North Korea 'readying nuke test'

As world leaders meet in China to foster Asian economic growth, Australian PM Julia Gillard warns of the regional consequences of North Korean aggression. Lindsey Parietti reports.

NORTH Korea has told other nations that it will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in the North's capital beginning Wednesday.

A South Korean national security official said yesterday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act.

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said the North may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

In Washington, an adviser to President Barack Obama said "we wouldn't be surprised if they did a test. They've done that in the past."

Aide Dan Pfeiffer told US network ABC's This Week that "the key here is for the North Koreans to stop their actions, start meeting their international obligations, and put themselves in a position where they can achieve what is their stated goal, which is economic development, which will only happen if they rejoin the international community.'"

He told Fox News Sunday that "the onus is on the North Koreans to do the right thing here," adding that "they are the source of the problem and the only way to solve this is for them to take a step back."

If they don't, there will be consequences, Mr Pfeiffer said. "They will be able to further isolate themselves in the world, they will continue to further hurt themselves. The North Korean people are starving because of actions like the ones North Koreans are taking right now."

A file photo shows the launch of a missile in Musudan-ri, North Korea in 2009. South Korea's national security director said the North may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday.

US Senator Lindsey Graham said he could see a "major war happening'' if North Korea overplays its hand. If that occurs, Mr Graham told NBC's Meet the Press, the North would lose and South Korea would win, with the help of the United States.

US General James Thurman, the commander of the 28,000 American troops in South Korea, will stay in Seoul as "a prudent measure'" rather than travel to Washington to appear this coming week before congressional committees, Army Colonel Amy Hannah said in an email to The Associated Press.

General Thurman has asked the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Appropriations subcommittee on defence to excuse his absence until he can testify at a later date.

The top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, who just wrapped up a visit to Afghanistan, said he had consulted with General Thurman about the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

General Dempsey said both General Thurman and South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Jung Seung-jo, decided it would be best for them to remain in Seoul rather than come to Washington. The Korean general had planned to meet with General Dempsey, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, in mid-April for regular talks.

General Dempsey said that instead of meeting in person with Generals Thurman and Jung in Washington, they will consult together by video-teleconference.

Asked whether he foresees North Korea taking military action soon, General Dempsey told The Associated Press, "No, but I can't take the chance that it won't," and thus the Pentagon has bolstered its missile defenses and taken other precautions.

The Pentagon also has postponed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that was set for the coming week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a senior defence official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The official said US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to put off the long-planned Minuteman 3 test until April because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis. Mr Hagel made the decision Friday, the official said.

North Korea's military said this past week that it was authorised to attack the US using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons. North Korea also conducted a nuclear test in February and in December launched a long-range rocket that could potentially hit the continental US.

The US has moved two of the Navy's missile-defense ships closer to the Korean peninsula, and a land-based system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its US-based missile defenses.

The defence official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the Minuteman 3 test delay and requested anonymity, said US policy continues to support the building and testing of its nuclear deterrent capabilities. The official said the launch was not put off because of any technical problems.

General Dempsey said he was not familiar with details of the Minuteman decision because he was travelling in Afghanistan.

But, he said, "it would be consistent with our intent here, which is to do what we have to do to posture ourselves to deter (North Korea), and to assure our allies. So things that can be delayed should be delayed."

View the original article here

Remote-controlled car bomb kills 11

A POWERFUL remote-controlled car bomb targeting a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims killed at least 11 people in Pakistan's insurgency-torn southwest overnight, police said.

The incident took place in the Hazar Ganji area on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of the oil and gas-rich Baluchistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

"A bus carrying Pakistani Shiite Muslims was coming to Quetta from Iran when a car bomb exploded near it, killing 11 people, including nine Shiite pilgrims and two escorting policemen," said senior local police official Hamid Shakeel.

"It was a remote controlled blast. The bomb was planted in a car and exploded as the bus passed by it," he said, adding that more than 20 people were injured in the attack.

Two other senior police officials confirmed the explosion and casualties.

Manzoor Ahmed, a bomb disposal squad official, said the improvised explosive device weighed more than 30 kilograms.

The attack comes a day after a bomb planted under a tea stall at a railway station in southwestern Pakistan killed seven people, including a child, and wounded more than a dozen others.

Baluchistan has become an increasing flashpoint for sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites, who account for about one fifth of the country's 167 million population.

View the original article here

Search for missing diabetic man in WA bush

A SEARCH is underway for a diabetic man who walked away from a campsite in Western Australia's southwest over the weekend after a disagreement with friends.

