#4
They pulled the same crap in Iraq by booby-trapping toys, handing them out to children and sending the children into populated areas. It's a wonder our guys didn't lose their minds seeing this shit day in and day out.
#6
where is the UN Human Rights Rapporteur to investigate and condemn this in a loud Big-Boy Voice?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2009 20:11 Comments ||
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#7
Nonsense, Frank. The UN in general only investigates the US and Israel. All other countries, groups and religions are exempt.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/27/2009 20:18 Comments ||
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#8
They pulled the same crap in Iraq by booby-trapping toys,
In Iraq they love their children -- they'd had a long time to contrast with the Iranians sending their sons to clear the mine fields -- and that was a big piece of what lost Iraq for both Al Qaeda and their allies the Ba'athist remnant. Do the Afghans feel the same way about their children? The Pakistanis do not seem to be, given so many are sent off to abusive madrassahs for years and years.
#9
The twelve-year-old grabbed a baby. I call that good training.
It is also a compliment to American morality that the bastards can depend on it with such certainty.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/27/2009 21:29 Comments ||
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A STATE Department diplomat disillusioned with US involvement in Afghanistan has become the first US official known to resign in protest over the eight-year war, The Washington Post has reported.
Matthew Hoh, 36, was the senior State Department official in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a hotbed for Taliban militants, until he resigned last month.
His background in both civil and military fields may have seemed the perfect fit for President Barack Obama's administration as it steps up its counterinsurgency efforts in the war-torn country.
But in a September 10 letter to the State Department's personnel chief, Hoh wrote: "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan.
"I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end," added the former Marine Corps captain, according to comments carried by the Post.
The resignation, the newspaper said, "sent ripples all the way to the White House", and Government officials scrambled to convince Hoh to stay, concerned that he could become a prominent critic of the fledgling administration's Afghanistan policy.
Hoh was offered a senior staff-level job at the US embassy in Kabul, which he turned down, and was flown to Washington to meet one-on-one with the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.
"We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer," Holbrooke said in an interview with the daily.
Holbrooke initially convinced Hoh - who had also served in uniform at the Pentagon and as a civilian in Iraq - that by remaining in government, he could more effectively change US policy in Afghanistan.
But the diplomat changed his mind a week later and again tended his resignation. Staying on "wasn't the right thing to do", he told the Post.
As Obama weighs a decision to potentially dispatch tens of thousands more US troops to the Afghanistan cauldron, Hoh said he decided to speak out to influence public opinion.
"I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love," he said. "I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, 'Listen, I don't think this is right.'"
#2
This story leaves a lot out, especially exactely WHY he has a problem. "Strategic purposes" are mentioned as the reason but no actual details are given or what his solution might be. We know he is unhappy but not exactly why. Purpose of mission, ROE, Tactics, what?
(a) IN GENERAL- That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements-
(1) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION- Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution.
(2) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER REQUIREMENTS- Nothing in this resolution supercedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.
- SJR:23, Sept. 2001.
#5
More Hoh, a former Marine who fought in Iraq, wrote in his letter that many Afghans take up arms against US forces because of their presence in the country, and Washington's backing of the national government that is widely seen as corrupt.
If readying to stay in the country, Hoh called for a reduction in US troop numbers. He also urged more support for neighboring Pakistan in its fight against extremist elements, and increased pressure on Kabul to rid corruption in government.
"We want to have some kind of governance there, and we have some obligation for it not to be a bloodbath," Hoh told the Post. "But you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve."
In his resignation letter -- posted online at washingtonpost.com -- Hoh noted that next year "the United States' occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union's own physical involvement in Afghanistan.
"Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people," he wrote.
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2009 11:22 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2009 11:40 Comments ||
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#7
From #5; "If readying to stay in the country, Hoh called for a reduction in US troop numbers. He also urged more support for neighboring Pakistan in its fight against extremist elements, and increased pressure on Kabul to rid corruption in government."
1. Reduction of troop numbers? This is going to help us how?
2. How do you support Pakistan more than we have? Give them more tanks, UAV's and jets to face against India?
Was this guy a lawyer in Iraq or a grunt? He seems to fit very nicely into the State Dept mindset. Anonymoose (#3) may have a point about his future plans but I would suspect political office is in his plans.
#8
What would Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland do? If there was one thing we learned in a very compressed course of study of Afghanistan, it was that this was a people who ... frequently fight amongst themselves, and were somewhat springloaded to band together and fight against an external invader. It seemed that the unconventional warfare methodology was a logical solution ...
#9
If you resign from the government over your differences with US policy then do so quietly, then Shut the F&*K up! He is grandstanding his policy against the US in a public forum. He is using his past deeds to bolster his agenda. He is no longer helping but now fighting in the PR wars with the enemy. If he really cared he would not be a QUITER, instead he would continue to fight to affect a meaningfull change in policy..
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/27/2009 13:54 Comments ||
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#10
I think this dude is clearly a PTSD casualty. He just couldn't take it anymore, and finally thought up the justification he felt he needed to quit.
No shame in that, if he really tried his best.
The pathetic part is that the brass is giving this clown so much attention (and plum assignment offers) trying to make him happy again.
