BEIJING - POLICE across China have rescued 23 children in a nationwide crackdown on child trafficking from poor provinces, state media said on Sunday.

SEOUL - NORTH Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North's state media said.

In a first official response to last week's US-South Korean summit, the state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition that Mr Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak 'are trying to ignite a nuclear war'.

COLOMBO - SRI Lanka is pouring more troops into former rebel-held areas in the east of the island to hunt down remnants of the Tamil Tigers following their defeat in the north, a state-run weekly said Sunday.

The military was boosting its strength in the east - around the towns of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara - to where some guerrillas are thought to have fled, the Sunday Observer said.