South Korea’s PM-designate quits under pressure

South Korea’s reformist Prime minister-designate Kim Tae-ho said on Sunday he would step down as nominee amid opposition criticism of his qualifications and ethics.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak named the 47-year-old former governor of a rural province as his choice as prime minister this month in a major mid-term reshuffle aimed at pushing through his pro-business reform agenda.

Obama vows to finish US Gulf Coast recovery

US President Barack Obama pledged yesterday to finish restoring the Gulf Coast area hit by Hurricane Katrina, five years after the storm ravaged the region and hurt the credibility of his Republican predecessor.

Obama visited New Orleans — the city hardest hit by the disaster — with his family at the end of a week-and-a-half vacation on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

During the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Obama sharply criticised then-President George W. Bush for his administration’s slow response to the flooding and devastation that played out live on television.

People burn incense during a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 29, 2010

Israel rabbi says Abbas, Palestinians should die

An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.

“Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, said in a sermon late on Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s popular name.

A Palestinian throws a stone at Israeli soldiers during clashes near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 9, 2009.

Ecuador bus crash kills 38

A bus winding its way through Ecuador’s highlands toward the capital of Quito went off the road before dawn yesterday, killing 38 passengers in the worst accident of this kind in the country in years.

Authorities said 12 more people were injured in the crash. Local television showed rescue workers struggling to extract bodies and look for survivors on the steep cliffs around Lake Yambo in the central province of Cotopaxi where the accident occurred.

Dwellers look at the debris of a bus in Latacunga, 70 km (43.5 miles) south of Quito August 29, 2010.

Hitmen kill Mexican mayor in drug war state

Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a small town in northern Mexico on yesterday in a region where two car bombs exploded last week and the bodies of 72 murdered migrant workers were found.

Mayor Marco Antonio Leal was shot dead by gunmen in SUVs as he drove through his rural municipality of Hidalgo near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas state, the local attorney general’s office said. Leal’s four-year-old daughter was slightly wounded in the attack, a spokesman said.

The Mexican war on drugs has claimed over 28,000 lives since it began in 2006.

Obama says unfazed by ‘Muslim’ rumours

A public opinion poll showing Americans are increasingly convinced, wrongly, that he is Muslim does not trouble him, US President Barack Obama said yesterday.

“It’s not something that I can, I think, spend all my time worrying about it,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News, dismissing the results of a recent Pew Research Center.

“I’m not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumours are floating out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done.”

The Pew poll showed nearly one in five Americans — 18 per cent — believe Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 per cent in March 2009.

In addition, only about one-third of Americans surveyed correctly describe Obama as a Christian, a sharp decrease from the 48 per cent who said he was a Christian in 2009.

Obama said he did not give much thought to growing belief that he was Muslim.

China paper defends North Korea as Kim eludes

It is in Beijing’s interest to have a stable relationship with North Korea, a state-controlled newspaper said today during a reported visit to China by the impoverished state’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-il and his son.

A source with knowledge of the secretive trip told Reuters at the weekend that the two Kims were on a trip to China but there has been no official confirmation from either government.

“Maintaining and stabilising the current relationship between China and North Korea is of maximum benefit to China,” the popular Chinese-language tabloid, Global Times, said in an editorial.

China is the only major supporter for North Korea, which is largely isolated from the international community over its nuclear weapons programme and which has come under further condemnation after South Korea accused it of sinking one of its warships earlier this year.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao (right) shakes hands with Kim Jong-il during a meeting in Pyongyang October 5, 2009.

Three killed, five wounded in restive southern Thailand

Drive-by shootings and suspected Muslim insurgent violence in southern Thailand killed three people and wounded five in the past 24 hours, police said today, the latest unrest in the region bordering Malaysia.

A bomb hidden under a pick-up truck of a security volunteer exploded in Narathiwat province today, wounding three people.

That came a day after a two-year-old Muslim boy was killed in a drive-by shooting while on a motorbike with his father, who was wounded. A Buddhist couple was also shot dead as they drove to a market in Pattani province. And a bomb in southernmost Yala province wounded a pregnant fruit seller.

A soldier stands guard on his vehicle after a bomb attack in Yala province, August 22, 2009.

