Junk food tax could help fight obesity: US study

WASHINGTON — Taxing high-fat and sugary junk food is a more effective way to fight obesity than making healthy foods like fruit and vegetables more affordable, a study published Wednesday shows.

Researchers at the University of Buffalo in New York, led by psychologist Leonard Epstein, gave 42 mothers just over 22 dollars to spend at a "supermarket" set up in a room at the university and stocked with images of everything from bananas to whole wheat bread to cola drinks and cookies.

The women were told to imagine that they had no food in the house and that they were going to the supermarket to get the week's shopping for their family.

In the simulated supermarket, the women had the choice of 30 healthy and 30 junk food items, four healthy beverages -- two types of juice, skim milk and water -- and four sugary drinks, all represented in images.

The women went shopping five times. The first time, the prices of all the food and drink items were on par with those in a local supermarket.

Twice, the prices of healthier foods -- those that deliver more nutrients for fewer calories -- were lowered, and on the remaining two shopping trips, the prices of the unhealthy food and drink items were raised.

The researchers found that hiking the price of junk food, as would happen with a so-called "sin tax," was more effective at getting the women to buy a week's shopping that was lower in overall calories than was cutting the price of the healthy food items.

In fact, cutting the prices of healthy foods like broccoli, yoghurt, grapes, eggs and fish actually increased the overall calorie value of the foods and drinks the women put in their shopping carts.

"It appears that mothers took the money they saved on subsidized fruits and vegetables and treated the family to less healthy alternatives, such as chips and soda pop," said the authors of the study, published this week in Psychological Science.

"Subsidizing broccoli and yoghurt... may be unlikely to bring about the massive weight loss the nation now requires," they said.

Around a third of US adults older than 20 and nearly one in five US kids aged six to 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Taxing junk food, on the other hand, seemed to do the trick. The mothers cut back on high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and bought more healthy foods that were lower in calories.

In the experiment, taxing junk foods by 10 percent resulted in the shoppers buying 14.4 percent less high-fat and sugary foods and drinks. That meant their week's shopping contained 6.5 percent fewer calories, the study said.

Sacha Baron Cohen, Tina Fey help hand out Oscars

LOS ANGELES – At least five funny actors will help hand out Oscars this year.

Telecast producers say Sacha Baron Cohen, Jason Bateman, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Ben Stiller will serve as presenters at the Academy Awards.

It will be the first Oscar appearances for "Borat" star Baron Cohen and Bateman, a star of best picture nominee "Up in the Air."

Previously announced presenters include Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.

The 82nd Academy Awards will be presented March 7 at the Kodak Theatre and broadcast live on ABC. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will share hosting duties.

Comic book veteran may shape next Superman film

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – After helping director Christopher Nolan bring Batman back to the spotlight, writer David Goyer is coming on board to rejuvenate Superman.

Warner Bros. has a lot of incentive to move forward on "Man of Steel," as the project is rumored to be called at this stage; under a deal with the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, a movie needs to be in production by 2011 or the studio will have to fork over millions.

The studio previously attempted to revive Superman in 2006 with "Superman Returns," which was directed by Bryan Singer.

Goyer may end up working with Nolan on "Man of Steel," as Nolan is rumored to be taking on a consulting role in the Superman franchise. Goyer and Nolan worked on developing and writing the story for "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." (Goyer wrote the screenplay for "Begins" with Nolan, but the screenplay for "Knight" Nolan wrote with his brother Jonathan Nolan.)

No dealmaking has taken place; only meetings are happening at this stage. Reps for Warners and Goyer had no comment.

Goyer, who is wrapping up his involvement with his ABC show "FlashForward," is no stranger to the DC Universe. He wrote a draft of "The Flash" several years ago, and back in 2000 he wrote the "Justice Society" comic book with Geoff Johns (who last week was appointed DC's chief creative officer.)

Latino Review initially wrote the story of Goyer's involvement with "Steel."

Turkey's defence chiefs assess 'serious' coup plot arrests

ISTANBUL — The EU voiced concern over allegations of a military coup plot in Turkey on Tuesday, as the country's top brass held a crisis meeting and investigators grilled senior defence figures.

"All the generals and admirals of the Turkish military met in the headquarters of the chief of army staff to evaluate the serious situation," a Turkish military statement said, without elaborating.

Police detained more than 40 suspects Monday over a purported plan codenamed "Operation Sledgehammer" to topple the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) administration, dating back to 2003.

The suspects allegedly planned to bomb mosques and escalate tensions with Greece in a bid to force the downing of a Turkish jet, thus discrediting the government and forcing its downfall.

Seventeen retired generals and four active-duty admirals were among those detained on charges of "attempting to remove the government through force and violence" and brought for questioning in Istanbul, reports said.

A spokeswoman for European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said on Tuesday the allegations were a "serious matter of concern" and "Turkish citizens are entitled to hear the entire truth on theses cases."

"That's why the investigation must be exemplary and carried out in full respect of the principles and standards of a fair judicial process," spokeswoman Angela Filote added.

Among those arrested are ex-air force chief Ibrahim Firtina, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and the former head of the Istanbul-based First Army, Cetin Dogan, who is accused of spearheading the plot.

Generals' arrest deepens Turkey power struggle

The generals were expected to be questioned by prosecutors on Wednesday before being brought before a judge to face possible charges, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"Operation Sledgehammer" was exposed in January by the liberal Taraf newspaper which said the plan was discussed in March 2003, and published transcripts of audio tapes that appeared to confirm some kind of anti-government action was considered at the gathering.

The general staff -- which has recently complained of a "psychological smear campaign" -- has said the seminar involved the discussion of war-time contingency plans and denied any coup plot.

Turkey's staunchly secularist army has traditionally wielded heavy political influence and unseated four governments since 1960, the last time in 1997 when it forced Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan to resign.

The AKP, which opponents accuse of secret ambitions to overthrow Turkey's secular system, was formed by moderates from Erbakan's now-banned party.

Turkey's two largest opposition parties slammed the government over the latest arrests.

Main opposition leader Deniz Baykal questioned why such an operation was mounted against retired generals "watching TV at home in pyjamas and slippers" over allegations dating back seven years.

Nationalist opposition leader Devlet Bahceli said the government was acting with "hatred" and "feelings of revenge" and called for early elections.

