US set to release Predators

SAN DIEGO (AP):

Predator aircraft drones will soon be scanning US waters for smugglers. The US Customs and Border Protection says it's buying two Predator B aircraft for sea patrols, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. The models, which rolled out yesterday at the manufacturer's plant in Palmdale, have radar sensors that can detect boats. Agency officials say one will be tested in the Caribbean, with a base in Florida, but it could be used to aid patrols in the San Diego area.

45-day delay recommended

BAGHDAD (AP):

Iraq's electoral commission yesterday recommended a 45-day delay in parliamentary elections until February 27, raising concerns that the postponed balloting could complicate the planned withdrawal of the United States combat troops and bring a possible surge of violence. American commanders have noted the chance of increased pre-election bloodshed aimed at destabilising the pro-Western government. A series of attacks struck around the country as officials tried to hammer out the election timetable, including an explosion outside a Baghdad elementary school that killed 10 people, including six children.

Nobel prize winner speaks out

mueller

STOCKHOLM (AP):

The 2009 Nobel literature prize winner Herta Mueller says she started writing when it was no longer possible to use spoken words to describe what was happening in her native Romania under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Mueller says she was persecuted after refusing to become an informant and she paid tribute to those who live under totalitarian regimes today. She said in her Nobel lecture yesterday that she wanted to express how dictatorships deprive people of dignity. She said she reacted "to the fear of death with a thirst for life". The 56-year-old writer smuggled her early work into Germany to have it published, and she moved there in 1987.

North Korea faces the music

GENEVA (AP):

North Korea made a rare appearance before a United Nation human-rights organisation yesterday, facing accusations of widespread abuses such as forced labour, public executions and torture. The communist state, which also was accused of allowing its population to go hungry and forcing women prison inmates to have abortions, defended itself before the Human Rights Council during a three-hour session in surprisingly candid language. At one point, it said public executions were carried out at request of victims' families. But North Korean Ambassador Ri Tcheul also told delegations the hearing was "unpleasant".

Accused bomb planner charged

CHICAGO (AP):

A Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper was charged yesterday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks there in 2008 that killed 166 people.

David Coleman Headley was charged with 12 counts, including six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim individuals in India and Denmark and other offenses. He could be sentenced to death if convicted on the charges involving the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, was charged with conspiring to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees.

Thieves run off with US$6m

SAO PAULO (AP):

Thieves who spent months tunneling from a rented house to an armoured car company made off with nearly US$6 million over the weekend as season-ending football matches virtually paralyzed the nation, Brazilian authorities said yesterday.

The heist was discovered Sunday evening after the games ended. Officers followed the tunnel from the company's safe some 110 yards (100 metres) underground to a house, Sao Paulo police said in a statement. Police said the home, abandoned when they arrived, had been occupied for about four months. Its former occupants are considered suspects, but there were no immediate arrests.