N. Korea to hold parliamentary vote in March

N. Korea to hold parliamentary vote in March

N. Korea to hold parliamentary vote in March

Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:30 AM PST

North Korea announced Wednesday elections to its rubber-stamp parliament in March, the first under leader Kim Jong-Un as he seeks to cement his grip on power after purging his uncle.

The presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) decided the election — held every five years — would take place on March 9, the North's official KCNA news agency said.

It comes at a time of heightened speculation over the stability of Kim's regime and growing concern over the North's nuclear weapons programme.

The last parliamentary vote — a highly staged process with only one approved candidate standing for each of the 687 districts — was held in 2009 under the leadership of Kim's father, Kim Jong-Il.

Kim succeeded his father in December 2011, and the March election will be closely watched for any further revelations on the changing power structure in Pyongyang.

He has already overseen sweeping changes within the North's ruling elite — the most dramatic example being the execution of his powerful uncle and political mentor Jang Song-Thaek last month on charges of treason and corruption.

In his New Year message last week, Kim said the country had been strengthened by the removal of "factionalist scum".

Since Jang's execution, the North has recalled and purged a number of diplomats and officials working overseas, according to Seoul's top official for North Korea affairs.

Jang, like many top North Korean officials was a member of the SPA, and the March vote will provide an opportunity to see if any senior figures are removed from the candidates' list.

"It will also be interesting to see who the new faces are, as some of them may be tagged for a key role under Kim Jong-Un," said Kim Yeon-Chul, a professor at Inje University's Unification Department.

Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul said the election could herald a "generational change" under Kim Jong-Un.

The announcement of the vote coincided with the young leader's birthday on Wednesday. His precise age is a matter of some speculation due to confusion about the year of his birth, with various reports that it was 1982, 1983 or 1984.

Kim might well be among the parliamentary candidates if he chooses to follow his father's example of standing in the election.

The official turnout in 2009 was put at 99.98 percent of registered voters, with 100 percent voting for the approved candidate in each seat.

The rubber-stamp parliament is usually called into session twice a year for a day or two to pass government budgets and approve personal changes.

The last session in April 2013 saw the appointment of a new prime minister, Pak Pong-Ju — seen by some as an economic reformer.

It also adopted a special ordinance formalising the country's position as a nuclear weapons state — a status that both South Korea and the United States have vowed not to recognise.

"We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state," US Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Tuesday at a joint press conference in Washington with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-Se.

The very public purging of Jang amounted to a rare admission of dissent within North Korea and triggered concerns that the regime might try to promote unity by targeting the South.

Kerry said an additional 800 US troops would be deployed to South Korea for a nine-month tour from February.

"We will continue to modernize our capabilities so that we are prepared to face any threat," he told reporters.

The United States already has 28,500 troops in the South and — under the existing defence pact between Seoul and Washington — would assume overall military command in the event of a full-scale conflict breaking out on the peninsula.

The United States and South Korea have both rejected overtures from the North about resuming six-party talks on its nuclear programme, insisting that Pyongyang must demonstrate some commitment to denuclearisation.

In the meantime, the only tangible US contact with the North is in the unlikely form of ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman who is in Pyongyang for a basketball match he arranged to mark Kim's birthday.

Rodman has been accused at home of pandering to North Korea which last April sentenced American missionary Kenneth Bae to 15 years hard labour on charges of plotting to overthrow the regime. – AFP

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Police hand to public prosecutor probe papers on ‘Allah’ issue

Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:10 AM PST

SHAH ALAM: The police today handed to the public prosecutor the papers on the investigation into the statement by a Catholic priest on the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims, said Selangor CPO Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan.

He said statements had been recorded from 99 individuals as part of the investigation.

"We completed the investigation after recording statements from various people, including the priest (Father) Lawrence (Andrew).

"The investigation papers were handed to the public prosecutor this morning," he told reporters after the monthly assembly at the Selangor police headquarters, here.

Mohd Shukri said the tatement from Lawrence, who is also the editor of the Catholic weekly, The Herald, was recorded yesterday. – Bernama.

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Ex-Guantanamo detainee ‘had role’ in Benghazi attack

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:37 PM PST

US officials have implicated a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner in the 2012 attack on the US mission in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, The Washington Post reported.

Militiamen led by Abu Sufian bin Qumu, chief of extremist group Ansar al-Sharia in Derna city, took part in the attack that killed US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, according to the daily.

It said US officials plan to designate three branches of the group as a foreign terrorism organization in Derna, Benghazi and Libya's neighbor to the west Tunisia in the coming days.

Qumu and two others — militia leaders Ahmed Abu Khattala and Seif Allah bin Hassine — will also be identified as "specially designated global terrorists," the Post said, citing US officials familiar with the plans.

The move aims to pressure the group and curtail support for terror activities, as it allows US authorities to freeze the group's and the men's financial assets and bars US citizens and companies from doing business with them.

Witnesses told US officials that Qumu's men had made the hours-long drive to Benghazi from Derna before the September 11, 2012 attack, the Post said, though it is unclear whether they were there as part of a pre-planned attack.

