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/begin my translation N. Korea's Shore-to-ship Missile System Activated For an Hour Some ships in Baekryung and Yonpyung Island evacuated. Two Squadrons of high speed patrol boats readied for rapid response (Seoul = Yonhap News) Kim Kwi-keun = (S. Korean) Military went on alert after detecting that N. Koreans turned on the fire-control radar for shore-to-ship missiles deployed along N. Korean area(shore) north of Yonpyung Island in the West Sea, according to the military authorities on Nov. 15 The military sources said, "Approximately at 1 PM today, we detected that the fire-control radar for N. Korea's multiple shore-to-ship missile bases...

N. Korea will retaliate against any attempt to intercept rocket: military SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's military warned Thursday it will attack "major targets" in Japan should Tokyo shoot down a satellite it plans to orbit as early as this weekend. The warning comes as leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan are meeting at the G-20 summit in London, with North Korea's rocket launch high on the agenda of their bilateral talks. The three have threatened to bring Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions if it goes ahead with the launch announced as...

S. Korea to strike back if N. Korea provokes armed clash: defense minister By Sam Kim SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea would sternly respond to any preemptive attack by North Korea on South Korean warships along the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea by striking back at the North's military installations from which the attack originates, Seoul's defense chief said Friday. "We will clearly respond to any preemptive artillery or missile attack by North Korea," Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said at a parliamentary hearing. Lee made the remarks after a ruling party lawmaker asked how the South...

DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ― A former Southern Methodist University women's basketball player is suing the school for $2 million. The woman claims the university violated policy and procedure when it withdrew her scholarship. Jennifer Colli, who filed her lawsuit in federal court, says other former teammates signed statements verifying her complaints against her coach. By all accounts, Colli was a top notch high school basketball player, something that helped her win a scholarship to SMU. In her lawsuit Colli claims Coach Rhonda Rompola regularly asked her and her teammates, about their relationships with each other. In the lawsuit Colli...

Russia says gets U.S. assurance amid market turmoil Reuters - Thursday, September 18 MOSCOW, Sept 17 - Russia's finance ministry said on Wednesday the United States had given an assurance that its policy toward Moscow is not driven by politics amid the worst exodus of investors in a decade from the Russian markets. (Advertisement) U.S. Treasury Secretary "Henry Paulson assured Russia that the Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are not driven by politics in their relations with Russia in the financial sphere," the Russian finance ministry said in a statement after a phone conversation between Paulson and Russian minister Alexei...

THE SUPREME COURT pleased workers this week when it ruled in two cases that employees who suffer retaliation after complaining about discrimination may sue under existing civil rights law. Yet both decisions are deeply flawed and should make those applauding the results more than a little nervous. In a 7 to 2 vote, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. in the majority, the court concluded that a 19th-century law crafted to protect the legal rights of newly freed slaves also protected Hedrick G. Humphries, an African American associate manager at Cracker Barrel who complained...

(IsraelNN.com) Members of the North African branch of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda announced Monday that they are holding two Austrian tourists hostage "in retribution" for what they claim is Western support for Israeli counter-terrorism operations. Al-Qaeda threatened more such kidnappings. AQIM will issue their demands for release of the two Austrians soon, Abu Muhammad said. In an audio tape aired by the Gulf-based Al-Jazeera satellite network, a man who claimed to represent Al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa (AQIM), Salah Abu Mohammad, identified the two Austrians and said they were in good condition. The alleged hostages, a man and a...

Many Arabs in Jerusalem expressed fear over the weekend that Israel would retaliate for last Thursday's shooting attack at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva by denying them privileges they are entitled to as holders of Israeli ID cards. Meanwhile, the family of Ala Abu Dhaim, the 25-year-old resident of Jebl Mukaber who carried out the shooting spree, reacted with mixed feelings to the involvement of their son in the attack. Some of them hailed him as a "hero" and "martyr," while others expressed fear that the attack would give Israel an excuse to impose strict measures against Arab residents of the city....

