NKorea warns embassies it can't guarantee safety

FILE- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, lays his hands on the table during talks with Thailand's Foreign Minister, not pictured, in Moscow, Russia, in this file photo dated Thursday, March 28, 2013. Lavrov on Friday April 5, 2013, is demanding an explanation for the North Korean warning that it can?t guarantee the safety of embassies in its capital of Pyongyang in the event of a conflict, asking whether the warning is an order to evacuate their embassy or merely a suggestion that they should consider doing so. North Korea?s government did not comment on the request for clarification. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

FILE- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, lays his hands on the table during talks with Thailand's Foreign Minister, not pictured, in Moscow, Russia, in this file photo dated Thursday, March 28, 2013. Lavrov on Friday April 5, 2013, is demanding an explanation for the North Korean warning that it can?t guarantee the safety of embassies in its capital of Pyongyang in the event of a conflict, asking whether the warning is an order to evacuate their embassy or merely a suggestion that they should consider doing so. North Korea?s government did not comment on the request for clarification. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

MOSCOW (AP) ? North Korea has warned diplomats in Pyongyang that it can't guarantee the safety of embassies in the event of a conflict and suggested they may want to evacuate their staff, Russia's top diplomat said Friday.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is demanding an explanation from the North Koreans ? asking whether the warning is an order to evacuate the North Korean capital or merely a proposal to consider doing so.

"This proposal has been sent to all the embassies in Pyongyang," Lavrov said. "We are now trying to clarify the situation. We asked our North Korean neighbors a few questions that need to be asked in this situation."

About two dozen countries have embassies in North Korea. Lavrov said during a visit to Uzbekistan as saying that Russia is in touch with China, the United States, Japan and South Korea ? all members of a dormant talks process with North Korea ? to try to figure out the motivation behind the warning.

"We are very much worried by inciting of tensions, even though it's verbal so far," Lavrov said. "We would like to understand the reasons behind the proposal to evacuate the embassies, whether it's a decision of the North Korean leadership or a proposal. We were told it's a proposal."

North Korea's government did not comment on the embassy warnings. Tensions have been roiling in the past few weeks following a North Korean nuclear test and the country's subsequent warnings to South Korea and the United States that it would be prepared to attack.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that it had received the warning, which it called part of ongoing rhetoric from Pyongyang to portray the U.S. as a threat.

"The British Embassy in Pyongyang received a communication from the North Korean government this morning saying that the North Korean government would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict from April 10th," it said in a statement.

Britain said it was "considering next steps" and had no immediate plans to withdraw from Pyongyang.

Sweden said North Korea's foreign ministry had a meeting with foreign diplomats but didn't order them to leave.

"It was a meeting that dealt with the security situation in the country, where the North Koreans asked whether there was any need for assistance in case of an evacuation," Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Teo Zetterman said.

Sweden also represents the United States, which doesn't have an embassy or any direct diplomatic presence in North Korea. Any Americans in North Korea would be NGO workers or tourists but it's not officially known how many might be there.

"This is just an escalating series of rhetorical statements, and the question is, to what end?" U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

"This is an unpredictable regime and an unpredictable situation," Nuland said. "Our posture remains to be prudent, to take appropriate measures, in the defense and deterrence sphere, both for ourselves and for our allies, but to continue to urge the DPRK to change course, because this is not going to end their isolation."

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul also issued a notice to Americans in South Korea, saying it had "no specific information to suggest an imminent threat to U.S. citizens or facilities."

The U.N. says its staff was continuing to work in North Korea while Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon studied the North Korean message to consider evacuating U.N. personnel.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said a U.N. representative joined diplomats at a meeting Friday in Pyongyang and that U.N. staff "remain engaged in their humanitarian and developmental work throughout the country."

Asked whether Ban would go to Pyongyang, Nesirky said the U.N. chief has offered to facilitate dialogue "to help to bring people together."

"Dialogue is what's needed to try to turn the volume down. The volume has been turned up tremendously high in recent days and the volume needs to be turned back down again and the secretary-general is certainly keen to help," he said.

