Obama pledges permit review, end to cozy oil links

The Associated Press, Washington | Sat, 05/15/2010 9:27 AM | World

President Barack Obama assailed oil drillers and his own administration as he ordered extra scrutiny of drilling permits to head off any repeat of the sickening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, engineers worked desperately Friday to stop the leak that is belching out at least 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) of crude a day.

As Louisiana wildlife officials reported huge tar balls littering a beach, BP PLC technicians labored to accomplish an engineering feat a mile (1.6 kilometer) below the water surface. They were gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots and thread a mile-long, 6-inch (15-centimeter) tube with a rubber stopper into the 21-inch (53-centimeter) pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor - a task one expert compared to stuffing a cork with a straw through it into a gushing soda bottle.

It is the latest scheme to stop the flow after all others have failed, more than three weeks since the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the disastrous leak.

Obam, whose comments until now have been measured, heatedly condemned a "ridiculous spectacle" of oil executives shifting blame in congressional hearings and denounced a "cozy relationship" between their companies and the federal government.

"I will not tolerate more fingerpointing or irresponsibility," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by members of his Cabinet.

"The system failed, and it failed badly. And for that, there is enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing to accept it," the president said.

Obama's tone was a marked departure from the deliberate approach and mild chiding that had characterized his response since the huge rig went up in flames April 20 and later sank 5,000 feet (1,600 meters) to the ocean floor. Then came the leaking crude, the endangered wildlife, the livelihoods of fishermen at risk.

The magnitude of the disaster has grown clearer by the day and with it, the apparent need for a presidential response to choke off any comparison to the Bush administration's bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast.

The Obama administration insists its response has been aggressive since Day One, and Obama sought Friday to leave no doubts. He said he shared the anger and frustration of those affected and would not rest or be satisfied "until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods."

Obama announced that the Interior Department would review whether the Minerals Management Service is following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore oil and gas development. BP's drilling operation at Deepwater Horizon received a "categorical exclusion," which allows for expedited oil and gas drilling without the detailed environmental review that normally is required.

"It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies," Obama said.

Echoing President Ronald Reagan's comment on nuclear arms agreements with Moscow, he said, "To borrow an old phrase, we will trust but we will verify."

Obama already had announced a 30-day review of safety procedures on oil rigs and at wells before any additional oil leases could be granted. And earlier in the week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to split the much-criticized Minerals Management Service into two agencies, one that would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties. Salazar has said the plan will ensure there is no conflict, "real or perceived," regarding the agency's functions.

Obama decried what he called "a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill." But the president, who's announced a limited expansion of offshore drilling that's now on hold, didn't back down from his support for domestic oil drilling, saying it "continues to be one part of an overall energy strategy."

"But it's absolutely essential that, going forward, we put in place every necessary safeguard and protection," he said.

This week executives from three oil companies - BP PLC, which was drilling the well, Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which was doing cement work to cap the well - testified on Capitol Hill, each trying to blame the other for what may have caused the disaster. Obama decried that scene.

"I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else," the president said.

"The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."

BP hadn't publicly discussed the latest maneuver to stop the leak until the past few days, and went ahead with it only after X-raying the well pipe to make sure it would hold up with the stopper inside, spokesman David Nicholas said. Technicians also had to check for any debris inside that may have been keeping the oil at bay - dislodging it threatened to amplify the geyser.

Philip Johnson, the petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alabama who made the soda bottle-and-cork comparison, said the idea was that a cork stopper by itself would probably be blown off, but a straw would lower the pressure on the cork, allowing the soda (or oil) to pass into another container - in this case a tanker at the surface.

BP has refused to estimate how much of the leak could be siphoned off through the skinny pipe, though Johnson said it could be a significant amount.

If it works, it would mark the first time since the rig exploded that BP has controlled any part of the rogue well. How much oil is actually leaking has become a matter of debate, and Obama said Friday that it was uncertain but that the federal government's response was always geared toward a catastrophic event.

