U.S. accuses Syria, Iran, Hezbollah on Lebanon

The United States on Wednesday accused Syria, Iran and Hezbollah militants of plotting to topple the Lebanese government and warned them to keep their "hands off."

The United States has held up Lebanon as an example of emerging democracy in the Middle East.

"We are therefore increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically elected government," White House spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement.

He later told reporters, "We're making it clear to everybody in the region that we think that there ought to be hands off the (Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora government; let them go about and do their business."

Syria's embassy in Washington denounced the comments as "ludicrous" and "unfounded."

"What is happening in Lebanon is a purely domestic political issue," the Syrian Embassy said in a statement. "Syria fully respects the sovereignty of Lebanon and does not interfere in its internal politics."

The statement also urged Washington to stop meddling in Lebanese politics and "to stop instigating the Lebanese people against each other and against other countries."

U.S. officials declined to give evidence for the accusations, saying the information was classified.

Our Planet's Resources will be gone in 44 Years

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.

Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

N Korea may conduct 4 more tests; US elections possible trigger date

North Korea was expected to conduct three to four more nuclear weapons tests, a South Korean politician said today amid hints from Pyongyang that it could be preparing for a second test.

"Checking reports by intelligence agencies of concerned countries, it is certain that North Korea will perform three to four additional nuclear tests from now on,'' said Chung Hyung-Keun, quoted by Yonhap news agency.

Mr Chung, a member of the South Korean parliament's intelligence committee, was deputy head of the Agency for National Security Planning, the forerunner of the National Intelligence Service, in the mid-1990s.

He was speaking on a local radio program.

Earlier this week, US media reports and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the North appeared to be preparing for a second test following its first on October 9, which sparked United Nations condemnation and punitive sanctions.

The deputy head of North Korea's foreign ministry Li Gun, speaking to ABC News in Pyongyang, declined to directly confirm or deny the reports, but hinted that a test could be in the works.

"Even if there is a ... nuclear test, that is natural, so we don't have to care much about this issue. I think the test itself will be natural,'' he said.

Mr Chung noted suspicious activities in Kilju county in North Hamkyong province near the northeast coast of North Korea. The communist state conducted its first test in that area.

"The North initially dug two horizontal underground tunnels in Kilju, North Hamkyong Province - one on the east side and the other on the west side,'' Mr Chung said, adding that the first test was conducted on the east side.

"Now, the North is opening up the clogged tunnel on the west side as 30-40 workers have been showing up there every day and have built an interim building. They are preparing for a second nuclear test,'' he said.

Mr Chung said the second test would be conducted before the United States holds mid-term Congressional elections on November 7.

Seoul analysts also see the US elections as a possible trigger date.

Rice promises to defend Japan from North Korea

Condoleezza Rice warned North Korea today that America would use the “full range” of its military powers if Pyongyang launched a nuclear strike on Japan.

As she arrived in Tokyo on the first leg of a mission to galvanise opposition to Kim Jong-il’s regime, Ms Rice made clear that America would protect its key regional ally against any threat following North Korea’s atomic test.

“I want to make sure that everybody understands that the US will fully act on our defence obligations under the mutual defence treaty,” said Ms Rice. “The United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range, and I underscore the full range, of its deterrence and security commitment to Japan.”

Ms Rice met the new Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe ahead of visits to South Korea, China and Russia. Her tour is intended to ensure co-ordinated action in the region over United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

Senior Japanese officials, including the foreign minister Taro Aso, had earlier suggested that Tokyo should consider a major policy reverse by acquiring its own nuclear weapons. Japan has long held an abhorrence of nuclear weapons, dating back to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the Second World War.

Nations Discuss Second Nuke Test Reports

South Korea and Japan warily monitored unconfirmed reports Tuesday of possible preparations by North Korea for a second nuclear test.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said his government has "information" concerning media reports that North Korea could be laying the groundwork for another blast.

"We have information but I cannot speak about its contents," Aso told reporters, without elaborating.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Tokyo was working with other unidentified governments on trying to figure out what the North Koreans were up to.

"We are aware that there are various reports. We are closely exchanging information on a constant basis," Shiozaki said. "We should not disclose the content of such exchanges."

A South Korean government official in Seoul said his government also was aware of signs related to possible preparations for an additional North Korea nuclear test. The official said various intelligence reports were coming in about preparations for a possible test, but that it was unclear how reliable they were.

