Real torn between Agüero, Neymar, Falcao, Bale or Isco

While José Mourinho ponders his future, Florentino Pérez is busy giving his new project shape, given that elections are looming on the horizon. True to his particular footballing vision, the question of the manager has been put on the back-burner and the focus has shifted to the star players to come. Agüero, Neymar, Falcao, Gareth Bale, Isco...

Pérez wants to dazzle the world with three new signings to put at the disposal of a new coach who matches this blueprint. Florentino has learnt his lesson and won't let himself be swayed as he was by Valdano (Pellegrini) or José Ángel Sánchez (Mourinho). Now it's his turn to go bust …or come up trumps.

Rafa Benítez has been ruled out. Carlo Ancelotti has all the right credentials and is in with a chance: impressive track record with two Champions League titles under his belt, as well as experience with dealing with stars and knows how to cope with pressure and the media. But he had more in his favour three years ago than he does now.

Löw has already made it clear he's staying put as the German national coach, whilst neither Jürgen Klopp, Michael Laudrup, André Villas-Boas nor Laurent Blanc have anything to top Mourinho. Although that isn't to say they aren't capable of getting Real Madrid to play better football. Giving the club's image, a face-lift is also high on the agenda.

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Kick-off times are not confirmed until a fortnight or so before the matches take place, when the details are published on this page. However, these are liable to change at short notice and we strongly recommend you check with the club if you are hoping to attend a game.

This season first division kick-off times have been spaced out so that as a general rule no two matches coincide. This means that, as from week 13, there will normally be one match on Friday night and one on Monday, with four games spaced out between 4.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m. on Saturday, and four more on Sunday between mid-day and 9.00 p.m. Only one match will be shown on an open TV programme, with the specialised sports channel Marca usually broadcasting a fixture between two of the lesser ranked teams. All the rest will be shown on Pay Per View channels. Second division matches are mainly shown on Saturday afternoon, but can take place any time between Friday and Monday, especially if they are being televised.

First division - day 25

Fri 22 Feb	21:30	Athletic Bilbao v Real Sociedad
Sat 23 Feb	16:00	Mallorca v Getafe
	18:00	Zaragoza v Valencia
	20:00	Deportivo v Real Madrid
	22:00	Barcelona v Sevilla
Sun 24 Feb	12:00	Rayo Vallecano v Valladolid
	17:00	Celta v Granada
	19:00	Atlético Madrid v Espanyol
	21:00	Betis v Málaga
Mon 25 Feb	21:00	Levante v Osasuna

First division - day 26

Fri 1 Mar	21:30	Getafe v Zaragoza
Sat 2 Mar	16:00	Real Madrid v Barcelona
	18:00	Deportivo v Rayo Vallecano
	20:00	Osasuna v Athletic Bilbao
	22:00	Valencia v Levante
Sun 3 Mar	12:00	Granada v Mallorca
	17:00	Espanyol v Valladolid
	19:00	Málaga v Atlético Madrid
	21:00	Real Sociedad v Betis
Mon 4 Mar	21:30	Sevilla v Celta

First division - day 27

Fri 8 Mar	21:30	Betis v Osasuna
Sat 9 Mar	16:00	Rayo Vallecano v Espanyol
	18:00	Valladolid v Málaga
	20:00	Barcelona v Deportivo
	22:00	Mallorca v Sevilla
Sun 10 Mar	12:00	Athletic Bilbao v Valencia
	17:00	Levante v Getafe
	19:00	Celta v Real Madrid
	21:00	Atlético Madrid v Real Sociedad
Mon 11 Mar	20:30	Zaragoza v Granada

Second division A - day 27

Sat 23 Feb	18:00	Alcorcón v Sporting Gijón Lugo v Recreativo
	20:00	Barcelona B v Hércules
	21:00	Racing Santander v Mirandés
Sun 24 Feb	12:00	Real Madrid Castilla v Guadalajara
	17:00	Almería v Ponferradina Girona v Córdoba Murcia v Numancia
	19:00	Elche v Huesca
	20:00	Villarreal v Las Palmas
	21:00	Xerez v Sabadell

Second division A - day 28

Sat 2 Mar	19:00 (local time)	Las Palmas v Barcelona B
	20:00	Hércules v Almería
	21:00	Recreativo v Elche
Sun 3 Mar	12:00	Huesca v Alcorcón
	17:00	Guadalajara v Sabadell Mirandés v Lugo Murcia v Xerez Numancia v Racing Santander Ponferradina v Real Madrid Castilla
	20:00	Sporting Gijón v Girona
	21:00	Córdoba v Villarreal