Indonesian volcano erupts again

An Indonesian volcano, inactive for four centuries, erupted again today, pitching ash two km into the air and sending nearby residents scurrying from their homes.

Villages were emptying fast near Mount Sinabung on the north of Sumatra island, leaving behind only officials from the bureau of meteorology and the police. Short-haul flights skirting the volcano were delayed.

Surono, head of Indonesia’s vulcanology centre, told Reuters today’s eruption was more powerful than the first a day earlier.

“Earlier today was another eruption at 6.30am, sending out smoke as high as two km, more or less,” he told Reuters.

Mount Sinabung spews smoke in Indonesia's North Sumatra province August 30, 2010.

‘Spiderman’ climbs Sydney building into police net

A French daredevil climber who has scaled skyscrapers around the world was arrested in Sydney today after climbing a 57-storey building and into the arms of waiting police.

Alain Robert, 48, who is also known as the French Spiderman, was taken into police custody when he reached the top of the 57-storey Lumiere Building in central Sydney this morning.

Robert has been arrested many times in various countries for his daredevil climbs.

Putin hints will return to Kremlin in 2012

Russia’s paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, hinted today he would return to the presidency in 2012 for six more years and said democracy protesters marching without permission deserved to be beaten.

Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia’s 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin (picture) replied:

“No, it interests me like... I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don’t want to make a fetish out of it.”

Gaddafi causes upset on Italy visit

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s attempt to convert dozens of young women to Islam during a visit to Italy led to an angry reaction from Italian media today.

Several commentators accused Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of sacrificing principles and dignity for the sake of trade and investment ties with Libya.

The mercurial Gaddafi invited a large group of young women hired by a hostessing agency to an event at a Libyan cultural centre in Rome yesterday and tried to convert them to Islam.

“What would happen if a European head of state went to Libya or another Islamic country and invited everyone to convert to Christianity?” asked the daily Il Messagero. “We believe it would provoke very strong reactions across the Islamic world.”

Gaddafi waves on arrival at the Ciampino airport in Rome yesterday, August 29, 2010.

UK, France to share aircraft carriers

Britain and France are getting ready to unveil plans to share aircraft carriers amid pressure on the British military to cut costs, the Times newspaper reported today.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicholas Sarkozy were expected to announce the proposal at a November summit, the Times said, quoting an unidentified British naval source for its information.

No immediate comment was available from British officials on the report.

Mexico captures ‘La Barbie’ drug trafficker

Mexico captured major drug trafficker Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez on Monday in a second big coup for President Felipe Calderon in his battle against murderous trafficking cartels.

Federal police caught Valdez, a leader of the Beltran Leyva gang based in central Mexico, in a house in a residential area on the edge of the state of Morelos, near Mexico City, a police spokesman told Reuters. He said Valdez put up little resistance.

The attorney general's office also confirmed the US-born smuggler — nicknamed "La Barbie" for his fair complexion and blue eyes —- was caught alive.

Gunman kills six and himself in Slovak capital

A gunman killed six members of a single family and then shot himself when cornered by policemen in the Slovak capital Bratislava today, the country’s police chief said.

The motive of the gunman, who was aged around 50, and his identity remained under investigation, police president Jaroslav Spisiak said.

A shootout with police following the murders wounded another 14 people, including a policeman shot in the head. Nine remained in hospital, the police chief said.

“He was alone. He fired at everything that moved during his escape bid, the policemen surrounded him... they made it impossible for him to escape,” Spisiak told reporters near the apartment block where the shooting happened.

Paramedics take care of an injured person in Bratislava today, August 30, 2010 after a gunman killed six people and wounded 14.

US imam says Islamic centre dispute politicised

US election-year politics is interfering with the plan to build an Islamic centre near the site of the September 11 attacks, the Muslim cleric leading the project said in comments published today.

Kuwait-born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been tight-lipped on the planned cultural centre as he tours Gulf Arab countries to speak about religious radicalism, but said he felt the uproar was linked to the US congressional elections in November.

“There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse,” Abdul Rauf said in an interview with Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper.

The imam said the issue was “not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between moderates of all the faith traditions and the radicals of all the faith traditions.”

Demonstrators who support and oppose the proposed Muslim cultural centre and mosque in New York stand with signs in front of the site on August 25, 2010

I was at death’s door, now better, says Fidel

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro told an interviewer there were times during his long illness when he was at death’s door but now he is mostly recovered and trying to avert nuclear war.

