Titles:

• 400,000 Somali Children at Risk of Death
• Turkish Warplanes Hit 60 PKK Targets in Iraq
• Iran Praises Russian Plan to Restart Nuclear Talks
• US Gives Millions to Taliban
• ‘De-Radicalisation' Plan under Study: Pakistan
• US-S. Korea Drill is ‘Declaration of War': North

Details:

400,000 Somali children at risk of death

Britain said on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of children could starve to death in Somalia if the international community did not ramp up its response to the famine there, and pledged a further $48 million to aid children and livestock owners. The latest pledge brings Britain's total aid to help tackle what aid agencies are calling the worst drought in decades to hit Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, to over 100 million pounds."We call today on other countries to put their shoulders to the wheel and ensure this dreadful famine ... does not claim up to 400,000 children," Andrew Mitchell, Britain's International Development Secretary, told a news conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "We think the response around the world has been inadequate, dangerously inadequate,"  Mitchell later said in Nairobi.

Turkish warplanes hit 60 PKK targets in Iraq

Turkish warplanes struck 60 Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight, military headquarters said in a statement on Thursday, in apparent retaliation for a militant attack on Turkish forces. It said Turkish artillery hit 168 targets in the region before the air operation, which was conducted after Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants ambushed a military convoy in southeast Turkey killing 12 security personnel. "The Turkish Air Force conducted a successful attack operation on 60 targets of the separatist terrorist group in the Kandil Mountain, Hakurk, Avasin-Basyan, Zap and Metina regions," the General Staff statement said.The warplanes struck the mountainous northern Iraq region in two waves overnight, security sources told Reuters.

Iran Praises Russian plan to restart nuclear talks

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that a Russian proposal could be "a basis to start negotiations" on Iran's disputed nuclear program.  The proposal calls for the other countries to make limited concessions to Iran for each step it takes toward opening its nuclear program fully to international inspection and giving up activities that could yield nuclear weapons. "The proposal by our Russian friends can be a basis to start negotiations for regional and international cooperation, specifically in the field of peaceful nuclear activities," the Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said on Iranian state television. Mr. Jalili made the comments after two rounds of talks in Tehran on Tuesday with the chief of the Russian government's security council, Nikolai P. Patrushev, who also met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Iran's official news agency IRNA.

A spokesman for the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, said that American diplomats had worked with the Russians on the proposal. "What we are looking for from Iran has not changed," Ms. Nuland said Monday. "We welcome any Russian effort to persuade Iran that it's time to change course and meet its international obligations." Talks between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear program stalled in January without producing an agreement even on when to meet again. The six powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - have been pushing Iran to comply with the United Nations Security Council's demands that it stop its uranium enrichment, which many in the West say is intended to go far beyond the level needed for reactor fuel and to produce weapons instead.

US gives millions to the Taliban

A new report out of Washington estimates that around $360 million in US military money went into the hands of enemy insurgents in Afghanistan, including the Taliban. A special task force put together by General David Patraeus has estimated that more than a quarter of a billion dollars in US funds trickled into enemy hands while the American military attempted to support combatants and reconstruct war-torn Afghanistan towns. Through several faulty contracts, says the report, millions intended to be used for good instead found its way to the enemy and those with enemy-ties.While the US spends billions in foreign contracts, the $360 million figure found by Patraeus' task force comes as an alarming figure once it comes clear that the funding trickled from the US government all the way to the Taliban. Contracts also indirectly led to funding with "criminals and local power brokers" with ties to the Taliban as well, reports The Associated Press.

‘De-radicalisation' plan under study: Pakistan

The government is considering to start a national de-radicalisation programme to combat rising fundamentalism and extremism in the country. A statement issued after a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet held here on Wednesday said: "It was decided in the committee that special attention shall be given to a de-radicalisation programme to motivate youth to engage and isolate them from militancy and terrorism and bring them back to peaceful living." The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "We need to clearly identify the threat posed by terrorism, including the underlying factors such as ideological, motivational, funding, weapon supply, training and organisational support for terrorist groups and those aiding and abetting the terrorists," he said. The meeting was attended by federal ministers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, services chiefs and senior officers.

US-S. Korea drill is ‘declaration of war': North

North Korea on Thursday slammed a joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea as a declaration of "all-out war". The 10-day exercise is an "unpardonable heinous provocation" against the communist state, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said. "This is a declaration of an all-out war against the DPRK (North Korea),"the state body said in an English-language statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. The exercise, which began on Tuesday, involves more than 530,000 troops, including some 3,000 military personnel from the US and other bases around the Pacific region. The two allies have described the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) drill as defensive and routine, but the CPRK said it was a rehearsal for an attack against the North's leadership, nuclear and missile bases.The UFG has stripped the United States and South Korea of their "mask of peace and dialogue," the CPRK said, adding that the two countries had reacted to Pyongyang's "patient efforts for peace" with "provocative manoeuvres for a war of aggression".