US officials had sought to get a hold of Khattala in Benghazi, but dropped the plans out of fear that such a move by Americans could foment unrest and destabilize the Libyan government, the Post said.

Khattala has denied any role in the Benghazi raid.

According to the report, US officials are also trying to determine whether any of the people involved in the Benghazi assault were involved in the killing of American schoolteacher Ronnie Smith, who was gunned down while jogging in the restive city last month.

Qumu, 54, is a Libyan native from Derna who once served as a tank driver in the army.

He was imprisoned for 10 years in the country before escaping and fleeing to Egypt and later Afghanistan.

There, he trained in one of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's camps, according to US military files made public by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. He later worked as a truck driver for a bin Laden company in Sudan.

Qumu fought alongside the Taliban following the US invasion that eventually toppled the movement in 2001. He then fled to Pakistan, where he was arrested in Peshawar.

Turned over to the United States, he was transferred to US naval base at Guantanamo in May 2002.

Qumu has a "long-term association with Islamic extremist jihad and members of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups," the military files say.

"Detainee's alias is found on a list of probable Al-Qaeda personnel receiving monthly stipends."

Qumu was transferred to Libya in 2007 and subsequently released by the government.

The US military links him to key Al-Qaeda operator Abu Zubaydah, who is being held indefinitely at Guantanamo. -AFP

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Yahoo dives deeper into media with online magazines

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:30 PM PST

Yahoo dove deeper into being an Internet Age media company, bringing in news, music and television stars for the launch of online magazines focused on technology and food.

The fresh online offerings were showcased by Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer during a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote presentation at a packed theater in Las Vegas.

"Yahoo is about making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining, and there are few places as inspiring and entertaining as CES," Mayer said. "We have been hard at work re-imagining Yahoo's core businesses across search, communications, media and video ? all powered by two powerful platforms, Flickr and Tumblr."

Late last year, Yahoo had more than 400 million mobile monthly users for the first time in the Internet pioneer's history, according to Mayer. About 800 million people use Yahoo monthly overall, the California-based company said.

The theatrical keynote production included appearances by newly-hired Yahoo Global Anchor Katie Couric and Yahoo Tech vice president David Pogue, a former New York Times reporter.

Cecily Strong and Keenan Thompson of beloved US comedy program Saturday Night Live appeared in a faux news report skit lampooning trendy technology companies and concepts. Targets included SnapChat, Bitcoin, and in-flight smartphone use.

Grammy award-winning musician John Legend entertained the audience with a set of songs.

Announcements woven into the stage show included the launches of a Yahoo News digest app design to deliver concise, personalized summaries of global happenings twice daily to smartphones.

"Yahoo News Digest, at its core, simplifies news and solves the problem of information overload and TL;DR," said Yahoo product manager Nick D'Aloisio, referring to an acronym for 'Too Long; Didn't Read.'

Digital magazines Yahoo Food and Yahoo Tech were launched with fanfare.

"We found our inspiration in magazines," Mayer said. "They are elegant, beautiful and have a distinctive voice."

Yahoo Food is devoted to things culinary, while the Tech magazine team headed by Pogue has a stated mission of demystifying the world of geeky gadgets, services and trends.

"Everyone at CES is a gear-head, but the rest of the country is struggling," Pogue said.

"The first language we are going to speak is called English; it's called human."

Pogue said Yahoo Tech would be a "jargon-free, cool-looking" source of news and information presented in terms people not immersed in the industry can appreciate.

And instead of banner or display ads, Yahoo digital magazines will follow the lead of their glossy predecessors and weave clearly labeled advertising into content, according to Mayer.

Pogue said he will be reviewing projects seeking backing at crowd-source funding websites Kickstarter and Indiegogo, giving as an example a stand that keeps a single razor blade sharp for five years.

"It is brilliant, but it also costs $600," Pogue said of the razor system.

Mayer mentioned the acquisition of yet another firm, Aviate, which specializes in automatically organizing applications on smartphone home screens based on clues such as location or time of day and on people's habits.

Mayer took over as Yahoo chief in July of 2012, and her plan to revive the company includes being at the center of people's Internet habits, especially on mobile devices.

"We reach for our mobile devices as soon as we wake up to check the morning headlines," Couric said, telling the audience she was eager to get to work interviewing "anyone with an important or interesting story to tell."

Digital magazines were touted as part of Yahoo's longterm strategy.

"A common theme for us is simplifying our business and how people consume information," Mayer said.

Forrester analyst David Cooperstein saw it as a savvy move to differentiate Yahoo from Google, Facebook or other online venues by providing the professional content people are looking for instead of user-generated material they might find interesting.

"It is a more mainstream play, basically," Cooperstein said.

"By bringing in familiar faces from John Legend to SNL it indicates to me she is talking about more traditional content online, which is the only angle her competitors haven't taken. And every good keynote should have some theatrics in it."

Despite many investments, Yahoo last year lost its Number 2 position in the US digital ad market to social networking titan Facebook, according to industry-tracker eMarketer.

