State of the Union: Obama Pushes Job Creation

Pursuing an aggressive and diverse early second-term agenda, President Obama turned his focus Tuesday night squarely to the economy, using his State of the Union address to unveil new government initiatives aimed at creating jobs.

The defining duty of the new Congress and new administration is to "reignite the true engine of America's economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle class," Obama said Tuesday night from the House chamber.

"That must be the North Star that guides our efforts," he said.

Obama's proposals had a familiar ring, including re-packaged economic ideas but also offering several bold new measures aimed at boosting the middle class.

None of the proposals would add to the deficit "by a single dime," Obama pledged, with costs offset by savings carved out in the budget and from money saved from ending two wars.

"It's not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth," Obama said.

For the first time as president, Obama called for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour by 2015. He proposed to ensure future increases by indexing the minimum wage to inflation.

He proposed a national goal of universal pre-school education, an effort to help states provide tens of thousands of low- to middle-income four-year-old children access to quality public education from an earlier age.

Charles Dharapak/Pool/AP Photo

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And, to heal the nation's crumbling roads and bridges, Obama offered a $50 billion "fix it first" infrastructure program that would prioritize repair of existing structures before building new ones.

"Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation," Obama said. "How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?"

Answers to those questions, the president suggested, include redoubling investments in clean energy technologies -- a step which he said would both benefit the environment and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change," he said.

He called for doubling the amount of renewable electricity generation in the U.S. by 2020, and announced an energy version of his "Race to the Top" education program that would give states grants for the best energy efficiency programs.

Related: 7 Things Obama Says at Every State of the Union

In tandem with his economic focus, Obama announced the withdrawal of 34,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by this time next year, cutting in half the current force and marking a quickened pace for the final exit of U.S. combat forces by a 2014 deadline.

There are currently 66,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan. Obama has vowed to bring nearly all of them home by the end of next year, though a small contingent will likely remain to train Afghan forces and assist counterterrorism operations, officials have said.

Obama touched briefly on his recently-unveiled proposals to overhaul the nation's immigration system, expand rights for gay and lesbian Americans and curb an epidemic of gun violence.

With dozens of victims of gun violence looking on from the House gallery, including former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and families of victims from shootings at Newtown, Conn., Oak Creek, Wisc., and Aurora, Colo., Obama made an emotional plea for an up-or-down vote on his gun control plan.

"Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress," he said of proposed restrictions on assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines, and enhanced background checks, among other measures.

"If you want to vote no, that's your choice," he said. "But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."

Read More: President Obama's Past State of the Union Promises

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U.S. says to take lead to contain North Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's third nuclear test, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, was a threat and a provocation and that the United States would lead the world in responding.

North Korea has said Tuesday's test was an act of self-defense against "U.S. hostility" and threatened stronger steps if necessary.

"Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats," Obama said in his State of the Union address, delivered 24 hours after the North's test.

North Korea tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009. But despite the three tests and a long-range rocket launch, it is not believed to be close to manufacturing a nuclear missile capable of targeting the United States.

But Washington believes the isolated state's ultimate aim is to design an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could reach the continental United States. North Korea says its rocket program is aimed at putting satellites in space.

The latest test has drawn condemnation from around the world, including from China which for years has been the North's only major ally.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting at which its members, including China, "strongly condemned" the test and vowed to start work on appropriate measures in response, the president of the council said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the third member of his family to rule, has presided over two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear test during his first year in power, pursuing policies that have propelled his impoverished and malnourished country closer to becoming a nuclear weapons power.

North Korea said the test had "greater explosive force" than those in 2006 and 2009. Its KCNA news agency said it had used a "miniaturised" and lighter nuclear device, indicating it had again used plutonium, which is suitable for use as a missile warhead.

EXASPERATED

China, which has shown signs of increasing exasperation with the recent bellicose tone of its reclusive neighbor, summoned the North Korean ambassador in Beijing and protested sternly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China was "strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to the test and urged North Korea to "stop any rhetoric or acts that could worsen situations and return to the right course of dialogue and consultation as soon as possible".

