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The warheads were built using plutonium extracted from North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear plant, Kyodo reported, citing Daniel Pinkston, who said he got the information from a government official without divulging which country.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have obtained evidence of the warheads, Pinkston told Kyodo.

It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way towards answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can — if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warrantee will be safe.

The three men, aged 25, 19 and 16, and two women, both aged 20, all live in Plymouth and the surrounding area. They are political activists unaffiliated to any terrorist organisation, and were arrested at addresses in Plymouth. They are being held under terrorism legislation. The explosive devices were made from fireworks, police said.

A police source told the Guardian that initial inquiries indicate the five were “not planning a Guy Fawkes plot.

“I think it was more designed to disrupt than injure or kill,” the source said, adding that reports that the individuals were Greek nationals were false. It is understood that the “suspicious devices” found suggest a small-scale stunt.

Scotland Yard has issued a series of warnings in recent days that protesters are planning to bring the capital to a standstill this week in potentially violent protests scheduled to coincide with the arrival of world leaders for the summit, in east London. So far, however, protests associated with the summit have been peaceful.

At a press conference at Crownhill police station in Plymouth, Paul Netherton, assistant chief constable of Devon and Cornwall, said the investigation was sparked when the 25-year-old man was arrested for spraypainting on a wall in Plymouth city centre. He would not comment on the nature of the graffiti.

Police searched the man’s flat in Plymouth, and found imitation firearms, improvised explosives made of fireworks, and material related to political ideology.

Netherton confirmed that one of the arrested people was an international student but would not comment on where that suspect studied. The remaining four are all British nationals.

Asked about the potential scale of damage that could be caused by the weapons and devices discovered, Netherton said: “These are imitation firearms, the other devices were made of simple fireworks – they’re probably not lethal. But I can’t comment. Fireworks do have an explosive component to them but of a minor nature.”

Devon and Cornwall police said the five, who were arrested between Friday and Sunday, were being held for offences under the Terrorism Act.

A police statement said: “As the search progressed officers found a number of weapons and suspected imitation weapons as well as material relating to political ideology. Also found were suspicious devices that were seized and submitted for forensic examination.”

After investigations on Sunday, a 19-year-old man was arrested. Other addresses were searched during the weekend in the Plymouth area and further searches are being considered. Police said they would be applying for warrants of further detention this afternoon.

Police stressed that inquiries indicated there was no religious agenda to the investigation, and that those involved were political activists. They are not believed to be part of a national or larger operation.

Assistant chief constable Sharon Taylor said: “I would reassure local people and residents of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly that they are not at any risk, and these arrests would appear to be isolated at this time. Those arrested people will remain in custody while further inquiries take place.”

The White House pushed out GM’s chairman and directed Chrysler to move quickly to forge a partnership with Fiat if it expects to receive additional government assistance. GM and Chrysler employ thousands in Ohio, the No. 2 state for vehicle production.

President Barack Obama and his top advisers have determined that neither company is viable and that taxpayers will not spend untold billions more to keep the pair of automakers open forever.

In a last-ditch effort, the administration gave each company a brief deadline to try one last time to convince Washington it is worth saving, said senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to more bluntly discuss the decision.

Obama was set to make the announcement at 11 a.m. Monday in the White House’s foyer.

In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” broadcast Sunday, Obama said the companies must do more to receive additional financial aid from the government.

“We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry. But it’s got to be one that’s realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge — at the other end — much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is,” Obama said.

Frustrated administration officials said Chrysler cannot function as an independent company under its current plan. They have given Chrysler a 30-day window to complete a proposed partnership with Italian automaker Fiat SpA, and will offer up to $6 billion to the companies if they can negotiate a deal before time runs out.

If a Chrysler-Fiat union cannot be completed, Washington plans to walk away, leaving Chrysler destined for a complete sell-off. No other money is available.

Shawn Morgan, a Chrysler spokeswoman, said the company wants to work with the Treasury Department and Obama’s auto task force but declined to comment on the White House’s plans.

“With the administration’s announcement on the restructuring of the automotive industry imminent, it would be inappropriate to comment on speculation,” Morgan said in a statement early Monday.

For GM, the administration offered 60 days of operating money to restructure. A frantic top-to-bottom effort began Sunday after chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner stepped aside under pressure from the White House.

