According to [prosecutor] Mr. [David] Fisher, as Mr. Khan's story of what happened shifted in the weeks and months after the couple's arrest, several central themes remained the same: One, that Farah was a bastard child, and not his; two, that he always used the "most vile and disgusting language" when talking about her, and third, that he reserved his tears and his pleas for mercy for himself. The little girl was the product of Mr. Khan's first marriage, an arranged one, the couple met on their wedding day, that lasted only about four months. He denied he was Farah's father, Mr. Fisher said, but was nonetheless awarded custody of her by "village elders" in Pakistan when the couple divorced.

The lightly armed Pueblo was monitoring communist ship movements and intercepting messages in international waters near the North Korean coast when it was attacked by torpedo boats Jan. 23, 1968. One sailor was killed and 82 were taken prisoner. Some of them, including Bucher, were wounded.

After 11 months, the crew was released two days before Christmas, some of them crippled or nearly blind because of the brutality and malnourishment they endured. The ship remained behind in North Korea, where it became a tourist attraction. [see pic at the Marmot's]

[ . . . ]

During their captivity, crew members said, they were beaten, burned on radiators and had their teeth kicked out by North Korean soldiers. Bucher was beaten and tortured into signing a confession.

Showbox, in charge of the film’s distribution, is looking to set a record for most screen showings during a film’s opening week. The current Korean record holder, “Shilmido,” was shown on 325 screens nationwide during its opening week. Showbox plans to shatter that record by putting the film on roughly 400 screens in the first seven days of its release.

[ . . . ]

The marketing costs of “The Korean Flag Waves” have come out to about W2 billion. Kookmin Bank and other corporations, however, have provided another W2 billion in support, so the marketing bill for the film is reckoned to be about W4 billion [about 3.4 million dollars]: far above the production costs of most Korean films.

Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo is a tragedy about two brothers, Jin-tae (Jang Dong-kun) Jin-seok (Won Bin), set during the Korean War. It is a spectacular blockbuster. One can easily imagine the scale of the movie: the net production cost exceeded W14.6 billion, 25,000 extras were mobilized using 19,000 military uniforms, two kilometers of defensive positions were built on the Nakdong River, and was filmed in 140 shoots. On average, three actors per day had to go to the hospital because of injuries sustained during the shooting.

from Chosun Ilbo

Details of the transfer were unclear, but Onukaba Ojo, the spokesman for the Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said, "We have committed to a program of cooperation that includes missile technology." If the deal were to come off, Nigeria, along with other nations such as Libya and Pakistan, would be among those that have received North Korea's help in establishing a missile program.

I guess oil was the right answer. We were just asking the wrong question.

Arabs and Westerners accused by Iraqis of receiving Iraqi oil proceeds in exchange for supporting Saddam Hussein denied Tuesday they had accepted bribes or participated in illicit deals.

The accusations surfaced this week in a report by one of the dozens of new newspapers that have begun publishing in Iraq since Saddam was ousted last March. Since, members of the new provisional Iraqi government and Saddam opponents have distributed a list of the accused, based on documents from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

About 270 former Cabinet officials, legislators, political activists and journalists from 46 countries are on the list, suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales that Saddam had allegedly offered them in exchange for cultivating political and popular support in their countries.

ONG: And the cockpit is not answering their phone. There's somebody stabbed in business class, and we can't breathe in business. Um, I think there is some Mace or something. We can't breathe. I don't know, but I think we're getting hijacked.

[ . . . ]

OPERATIONS: Can anybody get up to the cockpit? Can anyone get up to the cockpit?

ONG: We can't even get into the cockpit. We don't know who's up there.

(Dial tone)

Troy Garity, Fonda's actor son (from her marriage to Tom Hayden), also has been at numerous V-Days. "He is a vagina-friendly young man. When people say, 'Imagine a world where there was no violence against women,' I always say, 'Men would be like my son.' ''

[emphasis added]

I cherish the memory of the blushing militia girls on the roof of their factory, encouraging one of their sisters as she sang a song praising the blue sky of Vietnam--these women, who are so gentle and poetic, whose voices are so beautiful, but who, when American planes are bombing their city, become such good fighters. [see also here]

Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man [a supporter of Lyndon Larouche] tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.

[ . . . ]

I'm neutral in this race but I'm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down."

[ . . . ]

Franken emerged from the crowd and charged one male protester, grabbing him with a bear hug from behind and slamming him onto the floor.