Talkbacks for this article: 105 "The cancerous growth Israel will soon disappear," Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Muhammad Ali Jafari wrote to Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the FARS news agency reported Monday. In a letter of condolence following last week's assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Jafari said: "I am convinced that with every passing day Hizbullah's might is increasing and in the near future, we will witness the disappearance of this cancerous growth Israel by means of the Hizbullah fighters' radiation [therapy]." In the letter, in which Jafari consoled Nasrallah over the death of the "martyr," he...

"It won't be long before the conceited Zionists realize that Imad Mughniyah's blood is extremely costly, and it makes history and brings about a new victory," Hezbollah's head of the southern Lebanon region, Sheikh Nabil Kauk, said Sunday at a memorial service for the arch-terrorist who was killed in a car explosion in Damascus last week. auk, who spoke in Mughniyah's home village, Tayr Debba, in south Lebanon, added that Israel was "standing on one leg of fear and trepidation, having become the hostage of its own act of stupidity." Kauk spoke at a ceremony attended by the Iranian ambassador...

Israel has deployed a battery of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles near the northern port city of Haifa as part of precautions against a possible attack by Lebanon's Hezbollah in response to the assassination last week of the group's top commander Imad Mughniyah, Israeli security officials said Monday. The officials said the battery was put on standby Sunday for the first time since Israel's month-long war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, when the Lebanese guerrillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. Patriot batteries were first deployed in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, but they failed to...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday Israel would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah", the Lebanese group which is backed by the Islamic Republic, Fars News Agency reported. Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari made the comment in a letter to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to offer condolences after the killing of senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah in a car bomb last week in Damascus. "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous existence of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants", Jafari was...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has deployed a battery of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles near the northern port city of Haifa as part of precautions against a possible attack by Lebanon's Hezbollah in response to the assassination last week of the group's top commander, Israeli security officials said Monday.The officials said the battery was put on standby Sunday for the first time since Israel's monthlong war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, when the Lebanese guerrillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. The Israeli military said it was not its policy to comment on what a spokesman called...

China lists substandard Wal-Mart, Carrefour goods 1 hour, 8 minutes ago China has published a blacklist of substandard toy jugs and children's shoes sold at Wal-Mart stores and drawing pens from French retailer Carrefour in a quality sweep on children's goods sold at Beijing supermarkets. China has been buffeted by food, drug and other product safety scares in past months. More than 20 million toys made there have been recalled worldwide over the past four months. In response, Beijing has promised to crack down on faulty manufacturers and suppliers, but also said much responsibility lies with foreign regulators and buyers....

Gov. Rick Perry’s veto this week of an eminent domain bill designed to protect landowners left a lot of Texans scratching their heads, and you can lump us in with those feeling dumbfounded. Perry — who was among those making political hay when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that cities can seize homes under eminent domain for use by private developers and made the issue an emergency item in a special session that same year — had a chance to back his tough talk and posturing on property rights with action. But when push came to powerful shove...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - The Lebanese army warned on Friday that it would respond forcefully if it came under renewed Islamist attack as sniper fire hit the refugee camp that has been the main battleground. But after overnight clashes, a fragile undeclared truce largely held, even as the Lebanese government took delivery of US military assistance to bolster its fight against the Palestinian militants of Fatah al-Islam. "The situation is calm today. The army is respecting the truce, but will respond forcefully and decisively if attacked," an army officer, who asked not to be identified, told AFP. "Last night,...

Iran would 'cut the hand' of any attacker by Farhad Pouladi 1 hour, 34 minutes ago Iran on Wednesday warned that its armed forces would "cut off the hand" of an enemy and Tehran would consider using oil as a weapon if the Islamic republic was attacked over its nuclear programme. "Our army has a defensive mission and not an offensive one. But it is completely ready to confront any aggressor and cut off their hand," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a military parade to mark army day on the outskirts of Tehran. "The army and armed forces must be more...

When it comes to media reports of bad conduct by Administration officials and appointees, it is a good idea to Just Say No to the first accounts you read. Chances are the story was cooked up and peddled by political partisans (often one way or another funded by George Soros) or that disgruntled bureaucrats leaked to a lazy, gullible, if not complicit, press. The media conniption fit over Paul Wolfowitz' supposed "conflict of interest" at the World Bank is a prime example. Based over on claims by disgruntled staffers, non-government agencies and some World Bank officials, the Financial Times painted...

