Repealing 'don't ask, don't tell': the next steps

Although Congress has now voted to repeal the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, it will be at least a few months before the historic change takes effect.
President Barack Obama will sign the repeal on Wednesday morning, the White House says, setting the stage to allow gay people to serve openly in the armed forces. But the Pentagon has an 87-page implementation plan for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Over the next several weeks, military officials need to examine and rewrite a series of policies, regulations and directives related to the current law.
Once that potentially lengthy process is complete, Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen will each have to certify that the repeal can move ahead without negatively affecting unit cohesion and military readiness.
After the certification, another 60 days will need to pass before the repeal is officially enacted.
Even after the repeal, gay and lesbian service members will not have every right and privilege accorded to heterosexual members of the military, largely because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
-- all of whom identified themselves as gay but who do not want to be identified -- expressed relief at the congressional decision to repeal "don't ask, don't tell."
One member currently serves in the Air Force, while another serves in the Navy. The third referred to himself only as a military officer.
None of the three said the impending repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" would have a dramatic impact on their day-to-day life. They said they don't plan on revealing their sexual orientation to anyone who isn't already aware of it.
They predicted little drama on the day the repeal takes effect, contending that few people currently hiding their sexual identity would make any sort of public declaration.
All three said that passage of the repeal would make it more likely that they will remain in the military for a longer period of time.

A Pentagon study released this month concluded that allowing openly gay or lesbian troops to serve in the military would have little lasting impact on the U.S. armed forces. Opposition to the change was much higher in Army and Marine combat units than in the military as a whole.

Source: CNN

Severe weather crowds European airports with frustrated passengers

Frustrated passengers crammed Europe's major airports Monday as heavy snowfall forced new cancellations and delays for fliers across the continent.
London's Gatwick Airport was closed until Tuesday morning after 5 cm (2 inches) of snow fell in an hour Monday night, airport officials reported. Airport staff was working to make stranded passengers "as comfortable as possible," but it advised other travelers to check before they left for the airport to make sure their flights were still scheduled.
And London's Heathrow Airport, Britain's busiest, only a third of scheduled flights were likely to operate Monday night, according to Donna O'Brien, head of commercial communications for Heathrow Airport operator BAA. Many of those stranded there may not get their Christmas wish of being home for the holidays, she added.
"Passengers should anticipate further delays and cancellations in the following days and potentially beyond Christmas Day," O'Brien said. Airlines are currently updating which flights have been cancelled and the airport is showing the latest available flight information on its website, she said.
British Airways announced earlier Monday it had canceled all short-haul flights from Heathrow, but an airport official told CNN that other carriers' short-haul flights were still operating. Passengers who use the Heathrow Express to travel to and from the airport on Monday are being offered the service free of charge. Tickets normally cost between 16 and 30 pounds ($25 to $46) for single and return trips.
Only one of Heathrow's runways had been operational earlier Monday, a day after almost all flights at one of the world's busiest international airports were canceled.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded over the weekend, with many sleeping at the airport. Many have sent their stories in to CNN's iReport.
"We're still standing by for someone to tell us what's happening," one frustrated passenger complained after spending several hours at the airport and having at least two flights canceled.
"It's a total disaster," said another stranded passenger. Other passengers voicing their concerns to CNN said they received no offers of assistance from the airport, including food or a hotel room.
Passengers headed to Heathrow from Brussels airport will get there by coach or boat, after a shortage of de-icing liquids at Brussels Airport caused more airline delays, its website said.
Paris Charles de Gaulle airport was set to cancel 30% of flights Monday, as was the city's second airport, Orly, Aeroports de Paris said.
And Frankfurt airport in Germany called off 325 flights out of a scheduled 1,300 to 1,400, spokesman Robert Payne said. Some of that is because of the weather in Germany and some of it is because of flight disruptions at other airports, he added.
The airport, Europe's third busiest, has 450 people working "around the clock, deicing and removing snow," he said.
Lufthansa airline announced it was gradually expanding its schedule after massive cancellations of its flights into and out of Frankfurt, Germany, to European destinations. A statement on its website advised travelers to exchange their air tickets for train tickets.
The company said it expects that "its scheduled services will largely be back to normal by Tuesday evening." Long-haul flights were being flown Monday, it said.
In other travel news:
-- Berlin airport in Germany was open, with some cancellations and delays, a spokesman said.
-- Temperatures hit a record low in Northern Ireland overnight, the Met Office said, with 18 degrees below zero Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in Castlederg, County Tyrone. There is no sign of a thaw, forecasters say.
-- British Airways advised travelers to check flight status at www.ba2go.com, but people report difficulty accessing the website.
Eurostar will operate a restricted service for the rest of the week, a representative said, because of bad weather, speed restrictions placed on Eurostar's high speed lines, have added up to two hours to journey times.
Lines outside London's St. Pancreas terminal are so long, Eurostar asked passengers not to come to the station, even if they have a booking. They are, however, offering refunds and exchanges to inconvenienced passengers.
Ground travel in France was also snarled by heavy snowfall and cold temperatures. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said Sunday that French authorities reported they are preventing all cargo trucks and buses from using roads in northern France and the greater Paris metropolitan area, and that car travel is "unadvisable." Air and rail services were also affected, the office said.
The adverse weather in France affected pop singer Lady Gaga, who said on her Facebook page that all 28 of her tour trucks had been detained by the government for more than 24 hours.
A Lady Gaga concert set for Sunday night was rescheduled for Tuesday, according to the website of the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where it was to be held. A Monday concert remains scheduled.
Paris police said that since noon Saturday, more than 1,300 trucks had been barred from entering Paris, and no trucks were being allowed to circulate in the city.
"We've got a few thousand people that have, unfortunately, had to spend the night," said Andrew Teacher, another spokesman for the company at operates Heathrow, on Sunday. "We've been making them as comfortable as possible with blankets, with food and water."
Teacher said ice was the main problem affecting flights.
"We are extremely sorry for the disruption that's been caused to people's journeys today, but the decision has been made simply to avoid any kind of potential risk," Teacher said.
"These are absolutely ... freak weather conditions," he added. "We've not seen a storm like this in 20 years."