Second division A - day 29

Sat 9 Mar	18:00	Barcelona B v Córdoba Elche v Mirandés Lugo v Numancia
	20:00	Almería v Las Palmas Sabadell v Ponferradina
	21:00	Xerez v Guadalajara
Sun 10 Mar	12:00	Villarreal v Sporting Gijón
	17:00	Girona v Huesca Racing Santander v Murcia
	21:00	Alcorcón v Recreativo
Mon 12 Mar	21:00	Real Madrid Castilla v Hércules

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10 hurt in clashes between Yemen gov't and separatists

ADEN - Ten people were wounded, one critically, in clashes between Yemeni security forces and southern separatists in Aden on Saturday, medical sources said, days after six were shot dead during protests.

The separatists want political autonomy or a new state in south Yemen. It is one of three insurgencies in the strategically vital Arabian Peninsula state where Washington fears political chaos is giving al Qaeda space to operate.

North and south Yemen were unified in 1990 after the Communist-led southern government collapsed. Northern forces won a brief civil war four years later after the south tried to secede from the union.

The secessionist movement gained strength during mass, nationwide street protests against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, which forced the veteran strongman from office a year ago.

On Thursday, security forces shot at dozens of secessionists in Aden as they staged a rally against Saleh's successor, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a northerner. There were also armed clashes in another southern town, al-Dalea.

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Mali: Government must stop bombing civilians

The Malian government must end bomb attacks against the civilian population in the north of the country, Amnesty International said today after a four year old girl was killed amid shelling. 

Fata Walette Ahmedou was injured yesterday afternoon after an army helicopter shelled the Kel Essouck camp near the northern town of Kidal, some 1,600 km north-east of the capital Bamako. She died of her injuries on Thursday morning. 

At least 12 other people were wounded in the attack, including Khawlata Walette Alladi who suffered severe pelvic wounds and had to have her leg amputated. Another woman who had recently given birth suffered head injuries. 

“It’s the civilian population who is bearing the brunt of this indiscriminate bombing. In addition to human casualties, the attacks have killed dozens of cattle, camels and goats which the Nomad Tuareg population rely on,” said Gaëtan Mootoo, Amnesty International’s researcher on West Africa. 

“These bombings violate international humanitarian law and the government must stop them immediately.” 

The Kidal area has been bombed by Malian army helicopters since 11 February. 
      
One witness told Amnesty International that 15 shelling cartridges with propellers were found after the latest attack. . 

The Azawad National Liberation Movement (Mouvement national de liberation de l’Azawad, (MNLA), a Tuareg armed opposition group, launched a military uprising in the north of the country last month. 

Since then dozens of people have been killed and thousands displaced by fighting between the MNLA and Mali’s military. Thousands of people have fled across the border into neighbouring Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. 

On 18 February 2012 the MNLA reportedly killed a traditional leader Moussa Balobo Maïga in Hombori, some 900 km north-east of Bamako. The MNLA denied being responsible of this killing and accused the Malian gendarmerie (paramilitary police). 

Amnesty International is also concerned about reports that on February 17 two Tuareg Red Cross staff were briefly detained and ill-treated by the military outside Kidal. 

“The Malian army and the MNLA must do their utmost to protect anyone not taking an active part in hostilities as stated in the Geneva Conventions,” said Gaëtan Mootoo. 

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Lafite Leads $1.5 Million Auction on Bordeaux Demand

A $1.5 million wine auction in London this week found buyers for 97 percent of its lots, signaling strengthening demand for investment-grade Bordeaux.

Older vintages of Bordeaux dominated at Christie’s International on Feb. 21. A top price of 34,500 pounds ($52,622) was paid by a French wine trader for a 12-bottle case of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1982. The price, slightly in excess of the upper estimate of 30,000 pounds, was marginally more than the 32,200 pounds paid for a case of Lafite ’82 at Sotheby’s (BID) in London last January.

Enlarge image

Bottles of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild from the 1982 vintage. Three cases were auctioned by Christie's International in a sale of fine wines in London on Feb. 21. Source: Christie's Images Ltd. 2013 via Bloomberg.

