Obama to unveil Afghan troop cut plan tomorrow

President Barack Obama is finalising his decision on how many US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan starting next month and will announce his plan tomorrow, a US official said yesterday.

Obama (picture) will lay out a blueprint for bringing home thousands of troops in the initial phase of a military drawdown and also unveil a broader withdrawal strategy for the remainder of the 30,000 extra “surge” troops he ordered deployed in late 2009, the official said.

US, Japan drop 2014 Okinawa base-transfer deadline

A US Air Force F-22 fighter jet (front) taxis past a C17 aircraft after landing at Kadena US Air Force Base on Japan’s island of Okinawa in this file photo of May 30, 2009. The US and Japan say they will drop the 2014 Okinawa base-transfer deadline


The United States and Japan today agreed to drop a 2014 deadline for building a new airstrip on Okinawa and transferring US Marines from that Japanese island to Guam, top officials said in a statement.

“Completion of the FRF (Futenma Replacement Facility) and the Marine relocation will not meet the previously targeted date of 2014,” the two allies said in a statement following Cabinet-level talks in Washington.

They vowed to complete the projects “at the earliest possible date after 2014.”

UK teenager arrested in global hacking probe

British police arrested a 19-year-old man in England on suspicions that he was linked to cyber attacks on the CIA, Britain’s anti-organised crime agency and Sony Corp.

As part of international efforts to catch the culprits behind a string of high-profile hacks, London’s Metropolitan Police, working with the US FBI, said they arrested the teenager in the town of Wickford, close to London.

The raid was linked to recent attacks on the websites of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the British police Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which targets organised crime in Britain and overseas, police said.

The suspect’s computer was being examined for data linked to Sony, whose websites have also been attacked.

US Senate confirms Panetta as Pentagon chief

CIA Director Leon Panetta testifies at his Senate confirmation hearings to become US Secretary of Defence on Capitol Hill Washington in this June 9, 2011 file photograph. The US Senate voted unanimously on June 21, 2011 to confirm Panetta as the new secretary of defence.


The US Senate voted unanimously yesterday to confirm outgoing Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta as the new secretary of defence, replacing the retiring Robert Gates.

Panetta, 72, who has held a variety of senior posts in Washington dating back decades, was nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Pentagon. Panetta is expected to start his new job on July 1.

The rare 100-0 vote followed a debate that saw praise for Panetta and anxiety about the challenges he will face to push defence budgets lower and oversee the start of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

The troop pullout is due to begin next month and Obama is expected to present a blueprint for it in a prime-time speech to Americans today.

“The next secretary of defence will have to struggle with the competing demands on our forces while Washington struggles with an extremely challenging fiscal environment,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said.

Death row inmate eats two burgers with bacon, fried pork chops, fried chicken, fried fish, chili cheese fries, regular fries... and a glass of fruit punch

Milton Mathis had IQ of just 62 and has problems dressing himself

A mentally handicapped murderer who fatally shot two people and paralysed a third in a Houston crack house in 1998, was executed last night by lethal injection - after eating a mammoth final meal.

Milton Mathis, 32, scoffed two burgers with bacon, fried pork chops, fried chicken, fried fish, chili cheese fries, regular fries, and fruit punch, officials said.

Lawyers for Mathis, who was the 23rd person put to death in the U.S. this year and the sixth executed in Texas, had spent yesterday morning pleading his case before the Supreme Court. He previously lobbied unsuccessfully to state and federal courts.

Meaty: Mathis requested two burgers with bacon, fried pork chops, fried chicken, fried fish, chili cheese fries, regular fries and fruit punch (file photo).Sad ending: Milton Mathis, 32, was executed in Texas on Tuesday, despite being mentally disabled

La Familia leader captured without a shot fired - Mexican claims major drug 'hit'

La Familia leader, Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, has been arrested and Mexican authorities contend that the group's reign in the state of Michoacán has come to an end. Federal police escort one of nearly 50 suspects of two major drug cartels to a news

UN assembly approves second term for UN chief Ban

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon smiles during a news conference after a meeting with Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica (not pictured) in Montevideo on June 14, 2011.

The 192-nation UN General Assembly yesterday unanimously approved a second five-year term for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who analysts and diplomats see as a solid ally of Washington.

The former South Korean foreign minister, who took over from his predecessor Kofi Annan in 2007, was re-elected to the world body’s top job by acclamation starting January 1, 2012.

Ban, 67, was unopposed, making his re-election a virtual certainty after the Security Council last week recommended he continue at the helm of the United Nations. He thanked the UN member states for the “great honor” they bestowed on him.

“I am humbled by your trust and enlarged by our sense of common purpose,” he said.

Jumbo jet forced to make screeching halt at JFK to avoid Egypt Air plane which had taken wrong turn on runway

Controllers screamed: 'Cancel take-off, cancel take-off plan' as 747 accelerated down runway

A Jumbo jet, with 286 passengers on board, had a terrifying near miss when it was forced to screech to a halt to avoid colliding with another plane that had turned into its path.

The Lufthansa Boeing 747 was accelerating along a runway as it prepared to take off at Kennedy Airport, New York, when it narrowly avoided slamming into an EgyptAir Boeing 777.

An air traffic controller screamed: 'Cancel take-off, Cancel take off plans' when he noticed the Munich-bound Jumbo on a collision course.

Close call: The Jumbo jet was racing down the runway when it had to brake to avoid hitting an EgyptAir Boeing 777.A Lufthansa Boeing 747 screeched to a halt to avoid slamming into an EgyptAir plane which had turned into its path.Panic: Controllers at New York's JFK airport screamed into their radios when they saw the two planes about to collide

44 killed in Russian highway plane crash - Russian plane crash blamed on "pilot error"

A 9-year-old boy died of his injuries Wednesday, bringing the death toll in the crash of a Russian passenger plane that slammed into a highway in heavy fog to 45, officials said. The RusAir Tu-134 on a flight from Moscow crashed just ...

