Exposetime

Yadav family feud: Akhilesh meets Mulayam, but no sign of truce yet

2017-01-04T06:28:00.002+00:00

Lucknow, Jan 04, 2017: Another patch-up bid between the warring factions of the Samajwadi Party fell flat on Tuesday as even after a three-hour meeting, CM Akhilesh Yadav and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav failed to make peace.

Both the factions, said sources, had submitted letters to the poll panel, staking claim to the party name and the election symbol – a bicycle, the clearest indication yet that a reconciliation was unlikely in the Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party.

Uttar Pradesh and four other states are due for elections, the announcement could be coming any day now.

Battered by the power struggle between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal, the party saw a ray of hope when the 43-year-old chief minister drove down to his father’s residence in the afternoon.

Suddenly there was talk of a peace formula though there was no word from either faction. But after three hours, sources said, the talks had failed.

Mulayam, sources said, refused to revoke expulsion of cousin Ramgopal, who has backed Akhilesh in the battle for control of the party.

Akhilesh, who took control of the party on Sunday after ousting Mulayam at an “emergency national convention”, was not ready to give back the state unit to Shivpal. The CM also didn’t want parliamentarian Amar Singh in the party.

Decisions to expel Singh and sack Shivpal as the state party chief were also taken at the convention, which was called by Ramgopal.

Mulayam spoke to Singh before he met Akhilesh, sources said. The CM has on more than one occasion expressed reservations about his father’s close aide.

Singh and Shivpal were with Mulayam when he met the election commission officials in Delhi a day earlier to stake claim to the party symbol.

Akhilesh called on Mulayam within an hour of SP patriarch’s return to Lucknow. Shivpal, who joined them later, didn’t know about the meeting between the father and the son. “I don’t have any information about the meeting. If Netaji (Mulayam) calls me I will go,” he told media.

Earlier in the day, Ramgopal met chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi to stake claim to the ‘bicycle’.

“We told the election commission that most party MPs, MLAs and MLCs are with Akhilesh. So the party led by him is the true Samajwadi Party and should get the party symbol,” Ramgopal told mediapersons in Delhi.

In the event of a split, the poll panel could freeze the symbol, as it doesn’t have the time to verify the claimants’ legislative majority, required to retain the symbol. Both the factions would then go into the election with new symbols and new party names.

Tuesday’s peace bid, too, was initiated by senior minister Azam Khan who flew to Delhi on Monday night to meet Mulayam but could not as the patriarch was with Singh, sources said.

Khan’s first attempt – on December 31 -- at reconciliation barely lasted a day. He managed to convince Mulayam to revoke Akhilesh’s and Ramgopal’s expulsions which were ordered a day earlier. But on Sunday, Akhilesh staged the coup.

US Forces Sexual Assault Crisis Reaches New Heights

2013-05-15T16:20:00.000+01:00

Ahead of possible major actions from the Pentagon and Congress on sexual assault in the military, the U.S. Army is forced to confront yet another instance of a member of the armed forces involved in a shocking sexual assault scandal.

In the latest incident, the Department of Defense revealed on Tuesday a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army stationed at the Ft. Hood, TX military base is under investigation for sexual assault. Along with allegedly sexually assaulting two of his peers, the the sergeant is being investigated for possibly forcing a subordinate into prostitution. Making matters even worse, the soldier under investigation was assigned as the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program coordinator for an eight-hundred person battalion stationed at the base.

The investigation draws a parallel to a case just last week in which the head of the entire Air Force’s sexual assault response program was himself charged with sexual battery in Arlington, VA. No charges have yet been filed against the individual at Ft.

Hood, but Pentagon spokesman George Little issued a statement about DOD’s response to yet another alleged instance of rape culture in the military:

I cannot convey strongly enough [Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's] frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply.

Secretary Hagel met with Army Secretary McHugh this morning and directed him to fully investigate this matter rapidly, to discover the extent of these allegations, and to ensure that all of those who might be involved are dealt with appropriately.

To address the broader concerns that have arisen out of these allegations and other recent events, Secretary Hagel is directing all the services to re-train, re-credential, and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters.

Lawmakers quickly lined up to add their voices to the long list of those condemning the latest outrage and sexual assault in the military writ large. “These allegations only add to the mounting evidence of the need to change our military justice system to better hold perpetrators accountable and protect survivors of sexual assault,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said in a statement. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) head of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement he was “outraged and disgusted” by the latest reports from Ft. Hood, pointing to his own granddaughter in the Army and the “feelings of worry and doubt” many feel when family members join the service.

Much as last week’s case came just days ahead of the Pentagon releasing its annual report on sexual assault in the armed services, Tuesday’s story broke with major implications for the military on the horizon. Wednesday is the deadline for branches of the armed services to provide their plans for how to integrate women into combat units to the Pentagon. Last year, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters that the move could help reduce the number of sexual assaults in the military in the long-run as “the more we treat people equally, the more likely they are to treat each other equally.”

The Senate Veteran Affairs Committee is also holding hearings Wednesday morning on the Ruth Moore Act of 2013, which passed the House Veteran Affairs Committee last week. The Act is named for a former Navy enlistee who was raped twice during her service and later developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the experience. According to the ACLU’s statement to the Senate, the bill “would remove current barriers that far too often prove insurmountable for sexual assault survivors who apply for disability compensation for post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.”

According to the most recent report, an estimated 26,000 instances of sexual assault took place in the military last year. President Obama at a press conference last week called the epidemic “an outrage” and said soldiers who rape are “betraying the uniform that they’re wearing.” “When you engage in this kind of behavior that’s not patriotic — it’s a crime,” Obama went on to say. “And we have to do everything we can to root this out.”

Pak should take serious notice of Altaf’s remarks: Adam Thomson

2013-05-15T15:27:00.002+01:00

LONDON: British High Commissioner (HC), Adam Thomson has said that UK police have received countless complaints against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain for his remarks about detaching Karachi from Pakistan, Geo News reported.

