S Korean officials attacked while investigating bombing

A South Korean delegation investigating a suicide bombing that killed four of its nationals on March 15 itself became the target of bombers, officials in Seoul said, adding that no one was hurt in the new attack.South Korean officials and relatives visiting Yemen to investigate a bombing which killed four Koreans came under attack themselves on Wednesday, a Seoul foreign ministry official told AFP. "Vehicles carrying our government officials and bereaved family members came under a terrorist attack today. Nobody was harmed," said the official handling consular affairs. Yonhap news agency described the incident as a bomb attack but said only a vehicle was damaged. "The attack came when our officials and the relatives of the victims were heading for an airport after their on-the-spot investigation at the bombing site," another foreign ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. She declined to give further details, saying a briefing would be held later. In Yemen, security officials and eyewitnesses said that a suicide attacker targeted one of the Koreans' vehicles on the way to the airport in the capital Sanaa, and confirmed that no one was hurt. The four Korean tourists were killed on Sunday while watching the sun set over the historic mud-brick eastern city of Shibam. Their local guide was also killed. South Korea said it had been notified by Yemeni authorities that Al-Qaeda was to blame. The Seoul government sent a four-person investigative team to Yemen, made up of two foreign ministry officials as well as representatives of the national police and the intelligence agency. Some relatives travelled with them.

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Bomber targets South Korean officials in Yemen

Michael Jackson new concert dates sold out

Citing very strong demand, AEG Live added a further 23 concert dates to US pop star Michael Jackson's comeback concert schedule in London. All 44 concerts that Jackson will now perform in the capital sold out in hours on Friday morning.Tickets for 49 comeback concerts by pop megastar Michael Jackson sold out within hours of going on sale Friday. Hundreds of fans camped out overnight to queue for tickets to see the "King of Pop" comeback concerts in London, after extra shows were announced to cope with demand. The 50-year-old Jackson initially announced 10 concerts in July, his first major shows for more than a decade and first since his child sex trial, but promoters AEG Live added extra dates to take the total to 49, according to the singer's own website. The "This is It" concert series at London's O2 Arena will now stretch from July 8 to next February. About 500,000 tickets went on sale at 7:00am and were quickly sold after some 360,000 pre-sale tickets had already been snapped up. The "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" star last week told fans that the performances would be his "final curtain", adding: "I am coming to London to play the songs my fans want to hear." Reports suggest Jackson could make millions of pounds from the concerts, which come four years after he was cleared of child abuse in the United States. Ticket prices range from 50 pounds to 75 pounds (85 euros, 100 dollars). AEG Live head Randy Phillips said: "Not only are these concerts unparalleled, these records will never be broken. We knew this was show business history, but this is a cultural phenomenon."

Discovery reaches ISS

Discovery, the US space shuttle, successfully docked with the International Space Station delivering two solar panels to the orbiting laboratory. Koichi Wakata became the first Japanese astronaut to land on the ISS.The shuttle Discovery docked Tuesday with the International Space Station on a mission to deliver the orbiting lab's first Japanese crewmember and key parts to complete construction of the station. The two vessels linked up at 2119 GMT as they flew over southern Australia, around six minutes behind the estimated docking time but, barring minor communication issues between the ISS and mission control in Houston, without a hitch. During their 13-day mission, the Discovery crew, including Koichi Wakata, who will become the first long-stay Japanese crewmember on the ISS, will install two pairs of solar panels to the space station, one of the last major tasks of the more than decade-long effort to construct the orbiting outpost. Installing the solar panels was to have taken a two-astronaut team four space walks of more than six hours each to complete, according to NASA's original plans. But after lift-off was delayed last week because of a hydrogen leak, the solar panels are now due to be installed during three space walks, the first one set for Thursday, NASA said. The pairs of solar panels contain 32,800 solar cells and measure 35 meters (115 feet) long. Once the full array of solar panels is in place on the space station, they will provide enough electricity to fully power scientific experiments and support an expanded crew of six, due to arrive at the ISS in May. A crew of three -- two Americans and one Russian -- welcomed Discovery when it docked with the ISS.