The reason Paul Wolfowitz should resign as president of the World Bank has nothing to do with Iraq, or his last job as No. 2 in Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, or even his clashes with the bank’s directors and staff. He should resign because he made clean governance his main cause at the bank and has fallen far short of his own standards. The facts are not in dispute. When Mr. Wolfowitz was appointed he was in a personal relationship with a woman employed there. Since working under Mr. Wolfowitz’s supervision would violate the bank’s conflict-of-interest rules, she was reassigned to...

LOOK AT THIS WEBSITE TO SEE HOW THE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR THE "WAR ON TERROR" ARE REALLY SPENT. THIS HOMELAND SECURITY WHISTLEBLOWER HAD HER HOUSE RAIDED WITH THE BLACKHAWK HELICOPTER AND A SWAT TEAM (WHICH HAS BEEN VIDEOTAPED - PARTIAL VIDEO OF THE HELICOPTER RAID IS ON THE WEBSITE), HAS BEEN PROSECUTED AND IMPRISONED ON FALSE CHARGES (TWICE) - VINDICATED AND DECLARED INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES BROUGHT FORTH BY THE GOVERNMENT (COURT DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE), SUBJECTED TO WARRANTLESS SEARCHES, WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE AND ALL KINDS OF HORRIBLE CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS - ALL FOR DISCLOSING AGENCY'S FAILURES IN PROCESSING APPLICANTS FOR...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Monday it has barred 38 members of a U.N. nuclear inspection team from entering the country, in what appeared to be retaliation for sanctions imposed last month over its contentious atomic program. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said some inspectors were admitted, but maintained that Iran could decide who should be turned away. "The International Atomic Energy Agency submits a long list of inspectors to member countries and the countries have the right to oppose the visit by some inspectors," Mottaki told the official Islamic Republic News Agency. The head of the parliamentary committee of national...

Last Update: Saturday, September 23, 2006. 11:04pm (AEST) Thai junta vows action against foreign media Thailand's new military leaders have warned they will retaliate against foreign media outlets they say have insulted the monarchy in reporting Tuesday's coup. "At today's meeting, top military leaders asked the foreign ministry to urgently retaliate against foreign reporters whose coverage has been deemed insulting to the monarchy," spokesman Major-General Thaweep Netniyan said. He has neither named the foreign media organisations or dispatches deemed offensive, nor specified how the regime will retaliate. Insulting the King is a serious criminal offence in Thailand, punishable by up...

/begin my summaryN. Korean Embassy in Australia, "(We) Can hit Australia, too" N. Korea is angrily responding to Australia, which rebuked the N. Korean missile launches, insisting  that N. Korean missiles and nuclear warheads can also hit Australia, according to Australian newspapers on July 6th. The reports say that, the unofficial spokesman of N. Korean Embassy, Kim Myung-chul brought up (possible)  military action while assailing the remarks by PM John Howard and FM Alexander Downer in which they criticized N. Korean launches and demanded firm response by international community. Mr. Kim said that PM Howard and FM Downer are free to express their...

Putin seeks to start anti-terror offensive Published July 5, 2006 MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin asked parliament yesterday for the right to send soldiers and special forces anywhere in the world to fight terrorists, acting just days after having pledged to "destroy" the terrorists who killed five Russian diplomats in Iraq. Moscow confirmed early last week that terrorists had killed four abducted diplomats, beheading two of them in an Internet video, after Russia refused their demand to leave the breakaway republic of Chechnya. A fifth diplomat was killed during the abduction June 3. Russian security services last week offered...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea will respond to a pre-emptive U.S. military attack with an "annihilating strike and a nuclear war," the state-run media said Monday, heightening its antagonistic rhetoric. The Korean Central News Agency, citing an unidentified Rodong Sinmun newspaper "analyst," accused the United States of increasing military pressure on the isolated communist state. The North Korean threat of retaliation, which is often voiced by its state-controlled media, comes amid U.S. official reports that Pyongyang has shown signs of preparing for a test of a long-range missile. "The army and people of the DPRK are now in full...

