BBC: (follow link) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has met his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, in Cairo at the start of a four-day trip to Africa. Mr Medvedev is due to sign a nuclear energy deal in Egypt, which is Russia's top trading partner in the continent. He will later visit Nigeria, Namibia and Angola, where he will seek to promote Russian business interests, particularly in the energy sector. The visit is part of a bid to bolster Russia's global role. The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Cairo, said: "Today, in terms of influence, Russia lags far behind China and the US - not just in Egypt but right across the African continent, where it once had considerable influence. "As the battle for the world's energy and mineral resources gathers pace, that weakness is one that Mr Medvedev will be keen to address." The countries he is visiting are rich in natural resources.

AP-The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has taken charge at the country's spy agency to prepare him to inherit the leadership of the communist nation from his father, a news report said Wednesday.Kim told senior officials of the State Security Department in March to "uphold" his 26-year-old third son, Kim Jong Un, as head of the agency, while doling out foreign-made luxury cars to the officials as gifts, Seoul's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported.Kim told the officials to "safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with (your) lives as you did for me in the past," according to the mass-market daily that cited an unidentified source. The five cars given to them were worth some $80,000 each, the paper said.It also said the younger Kim has overseen the handling of two U.S. journalists detained in March while on a reporting trip to the China-North Korea border. The reporters were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor earlier this month for illegal border crossing and hostile acts.South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said it could not confirm the report.

VOA: Iran has ruled out overturning its disputed presidential election, but U.S. President Barack Obama says there are "big questions" about the legitimacy of the poll. Iranian media reported Tuesday the nation's powerful Guardian Council will not annul the election results, saying there were no major polling irregularities. In Washington, President Obama condemned "unjust actions" by Iran's government against opposition demonstrators who have protested the election in Tehran and other Iranian cities.  He said the U.S. and the international community are "appalled and outraged" by the beatings and arrests of protesters. The president also described as "heartbreaking" the video of a woman bleeding to death after apparently being shot near a protest Saturday in Tehran.  He said anyone who sees the video knows there is something "fundamentally unjust" about her death. The young woman, identified as Neda Agha-Soltan, has become a rallying symbol of sorts for demonstrators, as well as a name cited on many Internet message boards, with posters calling her a martyr. In Washington Tuesday, some U.S. lawmakers, including Democrat Nita Lowey of New York, voiced congressional solidarity with demonstrators in Iran.

AFP report North Korea warned that "dark clouds of nuclear war" are gathering over the peninsula and vowed to strengthen its atomic arsenal as it marked the anniversary of the 1950-1953 conflict. Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the ruling communist party, accused the United States and its ally South Korea of trying to provoke another war with their pledge of a US nuclear "umbrella" over the South. "A touch-and-go situation has been created on the Korean peninsula... with dark clouds of a nuclear war gathering as the hours tick by," it said in a lengthy commentary marking the anniversary, carried by the official news agency. The paper said a new war could break out any time and the North would continue to strengthen its nuclear arsenal. "As long as the US hostile policy continues, we will never give up our nuclear deterrent and even strengthen it," Rodong said. The conflict began with a North Korean invasion on June 25, 1950. It ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the communist North and capitalist South still technically at war. Cross-border relations have soured since a conservative government took office in Seoul in February last year with a firmer policy towards the North. And international tensions have grown since Pyongyang's long-range rocket launch in early April and its nuclear test in late May. The North has also fired short-range missiles, renounced the truce in force on the peninsula and repeatedly warned of possible war. At a US-South Korean summit in Washington last week, Washington reaffirmed its commitment to provide the South with a nuclear umbrella.

