W O R L D

N Korea rocket launch creates furore
Seoul, December 12
 North Korea launched a long-range rocket today, in defiance of UN sanctions threats over what Pyongyang's critics insist is a disguised ballistic missile test. "It (the rocket) has been launched," a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said without elaborating further.

(R-L) US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, US Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Mark Lippert, Philippines ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia and Philippines Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio in Manila on Wednesday. — Reuters

If elected PM, won’t take oath from Zardari: Imran Khan
Lahore, December 12
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan said he will not take oath of office from President Asif Ali Zardari if his party wins the 2013 general election and he becomes the Prime Minister.

Egypt to hold referendum on two dates
Cairo, December 12
Notwithstanding opposition's call for the scrapping of the entire referendum, the Egyptian authorities today announced that the vote on a controversial draft Constitution would be held on two different dates.

N Korea rocket launch creates furore

Seoul, December 12
North Korea launched a long-range rocket today, in defiance of UN sanctions threats over what Pyongyang's critics insist is a disguised ballistic missile test. "It (the rocket) has been launched," a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said without elaborating further.

The Yonhap news agency, citing a government source, said the rocket had taken off from the Sohae satellite launch centre at 9.51 am (0051 GMT/6.21 am IST) and was immediately detected by navy vessels deployed by Seoul in the Yellow Sea.

There was no immediate report on the success of the launch, but the Japanese government said the missile had passed its southern island chain of Okinawa around 12 minutes after take-off.

"The missile that North Korea calls a satellite passed over Okinawa around 10.01 am. We launched no interception," it said.

Japan had deployed missile defence systems to intercept and destroy the rocket if it looked set to fall on its territory.

The United States had also deployed ships from its Pacific fleet equipped with ballistic missile defences.

Yonhap said the three-stage rocket's first stage had separated as scheduled and splashed down in the sea off South Korea's south-west coast.

In Seoul, President Lee Myung-Bak called an emergency meeting of his National Security Council to discuss the implications of the launch.

The Japan government found the launch intolerable, chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said.

"It is extremely regrettable that North Korea went through with the launch despite our calls to exercise restraint," he said.

The launch followed reports in the South Korean media and satellite imagery analysis by US experts that suggested the rocket had been removed from the launch pad to repair an apparent technical problem.

North Korea had originally provided a December 10-22 launch window, but extended that by a week on Monday when a "technical deficiency" was discovered in the first-stage control engine. — AFP

  3 dead in US mall shooting

Portland (US), December 12
A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall yesterday, killing two persons and wounding another before apparently killing himself as people were doing their Christmas shopping, the authorities said.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as the gunman wearing a camouflage outfit and what looked like a hockey mask fired rounds fire from a military-style rifle near the food court at Clackamas Town Centre.

Parents with children joined other shoppers rushing to stores' backrooms for safety as teams of police officers began entering the mall to find the shooter. Clackamas County sheriff's Lt James Rhodes said later that the gunman was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A shopper told KATU-TV he saw a man lying on the floor with a gun next to him. — AP

US to boost military presence in Philippines 
China tells army to be prepared amid tensions over South China Sea

Manila, December 12
US and Philippine officials agreed today on an increase in the number of US military ships, aircraft and troops rotating through the Philippines, Filipino officials said, as tension simmers with China over its maritime claims.

Though he made no direct reference to the territorial disputes, new Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping urged his military to prepare for a struggle. He made the comments during his visit to a South China Sea fleet ship in southern Guangdongprovince, but did not name any potential aggressor.

Senior US and Philippine officials met today in Manila to discuss strengthening security and economic ties at a time of growing tension over China's aggressive sovereignty claims over vast stretches of the disputed South China Sea.

Philippine defence and diplomatic officials said they expected to see more US ships, aircraft and troops for training exercises and disaster and relief operations.

"What we are discussing right now is increasing the rotational presence of the US forces," Carlos Sorreta, the foreign ministry's Assistant Secretary for American Affairs, told reporters. Afive-year joint US-Philippine military exercise plan would be approved this week, he added.

The size of the increase in the US military assets in the Philippines, a former US colony, was unclear. —Reuters

If elected PM, won’t take oath from Zardari: Imran Khan 

Lahore, December 12
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan said he will not take oath of office from President Asif Ali Zardari if his party wins the 2013 general election and he becomes the Prime Minister.

