Dreamliner flights resume from Ethiopia

AN Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner jet has taken off on a commercial flight, becoming the first carrier to resume flying the Boeing 787 aircraft that were grounded worldwide three months ago due to battery problems.

The flight took off from Addis Ababa on Saturday and headed to Nairobi, according to an AFP journalist.

"I am very happy to see the airplane is back to the air now and I am very happy also we are the first one," Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam told journalists ahead of take off.

The US Federal Aviation Authority on Thursday issued formal approval of Boeing's 787 battery fix, clearing the way for the troubled aircraft to fly again after the prolonged grounding.

The directive from the FAA to ground the 50 Dreamliners in operation worldwide came after a series of safety scares with the aircraft, including an emergency landing by Japan's All Nippon Airways in January following a battery malfunction.

Ethiopian Airlines has four Dreamliners, which Gebremariam said would all resume service in the coming weeks after being retrofitted with new batteries.

"This is the first airplane which has completed the work," he told reporters, adding that work has started on the company's other three 787s.

Each of the aircraft are set to receive a new battery, which is encased, allowing the plane to continue flying in the event of a malfunction.

"We've fixed the battery, we've now contained the battery, so for some chance that there is a failure with the battery, it's contained, it's isolated, the airplane will be able to continue flying," Boeing's VP of Marketing for commercial airplanes, Randy Tinseth, told AFP at the airport.

Despite the previous safety scares with the aircraft, he said customers have no reason to feel nervous about flying the Dreamliner.

"I can't wait to get back on the aircraft, and I wouldn't hesitate to bring my family on it," he said.

The three-month grounding of the 50-strong fleet has not translated to major financial losses for the US-based Boeing Company. On Wednesday Boeing reported a 20 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter profit.

The 787 will head back to Addis Ababa - some 1160 km from the Kenyan capital - later Saturday, airline officials said.

Passenger Francois Vaillancourt told AFP he was "not at all" nervous about flying on the first commercial flight since the fleet was grounded.

"Airlines are safest after they've had a problem, so they fixed it and it is probably three times as safe as it was before," he said.

Ethiopian Airlines is the first African carrier to operate the Dreamliner.

In addition to the four Dreamliners which were in operation before January, Ethiopian Airlines has six more on order from Boeing. The full fleet is expected to arrive by the end of 2014, including one that will be delivered in June.

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Vic Labor claims victory in Lyndhurst

Martin Pakula is confident he can win the by-election in the Victorian state seat of Lyndhurst. Source: AAP

LABOR'S Martin Pakula has claimed victory in Victoria's Lyndhurst by-election but the party's primary vote is well down on its result at the state poll.

The result leaves Labor with 43 seats on the floor of the parliament to the coalition's 44, including the speaker. It means the government has to rely on the support of independent MP Geoff Shaw to pass legislation opposed by Labor.

The former Liberal MP is under police investigation for misconduct in public office.

With more than half of total votes counted, Labor's primary vote is 15 per cent weaker than the result at the 2010 state election.

The result is way down on Labor's 55 per cent primary vote at the state poll and there is no Liberal candidate in the by-election.

Mr Pakula said he expected to improve his primary vote once pre-poll and postal votes were counted.

"By-elections are very difficult, they're very challenging," he told AAP.

"History will tell you that in by-elections people take the opportunity to vote differently, they vote all over the card."

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'Indian spy' fights for life in Pakistan

AN Indian national on death row in Pakistan who was attacked by fellow inmates armed with bricks has been put on a ventilator as he fights for his life.

Sarbajit Singh, who was sentenced to death 16 years ago on espionage charges, was rushed to hospital on Friday with multiple wounds, including a severe head injury, after an argument in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail.

"Singh's condition is critical with multiple wounds on his head, abdomen, jaws and other body parts, and he has been put on ventilator," a senior doctor in Lahore's Jinnah hospital told AFP on Saturday on condition of anonymity.

