Obama Warns North Korea On Nuclear Test

President Barack Obama, who is in Seoul, has warned North Koreaagainst conducting another nuclear test.

"Threats will get North Korea nothing, other than greater isolation," the US leader said, speaking at a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Mr Obama said the US and South Korea stand "shoulder to shoulder" in refusing to accept North Korea's nuclear programme.

Pyongyang threatened last month to conduct a fourth nuclear test, possibly while Mr Obama is in the region.

The White House said it was keeping close tabs on activity at the North's nuclear test site, where commercial satellite imagery this week showed increased activity.

During his visit, Mr Obama will seek to reassure South Korea that he is committed to pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Mr Obama arrived at the Blue House, the South Korean equivalent of the White House, on Friday for a busy evening of meetings with Ms Park, including a state dinner.

Mr Obama expressed his condolences over the sunken ferry incident, which has consumed Ms Park's government for more than a week as divers discover yet more bodies.

"As allies, but also friends, we join you in mourning the missing, and especially the young people," the US leader said before the two leaders bowed their heads for a moment of silence.

He said the US stands ready to provide assistance as the rescue effort continues.

The president's overnight stay in Seoul is his second stop on a four-country Asia swing that also includes visits to Malaysia and the Philippines.

Mr Obama flew to Seoul from Japan, a major US ally whose relationship with South Korea has deteriorated over historical resentments stemming from World War II.

Russia Wants World War Three, Says Ukraine

Russia Wants World War Three, Says Ukraine

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has accused Russia of wanting to start "a third world war".

Mr Yatseniuk said that Russia wanted to occupy Ukraine "militarily and politically", creating a conflict that would spread to the rest of Europe.

"The world has not yet forgotten World War Two, but Russia already wants to start World War Three," he said.

His comments came as Barack Obama said he would consult key European leaders later on the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Russia.

Speaking in Seoul, Mr Obama said he wanted to coordinate a united approach with Western US allies.

On the ground, Ukrainian special forces launched a second phase of their "anti-terrorism" operation in the east of the country on Friday.

They mounted a full blockade of the rebel-held city of Slavyansk, an official on the presidential staff said.

Reports that pro-Russian snipers had shot at a Ukranian military helicopter in the eastern town of Kramatorsk have been treated cautiously. 

According to officials in Kiev, the helicopter exploded at a military base after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Its pilot managed to escape but was wounded, the official said. Kramatorsk is one of several under the control of pro-Kremlin gunmen.

Sky's foreign affairs editor, Sam Kiley, in Ukraine, said that the "bellicose" rhetoric between Russia and Ukraine was escalating more quickly than action on the ground.

"On the ground, there are incidents, but the level of violence has been relatively low and does not justify the type of rhetoric we have heard," Kiley said. 

Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry  accused Russia of "deception" and "destabilisation" in Ukraine and hinted at more sanctions .

Mr Kerry warned Moscow time was running out for it to change course.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia face a choice," he said in unusually blunt language.

"If Russia chooses the path of de-escalation ... all of us will welcome it. But if Russia does not, the world will make sure that the costs for Russia will only grow."

Mr Kerry added this would be a "grave" and "expensive mistake".

He also said the Kremlin has not honoured an agreement aimed at defusing the crisis, echoing earlier comments by Mr Obama.

The Geneva accord between Russia, Ukraine, the US and EU compelled armed groups to put down their weapons and vacate official buildings.

The US says Moscow is stoking unrest and separatist sentiment in the east of Ukraine after its annexation of Crimea.

Russia accuses Washington of encouraging a pro-Western government to adopt anti-Russian policies.

On Thursday, Ukraine's interior ministry said up to five "terrorists" had been killed during an operation to clear checkpoints in the eastern town of Slavyansk.

And seven people were injured overnight at a pro-Ukrainian checkpoint near the Black Sea port of Odessa when an explosive device blew up, police said.

Residents in the town have built several such checkpoints aimed at stopping pro-Russian separatists entering from Moldova's breakaway territory of Transdniestria.

Interfax news agency quoted witnesses as saying a bomb was thrown at the checkpoint from a passing car, though this was not confirmed by police.

Mr Putin has said there will be "consequences" if Kiev has used its army against the activists.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned the crisis is threatening to "spin out of control" and urged all sides to "refrain from violence".

World Malaria Day 2014: Top Five Countries Most Affected by Malaria

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World Malaria Day 2014: Top Five Countries Most Affected by Malaria

As 25 April marks World Malaria Day, IBTimesUK looks at the countries most affected by the mosquito-transmitted disease.

