BISMARCK, North Dakota | Fri Mar 15, 2013 7:42pm EDT

BISMARCK, North Dakota (Reuters) - The North Dakota Senate approved what would be the most restrictive abortion law in the United States on Friday, a measure banning the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks.

Senators also approved a second bill on Friday that bans abortions based solely on genetic abnormalities, the first state ban of its kind if signed into law. The bill would also ban abortions based on the gender of the fetus, which would make North Dakota the fourth state to ban sex-selection based abortions.

The bills, which passed the state House of Representatives last month, now head to Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple, who has not indicated whether he would sign them into law. He is expected to receive the bills on Monday.

The "heartbeat" bill provides exceptions if an abortion would prevent the death or irreversible impairment of a pregnant woman but no exceptions for rape. It sets up a direct challenge to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in 1973.

Several states ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Arkansas lawmakers earlier in March approved a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy that could take effect in August if it survives expected legal challenges.

Republican state Senator Spencer Berry, a bill sponsor, said 40 years of medical advancements should not be ignored.

"The images and heartbeat from the womb provide strong and overwhelming evidence of - at the very least - potential life," Berry said. "And we have been instructed by the Supreme Court to protect that very potential."

At six weeks, the ban would take effect before many women would know they were pregnant, said the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents North Dakota's only clinic that provides abortions, the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo.

"The passage of this law is nothing short of a frontal assault on the U.S. Constitution, 40 years of Supreme Court precedent, and the health and fundamental rights of women," said Nancy Northup, the center's president and CEO.

The center and Planned Parenthood urged Dalrymple to veto both bills. More than half of the patients at a Planned Parenthood clinic across the border from Fargo in Moorhead, Minnesota, are North Dakota residents.

"With this vote, politicians in North Dakota have proven their disregard for a woman's personal medical decision-making," Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said in a statement.

North Dakota lawmakers have several other bills still under consideration that would put restrictions on abortion including a proposed amendment to the state constitution that declares that life begins at conception. That would be put before voters in November 2014 if the state House approves the provision.

Statehouses across the nation approved a record 92 restrictions on abortion in 2011 and another 43 in 2012, which was the second-highest figure on record, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

(Reporting by Dave Thompson in Bismarck and David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Leslie Gevirtz and Lisa Shumaker)

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1 of 3. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks at his news conference at the Pentagon in Washington March 15, 2013.

WASHINGTON | Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans on Friday to bolster missile defenses in response to "irresponsible and reckless provocations" by North Korea, which threatened a preventative nuclear strike against the United States last week.

Hagel said the Pentagon would add 14 new anti-missile interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska - an effective reversal of an early Obama administration decision - and move ahead with the deployment of a second missile-defense radar in Japan.

The Pentagon also left open the possibility of creating a site on the East Coast where the Pentagon could field more interceptors capable of striking down an incoming missile. The 14 additional interceptor deployments would cost nearly $1 billion and must be approved by Congress.

"By taking the steps I outlined today we will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression," Hagel told a news conference.

North Korea issued its threat last week to stage a preemptive nuclear attack against the United States as the United Nations readied new sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its February 12 nuclear test.

Experts say North Korea is years away from being able to hit the continental United States with a nuclear weapon, despite having worked for decades to achieve a nuclear capability.

But Hagel said the moves announced by the Pentagon were justified to stay ahead of the threat, underscored by the nuclear test and a December rocket launch that analysts believe was aimed at developing technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Hagel also cited North Korea's display last April of what appeared to be a road-mobile ICBM.

The Pentagon said the United States had informed China, North Korea's neighbor and closest ally, of its decision to add more interceptors but declined to characterize Beijing's reaction.

U.S. SAYS SYSTEMS NOT AIMED AT CHINA OR RUSSIA

Officials say its missile defense systems are not designed to counter the large number of ICBMs in arsenals in China or Russia and are focused instead on the threat from North Korea or, potentially, Iran.

Friday's announcement came with a key caveat - the Pentagon said it would only purchase the extra interceptors if they perform appropriately in tests. The interceptors in question have not hit a target since 2008, a defense official said.

Boeing Co. is the prime contractor of the system. Key Boeing subcontractors include Raytheon Co., which makes the kill vehicle, and Orbital Sciences Corp, which makes the rocket booster.

Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed confidence in the missiles and said he believed the steps taken by the United States would make North Korea's young leader, Kim Jung-un, think twice before acting on bellicose rhetoric.

"We not only intend to put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objective to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs on them if they do," he told reporters.

"And we believe that this young lad ought to be deterred by that. And if he's not, we'll be ready."

The addition of another 14 interceptors amounts to a reversal of an Obama administration decision in 2010 to stop expansion of the missile interceptor system at 30 interceptors. The Bush administration had planned to deploy a total of 44.

The United States currently has 26 interceptors deployed at Fort Greely and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Congressman Mike Turner, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, said the Obama administration had began "to realize the shortcomings of its missile defense strategy."

"Now that the administration has decided to see clearly, America can get back on the right course," Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, lamenting lost time and resources.