Source: CNN

U.N. Security Council extends peacekeepers' time in Ivory Coast

The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended its peacekeepers' mission in Ivory Coast through June 30, despite an expulsion order days earlier by the West African nation's disputed incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo.
The peacekeepers' mission had been scheduled to end December 31.
Head of U.N. peacekeeping Alain Le Roy told reporters Monday that the council's decision was unanimous.
"We consider it's not right for us to leave. We have a mandate to fulfill and we are not going to leave," Le Roy said.
"We are resupplying," he added. "We know it's going to be very delicate and dangerous. That's why it's so important to have unanimous support of the council."
Meanwhile, Gbagbo is considering hiring an objective outside mediator to investigate allegations of election fraud, according to a prominent American attorney hired by him to advise on options for resolving the crisis.
But the U.N. Security Council joined several other world bodies in calling for Gbagbo to step down after a contested election, with many world leaders saying Alassane Ouattara won the November runoff.
On Monday, the Obama administration joined that international chorus.
"The results are clear, and it's time for him to go," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said of Gbagbo.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to United Nations, said Monday that she was aware of reports of Gbagbo hiring mercenaries. Le Roy confirmed later Monday that some mercenaries are working with Ivorian forces.
"If they are confirmed, they would be of grave concern not only to the United States but to the entire Security Council," Rice said.
A U.N. spokesman said Monday that "any attack on peacekeepers will be held accountable."
Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to President Bill Clinton for two years, said Gbagbo is renouncing the violence that has enveloped Ivory Coast since its disputed presidential election.
Davis said he suggested the government hire former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who helped resolve violence in the Ivory Coast in 2005, or some other world leader respected by all parties to seek resolution to the country's presidential election dispute.
Ivory Coast's Independent Electoral Commission declared Gbagbo's main challenger Alassane Ouattara the winner December 2, but the country's Constitutional Council, closely aligned with Gbagbo, threw out some votes from the Ouattara-friendly Northern areas due to what it said were "flagrant irregularities." Gbagbo refuses to step down.
"I've urged the Ivory Coast government to be fully transparent as to all the reasons why the Constitutional Council determined that Gbagbo was the winner," Davis said at a press briefing Monday.
The government said in a statement that it has obtained videotape depicting incidents of voter suppression and intimidation of Gbagbo supporters, along with other evidence of fraud.
Davis, who insisted he is not trying to prove who won the election, said the international community should reserve judgment until all the facts are thoroughly examined.
State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday the United States is continuing to prepare targeted sanctions on Gbagbo, his immediate family, and his inner circle, but that any travel sanctions would not impede his ability to leave the country.
"Nothing that we decide to do would impede his stepping down and making way for the government of President-elect Ouattara," Crowley told reporters.
Davis said he has not personally spoken with Gbagbo.
"Mr. Gbagbo opposes violence and has authorized me to say he wants a mutual renunciation of violence and calls on Mr. Ouattara to join him on putting the arms down and let's sit down and talk," Davis said.
"He's not saying my way or the highway," Davis said.
But in a statement Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "the international community has spoken with one voice regarding Mr. Gbagbo's attempt to hold on to power," noting statements also from the African Union and Economic Community of West African States.
Gbagbo has remained defiant, and earlier Saturday he ordered all U.N. peacekeeping forces out of the country.
Ban responded by saying the peacekeepers will remain to "monitor and document any human rights violations, incitement to hatred and violence, or attacks on U.N. peacekeepers."
Two U.N. military observers were hurt Saturday in an attack by what Ban called "Young Patriots," according to the statement issued by the secretary-general.
On Friday, six armed men wearing military uniforms and traveling in a civilian vehicle opened fire on U.N. peacekeepers in Sebroko, according to a statement Saturday on the peacekeeping operation's website. The U.N. troops returned fire. There were no reports of injuries.
Ban reiterated Saturday that "any attack on U.N. forces will be an attack on the international community and those responsible for these actions will be held accountable."
"There will be consequences for those who have perpetrated or orchestrated any such actions, or (who) do so in the future," Ban said.
The Gbagbo government accuses the U.N. of providing military and logistical support to the former rebels, who are backers of Ouattara's. In a Friday national television appearance, Ivory Coast Army Col. Gohourou Babri accused the United Nations of transporting armed Ouattara supporters to various sites across the country to launch attacks.
Babri said four former rebels were killed Saturday in an attack by government forces on a camp in Trebissou near the cease-fire line. His claims could not be immediately verified.
And at least nine unarmed protesters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, were shot and killed by security forces during demonstrations Thursday, witnesses told Amnesty International. The violence erupted as troops loyal to the incumbent president and supporters of his challenger confronted each other.
Ban said Friday that Gbagbo's efforts to stay in power "cannot be allowed to stand," adding that anything other than his removal from office "would make a mockery of democracy."

"The results of the election are known. There was a clear winner. There is no other option," Ban said.

Source: CNN

Kosovo's PM fires back over stolen organs report

Kosovo's prime minster lashed out at critics Monday over a recent report alleging that officials may have stolen organs from prisoners of war and political rivals, calling it "pure fabrication." European authorities charged in a report released last week that executives who control the country may have stolen organs when the Kosovo Liberation Army was fighting Serbian forces in the late 1990s.
"It is a political accusation based on no facts or proof," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said. "Therefore, it is a pure fabrication."
The report says Thaci, a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was the "boss" of a prominent faction in the militia that "apparently wrested control" of "illicit criminal enterprises" from rivals across the border in Albania.
"Numerous indications seem to confirm that ... organs were removed from some prisoners ... to be taken abroad for transplantation," read the report.

It suggested that illegal organ trafficking continued after the war ended.
And links between "criminal activity" and "certain KLA militia leaders ... has continued, albeit in other forms, until today," the report charges.
Thaci said he is looking into all legal and political possibilities to correct what he sees as the report's inaccuracies. It was not immediately clear what action he planned to take.
"It is a lie for which Dick Marty will be accountable," the prime minister said of the author of the draft report.
Nearly 1,900 people who disappeared during the conflict still have not been found, and another 500 disappeared after NATO troops arrived in June 1999, according to Marty.
The report is based partially on investigations by European Union officials and was written for the Council of Europe's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
European Union officials in Kosovo have said that anyone with concrete evidence of war crimes or organized crime should step forward.
Kosovo was a province of Serbia but declared independence in 2008. About 70 countries have recognized the declaration, but Serbia does not, and international organizations including the United Nations and European Union continue to have administrators in Kosovo.
The Council of Europe, an organization with 47 member countries, seeks to promote democracy and human rights. The council's parliament plans to debate the report in January.

"This (report) of course is a blow (for Kosovo), but this challenge will be overcome because it has nothing in common with the truth, and the truth is that Kosovo is a story of success," Thaci said.

Source: CNN

Residents of South Korean island fleeing ahead of military drills

Amid South Korean plans to hold live-fire military drills this week and North Korean threats of retaliation, many residents of Yeonpyeong Island are evacuating, afraid of being caught in the middle.
Villagers streamed onto what they believed was the last ferry to Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday, carrying what belongings they could. Some were holding their children as others helped the elderly.
"I'm leaving because they said the drills are tomorrow," said Kim Ok Jin, 66.
Kim said the island was once a good place to live and she does not want to leave.
"Of course I'm angry," she said. "But that's not going to change anything."
Many Yeonpyeong residents are evacuating for a second time. This time, however, they have warning. On November 23, they had none before North Korea began shelling the island. Two civilians and two South Korean Marines died in the attack.
The South Korean military said Thursday that its drills will take place in the seas southwest of Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21, but bad weather forced a delay Saturday. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the drills will take place Monday or Tuesday in the Yellow Sea off the island.
As villagers departed, few signs of life remained on the island -- only military trucks patrolling and waiting for possible North Korean retaliation for the drills.
Not everyone on Yeonpyeong, however, was leaving. Song Young Ok said she has not been told to stop selling tickets for the ferry off the island, and doesn't know when the military drills will take place.
Song said she is planning to stay put, holed up along with others in a military bunker.
She said she doesn't know why it has to be this way -- if South Korea carries out the drills, North Korea has threatened to retaliate even more strongly. South Korea's insistence on conducting the drills is picking a fight, she said.
Others were more optimistic. "It's OK," said ferry passenger Lee Chun Nyeo, 83. "The soldiers need to do (the exercises), right?"
Yeonpyeong is located just south of the Northern Limit Line, the line drawn in 1953 by the United Nations just after the Korean War. The U.N. drew the line three nautical miles from the North Korean coast and put five islands close to the coast under South Korean control.
That was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. But in the absence of a full peace agreement, the Northern Limit Line remains in place.
North Korea has suggested an alternative line, but South Korea has resisted, as it would bring the North's maritime boundary close to Incheon, a main port.
Waters in the Yellow Sea are important for fishing and crab. For North Korean fishermen especially, the blue crab season between June and September is an important source of income. Crabs have a habit of migrating south during that time, so the water is sometimes crowded with boats from both countries, as well as vessels from China. However, the Yellow Sea has seen armed clashes in the past few years, the most serious of them in 1999 and 2002.

China and Russia have asked South Korea to reconsider holding the drills. Russia called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.