Hugh Pope, a specialist on Turkey at the International Crisis Group think tank, expressed doubt there was a "witch hunt" against the army.

The judiciary "would certainly not have taken so many high-profile people into custody unless they had an absolute certainty in their mind that this is a real case," he said.

Retired and active-duty soldiers are already among dozens of defendants on trial over the so-called Ergenekon network, which allegedly plotted to foment unrest to prompt a military coup.

The investigation, underway since 2007, was initially hailed as a success, but its credibility waned with the arrest of academics, journalists and writers known as AKP critics.

In 2008, the AKP narrowly escaped being banned for violating Turkey's secular system.

Pakistan captures Taliban leader: report

WASHINGTON — Pakistani authorities have captured Mullah Abdul Kabir, a senior Taliban figure and top military commander fighting US forces in eastern Afghanistan, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

A Pakistani intelligence official told the Times that Mullah Kabir was detained several days ago in Nawshera, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

Mullah Kabir is part of the small group of leaders called the Quetta Shura who lead the Taliban's operations and report to the group's founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Times said his capture appeared to be part of a Pakistani operation.

The report came as Pakistan has stepped up its fight against militants within its own borders, capturing several Taliban leaders in recent weeks in operations reportedly carried out with help from the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Last month, US and Pakistani intelligence agents captured Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander and another member of the Quetta Shura.

Petraeus warns 'disjointed' Taliban of long campaign

WASHINGTON — Top US general David Petraeus described Sunday the Taliban resistance to a major offensive in southern Afghanistan as "a bit disjointed" and warned the insurgents that this was just the start.

The first main offensive since President Barack Obama escalated the conflict in December entered its second week with gunfights and land mines bogging down attempts to secure the Nad Ali and Marjah areas of Helmand province.

But Petraeus said that, while "formidable," the Taliban resistance had so far been "a bit disjointed," as he framed the offensive as only the initial burst of Obama's revised strategy for combating the Afghan insurgents.

"The way the operation was conducted leaped over some of them (the Taliban). But there is tough fighting going on without question," Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.

He said Obama and General Stanley McChrystal, who leads the 121,000 US and NATO forces fighting the militants, had laid out a comprehensive strategy that was only beginning to get into gear.

"This is just the initial operation of what will be a 12 to 18-month campaign as General McChrystal and his team mapped it out," Petraeus said.

"We spent the last year getting the inputs right in Afghanistan, getting the structure and organizations necessary for a comprehensive civil military campaign, putting the best leaders we can find in charge of those."

Petraeus, who masterminded a similar surge strategy in Iraq that was widely credited with helping to turn that conflict around, said it was only natural that such an effort would meet strong resistance.

"When we go on the offensive, when we take away sanctuaries and safe havens from the Taliban and other extremist elements that we and our Afghan and coalition partners are fighting in that country, they're going to fight back."

So far, 12 soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force have been killed in the assault, billed as the biggest offensive against the insurgents since a 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government.

Three more NATO soldiers were reported dead Sunday in eastern and southern Afghanistan in incidents unrelated to Mushtarak, ISAF said.

Afghan authorities said six militants were killed on Saturday in Nad Ali, taking the reported Taliban death toll in Operation Mushtarak over 50.

Fifteen civilians have been killed in the assault, government officials say, while some rights groups put the toll at 21.

The assault on the militant stronghold is the first major test of Obama's strategy to crush an eight-year insurgency launched after the Taliban were ousted from power.

Obama has ordered more than 50,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan since taking office in January 2009, with the final reinforcements due by August to bring to 150,000 the total number of US and NATO-led troops in the country.

Argentina presses new diplomatic offensive on Falklands

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina pushed hard Saturday for a new diplomatic offensive aimed at pressing Britain to negotiate the status of the disputed and potentially oil-rich Falkland Islands.

"Britain should sit down and have a dialogue about sovereignty to overcome this anachronistic colonial situation," Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said from Mexico where he was preparing for a Rio Group summit.

Though the two countries went to war over the South Atlantic islands in 1982, with Britain affirming its control, Argentina still claims ownership of the archipelago, which has been held by Britain since 1833.

"Argentina will dialogue diplomatically and peacefully," Taiana told the state news agency Telam ahead of the summit where President Cristina Kirchner now will try to rally regional support for her stand on the islands.

Argentina says Britain, a UN Security Council member, is skirting UN resolutions calling for dialogue on the dispute. It says UN resolutions recognize the territorial dispute and urge dialogue to settle it.

Taiana was to meet UN chief Ban-Ki Moon Wednesday to encourage talks, Argentina's UN envoy Jorge Arguello has said.

And Argentina's president Monday will ask the Rio Group of regional allies at their meeting in Mexico to condemn oil exploration Britain has approved in the Falklands, Argentine media reported Saturday citing unnamed government sources.

About 25 Latin American and Caribbean leaders will be at the gathering near Cancun. The Rio Group in the past has backed Argentina in its territorial claim.

Using the islands' Spanish name, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday addressed Britain saying: "Give the Malvinas back to the Argentine people."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in London Friday he was "confident" diplomacy could resolve a standoff with Argentina on the Falklands, as islanders voiced disappointment at tensions over oil drilling.

"The diplomacy between us and Argentina is one that I think will be successful," Brown said, insisting that Britain was acting within international law.

"I think the work that's being done will avoid any tension".

Argentina and Britain engaged in a brief but bitter war in 1982 over the archipelago.

Argentina's defeat resulted in the collapse of the military regime that ruled the country at the time, helping usher in a return to democracy.

The latest round of verbal skirmishes were triggered by Argentina's decree that ships traveling through its waters to the Falklands -- home to 3,000 islanders, 1,000 British soldiers and 500,000 sheep -- require an Argentine permit.

According to Britain's Geological Society, oil fields around the Falklands could produce up to 60 billion barrels of oil, or as much as the North Sea crude reserves which contributed to 25 years of British prosperity.

The Falklands archipelago currently earns 60 percent of its income from fishing.

Argentina says that its "jurisdictional waters" are up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers, 230 miles) off its coast.

The Falkland Islands lie 450 kilometers from the Argentine coast or mainland, beyond the 200-nautical mile limit but within a continental shelf area that Argentina claimed before the UN last year.