Police said 35-year-old Luke Kocsis was camping with friends at Scott National Park near Augusta on Saturday night when he decided to walk back to Margaret River.

He was reported missing on Sunday afternoon.

Police and State Emergency Service volunteers searched for him for six hours on Sunday evening but didn't find him.

The search resumed at 6am (WST) on Monday.

Police are seeking information from anyone who may have seen Mr Kocsis, who was wearing dark jeans, a dark jacket and thongs when he left the campsite without his diabetes medication.

View the original article here

Two dead in Quebec daycare shooting

Police have evacuated children from a daycare centre outside the central Canadian city of Gatineau. Source: AAP

A MAN has fatally shot another man then killed himself at a daycare centre in the Canadian province of Quebec, prompting authorities to evacuate the centre as terror-stricken parents scrambled to retrieve their kids.

Gatineau Police Chief Mario Harel said all 53 children were safe and unharmed, and police speculated that some children likely witnessed Friday's killings.

"It's a small area, it's a close space," said Harel. "For sure, they should have been witness (to) the event."

Harel said police received a call about an armed man with a shotgun threatening people. They arrived to find the man dead with a shotgun beside him and a second, unidentified employee of the day care, also dead.

He said the shooting seemed to be related to a recent separation between a couple.

"We have two deceased. One of the males is responsible for this shooting. The other male works at this day care centre," Haren said. "Right now we're investigating that this was related to a recent separation between a couple."

Omar Eltalawi rushed to the scene from his nearby home as soon as he heard about the shooting, fearful for his three-year-old daughter, Zain.

"It was horrible," Eltalawi said as he described the fear of not knowing what was going on inside the two homes that housed the Racines De Vie Montessori daycare.

"You see these things on the news and you don't expect it to happen to you."

A chilling scene played out in the aftermath of the shooting as visibly shaken parents sobbed and hugged while they waited for investigators to bring them to their children.

Sergeant Jean-Paul LeMay said police received a report of a shooting in the morning.

LeMay said the kids were safe at a nearby house. He would not release details on who was killed or if the kids witnessed the shooting.

The shooting initially raised fears of a far worse incident such as the one months ago when 20 children and six educators were massacred in a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school in December.

View the original article here

Viral mugshot woman's wedding offers

This mugshot portrait of Meagan Mccullough nee Simmons has led to marriage proposals and declarations of love. Picture: Hillsborough County Source: Supplied

A MUGSHOT of a woman has gone viral, prompting declarations of love from across the world and even marriage proposals.

Yet the mugshot of the "attractive convict", arrested for allegedly drink driving, is not a model or actress as people presumed. It's a mother-of-four, who is a medical assistant, from Florida, US.

Meagan Mccullough, 27, of Zephyrhills, as she was then known, was arrested for DUI in July 2010 leading to her mugshot being taken in an orange jumpsuit. Her natural good looks meant yesterday, three years on, it caught the attention of the sharing website Reddit and soon spread around the internet like wildfire, MailOnline reported.

Men fashioned memes adding captions to the mugshot such as 'GUILTY - of taking my breath away', 'Arrested for breaking and entering - YOUR HEART' and 'Tell me what she did so I can end up in the same jail'.

Social media sites were overtaken by comments from men wanting to marry her, looking for her phone number and asking if she is a model.

Even on the arrest site men have written of instant love for her mugshot.

Love and marriage... Meagan Mccullough nee Simmons. Picture: Facebook

"The eyes of the sky. And hair like woven silk. I have taken photos of thousands of woman and never seen one with what you have in those eyes breath taking you are.

"I hope if you have a man he takes care of you and showers you with love and tenderness. If we were together you would need for nothing . I would go to the ends of the earth just to make you happy," a man posted.

Another asks her to move to Ireland.

"What's up with that surname, you must have Irish heritage? You got bar work experience?

"Come to Ireland, I'll put you up for a while and you can work in my friends pub while you find your feet, look up your family history and then move on to something better.

A driver's complaint about an inflated service quote and unnecessary repairs has gone viral on social media.

"Over here, we don't call you a criminal for driving drunk (unless repeatedly caught). I'm not joking by the way."

Meagan, now separated from her husband and going by her maiden name Simmons, is baffled by the sudden interest and bemused by the obsession with the mugshot picture she thinks "is terrible".

"I had just been crying when the photo was taken and I was drunk. I knew I'd caused a lot of trouble and my parents were really upset and I was really upset. I wasn't thinking about how I looked at all," she told Mail Online.

"I don't think it's that good a picture - there are other ones I would prefer."

Meagan said the interest was overwhelming and said had to block a lot of users.