The Daily Telegraph says an Italian court has ruled that a collection of 5,000 photos which are said to show guests cavorting at Silvio Berlusconi's lavish villa in Sardinia should be confiscated for violating privacy laws. The pictures, some of which reportedly show a bizarre mock "wedding" between the Italian prime minister and a young woman, were allegedly taken by a freelance photographer between 2006 and early 2009. Spain's El Pais newspaper has already published seven of the photos, showing topless women taking outdoor showers and lying on sun loungers, and a former Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, standing naked beside a swimming pool. Mr Berlusconi's lawyers successfully argued to a court in Tempio Pausania, northern Sardinia, that the images, which were taken with a long-range lens, were an invasion of the prime minister's privacy. The court's decision bolstered Mr Berlusconi's attempts to have the photographs banned from publication in Italy. But they may prove hard for his lawyers to seize – the photographer, Antonello Zappadu, claims he has sold them all to a photo agency in Colombia. A lawyer acting for the prime minister, Luigi Satta, said: "If the photos really are in Colombia, it will be hard to carry out the seizure." Mr Berlusconi has invited a string of actresses and aspiring starlets to parties at his Sardinian villa, which boasts a Roman-style amphitheatre, five swimming pools and extensive landscaped gardens. He is also fending off allegations - which he firmly denies - that he slept with a call-girl, Patrizia D'Addario, 42, after a party at his mansion in Rome on the night of Nov 4, 2008. Several women have claimed that they were paid to attend parties at the palazzo and at Mr Berlusconi's villa on Sardinia's Emerald Coast, a renowned playground for the rich.

AFP: Delegates from over 80 countries pledging to destroy their cluster bombs started a two-day conference in Berlin to assess progress since a 2008 agreement banning the weapons. Absent however were the United States, Israel, Russia and Georgia -- countries which have used cluster bombs in recent years and which refuse to sign up the agreement. China, India and Pakistan also stayed away. A cluster bomb is a weapon fired by artillery or dropped by aircraft that splits open and scatters multiple -- often hundreds -- of smaller submunitions, or bomblets, over a large area. Often many of these bomblets fail to explode immediately and can lie dormant for many years, killing and maiming civilians -- many of them children -- long after the original conflict is over. [. . .] Last year around 100 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan, agreed to ban their use, development, production, transfer and stockpiling, creating the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Ten countries have since ratified the CCM. Once 30 have done so -- as campaigners hope they will by the end of 2009 -- the treaty comes into force, giving the 98 signatories eight years to destroy their stockpiles. It also requires clearing areas of unexploded submunitions within 10 years, and establishes a framework for assistance to victims. But the United States, which has as many as one billion cluster munition bomblets, rights groups say, has not signed up. And nor have China and Russia, both of which are thought to have around the same amount. The US has argued that destroying its stockpiles would put the lives of its soldiers and those of its coalition partners at risk, and that cluster bombs often result in less collateral damage than bigger bombs or larger artillery. Other notable non-signatories include Israel, India, Pakistan, South Korea and North Korea, as well as Turkey, Georgia, Iran, Libya, Syria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Sri Lanka.

Bloody clashes broke out in Tehran yesterday as Iran's supreme leader said he would not yield to pressure over the disputed election. The renewed confrontation took place in Baharestan Square, near parliament, where hundreds of protesters faced off against several thousand riot police and other security personnel. Witnesses likened the scene to a ­war zone, with helicopters hovering overhead, many arrests and the police beating demonstrators. One woman told CNN that hundreds of unidentified men armed with clubs had emerged from a mosque to confront the protesters. "They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband fainted. They were beating people like hell. It was a massacre," she said. The opposition website Rooz Online carried what it said was an interview with a man the government had shipped in to Tehran to quell the demonstrations. He said he was being paid 2m rial (£122) to assault protesters with a heavy wooden stave, and that other volunteers, most of them from far-flung provinces, were being kept in hostel accommodation, reportedly in east Tehran. For Robert Tait's Guardian full article, click here.

BBC: (follow link) The new commander of US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan has said troops must shift from conventional warfare to protecting Afghan civilians. Gen Stanley McChrystal is expected to release new combat rules aimed at reducing the number of civilian deaths. A US military report has found that US air strikes in May in which Afghan civilians died had breached guidelines. The Afghan government has repeatedly called for measures to cut the number of civilian casualties. Speaking during a visit to a new US marine base in southern Helmand province, Gen McChrystal said that US and Nato troops must make a "cultural shift" from conventional warfare to protecting Afghan civilians. "Traditionally American forces are designed for conventional, high-intensity combat. In my mind what we've really got to do is make a cultural shift," he said. "When you do anything that harms the people you just have a huge chance of alienating the population. And so even with the best of intentions, if our operation causes them to lose property or loved ones, there is almost no way somebody cannot be impacted in how they view the government and us, the coalition forces."