Smallest known North American dinosaur found

Canadian researchers say they have discovered the smallest known North American dinosaur, a carnivore that roamed areas of the continent 75 million years ago and weighed less than most modern-day house cats.Hesperonychus elizabethae, a 4.4-pound (2-kilogram) creature with razor-like claws, ran through the swamps and forests of southeastern Alberta, Canada, during the late Cretaceous period, the researchers said. The diminutive dinosaur likely hunted insects, small mammals and other prey, perhaps even baby dinosaurs, said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the University of Calgary's Department of Biological Sciences. "It's basically a predator of small things," Longrich said. Longrich co-wrote a paper on the dinosaur with University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie. The paper appeared in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers said the clawed dinosaur was slight, ran on two legs and had dagger-like teeth. It had an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe, the researchers said. Although fossilized remains of Hesperonychus were collected in 1982, they remained unstudied until Longrich came across them in the University of Alberta's collection in 2007, the university said. Because of their size, some of the fossilized parts had been thought to be from juveniles.

AIG Will Repay Taxpayers for Bonuses

The Treasury Department will order embattled insurance giant American International Group Inc. to repay U.S. taxpayers up to $165 million that the company is giving employees as bonuses, Treasury Secretary Timothy  Geithner said late Tuesday.Acknowledging "considerable outrage" about the bonus payments, Geithner said AIG will pay the Treasury an amount equal to the payments, and the Treasury will deduct that amount from the $30 billion in government assistance that will soon go to the company. "We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the Treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid," Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders.Geithner is using the controversy over employee pay at AIG to press Congress to work with the Obama administration to shore up regulations of the financial industry. The treasury secretary, who has been criticized for his handling of AIG's employee bonuses, said Tuesday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that "we should not lose focus on the larger issue it raises.""This situation dramatically underscores the need to adopt, as a critical part of financial regulatory reform, an expanded 'resolution authority' for the government to better deal with situations like this," Geithner says in his letter. He also outlines in the letter how the administration learned of the $165 million in bonuses and how it is responding.AIG has been the recipient of more than $170 billion in federal aid, part of a effort to rescue the giant insurance company from collapse. The federal government now holds a 80 percent stake in the company, further fueling outrage over the bonuses that were mandated by employee contracts that predated the bailout money.

FARC rebels free Swedish hostage

FARC, the lefist guerrilla movement responsible for the kidnapping and sequestration of hundreds in the Colombian jungle, on Tuesday released 69-year-old Swedish engineer Erik Larsson, whom they had kidnapped in 2007.Colombian rebels have released Swedish citizen Erik Roland Larsson who was kidnapped in 2007 by the leftist FARC guerrilla movement, a Colombian intelligence spokesman told AFP Tuesday.  "We know that he was set free by his captors," the spokesman told AFP, adding that the Swede was set free near Monteria, 790 kilometers (491 miles) northeast of Bogota. The 69-year-old engineer was snatched by guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in May 2007 along with his partner, who escaped four days later and publicized his fate. In February, Sweden's ambassador to Colombia appealed for his release and recalled that he was the only Swedish hostage in the world.

Rajoelina appoints himself as head of transitional govt

Opposition leader Andry Rajoelina appointed himself head of the transitional government of Madagascar after the army handed over power to him, following President Marc Ravalomanana's decision to step down.Madagascar's Andry Rajoelina declared Tuesday "call me president" after he was handed power by the army, completing the fiery 34-year-old's ouster of Marc Ravalomanana after a deadly months-long crisis."Ravalomanana has already resigned, the prime minister and his government have also resigned, I am at the head of the transitional government... So you can call me president," he told French television channel LCI in a telephone interview. His government would organise a fresh presidential election within two years, he said, adding that he believed he had the backing of the people."It is the people who are giving power, it's the people who are retaking power. We are responding to this demand to put myself at the head of the transitional (government)," he said. The baby-faced former disc jockey said he did not know of Ravalomanana's whereabouts and denied he had instigated calls for him to be arrested. "It is not me who is demanding his arrest, it is Madagascan law. It is the law which must settle the fate of Marc Ravalomana," he added. One of his first tasks at the helm of the transitional authority he set up last month will be to fill the constitutional gap of his take-over, not least of which the article which makes him six years too young to run for president.

MADAGASCAR'S ARMY HANDS POWER TO OPPOSITION LEADER

Madagascar's army has handed over power to opposition 

leader Andry Rajoelina during a ceremony attended by journalists 

following President Marc Ravalomanana's decision to step down.