Castro (picture), 84, told Mexico’s La Jornada in an interview published on Monday that he was in such bad shape after falling ill four years ago that he no longer “aspired to live, much less anything else.”

He said he asked himself “if those people (doctors) were going to let me live in those conditions or if they were going to let me die.

Osama bin Laden 'is a bought and paid for CIA agent' claims Cuban leader Fidel Castro

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has claimed that Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is a CIA agent during an interview with a state newspaper. However he did not elaborate further on the claims


Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent.

The country's former president has said that the world's most wanted terrorist always popped up when former US President George W Bush needed to scare the world, and argued that recently published documents on the internet prove it.

Castro told state media: 'Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do.

Inside Yemen, the most dangerous place on the planet

The common sense travel advice on Yemen is: don't even think of going there. On top of six wars in six years in the north of the country there is now also an insurgency in the south. The United Nations assesses the risk to its staff from these multiple conflicts as between medium and high.

Al Qaeda has a shadowy but ambitious organisation here: Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsular. Last April one of its suicide bombers tried to assassinate the British ambassador.

Not only for Westerners, but for Yemenis too, it is among the world's most dangerous places, and not for those of a nervous disposition.


A one-armed eight-year-old Nigerian boy is among 29 underage prisoners locked up with adults at Hodeidah Central Prison

Guards wound five inmates after shooting into crowd of rioters at Californian prison

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. In 1968 he made two recordings there which resulted in a live album which made the prison famous

Prison guards shot into a crowd to stop 200 rioting inmates at California's Folsom State Prison, wounding five, authorities said.

Another two inmates were injured by other prisoners during Friday's riot, which began in the main exercise yard and ended after 30 minutes.

Prison spokesman Lieutenant Anthony Gentile said officers fired after other efforts to break up the riot failed.

Heartbreaking images as floodwaters swamp yet another Pakistan town

Floodwaters inundated a large town in southern Pakistan today, spreading further destruction in an area where hundreds of thousands of people who fled to higher ground are in dire need of food and water.

Almost all of Sujawal's 250,000 residents fled from the town before the water rushed in, but the damage to homes, clinics and schools added to the widespread devastation the floods have caused across Pakistan, said Hadi Baksh, a disaster management official in southern Sindh province.

Authorities in Sujawal were trying to limit the damage, but the water level has already risen to 5ft (1.5m) in the centre of town and up to 10ft (3m) in the surrounding villages, said Anwarul Haq, the top official in Sujawal.


Carrying bundles of food and clothes on their heads Pakistani families wade across flooded terrain in the south of the country

'America today begins to turn back to God,' Glenn Beck tells 100,000 at Tea Party rally at site of iconic Martin Luther King 'I Have a Dream' speech

One of the most controversial and outspoken figures of America's Right is under fire today for holding a rally in the exact spot where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his stirring 'I Have a Dream' speech - on the anniversary of the iconic event.

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, infamous in the U.S. for his attacks on Barack Obama, insisted today that it was just a coincidence that his 'Restoring Honor' rally was being held on the 47th anniversary of Dr King's speech.

But he drew the ire of civil rights leaders, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, as up to 100,000 conservative members of the Tea Party movement - including Sarah Palin - descended on Washington, DC today.


'For too long, this country has wandered in darkness': Fox News commentator Glenn Beck at a Tea Party rally to pay respect to America's troops in Washington, DC today

Carla Bruni branded 'prostitute' by Iran after she campaigns for woman threatened with stoning

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been branded a ‘prostitute’ by Iran after she publicly attacked the country for threatening to stone a woman to death.

France’s First Lady is part of a campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two.

She is accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him, and is now facing capital punishment for her crimes.


Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy¿s third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh¿s release

North Korea's Kim not seen heading for retirement yet

North Korea's ruling party holds its biggest meeting in 30 years early next month to pick a new leadership and likely anoint an heir to the dynasty as Kim Jong-il's health deteriorates.

Kim, suspected of suffering a stroke in 2008, is believed to have accelerated succession plans, but analysts say the meeting of the Workers' Party won't send its supreme leader into retirement just yet.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) visits the Pyongyang Cornstarch Factory in this undated picture released on August 26, 2010 by North Korea's KCNA news agency.