The AP: A booby-trapped motorcycle exploded in a crowded bazaar Friday in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens, Iraqi officials said. It was the latest in a week of attacks that have killed some 200 people ahead of next week's deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from urban areas in Iraq. The explosion occurred just after 9 a.m. when the market was packed with young people buying or selling motorcycles under the shadow of a Sunni mosque in central Baghdad, police and hospital officials Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but insurgents frequently target crowded market districts to try to maximize casualties. The motorcycle bazaar is only open on Fridays. The market has been hit by several bombings in the past, but Iraqis have resumed flocking to the area due to security gains that have sharply driven down the level of violence. Police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, gave the death toll and said more than 40 people also were wounded.

Reuters: Two soldiers were killed on Friday in the first suicide bombing in Pakistani Kashmir while several people were hurt in a blast near the Afghan border as the army prepares to attack Taliban in that region. Islamist militants have carried out a series of bomb attacks across Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a military offensive in the northwest but there have been no such attacks in Pakistan's part of the disputed Kashmir region. The army launched its offensive after Taliban gains raised fears for U.S. ally Pakistan's future and worry about the safety of its nuclear arsenal. The blast in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, will raise concern that the militants are expanding their campaign to distract the military as it closes in on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of three men charged as accessories in the assassination of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The court ordered a new trial for two Chechen brothers and a former police officer who had been declared innocent by a jury in February of involvement as lookouts and couriers. The trial will open a new chapter in a politically freighted mystery that has painted a chilling picture of bungled police work, a faltering judicial system and public indifference. Politkovskaya was gunned down in October 2006 as she carried groceries home from the store. Although the three low-level suspects were eventually brought before a jury with considerable publicity, investigators still haven't arrested anybody suspected of killing the reporter or ordering her death. For Megan Stack's LA Times full article, click here.

The Guardian: Warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant positions in Pakistan's troubled northwest on Sunday, killing 11 Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said. The government also upped the stakes in its conflict with Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, offering a reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000) for information leading to Mehsud's capture or death. Elsewhere in the volatile northwest region, two government soldiers were killed and four were wounded when insurgents attacked a pair of military outposts near Wana in South Waziristan with rockets, missiles and small arms shortly after morning prayers, two intelligence officials said. The military confirmed that two bases had been attacked but could not immediately comment on casualties. Violence has spiked this month in South Waziristan, a rugged tribal area along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, as the government prepares for an apparent offensive there aimed at eliminating Mehsud and his militants. The focus on South Waziristan comes as a two-month-old campaign to oust Mehsud-allied Taliban militants from the Swat Valley region, also in the northwest, wraps up. Some 2 million residents have been displaced by the fighting in Swat.

Iran was warned of a "strong and collective" EU response to the arrest of local staff working at Britain's embassy in Tehran, which was also condemned by the foreign secretary in the latest spat over post-election unrest. David Miliband denied allegations that Iranian employees of the embassy had played a "significant role" in clashes between security forces and demonstrators complaining about the "theft" of the presidential poll. "We have protested in strong terms, directly to the Iranian authorities, about the arrests," Miliband said. "The idea that the British embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran … is wholly without foundation." Eight unnamed embassy employees were arrested on Saturday and some released later. The EU demanded yesterday that they all be freed. The Iranian staff include a highly regarded political adviser whose job is to keep colleagues abreast of the Islamic republic's internal politics. Unlike British nationals they do not enjoy diplomatic immunity. Iranian leaders kept up their own angry exchanges over the crisis. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, denounced "interfering statements" by western officials and appealed to both sides in the dispute "not to stoke the emotions of the young". For the Guardian full article, click here.

