World
An engine capable of carrying ballistic missiles to the US West Coast has been tested by North Korea's military, a published report said Tuesday. The Chosun Ilbo newspaper in rival South Korea said the test was spotted by a US spy satellite at a missile base the North has been building over the past eight years. The newspaper didn't give a date for the test, and US and South Korean defense agencies either declined to confirm the report or were not available.
In a combined ground-air offensive, Pakistani security forces targeted suspected Taliban hideouts, killing at least eight militants, a military spokesman said Tuesday. But the military also said it had issued orders to fire on American troops crossing the border with Afghanistan for similar raids. Pakistan protested angrily after a US commando raid into the South Waziristan region Sept. 3. A US military spokesman denied claims that American military assets were involved in a follow-up incident Monday night but were driven off by Pakistani warning shots.
Taliban militants are being supplied with automatic rifles, land mines, and other weapons by "elements" in Iran, a BBC investigation found Tuesday. It said the weapons are highly prized because of their reliability and destructive capacity, although they're more expensive than those made elsewhere. Iran's embassy in Afghanistan rejected the report.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine was expected to try to build a new coalition government after her nine-month-old alliance with President Viktor Yushchenko collapsed Tuesday.Reports said the final straw in infighting between them came when Yushchenko's allies accused her of treason for failing to condemn Russian aggression against Georgia. If she cannot cobble together a new coalition within 30 days, Ukrainians will have to elect their third parliament in three years.
Eight fellow South American leaders gave Bolivian President Evo Morales unanimous support Monday in his struggle to impose a socialist agenda against an often-violent opposition. Meeting in emergency session in Chile, they condemned "any rupture of institutional order" and said they'd refuse to recognize any change in leadership that results from the violence. The meeting was attended by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
An alert bus conductor in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, kept casualties to a minimum Tuesday as a bomb exploded aboard the vehicle. The blast, blamed on Tamil rebels, wrecked the bus but caused only minor injuries to four passengers because the conductor ordered everyone to evacuate in time. The incident came one day after President Mahinda Rajapakse ruled out peace talks with the rebels.
Democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi resumed accepting food deliveries from the military rulers of Burma (Myanmar) Tuesday after her physician found her weak and malnourished and ordered that she be given intravenous fluids. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is under house arrest, had been refusing daily deliveries for the past month in protest against her confinement.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told thousands of supporters in Malaysia's capital Monday night he has lured more than enough members of parliament to his side to topple the government. But he said he'd give Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi up to two weeks to quit so the transition could proceed "peacefully." He acknowledged, however, that he wouldn't meet his own deadline – Tuesday – to oust Abdullah. The latter scoffed at the claim, calling it a "mirage."
