North Korea leader’s armoured train arrives in Chinese capital

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right) and his youngest son Kim Jong-un (left) gesture next to a military official during a gala evening to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang on October 10, 2010.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il’s armoured train arrived in Beijing today, setting the stage for a summit with Chinese leaders that he will want to underscore the bond between his isolated state and Asia’s biggest economy.

A motorcade later swept down central Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue under unusually tight police guard, suggesting the secretive Kim was in the Chinese capital.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Kim was there “apparently for a summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao”.

Neither China nor North Korea has confirmed the visit.



This would be the third trip to China in just over a year for Kim, who in previous years rarely travelled abroad and then only in his personal train, reportedly scared of flying.

Impoverished North Korea has recently been scouring the world for food aid and analysts say Kim is keen to ensure China’s support for his youngest son to eventually take over the family dynasty that has ruled the North since its founding.

As ties with South Korea and most of the outside world have soured, Pyongyang has been forced to rely increasingly on Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

“He seems to want to tacitly remind China’s current leadership of their solidarity and call on them to fulfill their obligation as a big brother,” a South Korean newspaper, the JoongAng Daily, said.

“That’s in sharp contrast with the Chinese government’s purpose of inviting Kim: to stress economic reform.”

A number of analysts say China, keen to keep North Korea from collapse but concerned by its deep economic decline, has been prodding Pyongyang’s leaders to finally start economic reforms.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Tokyo on the weekend that Kim was in China to study “economic development”, Yonhap reported, citing a South Korean presidential aide.

The reclusive Kim’s latest train journey to China began on Friday and took him through China’s frigid northeast to the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu.

Kim visited China, his country’s sole major supporter, last year in early May and then in August. In the past, neither side has openly confirmed his visits until they are over.

Beijing sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against the US and its regional allies. It has sought to shore up ties with the North in recent years with more aid and trade and visits there by leaders.

Deadly tornadoes churn across Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas

At least 15 people died in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma in the latest round of severe weather to strike the US heartland, authorities said Wednesday, in what has already become a historic spring storm season.

Joplin deaths rise, more twisters in US Midwest

The death toll from a monster tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 today after an overnight search turned up more bodies but no new survivors, authorities said.

The tornado that wrecked up to a third of the city of 50,000 on Sunday was upgraded to an EF-5, or the highest rating possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity. It had been rated an EF-4.

Search teams using dogs and heavy equipment pressed on through a harsh night of more stormy weather amid the wreckage of homes, business, schools and churches.



About 1,500 people have been reported missing and some 750 people were injured, according to authorities.

EF-5 tornadoes, with winds at or above 328 km/ph, are rare in the United States but already this year there have been at least four – two in Mississippi, one in Alabama, and in Joplin. They are so destructive that experts said they can turn a house into a missile.

A fresh line of tornadoes and thunderstorms rumbled through the Midwest again yesterday night, bringing more death and destruction to the region, though sparing Joplin.

The storms killed at least seven people and injured many more as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, Kansas and into Arkansas.

President Barack Obama plans to visit Joplin on Sunday, after he returns from a weeklong, four-nation tour in Europe

Astronauts offer pope unique view of Earth’s woes

A file photo from July 29, 2009 showing Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay with Earth in the background. Endeavour and space station crews gathered on May 21, 2011 for an unprecedented conversation with Pope Benedict.

The shuttle Endeavour and space station crews gathered today for an unprecedented conversation with Pope Benedict, who asked how the space programme can promote peace and if the astronauts pray while in orbit.

“I think it must be obvious to you how we all live together on one Earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill each one,” the pope said.



“When you are contemplating the Earth from up there, do you ever wonder about the way nations and people live together down here, about how science can contribute to the cause of peace?” he asked,” he continued, via a televised link from the Vatican.

The pope added his personal wish for the recovery of Endeavour commander Mark Kelly’s wife, US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in an January 8 assassination attempt that killed six and injured 12 others.

“Thank you for mentioning my wife, Gabby,” said Kelly. “We fly over most of the world and you don’t see borders, but at the same time we realise that people fight with each other and there’s a lot of violence in this world and it’s really an unfortunate thing.”

The shuttle commander agreed that people fight for many things, such as the ongoing struggle for democracy in the Middle East and for resources such as energy.

“The science and the technology that we put into the space station to develop a solar power capability, pretty much gives us an unlimited amount of energy and if those technologies could be adapted more on Earth, we could possibly reduce some of that violence,” Kelly said.

The pope also had a personal message for space station flight engineer Paolo Nespoli, whose mother died on May 2.

