Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Japan, EU to launch free trade talks: report






TOKYO: Japan and the European Union are to hold a summit this month to formally launch negotiations on a huge free trade deal, a report said Sunday.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Tokyo in the last week of March to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Nikkei business daily said.

The report said the two sides would reach a final accord to launch long-awaited negotiations aiming to liberalise trade and remove barriers on services and investment.

The EU and Japanese leaders also plan to begin separate talks on a "political accord" featuring cooperation on security, the environment and science and technology.

EU trade ministers agreed in November to launch free trade talks with Tokyo while pledging to safeguard Europe's struggling carmakers.

European car and car parts manufacturers fear the removal of tariffs will lead to a rise in Japanese car imports, pointing to a previous trade deal with South Korea that bumped up sales of South Korean vehicles in Europe.

EU trade ministers have pledged to safeguard struggling carmakers but auto companies have criticised the envisaged deal, with the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association calling it "a one-way street' for Japanese cars.

- AFP/ir



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Malaysia threatens 'drastic' steps in Borneo siege






LAHAD DATU, Malaysia: Malaysia threatened Saturday to take "drastic action" against intruding followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan after a tense standoff erupted into a shootout that killed 14 people.

Twelve followers of the little-known sultan of Sulu and two Malaysian security personnel were killed in Friday's firefight, police said, as the more than two-week-old siege in a remote corner of Malaysia turned deadly.

Dozens of Filipinos have been holed up on Borneo island, surrounded by a massive Malaysian police and military cordon, since landing by boat from their nearby Philippine islands to insist the area belongs to their Islamic leader.

"We want them to surrender immediately. If they don't, they will face drastic action," Hamza Taib, police chief of the Malaysian state of Sabah where the drama was taking place, told AFP.

He declined to provide details of what security forces had in store but his comments echoed growing Malaysian impatience with the situation.

In Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino urged the gunmen to surrender immediately.

"To those who have influence and the capacity to reason with those in (the affected town of) Lahad Datu, I ask you to convey this message: surrender now, without conditions," he said in a statement.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has been embarrassed by the security breach, said in the shootout's aftermath that he told police and armed forces to take whatever action was necessary to end the impasse.

"Now there is no grace period for the group to leave," he was quoted as saying by Malaysian media, blaming the intruders for sparking the violence.

But the deadly clash drew criticism from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

"Why is our government lax about national security,?" he said in a statement late Friday, adding that the government must explain what transpired in the bloody clash claiming two Malaysian lives.

Muslim-majority Malaysia had previously avoided tough talk, expressing hope the intruders would leave peacefully.

But even if they give up, they will face Malaysian prosecution, Hamza said, after he met with Malaysia's home minister and other top security officials.

Local residents were staying indoors and the usually bustling coastal town of Lahad Datu was quiet with most shops closed on Saturday.

Georgina Paulino, a 50-year-old street vendor, complained that her business has been badly hit.

"People are afraid they could be shot if they come out," she told AFP.

The Filipinos, who are estimated to number between 100 and 300, sailed from their remote islands to press Jamalul Kiram III's claim to Sabah.

Kiram, 74, claims to be the heir to the Islamic sultanate of Sulu, which once controlled parts of the southern Philippines and a portion of Borneo.

The Sulu sultanate's power faded about a century ago but it has continued to receive nominal payments from Malaysia for Sabah under a historical lease arrangement passed down from European colonial powers.

- AFP/ck



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US sailors jailed for Okinawa rape: report






TOKYO: Two US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October, sparking island-wide anger, were on Friday jailed for nine and 10 years, a report said.

The Naha District Court in Okinawa said Christopher Browning, 24, should go to prison for 10 years while Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, should serve nine, Jiji Press reported.

Browning and Dozierwalker, who were not stationed in Okinawa, had been drinking on the evening of the attack, which took place on the street and left the unidentified woman with neck injuries.

During an earlier court appearance the two men had admitted the offence, which caused outrage on the sub-tropical islands and beyond, and led to a nationwide night-time curfew on all US military personnel in Japan.

Despite the curfew, misconduct involving US servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases.