Haitians return to find family as commercial flights restart

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitians arrived Friday on the first commercial flight into their country since last month's earthquake, desperately hoping to find family members alive and their homes still standing.

"I want to see my wife," said Jean Felix as he waited to board the plane before takeoff in Miami.

"She's living in the street and she's told me by phone that we lost everything... I'm going there with my heart broken."

The American Airlines plane touched down in Port-au-Prince to a warm welcome after leaving from Miami, but many passengers carried a heavy emotional load.

The flight came to a stop at the terminal with 132 passengers onboard. A pilot waved a Haitian flag from the cockpit window.

A band playing Creole music in the terminal greeted their arrival -- a common practice prior to the devastating quake -- but the passengers were bussed to a separate building to pass through immigration and customs controls because of damage to the airport.

Amid the small celebration, travelers were anxious to visit family members who survived and the graves of those who did not. Some wondered about how their own homes had fared in the disaster.

Marie Ange Levasseur, 45, began to cry as she spoke of how her cousin, who died in the quake, used to greet her at the airport when she would visit.

Levasseur now lives in Miami but still has family in Haiti.

"The first destination I want them to take me to is my cousin's grave," she said as she waited in line for immigration. "It's very sad, this trip. I've never had such a sad trip like that."

The capital's airport has been an aid lifeline for the devastated country in the wake of the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 217,000 people and left over a million homeless.

Officials said resuming commercial traffic would inject crucial revenue into Haiti's crippled government.

But for Haitians, it was simply a way of finding out who was still alive.

"I don't have news from my sons nor from my brothers," said Maurice Gernier, before boarding in Miami. "I don't know anything, nothing about anybody... I need to go and see what happened."

Jean Eddy Porche, 49, who also lives in Miami, arrived in Port-au-Prince with his wife to check on family members and the house he still owns here. He had been told it was damaged and was not sure whether it could be repaired.

Homes belonging to his mother and sister were completely destroyed.

"I have friends who are dead, cousins," said Porche, adding that he felt "completely traumatized" upon arrival.

Outside the Port-au-Prince airport, family members waited under the sun behind yellow caution tape for the passengers to emerge.

Some embraced as they saw each other, while others seemed weary and simply turned and walked down the street together.

Since the earthquake, the country's largest commercial airport has been transformed into a makeshift military base, with over a hundred armed forces and UN flights passing through each day when traffic was at its peak.

Thousands of tonnes of food and medical aid, along with disaster relief personnel have poured into Haiti via the hub, which at times has been overwhelmed, forcing officials to turn away some aircraft.

US embassy spokeswomen Elizabeth Detmeister said the resumption of commercial routes meant that US evacuation flights would now be phased out.

American Airlines will offer two flights a day from Miami and one from nearby Fort Lauderdale. A flight from New York's JFK International Airport will operate four times a week, the airline said.

From March 12, the airline's American Eagle service will launch a new daily route to Haiti from Puerto Rico, and two flights through Santo Domingo and Santiago in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Canada's aging population to add to budget woes: official

OTTAWA — The Canadian government's current fiscal structure is not sustainable, due largely to an aging Canadian population, the parliamentary budget officer warned Thursday in a report.

"Under the current fiscal structure, the government?s debt relative to GDP (gross domestic product) is projected to increase on a substantial and sustained basis over the long term," the report said.

Thus "the government's current fiscal structure is not sustainable over the long term," it said.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page explained that "a major demographic transition" is starting to strain government finances.

As a large portion of the Canadian population nears retirement, spending pressures on health care and elderly benefits are likely to intensify, according to the report.

At the same time, slower labor force growth is projected to restrain growth in the economy, which will in turn slow the growth of government revenue, it said.

To close the gap, Ottawa must increase taxes or reduce program spending, Page concluded.

However, a fix is not required immediately, he added.

Taliban arrest spotlights militant nexus in Karachi

KARACHI — The arrest of a top Taliban commander in Pakistan highlights the militant nexus in Karachi, where crime bankrolls Islamist violence and the teeming metropolis offers the perfect hiding place.

Karachi, home to 16 million people and one of the biggest Muslim cities in the world, has two sea ports which are a gateway to the world and transit hub for NATO supplies heading to the war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan.

For decades Karachi has been connected with the criminal underworld and since the September 11, 2001 attacks, with extreme Islamist networks too.

US journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in the city and beheaded in 2002. In 2007, more than 136 people were killed at the homecoming parade of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi, Pakistan's deadliest ever bomb attack.

While officials refuse to confirm details of how, when and where Taliban number two Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was arrested, American media reported that US and Pakistani spies captured him in Karachi.

"The arrest of a top Afghan Taliban commander proves the premise that some Afghan Taliban are present in Pakistan," said security analyst Hasan Askari.

"Karachi has become the most attractive hideout for militants because it is a massive city and there are all kinds of ethnic and linguistic groups, where Pakistani and Afghan Taliban can disappear," he added.

Around 2.5 million Pashtuns from the northwest are estimated to live in Karachi, a migration that began in the 1950s but accelerates with each successive offensive against Pakistani Islamists in the region.

One self-professed militant told AFP that he comes to Karachi to take a break from the battlefield in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border where Al-Qaeda and Taliban are hunkered down and targeted by US missiles.

"We come here to relax," the man calling himself Aqeel Ahmed told AFP in a telephone call, saying he fought against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan and is now affiliated to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction.

"We do jobs as labourers or other menial work in Karachi when we are permitted to leave the battle. And we go back to the battlefield when we receive a call from the top," he said.

Tensions between Pashtuns and the local population have sparked riots, while bomb attacks have targeted Shiite Muslims killing 76 people in the last two months, sparking fears that Karachi is returning to the eye of the storm.

"We have arrested a couple of dozen militants associated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and seized large quantities of explosives and weapons including explosive-filled suicide jackets," a police official said.

Karachi, with its moneyed residents and big business, has proved fertile ground for financing Pakistani Islamist activities. Security officials acknowledge, but have less intelligence on, the presence of Afghan Taliban.

"Taliban do come here... They send money to their mentors in the northwest and even some deals with the families of kidnapping victims (in Karachi) were finalised in Waziristan," the police official told AFP.

