North Korea: Rodman On Return Trip To See Kim

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman has returned to North Korea for a second visit to see leader Kim Jong-Un.

However, the flamboyant basketball player insists he is not taking on a diplomatic role.

The trip comes days after Pyongyang rejected an application for a visit from a US envoy who had hoped to bring home American missionary Kenneth Bae, who is currently in jail.

Speaking to reporters at Beijing airport before leaving for Pyongyang, Rodman did not say whether he would seek Mr Bae's release. "I'm not going to talk about that," he said.

"I just want to meet my friend Kim, the marshal, and start a basketball league over there or something like that.

The North Korean leader is a keen fan of basketball

"I have not been promised anything. I am just going there as a friendly gesture."

Mr Bae was arrested in November and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for what Pyongyang described as hostile acts against the state.

Rodman once asked on his Twitter account for Kim to "do me a solid" and release Mr Bae - Kim has the power to grant special pardons under the North's constitution.

The tweet Rodman posted on US missionary Kenneth Bae

"I'm not there to be a diplomat. I'm there to go there and just have a good time, sit with (Kim) and his family, and that's pretty much it," Rodman said, adding that he planned to see Kim "pretty soon".

When he was asked if he was bringing any of his own brand of vodka to North Korea, Rodman chuckled and said no.

"They love whiskey. They love tequila. They love vodka, stuff like this, so hopefully we'll go to have a nice dinner, sit there and talk," said Rodman.

"I'm just going over there to have a good time and try to bridge the gap with Americans and North Koreans. Just let's let people see in America that it's not a bad thing to go to North Korea and have a good time and meet new people."

Rodman first met Kim - a diehard basketball fan - during a visit in February to promote the sport and make a film. US officials were against the trip on the grounds that it gave North Korea's young leader a propaganda boost.

Rodman has suggested "basketball diplomacy" could warm relations and said that Kim wanted President Barack Obama to pick up the phone and call him. He has called Kim an "awesome guy".

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gary Tweddle: Body Recovered In Oz Bushland

Police believe a body that has been recovered from Australian bushland may be that of a British man who went missing seven weeks ago.

Gary Tweddle, 23, has not been seen since he disappeared after a work dinner during a conference in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

Police said a body thought to be Mr Tweddle was spotted by an ambulance rescue helicopter during a training exercise near Leura on Monday.

Mr Tweddle is originally from Reading

Police abseiled about 25m down a cliff face to the site on Tuesday, and the body was winched to the top of the cliff about 4pm local time (7am BST).

Superintendent Darryl Jobson said that the man was similar in appearance to Mr Tweddle, but it could take a number of days to formally identify the body.

"What we need to do is go through our formal identification processes to make sure we identify the right male and making sure that we're notifying the right next of kin," he said.

Mr Tweddle with his girlfriend Anika Haigh

"At an appropriate time we'll be able to convey to you to the identity of the male."

He said police will examine the area where the body was found, which will help determine the cause of death.

"It would appear to be misadventure but we're not ruling anything out," he said.

Joanne Elliott, a spokeswoman for Blue Mountains Local Area Command, said the "extremely rough terrain" meant police rescue officers were not able to retrieve the body on Monday.

"The location couldn't be accessed on foot and the crew lost all light in the mountains so we're unable to get down to the ground," she said.

Mr Tweddle, who had emigrated to Australia, was last heard from when he rang colleagues also staying at the Fairmont Resort in Leura in the early hours of July 17 to say he was lost in the bushland.

Mr Tweddle emigrated to Australia with his family

As the recovery operation started, Mr Tweddle's girlfriend told friends and family that "the sun is beginning to rise on a day that we have all been hoping would never come".

Anika Haigh wrote on her Facebook page: "A body has been found in the area of Gary's disappearance and today it will be retrieved and identified.

"Please know that nothing has been confirmed at this stage but I hope in a few hours we will have an answer either way.

"One thing I know for certain is that Gary will... come home one day - his fight, determination & 'never give up' attitude that we all loved so much about him will guide him."

Mr Tweddle became lost in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney

She added that it was time for him "to come home where you belong".

