North Korea nuclear reactor satellite picture show progress
Non-proliferation group Isis says image shows work has continued on Yongbyon site, with turbine building complete
Images of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor site from 20 September 2011, left, and 3 February 2012, right. Analysts say the new image shows progress but the site remains two years from going into service. Photograph: AP
A newly released satellite image shows that North Korea has made progress in building a light-water reactor to expand its nuclear programme, a private non-proliferation group has said.
The 3 February image of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon was taken nearly a month before North Korea agreed to freeze major nuclear activities in return for US food aid.
The image, from a commercial satellite, was released by the Washington-based Institute of Science and International Security (Isis). Senior analyst Paul Brannan said a turbine building at the reactor that had still been under construction in a 20 September image now appeared to be externally complete.
Robert Fisk: Is Homs an echo of what happened in Srebrenica?
No entry to the International Red Cross. Not yet. Maybe in a few days, when the area has been secured. Men and boys separated from the women and children. Streams of refugees. Women, children, the old, few males. Stories of men being loaded on to trucks and taken away. Destination unknown. Devastation. No journalists, no freedom of movement for the UN. The place was called Srebrenica.
Parallels are seductive, dangerous, frightening, often inaccurate. Nasser was the "Mussolini of the Nile" to Eden in 1956, Saddam the "Hitler of the Tigris" to Bush and Blair in 2003. Standing up to tyrants – unless they happen to be "our" tyrants – has been quite the thing. It's only when we don't stand up to them that we get a bit queasy and start asking awkward questions.
The Role Ex-Nazis Played in Early West Germany
By Ralf Beste, Georg Bönisch, Thomas Darnstaedt, Jan Friedmann, Michael Fröhlingsdorf and Klaus Wiegrefe
After World War II, West Germany rapidly made the transition from murderous dictatorship to model democracy. Or did it? New documents reveal just how many officials from the Nazi regime found new jobs in Bonn. A surprising number were chosen for senior government positions.
Ten days before Christmas, the German Interior Ministry acquitted itself of an embarrassing duty. It published a list of all former members of the German government with a Nazi past.
Eastern Libya pulls away from central government
Tribal leaders and militia commanders have declared oil-rich eastern Libya a semi-autonomous state.
This was a unilateral move that the interim head of state called a "dangerous" conspiracy by Arab nations to tear the country apart six months after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Thousands of representatives of major tribes, militia commanders and politicians made the declaration at a conference in the main eastern city of Benghazi, insisting it was not intended to divide the country.
They said they want their region to remain part of a united Libya, but needed to do this to stop decades of discrimination against the east.
Battle for Pakistani Taliban's militant soul
By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - The removal of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's naib amir or deputy chief because he went behind the leader's back in peace talks with the government threatens to spark an internal war that could splinter the umbrella organization of 40-plus Islamic militant groups.
Maulvi Faqeer Mohammed was fired by Hakeemullah Mehsudameer, commander of the TTP or Pakistani Taliban, last week with militant insiders saying the second-in-command was seen as growing too close to the Pakistan government and its security agencies.
Giving his reaction, Faqeer reiterated his support for peace talks with the government. "I support peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States and also between the Pakistani
Maulvi Faqeer Mohammed was fired by Hakeemullah Mehsudameer, commander of the TTP or Pakistani Taliban, last week with militant insiders saying the second-in-command was seen as growing too close to the Pakistan government and its security agencies.
Giving his reaction, Faqeer reiterated his support for peace talks with the government. "I support peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States and also between the Pakistani
Mexico's Gulf Cartel increasingly relies on women
The number of women working in the drug trade is estimated to have grown in Mexico by 400 percent between 2007 and 2010, writes guest blogger Patrick Corcoran.
In the midst of a years-long fight against the Zetas for control of prized sections of borderland territory, theGulf Cartel is increasingly relying on a previously untapped resource: women.
The army has evidence that women have begun to occupy important positions inside the Gulf Cartel; in [Reynosa] they have begun to obtain information that not only is the number of women who are dedicated to assassinations rising, but they have also gone from managing safe houses and administering funds to carrying out intricate operations for the purchase and smuggling of drugs and undocumented immigrants ...The Gulf Cartel has bet on women to come and fortify an organization that has been worn down by casualties suffered in confrontations with the Zetas.
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