Money is wired to northwest Pakistan through the traditional but illegal method of "hundi". Groups can also demand ransom payments in the tribal areas, which include the militant bastions of North and South Waziristan.

"They (militants) have safe havens on the outskirts where they run their operations," said Sharfuddin Memon, head of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, a state-run watchdog organisation.

"They generate funds through kidnappings and robberies and also militants plan attacks in Karachi, most of which our police foiled," he said.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- which represents Muslims who migrated from India -- sits in government and is a bitter rival of Pashtun political parties. It also believes there is a heavy militant presence in the city.

But Mufti Mohammad Naeem, the head of Karachi's Jamia Binoria madrassa, one of the largest among thousands of religious schools in the city, says there is a conspiracy against the religious political parties and groups.

"Our rulers are falsely accusing our madrassas of being involved in terrorism or having links with the Taliban. Rulers are doing this to appease their Western masters who pay them with loads of dollars," he told AFP.

US lab reaches Big Bang heat of 4 trillion degrees Celsius

WASHINGTON — US physicists have created matter at around four trillion degrees Celsius, the hottest temperature ever reached in a laboratory, simulating a "quark soup" scientists believe existed at the universe's birth.

The Department of Energy lab where the record-breaking temperature was reached said the effect was achieved by slamming together gold ions traveling at nearly the speed of light inside the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) -- an "atom smasher" with a 2.4-mile (3.8-kilometer) circumference.

The ultra-high temperature is higher than what is needed to melt protons and neutrons into a plasma of quarks and gluons, the substance that filled the universe a few microseconds after it came into existence 13.7 billion years ago, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) said Monday.

The plasma of four trillion degrees Celsius (7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit) -- 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun -- existed for only a few microseconds after the birth of the universe.

It quickly cooled and condensed to form the protons and neutrons that make up everything from individual atoms to stars, planets and people, Brookhaven explained on its website.

The temperature of hot matter is measured by looking at the color, or energy distribution, of light emitted from it -- similar to the way one can tell that an iron rod is hot by looking at its glow.

The properties of the matter produced at RHIC were determined using highly sophisticated detectors that looked at the particles the matter emitted during its very brief lifetime -- less than one billionth of one trillionth of a second.

The US research program will be complemented by studies soon to get underway at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mile-circumference particle accelerator buried underground on the French-Swiss border near Geneva, the BNL said.

"The LHC will devote a month each year to colliding heavy nuclei at energies much higher than RHIC's -- extending the exploration of matter one step farther back in time toward the birth of the universe," BNL said.

Injury scare can't stop Getzlaf

VANCOUVER — Canadian forward Ryan Getzlaf was cleared to play in the Winter Olympics on Monday after recovering from a sprained left ankle he suffered in a National Hockey League game last week.

Getzlaf served notice he was ready for action by scoring two goals and adding two assists Sunday for the Anaheim Ducks in a 7-3 NHL victory over Edmonton in the final game before the league's two-week shutdown for the Vancouver Games.

But it was not until Canada general manager Steve Yzerman tested Getzlaf's ankle Monday morning that he approved the 24-year-old forward to join the team and take part in the team's first full workout session in the afternoon.

"Today was the greatest relief in the world," Getzlaf said. "This last week has been tough. It was one of the hardest and scariest things I've ever had happen. It was a big relief to get out here on the ice with the guys."

Getzlaf had missed two games for the Ducks but came back strong against the NHL-worst Oilers and showed he was fit to take the ice when Canada opens Olympic play Tuesday against Norway.

"It feels great. The medical staff did a great job for me," Getzlaf said. "The nature of the injury scared everybody. It was a high ankle sprain. I was lucky enough that it was able to heal properly."

Getzlaf's stellar NHL performance Sunday made the choice an easy one.

"There's a reason he was selected to Team Canada," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "He went out and proved he's quite capable of playing to a high level, and he's to be commended. It's just amazing. It was all up to him."

Getzlaf noted he could not put his desire to play for his country in the Olympics on home ice ahead of the needs of his NHL club, which stands one point out of the final Western Conference playoff spit.

"I had to put that ahead of my own priorities," Getzlaf said. "They put a lot of money into me. I had to be ready to play for a whole season, not just two weeks."

Jeff Carter, a forward for the Philadelphia Flyers, had spent the weekend in Vancouver preparing himself to replace the wounded Duck on the Canadian roster if Getzlaf was unable to return.

"His situation, it was a tough one," Getzlaf said.

Harper will visit Haiti to assess its needs

OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit Haiti Monday and Tuesday to meet with its leaders and take stock of the quake-ravaged country's needs, his office said Sunday.

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to Haiti on February 15 and 16 to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground and discuss the process of rebuilding the country," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Harper, it added, "will discuss with Rene Preval, President of Haiti, and Jean-Max Bellerive, Prime Minister of Haiti, the challenges of the relief effort and Haiti's reconstruction priorities."

The Canadian head of government "will also meet a number of Canadians who are delivering humanitarian aid on the ground" in Haiti.

The January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas killed at least 217,000 people, including 29 Canadians, with another 63 Canadians still unaccounted for, Canada's foreign affairs department said on Friday.

Yemen rebels say implementing ceasefire terms

SANAA — Shiite rebels said on Saturday they have pulled out of an occupied airport in northern Yemen and were preparing to release Saudi prisoners in line with a truce agreed with the Sanaa government.

"Today, we carried out our withdrawal from the perimeter of the airport of (the city of) Saada, where a plane will land for the first time" since August, rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam told AFP.

He said the insurgents had also started to dismantle roadblocks in the north and were preparing to free Saudi prisoners captured in border clashes that broke out in November.

Salam said "measures are underway to hand over the Saudi prisoners to a mediator, Ali Nasser Kersha," a tribal official from the northern province of Saada. He did not give further details.

In Riyadh, Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said the rebels had been given until Sunday to release five Saudis held captive.

"He gave them 48 hours from yesterday," the prince's aide General Ibrahim al-Malek told AFP, without specifying what action Riyadh would take if the prisoners were not released by the deadline.

The Zaidi Shiite rebels, also known as Huthis after their late leader, agreed to stop fighting earlier this week after they accepted ceasefire terms laid down by Sanaa.