President Barack Obama assailed oil drillers and his own administration as he ordered extra scrutiny of drilling permits to head off any repeat of the sickening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, engineers worked desperately Friday to stop the leak that is belching out at least 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) of crude a day.
As Louisiana wildlife officials reported huge tar balls littering a beach, BP PLC technicians labored to accomplish an engineering feat a mile (1.6 kilometer) below the water surface. They were gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots and thread a mile-long, 6-inch (15-centimeter) tube with a rubber stopper into the 21-inch (53-centimeter) pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor - a task one expert compared to stuffing a cork with a straw through it into a gushing soda bottle.
It is the latest scheme to stop the flow after all others have failed, more than three weeks since the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the disastrous leak.
Obam, whose comments until now have been measured, heatedly condemned a "ridiculous spectacle" of oil executives shifting blame in congressional hearings and denounced a "cozy relationship" between their companies and the federal government.
"I will not tolerate more fingerpointing or irresponsibility," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by members of his Cabinet.
"The system failed, and it failed badly. And for that, there is enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing to accept it," the president said.
Obama's tone was a marked departure from the deliberate approach and mild chiding that had characterized his response since the huge rig went up in flames April 20 and later sank 5,000 feet (1,600 meters) to the ocean floor. Then came the leaking crude, the endangered wildlife, the livelihoods of fishermen at risk.
The magnitude of the disaster has grown clearer by the day and with it, the apparent need for a presidential response to choke off any comparison to the Bush administration's bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast.
The Obama administration insists its response has been aggressive since Day One, and Obama sought Friday to leave no doubts. He said he shared the anger and frustration of those affected and would not rest or be satisfied "until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods."
Obama announced that the Interior Department would review whether the Minerals Management Service is following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore oil and gas development. BP's drilling operation at Deepwater Horizon received a "categorical exclusion," which allows for expedited oil and gas drilling without the detailed environmental review that normally is required.
"It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies," Obama said.
Echoing President Ronald Reagan's comment on nuclear arms agreements with Moscow, he said, "To borrow an old phrase, we will trust but we will verify."
Obama already had announced a 30-day review of safety procedures on oil rigs and at wells before any additional oil leases could be granted. And earlier in the week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to split the much-criticized Minerals Management Service into two agencies, one that would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties. Salazar has said the plan will ensure there is no conflict, "real or perceived," regarding the agency's functions.
Obama decried what he called "a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill." But the president, who's announced a limited expansion of offshore drilling that's now on hold, didn't back down from his support for domestic oil drilling, saying it "continues to be one part of an overall energy strategy."
"But it's absolutely essential that, going forward, we put in place every necessary safeguard and protection," he said.
This week executives from three oil companies - BP PLC, which was drilling the well, Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which was doing cement work to cap the well - testified on Capitol Hill, each trying to blame the other for what may have caused the disaster. Obama decried that scene.
"I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else," the president said.
"The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."
BP hadn't publicly discussed the latest maneuver to stop the leak until the past few days, and went ahead with it only after X-raying the well pipe to make sure it would hold up with the stopper inside, spokesman David Nicholas said. Technicians also had to check for any debris inside that may have been keeping the oil at bay - dislodging it threatened to amplify the geyser.
Philip Johnson, the petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alabama who made the soda bottle-and-cork comparison, said the idea was that a cork stopper by itself would probably be blown off, but a straw would lower the pressure on the cork, allowing the soda (or oil) to pass into another container - in this case a tanker at the surface.
BP has refused to estimate how much of the leak could be siphoned off through the skinny pipe, though Johnson said it could be a significant amount.
If it works, it would mark the first time since the rig exploded that BP has controlled any part of the rogue well. How much oil is actually leaking has become a matter of debate, and Obama said Friday that it was uncertain but that the federal government's response was always geared toward a catastrophic event.

Blast casualty

The Associated Press | Fri, 05/14/2010 2:07 PM | World










In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, a firefighter watches rescuers removing the body of a victim of a coal mine accident at Yuanyang Colliery in Puding County, Anshun City in southwest China's Guizhou province, on Friday. The agency said Friday that 31 workers were in the mine when the blast happened Thursday night, and that 10 had managed to escape. AP/Xinhua, Ou Dongqu

Bangkok battle: Troops fire on rioting protesters

The Associated Press, Bangkok | Sat, 05/15/2010 6:43 AM | World

Soldiers opened fire on anti-government protesters who battled them with firebombs and homemade rockets Friday in a second straight day of escalating violence as troops tried to clear the rioters from the streets of downtown Bangkok.

The clashes have killed 10 people and wounded 125, including two soldiers, the government said. The troops used tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds on demonstrators, who set fire to tires and a police bus.

Explosions echoed through streets emptied of shoppers and tourists, plumes of black smoke rose amid skyscrapers and hotels, and the deteriorating security raised concerns that Thailand - a key U.S. ally with Southeast Asia's second-largest economy - was teetering toward instability because of the two-month political crisis.