Source: CNN

U.N.: Thousands flee Ivory Coast amid fears of regional conflict

A political standoff has forced nearly 4,000 citizens of northwest Ivory Coast to flee to neighboring countries, prompting fears of regional insecurity, according to the United Nations.
The disputed presidential election outcome between opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has threatened to derail a fragile peace process in the west African nation.
The renewed refugee flow has also put neighboring Liberia and Guinea on high alert.
"In my village the majority voted massively for President Laurent Gbagbo, and [the New Forces soldiers] threatened us because of that. They came to our houses and started to harass us, to mistreat us," said Jean-Jacques Issignate, 19, from Nyale, an Ivorian village along the Guinea border. "We fled to the forest ... I spent one week in the forest."
Provisional results from a November presidential runoff intended to end more than 10 years of civil war showed Ouattara as the winner with a nearly eight-point margin.
Earlier this month, the nation's highest court, headed by an ally of Gbagbo, canceled thousands of votes from the north -- Ouattara's stronghold -- and declared Gbagbo the winner with 51 percent of the vote.
Both candidates have said they won and set up parallel governments in the city of Abidjan, where violence between their supporters has killed dozens since results were announced.
Britain's Foreign Office Sunday urged British people to leave the country "due to the threat of widespread instability and violence in Abidjan and other major cities."
Ouattara has unanimous international support. He urged his supporters to forcefully "liberate" the country's national television station and parliament building, sparking a standoff with soldiers loyal to Gbagbo.
The U.N. security council and other world bodies called for Gbagbo to step down, with many world leaders saying Ouattara won.
Political intimidation has forced nearly 4,000 Ivorians to flee to neighboring Liberia and Guinea, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
Red Cross representatives in Guinea say many more have been separated from their families.
"They're spread out all over. There are others who are in the bush, there are others who we haven't seen, there are small children who have come here without their brothers, there are mothers who are still in the bush, there are fathers who fled to Liberia," said Mayoh Bohmimy, who is managing a U.N.-sponsored camp for displaced Ivorians in Bossou, a Guinean village near the Liberian border.
Clutching silver pots and pans, and hoisting plastic buckets filled with clothes and blankets on their heads, Ivorians such as Jean-Jacques fled without food and water for days.
Their new neighbors include wild chimpanzees that inhabit a reserve in Bossou.
Sebastien Gome, 18, is a Ouattara supporter who left town because his parents had voted for Gbagbo.
He said he found many people sleeping in the forest after he split with his parents for safety.
"I arrived by bicycle at the border, but they told me the road was closed and I should turn around. I had to pass by the forest. I saw many people there so I spent the night with them ... they had set up a tarp and we slept underneath it," he said. Eloi Onseu, a farmer from Nyale, sought refuge in Guinea.
"Our village was majority Gbagbo, so the New Forces were not happy with that," he said. "They entered the village around 3 p.m. one day and started to beat people."
Onseu said they beat residents and and shot in the air.
"That was when people started to flee," he said.
Authorities for the New Forces denied any violence or the existence of refugees.
"We heard reports of Ivorian refugees who fled to Guinea, which is surprising because we haven't seen any ... everything is fine here and people are living in harmony," said Lounceny Ouattara, a commander in the New Forces army.
Meanwhile Sunday, Navi Pillay, the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, warned of "growing evidence of massive violations of human rights," according to a statement.
Pillay said that more than 50 people have been killed in the past three days and more than 200 injured.
"When people are victims of extrajudicial killings there must be an investigation, and there must be accountability," Pillay said. "However, the deteriorating security conditions in the country and the interference with freedom of movement of U.N. personnel have made it difficult to investigate the large number of human rights violations reported."
The tensions in Ivory Coast have spiked fears that refugees could destabilize neighboring states, and armed groups could attack across porous borders.
"There is the risk any time conflict flares up that ex-combatants ... will follow the potential looting and fighting opportunities in neighboring countries, and will thus become active fighters again, setting the process of post-conflict peace-building back to zero," said Mike McGovern, an expert on Ivory Coast at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Astrid Castelein, interim head of UNHCR's operations in southeast Guinea, said that contingency plans have been set up in all countries bordering Ivory Coast amid fears of a conflict.
"We have about 3,500 refugees in Liberia, here we have 227 registered by today, and we are really preparing for an emergency situation especially in Liberia where there is already a big amount and they are facing already hard challenges in housing and foodstuffs," Castelein said.
Guinea has mobilized a special commando force to patrol its borders with Ivory Coast since the start of the Ivorian election process, while Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently warned ex-rebels in her country not to get involved in Ivory Coast's problems.
The southeastern forest region in Guinea saw an influx of refugees from civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast in the past two decades, and the country's authorities are keen to avoid a similar situation.
Guinean forces are on high alert and have been ordered to patrol the dirt roads, tall grass and thick forest that separate the country from Ivory Coast.
But villagers threatened by political intimidation are concerned about their safety.

"Bullets don't have bias toward supporters of Ouattara or Gbagbo," Onseu said. "I want peace in my country so that my family and I can return home."

Source: CNN

Protests erupt after Lukashenko appears to win Belarus election

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, once called "the last dictator in Europe" by a U.S. official, easily won re-election in voting Sunday, according to exit polls reported by several media outlets.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates were protesting in the capital city of Minsk and clashing with police. Two opposition candidates were injured, one reportedly seriously.
Several hundred protesters were arrested and taken away by riot police, according to journalist Alexander Lukashuk. They were herded into about 20 trucks and driven off, he said.
The square outside government headquarters in Minsk was cleared of protesters as of about 11:50 p.m. (4:50 p.m. ET), he said, although a few hundred stragglers could still be seen waving flags in groups. Streets were closed and police cordoned off the area.
One demonstration was in support of presidential candidate Vladimir Neklyayev, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Neklyayev was hurt in clashes with riot police, another candidate, Nikolay Statkevich, told Interfax, and was taken away unconscious to his office. His spokeswoman, Yulia Ymashevskaya, told Interfax he had been badly beaten. Statkevich and Neklyayev's attorney were also injured, she said.
Lukashuk told CNN Neklyayev was attacked by people in civilian clothes.
Neklyayev was treated by paramedics, Ymashevskaya told Interfax. State-run Russian news agency RIA-Novosti later reported he was hospitalized with a head injury.
"I was beaten and Neklyayev was beaten and he lost consciousness," Statkevich told RIA-Novosti. He said the special forces used noise grenades and batons.
Authorities used stun grenades on the demonstrators as they headed toward the square, Interfax reported. However, several thousand people gathered in the square, chanting "For Belarus!" Some of them were waving flags with the symbol of the Christians Democratic Party, led by candidate Vitaly Rymashevskuy.
Police were using force to push the protesters back and disperse them, Lukashuk said. He said no shots were fired, but beatings were taking place.
Police turned the downtown square into a skating rink to head off the protests, RIA-Novosti said. Organizers told supporters to bring salt and sand to throw on the ice.
Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, was running against nine other candidates, according to the Central Election Commission. National polls showed he enjoys wide support of the electorate.
Belarus' official news agency, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTa), estimated voter turnout at 84%. Lukashenko garnered some 76.4% of the vote, it reported, citing exit polls. Interfax said Lukashenko got 79.1% of the vote, citing another exit poll. State-run Russian news agency RIA-Novosti gave 76.4% of the vote to Lukashenko.
Four of Lukashenko's nine rivals received a vote share of a little more than 3% each, BelTa reported.
Andrei Sannikov, a former diplomat who wants to see Belarus as a member of the European Union, was one of the main opposition leaders. The two others are Yaroslav Romanchuk and Neklyayev.
Economist Romanchuk, a candidate from the United Civil Party, has been prolific in publicizing his views on economic reforms. Meanwhile, Neklyayev ran a social campaign, "Tell the Truth!" He was arrested for participating in public protests earlier this year and later released.
Preliminary results show that at least 10% of eligible voters cast their votes early, as voting was held earlier this week for those unable to make it to the polls Sunday.
On December 4, state television broadcast live pre-election debates for the first time since the 1994 presidential race. Lukashenko and Neklyayev chose not to participate.
The contestants were also allowed two half-hour slots on primetime national television to address the Belarusians, according to a news release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All candidates except for Lukashenko used this opportunity during the campaign.
In 2006, security forces cracked down on protesters in the aftermath of the elections, fearing the replication of a Color Revolution in Belarus. In neighboring Ukraine, the Orange Revolution deposed the regime of Leonid Kuchma two years earlier and the 2005 Tulip Revolution in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan brought down President Askar Akayev and his government.
The Central Electoral Commission issued a statement Wednesday saying that it had accredited 1,015 international observers.
Many remained skeptical despite the unprecedented number of contestants and international observers invited to participate in the elections.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has repeatedly expressed concerns over the status of civil and political rights in Belarus. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once called Lukashenko "the last dictator in Europe."