Despite malaria mortality rates have diminished by 42% since 2000, the disease caused an estimated 627,000 deaths in 2012 only, according to the World Health Organization.

Children and pregnant women are the worst affected, and over 80% of deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa among children under five.

Nigeria

Around 40% of global malaria deaths occur in just two countries: Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the WHO said.

Malaria is a risk for more than 90% of Nigeria's population and contributes also to an estimated 11% of maternal mortality.

There are an estimated 100 million malaria cases with over 300,000 deaths per year in Nigeria, about 100,000 more than the deaths from HIV/AIDS.

Minister of State for Health, Dr. Khaliru Alhassan, said that malaria still remains a major threat to public health in the country and added that it undermines its socio-economic development.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Malaria is endemic in certain areas of the Congo, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.

The humanitarian organisation said it has treated 7,657 in Lulingu, Katchungu and Tchonka areas in 2013.

MSF has also warned that the disease has soared dramatically in the country in recent years.

The reasons for the trend are not clear, although it is thought renewed fighting by militia groups has made it increasingly difficult for people to access prevention and treatment.

Mozambique

Malaria represents around 45% of all cases in outpatient visits, approximately 56% of inpatient at paediatric clinics and around 26% of all hospital deaths, say the WHO.

According to the Demographic Health Survey 2011, the prevalence of malaria among children under five years is 46.3% in rural areas compared to 16.8% in urban areas.

The Ministry of Health of Mozambique has announced a partnership to ensure that every family in Mozambique will be protected from malaria by the end of this year's campaign

Burkina Faso

Malaria is the leading cause of death at healthcare facilities in Burkina Faso, and most of the dead are children.

Out of a population of 17 million, the country recorded almost 7 million cases of malaria in 2013, especially in the rainy season from August to November.

The Burkina Faso government said the fight against malaria is its top priority. Health minister Lene Sebgo announced the ambitious goal of halving the number of malaria cases within five years.

Sierra Leone

Malaria is one of the most serious public health problems in Sierra Leone, according to the WHO.

It is the most common cause of illness and death in the country, accounting for about 50% of outpatient visits and 38% of admissions.

Malaria-related illnesses contribute to 38% and 25% of child and all-ages mortality rates, respectively.

Sierra Leone's government has identified malaria as an illness of high priority, and various organs of the government, including the Ministry of Health, are undertaking all efforts possible to reduce the incidence of malaria, UNICEF said.

India: Woman Donates Kidney as Dowry, Then Kills Herself

India: Woman Donates Kidney as Dowry, Then Kills Herself

A 28-year-old woman in eastern India is reported to have committed suicide in what appears to be a case of dowry death.

According to reports, Poonam Devi, mother of two, from Hazaribagh district in the state of Jharkhand, allegedly set herself on fire on 16 April.

She died as a result of her burn injuries at a hospital in the state capital Ranchi a week later, The Times of India reported.

District superintendent of police, Manoj Kaushik, said: "I have taken up the matter and action will be taken against the guilty after investigation."

Kidney as dowry

Devi donated one of her kidneys to her ailing husband Sudama Giri in a dowry deal with her in-laws about six months ago.

Devi's parents gave Rs 1.31 lakh (approximately £1,280) in dowry at the time of her marriage to Giri in 2006. But, according to Devi's family, her in-laws had been a constant nag asking for another Rs 25,000 as dowry from her father.

They were even torturing Devi for money, according to an FIR report filed by Devi's father.

Devi's in-laws reportedly put it in writing that they would treat her well if she donated her kidney for their son. Devi eventually agreed and donated a kidney to her husband.

However, the pestering for dowry money and torture continued, Devi's father alleged in his FIR report.

Police are yet to make any arrests in the case.

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Reports Speculate that Missing Plane May Have Landed and Not Crashed

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Reports Speculate that Missing Plane May Have Landed and …

The mystery of the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has taken a new twist with the international team probing the incident now considering the possibility that the plane may have landed rather than ended up in the Indian Ocean, according to various media reports.

International Investigation Team (IIT), it seems, have not gathered conclusive clues on what precisely may have happened to the flight, and are rethinking on how best to explain the disappearance of the jet.

This is because no debris has been found yet, and the underwater mission is 80% complete in the 10-km area around the locus of the 5 April pings, which according to the ocean search team had been the most promising lead.

Maritime experts have already warned that the pings detected in the ocean may not necessarily have originated from the airplane's black boxes.