Wary of yet another public relations disaster, the US moved quickly to try to lower the temperature in the immediate aftermath of the rape, with ambassador John Roos holding a special news conference at which he appeared visibly angry and upset.

"The United States will cooperate in every way possible with the Japanese authorities to address this terrible situation."

"I understand the anger that many people feel with respect to this reported incident," he said. "I have a 25-year-old daughter myself, so this is very personal to me."

The attack came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which saw demonstrations last year against the US deployment to the island of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft.

The aircraft's perceived poor safety record has been picked over in Japanese media and by local opponents, but commentators say it is a proxy issue and resentment over what many see as an unfair burden is at the root of objections.

Okinawa is the reluctant host to more than half of the 47,000 American service personnel in Japan, and the crimes, noise and risk of accidents associated with their bases regularly provoke ire in the local community.

In 1995 the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen sparked mass protests resulting in a US-Japan agreement to reduce the huge US military presence on the Okinawan chain.

Okinawans say other parts of Japan should take more of the burden and want bases closed or reduced in size.

- AFP/xq



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Resale prices of private homes rebound in January






SINGAPORE: Prices of resale private homes rebounded in January, rising 0.3 per cent, reversing the previous month's 0.2 per cent decline, according to the Singapore Residential Price Index flash estimates published by the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore.

The increase in January was led by price growth in the small unit segment, defined as homes below 506 square feet.

In January, prices of small units rose 2.6 per cent, reversing a 0.7 per cent fall in December.

Prices of resale homes located in the central region also climbed by 0.7 per cent in January, following a 1.5 per cent decrease in the previous month.

Meanwhile, the only segment that registered a price drop last month was homes outside the central area.

Prices fell 0.1 per cent in January, compared with a 0.8 per cent increase in December.

- CNA/ck



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Japan robot suit gets global safety certificate






TOKYO: A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout.

The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs developed by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne, which has also developed similar robot arms.

A quality assurance body issued the certificate based on a draft version of an international safety standard for personal robots that is expected to be approved later this year, the ministry for the economy, trade and industry said.

The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton has become the first nursing-care robot certified under the draft standard, a ministry official said.

Battery-powered HAL, which detects muscle impulses to anticipate and support the user's body movements, is designed to help the elderly with mobility or help hospital or nursing carers to lift patients.

Cyberdyne, based in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, has so far leased some 330 suits to 150 hospitals, welfare and other facilities in Japan since 2010, at 178,000 yen (US$1,950) per suit per year.

"It is very significant that Japan has obtained this certification before others in the world," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, the head of Cyberdyne.

The company is unrelated to the firm of the same name responsible for the cyborg assassin played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 film "The Terminator".

"This is a first step forward for Japan, the great robot nation, to send our message to the world about robots of the future," said Sankai, who is also a professor at Tsukuba University.

A different version of HAL -- coincidentally the name of the evil supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- has been developed for workers who need to wear heavy radiation protection as part of the clean-up at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Industrial robots have long been used in Japan, and robo-suits are gradually making inroads into hospitals and retirement homes.

But critics say the government has been slow in creating a safety framework for such robots in a country whose rapidly-ageing population is expected to enjoy ever longer lives.

-AFP/fl



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4 ex-SMRT bus drivers involved in illegal strike plead guilty

 





SINGAPORE: Four former SMRT bus drivers pleaded guilty in court on Monday and were convicted for inciting and participating in last November's illegal bus strike.

He Jun Ling, 32, Gao Yue Qiang, 32, Liu Xiangying, 33, and Wang Xian Jie, 39, had earlier claimed trial with trial dates set for the 4 to 8 March.

But last Friday, the four men's lawyers said their clients' decision to plead came after prosecution gave an indication of the various sentencing options.

On 26 November 2012, 171 SMRT bus drivers failed to report for duty in a protest over pay and living conditions.

Eighty-eight of them stayed away from work the next day.

In December 2012, a SMRT bus driver, Bao Feng Shan, 38, also from China, was sentenced to six weeks' jail for taking part in the same illegal strike.

