Northern Spy Lifts Cloak on Koreas’ Deadly Rivalry
By CHOE SANG-HUNSEOUL, South Korea — On Oct. 24, 1995, as a man now known as Kim Dong-sik hiked up a rain-slick mountain road in Buyeo, about 95 miles south of Seoul, he could not shake off a foreboding. He and another North Korean agent had sneaked into South Korea by boat 52 days earlier on a mission to bring home a Communist spy who had been working in the South for 15 years. The latest message from their superiors said the spy had been instructed to wait for Mr. Kim in a temple in Buyeo, disguised as a Buddhist monk named Jawoon.
But there was no monk.
“Instead, there was an old man in faded jeans, who said he was convalescing there,” Mr. Kim, 51, said in an interview in a Seoul coffee shop last month. “I didn’t find out until much later that the man was actually one of several South Korean counterespionage officials waiting to trap me. When I asked him about Jawoon, he said the monk was tending a garden down the hill. I knew something was wrong.”
Syria: massacre reports emerge from Assad's Alawite heartland
Villagers from president's Shia sect are fleeing their homes, recounting gruesome tales of executions and other atrocities
For more than two years, as fighting has escalated throughout Syria, a group of villages peopled by government supporters in the mountains above this coastal city has been spared any attacks.
In spite of their proximity to the Turkish border, across which rebel fighters are armed and financed, farmers continued their lives as normal, even though as Alawites who come from the Shia sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs they could have been obvious targets.
At dawn on 4 August their peace was shattered. Armed rebels, led by local jihadis as well as members of Jabhat al-Nusra and the al-Qaida linked group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, left their headquarters in the largely Sunni town of Salma. They sneaked into the al-Akrad mountains, taking control of five Alawite villages. The rebels called it Operation Liberation of the Coast and the aim was to send the government a message that even the Alawite heartland was no longer safe.
Oxfam accuses Coke and Pepsi of taking land from the poor
Communities from Brazil to Cambodia are losing homes to make room for sugar crops, it is claimed
Land covering an area the size of Italy has been taken from indigenous communities around the world by suppliers to the biggest names in the food and drinks industry, according to a major new report.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are among the companies criticised by Oxfam for their links to land disputes, with the charity alleging that nearly 800 large-scale land deals by foreign investors have seen 33 million hectares taken into corporate ownership globally since 2000.
The research – which also highlights alleged disputes with British food giant ABF – claims that poor communities from Brazil to Cambodia are losing their homes to make way for lucrative sugar crops to feed the rich world’s increasingly sweet tooth.
Two Greenpeace activists charged with piracy in Russia
British videographer one of duo who could face up to 15 years in prison
Russian authorities have charged two Greenpeace activists with piracy over a protest against Arctic oil drilling, Greenpeace Russia said.
One of the activists is freelance British videographer Kieron Bryan.
The piracy charges, which Greenpeace said were absurd, are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The two who were charged, also including a Brazilian, Ana Paula Alminhana, were among 30 people arrested after a protest last month in which a Greenpeace ship approached an oil drilling platform owned by state-controlled Gazprom and two of them tried to scale the rig.
The activists are in custody in the northern city of Murmansk.
“It is an extreme and disproportionate charge,” Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said.
Xi Jinping's graft purge sets sights on China's military
October 2, 2013Philip Wen, John Garnaut
The biggest corruption case in Chinese military history is being prepared for trial, as President Xi Jinping extends his anti-corruption campaign into the secretive People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The value and range of the assets alleged to be involved in the case of disgraced lieutenant-general Gu Junshan could be staggering, according to a source with ties to senior military figures.
Earlier reports of a vast family real estate portfolio, gold bullion and a secret basement full of expensive liquor, artwork and luxury goods are ''just the tip of the iceberg'', he said.
''The amount of corruption will only be greater than what you imagine - it won't be less,'' the source said.
Poverty report indicates Africa is stagnating
An Afrobarometer survey has found that despite economic growth, there has been virtually no change in poverty levels in Africa over the last decade.
Despite economic growth, there has been virtually no change in poverty levels in Africa over the last 10 years – and South Africa is no exception.
The survey, by the independent research project Afrobarometer, found that despite projections of declining poverty rates derived from official gross domestic product (GDP) rates, poverty is pervasive on the continent. Researchers said this suggests either that the effects of growth are not trickling down to the poorest people, or that actual growth rates may not match those being reported.
The survey, which involved over 50 000 people across 34 countries, found that one in five Africans still suffer from frequent shortages of food, water, medical care and cash, or what researchers refer to as "lived poverty". Half the people on the continent experience occasional shortages. People in east and west Africa experienced the most shortages, while those in north Africa experienced the least.
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