Analysts said the test was a major embarrassment to China, which is a permanent member of the Security Council and North Korea's sole major economic and diplomatic ally.

Obama said the test would be a setback for North Korea's economic development.

"The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations," he said.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Washington and its allies intended to "augment the sanctions regime" already in place due to Pyongyang's previous atomic tests. North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned states in the world and has few external economic links that can be targeted.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test was a "grave threat" that could not be tolerated.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear arms program and return to talks. NATO condemned the test as an "irresponsible act."

South Korea, still technically at war with North Korea after a 1950-53 civil war ended in a truce, also denounced the test. Obama spoke to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday and told him the United States "remains steadfast in its defense commitments" to South Korea, the White House said.

MAXIMUM RESTRAINT

North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the test was "only the first response we took with maximum restraint".

"If the United States continues to come out with hostility and complicates the situation, we will be forced to take stronger, second and third responses in consecutive steps," it said in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency.

North Korea - which gave the U.S. State Department advance warning of the test - often threatens the United States and its "puppet", South Korea, with destruction in colourful terms.

North Korea told the U.N. disarmament forum in Geneva that it would never bow to resolutions on its nuclear program and that prospects were "gloomy" for the denuclearization of the divided Korean peninsula because of a "hostile" U.S. policy.

The magnitude of the explosion was roughly twice that of the 2009 test, according to the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization.

U.S. intelligence agencies were analyzing the event and found that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion with a yield of "approximately several kilotons", the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.

Nuclear experts have described the previous two tests as puny by international standards. The yield of the 2006 test has been estimated at less than 1 kiloton (1,000 tons of TNT equivalent) and the second at some 2-7 kilotons, compared with 20 kilotons for a Nagasaki-type bomb.

Initial indications are that the test involved the latest version of a plutonium-based prototype weapon, according to one current and one former U.S. national security official. Both previous tests involved plutonium. If it turns out the test was of a new uranium-based weapon, it would show that North Korea had made more progress on uranium enrichment than previously thought.

"VICIOUS CYCLE"

When Kim Jong-un, who is 30, took power after his father's death in December 2011, there were hopes that he would bring reforms and end Kim Jong-il's "military first" policies.

Instead, North Korea, whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago and where a third of children are believed to be malnourished, appears to be trapped in a cycle of sanctions followed by further defiance.

"The more North Korea shoots missiles, launches satellites or conducts nuclear tests, the more the U.N. Security Council will impose new and more severe sanctions," said Shen Dingli, a professor at Shanghai's Fudan University.

"It is an endless, vicious cycle."

Options for a response from the international community appear to be few. Diplomats at the United Nations said negotiations on new sanctions could take weeks since China is likely to resist tough new measures for fear they could lead to further retaliation by the North Korean leadership.

Significantly, the test comes at a time of political transition in China, Japan and South Korea, and as Obama begins his second term.

The North's longer-term game plan may be to restart international talks aimed at winning food and financial aid. China urged it to return to the stalled "six-party" talks on its nuclear programme, hosted by China and including the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Christine Kim and Jumin Park in SEOUL; Linda Sieg in TOKYO; Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS; Fredrik Dahl in VIENNA; Michael Martina and Chen Aizhu in BEIJING; Mette Fraende in COPENHAGEN; Adrian Croft, Charlie Dunmore and Justyna Pawlak in BRUSSELS; Mark Hosenball, Paul Eckert, Roberta Rampton, Tabassum Zakaria and Jeff Mason in WASHINGTON; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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China support for N. Korea to survive nuke test: analysts

BEIJING: China is unlikely to punish troublesome ally North Korea harshly for Tuesday's nuclear test, analysts say, even though Chinese state media had warned the North of a "heavy price" if it went ahead.

There was no immediate official reaction to the test in Beijing -- China is in the middle of its biggest annual holiday, the Lunar New Year.

But after the North's rocket launch in December, China expressed "regret", while repeating calls for calm.

In recent weeks the state-run Global Times has issued strongly-worded editorials urging Beijing to take a tougher line on Pyongyang, saying it would have to pay dearly for another atomic test.

But China has long supported its unpredictable neighbour for fear that instability could bring refugees flooding across the border, a US-led military escalation in the region or even ultimately a unified Korea with a US military presence next door.

"I think that China is very angry about this test," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Northeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group think tank.

She said she expected "stronger reactions" from the Communist Party's new leader Xi Jinping than his predecessors.

But she added: "We won't necessarily know about any punitive measures implemented by China, and they will not necessarily deter North Korea because China is only willing to go so far. Their main concern is stability in North Korea."

Chinese trade and aid allows the regime in Pyongyang to survive and pursue its nuclear programme.

At once important yet uncontrollable, North Korea poses a similar quandary for China as small-nation allies did for the US during the Cold War, said Wang Dong, a Northeast Asia expert at Peking University.

"You have small allies which are behaving in a very dangerous, aggressive and provocative way, potentially with the danger of driving the US into a conflict that it did not want to get into," he said.

"China is put in a very similar dilemma."

Beijing will probably respond with limited measures coordinated with other nations, perhaps to cut off financial access, Wang said. It would keep any unilateral measures under wraps to avoid antagonising Pyongyang.

In 2006 Beijing quietly reduced the oil supply upon which Pyongyang depends, two months after the regime fired a ballistic missile and one month before it tested its first nuclear bomb.

The move only emerged later when trade data revealed it -- and Beijing subsequently stopped publicising the figures.

"Of course it will not acknowledge that because they do not want to publicly humiliate North Korea," said Wang. "Face is something very much taken into consideration in international relations in East Asia."

Ahead of the blast, US envoy Glyn Davies said the US and China had "achieved a very strong degree of consensus" on North Korea while the head of the UN Security Council said its 15 members were "unified" on the matter.

But China has previously worked to soften international measures. It only agreed to a UN resolution condemning December's long-range rocket launch by Pyongyang after lengthy negotiations in which it opposed stronger sanctions.

It also diluted the UN response to North Korea's second nuclear test in 2009 and was not known to have taken any unilateral measures.

Even decisively punitive measures might fail to dissuade North Korea, which has persisted with its nuclear programme despite years of international isolation.

Pyongyang sees atomic arms as vital to its legitimacy and security, a view that may have been reinforced after the longstanding Kadhafi regime in Libya, which surrendered its nuclear weapons, fell to Western-backed rebels in 2011.

"They've drawn the conclusion that countries that give up their nukes get slammed," said Kleine-Ahlbrandt.

Given Pyongyang's doggedness, she said, Beijing's unwavering support for the regime has generated fierce debate among Chinese policy analysts, with some arguing that the relationship brings more liabilities than benefits.

But China's overriding strategic interest in avoiding instability means its support is likely to endure, said Sarah McDowall, a senior Asia analyst with the consultancy IHS Global Insight.

"Its overarching objective really is to ensure stability in the Korean peninsula," she said.

"The relationship is going to remain strong, and China will continue to take political and economic measures aimed at propping up and supporting the North Korean regime."

- AFP/ck

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Kerala's Suryanelli rape case: Special team set up to trace absconding convict

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Police have set up a special team to trace and arrest the absconding convict in the Suryanelli gang-rape case, who appeared on a Malayalam TV channel alleging that Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien was involved in the case, as claimed by the victim.

The four-member team has left for Karnataka from where Dharmarajan purportedly gave the interview to the channel yesterday and made the startling claim.

The task entrusted with the team would be coordinated by Superintendent of Police, Kottayam, police sources said.

The third accused in the 1996 gang-rape case, Dharmarajan fled Kerala before the probe was completed, but he was traced and arrested at Udupi in Karnataka later.

The special court which tried the case sentenced him to life in 2002. The high court, however, remitted it to five years in 2005. He secured bail to file an appeal the same year but has been absconding since then.

In his TV interview, Dharmarajan claimed that Kurien, who was a minister at the Centre then, had travelled in his car to a guest house in Kumali, where the girl alleged she was molested.

He claimed he was under pressure from the chief investigator not to mention Kurien's name.

Kurien, however, rubbished Dharmarajan's charge, holding that the statement of a convict has no legal validity.

"Every accused gets a chance to make a statement before the judge. He did not say this at that time. You (mediapersons) find out why he is making this claim now," Kurien had said.

Kurien was acquitted in case but the victim had recently named him as one of those who assaulted her in 1996. She sent a letter to the Supreme Court last week, seeking a review of the apex court's order quashing all charges against Kurien.

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.

There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for life. But the pontiff made it about age. He said the job called for "both strength of mind and body" and said his was deteriorating. He spoke of "today's world, subject to so many rapid changes," implying a difficulty keeping up despite his recent debut on Twitter.

"This seemed to me a very brave, courageous decision," especially because older people often don't recognize their own decline, said Dr. Seth Landefeld, an expert on aging and chairman of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Age has driven many leaders from jobs that used to be for life — Supreme Court justices, monarchs and other heads of state. As lifetimes expand, the woes of old age are catching up with more in seats of power. Some are choosing to step down rather than suffer long declines and disabilities as the pope's last predecessor did.

Since 1955, only one U.S. Supreme Court justice — Chief Justice William Rehnquist — has died in office. Twenty-one others chose to retire, the most recent being John Paul Stevens, who stepped down in 2010 at age 90.

When Thurgood Marshall stepped down in 1991 at the age of 82, citing health reasons, the Supreme Court justice's answer was blunt: "What's wrong with me? I'm old. I'm getting old and falling apart."

One in 5 U.S. senators is 70 or older, and some have retired rather than seek new terms, such as Hawaii's Daniel Akaka, who left office in January at age 88.

The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, who just turned 75, recently said she will pass the crown to a son and put the country "in the hands of a new generation."

In Germany, where the pope was born, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is 58, said the pope's decision that he was no longer fit for the job "earns my very highest respect."

"In our time of ever-lengthening life, many people will be able to understand how the pope as well has to deal with the burdens of aging," she told reporters in Berlin.

Experts on aging agreed.

"People's mental capacities in their 80s and 90s aren't what they were in their 40s and 50s. Their short-term memory is often not as good, their ability to think quickly on their feet, to execute decisions is often not as good," Landefeld said. Change is tougher to handle with age, and leaders like popes and presidents face "extraordinary demands that would tax anybody's physical and mental stamina."

Dr. Barbara Messinger-Rapport, geriatrics chief at the Cleveland Clinic, noted that half of people 85 and older in developed countries have some dementia, usually Alzheimer's. Even without such a disease, "it takes longer to make decisions, it takes longer to learn new things," she said.

But that's far from universal, said Dr. Thomas Perls, an expert on aging at Boston University and director of the New England Centenarians Study.

"Usually a man who is entirely healthy in his early 80s has demonstrated his survival prowess" and can live much longer, he said. People of privilege have better odds because they have access to good food and health care, and tend to lead clean lives.

"Even in the 1500s and 1600s there were popes in their 80s. It's remarkable. That would be today's centenarians," Perls said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain turned 71 while running for president in 2007. Had he won, he would have been the oldest person elected to a first term as president. Ronald Reagan was days away from turning 70 when he started his first term as president in 1981; he won re-election in 1984. Vice President Joe Biden just turned 70.

In the U.S. Senate, where seniority is rewarded and revered, South Carolina's Strom Thurmond didn't retire until age 100 in 2002. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was the longest-serving senator when he died in office at 92 in 2010.

Now the oldest U.S. senator is 89-year-old Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. The oldest congressman is Ralph Hall of Texas who turns 90 in May.

The legendary Alan Greenspan was about to turn 80 when he retired as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006; he still works as a consultant.

Elsewhere around the world, Cuba's Fidel Castro — one of the world's longest serving heads of state — stepped down in 2006 at age 79 due to an intestinal illness that nearly killed him, handing power to his younger brother Raul. But the island is an example of aged leaders pushing on well into their dotage. Raul Castro now is 81 and his two top lieutenants are also octogenarians. Later this month, he is expected to be named to a new, five-year term as president.

Other leaders who are still working:

—England's Queen Elizabeth, 86.

—Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, 88.

—Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait, 83.

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, 79.

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Associated Press writers Paul Haven in Havana, Cuba; David Rising in Berlin; Seth Borenstein, Mark Sherman and Matt Yancey in Washington, and researcher Judy Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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North Korea Says it Has Conducted a Nuclear Test

North Korea says it has successfully tested a miniaturized nuclear device Tuesday, according to state media.

A large tremor measured at magnitude 4.9 was detected in North Korea and governments in the region scrambled to determine whether it was a nuclear test that the North Korean regime has vowed to carry out despite international protests.

Official state media said the test was conducted in a safe manner and is aimed at coping with "outrageous" U.S. hostility that "violently" undermines the North's peaceful, sovereign rights to launch satellites. Unlike previous tests, North Korea used a powerful explosive nuclear bomb that is smaller and lighter, state media reported.

Japan's prime minister has called an urgent security meeting, according to chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga, and South Korea raised its military alert level, the AP reported.

Suspicions were aroused when the U.S. Geological Survey said it had detected a magnitude 4.9 earthquake Tuesday in North Korea.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told ABC News, "We confirm that a suspicious seismic event has taken place in North Korea."

"The event shows clear explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK (North Korea) nuclear tests," said Tibor Toth, executive secretary of the organization.

North Korea Threatens More Nuclear Tests, Warns U.S. Watch Video

"If confirmed as a nuclear test, this act would constitute a clear threat to international peace and security, and challenges efforts made to strengthen global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation," Toth said in a statement on the organization's web site.

Kim Min-seok, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters that North Korea informed United States and China that it intended to carry out another nuclear test, according to the AP. But U.S. officials did not respond to calls from ABC News Monday night.

The seismic force measured 10 kilotons, according to Min-seok.

"Now that's an absolutely huge explosion by conventional terms. It's a smallish, but not tiny explosion by nuclear terms. It's about two-thirds the size of the bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima," James Acton, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told ABC News.

North Korea threatened in January to carry out a "higher-level" test following the successful Dec. 12 launch of a long range rocket. At the time, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un said his country's weapons tests were specifically targeting the United States.

The suspicious tremor comes just hours before President Obama is to give the State of the Union address, and it marks the first diplomatic test in the region for new Secretary of State John Kerry.

Also, South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, is scheduled to be sworn in on Feb. 25. One of North Korea's biggest holidays, Kim Jong-il's birthday, falls on Feb. 16.

China, North Korea's main ally in the region, has warned North Korea it would cut back severely needed food assistance if it carried out a test. Each year China donates approximately half of the food North Korea lacks to feed its people and half of all oil the country consumes.

Both of North Korea's previous tests used a plutonium-based method for making bomb fuel. The first was deemed a failure, the second only slightly less so. If the most recent test used HEU (highly enriched uranium), a far more difficult-to-detect method of producing bomb fuel, it would be a significant and worrisome step forward for North Korea's weapons program.

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North Korea conducts third nuclear test, sparks condemnation

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted its third-ever nuclear test on Tuesday, a move likely to anger its main ally China and increase international action against Pyongyang and its new young leader, Kim Jong-un.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea's test, saying it was a "clear and grave violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

South Korea said the size of the seismic activity indicated a nuclear explosion slightly larger than the North's two previous tests at 6-7 kilotons, although that is still relatively small. The Hiroshima bomb was around 20 kilotons.

The U.S. Geological Survey said that a seismic event measuring 5.1 magnitude had occurred on Tuesday, with North Korea later confirming the nuclear test.

"It was confirmed that the nuclear test that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment," KCNA said.

The test prompted the U.N. Security Council to call for an emergency meeting later on Tuesday and came as China celebrated the lunar new year, potentially increasing embarrassment for Beijing, the North's sole major economic and diplomatic ally.

"I think it will be proven to be a self-defeating and self-suffocating blunder on the part of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," an Asian diplomat to the United Nations told Reuters in New York.

"They have chosen the worst timing to conduct this testing ... This will also be an open invitation to the international community to up the ante to corner the DPRK."

It may take days to ascertain whether the North used highly enriched uranium for the first time in the nuclear test, a move that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon.

North Korea has used plutonium in previous tests and needs to conserve its stocks as testing eats into its limited supply of the material that could be used to construct a nuclear bomb.

The Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization, the international atomic test monitor, said the event had hallmarks similar to the North's previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

"This act would constitute a clear threat to international peace and security, and challenges efforts made to strengthen global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation," it said.

Japan immediately called for sanctions against North Korea whose December long-range rocket launch prompted new U.N. sanctions that Pyongyang said earlier would push it to undertake a third nuclear test.

South Korea's defense ministry said additional nuclear tests and rocket launches by the North should not be ruled out.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Pyongyang had informed China and the United States of its plans to test on Monday.

When new leader Kim Jong-un took office after his father's death in December 2011, there were hopes the youthful leader would bring economic reforms and end his father Kim Jong-il's "military first" policies that have seen the North declare itself a "nuclear weapons state".

Since taking office however, he has purged the military, pushed ahead with two long-range rocket launches, which critics say breach U.N. sanctions.

Tuesday's action appeared to have been timed for the run-up to February 16 anniversary celebrations of Kim Jong-il's birthday, as well as to achieved maximum international attention.

But options for the international community appear to be in short supply, as North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned states on earth.

Significantly, the test comes at a time of political transition in China, Japan and South Korea, and as U.S. President Barack Obama begins his second term.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is bedding down a new government and South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, prepares to take office on February 25.

China too is in the midst of a once in a decade leadership transition to Xi Jinping, who takes office in March.

But the longer term game plan from Pyongyang may be to restart talks aimed at winning aide for its impoverished and stricken economy that is smaller than it was 20 years ago.

Its puny economy and small diplomatic reach means the North struggles to win attention on the global stage - other than through nuclear tests and attacks on South Korea, last made in 2010.

"Now the next step for North Korea will be to offer talks. They will either offer to restart six-party talks or military talks - any form to start up discussion again to bring things to their advantage," said Jeung Young-tae, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Christine Kim and Jumin Park in SEOUL; Linda Sieg in TOKYO; Louis Charbonneau at the UNITED NATIONS; Editing by Michael Perry and Paul Tait)

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Tech giants summoned by Australia pricing inquiry

SYDNEY: Global technology giants Microsoft, Apple and Adobe were on Monday ordered to appear before a pricing inquiry examining the often-higher cost of tech goods in Australia compared with other economies.

The lower house committee holding the probe, which was launched last May, said it had summoned the trio to appear at a public hearing next month to explain why Australian customers paid more for the same products.

"The committee is looking at the impacts of prices charged to Australian consumers for IT products," it said in a statement.

"Australian consumers often pay much higher prices for hardware and software than people in other countries."

The inquiry was set up to examine claims by consumer advocacy groups of price discrimination for Australians on technology, with music, games, software, and gaming and computer hardware costing substantially more than elsewhere.

According to consumer lobby group Choice, Australians pay on average 73 percent more on iTunes downloads than the United States, 69 percent more on computer products and a staggering 232 percent more on PC game downloads.

Office software was on average 34 percent more expensive in Australia when compared with the United States, Choice said in its submission to the inquiry, with hardware coming in at 41 percent more expensive.

One software package was A$8,665 (US$8,939) more expensive to buy in Australia than the United States -- a gap that Choice described as "particularly unreasonable".

"For this amount, it would be cheaper to employ someone for 46 hours at the price of $21.30 per hour and fly them to the US and back at your expense -- twice," Choice said.

Choice only did comparisons to the United States and Britain; the inquiry is examining discrepancies with these countries as well as with Asia-Pacific economies.

Apple and Microsoft have both made their own submissions to the committee, arguing that prices differed across jurisdictions due to a range of factors including freight, local taxes and duties and foreign exchange rates.

The Australian Information Industry Association, which represents Adobe and other major ICT firms, has submitted to the committee that the "costs of doing business in Australia are higher than in many other countries".

It pointed to retail rent costs and high wages as some of the main factors behind business costs in Australia being "5-10 percent higher than any other country... and these costs are passed onto consumers".

Apple and Microsoft both declined to comment when contacted by AFP while Adobe said it would "cooperate with the committee as we have done since the inquiry began".

- AFP/ir

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Allahabad stampede: Railways announces helpline numbers

NEW DELHI: A day after the tragic stampede at the Allahabad Railway Station, the Railways have announced helpline numbers at different stations including New Delhi, Nizamuddin, Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur to help those in distress and looking for more information about the incident.

The stampede occurred at 7 PM yesterday at Platforms No 5 and 6 where thousands of passengers, mostly Mahakumbh devotees returning after taking the holy dip at the Sangam, had gathered to board a train.

According to Indian Railways, the helpline numbers for Delhi are: 011-23342954, 23341074, and 24357660.

Allahabad station helpline - 0532-1072, 0532-2408149, 2408128, 2407353

Kanpur station helpline - 0512-1072, 0512-2323015, 2323016, 2323018

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What heals traumatized kids? Answers are lacking

CHICAGO (AP) — Shootings and other traumatic events involving children are not rare events, but there's a startling lack of scientific evidence on the best ways to help young survivors and witnesses heal, a government-funded analysis found.

School-based counseling treatments showed the most promise, but there's no hard proof that anxiety drugs or other medication work and far more research is needed to provide solid answers, say the authors who reviewed 25 studies. Their report was sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

According to research cited in the report, about two-thirds of U.S. children and teens younger than 18 will experience at least one traumatic event, including shootings and other violence, car crashes and weather disasters. That includes survivors and witnesses of trauma. Most will not suffer any long-term psychological problems, but about 13 percent will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including anxiety, behavior difficulties and other problems related to the event.

The report's conclusions don't mean that no treatment works. It's just that no one knows which treatments are best, or if certain ones work better for some children but not others.

"Our findings serve as a call to action," the researchers wrote in their analysis, published online Monday by the journal Pediatrics.

"This is a very important topic, just in light of recent events," said lead author Valerie Forman-Hoffman, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

She has two young children and said the results suggest that it's likely one of them will experience some kind of trauma before reaching adulthood. "As a parent I want to know what works best," the researcher said.

Besides the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, other recent tragedies involving young survivors or witnesses include the fatal shooting last month of a 15-year-old Chicago girl gunned down in front of a group of friends; Superstorm Sandy in October; and the 2011 Joplin, Mo., tornado, whose survivors include students whose high school was destroyed.

Some may do fine with no treatment; others will need some sort of counseling to help them cope.

Studying which treatments are most effective is difficult because so many things affect how a child or teen will fare emotionally after a traumatic event, said Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician and research director at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., who wrote a Pediatrics editorial.

One of the most important factors is how the child's parents handle the aftermath, Dowd said.

"If the parent is freaking out" and has difficulty controlling emotions, kids will have a tougher time dealing with trauma. Traumatized kids need to feel like they're in a safe and stable environment, and if their parents have trouble coping, "it's going to be very difficult for the kid," she said.

The researchers analyzed 25 studies of treatments that included anti-anxiety and depression drugs, school-based counseling, and various types of psychotherapy. The strongest evidence favored school-based treatments involving cognitive behavior therapy, which helps patients find ways to cope with disturbing thoughts and emotions, sometimes including talking repeatedly about their trauma.

This treatment worked better than nothing, but more research is needed comparing it with alternatives, the report says.

"We really don't have a gold standard treatment right now," said William Copeland, a psychologist and researcher at Duke University Medical Center who was not involved in the report. A lot of doctors and therapists may be "patching together a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that might not add up to the most effective treatment for any given child," he said.

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Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

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