- CNA/ck




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Lift-door stickers to drive home fire hazard message






SINGAPORE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has unveiled lift-door stickers with fire safety messages as part of a campaign to generate greater public awareness on the dangers of discarding items at common areas such as corridors, lift lobbies, staircases and void decks.

One such sticker was unveiled by Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs, Mr Masagos Zulkifli, at Blk 819, Tampines West Avenue 3 on Sunday.

The senior minister of state is also an MP for Tampines GRC.

Fires involving discarded items at common areas in HDB estates account for almost a quarter of the total number of residential fires in 2012.

SCDF says such fires have the potential to be more serious in nature due to the high fire load present and proximity to dwellings.

18 people were injured in 707 fires involving discarded items last year.

SCDF says leaving discarded items at the common areas, especially combustible items such as furniture and newspapers, can easily fuel fires when lighted materials such as cigarette butts are indiscriminately thrown onto them.

Cluttered common areas can also seriously hamper fire-fighting efforts, fire evacuation and conveyance of patients during a medical emergency.

- CNA/ir



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Basketball: Lakers cap emotional week with win over Trail Blazers






LOS ANGELES: Kobe Bryant scored 29 of his 40 points in the second half as the Los Angeles Lakers capped an emotional week with a much-needed 111-107 NBA victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Bryant added seven rebounds and two steals for the Lakers, who have won seven of their last 10 games and stand 3-1/2 games behind the Houston Rockets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference standings.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated published this week, Bryant said he was certain the Lakers would make the playoffs.

"It's not a question of if we make the playoffs. We will," Bryant insisted.

The team, which has had more than its share of dysfunctional moments this season, has been through an emotional five days since the death on Monday of 80-year-old owner Jerry Buss.

Buss was remembered at the first Lakers game following his death, a 113-99 win over Boston on Wednesday.

At a memorial service on Thursday Bryant challenged his teammates to live up to Buss' standards of excellence.

"We're playing for something bigger than ourselves, bigger than a single season. We are playing for a great man, Dr. Jerry Buss," he said.

Playing hours after Buss was buried on Friday, the Lakers remained mindful of his legacy, Bryant said.

"I think we understand what's at stake and what this franchise stands for," Bryant said. "That gives you an extra gear."

Dwight Howard added 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Lakers, and Antawn Jamison chipped in 16 points.

JJ Hickson scored with 22 points and 11 rebounds for the slumping Blazers, who have now lost seven in a row to slip 1-1/2 games behind the Lakers.

- AFP/ir



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Locals fill most jobs at new plant on Jurong Island






SINGAPORE: Tuas Power's Tembusu multi-utilities complex on Jurong Island has generated 150 jobs ahead of its official opening next week.

One hundred positions have been filled and the plant's looking for Singaporeans to fill 50 more vacancies.

Nine in 10 positions are currently held by locals.

The jobs are technical in nature, with Tuas Power looking out for graduates from polytechnics and the Institutes of Technical Education.

The Jurong Island facility provides steam, water and electricity to petrochemical firms.

Phase one of the plant's operations has been completed, with full completion expected no later than 2017.

By then, the plant would have generated a total of some 200 jobs.

- CNA/ck



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Australia's Fairfax up on asset sales; revenues plunge






SYDNEY: Ailing Australian media company Fairfax on Thursday unveiled a quadrupling of first-half profit to A$386.3 million (US$395.5 million) after offloading assets to guard against plunging revenues.

Fairfax, publisher of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald broadsheets and owner of radio and digital assets, said net profit for the half-year to December 31 was almost four times that of the Aus$96.7 million over the same period last year.

The profit surge was underpinned by over A$300 million in one-off gains including from the sale of a stake in major New Zealand online auction site TradeMe and United States agricultural publishing business Penton Media Inc.

Revenue continued to bleed, down 7.1 percent on the previous corresponding period, as advertisers and readers turned to other sources, but Fairfax said it had paid down some A$717 million of its debt, reducing it to A$197 million.

Underlying earnings excluding significant items slumped 22.2 percent to A$230.3 million, in line with market expectations.