The market for trophy clarets has rallied after buying from China declined in early-to-mid 2012. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index, which tracks trading in the 10 most recent vintages of Bordeaux’s five first-growths, climbed to 316.32 on Feb. 22 after slumping to a two-and-a-half-year low of 296.77 in November.

“Demand is returning from China and there’s a shortage of stock among merchants,” Miles Davis, partner at Wine Asset Managers LLP, said in an interview. “The weakness of the pound against the euro encourages people to buy at London auctions.”

Christie’s sale of 408 lots raised 960,569 pounds with fees, beating an upper estimate of 904,110 pounds, based on hammer prices.

A Hong Kong private buyer paid 25,300 pounds for a case of Chateau Petrus 1989, and another case of Lafite ’82 -- with variable bottle levels -- raised 23,000 pounds, also to Hong Kong. Both prices were slightly more than their high estimates.

Vintage Magnums

Chateau Lafite remains Asia’s favorite Bordeaux label, and five magnums of the highly rated 1947 vintage soared to 20,700 pounds against a price guide of 3,000 pounds to 4,000 pounds.

The one high-value disappointment was a presentation case of six bottles of Moet & Chandon’s historic 1911 champagne, featured on the catalog front cover.

Ambitiously estimated at 30,000 pounds to 40,000 pounds, these failed to sell.

Christie’s total was 10.1 percent higher than the equivalent auction last year, when 293 lots were offered.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art and wine markets for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

Muse highlights include Mark Beech on books, Richard Vines on food and Lewis Lapham on history.

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Microsoft Joins Apple, Facebook as Target of Cyberattack

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the largest software maker, said a small number of its computers were infected by malicious software in a cyberattack similar to those experienced by Facebook Inc. (FB) and Apple Inc. (AAPL)

There’s no evidence that customers were affected, Microsoft said in a blog post yesterday. Some of the techniques were similar to those documented by others, and the investigation is ongoing, Microsoft said.

The incident follows recent attacks that hit more than 40 companies, including microblogging service Twitter Inc., and were linked to an Eastern European hacker gang trying to steal company secrets, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 20, citing two people familiar with the matter.

“This type of cyberattack is no surprise to Microsoft and other companies that must grapple with determined and persistent adversaries,” the company said in the blog post.

In the Apple breach, some the company’s internal Mac computers were infected by malware spread through an iPhone- developer website, according to the people familiar with law enforcement’s investigations. Apple said it had no evidence that any data was stolen.

Facebook, operator of the largest social network with more than 1 billion members, said Feb. 16 that some of its employees’ laptops were infected after visiting a mobile developer’s site. Twitter, the microblogging site with more than 200 million active users, said Feb. 2 that hackers may have accessed information on 250,000 users.

Security professionals call the recent incidents “waterhole attacks,” since the hackers were targeting a desirable class of victims -- in this case, software developers congregating at a communal gathering place, like a waterhole in the desert -- rather than specific companies.

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S&P 500 Caps First Weekly Drop in 2013 on Stimulus Debate

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index capped its first weekly decline of the year, after reaching the highest level since October 2007, amid increasing concern the Federal Reserve will curtail its stimulus program.

Equities rebounded on the last day of the week as German business confidence rose more than estimated. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and U.S. Steel Corp. sank at least 7.3 percent to pace declines in raw-material companies. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. tumbled 8 percent as it forecast a first-quarter loss. Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), the largest personal-computer maker, surged 14 percent after forecasting profit that beat estimates.

The S&P 500 slid 0.3 percent for the holiday-shortened week to 1,515.60. The index snapped aseven-week advance, the longest stretch since January 2011. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 18.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 14,000.57.

“When things seem to go in straight lines, it makes me wonder how long the good times can keep rolling,” said Brian Jacobsen, who helps oversee about $217 billion as chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Advantage (EAD) Funds, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “The Fed didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, but sometimes it doesn’t take a lot to push prices around.”

Equities fell as several policy makers said the central bank should be ready to vary the pace of their $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, according to minutes of the Fed’s latest meeting. Concern about the debate over the risks and benefits of further quantitative easing helped give the S&P 500 its biggest two-day decline since November during the week.

Spending Cuts

Next week’s March 1 deadline to avoid automatic U.S. spending cuts may get investors’ attention. It marks another fiscal showdown between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans. If Congress doesn’t act, federal spending will be reduced by $85 billion in the final seven months of this fiscal year and by $1.2 trillion over the next nine years.