#12
After five months and two assignments in-country Mr. Hoh has concluded the job cannot be done? That strikes me as awfully quick -- we budget a full year to master an assignment in a new environment, whether a country or a division... the first six months of which are devoted to finding the bathroom and who really is in charge of what, regardless what the organization chart claims.
#15
Point taken Wooz, but attributing his actions to a medical condition or simply blowing him off as a malcontent might be a stretch as well. Appears he placed his stuff squarely in the street. Most men don't initiate such actions lightly.
#16
OK, he was just on the news here and, yeah, he's a bit dilusional. If he sincerely thinks that the only reason they hate us is because we're 'occupying' their country, he's sadly mistaken. He states, "The people we are fighting there are fighting us because we're occupying them, not for ideological reasons, not because of any links to Al Qaeda, not because of any kind of fundamental hatred toward the West. The only reason they're fighting us is because we're occupying them".
So, according to him, if we just up and leave, all will be hunky-dory. Uh huh. Grow up, Mr. Hoh.
#17
That statement surely puts him squarely in the 'loon' category Wooz. But I recommend we keep listening to him. If for nother other reason, simple comic relief.
[Quqnoos] The Afghan incumbent 'is going to win' the 7th November run-off election, New York Times quoted the IEC chief as saying
Azizullah Ludin, chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) in an interview with an American newspaper has said that "they will have the same election and the same result as the first round."
According to the article, the efforts by John Kerry, an influential US Senator and other European leaders to have the second round of the election, could avoid a political disaster in Afghanistan. Patting themselves on the back ...
Despite the IEC being considered as an impartial body it broadly works in favour of incumbent Karzai, the report further says.
Meanwhile, some Afghan experts termed the statement of Mr Ludin as a partisan statement saying that it shows he is biased towards President Karzai.
"The statement by Mr Ludin means that the IEC is not impartial regarding the election and support of Hamid Karzai," said an Afghan MP, Ahmad Jebraieli.
Hamid Karzai has tried his best to avoid the runoff but the effort by John Kerry and other western officials could overcome the eruption of a crisis in Afghanistan, the article noted.
The Afghan second round election is slated for Nov 7th and the harsh winter and Taliban threat are considered big challenges confronting the process. The IEC ordered a Nov 7th run-off for the disputed presidential election after a fraud investigation dropped President Karzai's votes below 50 percent of the total.
The Election Complaints Commission (ECC) says it is sacking hundreds of officials from the first round and cutting the number of polling stations.
President Karzai has called on Afghan people to take part in the run-off election, as the turnout in the first round was unexpectedly low at 40%.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Needs the Master of the Obvious graphic.
Karzai stole the election first time around and he will steal it second time around. The rest is just pointless posturing by the UN and the EU.
[Iran Press TV Latest] US President Barack Obama has still not decided whether to follow his Afghan military commander's advice to dispatch more troops to Afghanistan.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants at least 40,000 more US forces, although NATO defense ministers admitted on October 23 in a meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia that their operation in Afghanistan has been a failure.
On Monday, after his latest Afghan war council met for the sixth time, Obama, speaking to US Navy personnel in Jacksonville, Florida, said he would not "rush" a decision on whether to send tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan. "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," Obama said.
Even members of Obama's own Democratic Party are divided over whether to send more troops.
The eight-year conflict in Afghanistan has brought no results for NATO, which leads a force of some 70,000 troops drawn from 43 nations in a country wracked by more than 30 years of war.
A new Afghan strategy is still weeks away, the White House said the same day.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
WORLD NEWS > TALIBAN NOW OUT OF CONTROL OF PAKISTAN [beyond Islamabad's control].
ARTIC > Some analysts believe the TALIBS = TEHRIK-E-TALIBAN is now capable and prepping for some kind of DECISIVE CAMPAIGN as per AFPAK + getting the USA = US-NATO out of the region.
#3
he's pretending to wait for the Afghan revote, but actually trying to get past November 3rd elections here. Not too busy to golf, but dithering when he can't vote "present"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2009 10:49 Comments ||
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#4
"Obama still undecided about Afghan war strategy"
Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/27/2009 20:55 Comments ||
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#5
Obama
Go into the center of your room.
Take some I-Ching Sticks
Throw them until they give you the answer you want.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Hyenas, rape, kidnappings -- there is no shortage of dangers for women in the grim refugee camps of northern Somalia.
But it is still better than the horrors they fled: civil war battles in Mogadishu, drought in neighboring Ethiopia, inter-clan warfare and what they say was state-sponsored ethnic persecution and killings.
Many have "lost" their husbands. Some men abandoned their families, others tried to cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen and have given no sign of life since. Some are still part of the family but are away eking out a living herding livestock.
The wastelands on the edge of Galkayo, a large swathe of low thorn scrub where millions of plastic bags flutter in the breeze, are home to several camps.
Weekly rape cases
In a camp called Mustaqbal, which translates as "future", Halima, a divorcee of 35, recounted from behind her veil how she fled shelling in Mogadishu, 700 kilometers (430 miles) to the south, with her five children.
"We are the breadwinners for our families. We have no husbands and our daily earnings are not enough to survive on," she said, gesticulating with henna-patterned hands.
Halima has what is known locally as a "shoulder shop" -- she hawks goods -- in this case clothing -- from door to door.