"I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move," Franken said.

Some say Lee Sa-bi's appearance has the best of both worlds; her oval face and almond eyes, typical Asian features, are paired with long legs that are associated with Western runway models. It is a combination that helped this 25-year-old become the first Korean model officially selected for a lead gallery in the Asia editions of Playboy.

In "The Big Test for the Contenders" (Op-Ed, Jan. 21), David Frum and Richard Perle assert that "the United Nations is more likely to restrain us than help us in our war against terrorism." That is not true.

When the horror of 9/11 hit the United States, the Security Council passed two vital resolutions that provided the international legal framework for the fight against terrorism.

Resolution 1373 required countries to interdict arms flows, freeze financial transfers to suspected terror groups, report on the movements of terrorists and update national antiterror legislation.

Without the legal authority of such a resolution — binding on all United Nations members — the United States would have been hard pressed to obtain such cooperation "retail" from 191 individual countries. And it would have taken decades to negotiate and ratify treaties and conventions imposing the same prohibitions.

The United Nations has proved to be indispensable in the global war against terror.

On Jan. 8, North Korean officials gave an unofficial American delegation, of which I was a member, access to the building in Yongbyon where about 8,000 spent fuel rods had once been safeguarded. We discovered that all 8,000 rods had been removed.

Whether they have been reprocessed for weapons-grade plutonium, as Pyongyang claims, is almost irrelevant. American intelligence believed that most if not all the rods remained in storage, giving policymakers a false sense that time was on their side as they rebuffed North Korean requests for serious dialogue and worked laboriously to devise a multilateral approach to solving the rapidly escalating crisis.

But events of the last several years show that this approach is not working. In December 2002 North Korea was suspected of having one or two nuclear weapons that it had acquired before agreeing in 1994 to freeze its known nuclear program and to allow it to be monitored.

But unless Kim threw in a true surprise--say, Osama bin Laden making his own tourist video by the Yongbyon cooling ponds--North Korea's arsenal is hardly news. Even back in the 1990s, U.S. intelligence was already estimating that Kim had a bomb or two, or at least the makings thereof. That was during the Clinton era, in which Jimmy Carter pioneered the practice of unofficial trips to arrange nuclear "peace" deals with Pyongyang, and came prancing home as father of the 1994 Agreed Framework. The way that worked was, the U.S. and its allies paid nuclear extortion in the form of food and fuel for Pyongyang, propped up Kim's regime, and began building him $4.6 billion worth of nuclear reactors. [note - these nuclear reactors would have been unable to produce plutonium]

In return, Kim lied and cheated on his promise to give up nuclear weapons; launched a program to enrich uranium for more bomb fuel; built, tested and sold missiles; and along the way starved to death some two million of his fellow North Koreans. When confronted by the Bush administration in late 2002 about his nuclear cheating, Kim's regime bragged about it, pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, announced it would go into overtime producing yet more bombs, and for good measure had a spokesman proclaim last March that "North Korean missiles can reach any part of the United States of America." Now, with the same verve that brings back your neighborhood Mafia extortionist on his regular route, Kim wants another "peace" deal in which he'd get paid yet again for giving up weapons he already got paid for promising not to make in the first place.

"You've heard of mad cow disease? This was mad candidate disease,'' said an astounded Democratic political strategist Garry South, an adviser to Sen. Joe Lieberman, a competitor of Dean's in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I sat there in total disbelief. It was beyond anything I'd ever seen,'' South said. "If I were (Dean campaign manager Joe) Trippi and (pollster Paul) Maslin, I would have been having a heart attack.''

[emphasis added]

"Too many Americans know too little about the Islamic world, and much of what they know they learned after Sept. 11 through the narrow lens of terror,'' Clinton told the forum, organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

"What people do out of anger, pain and fear both darkens and distorts reality,'' said Clinton.

Much of the criticism at the conference from Muslim scholars, religious leaders and politicians has been directed at the United States for what they say is unconditional support of Israel against the Palestinians.

"Sometimes I feel that our country is judged by many Muslims based on how they think the Mideast peace process is going, and whether they think we are doing enough to try and give the Palestinians a state and a decent future. That is not the only standard,'' Clinton said.

He didn't pander. He made America's case and made it well. Beginning with a sometimes-rueful look at the progress his administration had failed to make and noting that the wars that plague the world are begun by men his own age or older, but paid for in blood by the young, he refused to direct one syllable of blame at the Bush administration. Accepted as a citizen of the world, he spoke as a convinced American.

