Six In The Morning

24 January 2013 Last updated at 06:02 GMT

North Korea 'plans third nuclear test'

North Korea says it is proceeding with plans for a third nuclear test.

In a statement carried by KCNA news agency, the top military body said the "high-level nuclear test" and more long-range rocket launches were aimed at its "arch-enemy", the US.

The statement gave no time-frame for the test. North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.

The move comes two days after a UN Security Council resolution condemned Pyongyang's recent rocket launch.

The Security Council also expanded sanctions against the communist country following its December launch, which was seen by the US and North Korea's neighbours as a banned test of long-range missile technology.

The Irish Times - Thursday, January 24, 2013

British PM rejects 'ever closer' union

MARK HENNESSY, London Editor

Voters in the United Kingdom will be given a referendum on European Union membership within five years, British prime minister David Cameron has pledged – but he insisted that he wants the UK to remain in the EU.

Rejecting calls for “ever- closer union”, Mr Cameron said the EU should not insist “on a one-size-fits-all approach which implies that all countries want the same level of integration. The fact is that they don’t.”

Urging other EU states to “work with us on this”, Mr Cameron said “extraordinary steps” had been taken by the 17-strong euro zone club to “keep the euro together, steps which a year ago would have seemed impossible. It does not seem to me that the steps which would be needed to make Britain – and others – more comfortable in their relationship in the EU are inherently so outlandish or unreasonable,” he said.

“If we don’t address these challenges, the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit. I do not want that to happen. I want the EU to be a success. I want a relationship between Britain and the EU that keeps us in it,” he said.

ARMED CONFLICT

Malian troops accused of summary executions

Malian troops have been accused of carrying out summary executions of suspected Islamists. The allegations come as African coalition forces begin advancing to the center of Mali, in support of the French intervention.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Wednesday accused Malian soldiers of summarily executing at least 11 people in the central town of Sevare.

According to FIDH, there are additional reports that Malian troops executed another 20 people in Sevare and dumped their bodies into wells. FIDH is a global human rights organization with its headquarters in Paris.

The victims were reportedly accused of collaborating with the Islamist militants who control much of northern Mali. Last April, the Islamist groups Ansar Dine, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJWA wrested the Mali's north from the central government and imposed Shariah law in several cities.

South Asia

Jan 24, 2013

Pakistan off limits for US drone rules

By Jim Lobe 

WASHINGTON - As Barack Obama renews his lease on the White House for another four years, his administration is debating how best to respond to a growing internal and public controversy over his first term's non-battlefield counter-terrorist weapon of choice: armed drones. 

For months, senior administration officials have reportedly been haggling over the terms of a so-called "playbook" for the use of drones against suspected terrorists that will provide detailed rules for who will be included on so-called "kill lists", under what circumstances drones can be used to kill them, and what agency can do the killing. 

The debate has also included whether or not - and to what extent - the government should make those rules, and the legal

  
justifications that purportedly underlie them, public. 

With group effort, Japan suicides fall to 15-year low

Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates. But last year the number of suicides fell below 30,000 for the first time in 15 years, thanks in part to community efforts.

By Takehiko Kambayashi, Correspondent / January 23, 2013

AKITA, JAPAN

Japan has long been plagued by suicide. It has one of the world’s highest suicide rates and it’s one of the leading causes of death among men. But last year the number of suicides fell below 30,000 for the first time in 15 years, according to the government.

Though suicide is still a big problem in Japan, often linked with how the economy is doing, the decline provides the country a rare glimmer on the issue, following economic downturn a year after the devastating Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power meltdown, which had some observers bracing for a higher than average number of suicides.

Why the dip? Some say the community-based efforts of experts, activists, and citizens groups urging the government to address the social problem and draw up countermeasures is starting to work.

Mexico prosecutors say evidence lacking against military officers

The case charging six officers, including four generals, with colluding with the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was filed by the previous administration, headed by President Felipe Calderon.

By Richard Fausset and Cecilia Sanchez, Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY — The case against six Mexican military officers accused of colluding with the Beltran Leyva drug cartel may be falling apart as federal prosecutors under new President Enrique Peña Nieto have reportedly admitted they lack sufficient evidence to back up the government's allegations.

The prosecutors' statement to a federal judge presiding over the criminal case was included in court documents obtained by the newspaper Reforma and published Tuesday. A representative of the Mexican attorney general's office would not comment.