Without men the women are constantly at risk of attack. They have to pay for guards at night. "Not a week goes by when we don't have a rape case," said Hawa Adan Mohamed, a women's rights activist who runs vocational training schemes and manufacturing projects in Galkayo. "If you go to the police there's no follow up. They say that because of the clan issue they cannot touch the perpetrator."
"Here the strongest man takes all," said a United Nations official.
Just down the road in Bulo Baaley camp the smell is overbearing. After dark, adults and children alike defecate into plastic potties which stand in front of the huts.
The shacks here are bigger but the landowner collects three dollars rent.
"If you can't pay, he takes one of the children. He keeps the child until he gets paid," explained Kasman Katal, a mother of three who looks older than her 20 years.
"My husband left for Yemen. We've had no news since. We don't know if he survived," she said, flapping at the flies swarming her baby's face.
She and her neighbor Marianne Abdi, a pretty girl of 15 who is already divorced with a child, make money by removing garbage from houses in Galkayo and dumping it on the edge of town.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WORLD NEWS > SOMALIA: WARLORDS, ISLAMISTS, AND ORGANIZED CRIME.
We forgot the Commies, Anarchists, + anti-US LeftGlobalists, etal. didn't we!
[Bangla Daily Star] Detectives are suspecting that the recent bomb attack on ruling Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh might have been plotted abroad, as they found that some of the suspects have foreign links.
Assistant Commissioner (AC) Akbar Hossain of the Detective Branch (DB) who is also the investigation officer of the case said, "We have Mehnaz's three cell phone numbers which she used to talk to people in Pakistan, and we found that Sheikh Shafiullah Sofu's wrist watch is equipped with a cellphone. We are looking into the call lists of the cellphones."
So now the ISI, at least, have been exposed as involved in covert wars against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India...and Iran has decided to act as if it's proved. How very clever the Pakistanis are, to be sure.
Khandaker Mehnaz Rashid was arrested from Gulshan and put on a five-day remand on Saturday, and Freedom Party leader Sofu was arrested from Segunbagicha the following day.
During interrogation another detained suspect Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of condemned convict in Bangabandhu murder case Maj (retd) Shariful Haque Dalim, said he used to visit Pakistan, AC Akbar added.
The AC also said Mehnaz's parents, absconding condemned convict in Bangabandhu murder case Lt Col (retd) Khandaker Abdur Rashid and his wife Jobaida Rashid, are in the habit of visiting Pakistan.
However, six days into the bomb attack on Taposh that left 13 persons injured, police still do not have any conclusive answer to who were the perpetrators and what was their motive.
"We have yet to cull any concrete information from the detainees," an additional deputy commissioner of DB told The Daily Star in his office yesterday.
AC Mohammad Nasir Uddin Khan of DB said, "We suspect that Mehnaz might have been serving as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency of a South Asian country, and she might have been coordinating criminals trying to carry out subversive activities in the country."
He however declined to go into any more detail for the sake of the investigation.
Mehnaz told police that Brig Gen (retd) Chowdhury Fazlul Bari, whom she claimed to be one of her ex-husbands and who was a DGFI director during the immediate past caretaker government, visited the US and Singapore with her during the immediate past regime, and before he left Bangladesh he took her passport away from her.
Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) intelligence wing, and Rab-3 are also investigating the attack on Taposh.
Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, chief of Rab intelligence, told The Daily Star that they suspect cohorts of Bangabandhu murder case convicts and people linked to the recent Bangladesh Rifles mutiny might also have links with the attack.
Chief Executive Officer of Rab-3 Lt Col Mamun Mahmud Firoz Chowdhury said they interrogated several suspects, and are gathering information and evidence regarding the bomb blast.
He said they are also keeping DB posted about the latest findings in their investigation.
DB so far arrested four Freedom Party leaders and put them on remand for different terms following court orders. Freedom Party was founded by another condemned convict in Bangabandhu murder case, Col (retd) Syed Farooqur Rahman.
In the case Taposh filed with Motijheel police station in connection with the attack on him, without naming any person he accused family members, relatives, and associates of Bangabanhdu murder case convicts, of attempting to kill him in a bid to obstruct the proceedings of the case, and to create anarchy in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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An investigation for Today has found disturbing evidence that Asian youths in parts of Oldham are trying to create no go areas for white people.
Last year the police investigated record levels of racist attacks in Oldham. Of the 572 cases, 60% turned out to be white victims.
Pakistanis make up the majority on the Glodwick estate just west of the town centre. Some youths speak the language of racial hatred. It's not clear whether this is bravado but their message is blunt... white people keep out. Many openly admit to carrying out what they see as revenge attacks on white people as part of a tit-for-tat campaign.
One told us: "There are signs all around saying whites enter at your risk. It's a matter of revenge. It's about giving as good as you can take."
Another had a six-inch scar running across his head. He said he had been attacked by a white gang. "I got slashed by some whites so that I'm totally racist. I don't like whites. It's like this now, we go to a white area and we get done over. It's like them coming here they get done over...it's for your own good."
This hardening in attitude is repeated across the town and has passed down to children as young as 10. Unlike their parents they will not tolerate being victims of racism.
