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N Korea warns US of ‘destruction’ ahead of military drills with South
Revoke gay marriage ban: Obama to Supreme Court
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US detected Indian nuke test buildup in 1995
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N Korea warns US of ‘destruction’ ahead of military drills with South Seoul, February 23 Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen James Thurman, the commander of the US Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said. It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North's third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of UN resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation. A direct message from the North's Panmunjom mission to the US commander is rare. North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The US-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops. The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 2,00,000 Korean troops and 10,000 US forces are expected to be mobilised for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1. "If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," Pak was quoted as saying. "You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction." Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the United States and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion. North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the UN Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday. — Reuters Flexing muscle The US-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission, gave the warning by phone to Gen James Thurman, the commander of the US Forces Korea "You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction," Pak said
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Revoke gay marriage ban: Obama to Supreme Court Washington, February 23 The request was contained in a legal brief filed yesterday with the US court, whose nine justices will next month review whether or not to repeal the federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bans marriage between homosexuals. The document marks the first time a president has endorsed same-sex marriage rights before the Supreme Court. The DOMA "denies to tens of thousands of same-sex couples who are legally married under state law an array of important federal benefits that are available to legally married opposite-sex couples," read the brief signed by US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. The case before the court involves Edith Windsor, a lesbian who married in Canada in 2007 but whose spouse and partner of 40 years died. She was required to pay more than $3,60,000 in federal estate taxes because she was not considered married under the DOMA. — AFP Equality in love The Obama administration has asked the SC to strike down a 1996 law defining marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman It says the Defence of Marriage Act "violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection" before the law.
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US detected Indian nuke test buildup in 1995 Washington, February 23 The set of classified documents released by the National Security Archive (NSA) and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project through the mandatory declassification review process, sheds light on the intelligence watch over the Indian test site and the Bill Clinton administration's efforts to head-off a feared test. Surveillance by US intelligence of the Indian test site at Pokhran was intense. Declassified e-mails by Arms Control and Disarmament Agency staffers indirectly discuss satellite reconnaissance photography of the test site noting the mysterious rearrangement of cables possibly connecting to a test device, the NSA said. The e-mails provide readers with a sense of the difficulty of analysing satellite photographs of intricate human-made structures. These documents among other things refers to an August 1996 conversation between the then US Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, and then BJP leader and future Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. According to an embassy message, Vajpayee's "body language" indicated that he "would favour a test". According to one of these documents, after satellite imagery became clear that India was planning a nuclear test, Wisner warned the Prime Minister's Office that such a move would backfire. Within a few days, Ambassador Wisner was back in India, where he met with then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's Principal Secretary, AN Varma, and showed him a satellite photograph of the test site, and warned that a test would "backfire" against India, the document shows. In mid-December, when President Clinton called Rao, who had met him in Washington in 1994, the Prime Minister said that India would act "responsibly", it said. — PTI
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Spain The Spanish king's son-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin, appeared before a judge on the island of
Washington The US military temporarily grounded its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets - used in Air Force, the Navy and the Marines - as a precautionary measure after a routine inspection detected a crack on an engine blade. —PTI Leakage in 6 underground nuclear waste tanks Radioactive leaks have been reported in at least six underground nuclear waste tanks in one of the most contaminated nuclear site on earth — in north-western US state of Washington — raising concerns about delays in emptying the ageing tanks. However, governor of Washington State Jay Inslee said there is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these leaks, which are near the Columbia River. — PTI Mathai’s US visit ends Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai’s three-day US trip concluded after his meeting with Deputy Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter at the Pentagon. During his trip, Mathai held talks on bilateral and regional issues with top US officials. — PTI Havana Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying he is old and has a right to retire. But the Cuban leader he did not say when he might do so or whether such a move was imminent. — AP Tehran Iran has selected 16 locations for the construction of nuclear power plants as part of a plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity at multiple sites over the next 15 years. — AP
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the top US military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would "meet a miserable destruction" if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.