The disappearance of Mr Tweddle, a computer salesman originally from Reading, sparked the biggest search ever conducted in the Blue Mountains.

His father David flew out to Australia from his home in Berkshire to help with the search effort before he returned to the UK last month.

Mr Tweddle's mother Carol Streatfield, who also lives in Australia, had also flown to the Blue Mountains to join the search for her son.

She said the phone call from Ms Haigh telling her that her son was missing was the first step in the most "heart-breaking journey" of her life.

Mr Tweddle was at a work conference in the Blue Mountains area

In a statement issued by the Foreign Office last month, she said: "On the mountain my days were filled with sirens, noise, searching, tireless walking and door knocking. I repeatedly followed the track I believed he had taken in the hopes of finding a clue.

"Every pole and tree were covered with his beautiful face, however it was on a piece of A4 paper with a 'missing' heading.

"At one point I was so exhausted I found a bench to sit on in the middle of a bush track, and as I sat down and there to the left of me was Gary's photo.

"It was a small comfort as I stroked his face, kissed him and told him how much I loved him and that I will never give up trying to find him, ever."

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tommy Morrison: Ex-World Champion Dies At 44

Former boxer Tommy Morrison - who won a heavyweight title by beating George Foreman - has died at the age of 44.

Nicknamed "The Duke", Morrison died on Sunday at a Nebraska hospital, his promoter Tony Holden said. His family has not released a cause of death.

In 1993, Morrison beat then 44-year-old Foreman to win the WBO heavyweight title.

After losing the title to Michael Bentt, he then fought Lennox Lewis in 1995, but was knocked out in the sixth round in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Morrison was beaten by Lennox Lewis in 1995

But he was perhaps best known for his role in the 1990 film Rocky V after Sylvester Stallone cast him as Tommy "Machine" Gunn.

In 1996, Morrison was diagnosed with HIV, and his boxing licence was quickly suspended.

He blamed his condition on a "permissive, fast and reckless lifestyle", but later refused to accept the diagnosis and continued to claim the test was false.

His mother, Diana Morrison, told ESPN he had been in denial about having HIV ever since receiving the first test results.

In an interview last month she said: "He's in the end stages. That's it.

"I tell him that the family loves him, he's always in our prayers ... I don't tell him to keep fighting or nothing, because I want him to go."

Morrison was jailed for two years in 2000 after weapons charges and multiple drink-driving arrests.

After his release, he continued to insist his HIV diagnosis was incorrect and he wanted to resume his boxing career.

He passed medical tests in Texas in 2007 and fought twice more, beating John Castle and Matt Weishaar. He finished his career with 49 wins from his 52 fights.

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Microsoft To Pay £3.2bn For Nokia Phones

Microsoft Buys Nokia Handsets

Updated: 12:02pm UK, Tuesday 03 September 2013

By Niall Paterson, Media and Technology Correspondent

In the oft-confusing world of tech mergers and acquisitions where the ultimate intent is often opaque, shrouded in mystery, only to be revealed at a later date with some snazzy product launch, Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's handset business can easily be understood, and summed up in seven words.

An attempt to stuff Apple and Google.

Trying to gauge the likely success or otherwise of the strategy will take a little longer, I'm afraid.

Certainly, both are companies whose star has been waning of late.

Nokia remains the world's second largest manufacturer of mobile devices behind Samsung - but not in the top five when it comes to smartphones.

As a brand name, Microsoft remains iconic. Yet it, too, has struggled to make inroads into mobile; too slow, say some, to respond to market demand.

Sales of its Surface tablets can most charitably be described as sluggish (if a $900m charge to last quarter's accounts, thanks to the underperforming Surface, can ever be charitably described).

Prior to the deal the two companies had been working together to try to make inroads into the smartphone market.

A partnership formed in 2011 placed the Windows Phone (WP) operating system in Nokia's Lumia devices, and sales of Lumia have seen WP's global market share rise to 3.3% - beating BlackBerry.

Still, Google's Android and Apple's iOS remain dominant, in 90% of smartphones.

So in buying Nokia's mobiles and patents Microsoft is making clear it thinks it can do better with overall control of the devices on which its OS (largely) runs, and continuing with CEO Steve Ballmer's plan to restructure the software company into a devices and services organisation.