Local white people are scared and many want to leave the estates but cannot. "I was just walking with my dog around 10 at night and a group of Asian youths in their car, music blaring, threatening me like saying they'd kick me head in calling me white bastard, white scum. You're frightened," one person told me.
Many Asian youths say they take the law into their own hands because they have no confidence in the police. The perception is that the police do not take racist attacks on Asian people as seriously as assaults on white residents. Sure, Brit police is known for its strict, and even *severe*, dislike of PCness.
Akbor Khan had his three front teeth smashed in a brutal attack by a white gang:
"I used to have a take away in Manchester. We used to get lots of people who used to order food but not pay for it. It used to take the police an hour to get there. We'd ring the police and they'd say we haven't got the manpower. But if it happened to white people they would be there in 10 minutes," he said.
Many Asian Community Leaders say the trouble is caused by a minority stoking up problems for the majority, who are law abiding residents. They say they would happily support greater police action to clamp down on the trouble makers.
Greater Manchester Police deny the accusations levelled at them. A special multi-agency task force has been set up in Oldham to tackle the growing number of racist attacks See also the nice town of Blackburn.
#3
Oddly enough, this is a good sign. True vigilantism happens when the government does not protect the public from criminals, or even supports the criminals against the public.
In this case, these Pakistanis are learning that the utterly spineless and ineffectual government that they were attracted to because of largesse, has a downside of not performing its most important duty. And that public order is worth a LOT more to them than they thought.
And while being able to defend yourself is a very good right to have, having to do it as a full time job is a bummer, which is why there is government in the first place.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- A former deputy head of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York has applied for a visa to come back to his previous post, apparently to buttress improving relations between the North and the United States, sources said Monday. The sources said former Deputy Chief Han Song-ryol will replace the current deputy, Kim Myong-kil, who will return to Pyongyang.
"I understand that Kim Myong-kil will soon go back home, but I have no idea of when," a diplomatic source here said Monday.
Han as applied for a visa to take up the post again, another source said. "I understand that North Korea wants Han, who served in New York for five years until 2006, to reinforce the New York channel as he is a higher-ranking official."
The deputy head of the North Korean mission to the U.N. acts as the North's de facto ambassador to the U.S., while the mission's chief deals solely with affairs related to the global body.
Another source said that Han applied for the visa late last month, predicting he will take up his new post in New York late next month. "I think Kim Myong-kil is a bit light in weight to deal with U.S. officials," he said. "That's why the deputy ambassador-level Han is coming."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea appears to have established a propaganda song praising the state's heir apparent as a regular theme during public events, with the latest performance aired on state television. Kim Jong-il, 67, is widely believed to have named his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor, but the country has yet to officially announce the alleged succession plan.
In what appeared to be the latest sign of progress in the power transfer, the elder Kim recently watched a performance at a provincial theater where the song Feelings "Footsteps" was presented by a choir, according to Oct. 9 footage from the North's Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station. It was the fifth time for the leader to attend an official event where the song was played.
Feelings "Footsteps," reportedly written by top composer Ri Jong-o, has been widely interpreted by North Korea watchers here as extolling the valiance of Jong-un. Its title began to appear in North Korean media in February, when the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that soldiers in an army unit sang the song during Kim Jong-il's inspection visit there. The song surfaced again during an April 26 ceremony marking the founding of the North's Korean People's Army.
In the Oct. 9 television broadcast, belatedly discovered here, still photos from the concert show the title of the song displayed in green on an electronic board above the stage, while dozens of men and women sing in ensemble. Kim was visiting the newly built North Hwanghae Provincial Art Theater, south of Pyongyang.
Seoul's Unification Ministry would not say whether it was a sign that a power transfer is underway. "We have intelligence indicating the song is for Kim Jong-un, but it's a matter of interpretation if this means a succession process being consolidated," ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. Might just be a catchy tune. In a Nork sort of way ...
Kim Jong-il's entourage in the theater visit featured his sister Kim Kyong-hui and her husband Jang Song-thaek, both of whom are believed to be deeply involved in grooming the heir apparent at directorial posts at the Workers' Party. Other top party officials such as Kim Ki-nam and Pak Nam-gi were among the audience along with residents of the province. The television presented footage of Kim and his entourage clapping their hands, but it was not clear from the visual material whether they did so to the heir's song.
The song's lyrics begin "The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah" "Tramp tramp tramp / the footsteps of our General Kim / spreading the spirit of February / tramp tramp tramping onwards." General Kim is believed to be a reference to Kim Jong-un, and February the birth month of the elder Kim.
Kim Jong-un, said to be born in 1984 to the leader's third wife Ko Yong-hui, has been described as resembling his father the most in appearance and temperament among the three sons. So he's crazy as an outhouse rat ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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A real man of the people ...
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has watched a performance by soldiers at a Korean People's Army (KPA) art festival, state media said Tuesday. The report of Kim's visit to a military event came two days after his trip to industrial and tourism facilities in Jagang Province.
The Korean Central News Agency and other North Korean media said Kim visited the 33rd KPA art festival and watched the performance by soldiers from KPA Units 567, 531, 762 and 630. The report did not say where the event was held.
Kim "waved back to the enthusiastically cheering performers and audience" after the performance, the report said.