Calm prevailed in the north on Saturday, the second day of a shaky truce that temporarily broke down only hours after it went into effect late on Thursday, both sides said.

"The situation is calm on all fronts in Saada province," which straddles Saudi Arabia and lies at the centre of a six-year-old Zaidi rebellion, said one military source.

"But the calm is precarious," said another source, referring to the latest in a string of truces over the years that have broken down.

A spokesman for rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi confirmed there was no fighting, saying the "ceasefire is being respected and the situation is developing positively."

The ceasefire is the government's latest bid in a six-month campaign to crush a rebellion that began in 2004, killing thousands and leaving 250,000 homeless in recurring fighting.

The latest round of clashes erupted on August 11, when government forces launched "Operation Scorched Earth" -- an all-out offensive to stamp out the uprising.

Only hours after the new truce went into effect at midnight on Thursday, Yemen's army said the rebels had killed four soldiers in a string of attacks.

On Saturday, however, the rebel spokesman downplayed those incidents, saying "those were minimal violations that it is possible to overcome."

Rebels also denied a charge by General Mohammad Abdullah al-Qussi, the military commander of Saada province, who said the rebels had opened fire on his car in an assassination bid on Friday.

The six-point truce requires the rebels to reopen three major routes in the first stage: the road between Saada, Harf Sufian and the capital, Sanaa; the road from Saada west to Malahidh and the road from Saada east to Al-Jawf.

It also calls for a rebel withdrawal from government buildings, the return of arms seized from security forces, release of all prisoners including Saudis, handover of captured army posts, and a pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis joined the fighting in November after accusing the rebels of killing a border guard and occupying two small villages.

Saudi ground troops and aircraft repeatedly engaged the rebels in operations which the rebels said continued even after their fighters had withdrawn from all Saudi territory occupied in the fighting.

"It is very quiet now" on the border, a Saudi military official said on Saturday, declining to be named.

Iran's foreign ministry, meanwhile, expressed support for the ceasefire as "a step toward strengthening national unity in Yemen and establishment of security, economic and social progress" in the country.

Yemeni authorities have accused the rebels of seeking to restore the Zaidi Shiite imamate that ruled in Sanaa until its overthrow in a 1962 republican coup that sparked eight years of civil war.

The rebels, who complain of economic and political discrimination against the north's Zaidis, have repeatedly denied the charge as well as accusations of military support from Shiite Iran.

Iran protest picture wins World Press Photo award

THE HAGUE — A photo of women shouting from a rooftop during protests after Iran's contested presidential election won the World Press Photo Award for Italian Pietro Masturzo on Friday.

AFP photographers Walter Astrada, Olivier Laban-Mattei and Mohammed Abed won the top three prizes in the spot news category. It is the second year running that Astrada from Argentina has won the spot news award.

The black and white image by Masturzo, a freelance photographer, was used to illustrate a story on how Iranians shouted their dissent from rooftops and balconies in the days after the June 12 election last year.

Iran's opposition has said the result was fixed to give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victory.

"The photo shows the beginning of something, the beginning of a huge story. It adds perspectives to news. It touches you both visually and emotionally, and my heart went out to it immediately," said Ayperi Karabuda Ecer, who headed the jury which chose the shot for the 2009 award.

"The photo has a powerful sense of atmosphere, tension, fear -- but also of quietness and calm, and in this sense was a challenge as a choice," said Kate Edwards, a member of the jury.

"We were looking for an image that drew you in, took you deeper, made you think more -- not just about showing what we already know, but something that asks more of us."

Masturzo, 29, won one of the most prestigious international image awards after less than three years as a professional photographer. He will receive his 10,000 euro prize in Amsterdam on May 2.

The jury also gave a special mention to an image taken from a film put on the Youtube.com video sharing website which showed 26-year-old student Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead during the Iran protests on June 20.

AFP photographers Astrada, Laban-Mattei and Abed won their awards in the Spot News section for trouble-zone reporting.

Astrada won first prize for a series of pictures of unrest in Madagascar in February 2009 during an uprising against President Marc Ravalomanana. Last year he won the award for picture of election violence in Kenya in 2008.

Laban-Mattei won second prize for his images from the stormy Iran protests.

Abed was selected for his reporting from the Israeli offensive against Gaza in January 2009.

Sixty-three photographers from 23 nationalities won prizes in 10 categories in the annual awards. The 5,847 photographers who took part entered 101,960 photos.

Pakistan confirms twin suicide bombings killed 14

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Twin suicide bombings minutes apart killed nine police and five civilians, in a bloody assault on Pakistani police in a northwestern town, officials confirmed Friday, a day after the attacks.

The first bomber blew himself outside a police training centre in Bannu. Eight minutes later, another detonated as a patrol headed by local police chief Iqbal Marwat arrived at the entrance, officials said.

Bannu and the rest of North West Frontier Province is a flashpoint for Islamist militants attacking security personnel and civilians in the nuclear-armed country on the front line of the US-led war against Al-Qaeda.

"The death toll is 14. Nine policemen and five civilians were killed," local administration chief Abdul Jabbar Shah told AFP.

"We found only the legs of the two suicide bombers who blew themselves eight minutes apart, " Shah said.

"The first bomber struck at the checkpoint at the entrance, while the second bomber blew himself up as the district police chief arrived," he added.

A curfew had been imposed in the town, where police, paramilitary troops and army soldiers were patrolling the streets, Shah said.

Police official Niaz Ahmed confirmed that the attacks killed 14 people and wounded more than 30.

Police -- more lightly equipped than soldiers -- are frequently targeted by Taliban militants while travelling in exposed vehicles.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007 when government forces besieged Islamists holed up in a radical mosque in a leafy suburb of the capital Islamabad.

Afghanistan fears avalanche toll could rise

KABUL — Afghanistan feared the death toll from one of the country's worst natural disasters could rise Thursday, as rescue workers used everything from bare hands to bulldozers to dig for bodies buried in snow.

The bodies of at least 166 people killed when avalanches hit a treacherous mountain highway in northern Afghanistan this week have been recovered, said interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.

But scores of vehicles remain buried beneath massive snow floes and could contain more bodies, he said.

"The latest information we have is that 166 people were killed and 125 others have been rescued and taken to hospital," he told AFP.