A little like Apple, you might say.

Microsoft and Nokia's problems are legion and well-documented, but worth briefly reflecting on.

Despite dominating the software market for nigh on 30 years, the company has struggled to adapt as demand for PCs has waned.

Increasingly our online experience is through tablet and smartphone - benefitting Apple, with its iconic iPhone and iPad, and Google, with its market-dominant Android OS.

Nokia has seen sales fall 24% in the three months to June, compared to last year. Just 53.7 million phones were sold, down 27%.

Some have argued that the price agreed by Nokia, roughly a quarter of sales last year, amounts to "fire sale" prices of a 150-year-old company that once dominated the mobile market.

For my part, when a business is so clearly in freefall, with no guarantee of a return to rising sales and profitability, such a sum looks pretty close to fair.

Others say that Microsoft itself is pursuing a pretty risky strategy - the second most expensive acquisition in the company's history essentially commits them to the highly competitive mobile devices market, where margins are more often than not pretty low.

Again, one would ask: what's the alternative?

Microsoft cannot ignore mobile, and with precious little hope that other manufacturers will at this late stage choose to adopt Windows Phone, why not purchase the company it was already investing huge sums in to keep afloat?

Nokia's 150-year history is not entirely at an end. Microsoft can use the Nokia brand for at least 10 years, and what remains of the Finnish company - its networks business, mapping and what's left of its patents portfolio - now has a sizeable pot of cash to invest.

Nokia may well return to form.

The same is true of Microsoft. But consider those they will have to "stuff" in order to get there.

Apple and Google are no strangers to, er, competitive marketing strategies. They hold huge brand recognition - and, more importantly, brand loyalty.

To gain more than a foothold in this market Microsoft's new devices arm will need to innovate.

The deal will conclude early next year. They'd best have something to announce between now and then.

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Millipedes 'To Blame' For Oz Train Crash

Black Portuguese millipedes are suspected of being to blame for a rear-end collision between two trains in Western Australia.

Hundreds of the creatures were found squashed in a slippery mess on the track.

"Millipedes are one of the factors we are going to take into account," said David Hynes, spokesman at the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia.

Six passengers were treated for neck problems after a train pulling into a station at Clarkson, 25 miles north of Perth, ran into a stationary one, the train company said.

"What happened in previous instances is trains which were travelling at speed have gone over an infestation, crushed them and made the tracks slimy.

"The train loses traction and the train has slipped," Mr Hynes said.

In 2009, thousands of the millipedes overran more than a mile of track near Melbourne in southeast Australia, causing train delays and cancellations.

The species was accidentally introduced into Australia in 1953 and has become an invasive pest.

Without any natural predators in the country their numbers have flourished.

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fukushima: Japan Builds Ice Wall To Stop Leaks

Japan is to build an underground ice wall to try to prevent radioactive water leaking from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station.

The plant has been leaking hundreds of tons of contaminated water into the sea since the complex was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

And in recent weeks, the Dai-ichi plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, (Tepco) has failed to contain several leaks from tanks storing tainted water.

The ice wall project will cost an estimated £301m, and its announcement is being seen as an attempt to show that the nuclear accident will not be a safety concern when, on Saturday, the International Olympic Committee chooses between Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid as the host of the 2020 Olympics.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "Instead of leaving this up to Tepco, the government will step forward and take charge.

"The world is watching if we can properly handle the contaminated water but also the entire decommissioning of the plant."

Contaminated water storage tanks

The government plans to spend £205m on the ice wall and £96m on upgraded water treatment units to remove radioactive elements, according to energy agency official Tatsuya Shinkawa.

The ice wall would freeze the ground to a depth of up to 30 metres (100ft) through an electrical system of thin pipes carrying a coolant as cold as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

That would block contaminated water from escaping the facility's immediate surroundings, as well as keep underground water from entering the reactor and turbine buildings, where much of the radioactive water has collected.

The project is being tested for feasibility by Japanese construction giant Kajima Corp and is set for completion in March 2015.

Some experts are still sceptical about the technology and say the running costs would be a huge burden.               