Florida, June 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A North Country Gazette exclusive reveals that Florida’s Department of Health has demanded the nursing license and nearly $1700 dollars in fines and administrative costs from a nurse who gave public testimony in the case of Terri Schiavo. This comes at the same time that the Department of Health has dropped action against Michael Schiavo, also a registered nurse, for falsifying his guardianship papers. Carla Sauer Iyer, a nurse who cared for Terri Schiavo until 1996, has given numerous affidavits on her experience with Terri, and is facing the wrath of the DOH for...

Yorba Linda couple say union members allowed their dream home to burn because one of the owners belonged to a nonunion force. Orange County fire officials are investigating the complaint of a Yorba Linda couple who say county firefighters deliberately let their five-bedroom home and garage burn for almost an hour last December before putting it out. Tricia and Jeff James maintain that unionized Orange County firefighters were slow to act once they discovered Jeff James was a firefighter at a department in the Los Angeles suburb of Vernon that was nonunionized. Among James' complaints was her recollection that a...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would launch medium-range missiles if attacked, a military leader said on Saturday, accusing Britain and the United States of arming rebels as international pressure mounts on Tehran over its nuclear plans. "If we come under a military attack, we will respond with our very effective missile defence," Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, told state television. Military experts reckon the Revolutionary Guard's Shahab-3 missiles have a range of some 2,000 km, meaning Israel, U.S. bases in the Gulf and foreign troops in Iraq lie within their range. Safavi repeated Tehran's allegations that...

SAMARRA, Iraq — After keeping their distance for months, Iraqis in this Sunni Arab city suddenly began cooperating with U.S. troops, leading them to insurgents and hidden weapons caches. The reason: anger over the assassination by insurgents of a local tribal chief. "That's when they decided to make a stand," said Capt. Ryan Wylie, commander of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment. "They definitely had an idea of the terrorists and where they hang out." U.S. commanders cite other reasons for a lull in violence in this city 60 miles north of Baghdad. They include construction of an 11-mile berm around...

Uniformed Mexicans with guns, bulldozer seize drug-bust truck from Border Patrol U.S. Border Patrol agents were backed down this week by armed men, dressed in what appeared to be Mexican military uniforms and carrying military weapons, who seized a captured dump truck filled with marijuana from the U.S. agents and dragged it across the border into Mexico with a bulldozer. The border incident occurred Thursday evening when Border Patrol agents attempted to pull over a dump truck on Interstate 10 in Hudspeth County, Texas. The driver fled from the agents, exiting the freeway and driving toward the Rio Grande which...

China Gears Up to Avenge Korean Food Safety Warnings After revelations that freshwater fish imported from China was tainted with the carcinogenic dye malachite green and Chinese-produced kimchi contained parasites and unusually high levels of lead, Beijing appears to be getting ready to avenge its tainted honor. "Inspections have shown that Korean products contain malachite green as well, but the Korean government without notifying the Chinese government, and without a seeking consensus on the issue, simply made an announcement in the press as if Chinese products were the only products with such problems," a Chinese government official said. "If there...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A United Nations employee whose sexual harassment claims led former refugee chief Ruud Lubbers to resign now alleges that she was the target of retaliation, and plans to sue him and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, she said Wednesday. Cynthia Brzak, 52, said she hopes her case against Annan and Lubbers, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, will set a precedent example for whistleblowers in the U.N. who believe its internal justice system doesn't protect them against punishment. "My goal is that I don't think anyone in the world is above the law," Brzak said in an...

WASHINGTON - An officer who has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous rules, charges his lawyer says are aimed at hurting his credibility. The alleged infractions by Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, 42, include obtaining a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification while drunk and stealing pens, according to paperwork from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency shown by his attorney to The Associated Press. Shaffer was one of the first to publicly link Sept. 11 leader Mohamed Atta to the unit...

Japan Rethinking Plan for Security Council By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 30, 8:31 PM ET Japan has warned Congress that U.S. legislation seeking to withhold United Nations dues could lead Japanese lawmakers to take similar action, possibly resulting in the loss of millions of dollars to the world body, a Japanese diplomat said Friday. Deputy Ambassador Toshiro Ozawa said he told Rep. Henry Hyde (news, bio, voting record) in a meeting early this month of the possible "unintended consequences" surrounding a bill the Illinois Republican sponsored as a way to force the United Nations to enact a...