"For some time we have considered it prudent to manage Fairfax Media on the basis that a significant cyclical upswing was unlikely in the near term," said CEO Greg Hywood.

"While the economic environment continues to be stressed and structural change presents (an) ongoing challenge our overall performance is in line with expectations. Our transformation is ahead of schedule."

Fairfax sent shockwaves through Australia's media sector in June by announcing it would sack 1,900 staff and put its newspapers - the only serious rival to Rupert Murdoch's vast Australian holdings - behind a paywall.

Its shares hit an all-time low in August after staggering losses of A$2.73 billion due to massive writedowns in the value of mastheads and trade names.

As well as putting content behind a paywall, Fairfax has announced it will switch to tabloid format in a bid to save money and stave off advances from the likes of mining magnate Gina Rinehart, a major shareholder.

The latest circulation data, published last week, showed a steep decline for Fairfax titles, with the Sun Herald down 23 percent in the three months to December 31 when compared with the same period last year.

The Sunday Age was down 14 percent, the Saturday editions of both newspapers lost more than 13 percent and weekday editions plunged 14.5 percent in the quarter according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

- AFP/de



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India's workers strike to protest "anti-labour" policies






NEW DELHI: Millions of India's workers walked off their jobs on Wednesday in a two-day nationwide strike called by trade unions to protest at the "anti-labour" policies of the embattled government.

Financial services and transport were hit by the strike called by 11 major workers' groups to protest at a series of pro-market economic reforms announced by the government last year, as well as high inflation and rising fuel prices.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appealed to unions to abandon the strike, the latest in a string of protests against liberalisation, warning it would cause a "loss to our economy" already poised for its slowest annual growth in a decade.

But talks following Singh's appeal this week collapsed after the government refused to bow to union demands to roll back the reforms, which are aimed at jumpstarting the economy and averting a downgrade in India's credit rating.

"The workers are being totally ignored and this is reflected in the government's anti-labour policies," said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the umbrella Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

The government's "big ticket" reforms include opening the retail, insurance and aviation sectors to wider foreign investment, raising prices of subsidised diesel used by farmers and reducing the number of discounted cooking gas cylinders.

The steps aim to free up the still heavily state-controlled economy and reduce India's ballooning subsidy bill and fiscal deficit. But they have stirred anger in some areas, especially among the poor.

"The last time that we called a strike (in February 2012), nearly 100 million workers participated. This time we're expecting a bigger number," Sen told AFP.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated losses from the strike at around 200 billion rupees (US$3.7 billion).

"The national economy... can ill afford this situation. In fact, the strike would aggravate the price situation because of disruption in supply line of essential commodities," the chamber said in a statement.

The strike's impact appeared to be the greatest in the eastern state of West Bengal and the southern state of Kerala where banks, schools and the transport sector were hit.

Flag-waving protesters stopped trains and staged noisy demonstrations in the eastern states of Orissa and Bihar. A trade union leader was crushed by a bus that he was trying to stop in Ambala district in the northern state of Punjab.

In Mumbai, the financial sector was crippled with government banks, insurance companies and workers at other businesses taking part in the stoppage.

The strike comes a day before the start of parliament's budget session, which is likely to be disrupted by the opposition parties over allegations of kickbacks in a US$748 million government contract for Italian helicopters.

-AFP/fl



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Local furniture makers urged to adopt green practices






SINGAPORE: More furniture manufacturers in Singapore will be encouraged to adopt green practices with the aim of being awarded green certifications.

This is part of a three-year plan by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) and Singapore Environment Council (SEC) with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

To date, 11 SFIC members have been awarded green certificates by local and international bodies. The SFIC aims to double this number by 2014.

Under the MOU, SFIC and SEC will work together to improve furniture manufacturers' expertise in environmental sustainability.

This will be done through various programmes like training seminars and conferences.

There will be programmes to help companies undertake the SEC's Singapore Green Labelling Scheme (SGLS), a leading environmental standard and certification mark.

President of SFIC, Mr Ernie Koh, said, "Our Singapore furniture companies are already well-recognised in the global market for their high quality and professional business management. This MOU will further enhance our standing and raise our competitiveness and reputation in the eco-friendly furniture market."