Viral footage from Channel 7’s Highway Patrol of Clinton telling Victoria Police he's 'waiting for a mate'

She is single and dateless, although she says her two daughters and two sons, all of school age, are part of a package.

"Guys may find me attractive but they don't want a relationship and it's disappointing," she told Mail Online.

"I am single and I'm a hopeless romantic and I'm really picky. If it was just a nice normal guy who happened to come across the picture - but I'd have to do a background check because who would do that?'

"I think its weird, you can't be serious about someone if it's based off their mugshot and that mugshot is something I'm ashamed of - I'm not happy about it."

Meagan, who used to work at Hooters, is not unaware of her good looks.

Nick Bertke’s funky remix of a trip through central Australia on the Ghan.

"I never know what to wear to my kids school functions...dress like a mom or the sexy woman I am #hotmomproblems," she recently wrote on Twitter.

View the original article here

Woman 'killed family' to get off work

A UK woman falsely claimed a host of family members had died -so she could claim days off work. Source: Supplied

A BRITISH social worker has been struck off after lying to bosses about the deaths of her father, mother, uncle, aunt, brother and ex-husband to get time off work.

Rachael Miles took 66 days off work with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, where she was part of a 16-plus team working with vulnerable people.

After a two-day hearing concluding on March 28, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) found she fraudulently claimed compassionate leave and carers' leave.

The panel heard evidence that Ms Miles made up stories about the deaths of loved ones, including claims her ex-husband had hung himself and she needed to identify his body.

In her first claim in February 2010, less than two weeks after starting work for the council, she told bosses her father had been in a car crash, later reporting he had died.

The following month Ms Miles claimed her mother had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and later that year that she had died during surgery.

In 2011, she told bosses her brother died, followed by her ex-husband.

In November that year, Ms Miles asked for more time off after telling bosses her uncle and then her aunt died seven days apart.

The council launched an investigation and decided to redeploy her to another post in the authority but she resigned instead.

Ms Miles did not attend the hearing in London and was not represented.

The HCPC struck her off its register and placed an interim suspension order on Ms Miles, who can choose to appeal against the decision.

A spokesman for Solihull council said it did not comment on individual staff matters.

View the original article here

WTF is happening in Korea?

South Korean army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon Source: AP

THE question, until recently theoretical, has taken an urgent turn: where would China stand in the event of North Korea living up to its word and striking against US bases and South Korea?

North Korea has declared itself in a "state of war", threatening nuclear and conventional attacks on the US and South Korea, reportedly shifting missiles into place. If it makes one further small misstep, particularly with nuclear posturing, North Korea will be hit suddenly and hard.

But it is the actions of China, which for decades has played the role of big brother to its delinquent younger sibling, that matter.

Kevin Rudd may not be able to foretell his own political fortunes at home but he knows China. In his time as foreign minister, and since, he has maintained a consistent line that will comfort those anxious about the security emergency: China is no aggressor.

Whatever people think of Rudd, he is a respected world expert on China, particularly in regards to its relationship with the US. Foreign Minister Bob Carr looks to Rudd on China. And the world is now looking to China to reveal its true position on North Korea.

Rudd’s view is the world’s hope: that China has gone too far down the path of economic advancement and raising the living standards of its people to cling to a destructive and obsolete alliance with North Korea that could enjoin it to war.

The US this week positioned a destroyer off the South Korean coast to act as a localised ballistic shield against North Korean missiles, 60 years after the unsettled resolutions of the Korean War, involving the identical players: North Korea, South Korea, the US and China.

Images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting his troops, ordering they “standby for fire” on US bases in South Korea, Guam, Hawaii and the mainland, and threats to burn his South Korean neighbours in a “sea of fire”, have amped the rhetoric beyond what is usual even for the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army.

Some international theorists suggest, feebly, he’s using his threats as an invitation for the US to pay him off not to go to war, thus allowing him to save face and thereafter open up his country.

But if Kim Jong-un were a reasonable man, he could be an overnight international hero by freeing his people. Instead, his KPA is warning a 'diversified nuclear strike" could come any day, forcing the US to rush a secondary missile defence system deeper in the Pacific, in Guam, to protect the US west coast.

There is doubt North Korea has a nuclear weapon. But there is no question they can make dirty bombs and have damaging missile capability. The Americans believe the threats are real.

This photo taken and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 29, 2013 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un looking at and signing documents at an undisclosed location. North Korean state media issued two photos that, either by accident or design, appeared to show plans for striking the US mainland, as well as details of the North's military strength. Picture: AFP Source: news.com.au

The son of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, who inherited power in 2011, has been programmed from birth to malfunction. Aged 30, Kim Jong-un’s hard drive is crashing prematurely. The problem is he’s got a 1,200,000-strong active military and many millions more in reserve, making it the fourth-biggest force in the world.

