N. Korea to restart nuclear reactor

SOUTH KOREA: North Korea announced Tuesday it was “readjusting and restarting” all facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, including a reactor mothballed in 2007.

A nuclear energy spokesman said the move was being made in line with a policy of “bolstering the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity” as well as solving “acute” electricity shortages, the official KCNA agency reported.

AFP

Gunmen attack power station, kill 7

PAKISTAN: Dozens of gunmen attacked an electricity plant in northwest Pakistan, killing seven people and disrupting power to 100,000 people overnight, officials said Tuesday.

It was the latest audacious assault underscoring rising violence in the northwest as Pakistan prepares to hold general and provincial elections on May 11, which are due to mark the country's first democratic transition of power. “Four power house employees and one policeman are still missing.”

The attack shut down electricity for five hours, affecting around 100,000 people in surrounding areas, the spokesman said. “We later restored electricity in those areas through alternate sources,” Afzal said.

AFP

Delhi gang-rape accused demands ‘proper food’

INDIA: A defendant in the New Delhi gang-rape and murder trial has demanded “proper food and newspapers” from jail officials as he prepares for a job recruitment test, the Press Trust of India reported Monday.

Vinay Sharma, who along with five others allegedly gang-raped a 23-year-old student in a moving bus in December, filed the plea in a fast-track court where he is being tried, the news agency said.

Sharma sought “proper food and newspapers” inside jail as he wanted to take a written examination for a clerical position with the Indian Air Force, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Sharma, a 20-year-old gym assistant, said he should be given milk and fruits in jail. He has denied raping the physiotherapy student and pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Judge Yogesh Khanna ordered the jail authorities to submit their response to Sharma's request. Five men and a 17-year-old teenager were arrested soon after the death of the rape victim, who succumbed to horrific internal injuries after nearly two weeks in hospital.

AFP

‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ to be shot Down Under

AUSTRALIA: The remake of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” will be filmed in Australia after the government pledged a one-off grant worth more than US$22 million, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Tuesday.

In a joint statement with Arts Minister Tony Burke, Gillard said casting decisions were still to be made and locations yet to be finalised for the movie, which is set to be the biggest production ever filmed in Australia.

Reports in February suggested Brad Pitt was being sought for the lead role in the remake of the 1954 film starring Kirk Douglas and based on the novel by Jules Verne, and would bring Angelina Jolie and family with him Down Under.

AFP

Supermodel saves son from drowning

US: Supermodel Heidi Klum plunged into the ocean to save her seven-year-old son from drowning during their vacation in Hawaii, US media reported Monday.

The German model, also well-known for her reality television show “Project Runway,” said her son, Henry, and two nannies were swept away by a big wave on the beach in Oahu on March 31.

“Of course, as a mother, I was very scared for my child and everyone else in the water,” she told US Weekly magazine in an exclusive statement.

AFP

Madonna in Malawi

MALAWI: American pop queen Madonna discreetly flew into Malawi on Monday with her adopted children from the southern African nation, an airport official said.

“I saw Madonna, her adopted two children David Banda and Mercy James, plus an entourage of 10, come through the VIP,” Peter Botha, a spokesman for the Lilongwe airport police, told AFP.

AFP