Washington  - North Korea has taken a step toward further isolation by ending its cooperation with UN and US nuclear inspectors and requesting they leave the country, the US State Department said Wednesday.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the US team in North Korea to verify the disablement of the Stalinist country's nuclear programme was making plans to leave at Pyongyang's request.

Washington  - With the clock ticking down on an April 30 deadline, Fiat could back out of a government-mandated deal if Chrysler's unions don't agree to cost reductions, the company's head Sergio Marchionne told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday.

Fiat's chief executive officer told the newspaper that Fiat would look for another international partner if the unions don't cooperate.

"Absolutely we are prepared to walk," Marchionne told the daily.

As a part of groundwork move for the final launch of Microsoft's next version of the Office suite in the first half of next year, the company Tuesday announced having begun extensive testing of the product. Code-named Office 14, the product will be expectedly dubbed Office 2010, with all its allied gears to also come with the 2010 mark.      While some of the earliest testing of Office 14 was undertaken by the company in 2008 called for a technology preview, with a beta to follow this year; the details of the recent not-so-pushy schedule have not been divulged.

Washington

Washington, Apr. 15 : Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Muhammad Hazai has filed a complaint in the Security Council, claiming that Israel plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Hazai wrote a letter to Council''s President Claude Heller, insisting that Israel was threatening to attack Iran, and urged the international body to demand Israel''s reply as it was of violating the UN charter.

Washington, Apr 15 : American singer Mariah Carey has moved her personal trainer into her Los Angeles home in order to get back in shape after she was criticised for her fuller figure.

Carey, 39, received criticism for her curves after photos of her visiting her husband Nick Cannon''s relatives in San Diego, California, on April 12, came out online.