Kim praised the soldiers, saying, "The best socia1ist system centered on the popular masses in the DPRK is invincible as its defense line is guarded by these elite armed forces like an invulnerable iron wall."
Kim's extensive entourage encompassed military top brass and Workers' Party leaders, the report said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son and rumored heir apparent on Sept. 9 visited the Ninth North Korean Army Corps in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province which is in charge of guarding the North Korea-China border. The visit to the corps' commander and political commissars was conducted in tight secrecy and came amid growing fears about discipline at the unit.
Kim Jong-un reportedly said, "The military unit which the general [Kim Jong-il] considers the most important is the Ninth Army Corps in charge of guarding the border."
An inside source in North Korea said the first frontline for North Korea is not the military demarcation line between the two Koreas but the North Korea-China border. The atmosphere there is so tense that the sound of North Korean soldiers shooting at defectors is heard almost every day. Too bad the defectors can't shoot back ...
In recent days, so many senior officers of the Ninth Corps have been involved in drug dealing and other money-making business that the National Defense Commission has decided to take direct charge of the corps. Foreign intelligence agencies are trying to woo Ninth Corps officers, sources said. Rumor is that the CIA has them all in the bag. Half the guys at the National Defense Commission too. Pass it on ...
Rumor has it that some leading officers of North Korea's Sixth Army Corps attempted a mutiny in 1996 due to bribery by a foreign intelligence agency. Their plan was discovered in advance and all those involved were purged.
North Korean leaders, therefore, are not reportedly letting their guard down, in the belief that a similar incident could take place within the Ninth Corps. Kim Jong-un visited the Ninth Corps himself under these circumstances, the local sources added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Lest we fergit, 1990's + Pre-, Post-911 NET > some of KIM IL-SONG'S = now KIM JONG-IL's = HEIR = DPRK'S mil finest DIDN'T LOOK TOO HEALTHY IN NET PICS VEE FAMINE.
The government estimates that North Korea will produce about 5 to 10 percent less food this year than last year.
"This year, North Korea has suffered fertilizer shortage and damage from cold weather. North Korea's estimated production of food last year was 4.31 million tons, but that could fall by about 5 to 10 percent to less than 4 million tons this year," a government official said.
The North produced some 4.01 million tons in 2007, when it suffered such serious flood damage that it had to postpone the second inter-Korean summit.
An intelligence officer said the corn did not ripen well due to low temperatures in May, the early growth period, and again due to drought in July and August. "We presume that they also have problems growing rice as the usual South Korean fertilizer aid of 200,000 to 300,000 tons has been suspended for two years."
In a parliamentary audit on Oct. 23, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek confirmed North Korea is suffering a food shortage.
According to a government official in charge of North Korean affairs, the North needs at least 5 million tons of food to feed people and livestock each year. But the reality is that it produces barely more than 4 million tons and needs to buy or beg at least 1 million tons from abroad.
During the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Mu-hyun administrations, the South Korean government gave the North about 400,000 tons of food aid. China gave 200,000 tons and international humanitarian organizations about 100,000 tons. The remaining shortfall was barely met by illicit trade in the border areas or imports.
The intelligence officer said, "If North Korea's food production falls below 3.5 million tons, there'll be mass defections and starvation. The situation won't be that bad, but with international assistance significantly reduced since its second nuclear test, North Korea will likely suffer a more serious food shortage in 2010 than this year."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The government estimates that North Korea will produce about 5 to 10 percent less food this year than last year.
I.e. the real number is somewhere between 50 and 100% less.
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2009 0:51 Comments ||
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#2
On the other hand, they have universal health insurance.
#4
I'm pretty sure there's calories in green jello.
Somewhere.
ed, when you crawl along as close to the edge as the NorKs do, you don't need a 50% crop failure to drop you in the dutchie. 10% is probably 'lupus est homo homini' time for the backcountry.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/27/2009 13:59 Comments ||
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#5
If what's going on in the Central Valley of California is any indication, we're gonna try to match them. We'll see who has more juche, beeyotch!
In response to U.S. pressure, the government wants to boost the civilian support unit in Afghanistan and could send troops to protect them. At a session of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee that day, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said the government plans to dispatch at least 130 civilian specialists to Afghanistan for reconstruction "and is also considering sending police or military troops to protect them."
Yu said the government plans to boost the medical, vocational and police training programs of the Provincial Reconstruction Team. The government had already decided to increase the number of PRT workers in Afghanistan from 25 to 85 early next year. Yu hinted that could be boosted by another 50.
On the dispatch of troops, Yu said, "Currently, Korean civilians are under the protection of the U.S. military. But if the PRT is expanded, we'll need to protect our workers on our own." He added Korea is "not thinking" of sending combat troops there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The ROK are a bell weather military force. They live and breathe light infantry tactics and always want to be where the action is, with their eyes open and their mouth shut.
Key point: connection to Ilyas Kashmiri of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, which is linked to Al Qaeda.
The FBI announced the arrests of two men Tuesday on terror-related charges stemming from a purported plot to attack the Danish newspaper that published a dozen controversial cartoons in 2005 depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, including one in which he has a bomb nestled into the turban on his head.