Peter Herzig, Executive Director at Feomar Helmholt Centre for Oceanographic Research pointed out that the search area in the Indian Ocean is a noisy place where scores of planes and ships make rounds. Also, there is the possibility that the sounds may have come from other vessels passing in the vicinity at the time the pings were picked up.

Investigators are now considering other explanations to determine the fate of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, and have not dismissed the possibility of the plane having landed at an unknown location.

"The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370... [but] the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd," a source from IIT told the New Strait Times.

"We may have to regroup soon to look into this possibility if no positive results come back in the next few days... but at the same time, the search mission in the Indian Ocean must go on," the source said.

The possibility of the aircraft having crashed on some remote island in the ocean is also being explored. 

However, the missing plane was carrying four emergency locater transmitters (ELTs) which transmit the aircraft's location to an emergency satellite in case of a crash or contact with water, theCNN reported.

Experts are puzzled over why the ELTs did not activate, and if they did, why the satellite had failed to pick up their signals.

When contacted Malaysia Airlines said it could not comment on "any questions that relate to information held by other authorities and/or fall under the jurisdiction of the ongoing investigation. ..."

The investigative team have also admitted that the earlier calculations derived from information provided by Inmarsat were not entirely reliable, because communication satellites cannot detect crucial details such as a plane's direction, altitude and speed.

"A communications satellite is meant for communication... the name is self-explanatory. The reason investigators were forced to adopt a new algorithm to calculate the last known location of MH370 was because there was no global positioning system following the aircraft as the transponder went off 45 minutes into the flight," one source noted.

Iraq to Legalise Marriage of Girls as Young as Nine

A veiled girl waits for her engagement ceremony to start

Iraq is set to pass a law that allows girls as young as nine to get married.

The bill does not set a minimum age for child marriage, but the section on divorce has specific rules for girls as young as nine - the age girls reach puberty, according to Iraqi legislators.

Critics of the bill believe that those drafting the bill slipped the age reference into the divorce section as an indirect way of allowing girls of that age to get married.

Former prime minister Ayad Allawi warned that the bill would legalise the abuse of women.
 "It allows for girls to be married from nine years of age and even younger," he said.

The legislation, known as the Jaafari law, contains a clause that states women must comply with their husband's sexual demands, which critics argue sanctions marital rape. The bill gives men guardianship rights over women and establishes rules governing polygamous relationships.

"Married underage girls are subjected to physical and psychological suffering," Hanaa Edwar, head of the charity Al-Amal ("Hope" in Arabic), told AP.

"It [the bill] turns women into tools for sexual enjoyment. It deletes all their rights."

Supporters of the Jaafari law, named after a Shia Muslim school of jurisprudence, say it simply regulates practices already existing in day-to-day life.

The law as it stands sets the legal age for marriage without parental approval at 18 and says that girls as young as 15 can be married only with a guardian's approval.

The practice of child marriage was banned in Iraq in the 1970s, but resumed when the country plunged into war in 2003.

The Population Reference Bureau reported that the decline in early marriages officially peaked in 2013, when more than a quarter of underage girls were married. Some 5% had been married before the age of 15.In 2007, 21% of young Iraqi women reported they were married as children, according to Al-Monitor website.

The bill has been approved by the governing coalition in an effort to attract support from Iraq's majority Shiite population in the parliamentary elections at the end of April, Independent reported.

Baghdad-based analyst Hadi Jalo said: "Some influential Shiite politicians have the impression that they should do their best to make any achievement that would end the injustice that had been done against the Shiites in the past".

Hmmmm.......

Nigeria: Child Bride Feeds Husband Rat Poison Because She Did Not Love Him

A child bride in Nigeria has murdered her husband after feeding him rat poison because she did not love him.

The 14-year-old, named Wasila Umaru fed rat poison to her husband and his friend by hiding it in their food.

She told police officers she had done it because she had been forced to marry him, even though she had no feelings for him. She had put the poison in a rice dish.

The couple wedded recently in her husband's village Ungwar Yansoro, located 100km from the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

Musa Magaji Majia, assistant police superintendent, said Wasila was cooperating with the police investigation and will probably be charged with culpable homicide.

"The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love," Majia told Associated Press.

The groom and a friend died the day of eating the poison, while two other victims died later in hospital.

Child marriages are common in Nigeria, with half of girls living in rural areas married off before the age of 18. The practice is especially common in Muslim and northern regions, with cases skyrocketing in times of drought when a bride price means fewer family members to feed.

Last year an eight-year-old girl in Nigeria became the youngest ever wife to divorce her husband.