In a statement, the British HC said Pakistan should take serious notice of Altaf Hussain’s statement.

Thomson further said that strict laws are followed in Britain against hate speech and spreading violence, adding the UK police is currently investigating Altaf’s speech.

He, however, said that no extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and Britain but added that taking action against Altaf Hussain was not out of the question.

He added that if anyone is found guilty, the accused can face imprisonment.

Metropolitan Police say they are aware of complaints made against Altaf Hussain’s remarks from London but currently no investigation is being started. A spokesperson says complaints are still being made and 'we are looking into it, but no investigation yet.'

However, the MQM Chief Altaf Hussain has already denied demanding separation of Karachi from Pakistan.

Adam Thomson termed the recent elections in Pakistan as historic, saying the people subjected the governments to accountability through ballot.

However, he said that there should be a proper investigation into the allegations of rigging in the polls.

Pakistan election rigging: ECP mulls verifying thumb prints

2013-05-15T15:07:00.002+01:00

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is mulling a proposal to verify thumb prints on ballot papers in the rigging-hit constituencies.

Sources said, ECP has summoned chairman NADRA to consult on the matter and finalize the strategy.

Rigging confirmed in PAK, Polls exceeds the numbers of registered voters

2013-05-15T13:48:00.000+01:00

According to the data from FAFEN, the stats registered in at least 5 polling stations show rigging trends since the number of votes exceeds the registered voters.

Karachi: An elections observer group in Pakistan has confirmed reports of rigging at some polling stations in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi. The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has provided statistics supporting reports of rigging at several Karachi polling stations where voter turnout was abnormally high. Since the elections were held on Saturday, the media and many political parties, including Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and Jamaat-e-Islaami, have alleged rigging at many polling stations in Karachi to secure big wins for the Mutthaida-e-Qaumi Movement candidates.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper, the statistics registered in at least five polling stations show rigging trends since the number of votes polled far exceeds the registered voters, according to the data from FAFEN. Polling stations with over 100 per cent votes polled include Orangi Town, Model Colony, Malir Colony and Shah Faisal Colony. The National Assembly constituencies affected by the apparent malpractice include NA-242, NA-256 and NA-257. According to the statistics, 2,508 and 1,484 votes were polled at NA-242 Orangi Town's polling station (PS) 80 and 2, while the respective number of registered voters was 1,349 and 1,230.

At station 151 of Model Colony and stations 63 of Shah Faisal Colony (NA-256), 3,233 and 2,495 votes were polled against a total of 2,114 and 2,405 registered voters. At least four other polling stations (PS-37, 38, 39 and 40) in Landhi area falling under NA-255, also appeared to have been affected by irregularities, with the number of votes polled falling between 93 to 98 per cent of registered voters. In total, data provided by FAFEN shows at least 32 polling stations with over 80 per cent votes polled, which it says are abnormally high numbers.

FAFEN had over 900 trained election observers monitoring polling in Karachi, and more than 41,000 observers across the country.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has taken notice of widespread reports of rigging in Karachi, and has ordered re-polling at 43 stations in Karachi's NA-250 constituency in 10 day's time. "We will conduct re-polling where we receive substantial evidence of rigging or irregularities," Secretary ECP Ishtiaq Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad.

Jail receives anonymous letter about threat to actor sanjay dutt's life

2013-05-15T12:01:00.002+01:00

MUMBAI: arthur road jail receives anonymous letter about threat to actor sanjay dutt's life, Jail authorities say they will provide adequate security to Sanjay Dutt.

PAKISTAN: Murder Petitioner forgives Rangers ‘for the sake of God’

2013-05-15T11:23:00.013+01:00

KARACHI: Salik Shah, who registered the case of his brother Sarfraz’s extra-judicial murder, forgave Rangers personnel on Wednesday.

Salik said that he had forgiven the men convicted of his brother’s murder “for the sake of God” and did not accept any blood money in return. He also submitted an application in the Sindh High Court for settlement in the case.

Nineteen-year-old Sarfraz Shah was shot by Rangers in the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Park in Karachi on June 8, 2011. The incident was caught on videotape and broadcast on television channels nationwide.

A suo motu notice of the incident was taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan which had ordered the removal of the Sindh chief secretary and director general of the Rangers and had also ordered a speedy trial of the case.

In August 2011, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced Rangers’ Shahid Zafar to death and condemned the remaining six men to life in prison.

Astronaut returns to Earth with the earth you've never seen it before

2013-05-15T10:27:00.003+01:00

ASTRONAUGHT Chris Hadfield, who became the first Canadian to walk in space, has been using social networking site Twitter to send back pictures of Earth as we’ve never seen it before.

Using a mixture of state of the art software and hi-tech satellite images, the pictures Chris has been relaying since March are more akin to something you’d find in the Museum of Modern Art with some of the world’s most famous landmarks apeearing completely unrecognisable.

Chris, 53, has been commander of Expedition 35 aboard the International Space Station since January.

Not content with being a pioneering astronaut and budding photographer, Hadfield used his spare time to put together the first ever album to be recorded in space using a variety of special instruments.

His cover version of David Bowie's Space Oddity has become an international web hit.

Here, we take a look back at some of the beathtaking images from Chris' trip ...