Source: CNN

Assange granted bail, but Sweden appeals

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Tuesday after a hearing at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London, but a lawyer representing Swedish prosecutors immediately filed an appeal.
That means Assange will remain in jail until the next hearing, which should be before the High Court within 48 hours, lawyers said.
The 39-year-old Australian handed himself over to London police last week to answer a European arrest warrant over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.
Assange is facing accusations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in separate incidents in August in Stockholm. He could be sentenced to two years in prison if convicted. His lawyers deny the allegations and have vowed to fight any attempts at extradition.
The magistrate agreed to grant bail Tuesday after Vaughan Smith, a former British army officer who founded London's Frontline Club, testified that Assange could stay at his mansion in Suffolk.
Smith will keep Assange "if not under house arrest, at least under mansion arrest," said defense attorney Geoffrey Robertson. At that, Assange, dressed in a white shirt and a blue jacket and sitting in a glassed-in corner of the court with three security guards, smiled wryly.
The magistrate set bail at 200,000 pounds (about $315,000) plus two sureties of 20,000 pounds each (about $31,500). Assange's passport must remain with police, and he will be monitored by a location tag.
Assange must be at Smith's mansion, about two hours outside of London, for at least four hours overnight and four hours during the day. He will be required to report to police daily between 6 and 8 p.m. The next court hearing was scheduled for January 11.
After the conditions were set, Assange stood and said, "I understand," with a neutral expression.
His mother Christine told reporters after the hearing that she was "very, very happy" and thanked "the media for all your support of my son."
But several hours later, Sweden filed its appeal.
Outside the court, about 100 people demonstrated in support of Assange, holding signs saying "Julian Assange is a political prisoner" and "Why are you shooting the messenger?" and "This is not 1984."
During the hearing, Assange's team of attorneys argued that since he is only wanted for questioning and has not been formally charged, he is presumed innocent. The magistrate agreed.
But, said Gemma Lindfield, the attorney representing the Swedish prosecution, "The court has already found that Mr. Assange is a flight risk. Nothing has changed in this regard."
She said if the alleged offenses had occurred in Britain, "it undoubtedly would have been a charge of rape in this jurisdiction."
Robertson disputed that.
Celebrity supporters of Assange at the hearing included Bianca Jagger, who sat next to Fatima Bhutto, niece of the late Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto and current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and prominent left-wing journalist John Pilger.
Socialite Jemima Khan came to court but it is not clear she got into the very crowded hearing room. Many were turned away for lack of space.
Judge Howard Riddle denied Assange's first request for bail at a hearing on December 7 on the grounds that there was a risk he would fail to surrender.
On Tuesday, he cited four reasons for his insistence a week earlier on keeping Assange in jail: his lack of fixed residence, confusion over when and how he last entered the United Kingdom, the evidence against him in Sweden, and a dispute over whether Assange is wanted only for questioning or for prosecution.
Smith's offer of his mansion satisfied Riddle on the question of an address, and testimony from someone who arrived in the U.K. with Assange from Switzerland answered that question, he said.
He said he was not taking a position on the Swedish evidence against Assange, and that a future hearing would have to determine whether Assange was wanted for questioning or prosecution.
WikiLeaks' release of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military documents is under criminal review in the United States.
Almost half of Britons believe that the sex charges against Assange are "an excuse" to keep him in custody so that the U.S. government can prosecute him for releasing secret diplomatic cables, a new poll for CNN shows.
The ComRes poll of British opinion, released Monday on the eve of Assange's bail hearing, finds that 44% of respondents in Great Britain believe that Sweden's sex charges are just a pretext, while only 13% flatly disagree.
The remaining 43% say they don't know.
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he had authorized "significant" actions related to a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks' publication of the materials but has declined to elaborate.
WikiLeaks inflamed U.S. authorities last month by publishing the first of a large group of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables.
Only a small fraction of the 250,000 U.S. State Department documents have been released and more are being published daily.
U.S. authorities and other Western leaders say the documents' publication threatens lives and national security.

WikiLeaks and its supporters say that the public has a right to know what is going on behind diplomatic doors.

Source: CNN

Researchers report possible HIV infection cure; others cite dangers

Researchers in Germany are reporting that they may have cured a man of HIV infection. If true, that would represent a scientific advance, but not necessarily a treatment advance, said researchers familiar with the work.
In the study, published last week online in the journal Blood, researchers at Charite-University Medicine Berlin treated an HIV-infected man who also had acute myeloid leukemia -- a cancer of the immune system -- by wiping out his own immune system with high-dose chemotherapy and radiation and giving him a stem-cell transplant. Stem cells are immature cells that can mature into blood cells.
At the time of the transplant, which occurred in February 2007, he stopped taking anti-HIV medications.
Thirteen months later, after a relapse of the leukemia, he underwent a second round of treatment followed by another stem-cell transplant from the same donor.
The donor's stem cells contained a rare, inherited gene mutation that made them naturally resistant to infection with HIV, according to the authors, led by Kristina Allers, who hypothesized that HIV would nevertheless rebound over time. But that has not happened.
After three-and-a-half years off of anti-HIV drugs, the patient shows no sign of either leukemia or HIV replication and his immune system has been restored to normal health, the researchers reported, concluding, "our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient."
But AIDS researchers predicted the report will have little impact on practice.
"This probably is a cure, but it comes at a bit of a price," said Dr. Michael Saag, professor of medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham AIDS Center.
"For him to receive the donor cells, his body had to have all of his immune system wiped out" and then receive a bone marrow transplant, Saag noted. "The Catch-22 here is that the best candidates for a cure, ideally, are people who are healthy" and don't have leukemia.
The treatment associated with wiping out the immune system "is very hazardous," he said in a telephone interview.
"Even if somebody doesn't die from a transplant, there are complications that make it very unpleasant for people to live with," he said, citing graft-versus-host disease, where the infused donor cells attack the body. In a number of cases, the transplant proves fatal.
The study is a proof of the concept "that our understanding of HIV biology is correct, and that if you eliminate -- not just in theory but in practice -- all of the cells in the body that are producing HIV and replace them with uninfected cells, you have a cure," Saag said.
But remaining infected with HIV is not always associated with the same grim outcome that was the norm prior to the mid-1990s, when more effective anti-HIV drugs were developed, he said.
"We can keep people alive for a normal life span," he said. "That means a 25-year-old diagnosed today with HIV has a reasonably good chance of living to 80, 85, 90."
Further limiting the treatment's potential appeal is the fact that it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each patient who gets it, he said.
"It's not going to be applicable unless they develop leukemia or lymphoma and need a bone-marrow transplant,"Saag said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called it impractical. "It's hard enough to get a good compatible match for a transplant like this," he said in a statement. "But you also have to find (a) compatible donor that has this genetic defect, and this defect is only found in 1% of the Caucasian population and 0% of the black population. This is very rare."

But HIV itself is not. According to the World Health Organization, 33.4 million people worldwide have the virus that causes AIDS.