Failures at four high-voltage power cables virtually paralyzed Australia’s biggest city, with the Sydney Harbor tunnel partially closed to traffic and the Sydney Opera House forced to cancel all performances for the evening, local media said.

Office towers lost all power, paralyzing some elevators, at around 4:45 pm local time (0545 GMT). Up to 70,000 homes and businesses, including some inner suburbs, were blacked out, said state broadcaster ABC, which was running on back-up power.

The main stock exchange had closed by the time of the blackout.

EnergyAustralia, which distributes power to Sydney city, said it could take several hours to restore power.

“There are four power cables that supply very large (electricity) sub-stations,” an EnergyAustralia spokesman told local radio. “They have detected a problem and have automatically shut down for safety reasons.”

“No more freedom,” read the front page of the Daily News, declaring in an editorial that the site’s owner, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, was “erasing history.”

“Freedom is out of fashion at Ground Zero,” rival tabloid the New York Post said.

The Port Authority announced that the planned 1,776-foot building, now barely above its foundations, will instead be known by the same name as one of the twin towers destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: One World Trade Center.

Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia made the announcement Thursday, saying: “As we market the building we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way…. One World Trade Center is its address, it’s the one that we are using.”

The spat coincided with the signing on Thursday of the building’s first commercial tenant — a 21-year deal with China’s Vantone Industrial Company.

What can a cattle farmer do when he sees blood running from his calves like water, when they become lethargic and febrile and, by the next morning, are lying dead on the floor, their coats covered in blood?

“Our calves from last summer looked like they had been beaten,” says farmer Robert Meyboom, who is still shocked and perplexed today. “The animals’ bodies were covered with drops of blood, and their eyes were bloodshot.”

The veterinarian tried everything, he says, including administering vitamins and blood-clotting agents. But nothing worked, and “within two or three days, they were all dead.”

Meyboom, a farmer from Wesel in the Lower Rhine region of western Germany, has lost seven animals since the first calf bled to death in his barn in October 2007. The last calf died an agonizing death only a few weeks ago. Farmers refer to the victims as “blood sweaters,” alluding to the way blood seems to seep from the pores in some of the calves.

A mysterious disease is rampant in Germany’s cattle barns. The afflicted two-to-three-week-old calves begin bleeding massively and are often dead within hours. More than 100 cases have been documented throughout Germany, most of them in Bavaria, but the number of unreported deaths is believed to be much higher. Cases have also been reported in Belgium, but experts are still puzzled over what causes the condition.

“This disease is still very mysterious, and clarification is urgently needed,” says Wolfgang Klee of the Clinic for Ruminants at the University of Munich in Oberschlessheim on the city’s outskirts. Ottmar Distl of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover describes the bleeding calf phenomenon as “terrifying.” “We rarely see diseases that are fatal in so many affected animals,” he adds.

Veterinarians have been studying the unexplained deaths for the past two years, and the results of their efforts began to emerge last year. “Affected animals bleed from various parts of the body, sometimes from skin that is seemingly intact,” says Klee. He has observed bleeding in the mucous membranes, blood accumulating under the white part of the eye, and blood oozing from the tiniest of cuts. The animals develop a fever and soon die.

The experts have discovered massive bleeding of the subcutaneous tissue and intestines. The bone marrow is also severely damaged, and veterinarians describe its consistency as “gel-like.” Blood cells are formed in the bone marrow, and the sick animals apparently lack platelets, which are indispensible for coagulation. In addition, the calves’ white blood cell counts are substantially lower than normal, making the animals more susceptible to infection.

The unexplained illness has farmers deeply worried. Hildegard and Josef Kirmeier, from the Bavarian town of Wurmsham, have already lost five calves. “Perhaps the soy we add to the feed is genetically modified,” Kirmeier speculates. Or could a vaccination be causing the problem?

The theories, some of them outlandish, run rampant on Internet sites catering to farmers, such as a chat room for women farmers called “Bäuerinnentreff.” The farmers have discussed everything from poisonous ferns to “decades of abusive inbreeding,” solar panels and the “radiation from radio towers” as possible causes of the illness.

Many farmers blame the “blood sweating” on a controversial vaccine against bluetongue disease, which became mandatory for cattle in Germany in April of last year.