The S&P 500 has gained 6.3 percent this year as U.S. lawmakers agreed on a compromise on taxes in January and amid better-than-estimated corporate earnings. About 73 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have released quarterly results beat profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The index trades at 14.97 times reported earnings, below the average since 1954 (SPX) of 16.4.

“The support for the market remains,” John Carey, fund manager with Boston-based Pioneer Investment Management, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $200 billion. “There’s been a fairly good stream of earnings. There’s certainly nothing to scare anyone.”

Biggest Losses

Measures of commodity and consumer discretionary companies had the biggest losses in the S&P 500 among 10 industries in the week, slumping at least 1.4 percent. The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to economic growth retreated 1.7 percent, the most since November.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, surged 14 percent to 14.17. The gauge, which had the biggest weekly advance this year, rose after sliding to the lowest level since April 2007 on Feb. 19.

Abercrombie (ANF) tumbled 8 percent, the most since August, to $46.86. The retailer said it anticipates a “slight” loss in earnings per share in the first quarter, citing a tough economy and difficulty tied to cold-weather inventory.

‘Very Concerned’

The company is “very concerned around the macroeconomic situation coming into the first quarter,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Jeffries said. Abercrombie will “see a resumption of healthier sales” in the second quarter, he said.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) declined 2 percent to $450.81. Foxconn Technology Group, the maker of products including the iPhone, froze hiring across China, fueling concern that the move reflects diminished demand for consumer electronics. Bruce Liu, a spokesman for Taipei-based Foxconn, said the company halted recruitment until the end of March after more workers returned from the Lunar New Year break than a year earlier.

Apple has retreated 36 percent from a record high in September, compared with a 3.7 percent gain for the S&P 500.

A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes slumped 6 percent, the biggest decline since September. Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, tumbled 6.7 percent to $34.59 after reporting fiscal first-quarter earnings that trailed analyst estimates and projecting narrower margins.

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) sank 11 percent to $35. The biggest maker of navigation devices forecast 2013 sales and profit that missed estimates as consumers switch to smartphones for maps and directions.

Missing Estimates

VeriFone Systems Inc. plunged 42 percent, the most since November 2008, to $18.92. The maker of credit-card terminals forecast second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates amid weak economic conditions in Europe.

Hewlett-Packard added 14 percent, the most since March 2009, to $19.20. The company is using job cuts to bolster profit as demand for printers and personal computers slumps and companies curtail purchases of higher-margin hardware and software. Chief Executive OfficerMeg Whitman said she feels “pretty good” about fiscal 2013 and reaffirmed a prediction that the company will resume growth next year, evidence of progress on a five-year turnaround plan even as competitive pressures linger.

Google Inc. (GOOG) rose 0.9 percent to $799.71. The operator of the world’s largest Web-search engine surpassed $800 for the first time as mobile computing bolsters growth.

More Advertisers

The company is benefiting as more advertisers place promotions on its website, buoyed by the growing number of users who access the service on smartphones and tablets. Google grabbed 67 percent of the search market in the U.S. in January, while rivals Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. had less than 30 percent combined, according to ComScore Inc.

“This is just such a great business, and they so clearly dominate it,” said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Wedge Partners in Greenwood Village, Colorado. “Google has got this knight-in-shining-armor that nobody can kind of penetrate.”

Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) rose 1.8 percent to $34.18. The largest maker of analog chips increased its quarterly dividend by 33 percent and said it added $5 billion to its stock repurchase program.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) gained 1.6 percent to $70.40. Fourth- quarter profit topped analysts’ estimates and the company raised its dividend, overshadowing concerns that tax increases would hurt earnings this year.

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Sharp-Foxconn Share Sale Talks Said to End March 26 Without Deal

Sharp Corp. (6753)’s talks with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group over an investment in the Japanese electronics maker will probably end March 26 without an agreement, two people familiar with the discussions said.

Negotiations haven’t led to a deal in part because the companies can’t agree on a price after Sharp’s shares declined, said one of the people, both of whom asked not to be named because the talks are private. Stumbling blocks also include management control and company strategy, one person said. Sharp said in November talks might continue beyond March.