Sigh is fighting for his life in the hospital's intensive care unit(ICU), and the next 24 hours are critical, the doctor said, adding that the head injury was "quite severe".

"He needs surgery but the doctors are not performing it because they don't want to take any chances and want him to stabilise," he said.

Singh was hit with bricks and other blunt objects by two inmates, a police officer investigating the case said, identifying the suspects only by single names Aamir and Mudasir.

The attack on Singh was front-page news in Indian newspapers on Saturday, with Indian television stations running frequent updates on his condition and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describing it as a "very sad incident", according to the Press Trust of India.

Singh was arrested following a bombing in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in 1990 in which 14 people were killed.

He was sentenced to death after being convicted by a Pakistani court on spying charges. His family has previously filed mercy petitions to Pakistani authorities seeking Singh's release.

Pakistan maintains he was an Indian spy, but Singh's family say he is a farmer who accidentally crossed the border into Pakistan while drunk.

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Renault sales slide in first quarter

French automaker Renault says sales in the first quarter fell 11.6 per cent to $A10.55 billion. Source: AAP

FRENCH automaker Renault says sales in the first quarter of 2013 fell 11.6 per cent year-on-year to 8.27 billion euros ($A10.55 billion) but maintained its outlook for the year.

Vehicle sales worldwide fell by 4.7 per cent to 608,455 units, the company said, due to a poor performance in Europe where unit sales fell by 11.6 per cent, worse than the overall market which was down 10 per cent.

Renault added it believes the French and European markets will both contract by five per cent this year, despite the global market expanding a projected three per cent.

Sales in the Americas fell, down eight per cent in an overall market rising 1.6 per cent, which the company said was due to a plant renovation currently underway in Brazil.

Sales in Eurasia however skyrocketed 20.8 per cent, well above the market rise of 1.8 per cent and making Renault the biggest seller in Russia after domestic company Lada.

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NSW driver runs down man, punches police

A DRIVER deliberately drove into a group of men outside a hotel in Bathurst, running down and injuring one before resisting arrest, police say.

A 23-year-old man has been charged with a number of offences after allegedly crossing to the wrong side of the road and ploughing into the group about 1.30am (AEST) on Thursday.

One of the men suffered injuries to his head, leg, arm and ribs when he was struck by the car, said police in the NSW central west city.

They said an off-duty officer tried to stop the car but it had accelerated towards him and hit his foot.

Another motorist stopped the car in a nearby street.

Police say when the off-duty officer tried to arrest the driver, he was punched repeatedly before managing to restrain him.

The 23-year-old man was taken to Bathurst police station where he returned a breath-analysis reading of 0.108, they said.

He was charged with a number of offences including dangerous driving and is to appear in Bathurst Local Court on Monday.

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Protests as Bangladesh toll hits 200

HUNDREDS of thousands of garment workers have walked of the job in Bangladesh after the deaths of 200 people in a building collapse.

Grief turned to anger on Thursday as the workers, some carrying sticks, blockaded key highways in at least three industrial areas just outside the capital Dhaka, forcing factory owners to declare a day's holiday.

"There were hundreds of thousands of them," said Abdul Baten, police chief of Gazipur district, where hundreds of large garment factories are based.

"They occupied roads for a while and then dispersed."

Police inspector Kamrul Islam said the workers had attacked several factories whose bosses had refused to give employees the day off.

"They were protesting the deaths of the workers in Savar," he said, referring to the town outside Dhaka where Wednesday's collapse of an eight-storey building housing five garment factories took place, injuring more than 1000 people.

"Many wanted to donate blood to their fellow workers," he added.

About 1500 workers marched to the Dhaka headquarters of the main manufacturers association, demanding the owners of the collapsed factories be punished.

"The owners must be hanged," one protester cried, as others tried to lay siege to the headquarters.

Some workers smashed windows and vehicles before they were chased away by police, said Wahidul Islam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka police.

