N Korea diversifying threats against S Korea: President
Typhoon Ketsana toll touches 331
1 October 2009, HOI AN (VIETNAM): Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia on Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331.
Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines while still a weaker tropical storm, before strengthening over the South China Sea and smashing into Vietnam on Tuesday, leaving another 74 dead from flooding and landslides. It moved inland to lash Cambodia overnight, killing 11 more people, and caused meter-high floods in Laos on Wednesday.
US denied Rowling top award over 'witchcraft'
1 October 2009, LONDON: Former US President George Bush's advisers believed that JK Rowling's books "encouraged witchcraft" and thus deprived the author of a top US
honour, reveals a new book.
The book, titled 'Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor' - written by Matt Latimer, an ex-speechwriter for Bush-has revealed that the Scots-based Harry Potter author was nominated for a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
But White House officials raised an objection against the move, saying that she promoted sorcery in her boy wizard series, which has been made into smash-hit movies starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Thus they stopped Rowling from receiving the US's top gong for civilians who contribute to America, world peace or culture, reports the Sun.
Latimer said "narrow thinking" led "people in the White House to actually object to giving the author JK Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encourage witchcraft".
He also disclosed other names who were denied the privilege under Bush, which included Senator Edward Kennedy - as he was "too liberal".
Rowling's alleged exclusion is not the first example of her writing coming into conflict with the American right. In 2007, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News hit out at the author for announcing that Harry Potter character Dumbledore was gay. He said the outing of Dumbledore was part of a liberal "indoctrination" of children.
NATO assures total support to US in dismantling Al-Qaeda network
Thursday 01 October, 2009: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has assured United States President Barack Obama that the alliance would remain in Afghanistan as long as it took to finish its mission of dismantling the Al-Qaeda network there.
''Our operation in Afghanistan is not America's responsibility or burden alone: it is and it will remain a team effort,'' NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters during a visit with Obama at the White House.
The former Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen said he agreed with Obama's approach of ''strategy first, then resources.''
'This alliance will stand united and we will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job,'' he added.
Obama, who is meeting top advisers about Afghanistan on Tuesday and Wednesday, has said he will not decide on sending further US troops for Afghanistan until after a broad review of strategy.
He did not discuss that process during their brief appearance before reporters.(
Osama in Pak tribal belt: US
Thursday, October 01, 2009, Islamabad: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is alive and based in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan but his ability to carry out terrorist attacks has been "significantly limited", a top US diplomat said on Thursday.
Gerald M Feierstein, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy here, also said that top Taliban leaders operating from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, including Mullah Omar, are playing a key role in fomenting unrest in Afghanistan.
About bin Laden, he said the world's most wanted terrorist was alive and based in the tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Al-Qaeda chief's ability to carry out terrorist activities had been "significantly limited" and he did not appear to have day-to-day command over operations by militants, Feierstein told a group of Pakistani journalists.
However, Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives continue to draw inspiration from bin Laden,” he said. Feierstein said the US has information that the "command centre" of the Quetta 'Shura' or council of the Taliban, comprising commanders from the erstwhile militant regime that ruled Afghanistan, is based in the suburbs of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. Mullah Omar is among the Taliban leaders based in Quetta, Feierstein said.
Feierstein's comments came hours after Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Mullah Omar was not based in Balochistan.
N Korea diversifying threats against S Korea: President
Thursday, October 01, 2009, Seoul: South Korea's leader urged the military on Thursday to stay on guard against North Korea despite its recent peace overtures, saying the communist state is diversifying its threats against the South.
"North Korea has heightened the crisis on the Korean peninsula with a rocket launch and a second nuclear test after making comments about a military confrontation," President Lee Myung-Bak told a parade marking Armed Forces Day.
Lee called on the armed forces to maintain firm deterrence.
"Dialogue with North Korea should not lead to a compromise in our principles and values," he said.
"Our military must be able to deter a war without fighting one," he added in a speech, saying North Korea is "diversifying its threats" with its nuclear and missile programmes.
North Korea launched a long-range missile on April 5. In response to United Nations censure of the launch, it quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks and staged its second atomic weapons test on May 25.
In August, after months of hostile moves towards Seoul and bitter verbal attacks, Pyongyang began making peace overtures to South Korea and to its ally the United States.
It sent a delegation to Seoul in August to pay respects to late president Kim Dae-Jung and to hold talks with Lee, and allowed the resumption of a family reunion programme for the first time in two years.
South and North Korea have remained technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice without a subsequent peace treaty.
Armed Forces Day marks the day when South Korea and its allies made their first military counter-offensive into the North in 1950.
Dozens of fighter jets including KF-16s and attack helicopters such as Cobras staged performance flights, while special forces troops showed off martial arts moves and rappelling skills.
South Korea's 655,000 troops, backed up by US forces numbering 28,500, face off against a North Korean military numbering 1.2 million across a heavily fortified frontier.
The military cancelled the customary street parade this year. The government aims to minimise public gatherings that could help spread the H1N1 flu virus.