The BBC: Taliban militants have ambushed a Pakistani military convoy and killed 12 soldiers, the army says. The attack happened in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, when militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at several vehicles. The attack came as authorities in North West Frontier Province offered a reward for information leading to the capture of the country's Taliban commander. Meanwhile, sporadic violence continued to erupt across Pakistan's north-west. The convoy in North Waziristan was attacked in the Gharlamai region near Wachabibi village, some 45km (25 miles) west of the region's main town of Miranshah. Twelve soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured, the military statement said. A fire-fight then broke out in which 10 militants were killed, the military said. "An exchange of fire between security forces and terrorists continued for some time. Ten terrorists were killed," it said. Violence was reported across the north-west as the army continued its operations to dislodge Taliban militants from their strongholds there. The army has been fighting militants in the Swat valley for two months - an operation that has triggered militant attacks on both the military and towns and cities elsewhere.

The BBC: Officials in Shanghai are questioning nine people as part of an investigation into why a nearly finished apartment building collapsed on Saturday. The building at Shanghai's "Lotus Riverside" apartment complex toppled over almost intact, killing one worker. The developers had sold 489 of the 629 flats in the 13-storey building, and owners of the flats are now demanding refunds or compensation. The event has sparked worries about construction safety in China. The building, one of 11 in a wider project, fell over early on Saturday when pillars that were supposed to be buried deep under the earth were uprooted. China's official news agency, Xinhua, said officials were taking "appropriate control measures" against nine people, including the developer, construction contractor and supervisor of the project. The China Daily newspaper showed tearful owners gathering for talks about taking collective action against the developer, and owners of flats in nearby buildings also expressed fears for their safety.

The Telegraph: A lawyer representing Dr Murray said the 51 year old was looking forward to telling his side of the story. Dr Murray has been become the centre of attention in the deepening mystery over the 50 year old singer's death from apparent cardiac arrest. He was interviewed for over three hours by detectives in Los Angeles after initially going missing for 24 hours and his statement was said to have helped police build up an accurate picture of the singer's last hours alive.Dr Murray's lawyer Edward Chernoff has denied reports that he had given Jackson a shot of the methadone based painkiller Demerol.His denial that Dr Murray had ever given Jackson the drug, particularly on the night before he died, raises new questions of what exactly caused Jackson's heart to stop.''One of his best friends just died, essentially in his arms -- yeah he's looking forward to telling his story,'' Chernoff said.The Houston based lawyer said Dr Murray would wait until the police and forensic teams had finished their investigation before going public.Mr Chernoff also said that when Dr Murray found Jackson he was still alive - with a faint pulse and his body still warm.Mr Chernoff said because Jackson was so frail the doctor had placed one hand beneath his body as support and used the other to pump the heart.

Protestors in Honduras yesterday put up roadblocks in the capital, Tegucigal, as they demanded the return of the president, Manuel Zelaya, hours after he was ousted in a military coup. Hundreds of people, some wearing masks and armed with sticks, put up barricades near the presidential palace as governments across the region condemned the first military overthrow in central America since the end of the cold war. What has so far been a bloodless coup could yet turn lethal. Shots were fired near the presidential palace last night,but it was unclear who was shooting or whether there were any casualties. Soldiers seized Zelaya, who was in his pyjamas, early yesterday and took him to neighbouring Costa Rica by plane. The 56-year-old president, looking dishevelled but calm, said he had been expelled by "rightwing oligarchs" and promised to return to Honduras. Zelaya, who had been in office since 2006, was ousted after clashing with the judiciary, congress and the army over proposed constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election. The US and European Union joined Latin American governments in denouncing the coup. For Rory Carroll's Guardian full article, click here.

Forbes: South Korea plans to invest 4 trillion won ($3.13 billion) by 2015 to expand Incheon International Airport, the country's land ministry said on Monday. South Korea is eager to boost government and private spending in construction and other large-scale projects to help offset sluggish local consumption and exports that have weighed on Asia's fourth-largest economy. ncheon, the country's main international airport, was voted the best in the world for 2009 in an annual survey conducted by British consultancy Skytrax. The airport competes for North Asian passenger and cargo traffic with rival airports in Hong Kong, China and Japan, where expansions and upgrades are also planned. At Incheon, the government plans to add a second passenger terminal and expand its existing cargo terminal and other infrastructure, the land ministry said in a statement.Upon completion, Incheon will be able to handle 62 million passengers and 5.8 million tons of cargo a year, up from the current capacity of 44 million passengers and 4.5 million tons.Construction will begin in 2011 with completion targeted for 2015, but the schedule could change depending on air travel demand, the ministry said.