David Coleman Headley, a 49-year-old American citizen, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 48-year-old Pakistan national and Canadian citizen, called the plot "The Mickey Mouse Project," according to authorities, and they both arranged for Mr. Headley to travel to Denmark twice during the past year to prepare for an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
According to authorities, Mr. Headley also traveled to Pakistan to meet with another conspirator, Ilyas Kashmiri, a top member of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, which is a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda. In September, Kashmiri was targeted by a U.S. predator drone, and initial reports incorrectly stated that he had been killed, authorities said.
Mr. Headley was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States and conspiracy to provide material support to that overseas terrorism conspiracy. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Mr. Rana was charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy. He faces 15 years if convicted.
Both men were arrested earlier this month, but the arrests were kept secret because "there were ongoing investigative issues that had to be addressed before the documents could be unsealed," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. Mr. Headley was apprehended Oct. 3 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before boarding a flight to Philadelphia. Authorities say his final destination was Pakistan. Mr. Rana was arrested Oct. 18 at his Chicago home. Authorities said Mr. Rana is the owner of several businesses, including First World Immigration Services, which has offices on Devon Avenue in Chicago, as well as in New York and Toronto.
Didn't they just arrest a gentleman with a travel agency in Chicago and a halal meat packing plant in the countryside? At the time we thought it was connected to the missing Mother of Satan explosive stash for the 9/11 subway attack in New York City. Is this the same person, a man of juggling multiple projects, or it it mere coincidence?
From AP, key points: John Allen Muhammad, the serial killer arrested in 2003 after the shooting deaths of ten in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC the previous October, will die by lethal injection on November 10th. Mr. Muhammed's lawyers are filing appeals.
Vlad Dracula usually had a horse attached to each of the victims legs and a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the buttocks and was often forced through the body until it emerged from the mouth. However, there were many instances where victims were impaled through other body orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants were sometimes impaled on the stake forced through their mothers chests. The records indicate that victims were sometimes impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake.
US authorities have charged two men for plotting terror attacks abroad, including on the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.
The men, who live in the Chicago area, were identified as David Coleman Headley, 49, a US citizen, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a native of Pakistan and citizen of Canada.
Headley was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to that overseas terrorism conspiracy, the Department of Justice said overnight.
Rana was charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support "to a foreign terrorism conspiracy that involved Headley, and at least three other specific individuals in Pakistan", the Justice Department said.
If convicted, Headley faces up to life in prison, while Rana faces up to 15 years behind bars.
Headley allegedly contacted conspirators abroad, including Ilyas Kashmiri, identified as "the operational chief of the Azad Kashmir section of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI), a Pakistani-based terrorist organisation with links to Al-Qaeda".
He also contacted a person identified as "Individual A" associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan-based radical Islamic group that fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir.
Starting in late 2008, Headley "corresponded extensively" with the foreign contacts regarding the "Mickey Mouse Project" and "the northern project" - code-names for "one or more attacks at facilities and employees of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten", the Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005.
The cartoons angered Muslims worldwide and sparked global protests in January and February 2006. Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.
Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, "allegedly identified and conducted surveillance of potential targets of a terrorist attack in Denmark on two separate trips to Denmark in January and July 2009, and reported and attempted to report on his efforts to other conspirators in Pakistan".
Rana in turn "allegedly helped arrange Headley's travels overseas and conceal their true nature and purpose to surveil potential terror targets overseas, and discussed potential targets for attack with Headley".
The FBI arrested Headley on October 3 at the airport before he was to board a flight to Philadelphia with the intention of travelling on to Pakistan, and detained Rana on October 18 at his Chicago home.
India is creating unrest within Pakistan by funding the Taliban based along the Pak-Afghan border and by interfering in Balochistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Monday.
I an interview with a private TV channel, Malik said there were 'certain hostile forces', including India, that were backing the Taliban to destabilise Pakistan.
To a question, he said Islamabad could demand that Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani be extradited if his name was included in the first information report of former prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan's murder.
"If the Indian interior minister or anyone else wants to confront me on this, I will be very happy to accommodate them because I know that what I am saying is correct," he said. To another question, he said India had received intelligence reports about possible attacks in Mumbai in July of 2008, adding it was Delhi's failure that they could not prevent the attacks in time.
Solid evidence: He said Islamabad had 'solid evidence' of Indian involvement in the unrest in Balochistan, adding the information could be shared with Indian ministers or representatives at any forum of their choice.
"I invite their interior minister or anyone else to come to Pakistan. I will go on the record with all the material I have on India's involvement in Balochistan. I will prove it to the world," he said.
Security zones: Separately, Malik said education security zones had been set up in the capital to increase security of educational institutions, APP reported.
The minister said that under the programme, 300 well-trained security guards of civil defence would provide security to schools, colleges and universitates in various sectors of the capital.
He said after the bomb attack on the International Islamic University, the government decided to provide a red zone like tight security to the entire capital.
"We will satisfy the security requirement of the residents of the capital," he said.
To a question, Malik said the government was equally concentrating on security arrangements for both public and private schools, adding private institutions would be administratively bound to make proper security arrangements.
He said the government had closed education institutes across the country because of security reassessment and concerns of parents. "But there was pressure from parents, vice chancellors and education heads and students to open institutions so that it did not give an impression that the nation was surrendering to the terrorists. We are not afraid, we are ready to fight," the minister said.
