Spiders scare Brits more than terrorists: horror flick poll

LONDON - Spiders, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies scare the British more than the threat of a terrorist attack, suggests an opinion poll released Monday by a Hollywood studio. The poll of 1,000 adults, conducted at 65 locations around the nation, put insects at the top of Britain’s most-feared list, followed by the spectre of a terrorist strike. “This is because fear of small creatures that scuttle about on four or more legs is a much more ancient, primordial fear, going straight back to caveman days and what might be lurking in the black darkness of our cave homes which could hurt us,” said psychologist and broadcaster Donna Dawson. Snakes came third in the fright stakes, heights fourth and death fifth -- followed by visits to the dentist, needles and injections, public speaking, debt and flying. The poll was commissioned by Universal Pictures to mark the DVD release of its horror movie “Van Helsing” -- rated a mild PG-13 in the United States for its “nonstop creature action violence”.

 Annan says UN must help prevent preemptive strikes

BEIJING - The United Nations must show it is tough enough to ensure the security of its members so that individual countries do not take measures into their own hands, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday. Speaking to Chinese university students in Beijing, Annan said fighting terrorism was best achieved through cooperation and information-sharing between states, not the use of force. “Indeed, the first purpose of the United Nations, laid down in Article 1 of the Charter, is ’to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace’,” Annan said. “We must show that the United Nations is capable of fulfilling that purpose, so that states do not feel obliged or entitled to take the law into their own hands.” US President George W. Bush questioned the relevance of the United Nations before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying Baghdad had flaunted UN authority for a decade.The United States and Britain withdrew a draft resolution on an invasion in the council in mid-March after it was clear there were not enough votes. France had threatened to veto if UN inspectors were not given more time to account for Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. In remarks at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Annan stopped short of repeating comments from an interview in September in which he said the 15-member Security Council should have approved the invasion of Iraq in mid-March 2003. The Bush administration has said it reserves the right to make pre-emptive attacks to ensure US national security. Annan said others felt that doctrine was “a grave threat to international peace and security, since it might imply that any state has the right to use force whenever it sees fit, without regard to other states’ concerns. “That is precisely the state of affairs which the United Nations was created to save humanity from,” he said.

 

He said the best way to stop terrorism was by better cooperation and communication between countries “to ensure that terrorists are not given safe havens in their territories; to ensure that they are not given financial support; to ensure that they do not move around as freely as they used to.” “Yes, some countries have used force to deal with terrorism, but I see that as not the most essential part of fighting international terrorism,” Annan said.

Bellicose North Korea warns UN “sanctions mean war”

SEOUL - North Korea warned Monday any move by the United Nations to impose sanctions on the communist state to make up for stalled diplomacy would spark a “merciless war”. The warning came after US officials last month hinted at bringing North Korea to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if it continued to cold-shoulder talks on the country’s nuclear weapons drive. “Sanctions mean a war and war does not know any mercy,” said Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency monitored here. “If the US applies more sanctions to the DPRK (North Korea) by putting the UN in motion, the DPRK will promptly and resolutely react to it with self-defensive war deterrent force.” The agency said the United States would “be wholly responsible for all ensuing fatal consequences” if war breaks out. Two years into the nuclear standoff, hectic diplomacy has yielded little. North Korea failed to show at a fourth round of six-party talks scheduled to open in September in Beijing, saying it was staying away because of the “hostile” US policy towards Pyongyang and reports of secret nuclear experiments in South Korea. The United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan met for three inconclusive rounds of talks in Beijing prior to the North Korean boycott. Some analysts have said Pyongyang may be waiting out the US presidential elections on November 2.

But North Korea says it does not care who is US president, and will resume talks only when the United States drops its “hostile” attitude. Analysts and some officials have questioned whether the time may not be ripe to attempt to nudge the process ahead by putting Pyongyang under pressure from the threat of UN sanctions. The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of operating a nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 agreement.  In February 2003 the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared North Korea in violation of non-proliferation accords after it pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The IAEA referred the case to the UN Security Council, which expressed concern but took no action. In Seoul last week, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said the failure to take action had set “the worst precedent of all” to would-be nuclear proliferators, telling them there were no consequences for violations.

Singapore scientists create shirt that can call for help in emergencies

SINGAPORE - Singapore scientists have created a shirt that can send a distress signal if the wearer falls down, a news report said. The shirt, designed with elderly people in mind, has a built-in sensor that sends a signal to a family member’s mobile phone or even to an e-mail address in case of a tumble, its creator Francis Tay said in The Straits Times newspaper. The sensor detects the speed and tilt of the fall, the report said. “When a person falls, that’s bad enough. But if he falls and there’s no one there to help him, it could be fatal,” the paper quoted Tay as saying. He could not immediately be reached for comment. Tay said in the report the shirt could be helpful in this wealthy city-state of 4 million, where it’s likely that 1 in 5 people will be over 65 by 2029. The report quoted Tay as saying his research team was looking at ways to integrate the sensor into the shirt’s fabric itself by using optical fibers. The report did not say when the shirt will be available to consumers, or how much it would cost.