- CNA/fa



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Pakistan protesters demand end to killing of Shiites






QUETTA, Pakistan: Thousands of women refused to bury victims of a bloody bombing and a strike shut down Pakistan's biggest city Karachi as protesters across the country demanded protection for Shiite Muslims.

Up to 4,000 women began their sit-in in Quetta Sunday evening, a day after a bomb in the city killed 81 members of the minority community including nine women and two girls aged seven and nine.

The women blocked a road and refused to bury the dead until authorities take action against the extremists behind the attack, which wounded 178 people.

The bomb, containing nearly a tonne of explosives hidden in a water tanker, tore through a crowded market in Hazara Town, a Shiite-dominated area on the edge of the city on Saturday evening.

It was the second deadly blast in the city in little over a month.

The sit-in continued Monday at Hazara Town and near a local station, said Wazir Khan Nasir, police chief of Quetta which is the capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"We are going to resume negotiations with the Shiite community leaders this morning to convince them to bury the dead," Nasir told AFP.

However a local Shiite party leader, Qayyum Changezi, said the protesters "will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the bomb blast and called on authorities to act quickly against those responsible.

Sit-in demonstrations were held in several cities and towns across the country demanding an end to the killing of Shiites.

Public transport drivers and traders stopped work in Karachi Monday after a Shiite party called a protest strike, residents said.

Schools were closed, traffic was off the roads and attendance in offices was thin in the city. Several political and religious parties have backed the strike call.

"We will continue our peaceful struggle for protection of the Shiite community," said a Shiite party leader, Hasan Zafar Naqvi.

Baluchistan has increasingly become a flashpoint for surging sectarian bloodshed between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and Shiites, who account for around a fifth of the country's 180 million people.

Saturday's attack takes the death toll in sectarian attacks in Pakistan this year to almost 200 compared with more than 400 in the whole of 2012 -- a year which Human Rights Watch described as the deadliest on record for Shiites.

A double suicide bombing on a snooker club in Quetta on January 10 killed at least 92 people, the deadliest-ever single attack on the community in Pakistan.

No one has been arrested for that attack and Daud Agha, chairman of the Shia Conference, told AFP anger was rising in the community.

Although it is customary for Muslims to bury the dead swiftly, protesters after the snooker club bombing refused to do so, prompting Islamabad to sack the provincial government.

The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack -- as it did for the snooker hall bombing and a February 1 attack on a Shiite mosque in northwest Pakistan that killed 24.

There is anger and frustration at the apparent inability or unwillingness of the authorities to tackle the LeJ. Activists say the failure of the judiciary to prosecute sectarian killers allows them to operate with impunity.

Baluchistan governor Zulfiqar Magsi pointed the finger at the security forces over the latest atrocity.

"Repeated occurrence of such attacks is a failure of our intelligence agencies," he told reporters late Saturday.

"Our security institutions, police, FC (paramilitary Frontier Corps) and others are either scared or cannot take action against them."

But Baluchistan home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said authorities were already taking action. "Law enforcement agencies have arrested so many suspects and seized huge cache of arms," Durrani said.

Pakistan is due to hold a general election in coming months but there are fears that rising sectarian and Islamist violence could force the postponement of polls.

- AFP/ir



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Briton survived Outback by drinking contact lens fluid






SYDNEY: A British backpacker who endured three days missing in Australia's punishing Outback survived by drinking his contact lens fluid and urine, his mother said Sunday.

Samuel Woodhead, 18, was found Friday on the sprawling remote property Upshot Station, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the far-flung central Queensland town of Longreach, from where he had set off on Tuesday.

He became lost in extremely harsh terrain and mother Claire Derry credited his training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for his survival in the remote and unforgiving Outback with little more than sunburn and dehydration.

"He tried drinking his own urine and he wasn't able to cope much with that, so he drank tiny sips of the contact lens fluid," Derry told the Sun-Herald newspaper.

He lost 15 kilograms over three days and nights and Derry said she and her son were both incredulous that he'd been found alive.