The Red Shirt protesters began their campaign to oust the government in March, saying it came to power illegitimately and is indifferent to the poor. In several rounds of violence since then, 3 people have been killed and more than 1,400 wounded.

Protesters have urged 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej to end his long silence and intervene, but there was no word from the widely revered ailing monarch.

The latest violence erupted Thursday after the Red Shirts' military strategist - a former Thai general - was shot and seriously injured, apparently by a sharpshooter, as he spoke to foreign journalists. One protester was fatally shot later Thursday and four were killed Friday, the army said. Among the wounded were two Thai journalists and a Canadian reporter - all from gunfire.

Witnesses saw several groups of a dozen or more people detained at the scene of several clashes. No figures were released on how many were detained.

As night fell, defiant Red Shirt leaders led followers in Buddhist prayers and called on volunteers to bring more tires for their barricades.

"Death cannot stop us civilians from continuing our fight," said Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader.

The Red Shirts, mostly rural poor, began camping in the capital March 12 to try to force out Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. They claim his coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military.

The military had forced Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist premier favored by the Red Shirts, from office in a 2006 coup. Two subsequent pro-Thaksin governments were disbanded by court rulings before Abhisit became prime minister.

In a Twitter message from exile, Thaksin said the "very cruel and unusual government" will "end up as war criminals" in the International Court of Justice.

About 10,000 Red Shirts have barricaded themselves in a 1-square-mile (3-square-kilometer) protest zone in Rajprasong, Bangkok's premier shopping and diplomatic enclave. They have set up a perimeter of tires and bamboo stakes, refusing to leave until Abhisit dissolves Parliament and calls new elections.

The occupation has forced luxury hotels and high-end shops to close for weeks. Major roads around the protest site were blocked to traffic Friday, and the city's subway and elevated train shut down early. The embassies of the United States, Britain and other countries were also closed.

The political uncertainty has spooked foreign investors and damaged the vital tourism industry, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy.

"Abhisit must dissolve Parliament and return power to the people immediately, and not serve as caretaker prime minister," Jatuporn said from a stage in the protest zone, which is now encircled by the army in a wider perimeter.

As Jatuporn spoke, a series of gunshots rang out close by, panicking the crowd of listeners who shrieked in fear and ducked for cover.

"We are being surrounded. We are being crushed. The soldiers are closing in on us. This is not a civil war yet, but it's very, very cruel," Weng Tojirakarn, another protest leader, told The Associated Press.

The crisis appeared to be reaching a resolution last week when Abhisit offered to hold elections in November, a year early. But the hopes were dashed after Red Shirt leaders made more demands.

Jatuporn said only the king "can stop the killings of civilians by Abhisit."

The beloved monarch has in the past mediated political crises, but he has stayed away from commenting on this one. Observers say he may be reluctant to get involved in a conflict that he may not be able to solve. Another problem is his failing health - he has been hospitalized since September and the palace has given no updates after initially describing his ailment as a lung infection.

The Red Shirts have kept soldiers at bay by firing guns and homemade rockets, hurling rocks and commandeering government vehicles. Some bolder protesters came close to the soldiers on motorcycles, shouted obscenities and sped away.

Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said some protesters also used grenades and other weapons, and have an estimated 500 armed fighters.

The troops have kept their distance and made little progress toward their goal of clearing the streets.

Soldiers addressed the protesters with a loudspeaker, saying: "We are the people's army. We are just doing our duty for the nation. Brothers and sisters, let's talk together."

Sansern said soldiers will tighten the perimeter around the protest site in the next few days and will conduct operations without advance warning.

"The measures we will apply will definitely be more intense than what has been done so far," he told reporters.

The government said authorities are not trying to disperse the protesters forcibly but only pressure them so that they leave voluntarily.

"Security forces have refrained from entering the rally area and the (violence) occurred because the protesters attacked them," he said, adding that authorities "needed to defend themselves."

Among the injured was Canadian freelance journalist Nelson Rand, who works for France 24 news channel. He was hit by three bullets and was recovering after surgery.

Bangkok residents found it hard to come to terms with the violence in their city, which prides itself as an exotic and welcoming gateway to the Land of Smiles, as Thailand is fondly known.

"I've never seen anything like this. I heard gunshots and explosions all day," said Kornvika Klinpraneat, a 7-11 employee. "This is like a civil war. The battle is being fought in the middle of the city."

The two-day clashes marked the worst violence since April 10, when 25 people were killed and more than 800 injured. Four others were killed in subsequent clashes.