“How have you been living through this time of pain on the International Space Station? Do you feel isolated and alone, or do you feel united amongst ourselves in a community that follows you with attention and affection?” the pope asked, speaking in Nespoli’s native Italian.

“Holy Father, I felt your prayers and everyone’s prayers arriving up here,” Nespoli replied, also in Italian.

“My colleagues aboard the space station were very close to me at this important time, for me a very intense moment,” Nespoli said. “I felt very far, but also very close.”

Astronaut Roberto Vittori, also from the Italian Space Agency, demonstrated microgravity by flipping a coin given to him by the pope, a symbol of the Vatican’s involvement in the mission, the next-to-last for NASA’s space shuttle programme.

The coin will be returned to the pope after Endeavour lands, now scheduled for June 1.

“To live aboard the International Space Station, to work as an astronaut is extremely intense, but we all have an opportunity when the nights come to look out and, more, to look down at Earth. Our planet, the blue planet, is beautiful,” Vittori said.

“I do pray,” he added. “I do pray for me, for our families, for our future.”

The pope asked the astronauts about the environmental health of the planet, as viewed from space.

“On the one hand, we can see how indescribably beautiful the planet that we have been given is, but on the other hand we can really clearly see how fragile it is,” said NASA astronaut Ron Garan, a member of the live-aboard station crew.

“For instance, the atmosphere, when viewed from space, is paper-thin. And to think that this paper-thin layer is all that separates every living thing from the vacuum of space and is all that protects us is really a sobering thought,” Garan said.

What the astronauts find hopeful, Garan added, is the space station itself, a US$100 billion (RM301 billion) project of 16 nations that took more than a decade to build 355 kilometres above the planet.

“That just shows that by working together and cooperating, we can overcome many of the problems that face our planet,” he said.

Before the pope’s call, the Endeavour astronauts spent an hour surveying a 3.3-inch long section of the shuttle’s heat shield damaged by a debris impact during launch May 16.

The crew used the shuttle’s robot arm to sweep a sensor-laden boom over the damaged ceramic tile, located on the ship’s belly. NASA does not expect the damage to be a concern for re-entry, though the astronauts are trained to make repairs if it turns out to more serious than suspected.

Heat shield damage caused the 2003 Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts.

Endeavour arrived at the space station on Wednesday to deliver the US$2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector and spare parts. The crew plans four spacewalks during their 12-day stay, the second of which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Taliban chief has disappeared in Pakistan

he Afghan intelligence agency says the reclusive leader of the Taliban has disappeared from a suspected hideout in Pakistan and has been out of contact with his commanders for days - adding further questions about Mullah Mohammad Omar after a media ....

Kabul—Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was killed in Pakistan, a private Afghan television channel reported on Monday. “Mullah Omar was killed on his way from Quetta to North Waziristan,” TOLO television said in its news bulletin. ...

The Taliban says its spiritual leader, Mullah Omar, is alive and well. Western diplomats, as well as Pakistani tribal and intelligence sources, also downplay reports that Omar — who gave shelter to Osama bin Laden after 9/11 — is dead.

Afghanistan's intelligence services on Monday confirmed that the one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Omar, with a US$10 million bounty on his head, had disappeared from his Quetta hideout in Pakistan. "We can confirm about the disappearance of Omar five ...

Obama: Would raid Pakistan again if militant found

President Barack Obama is seen being interviewed by Britian’s Andrew Marr of the BBC in the Diplomatic Reception Room in the White House, in Washington on May 21, 2011..


US President Barack Obama would approve a new incursion into Pakistan if the United States found another leading militant there, he said in a BBC interview broadcast today.

US Navy Seals killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks on US cities in 2001, in a raid on his fortified compound in Pakistan on May 2, ending a manhunt for the world’s most-wanted militant.



Asked if Obama would do the same again if the United States discovered another “high-value target” in Pakistan or another country, such as a senior al Qaeda member or Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, he said he would “take the shot”.

“We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies’ people, we can’t allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action,” Obama told the BBC.

“I had made no secret. I had said this when I was running for the presidency, that if I had a clear shot at bin Laden, that we’d take it.”

Obama’s comments echoed those of US Senator John Kerry, a Democrat close to his administration and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Asked this month if the United States would conduct a similar raid in Pakistan to kill Omar if they knew his whereabouts, he said Washington would consider all its options.

US officials have long maintained Omar fled to Pakistan after the Taliban government was overthrown in late 2001 by US-backed Afghan forces and is still in hiding there. Islamabad has denied reports he is in Pakistan.

Obama arrives in Britain on Tuesday for a three-day state visit — the first state visit by a US president since 2003.

He will hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron and address the parliament to hail the two countries’ special relationship and stress the importance of transatlantic ties.