Rescuers in Savar pulled dozens of bodies from the collapsed building on Thursday as the death toll in the country's worst industrial disaster reached 200, police said.

Managers had allegedly ignored workers' warnings that the building had become unstable.

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Accused US bomber may face death penalty

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could face the death penalty, the US government indicated. Source: AAP

AS the case unfolds against Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old may earn a dubious distinction - the federal government has indicated his could be one of the rare cases where it seeks the death penalty.

At an arraignment this week, the judge warned Tsarnaev he could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction in the twin blasts that killed three and wounded 264 people on April 15.

Experts say the possible sentence is a long way off for the ethnic Chechen man who is accused, along with his now dead older brother, of committing the worst terror attack on civilians in the US since the suicide airliner strikes of September 11, 2001.

Only three men have been put to death at the federal level since the US reinstated capital punishment four decades ago, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Another 59 are on death row at a federal prison in Indiana, it said.

In contrast, more than 1,300 inmates have been put to death by states since the Supreme Court lifted a 30-year moratorium on capital punishment in 1976, and more than 3,100 inmates are on death row in state prisons, according to the DPIC.

The most well-known federal execution in recent years was that of Timothy McVeigh, put to death on June 11, 2001 by lethal injection after he bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

Juan Garza, convicted of killing three other drug traffickers in Texas, came next: he was put to death on June 19, 2001.

And, less than two years later, Gulf War veteran Louis Jones, was executed on March 18, 2003, for the rape and murder of a female soldier in Texas.

But in other grave crimes, the US government has chosen to eschew the death penalty.

So-called "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, convicted of killing three and wounding 23 more, and Eric Rudolph, convicted of killing two and wounding 150 with a bomb at the Atlanta Olympic Games, were each sentenced to life in prison.

"The threat of the death penalty is an enormously powerful tool to get someone who is facing that threat to cooperate... to tell us what he knows," explained Rosanna Cavallaro of Suffolk University Law School.

He is likely to face additional charges, beyond the ones he heard on Monday, which also included one count of malicious destruction of property by means of deadly explosives.

Often the Justice Department "will file the indictment and add other charges as the investigation proceeds and more information is developed," explained Gregory McNeal of Pepperdine University School of Law.

Death Penalty Information Center Director Richard Dieter noted: "It will be at least a year before the case goes to trial, and if there's the death penalty there will be years of appeal so there's no execution in the foreseeable future."

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US team questions Boston suspects' parents

THE Boston marathon bombing suspects had not contacted local Islamist groups, their parents have claimed.

A delegation from the US embassy in Moscow interviewed the parents in the Russian North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

The parents of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are living in Dagestan, an overwhelmingly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea where the family briefly lived before leaving for the United States.

"The FBI is receiving cooperation from the Russian government in its investigation of the Boston marathon bombing," a US embassy official, who asked not to be named, said on Wednesday.

"A group from the US Embassy in Moscow travelled to Dagestan yesterday (Tuesday, as part of this cooperation with the Russian government to interview the parents."

The official declined to say whether the delegation was still in Dagestan and if the interviews had already taken place.

However a Dagestan security source said interviews with both parents took place overnight and involved representatives of the FBI.

"The parents were taken home but in the morning the mother came back for more questioning," the source said, saying the interviews took place at the local headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

The Dagestan security source also said the parents were asked by the US officials about Tamerlan's visit to Dagestan.

"The parents replied that he did not make contact with radical Islamists."

The two brothers, who had been living in the United States for over a decade, are accused of the two marathon bombings on April 15, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a shootout with US police while Dzhokhar, 19, was gravely wounded during his capture last week.

He remains hospitalised and has been charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The brothers' father Anzor, an ethnic Chechen born in Kyrgyzstan, has repeatedly said in media interviews that his sons were innocent and could not have carried out the bombings.

Their mother Zubeidat, an ethnic Avar, comes from Dagestan itself.