[ . . . ]

Pulling no punches, he made it clear that Yasser Arafat was responsible for the failure to secure a Palestinian state. He refused to trash Israel. While admitting - calculatedly - that the United States remains imperfect, he used rational self-criticism as a starting point to tell his Middle Eastern listeners they needed to look more critically at themselves.

With art and ardor, he scolded the crowd that blaming others for their own failings was useless and destructive - warning that even when others truly are at fault for our misfortunes, wallowing in blame only paralyzes us. Actions, not accusations, change the world.

That may sound simple enough, but it's an essential message for the entire Middle East. I know of no one else who could have delivered it so convincingly.

[ . . . ]

It was the famous Clinton magic. It failed us in the White House, but may have found its proper stage in the world beyond our shores.

[emphasis added]

Queried about his position on Iraq, he stated that any disagreements he might have would be most appropriately expressed at home in the U.S., not before a foreign audience.

Judge Al Girolami ruled earlier this month that the trial had to be moved out of Modesto to make sure Peterson got a fair trial in the slaying of his wife, Laci, and unborn son.

Four counties [San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Orange] had offered to host the trial, and the judge picked San Mateo County, situated south of San Francisco [specifically, Redwood City]. Girolami had said he wanted a county close enough to Modesto that witnesses could drive there.

[emphasis added]

Seeing a potential economic windfall, San Mateo County's tourism bureau had sent a letter to the judge offering to host the trial, which is expected to last nearly six months.

Anne LeClair, president and chief executive of the San Mateo County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said her office was "screaming with great excitement" upon hearing the news.

Restaurants, hotels, car rental services and other businesses could see an influx of $8 million to $16 million as dozens of media members arrive, she said.

"They'll be staying for three, four or five months," she said. "The economic impact is tremendous."

[emphasis added]

Price and other merchants had anxiously awaited a decision on the change of venue. Cheers went up at the San Mateo County Convention and Visitors Bureau as the news arrived.

"It's the opportunity of a lifetime in terms of exposure for our county," said the bureau's chief executive and president, Anne LeClair. "People will be able to see what a beautiful county this is and hopefully more people will come to visit after the trial."

LeClair estimates the trial will generate $8 million to $16 million in revenue for the region.

[emphasis and link added]

Come for the murder trial - stay for the scenery!

"It's not fun playing lesbians anymore", how many evenings have I had ruined by that depressing phrase?

In a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mr. Bush said he had told Mr. Martin of the shift in policy. Mr. Martin "understands the stakes" in rebuilding a free and peaceful Iraq, Mr. Bush said. He offered no details of what the contracts would be worth.

The origins of this question [of whether the next Pope should be Italian] go back in time and deserve examination. I was watching on that unforgettable Roman evening of Oct. 16, 1978, when, on the state television network, RAI, which was still broadcasting in black and white, the newly elected pope appeared: a foreigner, Polish. I confess that, once I'd gotten over my surprise, like many of my fellow Italians I felt a certain bitterness, because my country had lost its last universal sign of power. Although today Romano Prodi, as president of the European Commission, in part makes up for that loss, it's not the same. The archetype from which the pope descends is that of the imperial Caesar, while Prodi's charge covers a merely political body that is still being defined and is, besides, limited to Europe.

Not since 1522, when a Dutch theologian was elected Pope Adrian VI, had a non-Italian attained the role of Vicar of Christ. Adrian VI died in 1523. He had time, however, to order the destruction of Michelangelo's marvelous nudes in the Sistine Chapel: he was scandalized by them, impelled by the same anti-Renaissance moral fervor of Martin Luther, a German, who couldn't understand the typically Latin cult of beauty. Fortunately, there were some at the Vatican who knew how to obstruct Pope Adrian's order. Thus for 500 years, while for the most part Italy wasn't even a unified state - unlike France, Spain, England, Russia - that unique supreme Christian authority, purely Italian, nevertheless continued to represent the universality descended from the emperors.

It is not paradoxical to say that in Italy the monarchy has continued to exist despite the expulsion of the royal House of Savoy, because the monarchical authority of the pontiff has a charisma and a national power of attraction that no president of the republic has ever been able to claim. This is why on that October night in 1978, when Karol Wojtyla introduced himself to the world, speaking a stilted Italian, and stumbling into a delightful grammatical error while he was asking to be corrected, the inheritance of the Roman Empire seemed to us to have been lost.