Fatima Mangre was granted a divorce after being betrothed at just four. Her father changed his mind when her 10-year-old husband came to collect her.

Hunt For MH370 'Pings' Delays Sub Launch

Hunt For 'Black Box Signals'

Search teams hunting for the missing Malaysia Airlines Plane are Scrambling to relocate the "pings" that could be from the aircraft's black boxes. 

An Australian ship has been unable to re-locate the signals, or 'pings', first heard at the weekend in its search for the black box of flight MH370.

Search coordinators say they will continue to trawl the Indian Ocean for several days before they consider sending down a mini submarine to investigate.

The Australian ship Ocean Shield picked up the pinging sound twice, on Saturday and Sunday, but has since been unable to hear it again.

Search coordinator Angus Houston and Australia's defence minister David Johnston both said re-locating the ping was the best-case scenario for the search.

Mr Houston said: "There have been no further contacts with any transmission and we need to continue that for several days right up to the point at which there's absolutely no doubt that the batteries will have expired.

"If we don't get any further transmissions, we have a reasonably large search area of the bottom of the ocean to prosecute and that will take a long, long time. It's very slow, painstaking work."

He said narrowing the search area first was critical.

He added: "It is a large area for a small submersible that has a very narrow field of search, and of course, it is literally crawling along the bottom of the ocean.

"That's why its so important to get another transmission and we need to continue until there's absolutely no chance the device is still transmitting."

Mysterious Epidemic Slowly Killing a South American Tribe

Mysterious Epidemic Slowly Killing a South American Tribe

A mysterious disease outbreak is slowly killing the members of a South American tribe, who came in contact with the outside world in the mid 20th century.

The epidemic may wipe out the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe from Paraguay's Chaco region if remained untreated, tribal rights group Survival International has warned on World Health Day.

Totobiegosode are the most isolated sub groups of Ayoreo tribe of the Paraguayn Chaco, who were first contacted in 2004.

Totobiegosode people live in small communities and grow squashes, beans and melons in the sandy soil, and hunt in the forest for a living.

The members of the tribe have a rare respiratory disease that shows symptoms of TB-like illness.

"The deadly epidemic threatens to wipe out Paraguay's recently contacted Ayoreo tribe, and sets a deadly precedent for their relatives still hiding in the forests, who are the last uncontacted Indians outside the Amazon," the organisation said in a statement.

The Ayoreo people are threatened by cattle ranchers who burn the Indians' land to establish their ranches. Several tribal people have been forced out of their forests in the process since 1969, some as recently as 2004.

Almost all the Ayoreo members, who have been forced out of their lands, have suffered from the rare disease.

"The most recent Ayoreo victim killed by the respiratory disease, Chiri Etacore, was forced out of the forest in 1986. Chiri died in October 2013," Survival International said.

An unknown number of relatives of these indigenous people are still uncontacted and are threatened by the epidemic.

"When uncontacted people are forced into contact with outside society disease swiftly follows. Here is proof that forced contact is nothing more than a death sentence for tribal peoples," Survival's director Stephen Corry said.

A 2013 report by the University of Maryland revealed that the Paraguayan Chaco has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world and the land inhabited by the Ayoreo is some of the last standing forest in the region.

However, most of the ancestral lands of these indigenous people have been brought by Brazilian cattle-ranching businesses that are illegally encroaching into Ayoreo's territory, putting the tribe at the brink of being forced out of forests and thereby at the risk of contracting the mysterious disease.

"The government is doing nothing to protect the lives of these Ayoreo's uncontacted relatives. Instead it is allowing the wholesale destruction of the Chaco forest at the hands of Brazilian ranchers," Corry added.

World food prices jump again in March: U.N.'s FAO

ROME (Reuters) - Global food prices rose to their highest in almost a year in March, led by unfavorable weather for crops and political tensions over Ukraine, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 212.8 points in March, up 4.8 points or 2.3 percent from February. The reading was the highest since May 2013.

While weather was the most important factor affecting crops, Russia's annexation of Crimea introduced fear into grain markets and the wheat market in particular, and risked damaging trade patterns, a FAO senior economist told Reuters.

"Political tensions of the sort we see today have the risk of taking us back to a Cold War situation, where countries make purchases of grain not only based on price differences offered but also because of political alliances," Abdolreza Abbassian said.

In March, FAO's cereal price index rose significantly for the second month in a row, jumping 5.2 percent to its highest value since August 2013 due to unfavorable weather in the south-central United States and Brazil, along with uncertainty over grain shipments from Ukraine.

