Pakistan court orders ears and noses to be cut off

A Pakistani court has ordered that 2 men have their ears and noses cut off, as punishment for doing the same to a woman who refused to get married one of them.

The 2 brothers were found guilty of kidnapping 20-year-old Fazeelat Bibi, one of their cousins, in September.

The judge in Lahore also sentenced them to life in prison. Sentence was passed on Monday below a rarely invoked Islamic law dating from the 1980s. Formerly similar sentences have been revoked on appeal.

Government prosecutor Mr. Ehtisham Qadir said the punishment had been awarded in accordance with the Islamic principle of "an eye for an eye".

"They put a noose around her neck, and then cut off her ears and nose," Mr. Ehtisham Qadir told the BBC.

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Philippines' Mayon Volcano to explode 'within days'

The warning comes after 1000s of people were evacuated from their homes in central Albay province. Reports said about 85 % of the area's populace were now living in emergency shelters. A no-go zone established around Mayon volcano has also been expanded to 6 miles from the base.

The Philippines' military was policing the danger zone to make sure no one was left behind and no one tries to return. Experts have raised the alert level to 4 - which means an explosion is expected within the next few days.

The country's chief vulcanologist, Renato Solidum, said above 450 volcanic tremors had been detected over a 12-hour period on Saturday. He added that rumbling sounds had been heard at the volcano's base.

"What we’re preparing for is a hazardous eruption and a quick descent of pyroclastic ashflow," Mr Solidum told reporters.Mayon has erupted 48 times in recorded history, with the previous happening in 2006.

Nobody was killed in the explosion, but ash that settled on the mountain turned to mud during a typhoon 3 months later. The resulting mudslide killed some 1,000 villagers.

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'Tree Man' says growths returning

The Indonesian man known as 'Tree Man' is still combating the bark-like warts that cover his whole body. Dede Koswara underwent a surgery in August this year to remove the growths, which are believed to be an extreme case of the Human Papilloma Virus or HPV.

Surprising images of Koswara's body first emerged in 2007 - his hands and his feet was worst affected by the scaly warts. Doctors were puzzled by him but eventually pinpointed the problem - he has a rare genetic condition that prevents his body fighting HPV.

During surgery this year over 6 kilogram’s of warts were removed from his body, giving him a few chances at a normal life. Instead of being hampered by his unrecognizable 'tree' hands, he was able to hold small objects and even go fishing.

His mother still helps him to bathe and eat.” Those that were removed are growing yet again and started to reappear after I returned home," Dede Koswara said from his home in West Java.

While it seems Koswara will always suffer from the aggressive warts, doctors believe with 2 operations a year, he must enjoy a better quality of life.

Hackers steal South Korean-US military secrets

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea’s military says a suspected cyber attack that netted top secret defense plans may have been carried out by North Korea.

As said by a Defense Ministry spokesman, the suspected hacking occurred late last month. He says a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet. The USB device is said to have contained an outline of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula.

Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said the stolen document was not a complete text of the operational plans, but an 11 page file used to brief military officials. He said it did not hold any critical information.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang may have used a Chinese IP address—the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number.

The most recent case comes months after hackers launched high-profile cyber attacks on prominent government-run sites in the U.S. and South Korea.

Nepal to free child soldiers from camps shortly

KATHMANDU - The Nepali government and the ex- Maoist rebels agreed on Wednesday to start freeing 1000’s of child soldiers in Maoist camps within weeks, the United Nations (U.N.) said, 3 years after a peace deal ended a civil war.

The U.N. estimated in 2007 that almost 3,000 children were living in camps housing ex- Maoist fighters, part of a deal to end a decade-long conflict that caused more than 13,000 deaths.

"Today the minors who have spent the last 3 years in Maoist army cantonments with their lives on hold will finally be able to take the next step toward a more positive future," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative of the United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. She also said that the children will start leaving the camps on December 27 and would all be out within 40 days.

"This agreement shows our full and complete commitment for peace," said Maoist chief Prachanda, who still goes by his nom de guerre or war name. The U.N. has projected that another 1,000 people who joined as Maoist fighters after the peace process started in 2006 were also living in camps and should be discharged.