In a sign of fiscal pressures facing the Pentagon, U.S. officials acknowledged they were also forgoing development of a new anti-missile interceptor that would have been deployed in Europe. They said European defense would be unaffected.

Officials said the United States would move forward with congressionally mandated environmental impact studies for alternative sites in the United States for deploying additional ground-based interceptors, if needed.

Winnefeld said locations on the East Coast were being considered but declined to offer details.

"We're still looking at sites," he said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and David Brunnstrom)

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1 of 4. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) or Naro, South Korea's space rocket is launched on the launch pad at Naro Space Centre in Goheung, about 485 km (301 miles) south of Seoul January 30, 2013 in this picture taken by Yonhap.

SEOUL | Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:38pm EST

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea launched its first space rocket carrying a science satellite on Wednesday amid heightened regional tensions, caused in part, by North Korea's successful launch of its own rocket last month.

It was South Korea's third attempt to launch a civilian rocket to send a satellite in orbit in the past four years and came after two previous launches were aborted at the eleventh hour last year due to technical glitches.

The launch vehicle, named Naro, lifted off from South Korea's space center on the south coast and successfully went through stage separation before entering orbit, officials at the mission control said. Previous launches failed within minutes.

South Korea's rocket program has angered neighbor North Korea, which says it is unjust for it to be singled out for U.N. sanctions for launching long-range rockets as part of its space program to put a satellite into orbit.

North Korea's test in December showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

However, it is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States.

The test in December was considered a success, at least partially, by demonstrating an ability to put an object in space.

But the satellite, as claimed by the North, is not believed to be functioning.

South Korea is already far behind regional rivals China and Japan in the effort to build space rockets to put satellites into orbit and has relied on other countries, including Russia, to launch them.

Launch attempts in 2009 and 2010 ended in failure.

The first stage booster of the South Korean rocket was built by Russia. South Korea has produced several satellites and has relied on other countries to put them in orbit.

South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and eventually send a probe to the moon.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt poses prior to a meeting at the Culture Ministry in Paris October 29, 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Jan 2, 2013 11:28pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, will travel this year to reclusive North Korea, where Internet use is subject to some of the world's tightest controls, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Schmidt, one of the highest-profile leaders of the U.S. technology industry, could visit as early as this month, the AP said. The announcement was made days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the third member of his family to rule the country since its inception in the Cold War, signaled a willingness to improve relations with South Korea.

It was unclear whom Schmidt will meet or what his agenda might be, the AP reported. Internet access is largely restricted to all but the most influential officials of the reclusive state. Media content is also rigidly controlled, although basic 3G cellphone use is said to be rapidly expanding.

Google did not directly respond to a question about whether Schmidt was going to North Korea, although a spokeswoman's response suggested a visit would not be for company business.

"We do not comment on personal travel," spokeswoman Samantha Smith said when asked about the AP report.

Schmidt, Google's main political and government relations representative, has also been a prominent supporter of President Barack Obama.

Google famously espouses a "do no evil" philosophy and campaigns for Internet freedom. It pulled its search service from mainland China in 2010, relocating it to Hong Kong because it said it could not conform with censorship requirements.

Last year, the company flew in North Korean defectors from Seoul for a panel discussion at a summit it hosted focusing on global illicit networks. It has also hosted North Korean officials in Silicon Valley, according to the Asia Foundation, which co-hosted part of a trip by the North Korean delegation.

"I think this is part of Google's broader vision to bring the Internet to the world, and North Korea is the last frontier," said Peter Beck, the South Korean representative of the Asia Foundation, a non-profit organization. "I suspect that Google's visit is more philanthropic than financial."

Beck said the North Korea delegation had been shown a Google Earth view of their capital Pyongyang.

Schmidt is writing, with former U.S. state department official Jared Cohen, a book due in April called "The New Digital Age." It will address how the Internet and technology can empower people and drive fundamental social, political and economic change.

"Perhaps the most intriguing part of this trip is simply the idea of it. The restricted control of information lies at the heart of the DPRK state and yet it is about to host one of the West's greatest facilitators of borderless information flows," said Victor Cha, a senior adviser and Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

"If Google is the first small step in piercing the information bubble in Pyongyang, it could be a very interesting development," Cha wrote on the center's website on Wednesday.

FIRST-TIMER

Schmidt's visit will make him one of the most prominent American businessmen to visit the country.

The AP cited two people familiar with his plans as saying the ex-Google CEO will join a private group led by former United Nations Ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a frequent visitor to North Korea.

Their visit follows a long-range rocket launch that has triggered a drive for further United Nations sanctions. North Korea is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.

A second aspect of Schmidt's visit as part of Richardon's delegation could be to try to obtain the release of Korean-American tourist Kenneth Bae, accused of crimes against the state. Richardson has helped negotiate the release of detained Americans in the past.