Source: CNN

Dozens killed in northern Israel forest fire

As many as 40 people were killed Thursday in a massive wildfire that erupted Thursday near Haifa in northern Israel and showed no sign of being controlled, the Israel Defense Forces said.
A bus carrying up to 50 people overturned "allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke" as it was traveling between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, the IDF website said.
It was not clear from the IDF website how many of the deaths attributed to fire occurred in the bus accident, but the newspaper Haaretz reported that all 40 of the dead were on the bus.
Inmates of the prison were evacuated to temporary jails nearby.
Earlier, authorities had said that 22 people were dead, another 25 were seriously hurt and more were missing in the blaze, which had scorched more than 750 acres in the Carmel Forest near Haifa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called it one of the worst fires in Israel's history and ordered the military to assist rescue and firefighting efforts.
He urged people, including the news media, to stay away from the blaze, which he called "a fire on an international scale."
Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense since last spring, when Israeli commandoes boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.
In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said.
Spain was sending four aircraft, Netanyahu said. "The necessary means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, adding that he planned to request more planes from Russia.
He predicted that the fire would take time to douse and called for calm. "I think that together, we will surmount this."
In Washington, President Barack Obama said the U.S. government had launched an effort to identify the firefighting assistance that the United States could offer and to provide it to Israel "as quickly as possible."
Friday morning, the Israeli Cabinet was to meet in Tel Aviv to formulate a response.
Micky Rosenfield, an Israeli police spokesman, told CNN that more than 1,500 people had been evacuated from their homes and that the fire was within approximately 5 kilometers of Haifa, Israel's second-largest city.
"We must achieve two goals -- saving lives and putting out the fire, " Netanyahu said Thursday night at the forward command center, according to his media adviser.
Firefighters were continuing to fight the blaze as authorities evacuated nearby communities.
The fire, bolstered by strong winds, blanketed Haifa in smoke.

It was not clear how the fire started, but police were investigating if the blaze started in an illegal dumping ground. 

Source: CNN

WikiLeaks now storing files in 'James Bond' bunker

Amazon dumped the controversial site WikiLeaks from its computer servers on Wednesday.
But WikiLeaks, which is known for publishing state secrets, apparently has found a new home for its files: A Cold War bunker, inside a Swedish mountain, that's been described as fit for a "James Bond" movie.
A company called Bahnhof is hosting the WikiLeaks site from a literal cave inside White Mountain, near Stockholm, Sweden, according to news reports from Forbes, The Associated Press, and the Norwegian news website VG Nett.
The MIT Technology Review, where we spotted this story, describes the situation this way:
"If Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying to turn himself into a Bond villain, he's succeeded: the ongoing distributed denial of service attack against Wikileaks has forced his minions to move the site to a fortified data center encased in a cold war-era, nuke-proof bunker encased in bedrock. Really."
Forbes has further details about the storage site:
"That data center will store Wikileaks' data 30 meters below ground inside a Cold-War-era nuclear bunker carved out of a large rock hill in downtown Stockholm. The server farm has a single entrance and is outfitted by half-meter thick metal doors and backup generators pulled from German submarines --fitting safeguards, perhaps."

There are YouTube videos about the bunker, photos on Flickr, and a page on Bahnhof's website dedicated to the White Mountain site. (You may have to translate that page from Swedish to figure it out, but there are photos there, too).
One video, from a group called Data Center Pulse, describes the center as one of the coolest on earth and "fit for a James Bond villain." A man who describes himself as Bahnhof's CEO in the video says that the inspiration for the center actually was "science fiction and James Bond movies.

Source: CNN

China's gold imports surge fivefold

Gold imports into China have soared this year, turning the country, already the largest bullion miner, into a major overseas buyer for the first time in recent memory.
The surge, which comes as Chinese investors look for insurance against rising inflation and currency appreciation, puts Beijing on track to overtake India as the world's largest consumer of gold and a significant force in global gold prices.
The size of the imports -- more than 209 tonnes of gold during the first 10 months of the year, a fivefold increase from an estimate of 45 tonnes last year -- was revealed on Thursday. In the past, China has kept the volume secret.
"Investment is really driving demand for gold," said Cai Minggang, at the Beijing Precious Metals Exchange. "People don't have any better investment options. Look at the stock market, or the property market -- you could make huge losses there."
Beijing has encouraged retail consumption, with an announcement in August of measures to promote and regulate the local gold market, including expanding the number of banks allowed to import bullion.
Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, who disclosed the import numbers, said uncertainties about the Chinese and global economies, and inflationary expectations, had "made gold, as a hedging tool, very popular".
The rise in Chinese demand could further inflate gold prices. Bullion hit a nominal all-time high of $1,424.10 a troy ounce last month. But adjusted for inflation, prices are far from the 1980 peak of $2,300.
"The trend is undeniable -- gold demand in China is rising rapidly," said Walter de Wet, of Standard Bank in London. China surpassed South Africa three years ago as the world's largest producer.
The surge in gold imports to China bodes well for some of the world's biggest hedge fund managers, including David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital and John Paulson of Paulson & Co, who have invested heavily in bullion, and top miners Barrick Gold of Canada, US-based Newmont Mining and AngloGold Ashanti of South Africa.
The market upswing has prompted an increase in gold scams in Hong Kong, according to industry executives. The counterfeits have shocked the Chinese' territory's gold community not because of the amounts involved -- between 200 and 2,000 ounces -- but because of their sophistication.
In one case, executives discovered a coating advertised as pure gold that masked a complex alloy which included rare metals such as osmium, iridium, ruthenium and rhodium.

Chinese total gold demand rose last year to nearly 450 tonnes, up from about 200 tonnes a decade ago, according to the World Gold Council, the lobby group of the mining industry. Analysts anticipate a further leap this year, putting the country whiting striking distance of India's total gold demand of 612 tonnes in 2009.

Source: CNN

Leaked cables show U.S. concerns with Mexico's ongoing drug war

Behind the headlines of the Mexican offensive against the drug cartels, there is a Mexico-U.S. relationship that is equal measures success and skepticism, leaked state department documents show.
The documents, made public through the WikiLeaks website, show that the United States has doubts about the way Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government is carrying out the fight against the drug gangs.
The United States provides intelligence and aid to the Mexican effort, but in the same breath lacks confidence in the way the Mexican army is operating, the documents show.
"Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of," a January 2010 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico states.
The U.S. assessment is that "official corruption is widespread," and it points out that only 2% of those detained are brought to trial. In Ciudad Juarez, a flash point in the war, only 2% of those arrested have been charged with a crime, it says.
Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has made the fight against the cartels the cornerstone of his administration, a decision that has come at a price. More than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since then, as rival cartels fight for lucrative smuggling routes, and as security forces and drug hit men clash.
The U.S., the consumer nation where the drugs are headed to, has pledged help to Mexico through agreements such as the Merida Initiative, which promises equipment, money and training.
As 2010 comes to a close, the violence and the drug traffic continue unabated.
Mexico's "inability to halt the escalating numbers of narco-related homicides in places like Ciudad Juarez and elsewhere...has become one of Calderon's principal political liabilities as the general public has grown more concerned about citizen security," the cable states.
The U.S. is particularly concerned with the effectiveness of the Mexican army, the leaked documents show.
For instance, the army was in charge of security in Juarez. After an initial success, the killings rose again, and the army handed its command over to the federal police earlier this year.
The U.S. state department viewed the Juarez experiment with the army in charge as a failure. The soldiers were not trained in law enforcement and cannot introduce evidence into the judicial system. As a result, the cable notes, there were more arrests, but no increase in prosecutions.
The United States was concerned that the criticism would make the army more risk-averse, and the embassy suggested to an American delegation heading to Mexico that they should convince the army not to look back, the document shows.
"The challenge you face ... is to convince them that modernization and not withdrawal are the way forward, and that transparency and accountability are fundamental to modernization," the cable states.
The embassy also suggests that the United States can help Mexico with institutional improvements, "including greater attention to human rights and broader regional participation"
According to the cable, the U.S. was influential in the decision to pull the army back in Juarez.
A second cable, from December 2009, also shows an American hand in one of Mexico's biggest successes -- the killing of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. The Mexican navy conducted the operation based on U.S. intelligence, the document says.
"The unit that conducted the operation had received extensive U.S. training," the cable states.
But the navy's success once again put the army in the American cross hairs.
"(The navy's) success puts the Army in the difficult position of explaining why it has been reluctant to act on good intelligence and conduct operations against high-level targets," the document says.
At the same time, the January cable praised Mexican efforts.
There is "unprecedented commitment" from Mexico to focus not just on high-value targets, but on social and economic conditions that the cartels thrive in.
And Mexico, too, asks for help.
A third cable retells of a meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials where Mexico asked for greater intelligence sharing and more technology for intelligence gathering, as opposed to U.S. loaners.
In another communication with Washington, the U.S. Embassy was concerned about Mexican Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan's idea to declare a state of exception in parts of the country in order to provide further legal justification for using the military in domestic anti-drug operations.
"Our analysis suggests that the legal benefits in invoking a state of exception are uncertain at best, and the political costs appear high," the cable states.
The document noted that the minister of the interior believed that a court decision already gave the military the justification it needed to operate. To date, the Calderon government has not resorted to using the state of exception.