Since then, farmers who refuse to vaccinate their animals are threatened with fines. One of them is Gertraud Schützeneder, who operates an organic farm with her husband Konrad in the Bavarian town of Simbach am Inn. “We do not want to subject our animals to the vaccination,” says the determined farmer. Schützeneder is convinced that the mysterious blood-sweating condition is “somehow indirectly related to the vaccination.”

At a “farmers’ pilgrimage” two weekends ago, the Schützeneders and 600 other farmers even prayed to the Black Madonna of Altötting to have mercy on their bleeding calves. The words “Holy Mary, help us in our hour of need,” resounded across the church square. In their invitation to the event, the organizers wrote: “Because there is apparently no help to be expected from any worldly source, we intend, in making this pilgrimage, to beg for protection and help from the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Bavaria.”

Veterinarians, on the other hand, are frantically trying to find a scientific explanation. The vaccination against bluetongue disease is not responsible for the blood sweaters, says expert Distl, who notes: “calves of mothers that were not vaccinated have also contracted the illness.” The scientists also believe that genetic defects are unlikely as a cause, because the problem has affected calves from three different breeds. They have also ruled out a viral or bacterial infection, because the animals are not infecting each other. Pesticides or genetically modified feed are not the cause, says Distl, explaining that “the distribution of cases simply does not bear this out.”

But other observations are striking. For example, there have been strange clusters of “up to more than 40” sick calves at individual farms, says Klee. Besides, all animals Klee has examined came from farms that vaccinate against Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD). The ailment can cause symptoms similar to those of the mysterious blood sweating, but calves are not even immunized against BVD.

“So far, we have a few pieces of the puzzle, but not enough to put together a cohesive picture,” says Klee. The scientists now plan to pursue one lead more intensively. In their first few hours of life, calves drink their first mother’s milk, known as breastings. Scientists believe that this initial breast milk, which is so important for the young animals, could contain antibodies that attack and destroy the bone marrow. “The symptoms always occur after the calves have received their first breastings,” says Distl.

There is still no proof to this hypothesis, and scientists continue to search for the possible causes. Beginning in April, the Bavarian State Office of Health and Food Safety will systematically test milk and blood. Veterinarian Klee plans to survey fellow veterinarians throughout Germany to learn about their experiences. A meeting at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Berlin is scheduled for the end of the month. “The government must make the problem a high priority,” says Distl.

Until then, farmers will likely have no other choice but to hope for help from above. The most devout in their midst place consecrated bunches of herbs in their homes, barns and gardens. An alternative practitioner for animals recently announced that he had healed a calf with a homeopathic remedy derived from snake venom. But Klee dismisses the claim, saying that an analysis of a blood sample from the animal revealed that it was not a blood sweater, after all.

Veterinarians have at least seen some success, and a few calves have survived the grim bloodletting after being given blood transfusions. The vets have also started treating concomitant disorders, like pneumonia and diarrhea.

And then there are the less orthodox methods. Distl has three animals in his barn that recently almost bled to death. His treatment approach is not exactly the stuff of intensive care medicine.

The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others, was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable” that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants.

The move represents a step toward ascertaining the legal accountability of top Bush administration officials for allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. But some American experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance could be more symbolic than practical, and that it was a near certainty that the warrants would not lead to arrests if the officials did not leave the United States.

Life for Warwick’s robot began when his team at the University of Reading spread rat neurons onto an array of electrodes. After about 20 minutes, the neurons began to form connections with one another. “It’s an innate response of the neurons,” says Warwick, “they try to link up and start communicating.”

For the next week the team fed the developing brain a liquid containing nutrients and minerals. And once the neurons established a network sufficiently capable of responding to electrical inputs from the electrode array, they connected the newly formed brain to a simple robot body consisting of two wheels and a sonar sensor.

A relay of signals between the sensor, motors, and brain dictate the robot’s behavior. When it approaches an object, the number of electrical pulses sent from the sonar device to the brain increases. This heightened electrical stimulation causes certain neurons in the robot’s brain to fire. When the electrodes on which the firing neurons rest detect this activity, they signal the robot’s wheels to change direction. The end result is a robot that can avoid obstacles in its path.

At first, the young robot spent a lot of time crashing into things. But after a few weeks of practice, its performance began to improve as the connections between the active neurons in its brain strengthened. “This is a specific type of learning, called Hebbian learning,” says Warwick, “where, by doing something habitually, you get better at doing it.”