Sharp, Japan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, is trying to raise funds as it forecasts a record full-year loss of 450 billion yen ($4.8 billion) amid slow demand for its panels and TVs. Foxconn, founded by billionaire Terry Gou, initially agreed in March to buy a 9.9 percent stake in Osaka-based Sharp for 550 yen a share. The deal foundered as Sharp’s shares plunged for seven straight months, reaching as low as 143 yen, and as Foxconn said it would renegotiate the price.

The Mainichi newspaper earlier reported Sharp may suspend the share-sale talks, without saying where it got the information. The Sankei newspaper said the electronics maker is considering measures including a public share sale to raise capital by about 200 billion yen, without citing anyone.

Miyuki Nakayama, a Tokyo-based Sharp spokeswoman, said the company wasn’t the source of either report and that no decisions have been made on ending negotiations with Foxconn or on selling shares.

Factory Sales

“Discussions are ongoing,” Louis Woo, a spokesman for Taipei-based Foxconn, said today by phone. “We are not bound by any timetable.”

Hon Hai’s Chief Financial Officer Huang Chiu-lian said in June that the company’s plans to take a stake in Sharp faced resistance from management and board members of the Japanese company. Sharp’s managers “fear the company becoming a part of Hon Hai,” Huang said at the time.

Discussions over other types of cooperation and the possible sales of Sharp factories to the Taiwanese company may continue, the two people familiar with the talks said. Sharp sold a stake in an LCD factory in Sakai, central Japan, to Foxconn’s Gou in July.

Sharp is in talks with other companies on possible share sales and aims to include a deal in its medium-term business plan, which may be disclosed as early as next month, one of the people said.

Qualcomm Investment

The maker of Aquos TVs agreed in December to sell as much as 9.9 billion yen of new shares to San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) The U.S. chipmaker has so far bought 4.9 billion yen as part of the two-step transaction.

Sharp shares plunged 55 percent to 303 yen in Tokyo last year amid widening loss forecasts. The company has reduced its workforce, sold assets and mortgaged its headquarters to refinance debt after posting a record 376 billion-yen net loss in the fiscal year ended March 31. The shares have gained 2.3 percent this year.

The Japanese TV maker said last year there was “material doubt” about its ability to survive after it hemorrhaged 103 billion yen in cash from operations in the six months ended September. Sharp has 200 billion yen of convertible bonds maturing this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its debt was cut to junk by Fitch Rating and Standard & Poor’s last year.

Debt Collateral

Sharp’s main banks, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., are set to extend the due date of 360 billion yen of loans from June 30 on the condition the TV maker posts an operating profit in the six months to March 31 and forecasts a net profit next fiscal year, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said last month.

Sharp pledged as collateral a total of 741 billion yen in assets as of Sept. 30, up from 19 billion yen six months earlier, according to its quarterly report. Assets under collateral included 259 billion yen of properties, 201 billion yen of inventory and 44 billion yen of machine equipment, according to the report.

The company said Feb. 1 it narrowed its third-quarter net loss, helped by job cuts, asset sales and a weaker yen. The loss was 36.7 billion yen in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 174 billion yen a year earlier, it said. Sharp posted an operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, of 2.6 billion yen for the period.

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Giant goldfish invade Lake Tahoe

CALIFORNIA - Giant goldfish have mysteriously found their way into the famously crystalline waters of Lake Tahoe, the nation’s second-deepest lake, alarming researchers and raising questions about the invasive species’ long-term effects.

Goldfish weighing as much as 1.8kg and measuring up to 30-45cm in length have recently been caught in Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border, and scientists say the influx threatens native species while posing a potential waste pollution problem.

“These fish are competing with the native fish, and that’s a big part of the problem,” said Ms Heather Segale, spokeswoman for the Tahoe Environmental Research Centre at the University of California at Davis.

A group of researchers from Davis, the University of Nevada at Reno, and the fish and wildlife departments of both California and Nevada were the first to study the presence of goldfish in Lake Tahoe, beginning an annual survey in 2006.

In 2011, the group began a project to reduce the number of goldfish and other non-native fish from the lake through “electrofishing”, dangling metal wires from the bottom of a boat to stun fish with electrical current, then capturing the fish as they float to the surface.

Researchers then sort the fish, releasing native species and sport fish such as trout, and removing the rest.

The project has rid the lake of 50 to 60 goldfish a year since 2011, but their foraging abilities and potential to multiply means removal efforts must continue to keep populations under control, said Ms Christine Ngai of the University of Nevada.

