rescuing a man who fell onto the tracks at a metro station in Madrid.


Climate activists shut down Australian coal conveyor

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:25 AM PST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two climate change activists chained themselves to a conveyor belt carrying coal to one of Australia's largest power stations on Saturday, temporarily shutting the belt down, supporters said.

Kyrgyzstan renews attempts to build coalition govt

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:25 AM PST

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's new parliament launched a second attempt to build a coalition government on Saturday, seeking to avoid the need for repeat elections in the volatile Central Asian state.

4 December 2010

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 12:02 AM PST


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Obama, on Afghanistan visit, says US winning war

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 11:37 PM PST

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Saturday 4 December 2010 (AFP) -- President Barack Obama has paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan and assured cheering US troops they are winning the war against the Taliban despite "difficult days ahead."

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Japan FM in aerial visit to disputed Russian islands

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 11:35 PM PST

TOKYO, Saturday 4 December 2010 (AFP) -- Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara on Saturday flew near islands bitterly disputed with Russia, in an apparent demonstration to underscore his country's territorial claims.

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Obama, on Afghanistan visit, says US winning war

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:42 PM PST

By Jim Watson

BAGRAM AIR BASE (Kabul): President Barack Obama has paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan and assured cheering US troops they are winning the war against the Taliban despite "difficult days ahead".

Obama landed in the country under cover of darkness yesterday, with aides announcing nothing of the trip beforehand due to security concerns. He left four hours later, in the early hours of today morning.

Obama, who has tripled US troop numbers in Afghanistan, spent a mere four hours in the country during his second visit as president, both to this base outside Kabul.

A face-to-face visit with President Hamid Karzai was replaced with a 15-minute phone call, as weather scuppered plans to fly Obama by helicopter from the base to the nearby Afghan capital.

The trip came as the Obama administration faced new friction with Karzai over embarrassing assessments in leaked diplomatic cables of the Afghan leader, but war czar Douglas Lute said the topic did not come up in the phone call.

Karzai's chief spokesman, Waheed Omer, also said Karzai was "not upset" that his US counterpart and main backer had not visited him at his palace.

"President Obama was not here for a state visit but rather to visit American troops. The two leaders had already met in Lisbon two weeks ago and spoke in detail," Omer said today.

"There was no special agenda for this visit," Omer said, confirming that "the two leaders did talk on the phone for 15 minutes".

At the Lisbon summit, the Nato alliance backed Obama's goal of handing over security to the Afghan police and military by mid-2011, with a view to ceding full control by end-2014.

Lute said that, during their phone call, Obama and Karzai "both acknowledged that early 2011 is not far off and that this has to remain a priority for both of them, to begin the transition process".

At Bagram, Obama told nearly 4,000 cheering troops that "you're achieving your objectives, you will succeed in your mission. We said we were going to break the Taliban's momentum. That's what you're doing."

But he warned "there are going to be difficult days ahead" in the fight against insurgents, and appeared to choke up as he described his visit to a base hospital where he pinned Purple Heart medals on five wounded soldiers.

Growing violence

A year after Obama authorised a surge of 30,000 US troops, Afghanistan is in the grip of growing violence. More than 1,400 US servicemen and women have been killed since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban – a third of them this year alone.

Obama also spoke to a platoon that recently lost six of its members in an attack.

"I don't need to tell you this is a tough fight," Obama said, but stressed that "today we can be proud that there are fewer areas under Taliban control, and more Afghans have a chance to build a more hopeful future."

He noted that since his last visit, in March, the allied coalition had grown by six to 49 countries, which he called a "powerful message" of support for the war-torn nation.

"We will never let this country serve as a safe haven for terrorists who would attack the United States of America again," he added.

Sporting a leather bomber jacket, Obama was met at Bagram by US ambassador Karl Eikenberry and war commander General David Petraeus, whom Obama praised as an "extraordinary warrior".

"This is somebody who has helped change the way we fight war, and win wars, in the 21st century," he added.

After his address, Obama shook hands and took pictures with several hundred troops at a ropeline, and received a briefing from US Special Forces.

Some 100,000 US troops are fighting in Afghanistan as part of Obama's ramped-up strategy to battle insurgents, loyalists of the regime that harboured Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

White House aide Ben Rhodes said the White House began preparing the Kabul visit more than a month ago as Obama wanted to visit US troops and civilians in Afghanistan between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The trip followed the latest release by WikiLeaks, in which secret US diplomatic cables showed renewed US questions about Karzai's leadership and rising concerns about corruption.