LA Times: Reporting from Baghdad -- At a moment of triumph, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki stood before a room full of reporters recently and publicly fretted about Iraq's future. After six years, U.S. troops were completing their withdrawal from Iraqi cities, the first step toward their complete departure by the end of 2011. The prime minister has declared today's deadline a holiday. And yet, Maliki acknowledged: "The challenge isn't finished. . . . What country in the world has such terrorist attacks?" Maliki described a nation that may be too feeble to overcome its legacy of violence and corruption. "I want [Iraq] to stand on its own feet," the prime minister said. He called on Iraqis to unite and do away with divisive, faction-based politics. Maliki's extended question-and-answer session highlighted changes in Iraq in the last six years. Here was a leader engaging in a relatively frank public dialogue -- something that would have been unthinkable under Saddam Hussein, or in many of Iraq's neighbors even today. That sense of openness is in part a reflection of U.S. efforts to build a more democratic system. Maliki's acknowledgment of the difficulties ahead is a testament to the mistakes on America's watch: a failure to avoid sectarian war or to quickly rebuild the economy and government services. Among Iraqi politicians and foreign diplomats alike, there are doubts about Maliki's ambitions. He is credited with helping stabilize the country, but is he intent on building an authoritarian state? Or will a semblance of Iraq's messy, consensus politics continue? There were no dramatic last-minute scenes of U.S. troops pulling out of urban bases to meet today's deadline. They have been slowly leaving for months. Iraqi forces may call on them for support, but it is unclear that they will. What is certain, however, is that after invading the country and guiding it through the post-Hussein era, the U.S. has stepped off the main stage. Iraqis will decide whether the country is run by an accountable leadership or a repressive and undemocratic elite and whether it slips back into civil war. "Corruption and arbitrary use of force in violation of citizens' rights and human rights are still a great danger," said a Western advisor to Iraq's government. "Everything is in play." Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, is a barometer of the tensions between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims. Baghdad's heavily Shiite district of Sadr City has been the stage for the rise of the Mahdi Army militia and poisonous rivalries among religious parties. Together, they provide a glimpse into Iraq's future. (Ned Parker)

Michael Jackson's father - with whom the singer had a troubled relationship - has reportedly been excluded from his will.In his final will, Jackson divides his estate among his mother, three children and one or more charities - but there is no mention of his father Joe. The revelations have been disclosed by the Wall Street Journal which says the will could be submitted to the superior court in Los Angeles on Thursday. Lawyer John Branca and music executive John Mclain, a friend of Jackson, are named as executors. Mr Branca, who worked for Jackson from 1980 to 2006 and was rehired by Jackson a week before his death, wrote the will in 2002, according to the US newspaper. Click here to read the full story on Sky News.

The Guardian: Honduras' ousted president said he will return to his country in two days and reclaim control from coup leaders, urging soldiers to go back to their baracks and stop cracking down on thousands of his supporters who have protested his overthrow. The military coup has provoked the condemnation of world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and sparked clashes in the Honduran capital that have left dozens of people injured. Flanked by leftist Latin American leaders who have vowed to help him regain power, Manuel Zelaya said late Monday that he would accept an offer by Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to accompany him back to Honduras and work for the restoration of the democratic order. Zelaya, a wealthy rancher who has championed the poor, said he wanted to make the trip Thursday, after attending a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to seek support from its 192 member nations. "I will return Thursday to Tegucigalpa and I want the support of whoever thinks I have the right to finish my presidency," Zelaya said at a late night news conference in Nicaragua, where he earlier received a standing ovation during a meeting of Latin American leaders to discuss the coup. Honduran military leaders arrested him Sunday and flew him to Costa Rica. He said he would call for dialogue and urged soldiers to return to their barracks. "In the name of God, in the name of the people, stop repressing the people. If the people want to express themselves, don't press them," Zelaya said. It was unclear how Honduras' current leaders would react to the return of Zelaya, who they say was legally ousted because he violated the constitution by sponsoring a referendum that was outlawed by the Supreme Court. Many saw the foiled vote as a step toward eliminating barriers to his re-election, as other Latin American leaders have done in recent years. On Monday, thousands of protesters clashed with police and soldiers outside the national palace amid calls for the restoration of Zelaya to Honduras' presidency. The loudest voice calling for Zelaya's return has been Chavez, who has urged a rebellion by the Honduran people. "I'll do everything possible to overthrow this gorilla government of Honduras. It must be overthrown," the socialist leader said. "The rebellion in Honduras must be supported..."

