Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.

The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. Read the full story

Malaysian firm buys social network pioneer Friendster

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Support for the US mission in Afghanistan has slipped to a new low, with 44 percent of Americans now saying the war there has been worth the cost, according to a recently released poll.

Amid mounting divisiveness over what was once one of President Barack Obama’s top foreign policy issues, the poll by The Washington Post and ABC News also showed ratings for how he has handled the mission there eroding, to 45 percent approving of how he is dealing with Afghanistan and 47 disapproving, compared to 63 percent approval last year. Read the full story

* Brazil says hunger a “weapon of mass destruction”

* Summit declaration dilutes hunger and farm aid targets

* Berlusconi the only G8 leader attending

By Silvia Aloisi and Daniel Flynn

ROME, Nov 16 (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Monday that agreeing a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil’s president described as “the most devastating weapon of mass destruction”.

Government leaders and officials met in Rome for a three-day U.N. summit on how to help developing countries feed themselves, but anti-poverty campaigners and even some participants were already writing off the event as a missed opportunity. Read the full story

One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive.

The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting. The trick for all observers is to head outside in the wee hours of the morning – between 1 a.m. and dawn – regardless where you live.

The Leonids put on a solid show every year, if skies are clear and moonlight does not interfere. This year the moon is near its new phase, and not a factor. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies, away from urban and suburban lighting, the show should be worth getting up early to see. Read the full story

2009-11-12

MADRID — Spain wants EU naval forces to blockade three Somali ports used to launch pirate attacks against ships in the Indian Ocean, Defence Minister Carme Chacon said Wednesday.

She said Spain will call on European Union foreign and defence ministers to concentrate military efforts on blockading the ports at a meeting next Monday and Tuesday.

“We know that it is from these three ports that most, if not all, ‘mother ships’ used by pirates reach up to one thousand miles away from the coast — as they did yesterday — and carry out kidnappings far from the coast,” she told RNE public radio.

Chacon also said the pirate gangs “have ties to sophisticated law firms in London,” and she called for the international community to do more to track ransoms given to pirates to release hostages.

Several law firms in London, business capital of the world’s maritime industry, have handled piracy kidnap and ransom cases in recent years.

They help ship owners deal with the legal aspects of paying a ransom and engage private security contractors to negotiate with pirates and carry out the ransom drop.

Pirates on Monday launched their longest range hijack attempt to date by opening fire on the Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker BW Lion 1,000 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, the EU naval force in the region said.

The next day pirates attacked the Danish-flagged container ship Nelle Maersk, also some 1,000 nautical miles east of the Somali capital.

Both ships escaped their attackers but the incidents demonstrated how beefed-up security off the Somalia coast appears to be leading pirates to move deeper into the Indian Ocean and its shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe.

Chacon said the attacks so far from the Somalia coast were a “giant step” for the pirates who she said were becoming bolder.

The pirates usually use “mother ships” to sail hundreds of miles out to sea and then attack in small skiffs, sometimes using high-grade weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades.

“These are not romantic pirates which some may be led to imagine, they are authentic criminal organisations which are focused on kidnappings of all types merchant ships, fishing trawlers, ships belonging to the World Food Programme,” said Chacon.

The minister said Somali pirates were currently holding 12 boats and their crews hostage, including the Spanish trawler Alakrana which was seized with its 36 crew on October 2, as well as vessles from Britain, China and Malta.

The pirates are demanding four million dollars (2.6 million euros) ransom as well as the release of two suspected pirates who were detained a few days after the trawler was seized and brought to Spain to face trial.

The Spanish government has ruled out freeing the two suspects but Chacon said they could serve their sentence back in Somalia if found guilty of any crime.

A lawyer for one of the two detained suspected pirates, Javier Diaz Aparicio, told Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo he was trying to reach a plea bargain agreement with Spanish prosecutors.

In an interview with news radio Cadena Ser on Tuesday he suggested that his salary was being paid for by the interior ministry.

http://www.google.com/

Two Koreas in naval clash, no casualties -Yonhap

SEOUL, Nov 10 (Reuters) – The two Koreas have had a naval skirmish in Yellow Sea waters off their west coast but there were no casualties, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The incident comes just ahead of a visit to Asia by U.S. President Barack Obama, with Pyongyang seeking direct talks with his administration and increasing regional tension by saying in recent days it had produced more arms-grade plutonium.

“A North Korean patrol ship crossed the Northern Limit Line and did not cease when we fired warning shots,” Yonhap cited a South Korean defence source as saying.

Military officials could not immediately confirm the reports.

The two Koreas have fought two deadly naval battles in the past decade in the Yellow Sea waters near the contested sea border called the Northern Limit Line.

