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N. Korea says it never expects U.S. economic aid SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday fumed at U.S. reports that the country is seeking economic assistance from the United States in return for denuclearization. The ruling Workers' Party's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun commented that Fox News TV, CBS and CNN were "as impudent as to make rubbish that if the DPRK meets the requirements of the U.S., it can get 'large-scale non-governmental economic aid.'" "This is nonsense of hack media on the payroll of power," according to its commentary carried in an English dispatch by the state-run...

North Korea vowed Friday not to give up nuclear arms for "petty economic aid," claiming it has only developed them to counter what it called U.S. nuclear threats. The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the reason the communist country pursued nuclear arms is not to bargain them for economic benefits but to counter "the deepening U.S. nuclear threats." "We have tightened our belts, braved various difficulties and spent countless (amounts of) money to obtain a nuclear deterrent as a self-defense measure against U.S. nuclear threats," the KCNA said in an editorial monitored in Seoul. "We never meant...

Enriching lives and library cards. When a company is as huge as Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), and the pockets as deep as those of billionaire Bill Gates even ancillary entities make the news. So it is with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was announced Friday that Ghana's Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital will receive $5 million from the foundation to procure equipment for the hospital. The money is expected to be used in training and retraining of health personnel of KATH and other health institutions in the African nation. In domestic business, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer...

Promoting Afghanistan by Gary Dempsey and Aaron Lukas Gary Dempsey is a foreign policy analyst and Aaron Lukas a trade analyst with the Cato Institute. On Monday, when they opened their Tokyo meetings, representatives from the United States and other donor nations began deciding how much reconstruction aid they will give to Afghanistan. Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, says the United States should help to contribute between $10 billion and $15 billion over the next five years. Afghanistan's interim government, led by Hamid Karzai, is asking for $45 billion over ten. But economic...

13:05 U.S. resumes direct economic aid to Palestinian Authority with transfer of $30 million (Israel Radio)