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SEOUL: Activity has been detected near the site of North
Korea’s first nuclear test but there are no signs yet of
preparations for a second test. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim
Jang Soo said last month that North Korea might stage a second test
to strengthen its hand during six-party talks on scrapping its
nuclear programs. AFP
TOKYO: Another nuclear test by North
Korea does not appear to be imminent, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro
Aso said Friday, following a US media report that another test could
come at any time. AFP
BANGKOK: Thailand’s army-installed
prime minister and a top junta member met Friday to consider
tightening security in Bangkok, after the military denied rumors of
a new coup during the night. Political tensions were ignited by a
series of deadly bombings in Bangkok on New Year’s Eve. Defense
Minister Boonrawd Somtas told reporters that the bombers were most
likely “men in uniform.” AFP
SUVA, Fiji: Coup leader Voreqe
Bainimarama consolidated his hold on power after being sworn in as
interim prime minister exactly one month after overthrowing the
elected government. The swearing-in by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo
came a day after Bainimarama initiated moves to form an interim
government by reinstating Iloilo—a close ally—as president. AFP
BEIJING: China’s state-controlled trade
union plans to organize labor in at least 70 percent of all
foreign-invested enterprises by the end of 2007. The target compares
with a current 60 percent unionization rate at foreign enterprises,
and is inspired by recent advances, such as the organization of
labor at union-shy US retail giant Wal-Mart, the China Daily said.
AFP
BEIJING: Tehran will continue to honor
the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, said
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator during a visit to China. The pledge
by Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s national security council, was
reported the same week that the Iranian government said it was
keeping open the option of quitting the treaty. AFP
WASHINGTON: Racial undertones complicate
handover of the US House majority whip. Outgoing majority whip,
Republican Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, was to hand his successor,
Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, an actual whip that
had been on display in Blunt’s leadership office at the US
Capitol. Clyburn, a 66-year-old African-American from the South, did
not receive the whip from Blunt, a 56-year-old white man from a
border state. Instead, Clyburn was given the whip by former
representative William Gray of Philadelphia, who in 1989 became the
first black House majority whip. Blunt declined repeated requests to
explain why the ceremony was changed. MCT
TACOMA, Washington: Douglas Chanthabouly
pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder in
Wednesday’s shooting death at Foss High School. The judge ordered
him returned to jail in lieu of $1 million in bail. Chanthabouly is
charged in the death of Samnang Kok, 17, who was shot three times in
Foss High. MCT
SEATTLE: Convicted millennium bomber
Ahmed Ressam has recanted testimony that has been helping to detain
a fellow Algerian as an enemy combatant in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In
a letter to a US district judge, Ressam wrote that a Montreal
friend, Hassan Zemiri, had nothing to do with plans to detonate
bombs at Los Angeles International Airport over the New Year’s
holiday in 1999. MCT
BEAUFORT, South Carolina: Former
secretary of Commerce Calvin William Verity Jr. died Wednesday in
hospital. He was 89. Verity was sworn in as President Ronald
Reagan’s secretary of commerce 1987, and served until the end of
Reagan’s term in 1989. MCT
NEW YORK CITY: Royal Caribbean Cruises
agreed to pay more than $1 million to the widow of an American who
vanished on their honeymoon cruise in 2005. Jennifer Hagel Smith
insisted this was no payoff—and vowed to continue searching for
her husband, George Smith. He vanished from the Brilliance of the
Seas as it plied the Aegean Sea. Bloodstains were found running from
the balcony of his cabin to the lifeboats, and a handprint was
discovered on the side of the ship. But his body was never found.
MCT
MADRID: The body of a second Ecuadorian
national listed as missing after a bomb blast at Madrid airport
claimed by the separatist group ETA was found early Friday in his
car at an airport car park. The armed Basque separatists have been
blamed for more than 850 deaths in a violent campaign for
independence stretching back to 1968. AFP
SAN FRANCISCO: The founder Amazon
advertised for engineers to join his private program aimed at
opening the galaxy to more human exploration. Jeff Bezos posted his
hiring offer at www.blueorigin.com, the website of the Blue Origin 9
company he is financing with the goal of making space flights more
affordable for the masses. AFP
MIAMI: Despite fears that teenagers on
the Internet are leaving themselves vulnerable to predators, a new
study that examined adolescents’ pages on MySpace.com suggests
most teens are behaving responsibly in the type of information they
post about their lives. Authors of the unpublished study say there
remain troubling findings, including 5 percent of youths on public
MySpace pages posting pictures of themselves in bathing suits or
underwear. MCT
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