Yahoo's share of global digital ad revenue slid about a half percent to 2.87 percent last year, while Facebook and Google say their shares rise, eMarketer reported.-AFP

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Robots invade consumer market for work and play

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:29 PM PST

The robots are coming, and they're here to help.

Help clean your windows, teach children, or even provide entertainment or companionship.

This week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas highlights enormous growth in robotics in a range of fields.

Meet Bo and Yana, for example — they're cute robots that can fit in your hand and help teach youngsters about programming.

"It's all about programmable play," said Vikas Gupta, founder of California-based i-Play, which designed the toys.

The duo can play with each other, fight, display expressions with their single eye, or even hit notes on the xylophone.

"Music becomes a way for kids to be engaged," Gupta told AFP.

"We want kids to learn programming and not be bothered with cognitive overload."

The robots are designed for children as young as five, and are being launched this year in a crowdfunding effort, the former Google and Amazon executive said.

But play is just one of the many areas of robotics on display at the show, from simple one-task robots to clean a roof gutter or barbecue grill and others that can be a kind of companion to the elderly.

There are also so-called telepresence robots, including the Double Robotics device seen on TV shows such as NCIS Los Angeles.

The Double Robotics gadget includes an iPad attached to a wheeled device that allows a telecommuter to show "face time" in the office even when working remotely. The results, at least on television, can often provide comic relief.

The global market for consumer robots was $1.6 billion in 2012, dominated by the task and entertainment segments, according to ABI Research, but this is expected to grow to $6.5 billion in 2017 with security and telepresence becoming more significant.

ABI analyst Philip Solis said robotics is moving slower than segments like tablets and smartphones, and is dominated by single-task robots.

But the big news in this field, he said, is Google's acquisition of several robotics firms, which could help boost the artificial intelligence needed for multi-tasking robots.

A number of new, innovative robots are also being shown in Las Vegas.

From the Japanese firm AIST is an interactive robot called Paro — designed to look like a baby harp seal — to simulate animal therapy for people in hospitals and extended care facilities where live animals are banned.

Paro has five tactile, light, audition, temperature, and posture sensors, responds to being stroked and can respond to its name.

The French-based firm Keecker is displaying a robot that can project video or other content from a smartphone or tablet to a wall or ceiling.

This means "you can enjoy life without being tied to the television set," said Pierre Lebeau, Keecker's founder and chief executive.

The device runs on Android to allow users to draw from any of the available apps.

"You can put your kids to bed with the Milky Way, and allow them to wake up to a beautiful sunny sky," he said. "It helps people dream."

One of the crowd-pleasers is the "humanoid" Robo-Thespian from the British-based group Engineered Arts.

Thespian can make hand-gestures, and can deliver speeches — with a British accent.

To make it life-like, the robot has pneumatic actuators "so its movements are more fluid," said engineer Morgan Roe. "We try to avoid having it look robotic."

The robot can be used at museums and exhibits, where Thespian can deliver a soliloquy and direct people. But, at this point, he can't interact in the manner of Apple's Siri or Google Now.

"We are working on it," Roe said.-AFP

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Orbital readies cargo mission to space station

Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:24 PM PST

The first regular contract flight of Orbital Sciences' unmanned cargo ship is poised for launch on Wednesday toward the International Space Station, NASA said.

The Cygnus spacecraft is set to take off from Wallops Island, Virginia atop an Antares rocket at 1:32 pm (1832 GMT), carrying 2,780 pounds (1,260 kilograms) of gear including science experiments, supplies and hardware.

Weather conditions are 95 percent favorable for launch, and the biting cold temperatures in the region Tuesday were expected to climb in time for launch, NASA said.

The launch window stays open just five minutes. In case of delay, another attempt could be made Thursday that would still allow Cygnus to reach the space station by January 12.

The attempt was delayed in December due to a cooling system breakdown at the ISS, which required American astronauts to make two spacewalks in order to replace an ammonia cooling pump.

If the launch goes ahead this time, it would mark the company's second trip to the orbiting outpost, coming on the heels of a successful demonstration launch in September.

That mission proved "that the company can reliably carry out regularly scheduled operational missions to the ISS for NASA," said David Thompson, Orbital's chairman and chief executive officer.

"Now our team is focused on executing another flawless launch and in-orbit operation to deliver much-needed supplies to the astronaut crew on board the space station."

Orbital has a contract with NASA worth 1.9 billion dollars for eight cargo resupply missions to the global space lab.

Orbital and SpaceX are two private companies that have stepped in to ensure the United States' ability to reach the orbiting outpost, after the retirement of the 30-year space shuttle program in 2011.

SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, became the first commercial entity to reach the space station with its Dragon cargo ship in 2012, and has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

Unlike SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Cygnus cannot return to Earth intact but will burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, disposing of any unwanted cargo.

It is ferrying some unusual science experiments for the astronauts aboard the station in cooperation with students back on Earth.

One is an experiment called "Ants in Space" that aims to help students compare the behavior of ants in orbit — recorded by video cameras at the ISS — to ants on Earth.

Another is an experiment aimed at helping understand drug-resistant superbugs. It includes 128 test tubes that will measure 38 different concentrations of antibiotic on E. coli bacteria.-AFP

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