BERLIN, Feb 5: One of Germany’s most famous biscuit-makers has appealed to an extortionist dressed as the “Cookie Monster” to return its prized golden biscuit emblem. The Bahlsen biscuit company’s emblem has hung above its headquarters in Hanover since 1913 and was first reported stolen a week ago. (agencies)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 5: Pakistan plans to build a 30 million dollar amusement park and outdoor activity centre on the edge of the northwestern town of Abbottabad, where US special forces killed Osama bin Laden, an official said yesterday. The private venture in the foothills of the Himalayas will include a zoo, water sports, a mini-golf course, rock climbing and paragliding, said Jamaluddin Khan, the deputy provincial minister for tourism. (agencies)

TOKYO, Feb 5: Tokyo summoned China’s envoy today in protest after what it says was another incursion into its territorial waters around islands at the centre of a bitter dispute with Beijing.
“The foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador over ships entering the waters near Senkaku islands,” said a foreign ministry official, referring to a chain claimed as the Diaoyus by Beijing.
The move comes after Chinese state vessels spent much of Monday in waters around the islands and as the two sides show no sign of backing down in a dispute that has badly affected trade between Asia’s two largest economies.
Two maritime surveillance boats arrived in the area shortly before 9:30 am (0130 GMT), the Japanese coastguard said, with Kyodo News reporting they had remained there for around 14 hours.
Chinese ships have repeatedly ventured into the waters, in what observers say is Beijing’s bid to create a “new normal” in which Tokyo does not have effective control over the archipelago.
A Chinese government plane entered the chain’s airspace in December, setting off sorties by Japanese fighter jets.
In recent weeks both countries have dispatched military planes to the region, although there have been no clashes.
But analysts say the ramping up of rhetoric and the more frequent confrontations raise the risk of an accidental armed conflict. (AGENCIES)

SEOUL, Feb 5: South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak believes North Korea could detonate multiple devices when it goes ahead with a nuclear test expected in the coming weeks or even days.
In an interview published today in the Chosun Ilbo daily, the outgoing president also acknowledged the huge challenge the international community faces in seeking to wean Pyongyang off its nuclear weapons programme.
The North has signalled that it will carry out a “higher level” nuclear test very soon, in a defiant response to UN sanctions imposed after its successful long-range rocket launch in December.
Lee said “higher-level” suggested Pyongyang might attempt to detonate several devices.
“North Korea is likely to carry out multiple nuclear tests at two places or more simultaneously” in order to maximise scientific gains from an event that will be globally condemned, Lee said.
Experts around the world are gearing up to analyse any test for what it might reveal about the current status of the North’s weaponisation programme.
Of particular interest will be any sign that its scientists have succeeded in developing a warhead that can be fitted onto a missile.
“If the North produces miniaturised weapons that can be used as warheads on missiles, it would really pose a threat,” Lee said. “That’s why the whole world is watching it so intensively.”
Lee has only a few weeks left in office at the end of a five-year term marked by an almost total freeze of contacts between North and South Korea.
In his interview, he suggested that diplomatic efforts would make little headway in bringing about a significant policy shift in Pyongyang.
“I think it is difficult to persuade the North regime to give up the nuclear path,” he said.
Some predict the test will come before the Lunar New Year on February 10, while others suggest it will be timed to coincide with the birthday of Kim Jong-Un’s father and late leader Kim Jong-Il on February 16. (AGENCIES)

DUBLIN, Feb 5: Burgers containing horse DNA have been discovered at a second major plant in Ireland, the country’s agriculture department said on Monday, again pointing the finger at Poland as the country of origin for the raw materials. Food companies such as Tesco and Burger King last month found that beef products supplied by an Irish firm contained horse DNA, a scandal that has hit retailers with a wave of bad publicity and left Ireland’s 2.7 billion dollar beef industry reeling.
(agencies)

NEW YORK, Feb 5: In a new analysis from the National Institutes of Health, men who took calcium tablets were more likely to die of heart disease over more than a decade than those who didn’t get extra calcium in supplement form. “The effect of supplemental or dietary calcium on heart disease has always been a bit of an unanswered story,” said Howard Sesso, a preventive medicine researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. (agencies)

NEW YORK, Feb 5: A drug originally approved to treat adults with diabetes may also help severely obese youths lose some weight, according to a new study. “We’re encouraged by these trial results because there is potentially a role for this class (of drugs) to be useful in terms of weight reduction and cardiovascular risk control,” said Aaron Kelly, the study’s lead author from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. (agencies)

NEW YORK, Feb 5: Men who take vitamin C supplements are at higher-than-average risk of developing kidney stones, a new study from Sweden suggests. The findings don’t prove the vitamin itself triggers stones to form. But researchers said that because there are no clear benefits tied to taking high-dose vitamin C, people who have had stones in the past might want to think before taking extra supplements. (agencies)