"We're not clear yet on how many cars are still under the snow, but police have been working on recovery since yesterday and are hoping to bring the operation to an end soon," he said.

A heavy blizzard struck the busy northern Salang Pass, connecting the capital Kabul with the north of the country through the Hindu Kush mountain range, on Monday in one of the country's worst such disasters.

Massive walls of snow crashed onto the highway, burying dozens of vehicles and pushing many into the steep and rocky valley below.

Officials said at least 36 avalanches took place late Monday and on Tuesday, of which three caused most of the casualties.

Much of northern Afghanistan is relatively sheltered from the eight-year Taliban insurgency that 113,000 NATO and US forces are trying to quell.

Bashary said rescue work was "90-95 percent" complete, with around one kilometre of the 3.5-kilometre (two-mile) pass yet to be cleared.

The health ministry has stationed 42 ambulances, staffed by doctors and nurses, at the tunnel entrances to aid the injured as they are brought out, spokesman Ahmad Farid Raaid said.

He put the number of injured at 130.

"There is fear there will be more dead bodies in the vehicles that are being pulled out of the snow," he said.

An army battalion backed up by heavy machinery and other excavating equipment had been deployed to the pass for rescue and recovery work, a senior defence ministry official said.

Up to 16,000 vehicles traverse the Salang pass, located about 3,400 metres (11,000 feet) above sea level, every day.

The only major route linking the country's north and south, it was built with Soviet help in the 1950s to bypass central Bamiyan province through the Hindu Kush range.

The pass provides the shortest route linking the two ends of the mountainous country and as one of the highest mountain highways in the world was hailed as an engineering feat upon its completion.

Soldiers of the Afghan army were flown by helicopters to the site on Wednesday, and with the help of local villagers frantically dug through the snow to try to find survivors who had been buried alive in the snow.

The avalanches dumped such huge quantities of snow with such ferocity that windows of cars and buses smashed as they tumbled into the valley below.

Many of the dead were killed as their vehicles plunged down the mountainsides, while others perished in the freezing conditions.

Ahmad Shah Waheed, deputy public works minister, told reporters on Wednesday that 1,600 people had been rescued but hundreds of vehicles remained trapped in the rugged pass where heavy snow storms blocked the traffic.

Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar has fended off questions about why the road was open in the first place, insisting the situation appeared manageable until the storm struck abruptly.

15 die in South Africa orphanage fire: police

JOHANNESBURG — Emergency workers pored through the charred debris of a South African orphanage, searching for the remains of young children killed in a fire Tuesday that left 15 dead, officials said.

Dressed in blue plastic gowns with masks over their faces, firefighters and medical workers carefully lifted tiny bodies of children as young as two years old from the Hope in Christ Home in the town of Newcastle.

Photos showed the workers using plastic sheeting to carry the children's bodies into a field nearby as the orphanage smoldered.

Thirteen children died in the blaze, Mandla Ngema, spokesman for the provincial social development department, told AFP.

The shelter in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal was a "home of safety" for orphans and other children in danger, he said.

But a fire erupted around dawn that gutted the building, destroying documents that might have identified the victims, many of them burned beyond recognition, police said.

"Police were called to the scene at 6:00 am (0400GMT) and the house was still alight," spokesman Jay Naicker said.

"Police helped the fire department to put out the fire but it was too late, the house burnt down. Nine people have been taken to the hospital with burn wounds."

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, he added.

Authorities could not say how many people were living at the orphanage when the fire erupted.

"Fire broke out this morning. We have not established the cause. We have employed the services of a Pretoria-based company to investigate," Ngema said.

The dead included the director of the home and her four children, Ngema said. The children killed in the blaze were aged two to 15, he added.

South Africa's crippling AIDS epidemic has left the country with an estimated 1.5 million orphans, in a country of 48 million people.

A study by the Institute of Race Relations predicted that by 2015, one third of all the children in South Africa would have lost one or both parents.

The government currently provides support to about 238,000 AIDS orphans and to more than 20,000 homes where older children care for younger siblings after their parents died from the disease.

Nearly 495,000 AIDS orphans are in foster care, but the government is encouraging more adoptions so orphans can have permanent families.

But only a tiny fraction of the AIDS orphans, about 1,900, were adopted by South Africans in 2008, a drop of nearly 13 percent from the previous year.

Parliament is expected to approve a new child protection act in April, which will create new rules for adoptions while setting out measures to combat trafficking and other abuses against children.

Afghan assault on Taliban to test US strategy

KABUL — A planned assault on a major Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan is the first real test of a new US-led counter-insurgency strategy to re-establish government control and end the war.

Operation Mushtarak is an experiment in combining the military objective of eradicating the Taliban with the need to replace their brand of harsh control with the civilian authority of Kabul, analysts said.

The battle for Marjah, an agricultural plain in the central Helmand River valley, is the proving ground for US General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency theory for winning the hearts and minds of Afghan people.

Married to President Hamid Karzai's programme of encouraging Taliban to quit the fight and return to mainstream society -- and US President Barack Obama's troop surge -- McChrystal's plan is being played out in the poppy fields of Helmand.

"This fight is aimed at showing the Taliban and other anti-government groups the power of the government, to show them there is no place they can relax so they will eventually want to reconcile," said political analyst Ahmad Saedi.

Thousands of US, NATO and Afghan troops have massed around Marjah preparing for a fight that military commanders say will eradicate the Taliban from one of the last places under their sway in Helmand province.

The Taliban too are massing fighters, with their purported spokesmen predicting a fierce battle.

Waheed Mujda, a political analyst and author who served in the Taliban's foreign ministry during its 1996-2001 rule, said the insurgents are unlikely to break cover for hand-to-hand combat.

They are expected to mine the area, home to 80,000 mostly farming people, with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which, along with suicide attacks, have become a staple Taliban weapon as their tactics morph into guerilla warfare.

"The Taliban want to fight but they will not do so directly because they know that would mean high casualties," said Mujda.

"Instead they will bother foreign forces by fighting and fleeing, and the foreigners will also take casualties from the IEDs," he said.