Obama says Iraq war is ending, his promise is kept

US President Barack Obama said today Iraq could “chart its own course” and told Americans the drawdown of US troops helped fulfil a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama, who is vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard, declared in his weekly radio and Internet address that “the war is ending” and pledged to take care of troops who are returning home.

A worker gives directions to load up a Humvee as US troops prepare to leave Iraq at Balad Base, 80km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, yesterday, August 27, 2010.

Tropical Storm Earl forecast to become hurricane

Tropical Storm Earl threatened on Saturday to become the next hurricane to form over the Atlantic Ocean as Hurricane Danielle weakened to a Category 2 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Earl is "heading toward the Leeward Islands in a hurry" and is forecast to become a hurricane on Sunday, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Tropical Storm Earl threatened on Saturday to become the next hurricane to form over the Atlantic Ocean as Hurricane Danielle weakened to a Category 2 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Earl is "heading toward the Leeward Islands in a hurry" and is forecast to become a hurricane on Sunday, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Thousands flee as long-sleepy Sumatra volcano erupts

Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano today after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500m into the air.



Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way.

Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines triggering frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Basin. The eruption triggered the highest red volcano alert.

Mount Sinabung volcano spews smoke in the district of Tanah Karo outside the city of Medan, North Sumatra August 28, 2010.

Video of Philippine gunman Rolando Mendoza's burial after hostage tragedy

80,000 in Hong Kong protest Philippine bus tragedy

An estimated 80,000 Hong Kongers marched Sunday in honor of eight locals killed in a bus hijacking in Manila, denouncing the Philippine government for botching the rescue operation and demanding justice for the dead.

Former Philippine police officer Rolando Mendoza commandeered a bus carrying a 20-member Hong Kong tour group visiting the Philippine capital last week, hoping to reverse his dismissal from the force on what he said were bogus robbery and extortion charges.

Mendoza released several children and elderly hostages early in the 12-hour standoff broadcast live on television, but later opened fire on the tourists. A police sniper shot and killed Mendoza — but not before eight tourists were killed by gunfire. Three others were seriously wounded, including one still in a coma.

Filipino domestic workers react as they pray for the Hong Kong tourists who were killed in the Manila tourist bus hostage standoff during a solemn assembly in Hong Kong

Taliban attack US base in Afghanistan’s east

Up to 30 Taliban insurgents, including suicide bombers, attacked a US base in Afghanistan’s east today, officials said, but there were no details available about possible casualties or damage.

The attack began overnight at the well-fortified Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province near the southeastern border with Pakistan, where US and other foreign forces have been stepping up operations against a resurgent Taliban.

Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers were killed by a suicide bomber inside the base last December, the second-most deadly attack in CIA history.

Lieutenant Commander Katie Kendrick, a spokeswoman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the new attack but could give few other details.

US Marines talk to medevac helicopter crew members after loading two comrades gravely wounded in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province

China:India military ties on track despite visa row

China said today that military ties with India remained on track, despite a visa row that some reports said led to a freeze in defence contacts between the two big neighbours with sometimes testy relations.

An Indian defence source and some Indian news media said yesterday that defence ties with China were suspended after Beijing refused a visa to an Indian general from disputed Kashmir, where Pakistan and China also hold territory.

India's new Defence Minister AK Antony poses for a picture at a new conference in his office in New Delhi.

UN fears for children as Pakistan floods threaten towns

A flood victim stands in queue with others to get food handouts while taking refuge with her family in a relief camp for flood victims in Sukkur, in Pakistan's Sindh province.

Flood waters threatened to engulf two towns in southern Pakistan today, a month after the disaster began, as the United Nations warned that tens of thousands of children risked death from malnutrition.

The floods are Pakistan’s worst-ever natural disaster in terms of the amount of damage and the number of people affected, with more than six million people forced from their homes, about a million of them in the last few days as the water flows south.

The disaster has killed about 1,600 people, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to homes, infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the US-backed government which has struggled to cope.

Chile seeks to speed up rescue of trapped miners

Chile was looking at ways on Saturday to speed up the rescue of 33 miners trapped deep underground for 23 days who officials have said might have to wait three to four months to see the light of day.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said rescuers were considering other options, including digging a second escape shaft to rescue the miners, who survived over two weeks on mouthfuls of tinned tuna, cookies and milk.