The sugar price index saw the greatest percentage increase, rising 7.9 percent on the previous month due to drought in Brazil and reduced sugarcane output in Thailand.

Dairy was the only index to ease, the first fall in prices since November 2013, affected by reduced purchases by China and strong supplies in New Zealand, FAO said.

"Apart from dairy which probably had its peaks already and is now relaxing, prices, even if they don't rise further, will remain firm until we know a bit more about how the weather is going to influence the new crops," Abbassian said.

FAO raised its global cereals production forecasts to 2.521 billion metric tons in 2013, an increase of 6 million metric tons from its

previous forecasts, reflecting higher estimates for coarse grains and rice.

However, world wheat production was seen lower at 702 million metric tons in 2014, down 2 million metric tons from the previous forecast and 2 percent lower than last year's record harvest.

FAO estimated world cereals stocks to be 582.3 million metric tons at the close of crop seasons ending in 2014, an increase of 3.8 million metric tons from its previous forecast.

Full Transcript Of Last Contact With MH370

A transcript of the final conversations between the control tower and Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been released.

MAS 370 (Kuala Lumpur to Beijing)

PILOT-ATC RADIOTELEPHONY TRANSCRIPT

Departure from KLIA: 8 March 2014

ATC DELIVERY

12:25:53 MAS 370 Delivery MAS 370 Good Morning

12:26:02 ATC MAS 370 Standby and Malaysia Six is cleared to Frankfurt via AGOSA Alpha Departure six thousand feet squawk two one zero six

12:26:19 ATC ... MAS 370 request level

12:26:21 MAS 370 MAS 370 we are ready requesting flight level three five zero to Beijing

12:26:39 ATC MAS 370 is cleared to Beijing via PIBOS A Departure Six Thousand Feet squawk two one five seven

12:26:45 MAS 370 Beijing PIBOS A Six Thousand Squawk two one five seven, MAS 370 Thank You

12:26:53 ATC MAS 370 Welcome over to ground

12:26:55 MAS 370 Good Day

LUMPUR GROUND

12:27:27 MAS 370 Ground MAS370 Good morning Charlie One Requesting push and start

12:27:34 ATC MAS370 Lumpur Ground Morning Push back and start approved Runway 32 Right Exit via Sierra 4.

12:27:40 MAS 370 Push back and start approved 32 Right Exit via Sierra 4 POB 239 Mike Romeo Oscar

12:27:45 ATC Copied

12:32:13 MAS 370 MAS377 request taxi.

12:32:26 ATC MAS37..... (garbled) ... standard route. Hold short Bravo

12:32:30 MAS 370 Ground, MAS370. You are unreadable. Say again.

12:32:38 ATC MAS370 taxi to holding point Alfa 11 Runway 32 Right via standard route. Hold short of Bravo.

12:32:42 MAS 370 Alfa 11 Standard route Hold short Bravo MAS370.

12:35:53 ATC MAS 370 Tower

12:36:19 ATC (garbled) ... Tower ... (garbled)

MAS 370 1188 MAS370 Thank you

LUMPUR TOWER

12:36:30 MAS 370 Tower MAS370 Morning

12:36:38 ATC MAS370 good morning. Lumpur Tower. Holding point..[garbled]..10 32 Right

12:36:50 MAS 370 Alfa 10 MAS370

12:38:43 ATC 370 line up 32 Right Alfa 10. MAS 370 Line up 32 Right Alfa 10 MAS370.

12:40:38 ATC 370 32 Right Cleared for take-off. Good night.

MAS 370 32 Right Cleared for take-off MAS370. Thank you Bye.

LUMPUR APPROACH

12:42:05 MAS 370 Departure Malaysian Three Seven Zero

12:42:10 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero selamat pagi identified. Climb flight level one eight zero cancel SID turn right direct to IGARI

12:42:48 MAS 370 Okay level one eight zero direct IGARI Malaysian one err Three Seven Zero

12:42:52 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Lumpur Radar One Three Two Six good night MAS 370 Night One Three Two Six Malaysian Three Seven Zero

LUMPUR RADAR (AREA)

12:46:51 MAS 370 Lumpur Control Malaysian Three Seven Zero

12:46:51 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero Lumpur radar Good Morning climb flight level two five zero

12:46:54 MAS370 Morning level two five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero

12:50:06 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero climb flight level three five zero

12:50:09 MAS370 Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero

01:01:14 MAS370 Malaysian Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five zero

01:01:19 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero

01:07:55 MAS370 Malaysian...Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five zero

01:08:00 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero

01:19:24 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good Night

01:19:29 MAS370 Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero