Free Republic

Investigators in Panama have found two MiG-21 fighter jets in cargo containers aboard a North Korean ship carrying weapons from Cuba. COLON, Panama — Panamanian investigators unloading the cargo of a seized North Korean ship that carried arms from Cuba have found the two MiG-21 fighter jets the Cuban government had said were on board, the government said Sunday. Alongside the two supersonic planes, originally produced by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, officials found two missile radar systems on board the Chong Chon Gang, President Ricardo Martinelli told reporters in the Atlantic port of Colón. The discovery, which...

President Ricardo Martinelli told local media that the ship, which was sailing from Cuba, contained suspected "sophisticated missile equipment". ... The ship was stopped near Manzanillo on the Atlantic side of the canal. Mr Martinelli said the authorities were checking the ship for drugs when they found the suspected weapons in containers of brown sugar. "We're going to keep unloading the ship and figure out exactly what was inside," he told local media. The 35-member crew have been detained, including the captain who the Panamanian president said tried to kill himself during the search. Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said...

PARIS (AP) - French customs officers are inspecting a North Korean ship at an Indian Ocean island off the coast of Africa as part of U.N. sanctions prompted by the communist nation's nuclear test, but they found nothing illegal so far, officials said Thursday. It was the first time a country was known to have stopped a North Korean vessel under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 authorizing searches as part of the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its nuclear test. Since the resolution was passed Oct. 14, at least four other North Korean vessels have been stopped, but the countries...

A ship bound for Syria from North Korea and detained in Cyprus on an Interpol alert for suspected arms smuggling was carrying an air defense system, Cypriot authorities said. The shipment was billed as weather-observation equipment on the freight manifest of the Panamanian-flagged Grigorio 1. The ship was carrying 18 truck-mounted mobile radar systems and three command vehicles. "The radars on the 18 trucks appear to be part of an air defense system," a police spokeswoman said.

Ship Carrying Dozen North Korean Missiles Intercepted in Arabian Sea W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 10 — A ship carrying a dozen Scud-type missiles from North Korea was intercepted in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, U.S. officials said. They said the missiles were believed to be headed for Yemen. The ship was stopped and boarded about 600 miles east of the Horn of Africa, the officials said. U.S. intelligence had been tracking the vessel closely, said U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The ship contained about a dozen short- to medium-range...