FIFA confirm 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidders

FIFA have confirmed which countries have made a bid to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.All 11 candidates had already stated their intention to stage the game's showpiece event with Tuesday's announcement confirmation that FIFA had received their bid registration forms. England, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the USA have all applied to stage the event in either 2018 or 2022 with South Korea and Qatar staking a claim to host it in 2022 only. "We are very pleased about the fantastic level of interest in our flagship competition, with all initial bidders confirming their candidature," president Sepp told the official FIFA Web site."The diversity and quality of the contenders will make this a very interesting selection process. This shows the importance of the FIFA World Cup as a truly universal event and the global power of this competition to help achieve positive change, in line with our claim: For the Game. For the World." The next stage for the applicants is to submit their bidding agreements by December 11. 

A new way to win F1

International Formula One's board, the FIA, announced they will change the way the championship title is awarded. From next season the overall winner will be decided by the number of Grand Prix races won rather than by points accumulated.Formula One chiefs ruled on Tuesday that as of this season the coveted drivers' championship title will be awarded to the driver who wins the most races, and not he who collects most points.     The dramatic move is part of reforms aimed at giving a new lease of life to the troubled sport that has been badly hit on the one hand by the world financial crisis but also by processional races with little overtaking. Under the new rules if two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of race wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.The decision was one of several made at a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Tuesday, a meeting called to "help reduce costs and increase interest in the FIA Formula One World Championship" according to a statement released by the FIA, world motor sport's governing body."The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers’ championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season," added the statement."If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system."The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The Constructors’ Championship is unaffected. "The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams' Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively."Had the new rules been in place in 2008, Britain's Lewis Hamilton would have lost the title to runner-up Brazilian Felipe Massa, whom he pipped on the final bend of the final race of the season.This year's Formula 1 championships comrpises 17 races starting with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 29 and ending with the new Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 1.The FIA also announced it would publish the weights of the cars after qualifying for each Grand Prix.That could give a clue to which teams are using the optional kinetic energy recovery system (Kers).

Pak-BD ODI series cancelled on security grounds

DHAKA Bangladesh have cancelled this month's home series with Pakistan due to security concerns, the state minister for sports said. "As of now the security people are busy we don't think it feasible to host any foreign team in the country," Ahad Ali Sarkar told a news conference. The series was postponed on March 5 after a mutiny last month at the headquarters of a paramilitary unit in Dhaka which killed at least 80 people, mostly army officers.

Nato: France back in command after 43 yrs

Prime Minister François Fillon has urged French lawmakers to support the government's decision to restore French membership of NATO's integrated military command, saying that France would be "faithful to the US but would not cede to it". French Prime Minister François Fillon will today address the French parliament in a bid to sway reluctant lawmakers to back President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to restore France's full membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Sarkozy last week announced his country's return to the Atlantic Alliance's military command structure, more than 40 years after former president and World War II hero Charles de Gaulle pulled out in the name of national independence. Sarkozy claimed that “France will be stronger, (and) more influential,” after joining NATO, adding that “the absent party doesn't have a voice." However, France's reintegration will meet stiff opposition in the country's parliament, where lawmakers are set to vote at 8pm today (GMT +1). The left-wing opposition has announced it will vote against the move. It accuses Sarkozy of selling off France’s independence: “This is a very bad decision. To the rest of the world, NATO is the instrument of the United States and the West,” said opposition lawmaker Jean-Louis Bianco. If all goes well for the government, France is expected to officially join NATO's military command at the Strasburg summit on April 3, 2009.

Taliban targets Nato lorries

Taliban fighters in northwest Pakistan have destroyed 14 lorries carrying supplies for Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, in the second such attack in two days. Fighters entered a supply depot on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar at around 1am local time (20:00 GMT on Sunday), overpowered guards and set fire to vehicles, police said on Monday. The vehicles were bound for US-led forces stationed in Afghanistan, police said. "About 50 gunmen attacked us ... They first disarmed us and then began setting fire to bulldozers and Humvees," Raza Khan, one of the depot's guards, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. "A police team arrived after about an hour and an exchange of fire took place for an hour." Sixteen bulldozers and Humvee patrol vehicles were destroyed, Khan said.