N. Korea Extracts Weapons Fuel?

May 12, 2005 --

North Koreans Claim to Extract Fuel for Nuclear Weapons

North Korea said Wednesday that it had harvested a nuclear reactor for weapons fuel, the country's latest effort to put pressure on the Bush administration and its allies. (NY Times)

North Korea Suspected of Bluffing

The Pentagon says it cannot confirm or disprove North Korea's claim that it has harvested a nuclear reactor, while other intelligence experts were sceptical that Pyongyang's action, even if it was true, would significantly increase its weapons stockpile. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Kuwait Tightens Security At Energy Sites, Embassies

Kuwait yesterday beefed up security around strategic energy and other installations in the state, security sources said. (Gulf Times)
Asharq al Awsat reports that Kuwait received information from another country indicating there's a threat of an attack on al Shuweikh port using a boat.

Iran 'Could Maintain Nuclear Freeze'

Iran could back away from threat to immediately resume controversial nuclear activities, diplomats say. (The Guardian)

Tough European Warning To Iran

European diplomats warn Iran over restarting nuclear enrichment, saying the results would be negative. (BBC)

Capitol Cleared In Plane Alert

U.S. Capitol building and White House briefly evacuated after small plane enters restricted airspace over Washington. (The Guardian)

4 Die in Afghan Protests Over Reported U.S. Abuse of Koran

Newsweek article about events in Guantanamo Bay enrage Muslims in Jalalabad. Washington says it is investigating 'repugnant' allegations. (LA Times)

Galloway Accepts Washington Call

British MP George Galloway is invited to appear before US senators to answer charges he received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein. (BBC)

Hussein Gave Oil to French and British Officials, Senate Panel Says

A Senate committee has disclosed evidence it says shows that senior Iraqi officials under Saddam Hussein awarded the right to buy millions of barrels of Iraqi oil to Charles Pasqua, the former French interior minister, and to George Galloway, a recently re-elected member of the British Parliament. The evidence is in a 96-page report, with previously undisclosed Iraqi documents and excerpts from interviews with former Iraqi officials, which was issued yesterday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. (NY Times)

Somali Warlords Deploy Gunmen Amid Attack Fears

Somali warlords yesterday began deploying hundreds of fighters in villages in central Somalia following a reported incursion there by Ethiopian troops, militia leaders and witnesses said. (AFP)

Indignation Grows in U.S. Over British Prewar Documents

Critics of Bush call them proof that he and Blair never saw diplomacy as an option with Hussein. (LA Times)

Abu Ghraib U.S. Colonel Reprimanded

A top U.S. commander at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq — where detainees were abused by American guards — has been reprimanded and fined $8,000 (£4,274). (BBC)

Indonesian Prosecutors Recommend Four-Year Jail Sentence For Top Terror Suspect's Wife

Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday recommended a four-year jail sentence for the wife of Noordin Mohamed Top, an alleged leader of the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and mastermind of several bomb attacks. (The Star)

Three Men on Trial in Paris for Alleged Terror Links

Three men have gone on trial in Paris on terrorism charges for their alleged links to convicted shoe-bomber Richard Reid. (VOA)

Iraqi Pair Jailed For Terror Plots

A Stockholm court has convicted two Iraqis of plotting and financing a massive suicide bombing campaign in their home country and sentenced them to long prison sentences and deportation. (AFP)

European Court Rules Ocalan Trial Unfair

Kurdish rebel leader did not receive a fair trial in Turkey, the European court of human rights rules. (The Guardian)

Kuwait Lists Charges Against Hussein, Aides

Kuwaiti prosecutors have drawn up a list of charges against ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and hundreds of his former officials for alleged war crimes committed during Iraq's occupation of this Persian Gulf nation, an official said Wednesday. (LA Times)

Iraq: Al Zarqawi Seriously Injured, Says Iraqi Official

The Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is "serious injured, possibly dead" according to Colonel Fouad Hani Hassan, commander of the fifth division of the Iraqi armed forces, cited by Elaph, a popular website in the Arab world. Al-Zarqawi, considered al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, is believed to have been injured in the major offensive U.S.-led forces have been carrying out in the western Anbar province over the last few days. (ADNKI)
Elaph is reporting according to U.S. diplomatic sources in Amman that US military intelligence officers asked Jordanian authorities for al Zarqawi's blood type (because he was imprisoned in Jordan in 1999) The sources said that "it's possible to say with certainty this time that 'the big fish' is suffering from direct gun shots." They said U.S. forces are only steps away from catching him. Other sources said there was a possibility that he's already dead and that his body may have been found after an operation near al Qa'em, north of Iraq in the past two days. Elaph says there may be an announcement within days about his death or capture. (ABCNEWS)

Baghdad Shaken By Fresh Attacks

At least 15 people, including an army general and police colonel, die in another day of violence in Iraq. (BBC)

Suicide Strikes
At least 370 people have been killed in Iraq in the past two weeks, but the violence stretches back. (The Guardian)

Lawless Iraq Is 'Key Drug Route'

Drug smugglers exploiting internal chaos in Iraq have turned the country into a transit route for Afghan heroin, an influential drug agency says. (BBC)

Getting at North Korea Through China

The first big task for the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations may be trying to talk China into supporting sanctions against North Korea. (NPR)

Despite U.S. Attempts, N. Korea Anything but Isolated
Country's Regional Trade Boom Hints At Split Between Administration, E. Asia. (Washington Post)

Politics In A Bloody Mist

Even by Iraqi standards, yesterday was a terrible day. At least 71 people lost their lives in several suicide bombings, outside Kirkuk in the north, in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and in Baghdad. (The Guardian)

Terror Requires A Homegrown Political Solution

Speaking from Brazil yesterday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, insisted "there is no anarchy in Iraq." Against the backdrop of the latest human carnage, which in the space of two bloody weeks has seen more than 400 innocent people brutally murdered in Iraq, he might have chosen his words more carefully. (The Daily Star)

An Unseen Enemy

Marines find themselves vulnerable as they search for insurgents in desert villages of remote western Iraq. (LA Times)

Gritty Iraqi Film Is A First In Cannes Competition

Kurdish Iraqi director Hiner Saleem needed a statue of Saddam Hussein to star in his 2005 movie "Kilometre Zero". (Reuters)

The Film U.S. TV Networks Dare Not Show

Adam Curtis takes war on terror doco The Power of Nightmares to Cannes. But, he says, he's no Michael Moore. (The Guardian)