"To cope with this pressure, I constituted two separate committees, one for schools and the other for colleges. On the recommendation of these committees we decide to open the institutions," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
INDJUH has formally denied MALIK's charges of suppor terror agz Pakistan, + including having alleged covert interests in seeing PAK's BALOCHISTAN/BALUCHISTAN region achieve sovereignty or independence from Islamabad.
All detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison should be freed or transferred to U.S. federal courts for trial by the Jan. 22 deadline set by President Barack Obama, a U.N. human rights investigator said Monday.
Martin Scheinin, who reports on the protection of human rights in the war on terror, said the U.S. Navy-run prison in Cuba should not be closed by trying to prosecute detainees through military commissions, which he said do not meet international human rights standards despite "small fixes."
The prison was created by former President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a detention center for suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But it has since become a lightning rod of anti-U.S. criticism around the globe because of reports of torture during interrogations and lengthy detentions without trial.
Guantanamo now holds about 223 men, and according to a list released in late September at least 75 have been cleared for release.
Obama promised soon after taking office and many times since to close the prison, arguing that doing so is crucial to restoring America's image in the world and to creating a more effective anti-terror approach. The White House has said it still hopes to meet the deadline, but senior officials say it may slip because a number of difficult issues remain unresolved.
Scheinin, who reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, said he believes all the hurdles and problems can be overcome by Obama's Jan. 22 deadline.
Administration officials and lawyers have been reviewing the files on each detainee. At issue: which prisoners can be tried, and whether to do so in military or civilian courts; which can be released to other nations; and the hardest question which are too dangerous or their cases too compromised by lack of evidence that they must be held indefinitely.
Scheinin said all the remaining detainees should either be sent to trial by U.S. federal courts on the mainland or released either in the United States or third countries and no prisoners from Guantanamo should continue to be held indefinitely.
"To be very clear and I've been blunt I would say that the assumed very dangerous people who have been subject to interrogation methods that may make the evidence inadmissible in court ... belong to the category of persons who should be tried," he said.
"Then, it should be left to the hands of the judiciary to apply the law," he said. "I know it would be a risk for the prosecution to introduce a trial, but I think between those two options that still is the correct course of action."
#1
It's a shame Scheinin can't be thrown in with the wolves cute fluffy bunnies in Gitmo.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/27/2009 13:53 Comments ||
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#2
Screw him and the rest of the UN. If had any authority to handle this we could have given them to the UN 8 years ago. Want to play? Pay up.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/27/2009 15:10 Comments ||
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#3
Can this the same UN which supports, by turning a blind eye, to years of raping and pillaging of locals by members of UN "peacekeeping" forces in the Congo?
Too rich by any standard. The UN, why must it live on?
#4
Besoeker, the rape of little children and other evils done by UN troops is different. It is not being done by the evil US.
I think we should turn the Gitmo gang over to Mr. Scheinin. Tell him he has to be sure that they do not harm themselves, him, or anyone else.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/27/2009 17:36 Comments ||
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#5
Correct, Rambler.
Dear Mr. Scheinin,
These animals would as soon cut your throat as look at you. If you dispute this, please invite them to your neighborhood in Finland.
#6
p.s.: introduce the missus and youngsters to them. Let them wear their normal clothes
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2009 20:52 Comments ||
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#7
IIUC, UNO IHRC > As the US Flag has de facto sovereignty oer GUANTANAMO BAY NB by US-Cuba treatise, and due to lack of formal juridsprudnece = court trials by the USG proving guilt or inocence, the GITMO DETAINEES as far as the UN is concerned are akin to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CROSSING THE US BORDERS BUT BEING CAPTURED AND PROTRACTIVELY HELD IN DETENTION CENTERS BEYOND THE FORMAL LEAD TIME FOR DEPORTATION BY TRIAL.
SUB-IOW, as "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, and NO LONGER ENEMY COMBATANTS, UNO IHRC > the Gitmo Boyz have been imprisoned long enuff on Gitmo = US soil to qualify as PERMANENT "US NATIONALS" IFF NOT LEGAL "US CITIZENS". ALL THEY NEED TO TO JUST START PAYING TAXES AS SUCH TO THE IRS AND STATE RESIDENCE OF THEIR CHOICE???
SUB-SUB-IOW, OSAMA BIN LADEN, etal. ANTI-US ISLAMIST MILITS-TERRS > as "US CITIZENS" = "US NATIONAL" = "US PERMANENT RESIDENT"???
Arab nations and "even the Palestinians" should be allowed nuclear weapons as long as Israel's nuclear ambitions are tolerated, Libyan leader Muammer Qaddafi said in an interview out Monday.
Israel is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear state, and Qaddafi told Britain's Sky News television that the international community should also allow its Arab neighbours to develop nuclear weapons. "If the Israelis have the nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities, then it is the right of the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Saudis to have the same - even the Palestinians should have the same because their counterparts, or their opponents, have nuclear capabilities," Qaddafi said.