Nesirky added that the U.N. was "providing very important life-saving assistance to people, particularly children" in North Korea.

Russia has appeared increasingly upset with North Korea, strongly criticizing its neighbor for its "defiant neglect" of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"We are counting on maximum restraint and composure from all sides," a Russian foreign ministry statement said Friday.

Other nations with diplomatic missions in North Korea, such as the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and India, also said they were weighing the situation carefully. The Czechs said they had no plans to withdraw; the Romanians and Bulgarians were speaking with the 27-nation European Union about the situation.

"Naturally, we assess that there is no outside threat to North Korea whatsoever," said Marcin Bosacki, spokesman for Poland's Foreign Ministry. "In our opinion, the current military rhetoric is exclusively directed to the internal audience and does not reflect the true international intentions of the country."

_____

AP writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Danica Kirka in London, Matt Lee in Washington, Edith Lederer at the United Nations, Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, and Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-05-Russia-North%20Korea/id-733ec05a2e2e4b348f2830e0b1a6a7b0

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Super Spider Discovered in Sri Lanka (Voice Of America)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/296979802?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Lead poisoning toll revised to 1 in 38 young kids

Cuyahoga County Board of Health lead risk assessor Tom Barsa swipes a windowsill Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Lakewood, Ohio. More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Cuyahoga County Board of Health lead risk assessor Tom Barsa swipes a windowsill Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Lakewood, Ohio. More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Cuyahoga County Board of Health lead risk assessor Tom Barsa swipes a doorway for lead Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Lakewood, Ohio. More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Cuyahoga County Board of Health lead risk assessor Tom Barsa swipes a kitchen floor for lead Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Lakewood, Ohio. More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Chart shows yearly percentage of children tested who are at risk of lead poisoning

Cuyahoga County Board of Health lead risk assessor Tom Barsa swipes a kitchen floor for lead Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Lakewood, Ohio. More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

NEW YORK (AP) ? More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday.

The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk.

Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ. Lead poisoning used to be a much larger concern in the United States, but has declined significantly as lead was removed from paint and gasoline and other sources.

The new number translates to about 1 in 38 young children. That estimate suggests a need for more testing and preventive measures, some experts said, but budget cuts last year eliminated federal grant funding for such programs.

Those cuts represent "an abandonment of children," said David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian who writes books about lead poisoning.

"We've been acting like the problem was solved and this?was a thing of?the past," he added.

Lead can harm a child's brain, kidneys and other organs. High levels in the blood can cause coma, convulsions and death. Lower levels can reduce intelligence, impair hearing and behavior and cause other problems.

Most cases of lead poisoning are handled by tracking and removing the lead source, and monitoring the children to make sure lead levels stay down. A special treatment to remove lead and other heavy metals is used only for extremely high levels.

Often, children who get lead poisoning live in old homes that are dilapidated or under renovation. They pick up paint chips or dust and put it in their mouth. Other sources include soil contaminated by old leaded gasoline, dust from industrial worksites and tainted drinking water

Lead has been banned in household paint since 1978 and was gone from gasoline by the late 1980s.

After lowering the standard, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went back and looked at old blood tests from 1,653 children under 6 to determine how many would have lead poisoning under the new definition.

About 3 percent of them ? or about 50 kids ? had blood lead levels higher than the new threshold of 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Using that result, CDC officials calculated that an estimated 535,000 young children have lead poisoning.

A year ago, when the threshold was 10 micrograms, experts estimated that somewhere between 77,000 and 255,000 young kids had high levels of lead.

These estimates have focused on children younger than 6, who have been considered most at risk of neurological problems due to lead.

Overall, the new CDC study found lead counts were higher on average in children who were poor or African-American, said the CDC's Mary Jean Brown, an author of the study.

Those kids are more likely to live in old housing or in neighborhoods with greater exposure to lead, she added.

The good news: Even with the lower threshold, lead poisoning appears to still be declining. Years ago, some local health departments began tracking the number of kids with blood levels at 5 or greater, and they say those numbers have been dropping steadily.

