Slavyansk, April 23
Pro-Kremlin rebels in Ukraine braced today for a renewed military offensive by Kiev as US troops headed to the region in a show of force after Washington again warned Moscow over the escalating crisis.

The United States said it plans to deploy 600 troops to Poland and the Baltic states to "reassure our allies and partners" after threatening Russia with more sanctions.

Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov yesterday ordered a new "anti-terrorist" operation against separatists holding a string of eastern towns after the discovery of two "brutally tortured" bodies. One of the dead was a local politician from Turchynov's party who was kidnapped nearly a week ago, the leader said, blaming his death on the rebels.

Kiev's offensive threatens to sound the final death knell for an already tattered agreement struck last week in Geneva between Ukraine, Russia and the West to ease the crisis. "Security agencies are working to liquidate all the groups currently operating in Kramatorsk, Slavyansk and the other towns in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," said Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

In the eastern town of Slavyansk, where the two bodies were found, the streets were calm, with locals walking about as usual. Rebels wearing camouflage gear and ski masks but with no apparent weapons stood outside the barricaded town hall they are occupying. In front of the building were displayed three photos of militants who were killed in a weekend attack on a roadblock the separatists have blamed on pro-Kiev ultra-nationalists.

Yesterday, a Ukrainian reconnaissance plane was hit by small-arms fire from the town, but the aircraft landed safely with none of its crew hurt. Pro-Moscow insurgents in Slavyansk are holding two journalists, an American working for the company Vice News, Simon Ostrovksy, and a Ukrainian working for a pro-Kiev outlet, Irma Krat.

Slavyank's local rebel leader Vyatcheslav Ponomarev said the American "is not being detained, was not abducted, has not been arrested" and claimed he was "working" in one of the rebel-occupied buildings. - AFP

In an extra-ordinary move, the Defence ministry has referred to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) a complaint from the Inter Services Agency (ISI ) seeking closure of country's leading media house, Geo TV, for allegedly unleashing a slanderous and scandalous campaign against country's main spy agency and its chief.

The regulatory authority, acting swiftly on the reference, on Wednesday constituted a three-member committee to review the complaint and submit its findings to the PEMRA board. Media reports indicated that the channel may be shut down soon, short circuiting the legal procedure that requires an appropriate notice and hearing from the channel. One official of PEMRA, however, said the channel would be allowed fully opportunity to respond to the ISI allegation.

The complaint follows the coverage by Geo of Saturday's assassination attempt in Karachi on prominent anchorperson, Hamid Mir, and his brother's disclosure that he had left a videotaped message holding ISI and its chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam responsible if attacked.

Tokyo, April 23
US President Barack Obama landed in Tokyo today to launch an Asian tour dedicated to reinvigorating his policy of "rebalancing" US foreign policy towards a dynamic Asia.

Obama landed aboard Air Force One to begin a state visit to Japan, which comes as regional tensions boil over maritime territorial disputes and fears that North Korea could soon carry out a new nuclear test.

The president touched down a day after nearly 150 lawmakers paid homage at a controversial Tokyo war shrine seen by neighbouring nations as a symbol of Japan's brutal imperialist past, and shortly after the prime minister made a shrine offering.

Days earlier, China seized a huge Japanese freighter over what a Shanghai court says are unpaid bills relating to Japan's 1930s occupation of vast swathes of the country.

In the seas to the southwest, boats from China and Japan spar for ownership of a small chain of islands. And an ever-unpredictable North Korea -- which has denounced the presidential tour as "reactionary and dangerous" -- appears to be trying to seize the spotlight with preparations for a fourth nuclear test.

Despite the increasingly tense security situation, getting top regional US allies Japan and South Korea -- Obama's next destination -- to talk to each other is tricky.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have met just once since both came to power over a year ago, and only then when the US leader cajoled them into a choreographed photo op.

East Asia is a tumultuous region with a multitude of fractures that the US has done little to mend over the last half-century, said Christian Wirth, a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia.

"Since the establishment of the post-war regime in San Francisco in 1951 and the onset of the Korean War in 1950, (the US has been) directly and deeply involved in East Asian politics," he told — AFP

Jindo, April 23
The work of recovering bodies from the submerged South Korea ferry proceeded rapidly today, with the official death toll reaching 150, though officials said divers must now rip through cabin walls to retrieve more victims.