Kim Jong-un’s fury appears to be a response to the US and South Koreans holding joint training exercises in the region.

On March 1, the US and South Korea began the two-month Operation Foal Eagle, involving nuclear-capable stealth bombers dropping dummy munitions off South Korean islands.

The Pentagon said the exercises were the result of long planning and were to assure South Koreans of its commitment to their alliance.

But without question, the intense displays of strength were in response to North Korea conducting its third underground nuclear test in February, which it carried out expressly against China’s wishes.

Kim Jong Un uses a pair of binoculars to look at the South's territory from an observation post at the military unit on Jangjae islet, located in the southernmost part of the southwestern sector of North Korea's border with South Korea. Source: AP

The test resulted in the UN Security Council, of which China is a key permanent member, unanimously endorsing fresh sanctions.

It ordered North Korea to abandon irreversibly all nuclear programs, extended existing travel bans and asset freezes of individuals and companies, and specified that luxury items such as "jewelry with pearls and race cars" be banned from import.

This was to prevent North Korea’s elite from enjoying themselves while their country went hungry.

On Tuesday, North Korea said it would reopen a nuclear reactor closed in 2007 as result of a disarmament treaty to produce plutonium for nuclear warheads.

China, North Korea's only remaining friend in the world, issued a mild rebuke which in context was an expression of extreme displeasure. "We noticed North Korea’s statement (on the reactor), which we think is regrettable," said China’s Foreign Ministry.

North Korea this week issued an absurd propaganda video showing a cartoon missile destroying a US B-52 bomber. Gruesome scenes followed of bodies burning in nuclear fires, and of a baby with its legs blown off. Absurdly, but horribly, the baby was African, not Korean.

Source: News Limited

Brainwashed North Koreans have been on war-footing for decades, putting them in a state of permanent stress. Perhaps Kim Jung-un’s greatest fear is that his people no longer believe him.

China enjoys the growing admiration of the world. But as it provides 50 per cent of North Korea’s food, and 90 per cent of its energy needs, it owns some responsibility for North Korea’s madness.

Early hopes were that Kim Jung-un might listen to Chinese advisors and join the world. Instead, he likes to be seen poring over war maps and staring from binoculars into the distance.

North Korea is believed to have 800 ballistic missiles capable of reaching 3000km, but these are yet to be matched with nuclear warheads. It is developing the long-range TaepoDong 2 missile, which could hit Australian cities.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye said she would respond militarily to further provocations from the North “without any political consideration”, but the likelihood is she would not act without US approval.

A North Korean soldier watches the South Korean side at the border village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in South Korea. Source: AP

Carr said he would use this week’s visit to Beijing with Prime Minister Julia Gillard to urge to use its influence to try and settle down the North Koreans, known in diplomatic circles as “the Norks”. China is already impatient.

Backbencher Rudd, who true to form continues travelling the world speaking as Australia’s foreign minister, was this week in Washington addressing the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where said he was picking up strange new chatter from within China about their displeasure with North Korea.

“I’m surprised by how sort of out there people are at the moment, ranging from, ‘Let’s dump North Korea as an ally’ to ‘How do we work with the South Koreans to exercise restraint?’” Mr Rudd said.

All diplomatic attempts to tone down North Korea, including from China, have failed. Until there was an outcome, said Rudd, China had to accept that the US and South Korea would move to counter, or take on, North Korea.

This made North Korea a dangerous friend for China and a dangerous situation for the world.

This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 12, 2012 shows North Korean rocket Unha-3, carrying the satellite Kwangmyongsong-3, lifting off from the launching pad in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province in North Korea. Source: AFP

“For these reasons the international community will be looking more and more to Beijing,” said Rudd, “in view of its significance as a major supplier of food and energy to the Korean people, for a new diplomacy towards Pyongyang, given that all other diplomacies from other countries have so far demonstrably failed.”

Gillard said she would be personally asking Beijing to put pressure on North Korea, though it’s hard to imagine the dead-PM-walking having any influence on the world superpower except in trade matters.

China does not want to send messages that North Koreans interpret as a call to overthrow Kim Jung-un. This would risk North Koreans running to reunite with the South as one country, which would put a US ally directly on China’s doorstep.

China prefers North Korea maintain its territory and slowly join the world. But that’s not an option. The world waits, anxious, for it to do its duty as a world citizen.

North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea. Source: AP

paul.toohey@news.com.au

View the original article here