Vienna - Austrian political and religious leaders expressed shock about the death of far-right Joerg Haider in a car accident on Saturday morning, but many pointed to the divisive nature of his politics.

"He was a politician of great gifts and talents," President Heinz Fischer told national broadcaster ORF.

"He sparked intense approval as much as intense criticism," the social democratic president said about Haider, who was leader of the Alliance of the Future of Austria and governor of the province of Carinthia.

From the 1980s, Haider turned Austria's small right-wing movement into a force to be reckoned with by often denigrating political opponents, and by tapping into revisionist and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Vienna - Austrian politician and populist Joerg Haider, 58, the man behind the resurgence of the country's right wing parties, died in a car crash on Saturday.

With his death, Austria's right loses its most important figurehead, a man both reviled and admired by many Austrians.

The crash occurred near Klagenfurt in the province Carinthia, where Haider was a popular governor.

Seoul - North Korea's state-run Central Television Saturday released pictures of leader Kim Jong Il inspecting a miliary unit in an attempt to refute speculation over his alleged illness, a South Korean media report said.

Kim, who is said to be recovering from a stroke or brain surgery, was shown in 10 photographs inspecting a women's army unit and watching them undergo weapons' training, the Yonhap news agency said. The images were the first of Kim shown in 58 days.

In what seemed to be a surprise for many, poltical party TDP announced its plan to form a separate state of Telangana from the present province, Andhra Pradesh. The news was quite unexpected as the same party has been working for years to prevent Andhra from being bifurcated.

The TDP Chief, Chandrababu Naidu on its changed stance commented on Thursday that, "The Core committee has decided this on basis of the sentiment of the Telangana people. They have recommended a separate Telangana."

New York - Serbia on Wednesday asked the UN General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told the 192-nation assembly that sending the request to the ICJ at The Hague would "prevent the Kosovo crisis from serving as a deeply problematic precedent in any part of the globe where secessionist ambitions are harboured."

Washington - As Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain prepare for the second presidential debate on Tuesday, their campaigns have taken on a nastier tone on the airwaves and over the internet.

Obama revived McCain's role in the savings and loans scandal of the late 1980s and early 1990s, while the Arizona senator's campaign called Obama "dangerous" and emphasized his meeting in 1995 with a member of a radical 1960s anti-Vietnam war group.