The victims are overwhelmingly students of a single high school in Ansan, near Seoul. More than three-quarters of the 323 students are dead or missing, while nearly two-thirds of the other 153 people on board the ferry Sewol when it sank one week ago survived.

Even with about 150 people still missing, the funeral halls in Ansan are already full, Oh Sang-yoon of the government-wide emergency task force centre said in a statement. The number of corpses recovered has risen sharply as divers battling strong currents were finally able to enter the vessel. — AP

Perth, April 23
A powerful sonar equipment similar to the one that found the wreck of the Titanic could be deployed in the next phase of the search for the crashed Malaysian jet, officials said today, even as an "object of interest" was recovered on the coast of western Australia.

Defence Minister David Johnston said that powerful sonar equipment will probably be used in the next stage of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, including five Indians.

"The next phase, I think, is that we step up with potentially a more powerful, more capable side-scan sonar to do deeper water," Johnston said.

"There will be some issues of costs into the future but this is not about costs," he said. Autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21, currently on its 10th mission, has searched nearly 80 per cent of the focused area in the Indian Ocean. The commercial sonar equipment being considered is similar to the submarines that found the wreck of the Titanic 3,800m under the Atlantic Ocean in 1985.

Meanwhile, an "object of interest" has been recovered on the coast of Western Australia, officials said. Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan described the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets. "It's sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs," he was quoted as saying by CNN. But Dolan added strong words of caution: "The more we look at it, the less excited we get." The 2.5 metre-long object was picked up near Augusta, some 300 kilometres south of Perth. The pictures of the object have also been shared with Malaysian investigation team. — PTI

Beijing, April 23
India and over 140 other countries are taking part in a biennial conference of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) which opened in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao today.

This is the first time that China, one of the 12 founding members of the WPNS, is hosting the symposium. India is an observer in the WPNS.

Participants will discuss and vote on whether to accept Pakistan as a WPNS observer at the symposium.

Rules on accidental maritime encounters were passed at the symposium after reaching consensus among all the member states, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The WPNS was established as proposed by the US and its allies in 1987 with the goal to promote pragmatic cooperation between the navies of nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Delegates at the two-day event will review the work of WPNS-sponsored seminars and other activities for the past year and deliberate on maritime regulations, among other discussions and exchanges.

The WPNS meeting coincides with the 65th anniversary celebrations of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.

India, Pakistan and six other countries have sent their ships to take part. The Indian stealth frigate Shivalik is in Qingdao for the event.

Ships from Bangladesh, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei besides China will also join the exercises.

Multi-country maritime exercises also will be conducted off the coast of Qingdao till tomorrow to mark 65 years of the founding of the PLA Navy.

China will send warships, supply ships, a hospital ship, helicopters and marines to the exercises, which feature joint maritime search and rescue operations.

The WPNS now has 21 member countries, including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the US and Vietnam.

It also has three observers in Bangladesh, India and Mexico. — PTI

London, April 23
Known as the Bard and regarded as England's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, whose 450th birthday is celebrated on Wednesday, let his imagination roam as widely as his characters.

Following are some of the locales, cited by travel website www.GoEuro.co.uk, associated with Shakespeare and his plays. “Macbeth” — Scotland “Something wicked this way comes” — the oft-quoted words of the three witches before their second meeting with the brave but ruthless Scottish general, Macbeth.

Although there are no sites in Scotland directly connected to the real-life Macbeth — an 11th-century King of Scots — the fictional character's titles of Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor point to popular attractions Glamis and Cawdor castles.

Glamis Castle’s history is as extensive and captivating as its gardens, which are listed in an inventory of Scotland's grandest gardens. The building is a Grade I listed site, highlighting its historic and cultural significance. Cawdor Castle makes for just as an intriguing a day out, with a number of nature trails.

“Romeo and Juliet” — Verona, Italy "I do remember an apothecary, And hereabouts he dwells" — upon hearing of the death of his beloved Juliet, Romeo seeks out poison so that he may join his lover in death. This poison is sought in the same city in which much of the story is set, Verona in northern Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Although the story of the ill-fated lovers is probably fictitious, visitors can explore the actual abodes of the Capulet and Montague families: Via Capello (Juliet's House), Romeo's House, and finally the sombre location of Juliet's tomb, among others.

Nobody is sure if Shakespeare ever left Britain, arguing that he may merely have got his descriptions of foreign lands from visitors to London. — Reuters