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22 people died in Pakistan market blast

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- An explosion killed at least 22 people and injured 60 others Tuesday in the central Pakistani city of Dera Ghazi Khan, said a rescue service official. The dead included 2 children, 3 women and 17 men, said, Mubarak Ali Athar, the regional police chief in Dera Ghazi Khan .3 people were critically injured, he said.

The blast ripped through a market located close to the house of a senior adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province, said the official, Mohammed Hasnain. The adviser, Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa, is a former provincial governor and a senior opposition party politician. He said that he was the target of the attack, though police primarily said he was not the intended target.

Sardar Zulfiqar Muhammad Khosa told that none of his family members were in the house when the attack occurred. He also said that he had never before received any threats against his life. The attacker detonated his car in front of the main gate at Khosa's house, said Hassan Iqbal, a senior government official.

About 20 shops in the market were left in heaps of rubble.

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Robbers steal $3.7m from bank in Pakistan

Robbers have stolen not less than $3.7m from a bank in Karachi, in what is being called Pakistan's biggest bank heist.

The robbery took place at the main branch of Allied Bank, one of Pakistan's largest banks, less than 100 meters from city police headquarters.

Police says that the gang was led by one of the bank's guards. The robbers broke into the main vault and stole foreign currency worth 311m rupees (approximately $3.7m).

Police have launched an investigation, but have so far made no arrest.

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25 years on, Bhopal still suffers from gas leak tragedy

T.R. Chouhan walked solemnly through the rusted remains of the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. "I come here frequently," he said. "We used to work here, and now this is the condition of the plant. So it feels really bad."

Chouhan was a 10-year veteran employee of the plant when disaster struck 25 years ago. Shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984, a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas wafted into the Bhopal atmosphere. Outside the factory's concrete walls, quiet neighborhoods quickly became chaotic.

"Everybody started screaming, 'There's a gas leak, there's a gas leak!' So we started running," recalled Bhopal resident Bashiran Bi.

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Soviet commander: U.S. faces similar Afghan fate

A former commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan has warned history is being repeated in the war-ravaged country as the United States and its allies become increasingly mired in an "unwinnable war."

Gen. Victor Yermakov commanded the Soviet Union's 40th army in Afghanistan from May 1982 to November 1983, one of six commanders to preside over the Soviet task force after its 1979 attack.

The Kremlin's bloody nine-year campaign to support the Marxist government in Kabul cost the lives of more than 15,000 troops and brought the Soviet economy to its knees before its 100,000-strong army was forced into a humiliating withdrawal.

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The battle for Afghan hearts and minds

"Why are the Americans in our land? What can I say, we are powerless."

The words of an Afghan farmer, Khan Mohmad, who fled war-torn Helmand province, leaving his land behind and finding refuge in a dreary camp on the outskirts of Kabul.

Khan Mohmad along with thousands of other displaced Afghans now squat in makeshift clay huts, using any bits of trash to make a home.

He is a striking man. His eyes lined with coal and his dirty blonde hair wrapped in a grey-black turban as he speaks in a soft but frustrated tone.

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Government will not open Bhopal plant as memorial

It was to be a somber memorial, a remembrance of those who perished in a lethal milky fog.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster, authorities planned to open up the now-dilapidated shell of the Union Carbide fertilizer plant, where in the wee hours of December 3, 1984, 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas oozed out onto the sleeping city of Bhopal, India.

About 4,000 people died instantly in the toxic leak, an event that came to be marked each year with disputes over victims' rights and government responsibility.

On this year's milestone anniversary, a new controversy has stirred.

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100 suspects sought for Philippines massacre

One hundred more suspects - including police officers - could face arrest over massacre in the Philippines, a government official said Friday after authorities charged the alleged architect of the killings.

At least 57 unarmed civilians were slain Monday in Maguindanao, in the southern Philippines. Andal Ampatuan Jr. - mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the provincial governor of Maguindanao - faces seven counts of murder.

Justice officials said they have collected sworn statements from witnesses and expect to file more charges as the investigation unfolds.