- AFP

Leaked cable: Humiliated Gaddafi caused nuclear scare

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:36 PM PST

By Tim Castle

LONDON: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi caused a month-long nuclear scare in 2009 when he delayed the return to Russia of radioactive material in an apparent fit of diplomatic pique, leaked US embassy cables showed today.

The incident was kept secret by US diplomats who feared "shoddy" security at Libya's Tajoura nuclear facility, near Tripoli, risked the theft of the 5.2 kilograms (11.5 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU), according to documents released by the website WikiLeaks.

The seven casks of spent nuclear fuel were due to be flown to Russia for disposal on a specialised transport plane in November 2009 as part of Gaddafi's promise to abandon Libya's programme of weapons of mass destruction.

But instead Libya refused permission and the Russian plane took off without its cargo, leaving the casks on the runway tarmac at Tajoura overseen by a solitary guard.

The reason for the sudden change of plan appeared to be that Gaddafi had taken offence at his treatment during his visit to New York to address the United Nations two months earlier.

Gaddafi had felt "humiliated" after being barred from pitching his large Bedouin tent in New York and from visiting the Ground Zero site of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, his son Saif al-Islam told Gene Cretz, the US ambassador to Tripoli.

Details of the cables were published in Britain's The Guardian newspaper, one of a number of publications which has been given advance access by WikiLeaks to over 250,000 cables.

The cables reveal the increasing anxiety of US and Russian officials over the fate of the nuclear fuel, which was only sealed for transport, not storage, and would overheat and crack their flasks if not swiftly dealt with.

'Apparent pique'

A US diplomat told a Libyan official there could be an "environmental disaster" if the casks were not shipped to Russia for disposal within a month, one cable showed.

Cretz wrote on Nov 25 at the start of the crisis that it was essential to keep the incident secret.

"Given the highly transportable nature of the HEU and the shoddy security at Tajoura, any mention of this issue in the press could pose serious security concerns," he said.

"The Libyan government has chosen a very dangerous issue on which to express its apparent pique about perceived problems in the bilateral relationship," he added.

The crisis was resolved after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a personal message for Gaddafi assuring him of the US's commitment to its relationship with Libya.

The message was positively received and security was stepped up around the nuclear material before a Russian plane took off from Tripoli with the flasks on Dec 21.

A cable reporting the flight's departure noted that it marked the successful completion of Libya's commitments to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes.

It added that the month-long impasse had taken a "visible toll" on Ali Gashut, the head of the Libyan Atomic Energy Establishment.

- Reuters

Leaked cable: Humiliated Gaddafi caused nuclear scare

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:34 PM PST

By Tim Castle

LONDON: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi caused a month-long nuclear scare in 2009 when he delayed the return to Russia of radioactive material in an apparent fit of diplomatic pique, leaked US embassy cables showed today.

The incident was kept secret by US diplomats who feared "shoddy" security at Libya's Tajoura nuclear facility, near Tripoli, risked the theft of the 5.2 kilograms (11.5 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU), according to documents released by the website WikiLeaks.

The seven casks of spent nuclear fuel were due to be flown to Russia for disposal on a specialised transport plane in November 2009 as part of Gaddafi's promise to abandon Libya's programme of weapons of mass destruction.

But instead Libya refused permission and the Russian plane took off without its cargo, leaving the casks on the runway tarmac at Tajoura overseen by a solitary guard.

The reason for the sudden change of plan appeared to be that Gaddafi had taken offence at his treatment during his visit to New York to address the United Nations two months earlier.

Gaddafi had felt "humiliated" after being barred from pitching his large Bedouin tent in New York and from visiting the Ground Zero site of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, his son Saif al-Islam told Gene Cretz, the US ambassador to Tripoli.

Details of the cables were published in Britain's The Guardian newspaper, one of a number of publications which has been given advance access by WikiLeaks to over 250,000 cables.

The cables reveal the increasing anxiety of US and Russian officials over the fate of the nuclear fuel, which was only sealed for transport, not storage, and would overheat and crack their flasks if not swiftly dealt with.

'Apparent pique'

A US diplomat told a Libyan official there could be an "environmental disaster" if the casks were not shipped to Russia for disposal within a month, one cable showed.

Cretz wrote on Nov 25 at the start of the crisis that it was essential to keep the incident secret.

"Given the highly transportable nature of the HEU and the shoddy security at Tajoura, any mention of this issue in the press could pose serious security concerns," he said.

"The Libyan government has chosen a very dangerous issue on which to express its apparent pique about perceived problems in the bilateral relationship," he added.

The crisis was resolved after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a personal message for Gaddafi assuring him of the US's commitment to its relationship with Libya.

The message was positively received and security was stepped up around the nuclear material before a Russian plane took off from Tripoli with the flasks on Dec 21.

