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Facebook vows 'improvements'

In this screen grab provided by Facebook, a sample home page featuring Facebook's new design changes is shown— AP photo.

WASHINGTON Faced with a torrent of complaints over its latest redesign, the social networking hub Facebook has vowed a series of ‘improvements’ to eliminate clutter and make the website more user friendly.‘Since we launched Facebook's home page design, we've received thousands of emails, Wall posts and comments from you along with direct feedback from all of our friends and family,’ product director Christopher Cox said in a blog post late Tuesday.Cox pointed to several areas ‘where we're focusing on improvements immediately and over the next several weeks,” after the site earlier this month introduced a busier, twitter-like feed on its popular networking site.‘We've heard feedback that there is a lot of application content appearing in the stream. We will be giving you tools to control and reduce application content that your friends share into your stream,’ Cox wrote.Rather than reload the page in order to see new posts, Facebook will introduce ‘the ability to turn on auto updating in the near future so you no longer need to refresh the page, he said.Photo tags, or notifications that pictures of a user's ‘friends’ have been posted, will also be added to the stream of updates on the main page in the coming weeks, Cox said.

Israeli military in anthrax row

Israeli defence officials have been accused of "grave ethical failures'" in testing an experimental anthrax vaccine on hundreds of Israeli soldiers.Several of 716 soldiers who took part in the experiment in the late 1990s have reportedly developed tumours and suffered infections while others have complained of headaches, dizziness, skin, respiratory and digestive problems that they say are related to the vaccine.The panel of medical and legal experts said in a report obtained by the Associated Press news agency that the soldiers were not properly informed of the possible risks.Anthrax is a deadly bacterial disease and its spores can be used in germ warfare to infect victims.The US has long required that its troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea be vaccinated against anthrax.

Thai PM dismisses resignation calls

The prime minister of Thailand has rejected calls for his resignation by thousands of anti-government protesters.Abhisit Vejjajiva signalled his intention to stay on as protests outside his office in the capital Bangkok entered a second day.Friday's developments came as Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's ousted former prime minister, prepared to make a video address from abroad to his supporters later in the day.Police estimated about 30,000 red-shirt demonstrators gathered outside Government House on Thursday, and about 3,000 of them remained the next day.The protesters say Abhisit's three-month-old government took power through illegal means.Last year, yellow-shirted demonstrators called for the resignation of the previous government and their protests ultimately led to the shutdown of Bangkok's two airports.

Drug war 'testing US-Mexico ties'

Rising drug-related violence is testing relations between the US and Mexico, the US secretary of state has said, describing the situation along the border between the two countries as "intolerable".Hillary Clinton who wrapped up a two-day visit to Mexico City on Thursday said both countries shared blame for the violence and reiterated the US commitment to stand by Mexico in its war on drugs and related violence.She has promised an additional $80m to help Mexico's police buy advanced US-made Blackhawk helicopters for its fight against the drug cartels."We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you," Clinton said, accusing "criminals and kingpins spreading violence" of corroding the relationship between the two sides.The drug war has left more than 1,000 people dead in Mexico so far this year, with violence spilling over the border into the US.

New Cold War: Russian Forces To Patrol Arctic

Russia is planning to create a crack group of special military forces to help carve out and patrol the Arctic, which it claims is its territory.The area will be controlled by Russia's shadowy secret service, the FSB - the successor organisation to the KGB.A new document released by the Presidential Security Council lays bare Russia's aggressive military intentions for the disputed region.The country's military elite have stated in the past how they are prepared to fight wars in the Arctic as the scramble for natural resources in the region heats up.Russia launched an expedition to the Arctic in August 2007.A team of scientists on board an atomic icebreaker placed a Russian tricolour on the seabed making a symbolic land grab.The Arctic - with its untapped bounty of oil, gas and minerals - has become a new frontier in the cold war between Russia and the West.Moscow's claim is disputed by the four other Arctic nations - the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark.Arguments over who controls the Arctic are becoming more confrontational.Analysts believe Russia has hardened its resolve to establish its presence in the Arctic by all means - economic, political and military.Its military presence will be used as a deterrent against attempts by others to gain more influence.The Arctic is one of the last places on the planet not to have been tapped for its mineral wealth.Underneath the ocean it is thought there are enormous deposits of oil and gas - some experts estimate as much as 25% of the world's resources.

Pictures Emerge of N. Korea Launchpad as Warships Move Into Area

New pictures emerged Friday of the launch site from which North Korea plans to fire a rocket in early April, as Japan ordered its military to prepare for a missile intercept and the U.S. moved two warships with technology to track and destroy missiles into the area.The new satellite photographs, taken by GeoEye satellite over the missile facility and posted on Britain's Daily Telegraph Web site, are closer up than those previously released and show the actual launchpad on the country's northeast coast, American intelligence officials say, putting Pyongyang well on track for a launch the U.S. and South Korea warned Thursday would be a major provocation with serious consequences.North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite April 4-8, and has warned that fragments from the launch could fall into waters off Akita and Iwate prefectures (states) in northern Japan. In response, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters he ordered the deployment of land-to-air and sea-to-air missile interceptors to the area at risk.

Obama unveils new strategies to defeat al Qaeda, Taliban

President Barack Obama says the US will adopt new tactics for defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, including broader diplomatic engagement, the deployment of 4,000 more troops and new reconstruction efforts.Announcing his much-awaited comprehensive rethink of US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan Friday, US President Barack Obama said emphasis will be placed on training and bolstering the Afghan army so that it could take the lead in securing the war-torn country.In a televised address from the White House, Obama warned that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan was getting “increasingly perilous” and he called on the international community to work together to try to secure the region. "The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al Qaeda operates unchecked," he said.Flanked by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Obama said he is sending another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan - in addition to the 17,000 extra troops he announced earlier this year. The US was also boosting the number of civilian specialists it was sending to the region, Obama said.The focus of the US personnel in Afghanistan would be to train and expand the Afghan army so that it could “eventually take the lead in securing their country,” he said.

Deadly blast in Pakistan mosque

A suicide bomber destroyed a mosque in the tribal region of Khyber in northwest Pakistan when he detonated the explosives he was carrying during prayers, killing at least 48 people. Many more are feared dead or wounded.A suicide bomber attacked a packed mosque in northwest Pakistan at prayer time on Friday, killing 48 people and wounding dozens more, the top local administration official said.The bombing took place on the weekly Muslim day of rest in the town of Jamrud in the restive Khyber tribal region, which is located on a key road used to ferry supplies to Western troops across the border in Afghanistan."Forty-eight bodies have been pulled out of the debris and many others may still be trapped under the rubble," Tariq Hayat, the top administration official in Khyber, told AFP by telephone."More than 70 people were wounded. There may be many more dead," he said."The bomber was present inside the mosque and blew himself up when Friday prayers began," Hayat said.A top security official said earlier that 40 people had died."The entire building collapsed," the security official said, referring to the temporary mosque.