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brazil And Mexico Presidents 'Spied On By US'

The Brazilian government has labelled a US spy programme an "unacceptable invasion of sovereignty" after reports it targeted the nation's president.

In a sign that anger is continuing to grow, the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported that President Dilma Rousseff is considering cancelling a trip to the US in October.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Thomas Shannon and demanded a written explanation from the White House over the espionage allegations.

Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto was also reportedly targeted

On Sunday night, a Globo TV report cited 2012 documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that indicated the US intercepted President Rousseff's emails and telephone calls, along with those of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mexico's government said it had expressed its concerns to the US ambassador and directly to the US administration.

Brazil Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo said: "We're going to talk with our partners, including developed and developing nations, to evaluate how they protect themselves and to see what joint measures could be taken in the face of this grave situation."

He added that "there has to be international regulations that prohibit citizens and governments alike from being exposed to interceptions, violations of privacy and cyber attacks".

Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo said it "represents an unacceptable violation of Brazilian sovereignty".

He added: "This type of practice is incompatible with the confidence necessary for a strategic partnership between two nations."

A probe into revelations that Brazil was a top target for National Security Agency (NSA) spying in the region is expected to start next week.

During the Globo TV programmer, US journalist Glenn Greenwald - who lives in Rio de Janeiro and first broke the story about the NSA programme - said a document dated June 2012 showed that Mr Pena Nieto's emails were being read.

The document was dated a month before he was even elected.

Mr Greenwald also said the leaked documents showed Brazil was the largest target in Latin America for NSA surveillance programmes.

Dean Chavez, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Brasilia, said: "We value our relationship with Brazil, understand that they have valid concerns about these disclosures and we will continue to engage with the Brazilian government in an effort to address those concerns."

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Van Load Of Heroin Seized In Channel Tunnel

French customs have intercepted a van carrying 65 kilograms (143 pounds) of heroin travelling through the Channel Tunnel towards Britain.

The "exceptional" haul equals one-quarter of the total amount intercepted by French authorities in 2012. 

The heroin was discovered inside 120 packets hidden inside a boiler in the vehicle.

The van began its journey in the Netherlands and was stopped by officers on August 27.

The total street value of the haul is 2.6 million euros, (£2.2m).

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria: Obama Makes New Military Action Vow

The US has a plan to help Syria's rebels bring down the Assad regime after launching military strikes, President Obama has said.

Mr Obama said again that military action against Syria would be "limited" but suggested a strike would go further than simply punishing President Bashar al Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

The president said he was confident that Congress would vote in favour of military action and called for a prompt vote on the issue.

During a meeting of congressional leaders at the White House, he said: "What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad's capabilities.

"At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition." 

Washington is currently assessing whether to order sea-launched strikes against Syria, with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attempting to convince Congress of the need to intervene.

After the meeting the president received a boost when the top Republican in Congress said he would back the call for military action, and urged his colleagues to do the same.

Speaking outside the White House, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said: "This is something that the United States as a country needs to do.

Democratic Leader in Congress Nancy Pelosi said she did not expect a resolution calling for military action in Syria to be rejected. 

Mr Obama clarified his intentions after influential senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham met with him and said they expected US military action to be "more robust" than previously thought.

Mr Graham said: "It is all in the details, but I left the meeting feeling better than I felt before about what happens the day after and that the purpose of the attack is going to be a little more robust than I thought."

Mr McCain said in an interview that Mr Obama did not reveal what weapons might be provided to the opposition in Syria or discuss in what targets might be attacked.

Israel fears being targeted if Syria comes under attack from Western powers

"There was no concrete agreement, 'OK, we got a deal,'" Mr McCain said.

"Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details."

The president indicated in his meeting with the pair that the first 50-man cell of CIA-trained rebel fighters was heading for the Syrian battlefield, the New York Times reported.

The unit's deployment would be the first tangible show of support since Mr Obama announced in June that the US would begin providing the rebels with small arms.

Mr Obama's latest statement came after tensions in the Middle East were raised by Israel's unannounced missile launch in the Mediterranean.

Israel claimed it carried out a joint missile system test with the US after Russia's defence ministry said two ballistic "objects" were fired towards the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the sea.

