■NORTH KOREA
State software 10 years late
The country has developed its own computer software operating system that is heavy on security, greatly influenced by Microsoft and about 10 years out of date. The Korean-language system, whose name translates as “Red Star,” is about as advanced as systems that came out a decade ago, a South Korean government think tank said in a report obtained yesterday. “North Korea has created a computer operating system where it can control its own information security,” the Science and Technology Policy Institute said after obtaining the software and running a detailed analysis. Red Star uses the Korean folk song Arirang, popular on both sides of the peninsula, as its start-up music and numbers years using its juche (self-reliance) calendar, which starts counting from the birth of state founder Kim Il-sung. The Linux-based system borrows heavily from early versions of Microsoft and has knock-off copies of the computer giant’s word processing, spread sheet and Power Point programs, the report said.
■AUSTRALIA
Qantas flights disrupted
A cracked cockpit window and an engine surge grounded two Qantas planes, while an unruly passenger had to be restrained on a third as a rash of incidents hit the airline, officials said yesterday. Flight crew noticed the crack during a Los Angeles-Melbourne flight, delaying the return leg by 15 hours as the window was replaced. Crew on a Sydney-Singapore flight had to physically restrain a passenger who, according to media reports, threatened to down the plane with the power of his mind. Meanwhile a flight from Bangkok to London returned to the Thai capital after an engine surge.
■PHILIPPINES
Friends plead for hostage
Friends of an elderly businessman seized by suspected Islamic militants in the south yesterday pleaded for his release, saying his health was very fragile. The emotional appeals came as authorities indicated they knew where Charles Reith, 72, a man of Swiss descent, may have been taken after being abducted from his beach-front home in the port city of Zamboanga on Sunday night.
■SRI LANKA
Ex-army chief back in court
The court martial of the former army chief resumed yesterday, two days before parliamentary elections in which he is a candidate, a military official said. Sarath Fonseka, who has been in detention since Feb. 8, appeared at the hearing in the tightly guarded naval headquarters in Colombo. Fonseka was to face a second set of charges on alleged corrupt military procurements. The general denies all charges and says they are part of a political vendetta against him. Fonseka, 59, who led the military to victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year, fell out with President Mahinda Rajapakse and unsuccessfully tried to unseat him in elections in January. He is a candidate from the opposition Democratic National Alliance at tomorrow’s parliamentary polls.
■INDIA
Maoists kill 73 troopers
Maoists yesterday killed 73 paramilitary police in two separate attacks in the central state of Chhattisgarh, a top local police officer said, adding that the fighting continued. Amresh Mishra, a senior police officer, said reinforcements trying to collect the bodies came under fire by the Maoists who have surrounded the area. “We have confirmation of 73 deaths in the attack. At least two dozen have been injured.”
■ISRAEL
Army censures troops
Two military investigations are criticizing troops over the killing of four Palestinians in the West Bank last month. The first investigation looked into a March 20 incident in which two Palestinians were shot and killed. Troops claimed they fired rubber bullets to disperse a riot, but the investigation says they “apparently” fired live rounds. A military statement released late on Monday terms the incident “unnecessary” and the results “severe” and says it will be investigated further. In the second incident, on March 21 in the same area, troops killed two men they believed were trying to attack them. The statement said the troops “could have operated in a more professional manner” and said the military was weighing disciplinary steps.
■JORDAN
UFO report sparks panic
The Al Ghan newspaper’s April Fool’s Day report chronicling a late-night visit by 3m tall aliens in flying saucers sparked public panic and almost led to the town’s emergency evacuation, officials said on Monday. The front-page article reported a UFO landing near the desert town of Jafr. The report said UFOs lit up the whole town, interrupted communications and sent fearful residents streaming into the streets. Jafr’s mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, got caught up in the paper’s prank and sent security authorities in search of the aliens. “Students didn’t go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town’s 13,000 residents,” Mleihan said.