Col. Tony Shaffer has had his security clearances revoked by the DoD and have officially notified his attorney of the circumstances surrounding the revocation. Although it does not technically affect his membership in the Army reserve, the action effectively ends the career of the former DIA liaison to the Able Danger project. Shaffer cannot pursue his specialties within the Army or DoD without security clearances. So what led to the revocation of Shaffer's clearance -- his whistleblowing to Congress or his interviews with the press on Able Danger? No, that would look too direct. The Pentagon gave this list of...

(PRWEB) - Beverly Hills, CA. (PRWEB) September 2, 2005 -- A final decision was issued in the complaint of discrimination filed by former Customs and Border Protection Officer Julia Davis against the Department of Homeland Security (EEOC No. 340-04-00317X). The Honorable Administrative Judge Daniel Leach found the Agency liable, awarding to Julia Davis damages, attorney fees and costs in excess of $225,000.00 dollars. Ms. Davis was represented by Beverly Hills attorney David Ross of Ross, Rose and Hammill, LLP. Judge Leach ruled that Ms. Davis "established agency culpability of an egregious sort and has been awarded a significant sum in...

The U.S. Attorney's Office has filed a secret lawsuit against Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham that contends he should forfeit his Rancho Santa Fe home to the government because it was purchased with illegally obtained money. Notice of the lawsuit and the government's interest in the property was filed with the San Diego County Recorder's Office. Cunningham's attorney, Lee Blalack, declined to comment yesterday on the lawsuit but said he had filed a motion challenging the U.S. government's legal claim on the house. The home – a five-bedroom, eight-bath Spanish colonial estate on Via Del Charro – was listed for sale...

It was discovered in Munich, during the 1972 Olympic Games, that terrorists could not be dissuaded from carrying out heinous acts of cold blood against innocents when motivated by ethnic hatred or religious fanaticism. It also became apparent that the rest of the world could and would carry on as though the fedayeen's (men of sacrifice) acts of barbarism were of no particular cause for concern. To emphasize this, The Olympic Games continued with full media coverage after the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team by PLO affiliates referred to as "Black September". Although Israel absolutely refused to...

I was listening to Rush today, and he was playing excerpts from miscellaneous Dems' reactions to President Bush's speech on Tuesday night. They are outraged - outraged, I tell you! - that the president dared to connect the events of September 11, 2001 and the war in Iraq. It's just like their purported indignation at Karl Rove's comments about liberals not supporting aggressive (read "military") responses to 9/11. Well, they have to act outraged and indignant, now, don't they?! Because they know full well that Americans will rally behind whatever is necessary to avenge 9/11 and prevent another one. They...

France's Indian Airbus Overreaction Causes Other Trouble Posted online: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, MAY 17: The first victim of Airbus Industrie losing out to Boeing on Air-India’s recent Rs 30,000-crore deal may be none other than the much-delayed $1.8-billion deal to acquire French Scorpene submarines. BrideGroom 18-2526-3031-3536-4546-5099-50 The government, which was expected to clear the deal earlier this month for the Indian Navy, now seems to have put it off for some more time. Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee told FE, "There are some problems in the Scorpene deal and we are looking into them."...

May 16, 2005 U.S. Is Warning North Koreans on Nuclear Test By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON, May 15 - The Bush administration on Sunday warned North Korea for the first time that if it conducted a nuclear test, the United States and several Pacific powers would take punitive action, but officials stopped short of saying what kind of sanctions would result. "Action would have to be taken," Stephen J. Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, said on the CNN program "Late Edition." Asked earlier on "Fox News Sunday" about recent reports that intelligence agencies have warned that North Korea could...

Republicans vow retaliation in ethics feud Democrats are told to expect rash of inquiries into actions By KAREN MacPHERSON BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Angry House Republicans yesterday warned their Democratic colleagues to expect a spate of inquiries into possible ethics violations in retaliation for forcing GOP leaders to jettison controversial new rules for ethics probes. The Republican admonitions came a day after House GOP leaders, under intense pressure from Democrats, made a rare policy reversal and grudgingly scrapped ethics rules they had pushed through the House only a few months ago. Republicans contended the rules made the ethics process...

Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment hearings, was interviewed by ABC News political reporter Andy Shaw. The ABC headline is entitled, "Clinton Impeachment was Retaliation for Nixon, Says Retiring Congressman." This is completely bogus. When listening to the clip, I noticed a couple things. First, Andy Shaw said that the impeachment of Clinton embarrassed Henry Hyde because it brought attention to his "hypocrisy" many years earlier when he participated in an extramarital affair. (Unsurprisingly, Shaw did not mention anything about obstruction of justice.) Second, Shaw commented on Hyde's retirement, saying that some people...

10:02 AM EST Mar 15 Two wounded suspected Abu Sayyaf prisoners walk after police stormed a maximum-security jail in a hail of gunfire Tuesday. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines braced for retaliatory attacks after some of the country's most hardened terror suspects were killed in a failed prison uprising that left 28 people dead, most of them inmates killed in a barrage of bullets as hundreds of police stormed the maximum security facility. The dead included three leaders and a fourth member of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, a group notorious for deadly attacks and ransom kidnappings...

Salam al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), represents himself and his organization as stalwart opponents of terrorism who are actively working with the FBI and California law enforcement agencies to combat it. At a joint press conference with representatives of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department on October 14 of this year, Marayati waxed expansive and almost poetic in his glowing account of his organization’s cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the war against terrorism. MPAC has announced a “National Anti-Terrorism Campaign,” and is holding its 4th annual conference (see its poster here)...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in Iran: The Invisible Revolution. During the U.S. presidential campaign, debate over Iran policy received unprecedented attention. The reasons are multifold. With Iran on the verge of developing both nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capability, Washington policymakers can no longer ignore the Iranian threat, especially when confidants of Supreme Leader Ali Khomenei lead televised chants of "American will be annihilated," as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati did last June. American concern over a nuclear Iran is multifold. The danger is not necessarily that Iran would conduct a nuclear first strike, although former president Ali Akbar...

Protest in Taipei against US arms deal Purchase will trigger weapons race with China and force cuts in welfare, demonstrators claim TAIPEI THOUSANDS of protesters marched through Taiwan's capital yesterday, urging the government to scrap a massive US weapons package that they said would trigger an arms race with China and squeeze social welfare. Holding banners reading 'Our money, your war', 'Want peace, no war', protesters ranging from veterans to unemployed workers and children joined the march to the Presidential Office. Organisers had expected more than 10,000 people to take part in the rally, but police estimated a turnout of...

A Clackamas County prosecutor has been suspended without pay for two weeks after he admitted using office equipment to print an affidavit in which he called Sen. John Kerry a liar. But the district attorney's office said Friday that Alfred French will not be disciplined for lying about an interoffice affair to his then-boss in the 1990s. French, who was put on leave Aug. 26 amid complaints about the commercial and his acknowledgement that he lied about the affair, will return to work Oct. 4, according to a press release from District Attorney John Foote's office. French will retain his...

Russia Says It Can Hit Militants Abroad Photo: AP Russia has the right to carry out pre-emptive strikes on militant bases abroad, Russia's defense minister said Sunday, citing the school hostage crisis. He said Moscow and the United States see eye to eye on fighting terrorism. Sergei Ivanov did not say what countries might be possible targets for a strike, but Russian officials in the past have said Chechen separatists have bases in nearby Georgia, and Moscow has had friction with that country's pro-U.S. government over the issue. President Vladimir Putin has blamed international terrorism for the school hostage crisis...

North Korea bans tourists from China HONG KONG - A scathing article in China slamming North Korea for being an irresponsible and ungrateful troublemaker has led to Pyongyang barring Chinese tourists, Japanese and Hong Kong media have reported. The article, published in the latest issue of the semi- official bi-monthly Strategy And Management, castigated North Korea, which has few friends, for not showing gratitude for China's support during times of trouble. Researcher Wang Wen zhong from a Tianjin academy wrote: 'Often, North Korea would disregard friend- ship and show no sense of responsibility when dealing with international issues, and this...