Ash cloud clears, Australia flights resume

A Virgin plane takes off at Sydney’s domestic airport June 22, 2011. Tens of thousands of air passengers faced more flight chaos in Australia on Wednesday caused by an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano, although grounded flights were starting to resume from some cities as the ash moved offshore


Australian airlines struggled to move a backlog of tens of thousands of passengers today after an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano, which had grounded flights across the country’s eastern and southern states, cleared .

The ash cloud has circled the earth twice to disrupt Australian airlines for a second time, costing Qantas an estimated A$20 million (RM64.20 million) before the latest disruptions and the tourism industry more than A$15 million in two weeks.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said long-term modelling suggested the ash cloud would not pass over Australia for a third time and disrupt airlines.

Volcanic ash can be extremely dangerous to aircraft and cause engine failure or engine damage.

Israeli leaders test nuclear bunker in defence drill

Israeli leaders holed up in a new underground nuclear bunker today as part of annual nationwide manoeuvres to prepare for a possible missile war with Iran, Syria and their Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla allies.

Officials said it was the first time that the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had tested the bunker, dug deep in the western Jerusalem foothills over the past decade and dubbed the “Nation’s Tunnel” by local media.

Israel has held increasingly sweeping civil defence drills since the 2006 Lebanon war, during which Hezbollah guerrillas fired thousands of short-range rockets at its northern towns. There have been similar salvoes from Hamas and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip to the south, and Israeli officials say a future war could also involve non-conventional missile strikes by Syria and Iran.

US Navy intercepted North Korean ship sending missile material to Myanmar

The guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell transits the western Pacific Ocean during combat system ship qualification trials in this US Navy handout photo dated May 26, 2010.

The US Navy intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missile parts to Myanmar two weeks ago, media reports and a US official said yesterday.

The New York Times reported late on Sunday, citing senior American officials, that a North Korean cargo ship was forced to return home after a standoff at sea and several days of diplomatic pressure from Washington and Asian nations.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed the interception, but declined to comment on the cargo or destination of the North Korean vessel.

“We talked directly with the North Koreans to stress the importance of not engaging in proliferation-related transfers,” he said.

“We learned that the ship, the vessel, changed course at sea, and we believe it returned to North Korea,” said Toner.

UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after it conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 include a ban on trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea. A UN resolution adopted last year authorised UN member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo.

According to the Times, the destroyer USS McCampbell caught up with the cargo ship M/V Light south of Shanghai on May 26 after American officials began tracking the vessel, which was believed to have been involved in previous illegal shipments.

The destroyer asked to board the vessel under authority given by Belize, but the North Koreans refused, Toner said.

“The ship’s master refusing us permission to board it, as well as the fact that it turned around and headed back to North Korea, speaks to ... some of our concerns about its cargo,” he said.

'Sex gang groomed girls of 13': Asian men accused of luring teens and turning them into prostitutes

A gang of Asian men went on trial yesterday accused of a sickening catalogue of child prostitution offences against vulnerable teenage girls as young as 13.

The nine – six are married and one is a grandfather – face 55 charges, including inciting child prostitution, grooming and rape between 2007 and 2009.

The girls – who cannot be named for legal reasons – were said to have received cash, alcohol, drugs, meals and mobile phone credit in exchange for sex with some of the defendants.

Three of the men – Ahdel Ali, 23, his brother Mubarek Ali, 28, and Tanveer Ahmed, 39 – allegedly acted as ‘pimps’, passing two of the young girls among their friends and using them as sexual commodities.

Mubarek Ali is also accused of trafficking one of the girls, while Abdul Rouf, 34, and Mohammed Younis, 59, are accused of using their homes as brothels for child prostitution.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said: ‘The Crown say that the men in the dock variously trafficked, raped or sexually abused girls both over and under the age of 16 years over a considerable period of time.

‘These men ensnared these girls. They had cars, jobs and money which gave them both freedom and power. They enticed the girls, groomed the girls and then exploited them either for their own sexual gratification or for money.’

 Accused: Mohammed Islam Choudhrey (L) and Noshad Hussain are among the defendants facing trial at Stafford Crown Court

 Also accused: Mohammed Ali Sultan, left, and Marhoof Khan are on trial for sex offences

 Brothels: Defendants Mohammed Yunis, left, and Abdul Rouf are accused of using their homes for child prostitution

'Pimp': Tanveer Ahmed Tanveer Ahmed, 39, allegedly passed two of the young girls among his friends

Clinton urges Africa to drop Gaddafi, embrace rebels

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged African leaders to abandon Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, saying it was time to live up to their pledges to promote democracy across the continent.

Clinton, the first US secretary of state ever to address the 53-member African Union, said unreformed African leaders were themselves at risk from the same tide of democracy sweeping the Middle East, proclaiming “the status quo is broken and the old ways of governing are no longer acceptable.”

“It is true that Gaddafi has played a major role in providing financial support for many African nations and institutions, including the AU,” Clinton said in her speech at the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

“But it has become clear that we are long past the time when he can remain in power.”

Tokyo launches large-scale radiation monitoring after Fukushima

A radiation monitor indicates 0.82 microsieverts per hour at a checkpoint to the restricted zone of a 20km radius around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, in Kawauchi village, about 20 km (12 miles) from the plant in Fukushima ...
China's nuclear regulators have given the country's reactors a clean bill of health following inspections ordered after the disaster at Japan's tsunami-struck Fukushima Dai-ichi facility. Inspections have been completed on all 13 of ...