WOW ... Scotland from Space

SPARKLING ... London from spcae @Cmdr_Hadfield

STUNNING ... Dublin @Cmdr_Hadfield

SCENIC ... Paris @Cmdr_Hadfield

CITY OF LOVE ... Venice @Cmdr_Hadfield

THE BIG APPLE ... New York lit up @Cmdr_Hadfield

BARE ... Ethiopia @Cmdr_Hadfield

ODD ... parts of Iran @Cmdr_Hadfield

JIGSAW ... Miami @Cmdr_Hadfield

HYPNOTIC ... The Australian Outback @Cmdr_Hadfield

THIRSTY ... lake in Hungary @Cmdr_Hadfield

DOTS ... Cape Town @Cmdr_Hadfield

BRIDGE ... Venezuela @Cmdr_Hadfield

AWE ... A Volcano in Chad @Cmdr_Hadfield

ELECTRICITY ... Las Vegas @Cmdr_Hadfield

COLD ... A frozen lake in Canada @Cmdr_Hadfield

BORDER ... The India/Pakistan border @Cmdr_Hadfield

GREEN ... Bolivia @Cmdr_Hadfield

THROWING SHAPES ... Farms in Southern Africa @Cmdr_Hadfield

UNRECOGNISABLE ... The Sahara desert looks more like a pie crust from space @Cmdr_Hadfield

C'EST PARIS ... Paris at night @Cmdr_Hadfield

BUNNY ... A lake in Australia's outback @Cmdr_Hadfield

Angelina Jolie had breasts removed to reduce cancer risk

2013-05-15T08:52:00.000+01:00

I lost my mum to cancer at 56... my kids won’t...

Angelina has double mastectomy op

ANGELINA Jolie told yesterday how she had both her breasts removed to reduce her chances of dying of cancer like her tragic mum.

The Tomb Raider star, 37, lost 56-year-old Marcheline Bertrand — also an actress — to ovarian cancer in 2007.

She opted for her double mastectomy after doctors told her she carried the “faulty” BRCA1 gene and had an 87 per cent chance of contracting breast cancer plus a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer.

Mum-of-six Angelina began three months of medical procedures in Beverly Hills, California, in February with her movie hunk fiancé Brad Pitt at her side.

And yesterday she explained her decision — which was previously kept secret — in a bid to raise awareness and help other women.

Writing in a US newspaper, she said: “My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56.

“She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how gracious she was.

“We often speak of ‘Mommy’s mommy’ and I try to explain the illness that took her away from us.

“They have asked if the same could happen to me — I have always told them not to worry.

“But the truth is I carry a ‘faulty’ gene which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

“Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventative double mastectomy.”

Angelina, who may also have her ovaries removed, added: “My chances of breast cancer have dropped to under five per cent. I can tell my children they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.

“Brad and I knew this was the right thing to do for our family and would bring us closer. And it has.

“For women reading this, I hope it helps to know you have options.

“I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you make informed choices.”

Breast cancer kills more than 458,000 people a year worldwide.

Brad, 49. said their family were delighted with Angelina, whose breasts were reconstructed with implants following her ops.

He said: “I find Angie’s choice absolutely heroic. This is a happy day for our family.”

X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, 60, told last year how she too had a double mastectomy after learning that she also carried the gene.

Last night she praised Angelina — who insisted her op had “in no way” diminished her femininity.

Sharon said: “She is an amazing woman. She will have empowered millions all over the world. I think it makes her sexier than ever.”

Man Says He Found Top-Secret Recipe for Coca-Cola

2013-05-15T08:37:00.003+01:00

A Georgia man believes he has found a copy of the recipe for Coca-Cola and is trying to sell the top-secret document on eBay for at least $5 million.

Cliff Kluge, a pilot, and his wife Arlene of Ringgold, Ga., said they purchased several old boxes of papers and letters at an estate sale around four years ago for about $100. In the box of letters, the couple stumbled upon a 1943 recipe with references to one of the most popular soft drinks in the world today.

“When I saw this I just thought it was interesting, so I folded it up, stuck it in my purse and carried it around for a couple of weeks showing my friends,” Arlene Kluge, a small business owner, told ABC News.

Taking no chances, the couple eventually put the recipe in a safety deposit box. After thinking about it for a while, they thought they were sitting on the recipe for Coca-Cola.

“Whoever had typed this letter had seen the original recipe,” Cliff Kluge said. “The letter always references Coke and products and stuff.

“We believe it is definitely related to Coca-Cola,” he added.

Kluge has put the formula on eBay with a starting bid of $5 million. If you’re not one to play the bidding game, you can simply use the “buy it now” option and the recipe is yours for $15 million. No one has attempted to put a bid down and the auction ends later today.

Kluge showed ABC News a copy of the document with the important ingredients blocked out. He reached out to Coca-Cola when he put the recipe on eBay.

“They told me they would call me back in seven to 10 days and they never called me back,” Kluge said.

For more than 100 years, the company has guarded the super-secret formula for Coke. Company officials say finding their trade secret is no different than discovering the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot: It’s just not going to happen.

Coca-Cola did acknowledge the real recipe is located in Georgia, but not in Kluge’s home. The original recipe, made in the late 19th century, is locked away in a safe at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta.

“At least once a year, somebody shows up and says, ‘I have the original formula for Coca-Cola. How much do you want to pay me for it?’ Well, I don’t need to pay them anything for it because we have the only real one,” Ted Ryan, chief archivist at Coca-Cola, told ABC News.

“We know he doesn’t have the formula. There is only one copy. He has what one of the many imitator copies floating around out there,” he said. “So I’m going to go to sleep peacefully knowing that we still have our copy of the formula.”

The real recipe for Coca-Cola is considered the Holy Grail of soda pop and Coke fanatics have been searching for the formula for years. NPR’s website crashed in 2011 when it posted what it said was the secret formula.

Kluge says while he can’t guarantee it’s an exact replica of the original formula, he feels “pretty good” about what he found.

“There’s just too many references to Coca-Cola throughout the entire recipe,” he said.

PAKISTAN: YouTube ban challenged in PHC

2013-05-15T07:41:00.002+01:00

PESHAWAR, May 14: A local lawyer has challenged in Peshawar High Court the ban placed on social media website YouTube, pleading that the site should be unblocked.

The petitioner, advocate Mian Mohibullah Kakakhel, on Tuesday requested the PHC to direct the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and ministry of interior to open the website (www.YouTube.com) for the benefit of public at large. The PTA through its chairman and ministry of interior through secretary interior, have been made respondents in the petition. The petitioner has also requested the court to grant interim relief by unblocking the website till final disposal of the petition.

