Fire at Japan Nuclear Plant

TOKYO - A fire broke out at the world's biggest nuclear plant in northern Japan on Thursday but was extinguished and there was no leak of radioactivity, Tokyo Electric Power Co said.

TEPCO, Asia's top utility, is waiting for approval from three local governments to restart nuclear generators at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata, closed since it was damaged by an earthquake in July 2007.

A TEPCO spokesman said a worker who spotted the fire suffered a face injury and was taken to hospital.

The fire occurred inside a cooling pump at the plant's No.1 nuclear unit.

The plant has seven nuclear generators and TEPCO is asking to be initially allowed to restart the No.7 generator, the newest and least damaged in the quake. (Reuters)
(english.okezone.com)

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Pakistan arrests suspects in Sri Lanka team attack

LAHORE, Pakistan – Police detained several suspects in the attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team in Pakistan, but said Wednesday they had made no progress in tracking the group of gunmen that wounded seven players and killed six police guarding them.

Tuesday's attack in the eastern city of Lahore came at a time of mounting political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country and will add to fears it is losing the battle against Islamist extremists blamed for a series of high-profile attacks.

Senior police official Haji Habibur Rehman said police raided locations in Lahore and surrounding districts and arrested "some suspects." He gave no details of their alleged roles, or the precise number detained, but said some were picked up at a Lahore hostel, where bloodstained clothes were also found.

"We are after them, and we hope that God willing we will soon get a result," he told the GEO TV station.

He confirmed the arrests to The Associated Press, adding "so far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators."

Pakistani police have a poor record of investigating terrorist attacks and often round up people in the immediate aftermath of assaults who are never charged

In the commando-style assault, up to 14 heavily armed and well-trained gunmen sprayed the Sri Lankan bus with bullets and rocket and grenade fire as it traveled to a match against Pakistan. The bus sped through the ambush and reached the safety of the stadium.

"Our guys were getting hurt and screaming, but we couldn't help each other," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said when the team arrived home in Colombo early Wednesday. "None of us thought that we would come alive out of the situation."

Veteran Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan spoke of the chaos on the bus during the attack.

"All the while bullets were being sprayed at our bus, people around me were shouting," he said. "I am glad to be back."

But Jayawardene added that growing up in Sri Lanka, which has seen scores of terrorist attacks related to the country's civil war, meant the players had a "natural instinct" that made them immediately hit the floor at the first sound of gunfire.

"We are used to hearing, seeing these things. Firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began," Jayawardene told reporters.

The assault bore many similarities to last year's three-day hostage drama in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai.

Working in pairs, the attackers carried walkie-talkies and backpacks stuffed with water, dried fruit and other high-energy food — a sign they anticipated a protracted siege and may have been planning to take the players hostage, an official said.

None of the gunmen was killed, and all apparently escaped into this teeming city after a 15-minute gunbattle with the convoy's security detail.

Authorities have not speculated on the identities of the attackers, but President Asif Ali Zardari said the assault showed "once again the evil we are confronting" in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Pakistan's Punjab provincial government took out advertisements in newspapers Wednesday offering a $125,000 reward.

The ad showed two alleged attackers, one dressed in brown and the other blue, and both carrying backpacks and guns. The image was taken from TV footage of the event.

Besides the six police officers, a driver of a vehicle in the convoy was also killed. Seven Sri Lankan players, a Pakistani umpire and a coach from Britain were wounded, none with life-threatening injuries.

FBI Director Robert Mueller arrived in the capital Islamabad and was meeting with government officials on a trip arranged before Tuesday's attack, the U.S. Embassy said, giving no details.

By targeting a much-loved sport in Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia, the gunmen were certain to draw international attention to Pakistan's inability to provide basic security

The attack ended Pakistan's hopes of hosting international cricket teams — or any high profile sports events — for months, if not years. Even before Tuesday, most cricket squads chose not to tour the country for security reasons. India and Australia had canceled tours, and New Zealand said Tuesday it was likely calling off its December tour.

The International Cricket Council said it would review Pakistan's status as co-host of the 2011 World Cup.

Pakistan has a web of militant networks, some with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, which have staged other high-profile strikes in a bid to destabilize the government and punish it for its support of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

One group likely to fall under suspicion is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the network blamed for the Nov. 26-28 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites, killing 164 people.

The group has been targeted by Pakistani authorities since then, and its stronghold is in eastern Pakistan.

___

Associated Press Writers Krishan Francis and Ravi Nessman in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Zarar Khan and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, and Babar Dogar in Lahore contributed to this report.

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White House Helicopter Data Found on Iranian Computer

WASHINGTON - Engineering documents about one of two types of helicopters in the U.S. presidential fleet were found on a computer in Iran after they were inadvertently disclosed by an American defense industry executive last year, according to a cybersecurity company.

The defense contractor and the U.S. government are investigating the incident, said Keith Tagliaferri, director of operations at Tiversa, a Pennsylvania-based company that monitors data breaches linked to peer-to-peer file sharing.

Tagliaferri declined to name the U.S. contractor or give any information about the identity of the Iranian computer where the file was found on Feb. 25.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the government was notified about the data disclosure last summer and fully investigated it. He stressed the data was not classified and involved the VH-60 helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

The VH-60 is used to carry White House staff and guests, not the president. A larger Sikorsky helicopter, the V-3, is the model used for the president.