■FRANCE
Lawyer denounces rumors
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer argued on Monday that Internet rumors involving the president and first lady may be aimed at taking down the glamorous couple. Thierry Herzog said reports of “liaisons” were “totally unfounded,” an unusual public statement on rumors posted by a French blog that Sarkozy, and his wife, top model Carla Bruni, had been unfaithful. The couple have not commented. Sarkozy’s whirlwind romance and marriage in February 2008 to Bruni has been closely watched. It is his third marriage and she, years ago, famously dismissed monogamy as untenable.
■NIGERIA
Election chief must go: US
US President Barack Obama’s administration is recommending that the head of Nigeria’s election commission be replaced on grounds he cannot oversee a credible vote. In unusually blunt remarks, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said on Monday that Maurice Iwu’s performance in running deeply flawed 2007 elections should lead to his removal as chairman of the commission. Iwu’s current term expires in June, a month after the country is expected to hold its next presidential elections.
■TURKEY
Military officers detained
Police have carried out a major operation to detain military officers in connection with an alleged 2003 coup plot, with media accounts yesterday of the number being held varying from 14 to 86. The country was first rocked by an investigation into the “Sledgehammer” plot in February, when the first round of arrests were made. In a sweep launched on Monday, police detained at least 14 retired officers, including several generals, but were prevented from detaining dozens more by the Istanbul chief prosecutor, newspapers reported. NTV news channel, however, reported that 86 officers were being held, including many serving members of the armed forces.
■UNITED STATES
Shuttle inspection hampered
Discovery’s astronauts are surveying their ship for signs of launch damage, but the job is being complicated by the failure of the space shuttle’s big dish antenna. The antenna failed to operate after Discovery blasted into orbit on Monday. That leaves the seven astronauts with no way to send or receive big packages of information, like the laser images of the shuttle’s wings and nose being collected early yesterday morning. Normally, these images are sent immediately to Mission Control. Commander Alan Poindexter and his crew are storing the data on 40-minute tapes. The tapes will be fed into a computer, and the information will be relayed once the shuttle reaches the International Space Station today.
■CHILE
‘A few’ pedophilia cases
The archbishop of Santiago says the Roman Catholic Church is investigating “a few” cases of pedophilia involving priests in Chile, an issue church leaders long sought to play down. “There is something to these pedophilia abuses — just a few, thank God,” Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz said in an interview on state TV on Sunday evening. Errazuriz did not say how many cases or whether they had been reported to police. Press representatives of the Santiago diocese said on Monday that they didn’t know how many pedophilia cases were under investigation.
■UNITED STATES
Stephen Hawking honored
A new auditorium in Texas A&M’s two new physics buildings has been named for renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking attended a dedication ceremony on Monday at the school about 160km northwest of Houston. Hawking first came to A&M in 1995 and has visited regularly since 2003. He lent his name to the new auditorium, while Texas oilman George Mitchell donated US$35 million of the nearly US$83 million price tag for the physics buildings.
■UNITED STATES
Plane crash investigated
Federal safety officials are meeting to determine the cause of a Learjet crash 18 months ago that killed four people and seriously injured Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM. Among the safety issues likely to have been raised by the National Transportation Safety Board yesterday are whether the plane’s tires were properly inflated and why thrust reversers that can help stop planes traveling at high speeds were not engaged. The plane’s manufacturer has also questioned decisions made by the pilots. The jet was building up speed to take off when it hurtled off a runway in South Carolina, crossed a highway, hit an embankment and was engulfed in flames. DJ AM died of a drug overdose a year after the accident.
■MEXICO
Drug boss gets 40 years
Jesus “Chuy” Labra, 61, who helped make the Arellano Felix family one of the most powerful Mexican drug cartels, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison on Monday after nearly a decade of legal wrangling. Labra tapped extensive connections with Colombian cocaine traffickers and Mexican marijuana growers and regularly participated in the cartel’s major decisions, according to a 2003 indictment. He was accused of smuggling marijuana across the border to the US beginning in the 1970s. Also sentenced was Armando Martinez Duarte, 55, a former top security chief in Mexicali for the Arellano Felix gang. Burns sentenced him to eight years and three months in federal prison.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
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