Advocate Kakakhel stated that the interior ministry had banned YouTube last year on the direction of then minister of interior after blasphemous movie “Innocence of Islam” was uploaded.

He stated that banning the whole website was not a solution for stopping the blasphemous videos. He said that the two respondents had promised on several occasions to ban the links of blasphemous videos, but failed to depute a team of expert software engineers to make some effort in this regard.

The petitioner stated that the YouTube contained some valuable videos which were not available in the local market. The videos include those of historical, cultural and religious importance besides music, sports, movies, news, animal planets, cartoons for kids and sermons of Islamic scholars.

He claimed that YouTube was the only website containing education contents, which encouraged students and citizens to learn technical things like making new software, robots, mechanical engineering, software engineering, how to install a hardware, advance cell phone usage and installation of software. He said that most of the software might not be provided here, or if available, a hefty amount of fee was demanded.

The petitioner claimed that the respondents (when in government) banned the YouTube for ulterior motives to stop free election campaigns by their rivals through social media.

He contended that majority of people in the country had access to internet now and YouTube ban was in violation of their right to information. He said that banning such a website for youth was illegal, without lawful authority and jurisdiction.

Latest: US Special Operations step up in Afghanistan!

2013-05-15T06:55:00.000+01:00

Afghan Commandos Step Up Their Combat Role.

AT A CLASSIFIED COMMANDO BASE, Afghanistan — One day this month, a pair of Russian Mi-17 assault helicopters delivered two teams of Afghan commandos, their faces obscured by black masks, in a touch-and-go landing at this camp in a lush valley encircled by frosty peaks about 50 miles from Kabul.

A training squadron drawn from the most secretive counterterrorism units fielded by the United States and its NATO allies watched as the Afghan commandos stormed and cleared a three-story office building that was left conspicuously unfinished — the kind of structure favored by insurgents.

This is the combination of Afghan and allied troops that the Obama administration and the government in Kabul say will assume an increasing share of the combat burden in Afghanistan as the NATO alliance gradually hands over responsibility for security operations to Afghan troops.

As other troops are withdrawn, Special Operations forces are expected to make up almost one-third of the American military presence in Afghanistan by next February. Their specialty — advising local military units on the front lines and hunting down top insurgent or terrorist leaders — will become the major focus of the alliance’s effort here either until American troops are withdrawn by the target date of December 2014 or the Afghan government asks them to stay past then.

On any day in Afghanistan, about 60 Special Operations teams are working with Afghan local police forces to provide security in villages; 50 more are assigned to Afghan strike forces, including 9 commando battalions and special police units and 19 provincial response companies.

The most elite units are housed at secret bases like this one, where assault helicopters stand by to carry them on their missions. Other commando battalions and provincial response companies are scattered among population centers and along the ring road linking Afghanistan’s major cities.

For American commanders, the transition to Afghan leadership on security has been a challenge, requiring a sharp increase in the intensity of training.

It has also required a significant reorganization of planning — and a change in the culture of American Special Operations forces, which, for the first time since the war began, answer to a single commander responsible for coordinating what had been separate, even conflicting, efforts.

“The dirty little secret among S.O.F. is that we were competing among ourselves,” said Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the senior commander overseeing all American and allied Special Operations forces, or S.O.F., in Afghanistan.

“We didn’t necessarily share information to the greatest extent possible,” said General Thomas, an Army Ranger with a long career in Special Operations. “It wasn’t about who got the credit or glory — but we were all so focused on our individual mission that we didn’t always synchronize the effort in the most efficient way for a common goal.”

There have been times when one strike team was targeting a suspected insurgent without knowing that a training team was courting his close kinsman to raise a local police force from their home village.

That began to change just under a year ago when General Thomas took charge of a new military organization here — the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan, making him, in essence, the first to lead a division-sized deployment of Special Operations forces. Under his command are all the various “tribes” of American Special Operations forces: Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marine Corps Special Operations units, as well as the top-tier strike teams that hunt down or kill high-value terrorist and insurgent leaders.

Senior officials say the new level of coordination has paid dividends in the form of initiatives like a centralized system for allocating drones, helicopters and airplanes that has allowed the 200 Special Operations aircraft to increase their sortie rate to 6,000 missions a month from 4,000.

Even as the number of American troops will be cut in half from 68,000 by next February under President Obama’s withdrawal orders, the number of Special Operations forces will remain the same through the Afghan presidential election, which is scheduled for next spring, but could be delayed until closer to December 2014.

While the bulk of the American and allied conventional forces remaining in Afghanistan will make the transition to a support role — and will be increasingly based at large military headquarters — the 10,000 American Special Operations troops will continue to be deployed alongside Afghan units. (Including NATO and coalition troops, the total Special Operations deployment here numbers 13,700.)

“That partnering is rock solid, and we hope over time to come up off the tactical level,” General Thomas said. But he noted that Afghan and NATO leaders all understand the critical importance of assuring that next year’s elections are credible and secure. “So we’re probably going to stay a while longer at the tactical level than we were considering a year ago,” he added.

Alliance commanders acknowledge that one of their greatest fears is an insurgent offensive on Kabul that, even if it failed, would so humiliate Afghanistan’s security forces that — like the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War — it would undermine support for the mission here and in nations that contribute troops to the effort.

Insurgents have mounted exactly that type of raid in the past. And while Afghan and NATO officials said at the time that local security forces reacted with speed and lethal professionalism to subdue the militants, the reality is different. Special Operations commanders now acknowledge that the responses were slow and clumsy and that Afghan troops needed to be strongly urged to move in.

“The Afghan Army hadn’t performed that well in two previous tasks,” said one NATO Special Operations commander here. “Both counterattacks had to be heavily mentored. It came out O.K. in the end — but only after a lot of prompting from our side.”

The effort to sharpen the skills of Afghan Special Forces is focused at this base, which was opened to a New York Times reporter and photographer under the ground rules that its location and the Special Operations units operating here would not be disclosed. Here, the Afghan national commando strike force practices on a training range that includes a full-scale mock-up of a heroin laboratory, a fake village marketplace and that three-story, half-built office building.