In a cable back from Washington, the State Department asks for its embassy in Mexico to probe deeper into Calderon's personality and how he was handling the stress from the drug war, economic woes and midterm election losses.

Source: CNN

S. Korean defense minister resigns; North threatens additional attacks

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young resigned Thursday, according to the South Korean presidency, two days after North Korea shelling left four South Koreans dead.
"The president has just accepted the defense minister's resignation," according to a spokesman for the Presidential Blue House.
Kim, a former general, came under heavy criticism after the March sinking of the South Korean war ship Cheonan and again after North Korea struck the South's Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday.
North Korea has been blamed by the South and other nations for the Cheonan incident, in which 46 sailors were killed, but has denied responsibility. North Korea has blamed South Korea and the United States for the Yeonpyeong incident, in which two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed and 15 others injured.
South Korean lawmakers from both parties alleged that South Korean forces were unprepared for the North Korean attacks, and some have insisted that South Korean aircraft should have responded to the Yeonpyeong incident immediately. Lawmakers demanded Kim's resignation earlier Thursday.
Kim actually submitted his resignation May 1, after the Cheonan incident, said the Blue House spokesman, but it was not accepted until Thursday because of the Cheonan aftermath and other military-related issues. The Cheonan sinking sparked a public uproar, with many stating that it should not have been possible for North Korea to have damaged South Korea's military, which is much more high-tech.
President Lee also drew criticism for his first statements after the Yeonpyeong artillery bombardment, in which he asked for a stern response but added that de-escalatory measures also had to be taken. Later that same day, Lee spoke to the military and urged heavy retaliation.
It was unclear who advised Lee on his first message, but on Wednesday, speaking to a lawmakers' committee, Kim said the president's first instruction was to stop the fire from spreading.
A new minister is expected to be appointed soon.
State-run North Korean broadcaster KCTV reported Thursday that South Korea had stated its plan to "fire towards our territorial waters with their Yeonpyeong-based artillery on November 22." The North said it asked "the puppet South" not to do so, but it persisted, and the North fired back in self-defense.
"If the U.S. truly wishes to ease the tension in the Chosun [Korean] peninsula, rather than protecting the puppet South, they should control the South, so the South will not hang on to maintaining the NLL [Northern Limit Line] by invading territorial waters and firing artilleries," KCTV said. "This incident shows that the acutal offender of the armistice is the puppet South and it is the U.S. which created tension in the Chosun west sea."
Earlier Thursday, state media said North Korea will launch additional attacks on South Korea if the South continues "reckless military provocation."
Pyongyang "will deal without hesitation the second and third strong physical retaliatory blow" if provoked, its KCNA news agency said.
As an example of provocation, it indirectly referred to a military drill that South Korea and the United States plan to hold in the Yellow Sea starting Sunday.
Meanwhile, South Korea said Thursday that it will strengthen and supplement its rules of engagement in the Yellow Sea, following the incident on Yeonpyeong Island.
South Korea was holding annual military exercises near North Korea when Pyongyang started shelling Tuesday. Shells from the South's exercises landed in North Korean waters, KCNA said.
KCNA on Thursday continued its verbal offensive against the South Korean-U.S. military drill.
"The U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces are foolishly contemplating an additional provocation aimed to orchestrate another farce and charade such as the 'Cheonan' case while kicking up rows and holding confabs one after another such as the declaration of a 'state of emergency' and 'a meeting of ministers in charge of security,' far from drawing due lesson from the recent shelling," KCNA said.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington on Wednesday sailed toward the Yellow Sea for the drill, which was billed as defensive.
"It is a long-planned exercise," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"That said, it is meant to send a very strong signal of deterrence and also work with our very close allies in South Korea," Mullen said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
"We're very focused on restraint -- not letting this thing get out of control. The South Koreans so far have responded that way. Nobody wants this thing to turn into a conflict."
On Thursday morning, Lee and his economic and security ministers met in Seoul.
The meeting began with a moment of silence for the Yeonpyeong victims. After the meeting, South Korea said it would boost its rules of engagement in the Yellow Sea.
South Korean marine forces based in five islands near North Korea and the disputed Northern Limit Line also will be reinforced, a government spokesman said.
The tense maritime border between the two Koreas has become the major military flash point on the Korean peninsula in recent years.
The Yeonpyeong attack also will lead to a plan for civilian safety on the five islands in the Yellow Sea, the government spokesman said. No details were immediately offered about the plan, but Lee on Wednesday ordered the strengthening of civilian shelters on the islands.
The islands include Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong, off which the South Korean warship Cheonan was sunk in March, killing 46 sailors. Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the torpedo attack, which the North has denied.
The Lee administration also will continue to closely monitor capital markets and foreign exchange rates, prepared to take preventative measures as needed, the spokesman said. The Yeonpyeong shelling sent ripples through South Korea's stock market, which has rebounded.
South Korea's economic and security ministries will cooperate closely, and the administration will publicize developments in real time to address major concerns and squelch rumors, the spokesman said.

The Yeonpyeong attack was the first direct artillery assault on South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953.

Source: CNN

North Korea's military aging but sizable

It's a bit like train-spotting but rather more serious. On October 10, Korea-watchers pored over live televised coverage of a massive military parade in Pyongyang, held to mark the 65th anniversary of North Korea's ruling party. Just like the Soviet parades of yore, it was a chance to see what military hardware the North might be showing off.
The official news agency said the parade showed "the will and might of Songun Korea to wipe out the enemy." The hardware was accompanied by slogans such as "Defeat the U.S. Military. U.S. soldiers are the Korean People's Army's enemy." And besides the incredible synchronized goose-stepping, there were tanks and new missiles.
Analysts paid special attention to the first public appearance of a road-mobile ballistic missile with a projected range of between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers (roughly 1,900 to 2,400 miles), though reports of its existence had circulated for several years. There was also a new version of the No-dong ballistic missile, with a tri-conic nosecone, on show. That led Aviation Weekly and others to observe design similarities to Iran's Shahab missiles, suggesting further military cooperation between the two governments.
North Korea's nuclear capability and ballistic missile technology are its trump card, to make up for its aging conventional forces and as a bargaining chip in negotiations. So that's what receives the bulk of funding and expertise. But despite economic stagnation, technological limitations and international sanctions, its conventional forces can't be discounted, if only because of their size.
According to South Korean analysts, the North scraped together what little foreign exchange it had to buy $65 million of weapons from China, Russia and eastern Europe between 2002 and 2008. One example: It appears to have bought Chinese-made ZM-87 anti-personnel lasers, using one to "illuminate" two U.S. Army Apache helicopters flying along the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone in 2003. None of the crew members was injured.