"The information should not have been released, but it did not involve any helicopters that transport the president," Morrell said. The presidential helicopters are operated by the Marine Corps, a part of the Navy.

President Barack Obama has expressed grave concern about cybersecurity issues, and has ordered a 60-day review of computer security efforts across the federal government.

Tiversa said it notified the Bethesda, Maryland-based company reponsible immediately after the data breach was discovered, and the company alerted the U.S. government.

Navy spokesman Lt. Clay Doss said an internal review conducted in June 2008 found that all the documents were marked either unclassified or "for official government use only," but they were relatively dated and "not particularly sensitive."

He said cost data in the documents, part of a cockpit upgrade for the current fleet of VH-60N helicopters, would have a minor impact on future contract awards. The documents did not include critical technical data and the risk of someone using the data to harm the helicopters was "very low," he said.

The findings were provided to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Security Service for appropriate action, he said, declining comment to name the company involved or whether any charges were filed.

The data breach did not involve the new generation of presidential helicopter being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp, which is also based in Bethesda, Maryland. That VH-71 helicopter project, which is more than 50 percent over budget, was singled out by President Barack Obama last week as an example of the Pentagon's procurement process "gone amok".

Lockheed spokesman Troy Scully said the company was not responsible for the data breach.

Connecticut-based Sikorsky said it was investigating the incident and declined further comment. Doss said Sikorsky was not the source of the data breach.

Tagliaferri said the employee was a high-level executive, but the breach took place outside the company's offices, indicating the executive may have had the helicopter data on a home or personal computer that was also used to share music or movies. The disclosure was likely unintentional, he said.

The file was found on an Iranian computer on Feb. 25.

He said the U.S. defense contractor was not a Tiversa customer, which meant his company had not noticed the data breach until some time after it occurred.

Tiversa downloads more than 100,000 files a day that are inadvertently disclosed through peer-to-peer music and movie sharing software, which give users around the world direct access to another person's computer. The files can include Social Security numbers, payroll data, tax returns and many other sensitive documents, Tagliaferri said.

"This is like a stolen laptop times a million," Tagliaferri said. Data breaches through file-sharing networks are becoming more common as more people share electronic versions of movies and music, he said, and hackers and criminals are becoming more savvy in pinpointing such files.
(english.okezone.com)

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Iran Seeks Arrest of 15 Israeli "War Criminals"

TEHRAN - Iran has asked Interpol to arrest what it says are 15 Israeli "war criminals" who were involved in the conflict in Gaza in December and January, the Tehran prosecutor said in remarks reported on Sunday.

Iran, which does not recognise Israel's right to exist, said in December it had set up a court to try Israelis for attacking Gaza. It had said at the time it was ready to try those it accused in absentia.

"In the current week, we have completed our investigation (of) about 15 individuals who were among those criminals," Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said.

"Based on our investigation and according to article two of the Interpol charter, we asked Interpol to arrest these suspects," he said in comments carried by Iranian state television, according to the BBC's monitoring service.

Mortazavi said Iran had drawn up charges against 34 Israeli commanders and 115 individuals, adding that the charges included "war crimes, invasion, occupation, genocide and crimes against humanity", the television reported.

Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza, which it said aimed to suppress Palestinian cross-border rocket fire, killed more than 1,300 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis were killed.

Iranian officials have said Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, scored a victory over Israel by surviving the Israeli attacks.

Israeli and U.S. officials have accused Iran of providing weapons and training to Hamas militants in Gaza. Iran insists it only gives moral, financial and political support to Hamas and the Palestinians.

Israel has promised its military personnel state protection from foreign prosecution. (Reuters)

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Obama Set to End Iraq Combat Operations by Aug 2010

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will announce plans to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by August 2010, fulfilling a campaign pledge to wind down an unpopular war that divided Americans, a U.S. Congressional aide said on Thursday.

Obama is expected to make the announcement on Friday at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina.

The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity after Obama briefed lawmakers at the White House, said between 35,000 and 50,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq would remain to train and equip Iraqi forces and conduct limited counter-terrorism operations.

The almost six-year-old conflict overshadowed the presidency of Republican George W. Bush and helped Democrats retake Congress and the White House.

The withdrawal timetable marks a historic juncture in the war. Obama's decision also fits with his intention to shift the United States' military focus to Afghanistan from Iraq and to cut the U.S. budget deficit, partly by reducing war costs.

Some Democrats have raised questions about the size and mission of the residual force Obama plans to leave in Iraq.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "the thinking all along had been that any force left after we stopped combat operations would be focused on the counterterrorism mission, on training, advising, assistance, and that sort of thing."

Gates declined to confirm the president's plans, but told reporters on Thursday that whatever Obama decided would be "a way station" since all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011 under an agreement negotiated with the Iraqi government.

General Ray Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command that oversees military operations in the Middle East, had favored a 23-month withdrawal timeline for combat troops, according to one U.S. official.

Both commanders have cautioned that Iraq remains fragile and dramatic security gains achieved over the past year and a half could be reversed if U.S. forces withdraw too quickly.

As a presidential candidate, Obama pledged to pull combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months. He has made clear his military priority is Afghanistan and he issued orders last week for 17,000 extra U.S. troops to deploy there.

There are now about 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and some 38,000 in Afghanistan. (reuters

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