"The Tehrik-e-Insaf will sweep the coming elections and in such a scenario, I will not take oath as the Prime Minister from President Zardari," Khan said while talking to journalists in Multan yesterday. He is currently touring Punjab to address a string rallies.

Top leaders of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have said the general election will be held by May.

Zardari, who is also the chief of the PPP, is expected to complete his term as President next September.

Referring to PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif's recent remarks that his party had made it possible for the PPP-led government to complete its tenure, Khan questioned why Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, had raised slogans of "Go Zardari Go".

Khan acknowledged that the flow of his party's "tsunami" had temporarily been curtailed because of party elections.

He claimed that a meeting to be held in Layyah district of Punjab would be an eye-opener for those having any doubts about his party's popularity.

"The Tehrik-e-Insaf does not need political heavyweights. We only need ideological workers," he said. —PTI

Egypt to hold referendum on two dates 

Cairo, December 12
Notwithstanding opposition's call for the scrapping of the entire referendum, the Egyptian authorities today announced that the vote on a controversial draft Constitution would be held on two different dates.

A voter at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC, on Wednesday . — AFP

Egyptian Central Elections Commission announced today that the vote, initially set only for December 15, will take place both on Saturday and a week later on December 22. Each round will cover a different region, the state media reported.

According to Al Jazeera, the two-day voting plan had been adopted because many of the judges needed to oversee the vote were staying away in protest at the decision to hold the referendum, so voting had to be staggered to move the judges around.

Egyptians abroad, meanwhile, have already begun voting in the referendum on the new Constitution, state media said.

Voting was taking place at Egyptian embassies abroad, with more than 5,00,000 Egyptians expected to cast their votes in 150 countries.

The present political turmoil began after President Mohamed Mursi granted himself absolute powers through the November 22 decree that had put his decisions beyond judicial review, a move which gained him titles like "dictator" and "Pharaoh".

Mursi tried to calm protests by annulling the decree, but decided to go ahead with the December 15 referendum on a new Islamist Constitution as scheduled.

Egypt's Constituent Assembly on November 30 in a marathon session approved a draft Constitution imposing Islamic values, a move opposed by Liberals as an attempt to restrict freedom of speech and religion in the country.

Unmoved by Mursi's overtures, the largely secular opposition has demanded the entire referendum to be scrapped.— PTI

BRIEFLY

A Sikh soldier with the Scots Guardsmen, Jatinderpal Singh Bhullar, performs guarding duties outside the Buckingham Palace in London on Tuesday becoming the first guardsman to parade wearing a turban. — AP/PTI

Russia slams US for recognising Syrian opposition
Moscow: Russia has criticised Washington's decision to recognise Syria's main opposition group as the country's legitimate representative saying the move is a violation of earlier accords. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the newly-formed Syrian Opposition Council "is now inclusive enough" to be granted the elevated status and deemed his move "a big step" in the international diplomatic efforts to end Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime. — AP

261 Filipino fishermen still missing
Manila: The philippines authorities have rescued 35 fishermen and are searching for 261 others still missing more-than-a-week after a powerful Typhoon Bopha killed hundreds of people in the southern Philippines. Regional military spokesman Captain Severino David on Wednesday said the Indonesian government has sent a ship to join the search for the fishermen, who may have been swept toward the Celebes Sea from the Pacific Ocean off Mindanao Island.— AP

World not ending, says Vatican
Vatican City: The Vatican's top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won't be ending in about two weeks, despite predictions to the contrary. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "it's not even worth discussing" doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported December 21 apocalypse. — AP

Panetta in Kabul to meet Karzai 
Kabul: President Barack Obama will decide shortly how many US troops he wants to keep in Afghanistan after the US-led coalition military mission ends in December 2014, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday as he opened two days of consultations with top US commanders and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Panetta offered no clues to what Obama may decide, but other officials have indicated the White House is considering plans that call for between 6,000 and 10,000 US troops to stay for several years after 2014.— AP

UK officer jailed for passing nuke-secrets 
London: A Royal Navy petty officer has been sentenced to eight years in prisons for passing nuclear submarine secrets to British intelligence agents impersonating Russian spies. Petty Officer Edward Devenney, who was sentenced on Wednesday, was arrested for communicating information that could be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy in breach of the Official Secrets Act. — AP