Israel's defence ministry said it had tested a single Sparrow target missile, which it said was "successfully" detected and tracked by its Arrow missile-defence system.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon shrugged off a question on whether the launch might have been ill-timed, telling reporters Israel had to work to maintain its military edge.

"It is known that preparedness of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the last week relies a lot on technological capabilities, that the defence establishment in its wider sense puts at the army's disposal.

"Research and development in the defence industry - engineers, scientists who work day and night - they know at the end of the day to put Israel in the front line of technology.

"This necessitates field trials and, accordingly, a successful trial was conducted to test our systems. And we will continue to develop and to research and to equip the IDF with the best systems in the world." 

Despite reports that Israel was claiming the launch as a joint test with America, a US Navy spokesman said no missiles had been fired from any of its ships in the Mediterranean.

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syria Defector 'Exposes Assad Chemical Attack'

Syria: How Crisis Has Developed

Updated: 2:04pm UK, Tuesday 03 September 2013

:: March 2011 - Protesters stage demonstrations in Damascus and security forces in Daraa shoot dead several campaigners, leading to unrest and violence.

:: May - The Syrian military deploys tanks in a bid to quash demonstrations.

:: July 19 - The UK freezes £100m of Syrian assets.

:: August 18 - US President Barack Obama calls on Bashar al Assad to step down. The US freezes all assets of the Syrian government.

:: November 16 - The Free Syrian Army attacks a military base near Damascus.

:: February 4, 2012 - A UN Security Council resolution on Syria is rejected for a second time by Russia and China.

:: March 1 - Government troops seize the Baba Amr district of Homs after an intense battle lasting for several weeks.

:: April 12 - A UN-brokered ceasefire comes into force after fierce fighting in the country.

:: May 23 - Dozens of people, many of them women and children, die in Houla, near Homs. Foreign Secretary William Hague says they were "massacred at the hands of Syrian forces". The UN later accuses the Syrian military of committing war crimes.

:: August - Barack Obama says the use of chemical weapons against civilians would represent the crossing of a "red line".

:: March 6, 2013 - Foreign Secretary William Hague says Britain will provide opposition forces with "non-lethal equipment for the protection of civilians".

:: April-May - Britain says there is credible evidence to suggest Syrian forces have used chemical weapons in Adra, Darayya and Saraqiq and calls for an investigation by the UN.

:: April 29 - Syrian prime minister Wael Nader al Halqi survives an assassination attempt as a car bomb explodes in Damascus.

:: May 14 - Footage of a Syrian rebel commander apparently cutting out a soldier's heart is condemned by the country's National Coalition.

:: June 6 - Syrian forces, backed by Hizbollah fighters, recapture the strategic border town of Qusair.

:: June 6 - Human Rights Watch releases footage which it claims shows Syrian troops shelling school buildings.

:: July 25 - The UN says the number of people killed in the civil war has reached 100,000.

:: August 21 - An alleged chemical attack in Damascus kills 1,300 people, according to the opposition. Doctors Without Borders says 335 people died from "neurotoxic" symptoms.

:: August 25 - Foreign Secretary William Hague says a chemical attack by the Syrian government is the only "plausible explanation" for the deaths.

:: August 26 - UN inspectors brave sniper fire to gather "valuable" evidence from one site of the alleged chemical attack, as the US Secretary of State John Kerry says the Assad regime would face action over the "moral obscenity".

:: August 27 - The UK recalls Parliament to hold a vote on August 29 on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. David Cameron and Barack Obama agree there is "no doubt" the Assad regime is responsible for the alleged attack.

:: August 28 - Britain tables a draft UN resolution condemning the alleged attack and "authorising all necessary measures".

:: August 29 - David Cameron is forced to rule out military action after narrowly losing a Commons vote on the principle of intervention.

:: August 31 - President Obama says the US "should take military action" in Syria but confirms he will seek authorisation from Congress before launching any strikes against the Assad regime. He says the US is "prepared to strike whenever we choose".

:: September 2 - a French intelligence reports claims the Assad regime was responsible for a "massive and coordinated" chemical attack in Damascus.

:: September 3 - Israel says it has carried out a joint missile test with the US in the Mediterranean.

23.14 | 0 komentar | Read More