"Richardson has had a history of trying to jump-start dialogue at low points in the U.S.-DPRK nuclear talks. He is a well-known quantity to North Koreans and does have credibility with them," Cha wrote.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan; Additional reporting by David Chance in SEOUL; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Andre Grenon and Ron Popeski; eddie.chan@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 677 2533; Reuters Messaging: eddie.chan.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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KANO, Nigeria | Sat Dec 22, 2012 7:08am EST

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of two mobile phone operators on Saturday in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.

India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN were the targets.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously blown up telephone masts and offices of phone companies, saying they help the security forces catch its members.

"The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded ... at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed," Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters. Both bombs went off.

A military source said one security guard was injured and has been taken to hospital.

MTN and Airtel Nigeria's parent company Bharti Airtel, India's top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.

The national emergency agency confirmed the bombings and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.

At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since Boko Haram launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.

Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city after the southern commercial hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram's deadliest attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.

Armed police have been guarding major churches in Kano this week and additional police checkpoints have been set up around the majority-Muslim city, a Reuters witness said.

Police in Kano said this week that their anti-terrorism squads have been searching houses and buildings they suspect to be hideouts of criminals and "terrorists".

Security experts say they believe Boko Haram is seeking to spark a religious conflict by targeting Christians in a country where ethnic violence has flared up periodically in recent years, in some cases killing hundreds in the space of hours.

A French national was kidnapped in far northern Nigeria, close to the border with Niger, this week by people France's intelligence agency said were "an organised group linked to a terrorist activity".

(Additional reporting by Isaac Abrak in Kaduna, Kaustubh Kulkarni in Mumbai and Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Richard Meares)

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Director Seth MacFarlane's raunchy comedy Ted jumped the $200 million mark at the domestic box office this weekend in addition to scoring stellar numbers in key foreign markets.

From Universal and Media Rights Capital, Ted has now earned $203.4 million in North America and will soon eclipse Wedding Crashers ($209.3 million) to become the No. 4 R-rated comedy of all time behind The Hangover ($277.3 million), The Hangover Part II ($254.8 million) and Beverly Hills Cop ($234.5 million).

Ted -- starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, along with the MacFarlance-voiced teddy bear -- is rolling out slowly overseas. After enjoying big business, the comedy opened in another of other markets over the weekend for an early international total of $77.3 million.

The pic's worldwide gross of $280.7 million lands it on the top ten list of R-rated comedies globally.

The pic's international weekend gross was $32 million from 20 markets, including first-place finishes in the U.K., Germany, Russia, Austria Switzerland and Ukraine. 

Ted grossed $15.3 million from 508 screens in the U.K., the third-best showing ever for a Universal film behind the Bridge Jones sequel and King Kong. Germany turned in $7.4 million, the best debut of the year for a Universal title.

The film will roll out in an additional 38 territories over the next few months.

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COPENHAGEN | Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:12pm EDT

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will dispatch a scientific expedition to the Arctic Ocean at the end of the month to gather data before it submits a formal claim to a vast tract north of Greenland that includes the North Pole.

Such a claim would be made under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), setting up a possible clash of interests with fellow Arctic coastal states Russia and Canada that are making their own claims.

"We need the data that we plan to acquire on this cruise," said Christian Marcussen, the expedition's chief scientist from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. "But ... we are quite confident that we will be able to make a submission."

Denmark admits it is interested in staking a claim to a part of the planet believed to be rich in untapped oil and gas, but rules out a unilateral "land grab" or being drawn into confrontation over competing claims.

"I reject the confrontation scenarios that have been presented in the media and academic circles," Klaus Holm, Denmark's Arctic ambassador, said.

"If there is any area where every party has an interest in cooperating, it is the Arctic. The challenge is so huge and the areas are so vast."

The expedition will sail from Svalbard off northern Norway on July 31 aboard the Swedish icebreaker "Oden" and will gather seismic and depth data to substantiate a future possible claim, for which the deadline for Denmark is November 2014.

DANISH FLAG AT POLE?

Denmark has identified five potential claim areas off the Faroe Islands and Greenland - both parts of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Copenhagen has already submitted claims for areas north and south of the Faroes and for two areas south of Greenland to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) which assesses the scientific validity of such claims.

Any dispute would, however, need to be resolved through negotiations between states, and not by the CLCS.

The other area Denmark has identified - likely to be the most sensitive part of any future claim - is roughly 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 sq miles) extending north from Greenland and including the North Pole.

For that claim to be credible, much depends on whether the expedition is able to gather data to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater formation spanning 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) across the pole, is an extension of Greenland's land mass.

Russian scientists claim that the ridge is an extension of Russia's land mass, but that does not exclude that it could also be an extension of Greenland and Canada, Marcussen said.

Under the U.N. convention, a country can extend its 200- nautical-mile economic zone if it can prove that the continental shelf is a natural extension of its land mass.

Russia caused controversy in 2007 when a mini-submarine took the Russian flag to the seabed at the North Pole, sparking accusations of imperialism.

Marcussen said he didn't rule out stopping at the pole to plant a Danish flag on the ice, as his team did in 2009, if it happened to be on the icebreaker's route.

But he said that was not the goal of the 45-day expedition and that any flag would be removed after such a ceremony.

(Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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