The trip by the US delegation to Dagestan comes amid mounting questions in the United States about whether the US authorities missed crucial signals that should have raised suspicion about the two brothers before the bombings.

Particular interest has surrounded a trip of around six months made by Tamerlan in 2012 to Dagestan and Chechnya.

Dagestan's interior minister Abdurashid Magomedov meanwhile dismissed any suggestion that Tamerlan had been "infected" with radical Islam during his stay in the Northern Caucasus.

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Aboriginal men sue Qantas over flight

A GROUP of Aboriginal men are suing Qantas after they were kicked off a flight.

The eight men, who were on their way home from an indigenous leadership program in Cairns, say they were thrown off the Qantas plane before it left Sydney almost three years ago.

The men were allegedly locked in a bus parked on the tarmac for an hour-and-a-half, before being escorted back to the terminal.

The men say they were told they could not travel as a group and would have to catch separate flights, in pairs, the following morning.

The group are suing Qantas for damages, accusing the airline of false imprisonment, according to ABC TV.

One of the men, Michael Edwards, said he was humiliated during the incident.

"People were looking at us giggling, and you know I felt like a criminal, like I'd done something really bad and we did nothing wrong," he told ABC TV.

In a statement, Qantas said it was defending the claims in court.

Flight attendant Kelly Kalimnios said the men were behaving in a rowdy and boisterous manner, with one calling her "white trash", an affidavit shows.

Federal independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who was also on the flight, said he supports the indigenous men's claims.

"From everything I saw they were behaving no different to anyone else who is a bit excited about catching a plane," Mr Oakeshott said.

"It was an extremely heavy-handed response."

A hearing over the case is set to take place in a Sydney court in August.

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Investigators seek Boston blasts motive

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. Source: AAP

INVESTIGATORS sought a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings after the surviving suspect was charged for his alleged role in the worst attacks in the United States since September 11, 2001.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who remains hospitalised, spoke only one word aloud at his bedside arraignment Monday, responding "no" when asked whether he could afford an lawyer, according to a transcript of the hearing released on Monday.

But he was said to be alert as he heard the charges of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, and malicious destruction of property by means of deadly explosives. These carry a possible death penalty, if he is convicted.

Three people died and some 200 were wounded in twin blasts at the Boston Marathon on April 15, the deadliest bombings on US soil since the 9/11 terror attacks involving hijacked airliners.

Counterterrorism agents trained in interrogating "high-value" detainees are still hoping to get answers about the brothers' possible motive, and learn whether other attacks were in the works.

An unnamed US government source told CNN that "preliminary interviews with Tsarnaev indicate the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalised jihadists", and that international groups were not involved.

The source said Tsarnaev told investigators his older brother was the leader and "wanted to defend Islam from attack".

Tsarnaev was caught after a massive manhunt that virtually shut down Boston and its suburbs on Friday.

His brother and alleged accomplice Tamerlan, 26, had been killed in a chaotic overnight shootout with police.

A clearer picture of Tsarnaev's role in the attacks emerged with the release of an affidavit from an FBI agent on Monday, which revealed the teenager had been caught on film planting the second backpack bomb.

Surveillance footage showed Tsarnaev, a naturalised US citizen of Chechen descent, calmly walking away from the scene after the first bomb was detonated, according to the affidavit.

The federal charges against Tsarnaev, who suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hand before his capture late on Friday, came as White House spokesman Jay Carney said he would not be deemed an "enemy combatant."

"We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice," Carney said after some Republicans had called for Tsarnaev to have the same status as the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay.

At the arraignment, the federal judge said she found Tsarnaev "alert, mentally competent, and lucid," according to the transcript.

A first court hearing was set for May 30.

Meanwhile, a week after the deadly attack Bostonians honoured the victims with a moment of silence at 2.50pm that was also observed in Washington, by President Barack Obama, lawmakers, and in New York, at the city's stock exchange.