Obama eases Israeli anger on Mideast peace vision

President Barack Obama takes the stage to deliver remarks to delegates at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington, May 22, 2011.

President Barack Obama yesterday eased Israeli anger over his new Middle East peace proposals when he made clear that the Jewish state would likely be able to negotiate keeping some settlements in any final deal with the Palestinians.

Obama repeated his view that long-stalled peace talks should start on the basis of the Israel’s 1967 borders, an assertion that had infuriated Israeli leaders, exposed a rift between the two allies and raised further doubts about peace prospects.



But Obama’s speech to Washington’s most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group yesterday seemed to soothe some tensions over Obama’s endorsement three days earlier of a longstanding Palestinian demand on the borders of their future state.

Obama stressed that he expected the two sides to eventually reach an accord that included land swaps that would take into account the “new demographic realities on the ground,” signalling that Israel should be allowed to keep some Jewish settlements built on occupied land.

The speech to Israel’s staunchest US supporters followed a testy encounter at the White House on Friday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned his hosts by warning Obama against seeking peace “based on illusions” as he vowed Israel would never pull back to old borders he regarded as “indefensible”.

But the right-wing Israeli leader quickly expressed his appreciation for Obama’s remarks yesterday, saying in a statement, “I am determined to work together with President Obama to find ways to resume the peace negotiations.”

It could still take some time, however, for Obama and Netanyahu to overcome the latest strains in an already-fraught relationship that some analysts say is just as much a hindrance to reviving the moribund peace process as policy differences.

Netanyahu resisted offering any concessions in his Oval Office talks on Friday.

Obama’s speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) also served as a reminder his peace formula could cost him support among Jewish and pro-Israel voters and donors as he runs for re-election in 2012. Some prospective Republican presidential challengers have already accused him of betraying Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the region.

ACKNOWLEDGES DIFFERENCES

“Even while we may at times disagree, as friends sometimes will, the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable, and the commitment of the United States to the security of Israel is ironclad,” Obama said to loud applause.

But Obama sometimes met stony silence from the AIPAC audience and at one point drew a smattering of boos.

Israeli officials were pleased, however, to hear Obama again reject a Palestinian plan to seek UN. recognition of statehood in September and condemn a recent reconciliation deal between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas Islamists. But he also pressed Israel to “make the hard choices” for peace.

An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: “We appreciate President Obama’s stated position regarding a state on the 1967 borders, it is a step in the right direction.”

Yesterday, Obama reiterated the “principles” he outlined on Thursday in a speech on Middle East upheaval, but introduced new phrasing that assuaged some of Netanyahu’s concerns.

At issue is Obama’s embrace of a long-sought goal by the Palestinians: that the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem.

The proposal would call for negotiated land swaps for Israel to retain some large settlements in the West Bank.

Obama chided those who he said had “misrepresented” his position, a slap at Netanyahu, who had seized on the notion that he was being asked to return to 1967 lines while ignoring the president’s stipulation there would be land exchanges.

“By definition, it means that the parties themselves — Israelis and Palestinians — will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. That’s what mutually agreed upon swaps means,” Obama said.

“It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last forty-four years... to take account of those changes including the new demographic realities on the ground.”

IN LINE WITH BUSH PROMISES

Obama’s new wording was more in line with guarantees by former President George W. Bush in 2004 saying it was “unrealistic” for Israel to return to old borders and suggesting it may keep settlement blocs under any peace pact.

A senior US official insisted however, that even though “people are trying to suggest that he felt he had to clarify something he said on Thursday, he did no such thing.”

Despite that, Obama’s stress on 1967 borders put the United States formally on record as endorsing the old boundaries as a starting point, something it had only embraced privately.

Obama’s aim was to draw Palestinians back to the table and head off their UN statehood drive, but the Palestinians signalled they would not be deterred. Obama, leaving on a European tour later on Sunday, planned to try to convince European leaders not to support a unilateral statehood bid.

US-brokered talks collapsed late last year when Netanyahu refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank and the Palestinians walked away.

Netanyahu is expected to be feted when he addresses AIPAC today and then speaks to the US Congress tomorrow where he will have a chance to rally support for his stance.

While Obama won the Jewish vote overwhelmingly in 2008, some prominent Jewish Americans were rethinking their support for his re-election after this week’s events.

Some Israelis have never felt entirely comfortable with Obama, unnerved by his early attempts to reach out to Iran and his support for Arab revolutions that have unsettled Israel.

Al Qaeda leader's last moments now captured in toy bricks

Despite documenting an iconic historial moment, the pictures detailing Osama Bin Laden's death were still subject to days of mocked up internet viral treatment.

