A round up of today's other stories in brief.
Military junta heads for hills in Burma
YANGON - A shock decision by Burma's military government to decamp to a "command and control" centre in jungle-clad mountains far from Yangon takes the former Burma even further into isolation, diplomats said.
At a foreign ministry briefing on the move, diplomats were read a terse statement about the decision to shift the entire government to Pyinmana, a remote, mountainous area 320km north of Yangon. They were not allowed to ask questions.
"The only thing you can read into it is that they are saying, 'Leave us alone, and we will get in touch with you when we want to be bothered'," said a Yangon-based diplomat.
The junta said the move, first noticed when convoys of trucks started shifting filing cabinets from key ministries on Sunday, was designed to help it in the "formidable task of building a modern and developed nation". - (Reuters)
Australia holds terror suspects
SYDNEY - Australian authorities have foiled what they believed to be a large-scale terrorist attack, arresting 15 people during raids in the country's two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
"I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack, or the launch of a large-scale terrorist attack here in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told ABC radio. - (Reuters)
Nazi criminal dies in British jail
LONDON - A Nazi war criminal serving two life sentences has died in a British jail six years after being convicted of murdering 18 Jews.
Anthony Sawoniuk, the only person to have been convicted in a British court of Nazi war crimes, died in Norwich Prison yesterday aged 84, a Home Office spokesman said. - (PA)
Ship attacked by pirates now safe
VICTORIA - A US cruise ship which escaped an attack by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean was declared safe by security officials yesterday following reports an unexploded grenade was on board.
Pirates in two small boats fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the Seabourn Spirit about 160km off the coast of Somalia on Saturday, but the vessel escaped with two bullet holes in the front and back. The ship, with 151 passengers and more than 160 crew on board, arrived in the Seychelles on Sunday to undergo a security inspection. - (Reuters)
Indian minister steps aside
NEW DELHI - India's foreign minister stood aside yesterday amid a growing political storm after he was named in an independent report into irregularities in the United Nations oil-for- food programme for Iraq.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over Natwar Singh's duties ahead of a key summit in Bangladesh. - (Reuters)
North Korea in warning to US
UNITED NATIONS - North Korea warned the United States yesterday that the outcome of the next round of international talks on its nuclear programme would depend on how Washington fulfilled its commitments under a September accord.
Pak Gil Yon, North Korea's ambassador to the UN, said he issued the warning after the US and Britain "attempted to mislead" world opinion in statements to the UN general assembly's disarmament committee.
North Korea agreed in principle in September negotiations to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes in return for economic, political and security benefits. - (Reuters)