Hundreds gathered outside the security cordon set up near the blast sites at the marathon finish line on Boylston Street to honour the dead and wounded. Some prayed, others left flowers. Church bells rang out across the city.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said on Sunday that the brothers, who had been living legally in the United States for more than a decade, had more homemade explosive devices and appeared to have been planning more attacks.

Federal authorities were trying to track down how and where the two suspects obtained firearms and explosive devices, he said

An M-4 assault rifle was recovered in the boat where Dzhokhar was captured, The New York Times reported.

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Afghans hold talks over chopper hostages

AFGHAN village elders are locked in talks with the Taliban in a bid to free 10 foreign and one Afghan hostage.

The militants seized the eight Turks, a Russian, a Kyrgyz man and an Afghan after their civilian helicopter made a forced landing due to bad weather on Sunday in a rugged eastern district partly controlled by the insurgents.

The captives were in good health and had been moved to a "safe area", the Taliban said on Tuesday.

The Taliban have been fighting an 11-year insurgency against US-led NATO troops and the Afghan government.

The abduction was the largest of foreigners in almost six years and highlighted Afghanistan's continuing insecurity as NATO troops prepare to pull out.

Talks between village elders and the Taliban have "so far made good progress and we are optimistic for a good outcome", said Din Mohammad Darvish, spokesman for the government of Logar province south of Kabul where the helicopter came down.

"It's a bit early to say when the prisoners will be released," he added.

Abdul Wali Wakil, head of the elected provincial council, confirmed that a group of elders was holding negotiations.

Wakil told AFP the hostages were fine apart from one Turk, who apparently suffers from heart problems and was sent medicine through the negotiators.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the captives "have been moved to a safe area."

They were still in Afghanistan, he said, speaking by phone from an undisclosed location.

There are sometimes fears that hostages can be smuggled across the porous border into Pakistan, where the Taliban and other militants have rear bases.

A search for the group had begun, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

But he declined to give details for security reasons.

On Tuesday, officials said gunmen had also kidnapped nine Afghan deminers in the restive southern province of Kandahar. The Taliban denied any involvement in this incident.

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Qld students rally against university cuts

University students and teachers have rallied in Brisbane against the government's tertiary cuts. Source: AAP

ALMOST a hundred university students and teachers have rallied in Brisbane against the federal government's proposed $2.3 billion cuts to higher education.

National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) President Dr Andrew Bonnell says the decline in funding for each university student will have major ramifications.

"It will affect students in many ways," Mr Bonnell told AAP.

"There's a push for more casual lecturers and tutors to save money.

"This results in quality concerns.

"Also casuals are not being paid to be around all the time to assist students."

He said it was not good policy or politics to cut funding from one education sector to fund another.

The federal government wants to increase school funding by $14.5 billion over six years and says it plans to pay for the Gonski reforms by taking more than $2 billion from university funding.

The National Union of Students and the NTEU held protests and rallies in Queensland and Melbourne on Tuesday.

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PM wins over voters at polite pub forum

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has faced the people at a suburban Melbourne forum, more akin to a polite dinner party than a fiery debate.

Around 100 undecided voters filed into the Burvale Hotel, a Nunawading pub complete with pool tables and an $11 'Parma & Pot Deal' every Wednesday. The pub is in the nation's second most marginal seat of Deakin.

Marriage equality, education funding and superannuation featured prominently, but Ms Gillard was not heckled and voices weren't raised.

The prime minister believes marriage is between a man and a woman and last year voted against proposed changes to the marriage act in federal parliament that would have supported same-sex marriage.

"My view's pretty well known and I'm not seeking to impose my view on anybody," she said.

Federal parliament's response to a bill to change the marriage act was to vote it down 98-42, despite heavy lobbying by gay groups and some MPs.

Labor MPs were allowed a conscience vote on the issue, while Liberal MPs followed the party line and the majority opposed it outright.