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Politician charged over Philippines massacre

Authorities have filed murder charges against a politician over the massacre of 57 unarmed civilians in the Philippines, state-run media reported Thursday.

Andal Ampatuan Jr, who is the mayor of the town of Datu Unsayalso and the son of a Philippines provincial governor, had voluntarily turned himself in for questioning Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how many murder charges Ampatuan would face in Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, in the southern Philippines.

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Death toll rises to 57 in Philippines

Authorities have disbanded a paramilitary force in the southern Philippines alleged of having a role in the massacre of at least 57 unarmed civilians, the country's state-run media reported Wednesday.

The death toll grew Wednesday after 11 more bodies were recovered from a rural area of Mindanao, where the remains were hurriedly buried. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning.

The Philippine government is under intense pressure to find the culprits responsible for planning and carrying out Monday's abduction and killings of politicians, lawyers, journalists and reportedly some bystanders. Suspicion has fallen on the Ampatuan family, a key ally of the Arroyo administration in the Maguindanao region of the southern Mindanao province.

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Administration blamed in China mine blast that kills 104

Chinese officials blamed poor management and inadequate precautions for a bang at a mine that killed 104 people, state-run media said Monday.

In addition to those killed, 60 miners remained hospitalized from Saturday's morning blast at the Xinxing coal mine in northeastern Heilongjiang province.

Most were being treated for injuries such as carbon monoxide poisoning and burns, CCTV reported. Six were in dangerous condition with severe burns.

Four other workers were still trapped underground in the mine shaft, the Xinhua news agency said.

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Afghan minister: Taliban can be defeated

The war in Afghanistan is winnable, and corruption will be fought, Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday, as President Hamid Karzai was being sworn in for a second five-year term in Kabul.

Atmar said security has improved in some provinces and deteriorated in others, but he's confident the Taliban can be defeated. "We have to show the resolve, the determination, and the ability to make decisions speedily," he said.

He said criticism from Afghanistan's international partners is unhelpful.

"We accept part of the blame, but there are also issues that our international friends must also take responsibility for - the blame game is not going to help."

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Obama to send representative to North Korea

U.S. President Barack Obama, meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul on Thursday, said he will send Representative Stephen Bosworth to North Korea next month for bilateral talks on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear program.

"If North Korea is prepared to take concrete and irreversible steps to fulfill its obligations and eliminate its nuclear weapons program, the United States will support economic assistance and help promote its full integration into the community of nations," Obama said. "That chance and respect will not come with threats. North Korea must live up to its obligations."

Bosworth's trip is slated for December 8.

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Hatoyama selected as Japan's prime minister

The vote by the lower house of the parliament was nearly assured.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a landslide election last month, and controls 308 of the lower chamber's 480 seating.

Earlier, conquered prime minister Taro Aso and his cabinet resigned.

Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had governed the country for nearly half a century.

Handed a sweeping permission for change, Hatoyama begins the formidable task of delivering on a laundry list of promises planned to lift the country after its worst recession since World War II. 

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Afghan junkies danger triggering AIDS explosion

Afghanistan's reputation as the world's leading narcotics dealer is well-known, but in a squalid ruin in Kabul, the country hides a darker secret, a huge home grown drug habit problem now on the brink of fueling an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Here junkies lie in their own filth, wasted limbs poking out of blood-spattered clothes as they blank out the abject misery of their surroundings. In one room, a veritable narcotics bazaar offers pills and drug paraphernalia, with hits retailing at less than $4.

One user claims he has been an addict for 22 years, although it is hard to talk to any of the dazed and ragged occupant of the drug rooms. The atmosphere is edgy and, as thick clouds of burning opium fill the air, dizzyingly poisonous.

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4 U.S. group killed in Afghanistan

Four U.S. service members were killed Saturday in two bombing assault in Afghanistan, military officials said.

Two soldiers died after their patrol struck a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan's Wardak region, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Sunday.

The security force said the U.S. military confirmed that the slain troop were Americans.

In western Afghanistan, soldiers were fired upon after they struck a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said. Two died in the early attack, the military said.

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