However, it's likely that many children with lead poisoning have not been diagnosed. In the CDC study, elevated lead levels were discovered for a third of the children only when they were tested by researchers.

"When you look for it, you find it," Columbia's Rosner said.

Once lead poisoning is diagnosed, doctors often refer parents to local health departments to get their homes checked out to try to find the source of the problem. But as demand for investigations grows, there's less money to pay for them. Congress last year cut CDC lead program's budget from about $29 million to $2 million. That ended CDC grants to local health departments for their programs.

Detroit's lead program was all but eliminated because of the federal cut and state and local funding problems, said Bob Scott of Michigan's lead poisoning prevention program.

Other places are struggling to keep up with lead work at the same time they are cutting staff. The Cleveland area has been aggressive about lead poisoning prevention but the loss of CDC funding hurt those efforts.

For example, Cuyahoga County ? which includes Cleveland ? saw its staff for blood testing of children and public education drop from 2 1/2 positions to 1.

"It's unsustainable," said Terry Allan, the county's health commissioner.

____

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-04-US-MED-Lead-Poisoning/id-fc25312ec2dd41e2ada42c2555b87d28

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How to prevent your child from making in-app purchases on your Android device

As a followup to Janet’s article about restricting in-app purchases on an iPad, here’s the guide to doing it on Android. ?Like Janet, I’ve heard so many of my less technology-bent friends complain that they handed their Android device to say their nieces and nephews to play games and keep them busy, and lo and [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/04/04/how-to-prevent-your-child-from-making-in-app-purchases-on-your-android-device/

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Cypriot finance minister resigns amid crisis probe

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Finance minister Michalis Sarris resigned Tuesday after less than five weeks in the job, as the government begins an investigation into how the country's economy nearly collapsed last month.

President Nicos Anastasiades accepted Sarris' resignation, which came as Cyprus finalized the details of its bailout with international creditors. Harris Georgiades, the 41-year-old former labor minister, will become the new head of finance.

Sarris, 66, was appointed to the position after Anastasiades' Conservatives won general elections in February, days before the island was overwhelmed by its financial crisis.

The minister, a former World Bank official who helped negotiate Cyprus' euro membership in 2008, has come under strong criticism for his handling of the bailout negotiations. On top of that, he was last year the head of Laiki Bank, one of the troubled banks at the heart of the country's financial problems.

Sarris told reporters that he decided to step down to not compromise the work of investigators.

"To ease the work of this committee, I've thought that it would be appropriate for me to put my resignation at the disposal of the president of the republic, which I did," he said. Anastasiades praised the move, hailing Sarris' political sensibility.

Earlier Tuesday, the president appointed a panel of three former supreme court judges to investigate the country's plunge to the verge of bankruptcy.

Anastasiades acknowledged the finance minister's resignation, adding that "Mr Sarris', decision to submit his resignation, for reasons of political sensibility in order to ease the work of the Investigating Committee, constitutes an example of a new mindset in Cypriot political life."

Cyprus has been given a 10 billion euro ($12.8 billion) bailout from its lenders after agreeing to overhaul its oversized banking sector flush with foreign deposits, including billions from Russia.

To secure the bailout, Cyprus had to agree that bondholders, investors and savers in the country's two biggest banks ? Bank of Cyprus and Laiki ? take a hit. Laiki, the country's second-largest lender, will be broken up with depositors with more than 100,000 euros ($128,000) taking major losses. Savers with more than 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus could face losses of up to 60 percent on their savings as part of the rescue deal.

Cypriots are in for a great deal of economic pain for many months. Sarris said 2013 would be "a very difficult year" for the country with conditions only improving well into 2014.

To forestall a run on the country's banks, Cypriot authorities imposed restrictions on how much people can take out of their accounts when they reopened last week after a nearly two-week closure to allow politicians to hammer out a bailout deal.

The restrictions ? the first-ever imposed in the 17 member group of countries that use the euro ? included a daily cash withdrawal limit of 300 euros and a cap of 1,000 euros in cash for people leaving the country . But in an attempt to kickstart spending, the Finance Ministry on Tuesday eased some of the restrictions Tuesday? including raising the daily business transaction limit not requiring Central Bank approval from 5,000 euros to 25,000 euros and allowing people to make check payments worth up to 9,000 euros a month.