The effort, according to allied and Afghan Special Operations commanders, is paying off: Twice in recent weeks, their units have prevented the use of truck bombs, each holding a charge several times larger than the explosives that leveled a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

“The most important thing that this unit offers is security for Kabul, and as we move into this fighting season and into the upcoming elections in ’14, the population will view the security of the capital as a symbol of the credibility of their government,” said Brig. Gen. James E. Kraft Jr., a deputy commander of the Special Operations Joint Task Force.

The commandos, he said, “have been making significant advances in securing the ‘rat lines’ leading toward Kabul and interdicting I.E.D. materials.”

Shortcomings remain. One NATO Special Operations adviser said the training squadron was trying to “wean the Afghans off the ‘crack pipe’ of our aviation” — in particular troop transport and medical evacuation, which the Afghan forces cannot yet sustain on their own.

Although the unit based here is considered the most proficient in the country, allied officials said that it conducted 85 percent of its missions unilaterally, but still required coalition support for the other 15 percent.

Courtesy NY Times

Pakistan: Bomb Blasts rock Karachi

2013-04-27T20:21:00.001+01:00

KARACHI: A bomb blast near Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) corner meeting in Lyari Saturday night left a minor girl dead and least 19 people injured within a few hours of twin blasts that ripped through Orangi Town's Qasba Colony area.

PPP election gathering was in full swing when the explosive device, which police later said was hidden inside an motorcycle, went off in Kumhar Warda area within the jurisdiction of Kalakot Police Station.

Reportedly, the first blast was reported to be a cracker attack on a Fiqah-e-Jafria mosque, Masjid-e-Ali, located near the MQM office in the remits of Pirabad Police Station, while the second one, the sources said was an improvised explosive device evident from the pellet injuries.

19 tourists killed as hot air balloon explodes in Egypt

2013-02-26T19:52:00.004+00:00

At least 19 people, most of them Asian and European tourists, died on Tuesday when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor after a mid-air gas explosion, officials said.

The balloon came down in farmland a few kilometers (miles) from the Valley of the Kings and pharaonic temples popular with tourists. Rescue workers gathered the dead from the field where the charred remains of the balloon, gas canisters and other pieces of wreckage landed.

One Egyptian was also killed, Health Minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed told Reuters, listing the other victims as tourists from Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary. Earlier, officials had said all the dead were foreigners.

The balloon crashed on the west bank of the Nile river, where many of the area's major historical sites are located.

Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor's Al Moudira hotel, said she heard an explosion at about 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). "It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometers away from the hotel," she said by phone. "Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking."

Ahmed Aboud, head of an association representing Luxor balloon operators, said the fire had begun in the pipe linking the gas canisters to the burner. He said it was an accident.

The deaths were caused by burns and injuries sustained in the fall, said Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at the hospital where the injured were treated.

The pilot survived by jumping from the basket, Aboud said.

The British government said two British citizens and a British resident of Egypt had been killed. "We can also confirm that one other British national was involved and is in a stable condition," a British foreign ministry statement said.

Two French citizens were killed, according to France's foreign ministry. The Japanese embassy in Cairo said it believed four Japanese had been aboard and had sent staff to Luxor to confirm this.

Transport accidents are frequent in Egypt. Dozens of children were killed in November when the bus they were on collided with a train. Accidents affecting foreign tourists are rarer, but not unusual. Five Germans were killed in December in a bus crash near a Red Sea resort.

A LOUD EXPLOSION

U.S. photographer Christopher Michel, who was on board another balloon, told Britain's Sky News television that the balloon was one of eight flying at the time. "We heard a loud explosion behind us. I looked back and saw lots of smoke. It wasn't immediately clear that it was a balloon," he said.

Hot air ballooning at dawn is popular with tourists, who are a mainstay of the Egyptian economy, although visitor numbers have fallen sharply since a 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Two years of political instability have kept many foreign tourists away.

Tourism accounted for more than a 10th of Egypt's gross domestic product before the revolt. In 2010, about 14.7 million visitors came to Egypt, but this slumped to 9.8 million the next year.

Wael Ibrahim, head of the tour guides' syndicate in Luxor, said he did not expect the accident to make the situation worse for tour operators in the area than it already was. "We've already been affected badly in Egypt," he said.

Some tourists may be more wary of activities like hot air ballooning, he said, but added: "This (type of) accident could happen anywhere in the world."

Last year a balloon plunged to the ground in flames in Slovenia, killing four people and injuring 28.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Wael el-Maadawi said a committee from the ministry was heading to Luxor to investigate the incident. He said hot air balloon flights would be stopped until an investigation into the cause of the accident.

"We cannot say whether this was because of maintenance or human (error) until the investigation committee is completely done with its investigation," he told Al Jazeera TV's Egyptian channel.

(Reuters)

EXCLUSIVE: BRITAIN’S Catholic leader fired over a gay sex scandal

2013-02-26T11:19:00.002+00:00

Holy man and the sex beast

BRITAIN’S Catholic leader — sensationally fired by the Pope over a gay sex scandal — boasted of his close friendship with Jimmy Savile,

Cardinal Keith O’Brien formed a close bond with the BBC child sex beast over many years and paid a personal tribute to him after his death.

Yesterday it emerged that O’Brien, an outspoken opponent of gay rights, was ordered to resign by the Vatican after male priests came forward to say he behaved “inappropriately” towards them in the 1980s.

One said he was left needing long-term psychological counselling.

The country’s most senior Catholic cleric had planned to hang on until his 75th birthday next month.

But the Pope told him to go immediately, plunging the Catholic church in Britain into turmoil.

The Cardinal — archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh — denies the allegations and is understood to be consulting lawyers.

But he issued a statement yesterday confirming Pope Benedict’s orders and apologising for “failures” during his ministry.

He paid tribute to his “friend” Savile after his death in October, months before the DJ was unmasked as one of the country’s worst ever child sex predators.