At least 20 people, including several children, were killed in eastern Peru when two passenger boats crashed on the Ucayali River Tuesday, authorities said. The accident occurred close to San Jose de Pacache, a small town in Peru's Amazon rainforest, the port captain in departmental capital Pucallpa told media. A small boat rescued two people from the river and carried them to the nearby town of Puerto Callao. Both boats had set out from Pucallpa and were headed for Iquitos, a city in northeastern Peru. Click here for the story from the Brazil Sun.

AFP: Iran halted the publication of a reformist party newspaper after its defeated presidential candidate said he would refuse to recognise Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, its website said. Former parliament speaker Medhi Karroubi said on Tuesday that the government emerging from the disputed June 12 election was not "legitimate" after Ahmadinejad's victory was certified by the nation's top electoral body. "Last night, after Karroubi's statement was released, representatives of the Tehran prosecutor and the culture ministry prevented the publication of Etemad Melli newspaper," his Etemad Melli party said on its website. "They wanted the statement censored and not published -- so the newspaper will not be published today," it said. The newspaper is one of the few reformist publications to have survived a crackdown under Ahmadinejad's rule. However, it chief editor Mohammad Ghoochani is among scores of reformist leaders and journalists detained in a crackdown by the authorities on opposition activists and protesters in the wake of the disputed election. Iran warned the opposition on Tuesday it would not tolerate further protests after the official election watchdog, the Guardians Council, upheld Ahmadinejad's re-election despite complaints of widespread irregularities.

A train carrying liquefied petroleum gas derailed in a quiet seaside Italian neighborhood , engulfing a neighborhood in flames and leaving 16 people dead, including four children, according to revised casualty estimates on Wednesday.The accident in Viareggio around midnight on Monday left more than 34 people injured, 12 of them in a serious condition. An initial count of the dead put the number at 14 but Italy’s ANSA news agency said Wednesday two small children subsequently died of severe burns. The 14-car freight train was traveling south through coastal Tuscany when the axle on the first car broke, Italian officials said. The train ran off the tracks and exploded. “We saw a ball of fire rising up to the sky,” one witness, Gianfranco Bini, told The Associated Press. The witness lives in a building overlooking the station. “We heard three big rumbles, like bombs. It looked like war had broken out.” The flames ravaged entire streets, and five buildings collapsed, killing some residents as they slept. “It was an apocalypse,” a survivor said on Italian television, according to Reuters. “All we could smell was gas and things burning, and all we could see was flames.” Three children were pulled alive from the rubble, the Italian news media reported. More than 1,000 people were evacuated, and about 100 were left homeless, the mayor of Viareggio, Luca Lunardini, told news agencies. Click here for the full story from the New York Times.

AP: U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons. The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution? The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material. The Navy has been watching it — at times following it from a distance. It traveled south and southwest for more than a week; then, on Sunday, it turned around and headed back north, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. Nearly two weeks after the ship left North Korea, officials said Tuesday they still don't know where it is going. But it was some 250 miles south of Hong Kong on Tuesday, one official said. Though acknowledging all along that the Kang Nam's destination was unclear, some officials said last week that it could be going to Myanmar and that it was unclear whether it could reach there without stopping in another port to refuel. The U.N. resolution allows the international community to ask for permission to board and search any suspect ship on the seas. If permission for inspection is refused, authorities can ask for an inspection in whichever nation where the ship pulls into port. North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.