"Sam is incredibly fit, that was something I clung on to," she said, adding that her son wanted to go into the Royal Marines or the army.

"He'd not long ago been on an appropriateness course for Sandhurst... so I knew he had a lot of knowledge to draw on."

Australian authorities had held grave fears for the man's survival in a region where heat, a lack of water, venomous snakes and the possibility of injury could prove deadly.

Planes, motorbikes, and four-wheel drives were being used in the search, with neighbours also combing the area on foot and horseback and an emergency services helicopter dispatched with medical staff.

When he was found Derry said her son told her his rescuers said "they normally find people out here with their eyes pecked out.

"All he could say was 'Mum, just thank these wonderful people. I've loved Australia from the minute I arrived here. These people are extraordinary'."

Derry was on board a flight from Britain to Australia and had been fearing the worst when she learned that her son had been found alive. She celebrated by embracing the flight crew and popping some champagne.

"One of the airline staff came up to me and he was smiling. He handed me this piece of paper saying Sam was found alive and well," she said.

- AFP/ir



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Anti-North Korea leaflets launched on Kim's birthday






IMJINGAK, South Korea: North Korean defectors in the South launched 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the tense inter-Korean border on Saturday, the birth anniversary of the North's late leader Kim Jong-Il.

The defectors used gas-filled balloons to float the leaflets along with $1 currency notes across the western border town of Imjingak, despite high tensions owing to the North's third nuclear test on Tuesday.

The balloons were inscribed with slogans such as "Stop provocative acts with missiles and nuclear tests", "North Koreans rise up" and "The Kim dynasty will soon collapse".

North Korea celebrates the birthdays of both late leaders -- Kim Jong-Il's on February 16 and his father Kim Il-Sung's on April 15 -- as major national holidays.

Kim Jong-Il, who died of heart attack in December 2011, was succeeded by his son Jong-Un.

Anti-Pyongyang activists momentarily suspended such leaflet launches until after the South's presidential election in December as the government urged them to halt such activities for fear of provoking Pyongyang.

North Korea has in the past threatened "merciless military strike" in response to anti-regime propaganda leaflets, with local residents warned to evacuate such areas.

The North conducted a third nuclear test on Tuesday, whose detonation power was much larger than those of two previous ones in 2006 and 2009.

Pyongyang said the test was a riposte to UN sanctions imposed after its launch of a long-range rocket in December, which it claimed was part of a legitimate space programme.

- AFP/ck



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S. Korea leader says only regime fall will change North






SEOUL: North Korea can never be made to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Friday, arguing that only regime collapse could remove the threat from Pyongyang.

As the UN Security Council continues to debate how to punish the North for its latest nuclear test, the outgoing president suggested the best way forward was to try to foment unrest among the North Korean people.

"It has become impossible to have North Korea give up its nuclear weapons through dialogue and negotiations", Lee told a meeting of senior dignitaries including former government ministers and religious leaders.

"We cannot hope the North will part with its nuclear programmes until its regime changes or collapses", he said.

"We can help change the North Korean people, if not the North Korean regime itself."

Lee is set to leave office in 10 days at the end of a five-year term marked by an almost complete breakdown in contacts between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Lee had always promised to take a harder line than his predecessors, making continued aid to the impoverished North conditional on progress in talks on its nuclear programme.

His successor, president-elect Park Geun-Hye, campaigned on a policy of greater engagement with Pyongyang, but Tuesday's nuclear test will almost certainly see that policy shelved for months, if not longer.

-AFP/fl



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Ex-CNB chief found not guilty of corruption






SINGAPORE: Former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay is not guilty of corruption in a high-profile sex-for-contracts trial.

The verdict was handed down by District Judge Siva Shanmugam on Thursday afternoon.

The judge said there was no corrupt element involved, and found Cecilia Sue's credibility to be successfully impeached.

He said her explanations on inconsistencies in her statements to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and evidence in court were inadequate and unconvincing.

The judge also found Ng's evidence to be consistent and credible.

Ng, 46, was charged in June last year with four counts of obtaining sexual favours from Ms Sue, who was a sales manager for two IT vendors.