He told the Scottish Catholic Observer: “My friendship with Jimmy Savile developed over many years since I was assistant priest in St Patrick’s Parish, Kilsyth.

“We were always trying to fundraise, not only for the parish, but for a variety of local and national charities.”

Savile was awarded the papal knighthood in 1990, a decision the Vatican later admitted regretting.

The axing of O’Brien has left Britain’s Catholic church without a representative in next month’s meeting to select Pope Benedict’s successor.

O’Brien originally asked to retire on March 17 after suffering ill health. But he said in a statement yesterday: “The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today.”

O’Brien, of Ballycastle, Co Antrim, became archbishop in 1985 and was proclaimed a cardinal in 2003.

He vehemently opposed gay adoption and same-sex marriages and was named “bigot of the year” by campaign group Stonewall last year.

The Vatican acted after the complaints by three priests and one former priest, all from his St Andrews and Edinburgh diocese.

It is understood they submitted statements to the office of the papal ambassador to Britain the week before Pope Benedict’s resignation was announced on February 11.

The first allegation is thought to date back to 1980 when the complainant was an 18-year-old trainee priest at a college where O’Brien was his “spiritual director”.

He claims O’Brien made an inappropriate approach after night prayers, leaving the student too frightened to report the incident. He was ordained but later resigned.

A second priest described how he was happily settled in a parish when O’Brien visited and “inappropriate contact” took place.

A third claims he had to deal with “unwanted behaviour” from the cardinal after a late-night drinking session during a week-long stay with the archbishop in the 1980s.

The fourth, according to reports, claims O’Brien used night prayers as an excuse for inappropriate contact while he was counselling him over personal problems.

A spokesman for the cardinal said: “The allegations are anonymous and not specific and he contests them.”

By BRIAN FLYNN, Investigations Editor, and HARRY HAYDON

BBC World Service jammed in China

2013-02-25T19:12:00.001+00:00

(Reuters) - Radio broadcasts in English from the BBC World Service are being jammed in China, the British broadcaster said on Monday, suggesting the Chinese authorities were behind the disruption.

It comes days after a BBC news crew was detained and their video footage confiscated while they investigated a hacking unit in China, allegedly backed by the government.

"The BBC strongly condemns this action which is designed to disrupt audiences' free access to news and information," the BBC said in a statement.

China, which enforces strict restrictions on its domestic media, has been accused by several prominent foreign media of seeking to stop their news reports reaching Chinese audiences.

"The BBC has received reports that World Service English shortwave frequencies are being jammed in China," said the London-based public service broadcaster.

"Though it is not possible at this stage to attribute the source of the jamming definitively, the extensive and coordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China."

A duty officer at China's foreign ministry had no immediate comment.

It was not the first time the BBC had complained of disruption to its services in China, where its website has been consistently blocked.

Last year, it accused the Chinese authorities of jamming its BBC World News TV channel when it broadcast stories regarded as sensitive, such as reports on dissident Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. embassy.

Other foreign broadcasters including U.S. state-funded radio stations Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have also complained of Beijing blocking access to their programs.

The New York Times reported on January 30 that Chinese hackers had been attacking its computer systems while it was working on an investigative report in October last year on the fortune accumulated by relatives of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao.

The BBC said in its statement on Monday that it had experienced jamming of satellite broadcasts over the past two years, and that while shortwave jamming was generally less frequent, it did also affect Persian-language transmissions in Iran.

"The jamming of shortwave transmissions is being timed to cause maximum disruption to BBC World Service English broadcasts in China," said Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News.

"The deliberate and coordinated efforts by authorities in countries such as China and Iran illustrate the significance and importance of the role the BBC undertakes to provide impartial and accurate information to audiences around the world."

China is listed at number 173 out of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by campaign group Reporters Without Borders.

(Reporting By Estelle Shirbon; Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Nepalese woman scales Mount Everest twice within days

2013-02-25T11:10:00.004+00:00

KATHMANDU: A Nepalese climber was confirmed on Monday as the first woman to scale Mount Everest twice in a single season, Guinness World Records said, after she made the second summit within days of the first.

Chhurim Sherpa, 29, reached the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) peak on May 12 last year before returning to base camp for a well-earned rest and then repeating the stunning feat a mere week later.

"I am very happy for this recognition. I was determined that the record should be held by a Nepalese woman and I'm proud to be one," said Sherpa, from Nepal's eastern hills.

Another Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu, died on her descent after becoming the first Nepalese woman to reach the summit of the world's tallest mountain in 1993.

Her feat was followed by 21 Nepalese women but no female climber in the world had ever managed two ascents in one season before Chhurim Sherpa.

"Climbing Everest turns out to be very tough for women like me because there are no toilets. Five of us had to share a tent," she told reporters at a ceremony in the capital Kathmandu to hand her the official record certificate.

Around 3,000 people have made it to the top of Everest since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered it in 1953.

The summit season on Everest begins in late April when a small window between spring and the summer monsoon offers the best conditions for making the ascent.

Woman, 23, arrested found having sex with a Pit bull

2013-02-24T16:24:00.000+00:00

POLICE in Las Vegas allegedly found a 23-year-old woman having sex with a PIT BULL.

Kara Vandereyk was found naked in the front yard outside her house by cops responding to a tip-off.

A report in the US claims she continued fondling the pooch after officers arrived on the scene and approached her.

Police said the woman appeared to be on drugs and could not remember her own name. She informed them she was bipolar.

Vandereyk was booked on a charge of open or gross lewdness.

The dog was handed over to animal control officers.

Iran denies it captured a foreign 'enemy drone'

2013-02-24T15:26:00.001+00:00

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard is denying that it captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

A spokesman for the Guard, Yasin Hasanali, told The Associated Press that the drone was actually being used during the drill as a supposed enemy aircraft.

Iranian media on Saturday quoted a spokesman for the Guard as saying that its electronic warfare unit had taken control of a foreign drone's navigation system and forced it to land during the site of the military exercise.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

The Guard's military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, ends on Monday.