Icelandic volcano threatens European summer of ash

Shawn Pogatchnik, The Associated Press, Dublin | Thu, 05/13/2010 8:25 PM | World

 

It's been a month now, and Iceland's volcano shows no sign it will stop belching ash across Europe anytime soon. The rolling eruptions threaten more havoc for summer vacation plans and higher costs for struggling airlines.

Although the global disruption of last month's massive eruption has faded, smaller ash plumes snarled air services intermittently over the last week all the way to Turkey - more than 2,500 miles (4,100 kilometers) from the Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano.

Air-control authorities and geologists agree that the continent must be braced indefinitely for rapid shutdowns of air services as computerized projections try to pinpoint where the ash clouds will float next at the whim of shifting winds.

"We do not pretend to be psychics," said Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, who often has been asked to guess the volcano's next move since it began spitting lava and ash March 20.

Huge volumes of ash, which can clog jet engines, forced most of northern Europe to shut its air services April 15-20, grounding an estimated 10 million travelers worldwide.

Since then the ash plume has thinned and spread out, shifting shape by the hour, rising into North Atlantic air routes and imposing awkward detours on hundreds of trans-Atlantic flights daily.

The costs to airlines associated with an ash cloud can add up quickly. Consider that two hours of jet fuel to divert to another airport can cost $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the size of aircraft involved.

This weekend, Lufthansa couldn't land in Munich so diverted planes to other German airports and bussed passengers the rest of the way.

Lufthansa spokesman Thomas Jachnow said the airline hadn't calculated yet how much extra costs it was suffering because of the sporadic diversions and grounding of aircraft over the past week. Dozens of European airlines have suffered similar extra costs and are already lobbying their national governments to help foot the bill, which includes paying the hotel and food bills of stranded customers.

Jose Luis Barrera, deputy president of Spain's College of Geologists, said Europe should get ready for ash-covered inconvenience at least through the summer - and perhaps longer. He noted that the volcano's last eruption ran from 1821 to 1823.

"We're going to have to learn to live with the volcano," Barrera said. "Just as in California, people learn to live with the earthquake that may be waiting for them. ... This is the same. Preventive measures will have to be taken for if and when the mass of ash gets worse."

Irish tourism centers dependent on Europeans and Americans arriving by air say their summer will be bleak if the volcano doesn't stop. Ireland's government has called in tourism industry officials emphasizing they must woo more Irish to compensate for the missing foreigners.

"Pre-volcano we were having a great year. Then all hell broke loose, thanks to your man (the volcano)," said Debbie Walsh, manager of a heritage museum in the County Cork port of Cobh.

She said this summer, the key to financial survival would be the approximately 50 cruise liners expected to disgorge tourists in Cobh. "We're lucky in that we can fall back on the cruise liners. Nothing is going to stop them from coming in."

One of Ireland's top attractions, the Guinness brewery in Dublin, provides a living barometer for when the city's air links are closed.

"About 90 percent of our visitors come through Dublin Airport, so when the ash threat shuts it down, it's like turning off a tap at the Guinness Storehouse," said managing director Paul Carty.

Lufthansa, one of Europe's most financially secure airlines, said its bookings are on target with what they would expect this time of year. But analysts warned that most carriers are on shakier financial ground, depend on summer holidaymakers for the bulk of their profits - and are particularly vulnerable to a drop-off in bookings now.

"That is why all airlines are monitoring closely what affect it (the ash worries) will have on their bookings," said John Strickland, director of JLS Consulting, a London-based aviation consultancy firm. Airlines in fact are trying to get some relief from the European Union for the hotel costs they absorbed during the Europe-wide shutdown.

Airline, business and tourism leaders also increasingly have questioned Europe's competence to measure the true threat.

Criticism has been sharpest in Ireland and Britain, Iceland's southeast neighbors and fellow islands heavily dependent on air links for their economic health.

Ireland's two major airlines, Aer Lingus and Ryanair, this week accused the existing authorities - the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in England and the Eurocontrol air safety agency in Brussels - of not knowing enough about the ash to make informed decisions to shut down air services.

Both airlines appealed for the European Union to source and fund new measures based on American practice before the summer high season for travel arrives. They complained that Europe had been too slow to adopt measures long observed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller said Europe's Volcanic Ash Advisory Center "has been proven inaccurate several times and we have lost confidence in its reliability."

He proposed that specialized aircraft should be deployed around the Atlantic to identify ash clouds and measure their density, something the current early-warning systems usually fail to do.