HK march denounces bungled Philippine hostage rescue

Protestors take to the streets in Hong Kong to express their grief and anger towards Manila's hostage tragedy, August 29, 2010

Tens of thousands marched in Hong Kong today to denounce the Philippines’ bungled hostage rescue in which eight Hong Kong tourists were shot dead.

The eight Hong Kong hostages and the gunman, a sacked policeman, died in Monday’s hijack and botched rescue which has been heavily criticised across the world, particularly in Hong Kong and China.

“Shame on the Philippine government and police,” read one banner waved above the marchers. “We are furious,” exclaimed another.

“It was a total failure,” said Jo Liu, who was marching with her nine-year-old son, adding that the Philippine police were too slow and unprofessional.

Pakistan floodwaters ebb, hunger and disease remain

A two-year-old girl is covered with flies in a village in Rajanpur district of Pakistan's Punjab province on August 28, 2010

A month after torrential monsoon rains triggered Pakistan’s worst natural disaster on record, flood waters are starting to recede — but leaving countless survivors at risk of death from hunger and disease.

The disaster has killed at least 1,643 people, forced more than six million from their homes, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the US-backed government which has struggled to cope.

Despite generally lower water levels, officials said they were still battling to save the delta town of Thatta, 70km east of Karachi, in the southern province of Sindh.

Water has broken the banks of the Indus near Thatta and also topped a feeder canal running off the river.

U.N. rights body rebukes France for mistreating Roma

A United Nations human rights body rebuked France on Friday for its crackdown on Roma and urged the government to try to integrate members of the EU's biggest ethnic minority as part of a Europe-wide solution.

The 18 independent experts voiced concern that some of the hundreds of Roma flown to Romania in recent weeks under what France calls a voluntary repatriation programme had not been fully informed of their rights or had not freely consented to returning to their homeland."We understand that a state has a right and a responsibility to deal with security issues and issues of illegal immigration. But our view is when you are doing so, it should not be on a collective basis, you should not be targeting a group as a whole," said Pierre-Richard Prosper, vice-chairman of the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

"There is an appearance of discrimination," Prosper, an American, told a news briefing.

Eight killed in Iraq violence, Qaeda militants arrested

At least eight people were killed in violence across Iraq on Friday, including three anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen, a week before the US military is due to end its combat mission in the country.


Iraqi forces also arrested five Al-Qaeda militants linked to a deadly attack on Wednesday, a day that saw 53 people killed in car bombings blamed on the Islamist insurgent group.

The three Sahwa (Awakening) militiamen were killed overnight in northern Iraq, in the latest revenge attack against the force credited with turning the tide against Al-Qaeda.

Police said another three militiamen were wounded in the midnight (2100 GMT Thursday) attack on a checkpoint in the centre of the mainly Sunni Arab town of Al-Sharqat, 290 kilometres (180 miles) north of Baghdad.

Nails removed from 'abused' maid in Arab Saudi

A Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of a too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, officials said on Thursday.

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment.

L.T. Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

Tiger recovers after luggage ordeal.Tiger cub found in bag at airport

Authorities at Bangkok's international airport found a tiger cub that had been drugged and hidden alongside a stuffed toy tiger in the suitcase of a woman flying from Thailand to Iran, an official and a wildlife protection group said.

The woman, a Thai national, had checked in for her flight and her overweight bag was sent for an X-ray which showed what appeared to be a live animal inside, according to Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring group.

The woman was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport before boarding her flight. The cub, estimated to be about three months old, was sent to a wildlife conservation centre in Bangkok.

American Held in North Korea Returns.Mother of Nkorea Prisoner Thankful for Release.NKorea Frees American Imprisoned Since January

N.Korea leader on way home from China trip: reports

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il appeared to be heading home from China Saturday, news reports said, with Beijing's diplomatic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son.

Kim left a hotel in northeastern China on Saturday where he is believed to have met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, according to South Korean media.

YTN TV and Yonhap news agency said a convoy of some 20 cars, protected by 10 Chinese security vehicles, left the hotel in the city of Changchun at 9:05am (0005 GMT).