Honeymoon tragedy: Bride falls to her death from Dubai hotel window

2013-02-24T15:00:00.001+00:00

Abbie Emmett had married professional motorbike racer Sean just days before

A young British bride has plunged to her death on honeymoon in Dubai.

It is understood Abbie Emmett, 27, fell out of a window at the hotel where she was staying with new husband Sean, 43, a professional motorbike racer.

Police in Dubai are investigating the circumstances of the fall on Tuesday, just days after the couple arrived in the city after their wedding in South Africa.

Devastated friends of vicar's daughter Abbie said yesterday they were shocked by the news of her sudden death.

A friend, who did not want to give her name, said: "Abbie was a lovely person. We have been friends for a number of years.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard what had happened. I heard she went through a window in their hotel while they were on honeymoon.

They only married a few weeks ago, while they were in Cape Town."

Abbie and Sean, who was a professional Grand Prix motorcyclist, shared a first-floor flat in Addlestone, Surrey.

Neighbour Nicolene Turvey, 27, said yesterday: "I feel so sad. She is such a young girl, the same age as me.

It's devastating for everyone. She really wanted to have kids and she had that maternal instinct."

Grand Prix rider Sean took part in the three-round South African Class TT series on a 1976 Suzuki RG500 bike in Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and Johannesburg over the last two months.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We were made aware of the death of a British national in Dubai on 19 February. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."

Horrifying Nascar crash injures 33 fans at Daytona

2013-02-24T13:54:00.001+00:00

Spectators sprayed with debris - including a tire - after car hits fence

Daytona Beach, Florida: The risks of racing extend beyond the drivers. Fans can wind up in the danger zone, too.

A horrifying crash on the last lap of a race at Daytona International Speedway injured at least 33 fans on Saturday and provided another stark reminder of what can happen when a car going nearly 200 mph is suddenly launched toward the spectator areas.

The victims were sprayed with large chunks of debris - including a tire - after rookie Kyle Larson’s machine careened into the fencing that is designed to protect the massive grandstands lining Nascar’s most famous track.

“I love the sport,” said Shannan Devine, who witnessed the carnage from her 19th-row seat, about 250 feet away. “But no one wants to get hurt over it.”

The fencing served its primary purpose, catapulting what was left of Larson’s car back onto the track. But it didn’t keep potentially lethal shards from flying into the stands.

“There was absolute shock,” Devine said. “People were saying, ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen this happen, I’ve never seen this happen. Did the car through the fence?’ It was just shock and awe. Grown men were reaching out and grabbing someone, saying, ‘Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!’ It was just disbelief, absolute disbelief.”

From Daytona to Le Mans to a rural road in Ireland, auto racing spectators have long been too close to the action when parts start flying. The crash in the second-tier Nationwide race follows a long list of accidents that have left fans dead or injured.

The most tragic incident occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, when two cars collided near the main stands. The wreck sent debris hurtling into the crowd, while one of the cars flipped upside down and exploded in a giant fireball.

Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh were killed, and 120 fans were injured.
The Daytona crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.

The entire front end was sheared off Larson’s car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

“I thought the car went through the fence,” Devine said. “I didn’t know if there was a car on top of people. I didn’t know what to think. I’m an emotional person. I immediately started to cry. It was very scary, absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it’s so dangerous.”

Workers scurried to patch up the damaged fencing and left little doubt that the biggest race of the weekend, Sunday’s Daytona 500, would go on as planned.

Lenny Brown, who witnessed the crash from his 38th-row seat in the Petty grandstand, said he would be back in the same section for the season-opening Sprint Cup event. He has no qualms about his safety, sitting so high up, but he would think twice about the seats he had for the race two years ago.

“The last time I was here, we were only about six rows up,” Brown said. “I had even told some people before the crash, ‘I would never sit that close to the track ever again.’”

But someone surely will - mindful of the risks but eager to be among more than 100,000 fans cheering on stock car racing’s biggest stars.

“Here we are, playing money to sit next to cars going 195 mph,” Devine said. “We do it because we love it. That’s what we expect.”

Newborn babies walk the walk

2013-02-23T22:37:00.001+00:00

Before you can run, you have to walk, and before you can walk well, you have to walk like a brand-new baby. A new study uncovers the logistics of newborns’ herky-jerky, Frankensteinian stepping action and how this early reflex morphs into refined adult locomotion.

In the study, electrodes on infants’ chubby legs picked up signals from neurons that tell muscles to fire, revealing that three-day old babies tense up many of their leg muscles all at once. Toddlers, preschoolers and adults, by contrast, showed a progressively more sophisticated, selective pattern of neuron activity.

From birth to adulthood, motor neurons in the spine get an overhaul as neurons in different locations along the spine become specialized for various aspects of walking, such as foot position, balance and direction, Yuri Ivanenko of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome and colleagues conclude in the Feb. 13 Journal of Neuroscience.

With a helper supporting about 70 percent of the newborn’s weight, a three-day old baby walks across a flat surface while electrodes record motor neuron activity.

Corruption Case Pakistan sends letter to UK, US for arrests

2013-02-23T20:36:00.002+00:00

PAKISTAN: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has written letters to UK and US in connection with the arrests of three accused in NICL case involving a corruption of Rs5 billion.

Passports of the three accused including a former trade secretary have also been cancelled.

Talking to Geo News, Director FIA Sindh Muhammad Malik said Khalik Anwar, the main accused in the NICL case, is a holder of Pakistan as well as US passports and nowadays residing in the US. A letter has been sent to the US authorities to extradite the accused under the treaty signed between the two countries, Malik added.

According to Director FIA Sindh, the former director NICL Amin Qasim Dada and former trade secretary Muhammad Javed are presently in UK. Letter has also been written to the UK government for their deportation, he added.

He said help from Interpol is also being sought for their extradition.