Many individual travelers, however, appear to be taking the continuing ash threat in stride.

In prosperous Norway, one of the countries most in the volcano's firing line, travel industry officials say nothing will deter most of the nation's 4.9 million people from booking flights to the Mediterranean this summer. They say Norwegians wouldn't even mind getting stuck on the beach for a few extra days if the ash demands it.

"People are not so concerned about being stranded, but they are concerned about money. What will happen to my booking if I have to cancel a flight? Will I get my money back?" said Helen Begby, a spokeswoman for Apollo, one of Norway's largest charter travel agencies.

safety first

Safety first: With notebooks on their heads, South Korean elementary school students crouch beside desks during an earthquake drill in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. Local governments across South Korea participated in a nationwide earthquake drill that was organized in the wake of the devastating quakes in China and Haiti. AP/Ahn Young-joon

North Korea claims to achieve elusive nuclear fusion

The Associated Press, Seoul | Wed, 05/12/2010 1:01 PM | World

North Korea claimed Wednesday that its scientists succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction, but experts doubted the isolated communist country actually had made the breakthrough in the elusive clean-energy technology.

Fusion nuclear reactions produce little radioactive waste - unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear power reactors - and some hope it could one day provide a virtually limitless supply of clean energy. U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades, but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative.

North Korea's main newspaper, however, reported that its own scientists achieved the feat on the occasion of the "Day of the Sun" - a North Korean holiday marking the birthday of the country's late dynastic founder, Kim Il Sung, in April.

Often, North Korea's vast propaganda apparatus uses the occasions of holidays honoring Kim or his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, to make claims of great achievements that are rarely substantiated.

North Korean scientists "solved a great many scientific and technological problems entirely by their own efforts ... thus succeeding in nuclear fusion reaction at last," the Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a report carried Wednesday by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Experts, however, doubted the North's claim.

"Nuclear fusion reaction is not something that can be done so simple. It's very difficult," said Hyeon Park, a physics professor at Postech, a top science and technology university in South Korea.

Park, who conducts fusion research in South Korea, said the North may have succeeded in making a plasma device and produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles - only one preliminary step toward achieving fusion.

He said outside experts need to know the scale of the experiment and method of generating plasma to assess the details of the North's claim.

South Korea is one of a seven-nation nuclear fusion consortium to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER in Cadarache in southern France by 2015. Other members include China, the European Union, Japan, Russia, India and the U.S.

The aim of ITER is to demonstrate by 2030 that atoms can be fused together inside a reactor to efficiently produce electricity. Current forms of nuclear power do the opposite, harnessing the energy released from splitting atoms apart.

A South Korean official handling nuclear fusion at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the North appeared to have conducted only a basic experiment.

The official said the fusion has nothing to do with making nuclear bombs and said he could not make any further comment. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to media.

All of North Korea's nuclear projects are of intense concern because of worries the country is building its arsenal of atomic weapons. Pyongyang conducted two nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

Energy-starved North Korea has said it would build a light water nuclear power plant. Ostensibly for civilian electricity, a nuclear power plant gives North Korea a premise to enrich uranium, which at low levels can be used in power reactors but can also be used in nuclear bombs.

Water, electricity cuts to Bangkok protest zone The Associated Press,

 Bangkok | Wed, 05/12/2010 2:15 PM | World

The Thai government turned to siege tactics Wednesday after fruitless efforts to compromise with protesters barricaded in central Bangkok, announcing that the army would limit supplies of water, food and electricity to the protest zone.

Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said security forces would "not use force at this stage," but his wording left open the possibility of more violence in Thailand's two-month political standoff if the Red Shirt protesters refuse to disperse.

"This is a full-scale measure to limit the freedom of protesters and to close down the area 100 percent, starting at midnight," Sansern said.

The new measures were announced a day after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva warned protesters who have paralyzed Bangkok's central business district to leave by Wednesday.

The anti-government protests have crippled the capital's ritziest shopping district, forced the closure of several luxury hotels and devastated the economy, particularly the vital tourism sector.

"Electricity and water supply, as well as food, will be limited," Sansern said, warning that residents who live in the neighborhood's upmarket high-rise apartments should consider alternate accommodations.

Chances of a negotiated settlement to the standoff appeared to be unraveling.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said late Tuesday that the prime minister had rescinded his compromise offer to hold early elections on Nov. 14 as part of a reconciliation plan.