Drilling to rescue Chilean miners to begin soon- Tour of Trapped Chilean Miners Refuge

North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, son visit China

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting China, his only powerful ally, with his son and heir apparent, South Korean media reported.

The visit comes ahead of a rare meeting next month of the North Korea’s Workers’ Party, which rubber stamps major policy decisions. Analysts say this meeting could set in motion the succession of the leader’s son, Kim Jong-un.

“Kim Jong-un accompanied his father on a visit to China and we are trying to figure out their exact destination,” the South’s YTN television quoted a presidential source as saying.

Yonhap news agency also quoted a high ranking South Korean official as saying Kim appeared to have travelled to China.

Kim returns a salute as he reviews a military parade in Pyongyang October 10, 2005

Insurgents attack Iraqi police as US pulls back

Suicide bombers and other attackers killed at least 62 people in co-ordinated attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout the country yesterday, less than a week before US troops formally end combat operations.

The bombings also wounded more than 250 people, underscoring the fragility of Iraq’s security and the uncertainty of its political situation more than five months after an election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.

The onslaught was launched a day after the US military in Iraq cut its strength to under 50,000 as President Barack Obama, facing a war-weary American public, seeks to fulfil a pledge to end the war launched 7½ years ago by his predecessor.

Security members gather at the site of the bomb attack in Basra.

China plants flag in south sea amid disputes

China said today it had used a small, manned submarine to plant the national flag deep beneath the South China Sea, where Beijing has tussled with Washington and Southeast Asian nations over territorial disputes.

The submarine achieved the feat during 17 dives from May to July, when it went as deep as 3,759m below the South China Sea, the official China News Service said, citing the Ministry of Science and Technology and State Oceanic Administration.

Chinese news reports did not say where the submarine went, whether it visited disputed waters, or why the announcement was held off until now. It was the first time a Chinese submersible vehicle has gone that deep, said the reports.

Paramilitary police salute during a flag raising ceremony at Beijing's Tiananmen Square September 30, 2009.

Myanmar opposition in disarray as polls approach

Boycotts, draconian election laws and resignations of opposition figures have put Myanmar’s ruling generals within easy grasp to sweep the first polls in two decades, just two weeks after setting an election date.

Myanmar’s politically marginalised opposition appears in total disarray in the run up to the much-criticised November 7 polls, experts say, playing into the hands of a military regime with no intention to give up its 48-year grip on power.

“Than Shwe’s (above) only political strategy is divide and rule and a weakened opposition is just what he needs

Saudi couple ‘hammer 24 nails’ into Sri Lankan maid

A Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of a too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, officials said today.

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment. L.T. Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

US concerned over Afghan voter turnout, violence

The United States expects the Taliban to increase attacks in next month’s parliamentary elections, including in Afghanistan’s north where insurgents have made inroads, a senior US defence official said yesterday.

The parliamentary poll will be a litmus test for stability in Afghanistan as well as the credibility of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was roundly criticized over the handling of last year’s fraud-marred presidential elections.

“The biggest single variable that is important to watch is the degree of security that there is for the elections,” the defence official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Mexican troops hunt killers of 72 migrants

Mexican troops fanned out in the remote countryside near the Texas border yesterday as they hunted the perpetrators of the worst massacre in the country’s escalating drug war.

With helicopters overhead, heavily armed patrols in armoured personnel carriers, trucks and jeeps swept though towns and cities in the border region a day after the bodies of 72 people were found in an empty building at a remote ranch.

The victims, believed to be Central and South American migrants, appeared to have been blindfolded and bound before they were lined up against a wall and gunned down.

Photographs showed bloodstained bodies heaped on the ground at the ranch in Tamaulipas state, which has become the scene of some of Mexico’s worst drug violence as the Gulf cartel and a spinoff group, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes.

The blindfolded and hand-tied bodies of people thought to be migrant workers lie at a ranch where they were discovered by Mexican marines in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state.

Pele videos to boost trapped Chile miners’ morale

Thirty-three miners trapped for 21 days in a Chilean mine may get videos of Maradona and other soccer greats to beat boredom as they face several months deep underground until they are dug out.

Engineers sent a camera down a narrow bore hole on Thursday to remotely check the mens’ health, and plan to send miniature projectors and entertainment equipment to help them cope with the agonizing wait ahead.