Operation Mushtarak -- meaning "together" -- is expected to begin within days, with thousands of US Marines and NATO troops, along with Afghan security forces massed around Marjah town, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

The region is one of the world's biggest opium poppy growing regions, where insurgents are exploiting an irrigation system built in the 1950s with US aid aimed at turning the region into Afghanistan's bread basket.

Residents who are leaving the area say the Taliban maintain control through fear and violence.

Western military commanders, including McChrystal who heads the 113,000 US and NATO forces in Afghanistan set to rise to around 150,000 by August, are prepared for high casualties in the battle for Marjah.

They are also prepared for the need to stay until political and civil control has been established, paving the way for development.

Norine MacDonald, president of London-based think tank the International Council on Security and Development, said it is important that troops stay to consolidate their victory with civilian control.

"Then for those who want to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table we have some military leverage," she said, referring to efforts to talk peace with the Taliban leadership.

"The military effort and the 'negotiating' effort have to be coordinated," she said.

Military officials said Mushtarak was planned in close cooperation with the Afghan government and that lessons of past failures had been learned.

The war against the Taliban is now into a ninth year and Obama wants to start bringing American troops home in mid 2011.

"If you push the insurgents off but you don't stay in place then the strategy is worth nothing," said the spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Brigadier General Eric Tremblay.

"The operation has to create an environment in which governance and development can be established.

"It's not supposed to be a show of strength militarily. We have said all along it's not necessarily about killing them (the insurgents) but if they are fighting ISAF and Afghan forces they will be killed.

5 dead, 12 injured in US power plant blast

MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut — At least five people were killed and 12 injured in a massive gas explosion that tore apart an unfinished US power plant and rattled windows miles (kilometers) away.

However officials cautioned that they did not know how many people were in the Kleen Energy plant, which was still being constructed, and therefore they could not immediately account for everyone who may have been present.

"We know that 12 individuals have been injured. Five individuals are known to have lost their lives," Sebastian Giuliano, the mayor of Middletown in Connecticut, told a news conference.

Terrorism had been ruled out, according to the mayor, who said the accident happened during a testing procedure.

Rescue workers helped by search dogs scoured the rubble at the plant where a brief, but fierce fire following the accident sent flames and black smoke billowing skyward.

"There was like a fireball going up and a lot of smoke. The explosion was strong enough to break one of our windows. Our neighbors had also their windows destroyed," said Scott Harmann, 44, whose father lives in a house just across the Connecticut River from the plant.

Nearby resident Mike Woronoff said he heard "a loud boom" at his house some two miles (3.2 kilometers) from the plant.

"I have friends that live 15 miles from here that called me because they could hear it. Then we could see the smoke. It went on for a mile and a half, then stopped," he said.

Amid confusion over the number of casualties local officials immediately warned of the potential for carnage.

"There was a massive explosion, there are multiple injuries and possible fatalities," Middletown police spokesman George Yepes told AFP soon after the blast.

"The reports vary from a few to possibly as many as 50 dead," Brian Albert from the Middlesex hospital, which was treating several of those injured, said in the immediate aftermath.

Uncertainty as to the final toll seemed set to continue until contractors working on the site were able to compile an accurate roster of those present.

A Middletown fire official said it was "initially thought there was approximately 50 employees" there at the time and that "it's unknown how many people are missing."

Giuliano said "there could be anywhere from 100 to 200 people working on the site on any given day. Exactly what's that number, that's the starting point and that's the number they can't nail down today.

"Fortunately what I was told is that most of the people working there were evacuated from the building when they ran the test," he said.

A local resident told the Hartford Courant newspaper that the explosion took place during a test of the plant's power generating systems.

The 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant, said to be one of the largest power facilities to be planned in New England for many years, was still under construction.

The future gas-fired energy production plant is located on the outskirts of Middletown, close to residential housing.

A company called Energy Investors Funds recently acquired 80 percent of the plant, which had been due to go online sometime in 2010.

The American Red Cross said it had set up a phone number -- (860) 347-2577 -- for "anyone concerned for the well-being of a relative or a friend that was working at the Kleen Energy plant."

Iran reports 'very good' nuclear talks, UN more muted

MUNICH, Germany — Iran's foreign minister said he held "very good" talks Saturday on a possible breakthrough deal on nuclear fuel but the head of the UN atomic watchdog said there were no fresh proposals from Tehran.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said that Manouchehr Mottaki had made "no new proposals" to him in the talks, held on the sidelines of a major security conference in Munich, Germany.

"Our meeting covered a variety of areas. That included of course in Iran and the Tehran research reactor. We had a very interesting discussion ... There was not a new proposal. We exchanged views," Amano told reporters.

Mottaki was tight-lipped on what exactly was discussed, but insisted that Iran was serious about striking a deal and that he believed an agreement was possible "in the near future."

"We discussed and exchanged views about a wide range of issues ... We also exchanged views about the proposal that is on the table. I tried to explain the views of the Islamic republic of Iran for the director general," he said.

Mottaki said that such a deal, which would be seen as an important breakthrough in Iran's standoff with the West, "would be a way out of the present conditions."

Iran appeared to reject last October a deal proposed by the IAEA for Iran to export low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia to be further purified into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly made an apparent about-turn on Tuesday, however, saying on national television that he would have "no problem" sending some LEU abroad.

EU and US officials, wearied by years of fruitless talks to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and ease concerns about its atomic ambitions, suspect the move is brinkmanship to avert a fourth round of sanctions.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said in Ankara that talks on "some kind of other deal on the research reactor" than that proposed by the IAEA would have to take place within the formal setting of the Vienna-based agency.

"My view is, that's a discussion that the Iranians would better hold with the IAEA than at the Munich conference or in press conferences by president Ahmadenijad if they are prepared to take up the original proposal," he said.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton agreed that Tehran had to talk to the IAEA.

"Iran must now respond to the director general of the IAEA," she said in Munich. "The Tehran research reactor proposals are an attempt to build badly needed confidence."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country, along with fellow UN Security Council member China, is seen as less keen on more sanctions, also urged Iran to work through the UN watchdog.

"What we want from Iran is to verify very specific questions, raised time and again by the IAEA a long time ago, it is not a difficult thing to do," he said in Munich.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said any fresh sanctions must target Tehran's ability to develop nuclear weapons "and not be expanded to cultural, humanitarian, economic parts of Iranian activity."

Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in Friday in Munich that Beijing was sticking to its position that a "mutually acceptable" solution to the spat could "somehow" be found.

"This issue has entered a crucial stage. The parties concerned should, with their overall long-term interests in mind, step up diplomatic efforts, stay patient and adopt a more flexible, pragmatic and proactive policy," he said.

Americans held in Haiti denied conditional release: lawyer

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Ten American Christians charged in Haiti with child kidnapping and conspiracy were denied conditional release Friday and sent to jail to await trial, their lawyer told AFP.

"The judge did not accept the request for conditional release," said Edwin Coq, lawyer for the group that was detained a week ago for trying to smuggle a group of 33 children out of Haiti into the Dominican Republic.

Sitting in the prosecutors office the 10 could be seen looking dejected after having previously been held in a police detention center.

On their departure one of the women, Laura Silsby, was asked what was going on. "We just don't know, we just don't know," she replied.

It later became clear that the 10 had been remanded in custody.

"The judge passed down two detention orders, one for the group of five men, who will be held at the national prison, and another for the five women who will be held at Petionville women's prison."

The national prison in Port-au-Prince held 4,000 inmates before it was badly damaged in the massive earthquake that devastated the city on January 12.

Hearings are planned for next week, said Coq, who had petitioned for the group to be released pending their trial which could take months to prepare.

The group, from an Idaho-based charity, were formally charged with "kidnapping minors and criminal association" on Thursday.

They have denied any ill intentions, saying they were merely trying to help children orphaned and abandoned by the January 12 quake.

If convicted, they face up to nine years in prison on child kidnapping charges and further jail time for conspiracy.

Because of continued chaos in the Haitian capital, questions have been raised about whether the group would face a fair trial.

But with tens of thousands of children still homeless on the streets of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian government is under pressure to clamp down on any potential abuse.

The country's Justice Minister Paul Denis has insisted they should be brought before Haitian courts, instead of being returned to the United States.

"It is Haitian law that has been violated," Justice Minister Paul Denis told AFP. "It is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case. I don't see any reason why they should be tried in the United States."

Iran tells Gulf states not to buy US missiles

TEHRAN — A senior Iranian military official told Gulf states on Thursday not to squander money on US missiles, boasting that Iran can render them useless, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Tehran had on Wednesday slammed plans by the United States to beef up defences in the Gulf against potential Iranian missile attacks, with the Islamic republic insisting it posed no threat to its neighbours.

"Installing anti-missile Patriot missiles is a new trick to empty the pockets of rich Persian Gulf countries," said General Hassan Firuzabadi, the joint chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.

"Patriot missiles can be rendered ineffective by simple tactics, and I advise the regional countries, especially Islamic states, not to waste their money on these missiles which have not worked anywhere," he said.

US President Barack Obama's administration is reportedly placing ships with missile-targeting capabilities off Iran's coast, and anti-missile systems in at least four Gulf states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

US ally Bahrain acknowledged on Wednesday that Gulf military defences were being upgraded but urged Iran not to see them as plans for attack.

The moves come as Iran remains locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear programme, which many world powers believe is masking a weapons drive. Iran has vehemently denied this.

Iran has carried out frequent war games in the Gulf and paraded an array of home-grown missiles over the past years.

It has threatened to hit Western targets if Iranian nuclear sites come under attack by the United States or Israel -- its two arch-foes which have never ruled out the military option to thwart the atomic drive.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards official also said on Wednesday that Iran had developed anti-armor weapons which can combat US Apache helicopters and armored tanks.

"The enemy should not think their Apache helicopters can have the same power that they have in Iraq and Afghanistan in Iran," Naser Arab-beigi, who heads the self-sufficiency organization of the Revolutionary Guards, told Fars news agency.

"We will end Apache power by our measures. Their armored tanks will be met with the firm response of our weapons," he said.

Judge in Vegas finds Jackson MD in default on debt

LAS VEGAS – A judge in Las Vegas has found Michael Jackson's former doctor in default on a nearly $132,000 debt related to office medical equipment and services.

Dr. Conrad Murray failed to appear in Clark County District Court on Wednesday before Judge Michael Villani found him in default and awarded a judgment to Digirad Imaging Solutions.

Murray had no lawyer in the case. He has long-standing personal and professional debts, and faced near foreclosure last summer on his Las Vegas country club home.

Murray spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik says Murray was in Los Angeles on Wednesday, meeting with defense lawyers in case he is charged in Jackson's death.

Digirad attorney Nathan Gibbs told the judge that Murray has never appeared in the case. He'll tally interest since 2006 and submit a written final judgment for the judge's signature.

N.Korea designates new 'firing zones' near sea border

SEOUL — North Korea has designated another two "firing zones" near its disputed Yellow Sea border with South Korea, raising the prospect of more artillery fire, Seoul officials said Wednesday.

A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman told AFP the two new "maritime firing zones" would be effective for four days from Friday.

The spokesman said the South's military is closely watching for possible artillery fire off Baengnyeong and Daecheong islands near the Northern Limit Line sea border.

After declaring two "no sail" zones, the communist state last week fired 370 shells into the sea near the border over three days, heightening tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The North said it was staging a routine exercise but South Korea and the United States described the firing as provocative.

The Yellow Sea border was the scene of deadly naval battles in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight last November which left a North Korean patrol boat in flames.

Lionsgate, Crest Animation heading "North"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Lionsgate Films and Crest Animation Studios are throwing on the snow shoes in search of "Norm of the North."

Written by Steven and Daniel Altiere, the 3D animated family film tells the story of the titular polar bear and his three Arctic lemming buddies, who are forced out into the world once their icy home begins melting and breaking apart. Landing in New York, Norm begins life anew as a performing corporate mascot, only to discover that his new employers are directly responsible for the destruction of his polar home.

Scheduled for release in early 2012, "Norm" will be distributed by Lionsgate in North America as the second movie in its three-picture deal with Crest. The companies' first collaboration, the wolves-on-the-run adventure "Alpha and Omega," is scheduled for release in October.

The CG-animated "Alpha and Omega" features the voices of Justin Long, Hayden Panetierre, Christina Ricci, Danny Glover, Dennis Hopper and Larry Miller. It was directed by Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck.