updated HD Cube

Texas fireball isn't satellite debris, military says
FAA officials have alerted pilots after collision of spacecraft

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Feb. 16, 2009
DALLAS - What looked like a fireball streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday morning, leading many people to call authorities to report seeing falling debris.

"We don't know what it was," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office used a helicopter to search after callers said they thought they saw a plane crashing, a spokesman said.

"We don't doubt what people saw" but authorities found nothing, said spokesman John Foster.

The U.S. Strategic Command said there was no connection to the sightings over Texas and Tuesday's collision of satellites from the U.S. and Russia.

"There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry," said Maj. Regina Winchester, with STRATCOM.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after a collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian communication satellites. The chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.

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updated HD Cube

N. Korea preps for satellite launch amid 'space development' claim

(CNN) -- Denying recent intelligence suggesting it is preparing to test a long-range missile, North Korea signaled Monday it is gearing up to launch a satellite, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

A senior U.S. official told CNN last week that an American spy satellite had snapped an image of preparations at a North Korean site previously used to launch Taepodong-2 missiles.

The photograph shows North Korea assembling telemetry equipment involving sophisticated electronics used to monitor missile launches, the official said, adding there was no direct evidence that a missile was being moved to the launch pad.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Monday it will go ahead with its "space development" program, Yonhap said, adding that the report is a possible message to Washington ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Seoul, South Korea, this week. Watch Hillary Clinton board her flight to Asia »

"One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," KCNA said, according to Yonhap, but it denied a missile test is planned. "Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of the developing reality," KCNA said, calling outside reports a "vicious trick" aimed at stopping the nation's sovereign activity, Yonhap reported.

The reclusive North Korean regime made a similar claim after launching a rocket in 1998, saying it succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit, Yonhap said.

U.S. intelligence officials initially said after the August 1998 test that North Korea launched a two-stage Taepodong-1 missile, but later said it was a three-stage missile, and the third stage broke up in an unsuccessful attempt to put a small satellite into orbit.

South Korea rejected the North Korean claim that it has a right to space development, with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan saying at a parliamentary session, "Whether it is a missile or a satellite, [a launch] would constitute a violation of the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 1718," Yonhap reported Monday.

That resolution, adopted in October 2006, imposed sanctions against North Korea -- and demanded it stop nuclear activity and missile testing -- after it launched a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. The missile failed 40 seconds after launch, but the Taepodong-2 is believed to have an intended range of about 2,500 miles (about 4,025 kilometers), making it capable of striking Alaska.

Asked about the matter last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates would only say, "Well, since the first time that they launched the missile it flew for a few minutes before crashing, the range of the Taepodong-2 remains to be seen. So far, it's very short. I'm not going to get into intelligence reports, but it would be nice if North Korea would focus on getting positive messages across ... to its negotiating partners about verification and moving forward with the denuclearization."

North Korea has been involved on and off in what is known as the six-party talks with the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

Clinton left for Asia on Sunday on her first overseas trip as secretary of state, and is scheduled to travel to Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia to discuss a range of issues, including mutual economic recovery, trade, the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation and reversing global warning. Her trip represents a departure from a diplomatic tradition under which the first overseas trip by the secretary of state of a new administration is to Europe.

Speaking at the New York-based Asia Society before her departure, Clinton called North Korea's nuclear program "the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia."

She said the Obama administration is prepared to seek a permanent, stable peace with Pyongyang so long as its regime pursues disarmament and does not engage in aggression against South Korea.

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updated HD Cube

Clinton warns against N. Korean missile launch

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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her strongest comments yet about North Korea Tuesday during her tour of Asia.

Speaking at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, the U.S. secretary warned that a possible North Korean missile launch "would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward." Clinton said the U.S. is "watching very closely" actions by North Korea.

U.S. officials recently said they obtained evidence that North Korea was gearing up for a launch of a long-range missile.

North Korean officials disputed the claim, saying in the country's official news agency that North Korea was preparing to launch a satellite.

Clinton also said Tuesday that there is a possibility that the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea could improve if North Korea abides by the obligations that it has already entered into and verifiably and completely eliminates its nuclear program.

If that happens, there is "a chance to normalize relations, to enter into a peace treaty rather than an armistice and to expect assistance for the people of North Korea," she said.

Clinton left for Asia Sunday on her first overseas trip as secretary of state and is slated to also travel to China, South Korea and Indonesia to discuss a range of issues, including mutual economic recovery, trade, the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation and reversing global warning.

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updated HD Cube

NTSB: Identical aircraft landed 27 minutes behind fatal flight

(CNN) -- Trailing what would become a fatal flight by some 27 minutes, the same kind of aircraft operated by the same airline traveled the same route last week and landed safely, the NTSB said Monday.

The pilot of the second Continental Connection flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, reported "moderate icing" during the trip and "made it to destination in Buffalo," said Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The second plane was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, like the plane that crashed Thursday night near the Buffalo airport, killing 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Also like the fatal flight, the aircraft was operated on the Continental Connection route by Colgan Air, Chealander said.

Possible icing -- and how the aircraft and the flight crew performed if icing was an issue -- has become a focus in the aftermath of the crash of Flight 3407. The pilot and first officer of the flight discussed "significant" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, the NTSB said after listening to the cockpit voice recorder.

Chealander said Monday that he had been asked about possible icing on the aircraft's tail.

"If there's icing on the wings, there's icing on the tail," he said. "The significance of that is yet to be determined."

The flight data recorder indicated the plane's deicing system was activated 11 minutes after takeoff from Newark and remained on until the crash, according to the NTSB. Chealander said investigators have recovered most of the pieces of that system and will examine those materials to determine whether the system was operating properly.

Chealander also said questionnaires were being sent to every pilot who flew in the Buffalo vicinity the night of the crash to find out what icing conditions they might have encountered. He said the only report to air traffic controllers of "severe" icing that night came from a pilot "well south of the Buffalo area."

On Sunday, Chealander gave details of the final violent seconds of the flight, saying the flight data recorder indicated that in the final seconds, the plane's nose pitched drastically up, then down, and the plane then rolled left 46 degrees and then right 105 degrees, or past the 90-degree vertical point. Before impact in a residential neighborhood, the plane fell 800 feet in five seconds, Chealander said.

On Monday, he said about half the aircraft wreckage had been removed from the crash site and taken for detailed examination.

Giving an indication of the explosive nature of the impact and subsequent fire, Chealander said wreckage is being taken away "in bins and on trailers."

He said investigators hope to have all wreckage removed from the crash site by Wednesday, when a snowstorm is forecast for the area.

Authorities have not discussed the status of the removal of victims' remains since Saturday night, when they said 15 bodies had been recovered.

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updated February 20

Clinton focuses on NKorea's nuclear drive

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Friday, February 20SEOUL (AFP) - - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived late Thursday in South Korea for talks which will focus on ways to revive stalled international nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea.

After a visit to Indonesia aimed at making a new start with the Muslim world, communist North Korea's decades-old drive for atomic weaponry was to dominate her stay in Seoul.

The six-nation talks are deadlocked and the North is apparently preparing to test its longest-range missile, while turning up the heat on close US ally South Korea.

Clinton, in comments to reporters on her plane, suggested that the North may be taking a harder line in the disarmament talks because of behind-the-scenes moves to find a successor to leader Kim Jong-Il, who was reported to have had a stroke last August.

"I think this is an especially important time for South Korea as they are confronting a lot of worries about what's up in North Korea, what the succession could be, what it means for them," she said.

"And they're looking to us to use our best efforts to get the agenda of denuclearisation and non-proliferation back in gear."

The six-party talks have "produced some results which we want to build on but we are still facing the reality of North Korea not only possessing, we believe, some number of nuclear weapons but showing very little willingness to get back on track", she said.

"And now some of that is attributed to their own internal situation which I will discuss with the South Koreans," Clinton said.

"But I think our goal is to come up with a strategy that is effective in influencing the behaviour of the North Koreans at a time when the whole leadership situation is somewhat unclear."

The forum groups the two Koreas, Russia, the US, Japan and China.

The North, which tested an atomic weapon in 2006, has shut down its plutonium-producing reactor in return for energy aid as part of a 2007 six-nation pact.

But talks on the next stage -- full denuclearisation in return for diplomatic ties with Washington and a formal peace treaty -- are deadlocked by disputes over verifying its acknowledged nuclear activities.

Pyongyang has staked out a tough stance, saying it may not give up nuclear weapons even after normalised ties as long as a US nuclear threat remains.

Analysts say any missile test would aim to strengthen its bargaining hand.

Clinton's agenda in Indonesia was more relaxed.

Crowds clapped and smiled as she visited projects funded with US aid money in Jakarta's Petojo slum area, on the second day of her trip to President Barack Obama's former home town.

She met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier Thursday and said afterwards that Washington wanted Jakarta's "advice and counsel about how to reach out not only to the Muslim world but to Asia and beyond".

As a thriving democracy, Southeast Asia's largest economy and a moderate Muslim country, she said Indonesia was an obvious inclusion on her four-country swing through Asia which began in Japan and will end in China.

By visiting Indonesia on her first trip abroad in her new job, Clinton said she wanted to show that the United States was not completely distracted by China and was ready to re-engage with Asia after years of neglect under Bush.

In Seoul Friday the secretary of state was to hold talks with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan and have a working lunch with President Lee Myung-Bak.

She was also to be briefed by General Walter Sharp, commander of 28,500 US troops stationed in the South, and to hold a "town hall" meeting at Ewha Women's University before departing for Beijing.

South Korea, a close US ally, has been subjected to increasingly strident threats from North Korea.

Early Thursday the North's military said it was "fully ready" for war with the South in response to what it termed confrontational policies by Seoul's conservative government.

South Korea's navy is on alert for any clash around the disputed Yellow Sea border.

On other issues, South Korea will push the United States for early Congressional ratification of a sweeping free trade agreement.

Foreign Minister Yu and Clinton also plan to reaffirm their governments' commitment to combating climate change and rebuilding Afghanistan, Seoul officials say.

updated February 20

Syria samples reveal more uranium

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The UN nuclear agency says it has found additional particles of uranium in samples taken from the site of an alleged nuclear facility in Syria.

Syria denied the site was a nuclear reactor and alleged the uranium traces found there came from Israeli missiles fired on it in September 2007.

But the International Atomic Energy Agency said the probability of the uranium coming from missiles was low.

The IAEA called on Syria to co-operate more with its inquiry.

Nuclear suspicions

It said Syria had not answered many of the agency's questions about the destroyed facility.

Israeli warplanes flattened the facility in the Syrian desert in 2007 on suspicion that it was part of a covert nuclear weapons programme.

The report for the IAEA board members has been seen by news agencies ahead of a meeting to discuss Syria next week.

It said IAEA inspectors had been blocked from making follow-up visits to the site.

The latest report comes after a November report said the site had features resembling those of a nuclear reactor site, but it did not exclude the possibility that it was being used for purposes unrelated to nuclear activity.

In that first report on its findings, the IAEA said "significant" traces of uranium were also found.

Syria has always maintained the site was a disused military building.

updated February 20, 'running on autopilot towards nuclear event':



Helicopter goes down near California nuclear plant

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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter went down Thursday night near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The McDonald Douglas 600N "made a forced landing under unknown circumstances into shallow water," just south of the Orange County-San Diego County line, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

Three people on board were able to exit the helicopter on their own and were taken to a hospital with unknown injuries.

Aerial images showed the helicopter sitting on the edge of the surf, just north of the nuclear plant.

30 injured on 747 flight to Japan

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- About 30 people were injured Friday when a Northwest Airlines flight suffered turbulence before landing at Japan's Narita International Airport, a Northwest spokesman said.

Three people where seriously injured, fire officials said.

There were 408 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 747-400 flight from Manila, Philippines.

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updated February 20

Stakes are high for U.S., China during Clinton visit

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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When Hillary Clinton visits Beijing this week, her Chinese hosts will closely watch her body movement and parse her every word. Her first trip here as the U.S. secretary of state comes in the shadow of the global financial crisis, the pressing North Korea nuclear issue and a warming planet.

The U.S. Congress has passed a massive stimulus bill that will plunge America even deeper into debt. Will China help out?

About $700 billion of China's $1.9 trillion of foreign reserves are in U.S. Treasuries. If China sold those assets, U.S. interest rates would spike and would further decimate China's export industries. Such a scenario would be distasteful for both Washington and Beijing, and that's why it's critical that Clinton convince the Chinese to hold this arrangement together.

Why should China buy even more?

"There's some protectionist language in the stimulus package," said James McGregor, who runs JL Mcgregor & Company, a business consulting company in Beijing. "During the campaign, Hillary called on the president (George W. Bush) not to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. China doesn't know what to think of them. She's got to come here to build trust." The stakes are high for America.

"I think if China sits out a treasury auction, what happens to the American economy? What happens to the American stock markets?" McGregor asked. "China is now in a position of power when it comes to American finances."

What do Chinese expect to hear from Clinton? Victor Gao, director of China National Association of International Studies, hopes America's top diplomat can "assure the overseas investors, including China, that their investments in these securities will be protected." He believes China will ask Clinton to keep the U.S. dollar as strong as possible and keep it from depreciating.

For its part, Gao said China "will not do anything irresponsible" with the bulk of U.S. treasury bills it holds "because the interests of the Chinese and American economy are now very much intertwined."

McGregor agreed: "China already owns so much American debt that they cannot afford not to have America be successful."

The Chinese also hope Clinton will help mute the protectionist voices in the United States. "It's time for the U.S. to demonstrate that it will continue as the champion of free market and free trade," Gao said. "If anyone wants to equate patriotism with protectionism, that's the wrong recipe."

Much more is at stake. Barack Obama has identified the relationship with China as one of the most important foreign-policy issues of his administration. China now accounts for America's biggest trade deficit. Washington also needs Beijing to play a positive role in the resolving regional hot spots. The Korean nuclear issue has brought Beijing and Washington together to seek the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is just as eager to strengthen ties. The U.S. is a critical economic partner, taking a bulk of China's exports. U.S. companies have also been investing heavily in China since 1979. Says Yan Xuetong, an America-watcher in Tsinghua University: "China still needs America's market, needs to keep the U.S. dollar strong, and also needs the U.S. to open its market to Chinese export."

Since China and the United States. formally established diplomatic relations 30 years ago, bilateral relations have grown. Quite often, however, they have been punctuated by disputes over trade, human-rights disagreements and China's policies on Taiwan, Tibet, and religious freedom. Now the aim is to put the relationship on a more predictable, even keel.

Political analysts here do not expect substantive results coming out of Secretary Clinton's visit. Says Yan Xuetong: "The purpose of her visit is to lay the foundation for future collaboration between China and the U.S." Presidents Hu Jintao and Obama have talked on the phone and have agreed to meet in April during an international economic summit in London.

Despite problems, there is optimism in Beijing. "Our common interests are much bigger than our differences," says a government official who asked to remain anonymous. "We don't see either side making significant shifts in policies."

Meanwhile, China analyst James McGregor already notes a shift in tone: "The U.S. used to come here and lecture China," he says. "Now the US is coming here to kiss up to China."

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updated February 11 and 20


Here's something you don't see everyday. In fact, this is the first time this has ever been seen. On Feb. 10 Japan's Kaguya spacecraft in orbit around the moon successfully took an image of a penumbral lunar eclipse. That's the Earth passing in front of the sun, as seen from the Moon. From the Moon!

Kaguya Captures Eclipse — From the Moon

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February 19th, 2009

Here's something you don't see everyday. In fact, this is the first time this has ever been seen. On Feb. 10 Japan's Kaguya spacecraft in orbit around the moon successfully took an image of a penumbral lunar eclipse. That's the Earth passing in front of the sun, as seen from the Moon. From the Moon! The image was taken just at the moment when the Earth covered up most of the sun, creating a diamond ring effect. If we're lucky on Earth, we can see this effect in a solar eclipse, when the Moon blocks the Sun as seen from Earth. Here, Earth’s atmosphere is lit up by the sun, creating the ring and just enough sunlight is sneaking by on one side of the Earth, creating the diamond. Sensational! Plus, there's a movie of the eclipse, too!


A penumbral lunar eclipse is a phenomenon in which the Sun, Earth and Moon line up in tandem, and the moon is in the Earth's penumbra, or, when you look from the Moon, the Sun is partially covered by the Earth (partial eclipse.) When the phenomenon occurs, the volume of light from the Sun to the Moon decreases, making the Moon's surface look darker when you see it from the Earth.

updated February 20

Space As An Increasingly Crowded Place

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Feb 20, 2009
The collision of two satellites above Siberia prompted concerns of a future cascade of crashes, and one space scientist says the vastness of space is getting cozier by the day.
"The North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks everything orbiting the earth much larger than about 3 cm, which is pretty small," said Dr. Marc Hairston, research scientist at the UT Dallas William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences.

"Around 15,000 objects consisting of satellites, pieces of debris and even tools and tool bags left in space are being constantly monitored to watch for potential collisions."

Hairston and other space scientists believe the recent fireball in the skies above central Texas was a meteor and not satellite wreckage, but he says debris and objects orbiting the Earth will be around to create crash hazards for tens, if not hundreds of years.

"When objects collide in space, they produce a cloud of debris that spread out along the original orbit, and these debris threaten other functioning satellites," Hairston said.

"Something the size of a penny, or even much smaller, that is traveling at five miles a second can smash straight through another satellite and wreck havoc on electronics and other critical components."

Hairston and a team led by Center for Space Sciences Director Dr. Roderick Heelis study the ionosphere with the Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI) team. The debris trail from the satellite collision prompted concern for the long-term safety of the satellite that bears the CINDI instruments. The conditions of the upper atmosphere that are studied by CINDI have a direct effect on how long space debris remains in orbit.

"The Air Force and government labs have developed sophisticated programs for predicting the future paths of these debris to see if they could hit the space shuttle, the International Space Station or other crucial spacecraft," Hairston said. "But these models are only as good as the data about the atmosphere that go into them. CINDI is helping us map and give real-time information about the critical physical parameters these models need."

According to Hairston, the vastness of space offers ample room for satellites, but the increasing amount of space debris makes the likelihood of future catastrophic collisions almost a certainty.

"A rare set of circumstances have to fall into place for two objects in space to collide-it is like hitting a bullet with a bullet," Hairston said.

"Had the Russian satellite and the Iridium satellite missed each other by only 1/1000th of a second, they'd have missed each other by 7 meters (close to 21 feet) and nothing would have happened. But now that one of the satellites has been turned into a cloud of space debris, it's like hitting a bullet with a thousand pieces of high-speed buckshot. The odds of a collision go up."

Hairston warned that the other 65 Iridium satellites and all other satellites that orbit at altitudes of about 500 miles are at an increased risk after last week's collision, and this higher risk will last for several years.

updated February 20

Passenger: People were 'flying' around the plane

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TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- About 30 people were injured Friday when a Northwest Airlines flight suffered turbulence before landing at Japan's Narita International Airport, a Northwest spokesman said.

Three people where seriously injured, fire officials said. Tokyo 's Kyodo news agency later put the number of overall injured at 47.

There were 408 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 747-400 flight from Manila, Philippines .

American passenger Vincent Salazar told Kyodo News that he heard screams around 30 minutes before the plane was scheduled to arrive as it suddenly fell, then ascended.

Salazar added that several passengers were thrown into the cabin ceiling, hitting their heads and hurting their necks because they were not wearing their seatbelts.

''We were flying and then the seatbelt sign came on and when we were trying to get back to the seats, the plane dropped and so some people went up and hit the top (ceiling)," he told the agency.

''I actually was pretty calm because I've flown a lot, but the lady next to me was screaming... And unfortunately some people weren't in their seatbelts. They were just flying.''

The plane eventually touched down east of Tokyo at Narita airport at around 12:20 p.m. Friday, the agency quoted the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry as saying.

Those injured during the incident were taken to nearby hospitals, the airport's operator and fire department officials told Kyodo.

Turbulence is air movement that normally cannot be seen. It may occur when the sky appears to be clear and can happen unexpectedly. Most injuries result from passengers who are not belted into their seats.

It can be created by any number of different conditions, including atmospheric pressures, jet streams, mountain waves, cold or warm fronts, or thunderstorms

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updated february 20

Iran ready to build nuclear weapon, analysts say

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iranian scientists have reached "nuclear weapons breakout capability," according to a new report based on findings of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

The Institute for Science and International Security report concludes Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon but does have enough low-enriched uranium for a single nuclear weapon.

The type of uranium the International Atomic Energy Agency report says Iran has would have to be further enriched to make it weapons-grade.

The institute drew its conclusions from an IAEA report dated February 19, 2009. An official in the IAEA confirmed the authenticity of the report for CNN, but didn't want to be named.

The IAEA report is posted on the Web site of ISIS, a Washington-based non-profit and non-partisan institution focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

It also finds that while Iran has dramatically increased installation of centrifuges that can be used for enriching uranium -- from 4,000 to 5,400 -- its scientists aren't using the new units yet. They remain in "research and development mode."

In the IAEA report, the agency also says no substantive progress has been made in resolving issues about possible "military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear program.

Iran has consistently denied the weapons allegations, calling them "baseless" and "fabricated."

Iran says its nuclear program is necessary to provide civilian energy for the country, but other countries have voiced concern that its true purpose is to produce nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu: Iran is biggest threat in Israeli history

The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran poses the biggest threat to Israel in the nation's history, Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday as he urged his political rivals to unite behind him.

Netanyahu picked to form Israeli government

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the conservative Likud Party, has been chosen to form Israel's next government, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced Friday.

At a joint news conference with Peres, Netanyahu said he accepted the task and he is willing to work with the moderate parties of Labor, led by Ehud Barak, and Kadima, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

"We have different approaches in different areas, but we are all together in our desire to act for the good of the state," Netanyahu said. "We will be able to find the common ground to lead the state toward security, prosperity and peace."

He said Israeli leaders need to unite as the country faces "great challenges," particularly from Iran, which he said "is developing nuclear weapons and poses the biggest threat to Israel since the war of independence."

A U.N. report released this week found that Iran has enough uranium for a single nuclear weapon, but the uranium has not been enriched to make it weapons-grade. Iran consistently has denied the weapons allegations, calling them "baseless," and said that data that indicated otherwise was "fabricated."

To become Israel's next prime minister, Netanyahu must form a coalition within six weeks, or the process will start all over.

The decision comes after Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, said he would recommend Netanyahu for the post, but only if he promises to form a "broad-based" coalition government.

In last week's parliamentary elections, no single party won the minimum 61 seats needed to form a government. That means a government of two or more parties -- or coalition government -- is inevitable.

The ruling Kadima Party won the most seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. But Kadima received just one more seat than Netanyahu's Likud Party.

The strong showing of other right-wing parties -- including Yisrael Beytenu and the Orthodox Shas movement -- could give Netanyahu a better chance of forming a coalition government.

Speaking to fellow Likud members Monday, Netanyahu expressed confidence that he has enough support to emerge as Israel's next prime minister.

"I plan to form a government as soon as possible with our natural partners," the former Israeli prime minister said. "We have a government in our hands, but we want a broader one."

He added that he will negotiate with other parties, including Kadima, "to form a broad national unity government."

Livni took over as Kadima leader after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped down from the post amid corruption investigations. Livni's failure to assemble a ruling coalition at that time triggered last week's elections.

Netanyahu, 59, is a former Israeli soldier who served in the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal. He was one of a dozen Israeli commandos who stormed a Belgian aircraft hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1972 and helped rescue 140 hostages.

After his stint as prime minister from 1996 to 1999, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then Likud Party leader, but resigned in 2005, saying he disagreed with Sharon's plan to remove Israeli troops and settlements from Gaza. Sharon left Likud and formed Kadima as a more centrist party.

Netanyahu has supported the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank and has opposed making further territorial concessions in hope of ending the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He has been reminding the public that he warned that Palestinian militants in Gaza could launch rockets at Israeli cities such as Ashkelon and Ashdod -- which has happened and led to Israel's recent military operation in Gaza.

His Likud Party had a strong showing in last week's election, more than doubling the number of seats it holds in the Knesset. Netanhayu said that showing proves that voters have rejected Kadima's leadership, and he predicted right-leaning parties will be able to form a majority.

"With God's help, I shall head the coming government," he said. "I am sure that I can manage to put together a good, broad-based and stable government that will be able to deal with the security crisis and the economic crisis."

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Clinton dismisses N. Korean provocation

Clinton: North Korea can't drive 'wedge' between U.S., South

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea is "badly miscalculating" if it thinks its diplomatic bluster and maneuvering can "drive a wedge" between the United States and South Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

"Our alliance is stronger than ever," Clinton told CNN's Jill Dougherty in an interview. "And it's not only about our mutual security, but it's also about how we're going to deal with the global economy and so much else."

North Korea's nuclear program has been the pressing crisis in the region, and Clinton's visit to Asia comes at a time of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea said Thursday it was ready for an "all-out confrontation" with South Korea, which it accused of kicking up war hysteria. There have been unconfirmed indications that North Korea was gearing up for a launch of a long-range missile.

But any saber-rattling toward South Korea should be taken with a grain of salt, Clinton indicated, since "South Korea basically keeps the North Korean economy going with all of the subsidies of food and fuel and medical supplies."
Clinton said North Korea's swings from being bellicose toward its neighbors to behaving rationally and sticking with commitments are a matter of calculated diplomatic maneuvering.

"I think the past history proves that North Korea can be either of those, depending on what it's attempting to achieve," said Clinton, who has since arrived in China after leaving South Korea.

"And what's clear from the six-party process over the years is that when North Korea decides to cooperate and make agreements that it believes are in furtherance of its own interests it will do so. And when it doesn't, it is always seeking advantage and it uses provocative words and threatened actions to try to get attention in order to make a deal in some way -- food and fuel and other kinds of assets."

North Korea is testing the new U.S. administration to see how diplomacy can move forward, she said.

"I think you have to respond in kind as you look at the behavior of the day, the week, the month, the year," Clinton said.

"We're hoping that North Korea will see its way clear to re-engage, and as I've said repeatedly, if we can get to the point that their denuclearization is verifiable and complete, a tremendous advantage is waiting for North Korea, not only for a bilateral, normal relationship with the United States, but I think a lot of international support and aid that could come to the people of North Korea."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il reportedly had a stroke, and some observers have said he may not be fully in charge of the country.

"If there is a succession, even if it is a peaceful succession, then that creates more uncertainty," she said. "It may also encourage even more provocative action as a way to delegate power."

Clinton acknowledged that such open discussion of potential succession in another country is unusual, but she said "candid conversation" is necessary and appropriate.

"That's on people's minds, it's written about," she said. "We ought to be engaging. We ought to elicit reactions and opinions about that and many other issues."

She said she is reflecting the Obama administration's vision for diplomacy.

"I also am very deliberately talking about things and trying to open up dialogue and create some space for there to be some sensible discussion about the way forward and some very difficult problems."

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