How to post to Facebook, Twitter after you die

2013-02-23T20:11:00.001+00:00

New tools make it possible to schedule social media posts to go up after death

Death already has a surprisingly vivid presence online. Social media sites are full of improvised memorials and outpourings of grief for loved ones, along with the unintentional mementos the departed leave behind in comments, photo streams and blog posts.

Now technology is changing death again, with tools that let you get in one last goodbye after your demise, or even more extensive communications from beyond the grave.

People have long left letters for loved ones (and the rare nemesis) with estate lawyers to be delivered after death. But a new crop of startups will handle sending prewritten e-mails and posting to Facebook or Twitter once a person passes. One company is even toying with a service that tweets just like a specific person after they are gone. The field got a boost last week when the plot of a British show "Black Mirror" featured similar tools, inspiring an article by The Guardian.

Schedule social media posts long into the future

"It really allows you to be creative and literally extend the personality you had while alive in death," said James Norris, founder of DeadSocial. "It allows you to be able to say those final goodbyes."

DeadSocial covers all the post-death social media options, scheduling public Facebook posts, tweets and even LinkedIn posts to go out after someone has died. The free service will publish the text, video or audio messages directly from that person's social media accounts, or it can send a series of scheduled messages in the future, say on an anniversary or a loved one's birthday. For now, all DeadSocial messages will be public, but the company plans to add support for private missives in the future.

DeadSocial's founders consulted with end of life specialists while developing their service. They compare the final result to the physical memory boxes sometimes created by terminally ill parents for their children. The boxes are filled with sentimental objects and memorabilia they want to share.

"I don't think that somebody would continually be negative and troll from the afterlife."

James Norris, founder of DeadSocial

"It's not physical, but there are unseen treasures that can be released over time," Norris said of the posthumous digital messages.

Very loosely related: Manti Te'o and messages from a "dead" girlfriend

Among the early beta users, Norris observed that younger participants were more likely to make jokes around their own deaths, while people who were slightly older created messages more sincere and emotional. He's considered the potential for abuse but thinks the public nature of messages will be a deterrent. The site also requires members to pick a trusted executor, and there is a limit of six messages per week.

The UK-based startup will only guarantee messages scheduled for the next 100 years, but in theory you can schedule them for 400 years, should your descendants be able receive Facebook messages on their Google corneas. The company has only tested DeadSocial with a group of beta members, but it will finally launch the service for the public at the South by Southwest festival in March. Fittingly, the event will take place at the Museum of the Weird.

The last, private word

For those interested in sending more personal messages -- confessions of love, apologies, "I told you so," a map to buried treasure -- there's If I Die. This company will also post a public Facebook message when you die (the message goes up when at least three of your appointed trustees tell the service you've died), but it can also send out private messages to specific people over Facebook or via e-mail.

Though If I Die has attracted a number of terminally ill members, the company's founders think it could be appeal to a much wider audience.

"Somebody that knows he's about to die gets time to prepare himself; the big challenge is when it happens unexpectedly," said Erez Rubinstein, a partner at If I Die.

The Israeli site launched in 2011 and already has 200,000 users. Most have opted to leave sentimental goodbyes, and written messages are more common than videos, according the company. So far, the service is entirely free, but it plans to launch premium paid options in the future.

"It's an era where most of your life and most of your presence is digital, and you want to have some control over it. You want to be in charge of how you are perceived afterward," Rubinstein said.

A tweet-bot to remember you by

A more extreme version of this type of control lies at the heart of _LivesOn, a new project with the catchy tag line "When your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting."

Still in the early stages, _LivesOn is a Twitter tool in development at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, an advertising agency in the United Kingdom. The agency is partnering with the Queen Mary University to create Twitter accounts that post in the voice of a specific person, even after he or she has died.

When people sign up, the service will monitor their Twitter habits and patterns to learn what types of content they like and, in the future, possibly even learn to mimic their syntax. The tool will collect data and start populating a shadow Twitter account with a daily tweet that the algorithm determines match the person's habits and interests. They can help train it with feedback and by favoriting tweets.

"It's meant to be like a twin," said Dave Bedwood, a partner at Lean Mean Fighting Machine.

In the short term, Bedwood and his team said it will serve as a nice content-recommendation engine. But eventually, in the more distant future, the goal is to have Twitter accounts that can carry on tweeting in the style and voice of the original account.

The people behind the project warn against expecting Twitter feeds fully powered by artificial intelligence, or worrying about Skynet, any time soon.

"People seem to think there's a button you can press, and we're going to raise all these people from the dead," joked Bedwood, who has seen a huge spike in interest in the project over the past week. "People have a real faith in what technology can do."

Artificial Intelligence is still a long way from being able to simulate a specific individual, but recreating the limited slice of personality reflected in a Twitter feed is an interesting place to start.

The _LivesOn service is hoping to roll out to a limited number of test users at the end of March.

As with the other services, _LivesOn will require that members choose an executor. At this point, it's as much a thought experiment as an attempt to create a usable tool.

A little bit of immortality

All these companies see the potential for technology to change how people think about death. Goodbye messages can help people left behind through the grieving process, but composing them can also be comforting to people who are uncomfortable with or afraid of death.

"We shy away from death. It reaches us before we approach it," DeadSocial's Norris said. "We're using tech to soften the impact that death has and dehumanize it. It allows us to think about death in a more logical way and detach ourselves from it."

The prospect of artificial intelligence, even in 140-character bursts, can also be comforting to people who see it as a way to live on.

"The afterlife is not a new idea, it's been around for quite a long time with all the different versions of heaven and hell," Lean Mean Fighting Machine's Bedwood said. "To me this isn't any stranger than any one of those. In fact, it might be less strange."

By Heather Kelly, CNN

North Korea warns U.S. forces...

2013-02-23T19:46:00.001+00:00

North Korea on Sunday warned the top U.S. military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would "meet a miserable destruction" if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.

Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.

It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North's third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.

A direct message from the North's Panmunjom mission to the U.S. commander is rare.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. troops.

The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1.

"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," Pak was quoted as saying.

"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction."

Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the United States and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.