The South Korean won KRW= retreated on the news, but there was no immediate impact on stocks or bonds. (Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee, Rhee So-eui, Christine Kim and Seo Eunkyung; Writing Jon Herskovitz; Editing by John Chalmers)

Report: Two Koreas’ navies in skirmish

(CNN) — North and South Korean naval forces have exchanged fire, South Korea’s semi-official Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.

The two Koreas clashed off their west coast, where previous skirmishes in 1999 and 2002 turned deadly, Yonhap reported, citing an unnamed South Korean defense official.

“No South Korean casualties were immediately reported,” the official said.

He said a North Korean patrol ship crossed into South Korean waters, prompting the South’s navy to fire warning shots, according to Yonhap.

“The North Koreans then fired back,” the official said.

The two Koreas dispute the exact location of the sea border between their countries.

A clash in 2002 followed a series of incursions by navy ships from North Korea into South Korean waters. At least four South Korean sailors died in that incident and nine others were wounded.

In June 1999, several border violations by North Korean ships sparked the first naval clash between the two Koreas since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North, South Korean navies exchange fire

A North Korean naval ship was badly damaged in an exchange of fire with a South Korean vessel off the country’s west coast, Yonhap News reported, citing a government official in Seoul it didn’t identify.

The clash occurred at 11:28 a.m. local time today after the North Korean ship crossed the sea border and ignored a warning shot, the news agency reported. The South Korean navy fired first and the North’s ship shot back, it said.

There were no South Korean casualties and the North’s ship has since returned, the Korean-language report said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff couldn’t confirm the report when called by Bloomberg News.

North Korea doesn’t recognize the maritime border off the Korean peninsula’s west coast, which led to naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002. The two nations remain divided after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease fire, and have never signed a peace treaty.

Two Koreas in naval clash off west coast: official

(AFP)

SEOUL — The navies of North and South Korea clashed Tuesday off the west coast of the peninsula, military officials said, reportedly leaving a North Korean patrol boat badly damaged.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the clash to AFP but said details were not immediately available.

A government source quoted by Yonhap news agency said a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed border in the Yellow Sea, prompting South Korea’s navy to fire warning shots.

When the boat continued sailing southwards, the South’s navy opened fire at it, the source was quoted as saying. The North Korean boat fired back.

“There were no casualties on our side while the North Korean boat, half-destroyed, sailed back to the North,” the source was quoted as saying.

The clash broke out at 11:28 am (0228 GMT) near Daechong island. It came eight days before US President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in South Korea as part of an Asian tour.

The border known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL) was the scene of deadly naval battles in 1999 and 2002 and has always been a potential flashpoint.

The North’s navy last month accused South Korea of sending warships across the line to stir tensions, and said the “reckless military provocations” could trigger armed clashes.

The NLL was drawn up unilaterally by United Nations forces at the end of the Korean War in 1953. The North has never recognised it and wants it drawn further to the south.

After months of hostility marked by missile test-launches and a nuclear test, the communist North has since August put out peace feelers both to South Korea and the United States.

It freed five South Korean detainees, eased curbs on the operations of a joint industrial estate, sent envoys for talks with President Lee Myung-Bak and allowed a family reunion programme to resume.

The North has also invited US special envoy Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang for talks on ending the standoff about its nuclear weapons programme. Washington was expected to decide soon to go ahead with the trip.

S Korea, DPRK clash in naval coast off west coast: Yonhap

SEOUL: South Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) clashed in naval coast off west coast of the peninsula in the morning of Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said, quoting its government source.

According to the Yonhap, a DPRK patrol ship crossed South Korea’ s Northern Limit Line (NLL), leading the South Korean Navy to fire warning shots.

As the DPRK vessel, ignoring the warnings, continued to sail into the southern territory, the South Korean Navy fired additional shots, Yonhap said.The DPRK side is reported to have responded with countering shots, Yonhap added.

“We’re still trying to find out if there were any casualties,” the source was quoted as saying.

No South Korean casualties have immediately been reported, the official added.

When mainstream media began reporting on the shooting at Fort Hood, numerous reports surfaced stating multiple shooters were involved. Why haven’t we heard more information about these other shooters? Instead, allegations regarding Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s involvement have garnered the most attention from the mainstream media.

This video shows CNN interviewing Sgt. Maj. Jamie Poston. During this interview, Sgt. Maj. Jamie Poston confirms multiple times that more than one shooter was involved: Read the full story

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Facebook users can join the ‘Leonid Meteor Shower 2009′ event and learn more by clicking here!

Nov. skywatch: Leonid meteor shower, Jupiter

November brings sky watchers a cornucopia of astronomical delights. Read the full story

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(NaturalNews) Durian is a little known fruit from Asia that has an extremely pungent smell and an amazingly sweet taste. The smell of the durian fruit is so bad that many hotels in the areas where durian grows will not allow their guests to have the fruit in their rooms. But those who brave the smell are quickly won over by its beautiful taste and amazing health benefits. Read the full story