A cable reporting the flight's departure noted that it marked the successful completion of Libya's commitments to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes.

It added that the month-long impasse had taken a "visible toll" on Ali Gashut, the head of the Libyan Atomic Energy Establishment.

- Reuters

South Korea warns of 'limitless' retaliation

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:33 PM PST

SEOUL: South Korea will swiftly and strongly respond with force until North Korea surrenders if the communist state launches another assault, the South's new defence minister said today.

Kim Kwan-Jin issued the warning during his inauguration speech after President Lee Myung-Bak officially appointed the retired four-star general as the new defence chief following a parliamentary confirmation hearing yesterday.

Kim Kwan-Jin replaced Kim Tae-Young, who came under fire over the military's allegedly feeble response to North Korea's deadly shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island near the tense Yellow Sea border on Nov 23.

"If North Korea launches another military attack on our territory and people, we must swiftly and strongly respond with force and punish them thoroughly until they surrender," the new defence minister said.

"We do not want war, but we must never be afraid of it," he said, adding South Korea faces "the worst crisis since the Korean War", which ended in an armistice in 1953.

The sinking of a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea in March and the shelling on Yeonpyeong left "indelible wounds" on the South's military pride and honor and had deeply disappointed its people, Kim Kwan-Jin said.

The North triggered the latest crisis on Nov 23 when it shelled the frontline island, killing two marines and two civilians, in what it said was a retaliatory attack for a South Korean live-fire drill.

In the South the first shelling of its civilian areas since the 1950-53 Korean war has caused far greater outrage than the sinking of a warship in March that killed 46 sailors, for which Seoul also blames the North.

"Our enemies will keep trying to attack our weak spots and plot new forms of provocation. We must make them realise how steep a price they would have to pay for their provocations."

The new defence minister yesterday said South Korea would hit back with air strikes at the North and "punish the attacker thoroughly" should the regime attack the South again.

He was scheduled to visit Yeonpyeong island later today, his first trip there as the defence minister, a defence ministry spokesman said.

- AFP

Pitcairn mayor on child porn charges

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:32 PM PST

WELLINGTON: The mayor of the remote British territory of Pitcairn, a Pacific island notorious in recent times for child sex convictions, has been charged with possessing child pornography, it was reported today.

Michael Warren, 46, was arrested by the New Zealand police officer seconded to the island, 5,000km (3,000 miles) from Auckland, on behalf of the British High Commission, the New Zealand Herald said.

He has been charged with possessing indecent photos of children and possessing pornographic images, videos and documents involving children and will appear in the island's magistrate's court later this month.

About a third of all the adult men on the tiny island of about 50 people have faced child sex charges in two high-profile cases in the past six years.

In 2007, two men were found guilty of rape and related offences against children as young as seven, following the conviction of six others on similar charges in 2004.

Warren was not one of the men charged in the previous sex scandals on Pitcairn.

According to court documents, police examined Warren's computers and found more than 1,000 pornographic images and videos of children on them, the Herald said.

Pitcairn, a five-square-kilometre island midway between New Zealand and Chile, was settled in 1789 by mutineers from the British naval ship the Bounty, who famously set their captain William Bligh adrift in the South Pacific.

- AFP

Rio slum crackdown: 118 arrests, 518 guns seized

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 03:30 PM PST

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro's nearly two-week crackdown on drug gangs in two major slum districts netted 118 arrests and 518 weapons seizures, the state-owned Agencia Brasil news agency said yesterday.

The unprecedented police-military sweep of the Vila Cruzeiro and Complexo do Alemao favelas was designed to clean up the city's image before it hosts the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

It began on Nov 21 and ended this week with 37 suspected wrongdoers killed.

The Civil Police force said those arrested included 21 minors, and that it seized 518 weapons, including 200 handguns, 140 rifles, 38 grenades and six homemade bombs.

Last weekend, the police and military occupied both slum districts, which had been strongholds of drug gangs for years, after a series of attacks on police stations and 100 vehicle fires triggered outrage in the city.

To allay locals' fears the drug gangs might return after the security forces clear out, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said the troops would remain in the occupied favelas "as long as necessary to secure the peace."

Lula approved a request from Rio authorities for hundreds of soldiers to remain deployed in Complexo do Alemao well into next year, and perhaps beyond.

- AFP

India claims further US$1.2bn for Bhopal victims

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 10:53 PM PST

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 — The Indian government has demanded more than US$1 billion (RM3.4 billion) additional compensation for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, a gas leak at a pesticide plant that killed thousands of people in 1984.  Victims and activists have for years campaigned for more money and more severe punishment for those ...


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