Yeonpyeong Island, Dec 20
South Korea launched a live-fire military exercise on a border island today, despite North Korean threats of deadly retaliation, as UN diplomacy on the regional crisis broke down.

But in an apparent sign of compromise over its nuclear ambitions, North Korea had reportedly agreed with US troubleshooter Bill Richardson to permit the return of UN atomic inspectors to ease tensions on the peninsula.

"The drill has started," a ministry spokesman said around 2.30 pm (0530 GMT). "Our armed forces are now on alert and jet fighters are on airborne alert," the spokesman added.

A news agency said two destroyers had also been deployed in forward positions in the Yellow Sea.

An emergency UN Security Council meeting failed to agree on a statement on the crisis, and Russia warned that the international community was now left without "a game plan" to counter escalating tension.

After a similar exercise by marines based at Yeonpyeong on November 23, the North fired some 170 shells onto or around the island, killing four persons, including civilians and damaging dozens of homes.

It had threatened even deadlier retaliation if this week's drill went ahead, saying South Korean shells from such exercises regularly landed in its waters.

North Korea disputes the Yellow Sea border drawn by the United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War. It claims the waters around Yeonpyeong as its own.

North Korea's military appears to be preparing for a counter-attack, removing covers from coastal artillery guns and forward-deploying some batteries, a military source said.

CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer, who is travelling with Richardson in Pyongyang, said there were signs of deal-making.

North Korea had agreed with Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN, to let inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency go back to its Yongbyon nuclear facility, Blitzer said.

It had also agreed to allow fuel rods for enrichment of uranium to be shipped to an outside country, and to the creation of a military commission and hotline between two Koreas and the United States, Blitzer said. — AFP

Kathmandu, December 20
Acting on complaints of irregularities in the quality of Real brand of fruit juices, the godown of Dabur India’s independent group company in Bara district in southern Nepal was raided and sealed on Monday.

Nepal’s Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), which conducted the raids, collected some samples and has also forbidden further sale and distribution of its Real brand of fruit juices from the godown till investigations were over.

“We conducted the raid on Dabur Nepal’s godown on Monday after complaints about irregularities,” CIAA spokesman Ishwori Prasad Poudel said. According to Poudel, the complaints were about wrong manufacturing dates on the cartons. They alleged that batches of the juice manufactured in November 2010 had been packed in cartons dated January 2011.

There was no immediate reaction from Dabur Nepal. Sealing of the godown is likely to hit supplies of the fruit juice to India and other countries with the factory in southern Nepal being the main manufacturing point.

The Indian JV has been facing a long campaign in a section of the media about the quality of its Real fruit juices, rumoured to have been triggered by its refusal to advertise with certain media groups. — IANS

Washington, December 20
US Vice-President Joseph Biden has described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a “hi-tech terrorist” who has put lives of people in jeopardy, and has said Washington is exploring what charges could be slapped against him.

“I would argue that it’s closer to being a hi-tech terrorist than the Pentagon papers,” Biden told the NBC News when asked whether he thought Assange was a high-tech terrorist or a whistleblower akin to those who released the Pentagon Papers — a series of top-secret documents revealing US military policy in Vietnam.

“This guy (Assange) has done things that have damaged and put in jeopardy the lives and occupations of people in other parts of the world,” he said.

The leak of secret papers has made it more difficult for the US to conduct its business with allies and friends, Biden claimed.

“For example, in my meetings — you know I meet with most of these world leaders. There is a desire now to meet with me alone rather than have staff in the room. It makes things more cumbersome. So it has done damage,” Biden said.

When asked if he considered Assange a criminal, Biden said: “If he conspired to get these classified documents with a member of the US military that's fundamentally different than if somebody drops on your lap”. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Hurt Liz Hurley begs for forgiveness from Nayar
LONDON: After finding that Shane Warne, who Elizabeth Hurley had begun dating was two-timing her, a humiliated Hurley is begging estranged Indian husband, Arun Nayar, not to divorce her. The 45-year-old Liz appears to have changed her mind on the Indian textile tycoon after a disastrous fling with Warne, the famed Aussie cricketer known for his weakness for women. “Liz knows she's been a fool and has phoned Arun to say sorry and beg forgiveness. But Arun wants no part of it, and is still going for quickie divorce,” thesun.co.uk quoted a source as saying. — IANS

Snow onslaught continues in Europe
LONDON/BERLIN: Freezing conditions and heavy snow kept air-services across Europe paralysed, leaving thousands of travellers stranded during the busy Christmas season. All flights from Heathrow, Britain's busiest airport, were cancelled for the day. At Frankfurt airport in Germany, more than 700 flights remained grounded last evening due to snow and sleet. — PTI

Indian wins Migrant Day contest
SINGAPORE: An Indian national, working as a safety supervisor at a construction site here, has won a first of its kind talent hunt for migrant workers, held to mark the International Migrant Day in the city. Karu Gajarathi Raju, 32, sang an old Bollywood song to win the first prize of $ 3000 in a contest attended by thousands of foreign workers, The Straits Times reported on Monday. — PTI

UK allows tweeting from courtrooms
LONDON: Cameras and recorders may be barred from courtrooms, but in a first, the British Chief Justice today ruled that there is no ban on using twitter in the court. “The use of unobtrusive, handheld, virtually silent piece of modern equipment to text proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is unlikely to interfere with the administration of justice,”Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge observed today. — PTI