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SEOUL: A former North Korean agent who confessed to bombing a passenger jet in 1987 met Wednesday with relatives of a Japanese woman abducted to the Communist North in an encounter that shed little new light on the fate of the missing woman but was expected to anger North Korea.

The meeting, sponsored by the Japanese and South Korean governments amid rising tensions with the North, was the first public appearance of Kim Hyon Hui, the former North Korean agent, in almost 20 years, and was intensely covered by both Japanese and South Korean media.

In Tokyo, the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso hoped that Kim might provide fresh information about the kidnapped Japanese woman, Yaeko Taguchi, that could be used to press the North Korean government on other abduction cases. In Seoul, the conservative government of President Lee Myung Bak was investigating charges that the liberal administration that preceded him had pressured Kim to deny that she was a North Korean spy.

On Wednesday, Kim, 47, delivered no surprises. She repeated what she had already said in recent interviews: that she had studied Japanese with Taguchi, who was 22 when she vanished in Tokyo in 1978, as part of her espionage training. She would not comment on the charges against the previous Seoul government.

Koichiro Iizuka, Taguchi’s 32-year-old son, said after his meeting with Kim that he was convinced his mother was alive, despite Pyongyang’s claim that she was killed in a car accident in 1986.

Kim tried to dispel years of speculation about her identity by stressing that she was indeed an agent who planted a bomb on the Boeing 707 plane that exploded near Myanmar in 1987, killing all 115 people on board. She and an accomplice, who later committed suicide, were arrested in Bahrain two days later.

“I am not a fake,” she said. “It was an act of terror by North Korea.”

But at a news conference in the southern city of Busan, where Kim met Taguchi’s relatives, Kim did not refute the North Korean claim about Taguchi’s death. She said she “heard” in 1987 that Taguchi had been “sent somewhere” and that she had “assumed” at the time that Taguchi was still alive.

In 2002, North Korea admitted to kidnapping Taguchi and 12 other Japanese to help train its spies. It allowed five of them to return to Japan that year but said the others had died — an assertion Tokyo has not accepted.

LOS ANGELES — If the “American Idol” judges have their way, it won’t be curtains for Adam Lambert anytime soon. The 26-year-old theater actor from Los Angeles seamlessly impressed the panel _ and eclipsed his 12 co-finalists _ with an energized rendition of the tune “Black or White” during Tuesday’s Michael Jackson-themed performance show.

“You’ve got the whole package going on,” exclaimed following Lambert’s performance.

Anoop Desai, from Chapel Hill, N.C., was the target of the judges’ harshest criticism. said the 21-year-old college student’s decision to perform “Beat It” was the “wrong choice” while declared it “horrible.” Jorge Nunez, the 20-year-old college student from Carolina, Puerto Rico, was also targeted for a lackluster song pick.

In defense of his “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Nunez said: “I was not going to sing ‘Bad’ by Michael Jackson.”

“Well, you sorta did,” Cowell retaliated.

The judges seemed satisfied with most of the evening’s other performers, especially Lil Rounds and Danny Gokey, who danced around while belting out “Pretty Young Thing.” Cowell dubbed Gokey’s moves “hideous” but said that his vocals were “brilliant.” Jackson said he continued to love Rounds, who kicked off the show with “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

“You’re engaging,” Abdul told Allen, “and kinda adorable/sexy.”

Voters for final performer Alexis Grace, the 21-year-old single mother from Memphis, Tenn., were directed to 1-866-IDOLS-36. The singing contest _ which has 13 finalists this season instead of the usual dozen _ used that line because 1-866-IDOLS-13 is owned by a phone sex operation which promises to connect listeners to a “nasty girl” for $3.99 a minute.

At the beginning of the episode, Cowell announced that two singers _ not just one _ would be dismissed from the popular Fox singing competition Wednesday. He also later teased that an alteration in the “Idol” structure involving the show’s judges would be revealed Wednesday. Host Ryan Seacrest said it will change “the entire theme and concept of the show.”

Viewers immediately began speculating online about the possible season-eight switch-up after Tuesday’s performance show. The most popular theory: the bottom vote-getters must now “sing for their lives” and the show’s judges will have the ability to save a contestant from being sent home.

A few of the finalists used their first time on the main “Idol” stage to showcase their musical abilities. Piano players Matt Giraud from Kalamazoo, Mich., and Scott MacIntyre from Scottsdale, Ariz., tickled the ivories on “Human Nature” and “Keep the Faith,” respectively. Kris Allen from Conway, Ark., played his guitar during “Remember the Time.”

WINNENDEN, Germany – A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday then fled in a hijacked car, killing at least 15 people before police shot him to death, state officials said.The gunman entered the school in Winnenden and opened fire, shooting at random, police said. He killed nine students, three teachers and a passer-by outside the building, officials said.”He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath,” said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, freed the passengers and drove about 25 miles (40 kilometers) before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg governor Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.Four hours after the shootings began, police announced the teenager’s death.It was the nation’s worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.Concerned parents quickly swarmed the school, which was evacuated.

Police have have identified the gunman only as Tim K, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.The German government was “deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree,” Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin..Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor’s note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany

Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in jail after admitting sleeping with and blackmailing a succession of rich women out of millions of pounds including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten.