Cypriot officials said they hoped the all the restrictions introduced last Thursday would be lifted in a month, but Sarris on Tuesday that he "couldn't predict the exact time period."

Anastasiades himself has come under scrutiny over the crisis: a local newspaper has alleged that a company apparently co-owned by one of his relatives took money out of Laiki days before the country agreed to its bailout. The president Tuesday urged the judges to kick off their probe by investigating his family's business dealings.

Meanwhile, Cypriot government spokesman Christos Stylianides said authorities were putting the finishing touches to the country's bailout agreement with officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF ? collectively known as the troika.

One of the conditions agreed was an extra two years, until 2018, to achieve a targeted budget surplus of 4 percent through spending cuts and tax hikes. The extension is designed to give more time for the Cypriot economy to recover. Government officials are predicting that the country's economic output will shrink by 9 percent this year alone.

"Without doubt, completion of the agreement with the troika should have been done much sooner in much more favorable political and economic conditions," Stylianides said. "Even with this delay, the situation is now normalized, stabilized and conditions are being created to restart the economy."

Under the terms of the deal, the country has been granted 22 years ? which includes a 10-year grace period ? to pay off the 10 billion euro bailout loan at an interest rate of 2.5-2.7 percent. The first disbursement of aid money is expected in May.

Stylianides said the troika won't have any say in how future revenues generated from the country's newfound offshore gas deposits will be used.

The government spokesman said other amendments to the deal include allowing part-time government workers to keep their jobs, to be funded by civil servants taking a pay cut; making it easier for debtors to pay off loans; avoiding a tax on dividends and affording some protection to Laiki bank pension funds.

___

Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cypriot-finance-minister-resigns-amid-crisis-probe-155401607--finance.html

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Arkansas to probe Exxon Mobile spill

2 April 2013 Last updated at 22:27 ET

The US state of Arkansas has launched an investigation into the rupture of an Exxon Mobil oil pipeline that spilled thousands of barrels of crude.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked the company to keep all documents pertaining to Friday's spill.

The rupture in Mayflower prompted the evacuation of 22 homes, with police enforcing a blockade around the spill.

The spill has renewed debate over a proposal to build another pipeline from western Canada to the US Gulf Coast.

Also on Tuesday, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued an order preventing Exxon Mobile from restarting operations on the affected segment of the pipe until it had signed off on the repair work.

In the wake of Friday's release of between 3,500 and 5,000 barrels of oil from the Pegasus pipeline, black crude was seen soaking lawns and streaming down residential streets in the community north of the state capital, Little Rock.

'Future litigation'

"This incident has damaged private property and Arkansas's natural resources," Mr McDaniel said. "Homeowners have been forced from their homes."

He said the request that Exxon Mobil keep records on the spill was the "first step in determining what happened and preserving evidence for any future litigation".

The oil company has said it will co-operate with any investigation.

Exxon Mobil says it plans to dig up and replace the broken part of the 65-year-old line that runs from the state of Illinois to Texas.

But rain forecast for Tuesday afternoon could hamper the clean-up by carrying oil sheen towards nearby Lake Conway, a popular destination for bass, catfish, bream and crappie fishing.

Local responders have built barriers of rock and dirt to stop the oil from contaminating the lake, and Exxon Mobil put booms into the lake as a precaution.

The oil company said it was putting together a plan to enable residents return home. Until then, Mayflower police were accompanying them as they retrieved personal belongings from their houses.

Separately, Canadian oil company TransCanada has proposed building a 1,700-mile (2,735km) pipeline called Keystone XL to carry crude from Alberta, Canada's tar sands region to refineries in Texas.

The project has encountered stiff opposition from environmental groups.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22008561#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Asian shares, U.S. dollar capped as more data looms

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares were capped while the dollar eased on Tuesday, with investors growing cautious ahead of new indicators that could flag slowing U.S. economic momentum.

