| North Korea's nuclear test ready "soon": source Posted: BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea has almost completed preparations for a third nuclear test and has the capacity to carry it out "soon," a senior source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing told Reuters. "Soon. Preparations are almost complete," the source said when asked whether North Korea was planning to undertake a nuclear test. North Korea said last week it was ready to retaliate in the face of international condemnation over this month's failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the hermit state will push ahead with a third nuclear test in defiance of U.N. sanctions. ... |
| Exclusive: China firm boasts about missile-linked North Korea sale: envoys Posted:  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Chinese firm that intelligence agencies believe provided North Korea with the body of an off-road transport vehicle used to carry missiles appears to have a press release on its website that boasts about the sale, U.N. diplomats told Reuters. Washington suspects that the Chinese firm, Hubei Sanjiang Space Wanshan Special Vehicle Co., did not sell North Korea an entire vehicle, but a chassis, and may have believed it was for civilian purposes, suggesting the company did not intentionally flout U.N. sanctions, a U.S. official said. ...
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| Analysis: Old wounds, ethnic rivalries stoke Sudan war fever Posted:  JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When petrol started running low in South Sudan's capital this month, Peter Bashir Gbandi sensed a sinister force at work. Rather than blaming a severe shortage of dollars, which the newly-independent country needs to buy imported fuel, the lawmaker pointed to arch rival Sudan - likely in league with Horn of Africa immigrants running filling stations, he said. ...
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| Hama shelling undermines Syria truce Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army killed more than 20 people in Hama on Monday, activists said, shattering a week of relative quiet in the central city visited a day earlier by U.N. monitors laying the ground for a wider mission to oversee a shaky 11-day ceasefire. A small group of unarmed observers has been in Syria for a week, tracking the truce between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and opponents inspired by 'Arab Spring' uprisings in North Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East. ...
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| Analysis: Mali: from democracy poster child to broken state Posted: BAMAKO (Reuters) - Within weeks, Mali has plunged from being a sovereign democracy to a fractured territory without a state, occupied by competing rebel groups in the north while politicians and coup leaders in the south jostle for control of the capital Bamako. There is no sign the broken nation can be put back together soon - raising concerns among neighbors and Western powers of the emergence of a lawless "rogue state" exploited by al Qaeda and criminals. ... |
| Venezuela's Chavez calls home to squash death rumors Posted:  CARACAS (Reuters) - A healthy sounding President Hugo Chavez called Venezuelan state television from Cuba on Monday to dispel rumors fanned by a nine-day silence that he had died undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital in Havana. "It seems we will have to become accustomed to live with these rumors, because it is part of the laboratories of psychological war, of dirty war," the 57-year-old socialist leader said in the telephone call. ...
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| Norway killer says hoped to have massacred more Posted:  OSLO (Reuters) - The Norwegian who massacred 77 people to protest against Muslim immigration to Europe said on Monday he had hoped to kill as many as 150 and kept on killing because police failed to respond urgently to his phone call. Breivik has given a detailed account of his car bomb attack at government headquarters in Oslo on July 22, which killed eight people, followed hours later by his shooting of 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labour Party island camp. He said on Monday his "gruesome" actions were to prevent a civil war caused, he said, by a Muslim takeover of Europe. ...
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| U.N. chief to visit Myanmar to encourage reforms Posted:  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Monday he would visit Myanmar soon to encourage the Southeast Asian nation to press ahead with democratic reforms. "I have accepted an invitation from President Thein Shein to visit Myanmar," Ban told reporters. "I will depart at the end of this week." "We have seen encouraging political and economic reforms over the past year and a half," he said. "The recent elections were a landmark. We see Myanmar reopening to the world." U.N. officials said Ban would arrive in Myanmar at the weekend and stay for several days. ...
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| Ex-PM cleared of major charges in Iceland crisis trial Posted:  REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's former prime minister was found innocent on Monday of three major charges of negligence related to the country's 2008 economic collapse, and guilty of a smaller count that carried no prison sentence. The verdict by a special court was seen by many as little more than a slap on the wrist for Geir Haarde, the only leader in the world to face prosecution over the global crisis. He had faced up to two years in prison if found guilty of the more serious charges, including neglecting to deal with an overblown banking sector. ...
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| Sarkozy targets far-right in bid to win runoff Posted:  President Nicolas Sarkozy starkly laid out his path to re-election Monday: He will be plunging deep into far-right territory to hunt the votes he needs to beat Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the runoff.
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| Judges poised to deliver verdicts in Taylor trial Posted:  Rebel fighters hacked off Jabati Mambu's right hand more than 13 years ago in Sierra Leone.
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| Aussie PM dismisses claim she's soft on harassment Posted:  Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday dismissed as "disgraceful" an opposition claim that she was making light of sexual harassment by allowing the parliamentary speaker to hold his job while facing allegations that he pressured a staffer for sex.
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| South Sudan president seeks support in China Posted: The president of newly independent South Sudan is lobbying China for investment in his country's oil industry and diplomatic support in an escalating conflict with Sudan that's threatening to become an all-out war. |
| Official: Sudan bombs 3 areas in South Sudan Posted:  Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan on Monday, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery, elevating the risk of all-out war between the two old enemies.
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| China punishes 20 officals after village protests Posted: Chinese authorities have punished 20 officials and former village leaders after the community in southern China engaged in mass protests over land disputes that drove out local officials. |
| N. Korea vows to turn South's leadership to ashes Posted:  North Korea sharply escalated the rhetoric against its southern rival, claiming it will soon conduct "special actions" that would reduce South Korea's conservative government to ashes within minutes.
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| Sanctions lifting could revive Myanmar industry Posted:  Looking across a sea of young workers perched behind rows of buzzing sewing machines, factory owner Myint Soe has one main hope for Monday's suspension of European sanctions on Myanmar — the restoration of some of the 80,000 garment industry jobs lost here over the past 10 years.
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| Wild bison with TB may have to be killed in Poland Posted:  A herd of 25 wild European bison infected with tuberculosis should be killed to prevent the disease from spreading to other herds in southeastern Poland, officials said Monday.
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| EU imposes new sanctions on Syrian regime Posted:  The European Union on Monday banned the sale of luxury goods and products to Syria that can have military as well as civilian uses as the U.N. political chief demanded that the Syrian government stop using heavy weapons and comply with a cease-fire.
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