The 44-year-old wined and dined a string of rich wives and widows, including Germany’s wealthiest woman Mrs Klatten, winning their confidence and then asking for money.

If they refused, he threatened to blackmail them with secretly filmed footage of their encounters in hotel rooms around Europe.

His lawyer told a court in Munich that the long list of charges against his client “are, at their core, true.”

Before the hearing began, a spokesman for the Munich prosecutors office said that Sgarbi faced a prison sentence of several years but that he could expect some leniency if he were to plead guilty.

“If he makes a confession, if he spares his victims from having to appear here in public, he will get a corresponding reduction … in his sentence,” Anton Winkler said.

Sgarbi’s most high profile victim was BMW heiress Mrs Klatten, a married mother of three who he seduced and swindled out of £6.2 million.

His guilty plea may spare her the embarrassment of having to give evidence at the much-anticipated trial, which promised to become a sensation in Germany.

Sgarbi, who was nicknamed ‘James Bond’ by some of his conquests for his good looks and smooth-talking charm, is also accused of conning three other women out of £2.2 million.

Sgarbi, who told his wealthy conquests he was a “special Swiss representative in crisis zones” according to the charges against him, now faces the prospect of up to 10 years in prison.

Mrs Klatten is the daughter of BMW magnate Herbert Quandt and holds a 46-per cent stake in the company in conjunction with her mother and brother. She also owns a 88.3-per cent share of chemical company Altana.

At first the married mother-of-three spurned Sgarbi’s advances but began an affair when the smooth-talking Sgarbi turned up unexpectedly in the south of France where she was on holiday the following month.

Later in August 2007 they met in a Holiday Inn hotel in Munich – where Klatten believed she would not run the risk of bumping into any acquaintances – for an “intimate” encounter that Sgarbi secretly filmed, according to the charges.

In September they met at the same hotel and this time Sgarbi allegedly said that he needed 10 million euros because he had injured a little girl in a car crash in Florida – asking Klatten to lend him a cool seven million euros.

Klatten swallowed his story, handing over the sum in the underground garage of the Holiday Inn in a cardboard box containing 14 plastic folders each with a thousand 500-euro banknotes.

Sgarbi then told the 46-year-old to leave her husband and put into a trust fund 290 million euros to fund their new life together.

Paris Fashion Week Which have world class popularity. The scene was tamer. With its winter 2010 ready-to-wear display, the French label delivered a sober but well-tailored collection of suits and leather looks. Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf gave stiff a good name with their tromp l’oeil collection that solidified flowing Greek drapery. Stella McCartney played with opacity and transparency in a sexy, lingerie-inspired collection that also included cruelty-free alternatives to fur and leather. French label Leonard delivered kicky knit silk and wool dresses in the house’s hallmark hothouse flower prints. The oversized orchids in royal purple and hot pink would have been right at home in Arora’s fanciful tropical kingdom. PARIS (AP) – Peacocks strutted their stuff on Paris’ catwalks Monday, as Italian Giambattista Valli sent out red-carpet ready looks covered with glimmering feathers, and wildly inventive Indian designer unleashed a fantastic menagerie that included a Swarovski crystal-encrusted version of the proud bird.

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

Toward the middle of the show, you thought you’d seen some nice things at Valli: the tent-shaped coats that swung just so; the leather jacket with bouffant, fur-covered sleeves.But then came the peacock feathers. Thousands of them, covering coats, dresses and skirts, their cobalt eyes shimmering wildly as the photographers flashed.One strapless dress, in a metallic peacock print, had feathers fanning out from its neckline. A black turtleneck was paired with a flowing, ankle-length skirt made entirely of the feathers.Valli said he had taken his inspiration from the late, great French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.”I was attracted to that decadence, with no boundaries, no rules, all that eclecticism,” he told reporters backstage in Paris.Valli, a former designer at Emanuel Ungaro, launched his own label in 2005 and made a name for himself by dressing starlets like Mischa Barton and Victoria Beckham.There were plenty of red-carpet-ready pieces on display Monday—from a long, lean belted dress in a print that gleamed darkly like an oil spill or bouffant, high-water trousers in a rich aqua blue.”It was amazing, I want it all,” gushed celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe as she gave Valli a celebratory post-show squeeze.

MANISH ARORA

Picture “The Jungle Book” remade by “The Fly” director David Cronenberg and you can begin to envisage the bizarre menagerie of oversized beasts in hothouse hues that Arora unleashed onto his catwalk.”The idea was to take everybody on a journey to my jungle, where I belong,” Arora told Associated Press Television News, though the collection looked like less like a product of human ingenuity than something beamed down by stylish aliens or hatched in a petri dish.Peacocks glinting with Swarovski crystals emblazoned a tunic, a moose-head made from what appeared to be superimposed wooden planks emerged from the belly of a dress, while a nearly life-seized bird of prey—entirely covered in crystals—perched on the shoulder of another dress.The knobby fabric of a cocktail number mimicked a lizard’s spiny skin, though the eyes that gleamed out from the bust of the garment were something entirely more menacing. Paris’ ready-to-wear displays move into their seventh day on Tuesday, with shows by Chanel, Valentino.