China says it continues to be open to military collaboration with Pyongyang and last month welcomed a senior North Korean official to Beijing to "enhance coordination of the two militaries." China is thought to have supplied the North with multiple rocket launchers and spare parts for planes, among other equipment. Pyongyang has also turned to Iran and Egypt for military transfers.
Much of the North's hardware is locally built using Chinese and Russian templates. It has begun deploying a new tank, called the P'okpoong (Storm), which is modeled on the Russian T-62 tank but hardly a match for modern U.S. battle tanks. It's not clear how many of these are in service, but Jane's Armed Forces Editor Alexander von Rosenbach says it is thought that only a few have been delivered -- and they lack devices like thermal imaging sights.
Also on show at the October parade: a new surface-to-air missile similar to a Chinese model. Jane's concluded that it represented "a major expansion in North Korea's air defense potential," with a radar/guidance system that would be harder to jam. And although little is known about the size and scope of the North's artillery, the barrage fired this week at Yeonpyeong Island suggests that it can't be ignored.
The North Korean regime has also devoted great resources to developing its navy, not with battleships but fast-attack vessels and an array of submarines. Jane's estimates that it has more than 400 surface vessels. And it is not hesitant to use its maritime forces, as demonstrated by the sinking of the 1,200-ton South Korean corvette Cheonan by a torpedo in March. But in a confrontation, the South Korean navy is likely to come off best, as happened in a firefight in 1999.
The main weakness of the North's military is a chronic shortage of computers, modern command and control and electronic warfare assets -- in other words, much of what makes up the 21st-century battlefield. At the same time, South Korea has used its economic strength to modernize its armed forces: for example, building three $1 billion Aegis-class destroyers to counter ballistic missiles.
The same applies in the air. North Korea's air force largely comprises aging Soviet MiG fighters (though it has some MiG 29s) that would be unable to compete with South Korean F-15 jets or the F-16 fighters of the U.S. 7th Air Force, based in South Korea. In addition, the North's air force has suffered fuel shortages, and Jane's estimated that the North's fighter pilots may get as little as 25 flying hours per year. The North Koreans also have a large fleet of Russian-design biplanes that would be better suited to crop-spraying but could be used to drop special forces behind enemy lines in the event of conflict.
To compensate for obsolescence, the North deploys boots on the ground in great numbers. Jane's estimates that its standing army numbers just over 1 million personnel, with reserves estimated at more than 7 million. But North Korean soldiers are poorly fed, according to analysts and reports from defectors, and rarely train due to scarcity of fuel and ammunition
Despite the size of its armed forces, few analysts expect that the regime in the North would want to launch a general assault on the South, knowing that it would probably be repulsed and that in turn would imperil the regime. It might also ignite dissent.
"With the ongoing leadership transition in North Korea, there have been rumors of discontent within the military, and the current actions may reflect miscommunications or worse within the North's command-and-control structure," geopolitical risk analysis firm Stratfor says.
There is another practical reason why a land invasion would be difficult. South Korea has built an array of obstructions on roads from the North that would force an invader's tanks off the pavement and into rice fields. Only in the winter would those fields be hard enough to allow the tanks to cross them.
Short of a general assault, the North clearly has enough in its arsenal to cause damage and death to its adversary, as the torpedo attack in March and the barrage this week have shown. And it has thousands of artillery pieces close to the Demilitarized Zone, which is just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Seoul. Recent events show that it is also quite ready to exploit the element of surprise.

There remains the great unanswered question about intentions. There's plenty of what one expert calls "echo chamber analysis." But as former President Carter wrote with a hint of understatement in the Washington Post on Wednesday: "No one can completely understand the motivations of the North Koreans."

Source: CNN

Christian protester killed in clashes in Egypt

Egyptian authorities have rounded up 156 people in connection with this week's deadly protests over plans to build a church near Cairo, the government announced Thursday.
Those arrested have been ordered held for 15 days while the investigation into Wednesday's clashes continues, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.
Police battled about 150 demonstrators outside a government building in the Cairo suburb of Giza on Wednesday. Police turned to tear gas to break up the melee, while protesters responded with Molotov cocktails. The clashes left a Christian protester dead.
Tensions have been running high between Egypt's Muslim majority and minority Christians, who make up about 9 percent of the people. Copts, who are adherents of an Egyptian sect of Christianity, complain of discrimination, including the lack of freedom to build houses of worship. The government denies those accusations.
However, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has expressed concern that the Egyptian government and media have deliberately promoted sectarian friction ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for December.
"We've seen a clear uptick in recent weeks of incitement coming from media outlets and clerics espousing sectarian hatred and violence," said Leonard Leo, chairman of the independent, bi-partisan commission. "This kind of rhetoric goes too far and stokes the fire of extremists looking for ammunition to justify violent acts against religious minorities."

The commission said that earlier this month, ten Coptic Christian homes and several businesses were burned and looted in Qena province in southern Egypt following rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian man and Muslim woman. Security officials imposed a curfew and arrested several Muslims, the commission said.

Source: CNN

3 teenage boys rescued after 50 days stranded at sea

Two weeks ago, family and friends gathered to mourn Edward Nasau, Samuel Perez and Filo Filo.
As natives of the Tokelau Islands -- three small atolls in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii -- the three teenage boys had spent all their young lives surrounded by the water. But by early November, authorities had determined that the sea had done them in, declaring them dead after finding no sign of them since early October.
But, in a moment, grief turned to elation.
First mate Tai Fredricsen was on watch Wednesday, as his 85-meter (279-foot) tuna boat traveled north of Fiji, between the Wallis and Futuna islands. Spying what he called a "little boat" two miles away, he was shocked as he got closer to see three teens frantically waving their arms.
The boys had spent 50 days stranded in the Pacific, drifting more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) and living off little more than coconuts, a seagull and seawater. After spotting them and helping bring them aboard, Fredricsen called back to the Tokelau Islands, first to inform Samuel's grandmother that the memorial services had been in vain.
"I just told her we found her kids, and it was total hysteria," Fredricsen said. "It was just amazing."
It was supposed to be a routine trip for the three boys -- Edward, 14, and Filo and Samuel, both 15 -- when they set off from the Tokelau Islands, a string of three atolls totaling 12.2 square kilometers (4.7 square miles) that rose at most 5 meters (16 feet) above sea level.
But then, they got lost, Fredricsen said.
For weeks, they ate nothing until they captured a bird around two weeks ago. About the same time they captured the bird, the memorial service -- attended by 500 people, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, in an island chain that had a total population of 1,400 -- was being held in their memory.
Two days before being spotted, the teenagers began drinking seawater to quench their thirst -- which could "have been devastating" had they continued for much longer, Fredricsen said. Drinking excess amounts of saltwater can negatively, and fatally, affect one's kidney function.
The boys were spotted in an "unusual place" -- hundreds of miles west of the Tokelaus, between western Samoa and Fiji, said Eric Barratt, the managing director for the Sanford seafood company, whose boat found the boys. The boat normally wouldn't have been there, but its commanders altered its typical course, returning to New Zealand rather than heading to the United States after filling up with tuna.
After being spotted from afar Wednesday, the teens signaled the tuna boat's crew with what Fredricsen called "an urgent wave." Those aboard the larger boat were ecstatic to have the three aboard.
"When we came across the boys, we were just ecstatic," Fredricsen said of his shipmates. "We are in very high spirits."
The tuna boat's crew quickly worked to hydrate the frail teens, and bandaged sores caused by all the sun and saltwater. Yet within hours, they were able to eat and talk by phone with their families, Barratt said.
"As you can imagine, they are more or less skin and bone," Fredricsen said. "But their mental state is very positive, very strong."
After six hours on board, the three teenage boys began to mingle with the crew. By 4:30 a.m. local time Thursday, they were transferred to a Fiji coast guard vessel, destined for a hospital in Suva on that Pacific island.
Still, while he didn't enjoy their company for long, Fredricsen said the three boys left their mark on him and his crewmates -- not only because of what they endured while lost at sea, but also their attitudes after being rescued.

"It was just an uplifting experience to meet these young men," Fredricsen said. "Just to live off what they had is very encouraging."

Source: CNN

Apple promises an iTunes day 'you'll never forget'

Apple plans a Tuesday update to iTunes that looks like it might involve making music available everywhere.
Planned for 10 a.m. ET, Apple's announcement could bring together iTunes and cloud computing, a way for users to store their music and videos on remote servers so they can access the libraries from a computer wherever they are.
Apple's teaser for the announcement was done in the Cupertino, California computing giant's typical grandiose style.
"Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget," reads a teaser page on Apple's website.
The page also features images of four clocks, showing the time in California, New York, London and Tokyo, giving further rise to speculation that a "music anywhere"-style announcement is in the works.
Apple is reported to have recently finished building a new data center in North Carolina. Such data centers are used to store data "in the cloud."
Other speculation has centered on iTunes subscription plans that would let users pay monthly for access to movies and music.