Israel: He added: "And, if we don't want this situation, so we'll have to disarm the Israelis from their nuclear weapons and capabilities." The Libyan leader said he would oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons if it acknowledges such a goal, but noted Tehran's insistence that its nuclear programme is peaceful - something that Western powers dispute. "Iran, up to now, hasn't said it is manufacturing a nuclear weapon: Iran says it is enriching uranium," Qaddafi said.
"If Iran were to manufacture nuclear weapons, nuclear arms, then all of us, including us, will be against them. But Iran has not said so." He added: "Our position is clear and it should be clear and evident... that we are against anyone who manufactures, possesses a nuclear weapon, whether it is Iran, America, Libya, or the Israelis." Meanwhile he said US President Barack Obama merited winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but had been given it too soon. "I do believe he deserves it, but to be given right now I think it is some sort of hypocrisy, sycophancy, and I think it is premature. It is not due yet," he said.
Qaddafi apologised for the 1984 killing of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London which led Britain to suspend ties between the two countries for years. "She is not an enemy to us, and we are sorry all the time and (offer) our sympathy, because she was on duty, she was there to protect the Libyan embassy, but this is the problem that should be solved - but who did it?" Qaddafi said in an interview with Sky News, to be broadcast on Monday. Britain's foreign ministry said in a statement: "We agree with him that this issue needs to be resolved. "Libya can help in the search for answers by allowing the UK police to return to Libya to complete their investigations into the murder of WPC Fletcher." Yvonne Fletcher died after being hit by shots fired from the embassy during a demonstration against Qaddafi.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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OOOOOO IIRC WAFF > TURKEY: ISRAEL THREATENED TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGZ GAZA, and something something???
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran said on Monday it could deliver abroad some of its low-enriched uranium to be upgraded or buy the fuel directly as Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki blasted Israel as too "weak" to carry out any attack on Tehran's nuclear sites.
Mottaki said Iran was mulling the U.N.-brokered deal which envisages shipping out Tehran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be converted into nuclear fuel and would announce a decision within days.
"For the supply of (nuclear) fuel, we may buy it like in the past or we may deliver a part of our (low-enriched uranium) fuel that we don't need now," Mottaki told the official IRNA news agency.
"Both options are on the table."
Mottaki is the most senior official to talk about buying the fuel directly since the U.N. atomic watchdog brokered a deal in Vienna which suggests shipping out Tehran's LEU abroad to be converted into fuel.
The U.N.-brokered deal was suggested first by world powers through the U.N. atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEAR), Mottaki said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also suggested this arrangement a day before Oct. 1 high-profile talks in Geneva between six world powers and Tehran about Western concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.
U.S.-backed Western powers back the U.N.-brokered deal and are keen that Iran's LEU be taken out as they suspect Tehran would process it further on its own to higher purity levels and use it to make atomic weapons. Tehran denied the charge.
France has said the deal aims to transport 1,200 kilos of Iran's LEU to Moscow to be converted into fuel. Iran is estimated to have 1,500 kilos of LEU at its uranium enrich plant in the central city of Natanz.
But the U.N.-led offer has met with tough opposition from top Tehran officials who suspect Western powers of creating obstacles for Iran's uranium enrichment drive, which they ultimately want suspended.
Enrichment of uranium is the most controversial aspect of Tehran's nuclear programme as enriched uranium can be used for generating electricity -- as Tehran claims it is doing -- or to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.
"Making a decision to choose which option is on the agenda of the Islamic republic and in the next few days the decision will be announced," Mottaki said, adding that Tehran was still "examining" the U.N.-led deal.
Mottaki also raised the possibility that Iran could actually ask to buy the fuel directly, when he told IRNA that even close ally China was welcome to provide the Islamic republic with the fuel.
"China is an important country which has the fuel production technology and if it is interested in providing fuel to Iran, Iran will welcome China's participation," he said.
He also dismissed talks that Iran was giving up its enrichment rights and said Tehran will "not give up enrichment rights as it is a member of the IAEA and signatory to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty)."
Mottaki also said Israel was too weak to attack Iran's nuclear sites.
"We consider the Zionist regime currently to be in its weakest position and we do not see it has such a capacity" to carry out a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Mottaki said when a reporter asked him specifically about such a possibility by Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WORLD NEWS > IRAN NEEDS EIGHTEEN MONTHS FOR BOMB.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Monday said bloodshed in Pakistan, Iraq and Iran was the work of foreign agents and aimed at unleashing Shia-Sunni conflict. Guess he's not dead, huh?
"The bloody actions being committed in some Islamic countries, including Iraq, Pakistan and in some parts of the country (Iran), are aimed at creating a division between the Shias and Sunnis," state television quoted him as saying. Khamenei said regional countries must beware that "those who carry out these terrorist actions are directly or indirectly foreign agents". Since last week, around 150 people have been killed in Iran while a series of deadly attacks have also swept Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Being dead is no impediment to talking if you're an ayatollah. Or Michael Jackson.
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2009 0:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An investigation for Today has found disturbing evidence that Asian youths in parts of Oldham are trying to create no go areas for white people. 
The government estimates that North Korea will produce about 5 to 10 percent less food this year than last year.
Arab nations and "even the Palestinians" should be allowed nuclear weapons as long as Israel's nuclear ambitions are tolerated, Libyan leader Muammer Qaddafi said in an interview out Monday.
