Report: N. Korea may have nuclear test plan

UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, D.C. --North Korea may be preparing an underground test of a nuclear bomb, ABC News reported yesterday , but US officials said they had no new evidence of such a plan. ABC quoted an unnamed senior military official as saying a US intelligence agency had recently observed ``suspicious vehicle movement" at a suspected North Korean test site. (Reuters)

India

NEW DELHI -- India will not agree to any changes to a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal reached with the US last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday. The US House of Representatives approved the deal last month but added clauses, including one that would require annual certification on technology use. Singh said India will not accept ``external supervision" of its research and development work in the nuclear field of its strategic programs after opposition parties accused the government of succumbing to US pressures to limit India's nuclear program. (AP)

ISRAEL

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government yesterday condemned an Iranian exhibition of cartoons on the Nazi Holocaust, accusing Tehran of spreading hatred and trivializing the murder of 6 million Jews. Organizers of Iran's international Holocaust cartoon contest said the museum exhibit aims to challenge Western taboos about discussing the Holocaust. (Reuters)

ETHIOPIA

ADDIS ABABA -- Rescuers in helicopters tossed ropes to stranded Ethiopians yesterday after many scrambled onto rooftops and trees to escape floods that have killed nearly 900 and marooned tens of thousands. Rushing waters have devastated large areas since early this month as emergency services struggle to cope with overwhelming numbers of evacuees. Ethiopia has warned that more rivers have overflowed and the country's major dams were close to the breaking point. (Reuters)

BRITAIN

LONDON -- A small portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots long dismissed as a later copy and gathering dust in a gallery warehouse has been identified as a rare contemporary or near-contemporary image of the monarch. A method of estimating the age of wood called dendrochronology established that the panel the image was painted on dated back to between 1560 and 1592, the National Portrait Gallery in London said. The gallery purchased the painting in 1916, but it was believed to be a copy from the 18th century. (Reuters)

Russia

MOSCOW -- Russian divers spotted the wreckage of a US submarine lost in the Pacific in 1943, a Russian news agency reported yesterday. The ITAR-Tass news agency said a Far Eastern State Technological University diving team found the USS Wahoo in the La Perouse Strait and took pictures of it during a recent expedition. It didn't give further details. (AP)

MOSCOW -- A Russian court sentenced yesterday the former head of security at the bankrupt oil firm Yukos to 24 years in prison yesterday for a series of contract killings. Alexei Pichugin is already serving a 20-year sentence for other offenses. Pichugin's lawyer said he was the victim of a political campaign against anyone linked to jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (Reuters)