N. KOREAN LEADER SENDS SWEET BIRTHDAY GIFT TO KIDS
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has sent one kilo of sweets to every child to mark his birthday on Tuesday, carrying on a tradition instigated by his grandfather, state media reported.

A radio report by the North Korean central broadcasting station, monitored in Seoul on Monday, said that Kim had mobilized aircraft to ensure that each child in the country aged 10 or under received the candy gift in time. Villagers in outlying islands “exploded with joy” at the confectionery airlift, the report said.

HILLARY CLINTON RETURNS TO WORK
WASHINGTON, D.C.: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to work on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) after a month-long absence caused by a series of health scares, includ-ing a blood clot in her head, the State department said. Clinton has been sidelined for four weeks, since she was taken ill on her return from a trip to Europe on December 7 and briefly hospitalized for a few days in New York last week. But the State department’s schedule for the week ahead released on Sunday revealed the top diplomat will meet on Monday with her assistant secretaries in Washington. The talks will be closed to the press.
    
AUSTRALIA BRACING FOR ‘WORST EVER’ FIRE DANGER
SYDNEY: Australians were bracing on Monday for what officials warned could be the worst fire danger day ever seen, as police searched for some 100 people still missing in ravaged Tasmania. Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged Australians to be vigilant in coming days, with scorching temperatures predicted in several states and hundreds of blazes already raging. The danger was most acute in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, with the mercury expected to hit 43 degrees Celsius in Sydney on Tuesday. Thousands of firefighters and about 70 aircraft were on standby, with some 90 blazes already burning—20 out of control—and catastrophic conditions forecast for regions south of Sydney.

S. KOREAN YOUTH POPULATION TO BE HALVED BY 2060
SEOUL: South Korea’s low birth rate means the size of its youth population—those aged between nine and 24—will be slashed in half by 2060, a government report warned on Monday. Census data by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family showed that population has steadily declined and stood at 10.2 million last year, or 20.4 percent. The ministry said that the current demographic trend would see that number fall to 9.6 million by 2015, 7.1 million by 2030, 5.9 million by 2050 and just 5.0 million by 2060. After years of promoting family planning in a crowded nation of 50 million, South Korea has become increasingly alarmed by its rapidly ageing society. A rising welfare bill and a declining working population is seen as one of the most serious challenges now facing Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

DOCTORS SAY MANDELA HAS ‘RECOVERED’
CAPE TOWN: Nelson Mandela has recovered from recent surgery and a lung infection, a health scare that had put South Africa on edge as the anti-apartheid hero spent nearly three weeks in hospital, the president said on Sunday, citing his doctors. The revered leader has been recuperating at his Johannesburg home since he was discharged from hospital the day after Christmas, which was the longest he had been hospitalized since his release from 27 years of apartheid prison in 1990. AFP