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Seoul: N. Korea's firings to provoke South

SEOUL, July 3 (UPI) -- North Korea's test-firing of short-range missiles may have been to provoke South Korea, an official in Seoul said Friday.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said leaders thought the firing was made in "regard to the relations" between the two countries, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

"Unless it is a mid-range missile or a longer-range one, we believe it is aimed at South Korea," Won said.

Reports that North Korea was preparing to test-fire mid- or long-range missiles Saturday at the United States are not considered serious, military leaders in Seoul said. Saturday is Independence Day in the United States.

"This is only speculation," Won said. "We don't see it as carrying military significance."

The U.N. Security Council last month sanctioned North Korea for its latest underground nuclear test. The North fired four short-range ground-to-ship missiles into the East Sea Thursday despite the resolution, which also bans testing such weapons.

Sources: Jackson medicated while on tour

LOS ANGELES, July 3 (UPI) -- Michael Jackson routinely took medication supplied by an anesthesiologist while traveling on his HIStory tour, sources close to the late U.S. singer say.

CNN said Friday the unidentified sources identified the anesthesiologist who traveled with Jackson during his 82-date world tour in 1996-97 as Dr. Neil Ratner.

One of the anonymous sources said Ratner routinely used medical equipment to monitor Jackson as the "Beat It" star slept.

The sources' claims come after nutritionist Cherilyn Lee alleged this week that Jackson once pleaded with her to provide him with a sedative called Diprivan.

The medication claims also follow reports from two federal law enforcement sources that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would be investigating the possible involvement of drugs in Jackson's death last Thursday.

The California attorney general's office and the Los Angeles Police Department already are involved in the inquiry.

CNN said, citing the Los Angeles County coroner, the results of toxicology tests on Jackson's body are not expected for as long as three weeks as authorities attempt to determine what killed the "Thriller" star.

Police deem $10M town house fire arson

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, July 3 (UPI) -- A fire that destroyed 60 town houses under construction this week west of Toronto was declared to be a $10 million arson, police said.

In a release, Peel Regional Police said they were seeking a suspect seen in a security video as well as a witness who likely would have seen the suspect Monday night in the city of Mississauga.

"Sometime between 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., the suspect entered the construction site and set the fire," the release said.

The first emergency calls came in around 11 p.m. Monday, and firefighters found several units already fully engulfed, the release said.

The fire was escalated to three-alarm status and it took some 50 firefighters more than two hours to bring it under control, the Toronto Sun reported at the time.

No injuries were reported.

The witness being sought was operating an ice cream vending truck and was in the immediate area of where the security cameras recorded the suspect, who was wearing a hooded, dark jacket and dark pants, police said.

U.S. troops may face Afghan resistance

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. troops may face a tough time wresting Afghan provinces from Taliban control as many villagers have accepted the militants' rules, local leaders say.

On Thursday, 4,000 U.S. Marines began a major offensive to try to take back several southern provinces from the Taliban. However, the Taliban is so pervasive in Kandahar and Helmand provinces that gaining control in some districts may heighten tension, local leaders told The New York Times.

"We Muslims don't like them (international forces) -- they are the source of danger," Hajji Taj Muhammad, a local villager, told the Times. He said his house in Marja, a town west of Lashkar Gah that has been an opium trading post and Taliban base, was bombed two months ago.

Southern provinces have sustained the worst civilian casualties since NATO's deployment to the region in 2006, and thousands of people have been displaced, the Times said.

"Now there are more people siding with the Taliban than with the government," said Abdul Qadir Noorzai, director of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in southern Afghanistan.

Also, community leaders said villagers haven't experienced the presence of the Afghan government or foreign troops except through violence, and the Taliban are a known entity.

"People are hostages of the Taliban, but they look at the coalition also as the enemy, because they have not seen anything good from them in seven or eight years," said Hajji Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, a district council leader in Helmand Province.

Calif. imposes tough smog rules on ships

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 3 (UPI) -- Tough new laws go into effect this week governing the amount of smog emitted by some 2,000 large ships entering California ports each year, officials say.

The laws, fought by the shipping industry but hailed by public health and environmental groups, will require the ships, from oil tankers to cruise liners, to dramatically reduce their smog, the San Jose Mercury News says.

The new rules for ships are the most stringent in the world, the Mercury News said.

Any oceangoing ship longer than 400 feet or heavier than 10,000 gross tons now must burn a much cleaner type of fuel when it's within 24 nautical miles of the coast.

California has been regulating cars, factories and other smog sources for 50 years, but ships have not been included, partly because a majority of them are based outside the United States.