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.