But one artist has immortalised the famous Navy Seal raid on Bin Laden's Pakistan compound in unique style - by recreating the pictures in Lego.

Student Alex Eylar mocked up his own version of the Al-Qaeda leader's demise by picturing him as a Lego man sat on a bed about to be gunned down by Lego commando.

Another painstakingly-detailed picture recreates the dramatic moment President Obama and his senior staff watch the Navy Seal raid from the White House Situation Room.

Alex's version shows President Obama - who strangely has a mop of black hair - sat watching the raid with other toy brick White House staff including a Lego Hilary Clinton.

Vice President Joe Biden and other members of the national security team are also shown in Lego form staring at their monitors.

 Recreation: Bin Laden sat watching TV in his Pakistan compound also became a defining image following his death.Tension: The defining image of President Obama watching the raid from the White House Situation Room also got the toy brick treatment.Block and load: Two Lego commandos confront Bin Laden in his compound in artist Alex's recreation

President Obama described the time spent watching Navy Seal Team Six raid on Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound as 'the longest 40 minutes of my life'.

He said: 'We knew as events unfolded what was happening in and around the compound, but we could not get information clearly about what was happening inside the compound.'

'And it was the longest 40 minutes of my life, with the possible exception of when Sasha got meningitis when she was three months old, and I was waiting for the doctor to tell me that she was all right. It was a very tense situation.

A third reconstruction shows the infamous moment Bin Laden was pictured sat in his squalid lair watching television reports about himself.

The 22-year-old's interpretation is much more colourful than the drab living space where Bin Laden was spotted in real life.

But the artist still includes telltale details like the terror chief's brown blanket and spare computer monitor.

The detailed recreation even includes the Al-Qaeda mastermind's bolster pillow, satellite decoder and the remote control which he points at the TV.

Lego expert Alex has previously recreated famous movie scenes using the famous toy blocks, including American Beauty and A Clockwork Orange.

Two US troops killed as Baghdad hit by bombs

A soldier inspects the remains of a vehicle used in a bomb attack in Baghdad’s Sadr city May 22, 2011. A string of bombings and explosions killed at least 13 people and wounded 74 in the Baghdad area yesterday, including a suicide bombing targeting Iraqi soldiers north of the capital, security officials said.


A string of bombings killed at least 15 people and wounded 74 more across Baghdad yesterday and two US troops were killed in central Iraq, officials said.

Violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian conflict four years ago, but bombings, assassinations and attacks occur daily as the remaining US troops prepare to pull out of the country by the end of this year.



At least 11 Iraqi troops were killed when a bomber blew up his car among a group of soldiers investigating another car bomb outside a checkpoint on a main street in Taji, 20km north of Baghdad, said the capital’s security spokesman, Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi.

“Two vehicles exploded in Taji. The first was a parked car bomb. They were trying to defuse it, when another driver blew himself up,” he said.

The two US troops were killed on Sunday during operations in central Iraq, the US military said in a statement with no further details of when or how they died.

Iraqi security forces and police are often targeted by insurgents as Washington prepares to withdraw the last US troops at year-end, more than eight years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein from power.

Yesterday, four roadside bombs and a parked car bomb also targeted an Iraqi Federal Police base in Amil District, southwestern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 15 including three policemen, a security official said.

Two more people were killed and another seven were wounded by another roadside bomb planted near a hospital in Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad.

Iraqi forces will take over full control of security at the end of this year when the remaining 47,000 US troops are scheduled to leave Iraq. US troops are now mainly engaged in training and advising Iraqi forces.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said Iraqi forces are ready to contain internal threats. But he has called on Iraq’s main political parties to discuss the sensitive issue of whether to extend the presence of some US troops.

Some officials have suggested a small US force remain to assist Iraqis in areas such as intelligence and border security. But already the idea of US troops remaining has sparked street protests.

Three other soldiers were also killed yesterday by a bomb attached to their Iraqi army vehicle in the town of Tuz Khurmato 170km north of Baghdad, police said.

Three bombs targeting security forces killed 27 people last week in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a disputed area with a mixed Arab and Kurd population and a potential flashpoint once US troops leave.

Spain: PM Zapatero rules out early general election - Spain socialites faces worst election ever.

Spain's ruling Socialist party is licking its political wounds, after voters punished the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in local and regional elections.

The Spanish prime minister wanted to maintain a robust welfare state while handling the demands of the global economy. His decision to abandon the former in favour of the latter goes a long way to explaining the Socialists' local election disaster

A crushing defeat for the ruling Socialist Party in regional elections over the weekend has thrust the bond market's attentions back on Spain, but market participants say it might be too early to press the alarm button.