Ms Gillard said for a future bill to pass, all MPs need to be allowed a conscience vote.

"So I hope the other side of politics gets there," she said.

University students questioned why the federal government had slashed higher education funding by $2.3 billion to bankroll the Gonski school education reforms.

"You are robbing Peter to pay Paul," student Kevin said.

Another student Michael said rather than cutting university funding to pay for the Gonski reforms the government should end the costly mandatory detention of asylum seekers.

"How does cutting education to fund education promote a smarter Australia?" he said.

"How does locking up desperate people who have committed no crimes for an indeterminate amount of time promote a fairer Australia?"

Ms Gillard said the government had boosted university funding by 50 per cent since winning office.

"Funding will still go up, it just won't go up as sharply," she said.

"I want more kids to go to university, I want more kids to have apprenticeships."

She said the government had not been able to fully implement its asylum-seeker policy due to parliamentary gridlock.

After the forum, Kellie Gardner, of Fairfield, said she was persuaded to vote Labor at the September election.

"I thought she answered the questions well - she seems very approachable," she said.

"I don't like (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott; I don't find him appealing."

Debbie, from Northcote, said she was impressed with Ms Gillard's performance.

"She was honest," she said.

During the forum, the prime minister pledged to investigate the issue of superannuation for foster carers.

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Police hunt for NSW prison escapee

A PRISONER has escaped from a jail in NSW's Upper Hunter, police say.

Dean Wells, 29, was last seen at St Heliers Correctional Complex in Muswellbrook at 4pm (AEDT) on Monday.

Wells had been serving a sentence of six years and six months for a range of offences.

He's described as Caucasian with short brown hair and blue eyes, and was dressed in prison greens.

Police are urging anyone who has seen Wells not to approach him but to contact them immediately.

AAP

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Rio appeals court ban on expansion

Mining giant Rio has lodged an appeal against a decision blocking it from expanding a coal mine. Source: AAP

MINING giant Rio has lodged a Supreme Court appeal against a decision blocking it from expanding a coal mine.

Rio-owned subsidiary Coal & Allied is appealing against last week's NSW Land and Environment Court decision not to allow the Mt Thorley Warkworth mine to be expanded.

While announcing the NSW appeal, the company also said it had cut the jobs of 40 employees and contractors from the mine on Monday as part of a review that it announced after last week's decision.

Last week's events overturned the 2012 NSW government approval of the project.

Coal & Allied acting managing director Darren Yeates said the court's decision was without precedent, overturning a three-and-half-year approval process including state, independent and Commonwealth support.

It set an alarming precedent and brought into question the ability to successfully secure development consents for major projects in NSW, he said.

"Mount Thorley Warkworth mine has been operating for 30 years and this rejection threatens the jobs of the 1300 employees who rely on its future," Mr Yeates said in a statement.

The company had spent more than $600 million with close to 1000 suppliers in relation to the mine last year, he said.

"The unfortunate reality is this decision has come at a time when the Australian coal industry is struggling to remain globally competitive in the face of high costs, a strong Australian dollar and low prices," Mr Yeates said.

Coal & Allied wants to expand the life of the mine by 12 years to 2033, producing 264 million tonnes of coal on current rates of 12 million tonnes a year.

Justice Brian Preston, chief judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court, cited adverse environmental and social concerns on the community as reasons for his decision.

The Bulga-Milbrodale Progress Association said the Hunter Valley community of Bulga would have been destroyed as it was subjected to noise, dust and other social impacts.

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Musharraf in house arrest 'isolation'

PAKISTAN'S former military ruler Pervez Musharraf is reportedly being held in "isolation" in his luxury farmhouse, confined to two rooms and stripped of personal staff.

A court remanded Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, in custody on Saturday after his arrest over his decision to sack judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.

Authorities declared the retired general's plush home on the edge of Islamabad a "sub-jail", saving him the indignity and risk - his life has been threatened by Taliban militants - of going to prison.

But Mohammad Amjad, spokesman for Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League party, complained on Sunday that his lawyers and staff were being denied access to him.

"General Musharraf is being kept in isolation," Amjad told reporters outside the former army chief's heavily guarded residence in Islamabad.

"I was not allowed to have a meeting with him. His family members are not allowed to see him. He has been allocated two rooms in the farmhouse and his movements are confined in those rooms. His personal staff have been removed."

Musharraf's arrest on Friday was an unprecedented move against a former army chief in Pakistan, which has seen three periods of military rule and where the armed forces still wield enormous power.

The 69-year-old returned from four years of self-imposed exile last month promising to "save" the nuclear-armed country from economic ruin and militancy, but his homecoming has turned sour.

On Tuesday he was disqualified from running in the May 11 general election, which should mark the first democratic transition of power after a civilian government completes a full-term in office.

He also faces a litany of serious criminal allegations: lawyers have petitioned Pakistan's top court to try him for treason for imposing emergency law and he also faces charges of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during 2006.

The next hearing in the Supreme Court treason petition comes on Monday.

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Drone raid kills two militants in Yemen

A SUSPECTED US drone strike in Yemen has killed two al-Qaeda militants and destroyed an arms cache.

The raid targeted a house in Wadi Abida, in the central province of Marib, where the two unnamed militants were killed, an official said.

He said an arms cache in the house also exploded.

Witnesses said an unmanned drone conducted the air raid, just like in most US air strikes that target al-Qaeda suspects in the Arabian Peninsula nation, which is home to al-Qaeda's most active branch.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

In July 2011, he reaffirmed AQAP's allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of the worldwide al-Qaeda network since the killing of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in May of the same year.

US drones strikes in Yemen nearly tripled in 2012 compared with 2011, from 18 to 53, according to the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

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S Korea vows to counter any North attacks

South Korea has noted new plans for a possible missile launch in North Korea, military sources say. Source: AAP

SOUTH Korea has monitored new preparations for a possible missile launch in North Korea, military sources say, as Washington and Seoul's top generals vowed to counter any attacks from Pyongyang.

US Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met his South Korean counterpart Army General Jung Seung Jo during a three-hour stop in Seoul on Sunday on his way to a four-day visit to China.

"The two allies have the capabilities and will to counter any North Korean provocative threats," they said in a joint statement after their meeting.

They added that "North Korea's recent torrent of provocative threats will have an unfavourable impact on the isolated communist regime," according to the Yonhap news agency.

Latest satellite imagery showed that Pyongyang has moved two more missile launchers to its east coast, Yonhap reported.

The two additional mobile launchers were spotted at the South Hamgyeong province after April 16, it quoted a defence source as saying.

"The military is closely watching the North's latest preparations for a missile launch," the source said.

The North was monitored earlier in the month to have positioned two mid-range Musudan missiles in Wonson and at least five mobile launchers in Wonson and South Hamgyeong Province.

The movements led South Korean authorities to believe that Pyongyang was preparing for a test launch to coincide with the 101st birth anniversary of its late founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.

No missile launch was conducted then, as the US government warned North Korea that it would be a "huge mistake."

South Korea's military has been on high alert since the North ordered its armed forces on March 26 to be combat-ready, Yonhap said.

"As long as this order remains in place, there are possibilities that the North could fire off a missile," a defence source said.

North Korea has been issuing almost daily threats since the UN imposed tougher sanctions against the communist state after it conducted a third nuclear test in February.

The US and South Korea have called on Pyongyang to resume the six-party talks over its nuclear programs to ease tensions on the peninsula.

The negotiations involving both Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China, stalled in 2009.

But Pyongyang said on Saturday it would never agree to talks on denuclearisation, but would be open to negotiations for arms reduction. It added it will not give up its nuclear program until the entire world is denuclearised.

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