The private ADP employment report and the latest weekly jobless claims figures precede the key monthly U.S. nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

European markets were likely to return from Easter holidays on a decline, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> to open down as much as 0.3 percent. Benchmark indices in Spain <.ibex> and Italy <.ftmib> were likely to drop 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent respectively at the open. <.l><.eu/>

U.S. stock futures were steady, pointing to a calm Wall Street start after falling overnight. The Institute for Supply Management's index of national factory activity slipped in March with new orders, a key indicator of future growth, accounting for much of the fall. <.n/>

Oil and copper, markets sensitive to industrial demand, fell as investors focused on Monday's official Chinese factory activity report which came in below forecasts.

"You see the U.S. economy settling into a long, hard grind of moderate growth of around 1 to 1.5 percent, growth in previous recoveries was closer to 3.5 percent," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.

"With this kind of growth, the United States is going to struggle to bring down unemployment which is a real drag on the economy."

A run of generally solid U.S. economic reports helped restore global risk appetite despite worries in the euro zone after the Cyprus bailout and some growth concerns in China.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> gave up earlier gains to inch down 0.1 percent, pulled lower by a 1 percent slide in South Korean shares <.ks11> and weak Chinese shares.

But Australian shares <.axjo> bucked the trend and rose 0.4 percent, as investors returned from the Easter break looking for bargains after last week's dip. The Reserve Bank of Australia helped, keeping its main cash rate at a record low of 3.0 percent but leaving open the possibility of further easing.

DOLLAR LOSES MOMENTUM

"Investors are not making big bets following subdued manufacturing data in the United States and China and ahead of two major events later this week," Lee Jae-man, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities said, referring to meetings of central banks in Japan and Europe.

The Nikkei stock average <.n225> tumbled as much as 2.7 percent to a one-month low before trimming some of the losses to fall 0.8 percent. The index logged its best quarterly performance in nearly four years in the first three months of 2013. <.t/>

Both the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank hold policy meetings later in the week. The BOJ is expected to announce fresh stimulus measures under its new leadership in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive to reflate the economy.

The weak U.S. data weighed on the dollar, pushing it down to a one-month low of 92.57 yen. The euro fell 0.3 percent to 119.20 yen, its lowest since February 26.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield inched closer to 1.8 percent after topping 2 percent in early March for the first time in almost a year. Ten-year Japanese government bond yield has declined from around 0.7 percent early in March to a near-decade low of 0.51 percent last week, before rebounding to around 0.56 percent.

"Expectations for an expansionary U.S. economy are weakening and long-term yields are falling, that's what is primarily driving the dollar lower," said Koji Fukaya, CEO and currency strategist of FPG Securities in Tokyo.

A weak yen trend which had been in place since last November had transformed into a strong dollar trend on signs of stronger U.S. growth earlier this year, but the latest soft indicator stoked concerns about such growth prospects.

"In such a context, markets were ripe for position adjustments, also as the second quarter may see effects of U.S. fiscal tightening taking a toll on the economy, even if the underlying recovery path remains firm," Fukaya said.

The waning of the dollar's relative outperformance and Cyprus at least avoiding bankruptcy were preventing the euro from falling through recent lows, although the currency faced more downside than the upside due to its wobbly fundamentals, traders said.

The euro inched up 0.1 percent to $1.2860, moving away from a four-month low of $1.2750 touched last week.

U.S. crude futures fell 0.4 percent to $96.69 a barrel while Brent eased 0.3 percent to $110.76.

London copper fell 1.2 percent to $7,452 a tonne, after touching a seven-month low earlier.

A weak dollar benefited bullion, keeping spot gold above $1,600 an ounce, but investors were loth to build positions too much ahead of Friday's payrolls data.

"I think sentiment is neutral. It can't break through $1,620-$1,625, but on the downside, we can say $1,590-$1,585 seem to be the floor," said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.

(Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Luke Pachymuthu and Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore; Editing by Eric Meijer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-u-dollar-capped-more-data-looms-003206639--finance.html

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