Ng allegedly breached the Prevention of Corruption Act by engaging in sexual acts with Ms Sue on four occasions, between June and December in 2011.

Ms Sue, 36, was the sales manager of Hitachi Data Systems from June to November 2011.

She joined Oracle Corporation Singapore in December in 2011 as its senior sales manager.

In exchange, Ng was accused of furthering the business interests of the two IT companies in their dealings with CNB.

After a closely-watched 14-day trial, both the prosecution and defence made their closing arguments on 28 January 2013.

- CNA/xq



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Cambodia reports sixth bird flu death this year






PHNOM PENH: A three-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, bringing the country's toll from the deadly virus to six so far this year, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

The girl, from the southern province of Kampot, died in a children's hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, the WHO said in a joint statement with the Cambodian health ministry.

Tests confirmed she had contracted the H5N1 strain of avian influenza and "the girl had a history of coming into contact with poultry (in her village) prior to becoming sick", it added.

Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in the statement that "H5N1 remains a serious threat to the health of Cambodians, especially children".

The country has recorded 28 cases of H5N1 since 2003, with all but three of them proving fatal.

Four Cambodians, including a 17-month-old girl, died from the strain last month and a five-year-old girl died last week.

The virus has killed more than 365 people worldwide since a major outbreak in 2003, according to WHO statistics.

It typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact. But experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to trigger a pandemic.

- AFP/al



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Obama rebukes North Korea over test






WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that North Korea's "provocative" nuclear test did not make it more secure and called for "swift" and "credible" international action in response.

Obama also vowed in a written statement that Washington would remain vigilant in the face of the underground detonation by the Stalinist state and steadfast in its defense commitments to its allies in Asia.

"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure," Obama said.

"Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."

Obama complained that the test was a "highly provocative act" that -- following the North's December 12 ballistic missile launch -- undermined regional stability and violated UN Security Council resolutions.

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community," Obama said, ahead of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called for later on Tuesday.

"The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies," Obama said.

- AFP/ck



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Tech giants summoned by Australia pricing inquiry






SYDNEY: Global technology giants Microsoft, Apple and Adobe were on Monday ordered to appear before a pricing inquiry examining the often-higher cost of tech goods in Australia compared with other economies.

The lower house committee holding the probe, which was launched last May, said it had summoned the trio to appear at a public hearing next month to explain why Australian customers paid more for the same products.

"The committee is looking at the impacts of prices charged to Australian consumers for IT products," it said in a statement.

"Australian consumers often pay much higher prices for hardware and software than people in other countries."

The inquiry was set up to examine claims by consumer advocacy groups of price discrimination for Australians on technology, with music, games, software, and gaming and computer hardware costing substantially more than elsewhere.

According to consumer lobby group Choice, Australians pay on average 73 percent more on iTunes downloads than the United States, 69 percent more on computer products and a staggering 232 percent more on PC game downloads.

Office software was on average 34 percent more expensive in Australia when compared with the United States, Choice said in its submission to the inquiry, with hardware coming in at 41 percent more expensive.

One software package was A$8,665 (US$8,939) more expensive to buy in Australia than the United States -- a gap that Choice described as "particularly unreasonable".

"For this amount, it would be cheaper to employ someone for 46 hours at the price of $21.30 per hour and fly them to the US and back at your expense -- twice," Choice said.

Choice only did comparisons to the United States and Britain; the inquiry is examining discrepancies with these countries as well as with Asia-Pacific economies.

Apple and Microsoft have both made their own submissions to the committee, arguing that prices differed across jurisdictions due to a range of factors including freight, local taxes and duties and foreign exchange rates.

The Australian Information Industry Association, which represents Adobe and other major ICT firms, has submitted to the committee that the "costs of doing business in Australia are higher than in many other countries".

It pointed to retail rent costs and high wages as some of the main factors behind business costs in Australia being "5-10 percent higher than any other country... and these costs are passed onto consumers".

Apple and Microsoft both declined to comment when contacted by AFP while Adobe said it would "cooperate with the committee as we have done since the inquiry began".

- AFP/ir



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