"Apple currently offers season pass-pricing on television shows, but that's the closest thing you'll get to an all-you-can-eat content plan in the iTunes Store," wrote Wendy Sheehan Donnell for PCMag."C'mon Apple, please let us pay a monthly subscription fee for all the music and video we care to consume."

Source: CNN

Unbreakable: Building disaster-proof cities

When I look back on the year 2010, I will remember spending so much of the year in disaster zones. Between Haiti and Pakistan alone, I spent months on the ground seeing firsthand the aftermath of an earthquake and floods.
So much of the discussion in Haiti now is about rebuilding. Yet even 10 months later, plans seem poorly drawn out and little progress has been made. No doubt it is a monumental task, but whenever I speak to experts, they tell me it is worth evaluating the lessons learned in Kobe, Japan.
In 1995, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit the port city and lasted 20 seconds. In that short period, 200,000 buildings were destroyed and nearly 5,500 lives lost. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.
At the time Kobe was cited as an example of "urban planning focusing on convenience, efficiency and growth while neglecting safety and security." The question facing officials in Kobe at that time -- is the same one officials in Port-au-Prince are asking. Can we rebuild a city quickly that is also safer than the one that was destroyed?

I decided to travel to Kobe to see for myself. After being on the ground, the answer seems to be "yes." It took 10 years to rebuild here, which is relatively speedy by international standards. More importantly, the new buildings are "disasterproof," using techniques to isolate the building from the shaking ground during an earthquake.
The construction itself relies on metal plates and special materials to allow movement of the building and to prevent collapse. There has also been a significant investment in the ecosystem, which can provide natural buffers to mitigate floods and storm surges.
Another lesson was to decentralize critical urban functions, including hospitals, so that an entire critical response sector would not be eliminated during a natural disaster. And, throughout all of this, the survivors of the earthquake were placed at the center of reconstruction to help design the new communities on which they would be dependent.
As things stand now, half the world's population lives in cities, and that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades. It is called urbanization, and health organizations all over the world, including the World Health Organization, have taken notice. Because of the dense population and significant building construction, urban areas are the most vulnerable to natural disasters.

The challenge now for cities like Port-au-Prince is not to just rebuild as safely and expeditiously as possible -- but to create a city that is safer than the one before the earthquake. Here in Kobe, there is proof that it can be done.

Source: CNN

West Bank settlement freeze not a done deal, source says

As optimism flowed from U.S. leaders over the prospect of a settlement freeze in the West Bank, an Israeli government source on Monday tapped the brakes, saying that an agreement over such a freeze still had not been reached.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama had called the possible development "promising" and a "very productive step." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also praised the possible settlement freeze.
But the Israeli government source said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is insisting that a number of conditions be met, and that only when those conditions are met will there be an agreement that the Cabinet would vote on. The source did not say what those conditions were.
Still, Clinton gave the Israelis credit for moving in that direction.
"This is a very promising development and a serious effort by Prime Minister Netanyahu," she said.
Clinton said the United States is in close touch with both sides in the conflict and is working "intensively to create the conditions for the resumption of negotiations which can lead to a two-state solution and a comprehensive peace in the region."
Netanyahu spoke to his Cabinet ministers Sunday morning, a day after he met with top officials to discuss the settlement-freeze proposal made by the United States, according to Israeli government sources.
The proposal could be a difficult sell for right-wing members of the coalition government.
Reaction was mixed among Israeli officials, several of whom were already responding negatively to the news.
Minister of Infrastructure Uzi Landau said before Sunday's meeting that he would not approve the proposal if the Cabinet voted on it.
"This is simply playing into the hands of all of the terror organizations here in the area, which will make it clear to them that terror pays off. ... Our future partners in the region learn that they simply don't have to make any concessions; they have to wait until more and more pressure will be applied on the Israeli side," said Landau, a member of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party.
But Eli Yishai, leader of the right-wing religious Shas party, hinted that his party might support the proposal, noting that settlement construction could resume after 90 days in the West Bank, and continue unimpeded in Jerusalem.
"Under these conditions, this can be examined," he said, adding that the party's spiritual leader would have the final say.
And Knesset member Yohanan Plesner said his Kadima party welcomed efforts to restart peace talks.
"It is about time that an understanding would be reached so that the peace negotiations could focus on substantive issues rather than on the debilitating dispute over settlements," he said.
In return for the temporary freeze, the U.S. government would oppose international efforts to impose a political solution on Israel in the peace process or to "delegitimize" the country, said the Israeli government sources, who would not speak for attribution.
Mohammed Shtayeh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, told CNN that the Palestinian negotiating team was "hoping for a much better deal," including a freeze on construction in "all Palestinian territories" throughout negotiations.
Shtayeh said he and other Palestinian negotiators were waiting for an official notification from Washington about the proposal. Leaders would later hold a meeting to discuss any offers on the table and release an official position, he said.
"The most important thing is that it is very unfortunate that such a deal is being conducted between Tel Aviv and Washington, without really any consultation with the Palestinians," he said.
Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian legislator, described the proposal as "nonsense."
"Why should Israel receive incentives for stopping violations of international law? And why is the freeze only for 90 days if everyone agrees that settlements are a violation of international law and are the main obstacle to peace?" he asked.
As part of the proposed deal, the White House would not ask for another extension of the settlement construction freeze beyond the 90 days, the Israeli government sources said. And, they said, Obama would ask Congress to approve the sale of 20 advanced fighter planes to Israel.
Silvan Shalom, a Cabinet minister from Netanyahu's Likud party, said he was opposed to the continuation of the building freeze, noting that such an agreement with the U.S. would be a "strategic mistake."
"The U.S is a friend of Israel, and U.S support has never been conditional before," he said.
Knesset member Uri Orbach, head of the Jewish Home right-wing national religious party, said he would push for his party to quit the coalition government if a settlement moratorium is renewed.
"We will not be partners to Netanyahu and the Likud [party]'s freezing obsession," Orbach said.
The main umbrella group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank also sharply criticizied the proposal Sunday.
"This proposed deal, if accepted, represents a fundamental collapse of our government's integrity and national resilience. The Israeli leadership should never allow its citizens to become pawns to the whims of the international community," a statement from the Yesha Council of Communities in Judea and Samaria said. "We are our own sovereign community whose very security and future should not be dictated by President Obama or Secretary Clinton."
Hagit Ofran, settlement watch project director at Peace Now, said her organization would continue to fight settlement construction.
"In order to achieve peace, Israel must halt all the construction," she said, including new units built since an earlier freeze ended September 26.
The reported American proposal does not include any limit on Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, which has also been a source of major conflict between Palestinians and Israelis
A senior U.S. administration official said Friday that while talks between Clinton and Netanyahu on Thursday were substantive, there were no breakthroughs.
Another U.S. official said that the prime minister isn't budging on settlements in a way that will satisfy Palestinians, who broke off the peace talks when Israeli resumed settlement construction in late September.
But it wasn't clear whether that meant Netanyahu was unwilling to compromise at all on settlements.
The American-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have broken down over the issue of continued Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank.
Israel's 10-month settlement freeze in the West Bank expired September 26, effectively bringing an end to the talks. Tensions were exacerbated last week when Israel announced plans to construct 1,000 new housing units in the majority Palestinian area of East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority refused to go back to the negotiating table until the Israeli government extended the settlement freeze.
As the stalemate continues, the Palestinian side has threatened to seek international recognition of a Palestinian state based on borders from 1967, a move opposed both by Israel and the United States.
Clinton met Thursday with Netanyahu about the resumption of peace talks. Their meeting was followed by a joint statement that said their discussion included "a friendly and productive exchange of views on both sides."

On Sunday, Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers that he bring a proposal to them "if and when it is complete."

Source: CNN