The influx at Tahoe, at the base of a world-class ski area in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range, is believed to have originated from specimens dumped from a fish bowl by pet owners who no longer wanted them.

Some used as bait may also have escaped into the lake over time, Ms Ngai said. Goldfish, members of the carp family, are known to grow in size when they inhabit larger environments.

While their precise numbers are difficult to track, the proliferation of large goldfish in the wild is not unique to Tahoe. Mr James Schardt, an invasive species expert for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, said he has received reports of giant goldfish in lakes from around the country, mostly from the Great Lakes.

“Goldfish are very good at getting what they need,” Ms Ngai said. “They can potentially compete with native fish for food, vegetation and bugs.”

“Because they eat a lot, they also excrete a lot. They can transfer that into the water and encourage algae growth,” she added, saying that could create murky water.

With a maximum depth of 1,645 feet and an average depth of 1,000 feet, the 22-mile-wide lake is the nation’s deepest after Crater Lake in Oregon and the 10th deepest on Earth.

It is also one of the clearest in the world, with visibility recently measured to a depth of 70 feet, reduced from 100 feet when clarity readings were first taken in the 1960s, according to the US Geological Survey. REUTERS

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North Korea warns US forces of ‘destruction’ ahead of war drills

In this April 8, 2012 file photo, a North Korean soldier stands in front of the country's Unha-3 rocket at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. AP

EOUL - North Korea today warned the top United States military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would “meet a miserable destruction” if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.

Pak Rim Su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen James Thurman, the commander of the US Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.

It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North’s third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of United Nations resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.

A direct message from the North’s Panmunjom mission to the US commander is rare.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The US-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops.

The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 US forces are expected to be mobilized for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1.

“If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises ... at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour,” Mr Pak was quoted as saying.

“You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction.”

Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the US and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea threatened South Korea with “final destruction” during a debate at the UN Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday. REUTERS

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104-year-old woman forced to lie about age on Facebook

MICHIGAN - Facebook is apologising for a problem that makes a 104-year-old Michigan woman lie about her age on the social media website.

Ms Marguerite Joseph’s granddaughter says Facebook will not let Ms Joseph list her real age.

Ms Gail Marlow says when she tries inputting her grandmother’s birth year as 1908, Facebook changes it to 1928. So for the past two years, the Grosse Pointe Shores centenarian has remained 99 - online, anyway.

Ms Joseph is legally blind and cannot hear well, but Ms Marlow reads and responds to all her Facebook messages.

Ms Marlow tells WDIV-TV she’d “love to see” Ms Joseph’s real age posted and chalks it up to “a glitch in the system”.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it is working to fix a problem limiting used of pre-1910 birthdates. AP

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Robin Roberts returns to 'Good Morning America'

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Obama’s backup immigration reform bill: 13-year max for citizenship

President Barack Obama talks about immigration reform at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas on Jan 29.

Illegal immigrants would face a maximum of a 13-year wait to become citizens if the Obama administration's version of immigration reform passed, according to a leaked draft of the bill obtained by the Miami Herald.

The unfinished bill, first published by USA Today over the weekend, was drafted as a backup plan in case Congress fails to vote on legislation, according to White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Sunday. Under the plan, undocumented immigrants would have to pay a fine, enroll in a Department of Education-approved English and U.S. civics course (or prove their English skills are already up to par) and pass a background check to gain temporary legal immigration status.

Once approved, immigrants would have to wait either eight years or until current legal immigration backlogs are cleared (whichever comes first) before gaining permanent legal status, commonly referred to as a green card. Once immigrants gain green cards, they must wait five years before applying for citizenship.

Under the 1986 immigration reform law that eventually legalized 2.7 million immigrants, the waiting period before being allowed to apply for a green card was just 18 months.

Sen. Marco Rubio, one of four Republicans in the Senate's bipartisan working group on immigration, said in a statement that Obama's bill is “dead on arrival” in part because it does not contain the same border security provisions the working group wants. Under the senators' still-evolving plan, undocumented immigrants could not get permanent legal status before the border is declared secure by a panel of experts and politicians. Immigrant rights groups have argued this border security trigger could mean decades-long waits for citizenship for the country's illegal immigrants.

Groups that oppose immigration reform say the senators' plan does not differ all that much from the president's, because both agree that most of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should have an eventual path to citizenship.

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