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Seoul already has taken measures to be more vigilant for a possible second nuclear test by North Korea, and was bolstering exchanges of intelligence with the United States, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

U.S. government officials have said that they would not be surprised if North Korea were to attempt a second nuclear test sometime soon, following the first one on Oct. 9.

UN Imposes Sanctions Against North Korea

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday voted unanimously to impose sanctions against North Korea in response to the country's claimed nuclear test.

The 15-0 vote for Resolution 1718 sent a "clear and strong message" to North Korea, said U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.

"We are pleased that the Security Council is united in condemning the actions by the regime and Pyongyang and taking clear, firm and punitive action in passing this resolution," he said.

The passage of the resolution proves to "North Korea and others that the Security Council is prepared to meet threats to international security with swift resolve," Bolton added.

Invited to join the council with his South Korean counterpart, North Korea's ambassador to the U.N. said his country "totally rejects the unjustifiable resolution."

North Korea Threatens War Against U.S.

North Korea stoked regional tensions Wednesday, threatening more nuclear tests and saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war, as nervous neighbors raced to bolster defenses and punish Pyongyang.

South Korea said it was making sure its troops were prepared for atomic warfare, and Japan imposed new economic sanctions to hit the economic lifeline of the communist nation's 1 million-member military, the world's fifth-largest.

North Korea, in its first formal statement since Monday's claimed atomic bomb test, hailed the blast as a success and said attempts by the outside world to penalize North Korea with sanctions would be considered an act of war.

Further pressure will be countered with physical retaliation, the North's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the statement, said without specifying what those measures could be.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would not attack North Korea, rejecting a suggestion that Pyongyang may feel it needs nuclear weapons to stave off an Iraq-style U.S. invasion.

Aircraft Slams into New York City Building

UPDATE 1: The plane was being flown by New York Yankee's pitcher Cory Lidle, he was the sole person aboard the aircraft and is confirmed dead.

A small airplane crashed into a 50-story residential building on Manhattan's East Side on Wednesday, killing at least two people, the New York City Fire Department said.

Flames were shooting out from several windows midway up the luxury highrise in a residential neighborhood.

The Federal Aviation Administration described the plane as a "general aviation" fixed-wing aircraft flying under visual flight rules, meaning a pilot was flying by visual landmarks.

The plane hit the Belaire Condominiums, built in 1989 at 524 E. 72nd Street near the East River. More than 150 firefighters are on scene of a four-alarm fire in the building.

There was no word on casualties. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) said it had put fighter aircraft into the air over numerous U.S. cities, though they said they had no reason to believe the event in New York was anything more than an accident, sources told CNN's Barbara Starr. It did the same thing after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I have no idea where this thing (the plane) came from," said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York area airports.

"We haven't heard from any of our facilities that anything's missing." New York City government source told CNN there are "no indications of terrorism."

The FAA placed a one-mile flight restriction around the site of the crash, but New York area airports were not affected.

It's unclear if the crash was a result of terrorism. A senior U.S. official in Washington said the administration was waiting for more information.

"The fire was raging out of two windows," witness Sarah Steiner told CNN. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room."

Steiner said fires were burning on the ground. "It looks like the plane just flew into someone's living room there."

Second N.Korean Test Feared as U.N. Weighs Sanctions

Capitals from Asia to America were making frantic checks on Wednesday after Japanese broadcaster NHK said North Korea may have conducted another nuclear test, but there was no immediate confirmation that it had.

The report came a day after the reclusive communist state's closest ally, China, joined other powers at the United Nations calling for a tough response to its announcement of a first underground detonation.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary panel that Japan had unconfirmed information that Pyongyang might conduct a second test on Wednesday, and NHK said Japanese government sources were checking reports of a tremor in North Korea.

North Korea May be Preparing a Second Nuke Test

South Korean authorities suspect that the communist state might be preparing a second nuclear test after unusual activities were detected in a rugged area in North Korea today, a news report said.

Kim Seung-Gyu, head of South Korea's spy agency, told parliament that activity involving vehicles and as many as 40 people was under way at Punggyeri in the north-eastern county of Kilju, Yonhap news agency reported.

“From 4pm (AEST) today, there have been some unusual movements under way at Punggyeri where we had thought the first nuclear test would be carried out,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying.

“We have been closely following developments there to find out whether North Korea is moving to conduct a series of tests as India and Pakistan did,” he said.