"He said there will no longer be any more compromises or conditions," Panitan told The Associated Press late Tuesday. "Their refusal to stop the protest meant that the conditions that were set are being canceled, including the election date."

The protesters vowed to hold their ground.

"The prime minister must not threaten us and must not disperse us," said one protest leader, Weng Tojirakarn. "If he wants more deaths, so be it. I don't."

Several violent incidents related to the Red Shirt protest, which started March 12, have killed 29 people and wounded more than 1,400, according to the Health Ministry

New Generation

Next generation: Young "monks" take a rest as they visit a local zoo ahead of Buddha's upcoming birthday on May 21, in Goyang, west of Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday. Eight children are taking part in a children's program to experience "Days In Life Of Monks" for three weeks at Chogye temple. AP/Lee Jin-man

The Associated Press, Seoul, S. Korea | Tue, 05/11/2010 7:36 PM | World

Company: Chinese cyberattack targets Australia

The Associated Press, Sydney, Australia | Thu, 04/15/2010 1:49 PM | World

A company in Australia came under a cyberattack from China that was intense enough to slow traffic on part of the country's second-largest broadband network, company officials said Thursday.

Among companies affected were Australian Associated Press, the national news agency, and the Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd., but they were not the targets, said the telecommunications company Optus.

Attackers in China flooded an international network link to one of Optus' large commercial clients in Australia in what is known as a denial-of-service attack, the company said. This caused congestion that significantly slowed Internet and e-mail links to other customers on that link, including AAP and News.

Optus declined to identify the company targeted, citing commercial confidentiality. News Ltd.'s The Australian newspaper reported that it was a multinational financial institution, but had no further details. Optus also declined to say how many customers were affected.

The attack was blocked after about 2 1/2 hours.

Denial-of-service attacks involve a flood of computers all trying to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server that handles the traffic.

Cyberattacks linked to China have gained more attention since Google Inc. accused Chinese hackers in January of trying to plunder its software coding and of hijacking the Gmail accounts of human rights activists protesting Beijing's policies.

Early this month, a foreign journalists' organization in China had its Web site disrupted by attackers in China and the United States - the latest in a string of such cases.

Yahoo e-mail accounts belonging to foreign journalists in China have also apparently been hacked in recent weeks, and at least one rights group focusing on China says it has been hit by denial-of-service attacks.

Tony Gillies, editor-in-chief of AAP, said the company's e-mail and Internet services were slowed by the attack but delivery of its news services was not affected significantly.

"Our system protocols meant that we were OK," Gillies said. "We can't find any evidence that we were being targeted."

Optus is Australia's second-largest Internet Service Provider.

7 children, 1 teacher killed in new China attack The Associated Press

 , Beijing | Wed, 05/12/2010 11:02 AM | World
An attacker hacked seven children and one teacher to death Wednesday and wounded 20 others in a violent rampage at a kindergarten in northwest Shaanxi province - the latest in a string of attacks on schools, a government official said.

The slayings occurred despite a countrywide increase in security at schools, with additional police and guards posted at school gates.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the attack happened at 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) Wednesday at a kindergarten in Nanzheng county of Hanzhong city. It did not give the ages of the victims or say who attacked them.

Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the propaganda department of Hanzhong city, confirmed that seven children were killed and that about 20 others had been wounded.

"The murderer killed himself afterward," Liu told The Associated Press. He said he did not have any other information.

The attack comes after three similar ones at schools and kindergartens late last month left dozens of children injured, and raised questions on security and issues of massive social inequalities believed to play a role in the violence.

At least 61 Dutch among dead in Libya plane crash

Associated Press, Amsterdam | Wed, 05/12/2010 7:32 PM | World

Sixty-one of those killed by a plane crash in Libya on Wednesday were from the Netherlands - more than half of those on board, Dutch officials said.

The Royal Dutch Tourism Board ANWB released the figure on its website.

Libyan authorities said 96 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage at the airport outside the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende confirmed the only known survivor of the crash near Tripoli is a young Dutch boy. He said he had no further details, including the boy's age or condition.

The Dutch government was setting up a crisis team to deal with aspects of the crash from the Netherlands, he said, presumably including contacts with families of the victims.

"This is a large group of Dutch nationals after all, so it's a deeply sad message we have this day," Balkenende said, registering his "shock."

The Dutch tourism board said the flight that crashed left Johannesburg in South Africa and was heading to Brussels with a refueling stop in Tripoli.

The Belgian Foreign Ministry said no Belgians were on board the flight, although South African officials said 32 passengers on the flight were headed to Brussels.