Six In The Morning

South Korea's Lee Myung-bak visits disputed islands

　South Korea's president is visiting islands also claimed by Japan, in a move set to raise diplomatic tensions.

Mariko Oi BBC News, Tokyo
Lee Myung-bak flew to the islands, which are known as Dokdo in South Korea and as Takeshima in Japan. A Kyodo news agency report said Japan had recalled its ambassador from South Korea. Both South Korea and Japan say they have a historical claim to the islands, and the issue has been a long-standing thorn in relations. The islands, which are roughly equidistant from the two countries, are small but lie in fishing grounds which could also contain large gas deposits. South Korea has stationed a small coastguard detachment on the islands since 1954.

Special report: Hundreds of rebel fighters leave Aleppo after two nights of relentless shelling by regime forces
Revolutionaries abandon the frontline they had held with such resilience for the last 12 days

KIM SENGUPTA ALEPPO FRIDAY 10 AUGUST 2012
It began with a few of the rebel units pulling out, sleepless and disoriented after two nights of relentless shelling, fearful that they were being surrounded by regime forces. By mid-morning the departures had turned into a major retreat, with hundreds of fighters pouring out of Salaheddine, many of them then straight out of Aleppo. The revolutionaries had abandoned the frontline - a crucial strategic point - they had held with such resilience against massive battering for the last 12 days. They have also left much of an adjoining district, Saifaldallah. The pounding they had received for hour after hour from the air and the ground had been worse than anything before; The Independent was there very much towards the end of the onslaught, but it was still daunting and, yet again, indiscriminate.

Kim Jong-il's personal Japanese chef returns to land he fled
Kenji Fujimoto, who left North Korea to live in hiding and write books about Kims, says he was invited back by Kim Jong-un

Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 August 2012 08.11 BST
A Japanese chef who personally catered to Kim Jong-il's taste for fine sushi and fled North Korea a decade ago to live in disguise, has just returned to his former adoptive home at the invitation of the country's new leader. Kenji Fujimoto was an invaluable source of information about the dynasty, that has ruled North Korea for more than 60 years, during his time there but after 13 years with the Kims, the sushi chef, who goes by a pseudonym, reckoned he had learned too much about the family that controls one of the most enigmatic countries on earth.

Public uproar after Greek politician hires daughter


The Irish Times - Friday, August 10, 2012
A ‘GREEK politician who stirred anger by hiring his daughter in parliament on the one day he was house speaker faced public calls for his resignation yesterday amid widespread disenchantment with the ruling class. Weathering its fifth year of recession and battling to remain inside the euro, many people in Greece blame the mainstream political parties that have ruled the country for almost four decades for cronyism in the bloated public sector.

Sudanese factory destroyed by US now a shrine
President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike on the pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum in 1998; the Sudanese still haven't forgotten.

By Scott Peterson, Staff write
Fourteen years after American cruise missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, its ruins have been left untouched as a shrine that still rankles Sudanese. The precision strike did its work: The buildings are pulverized, a tangle of broken concrete and iron bars; thousands of brown bottles of veterinary and other medicines lie scattered, the whole scene stained by endless sun and sandstorms. The Aug. 20, 1998, attack was ordered by President Bill Clinton, simultaneously with missile strikes against training camps run by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, to retaliate for the dual bombings two weeks earlier at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Indian rebels on the move in Myanmar
Southeast Asia

By Subir Bhaumik
NEW DELHI and TAMU - Despite India's repeated requests to act, Myanmar's government is still perceived by Indian officials as "going easy" on Indian separatists known to be operating out of Myanmar's northwestern fringes. More than two months after promising tough action against separatist rebels based in its territory during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Myanmar, President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government is yet to commence any sort of crackdown against the rebels, many of whom are known to be based in Myanmar's Sagaing Division and border towns like Tamu. Indian officials raised the issue again during a visit to New Delhi in early August by Myanmar's chief of defense staff, General Ming Aung Hlaing.