[ . . . ]

While retaining one's respect and admiration for the great pope who is John Paul II, one might still ask what it means to have had a Polish bishop of Rome for 25 years. Beyond the many authoritative observations of the Vatican specialists - reporters like Marco Politi of La Repubblica; periodicals like Limes; scholars like Alberto Milloni, to name just a few - it is not only an obvious matter of national pride that makes many of us Italians dream of the election of a fellow countryman. One often gets the distinct impression that the bishop of Rome believes he is still sitting in Krakow and not in the Vatican, and that the weight of the anguished history of Poland lies heavy on his shoulders.

To be bishop of Rome - that is, of the world - is not like being bishop of Krakow. We Italians are an ancient and tested bridge between past and future, and supported by 2,000 years of consummate political tradition. The popes knew how to bring into the melting pot of Christianity first Roman civilization, then barbarian cultures, and finally the many conquerors who came to Italy and were seduced by the imperial myth of the Rome of the emperors. Italy is also a secular school of political and religious mediation, run by the Catholic Church.

Even in modern times the highest Italian political class, the one most capable of a European breadth, the Christian Democrats of Alcide De Gasperi and Aldo Moro, was reared by the Catholic Church. And this church has been a master of mediation between historical contingency and the eternal - the child, often, of Machiavelli as well as of the Gospel.

John Paul II's rigidity seems alien to this more farsighted and elastic Italian tradition. In general, at least in the past 100 years, an Italian pope, precisely because he has been trained in a proud political school like the Vatican, guarantees a more nuanced distance from politics and a warmer pastoral mission. These are qualities that the pope who died after only 34 days, John Paul I, appeared to possess: he who left the memory of himself in his name and in the suggestive declaration that "God is the Father but is also the Mother."

The Church is headed by the pope.
The pope, in turn, is the Bishop of Rome.
Rome is in Italy.
Therefore, the Church should be led by an Italian.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien's $1-billion gun registry is under review by the new Paul Martin government and likely will be significantly altered in a move that would appeal to Western Canada.

Among the changes being considered, sources say, is reallocation of some of the resources used to finance the registry to beef up other areas, such as policing or security at borders where illegal guns make their way into Canada from the United States.

A senior government official said yesterday the gun-registry legislation is not "a meaningful law." Most provinces and territories, including Alberta and British Columbia, have refused to comply with the legislation, which came into force last year.

Only one person has been convicted under the new law of failing to register a gun; there are estimates that more than one million guns are not registered.

However, the official said yesterday the review is not expected to recommend killing the registry.

[ . . . ]

Last year, the Liberal caucus erupted over the registry after a report by Auditor- General Sheila Fraser, tabled in December of 2002, said that implementing the program will cost more than $1-billion by 2005. When the program was first introduced in 1995, Canadians were told it would cost $2-million after the fees from licences and registration were recovered.

"But the basic point that's being made is that in fact we've got to make sure that money is available for health care. It's the number one priority."

Seoul National University could have a nuclear waste dump on campus if more than 60 professors get their way.

The 63 professors made the proposal yesterday in a bid to end the seven-month dispute between the government and residents over the planned construction of such a facility in the southwestern county of Buan.

"We suggest that the university president consider allowing a nuclear waste disposal site into our school based on the firm belief that the nuclear facility poses no threat to the security of people," they said at a news conference.

"We have to take the lead in the important government project to build a nuclear waste dump, which has been drifting over the past 18 years and thus led to the squandering of national energy."

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.

Then there are Dean's endless "Big Lies": Liberating 25 million Iraqis was "wrong." Saddam's capture doesn't make any difference. Osama bin Laden should be presumed innocent, despite his own admission of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Bush knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks. The Global War on Terror is a failure. The economy's a disaster. And the administration is hiding terrible secrets.

Paranoids and conspiracy theorists rejoice! You finally have a candidate of your own.

Of course, when Dean seals his gubernatorial records so Americans can't examine his own back-room deals, that's perfectly legitimate.

In Dean's alternate reality, everything the Bush administration has done and might do is a failure, no matter the facts. The president's even responsible for Mad Cow Disease. It's Goebbels again: Just keep repeating the lies until the lies assume the force of truth.

Moreover, there were those who gave up their lives after the end of the Great East Asian War, taking upon themselves the responsibility for the war. There were also 1,068 "Martyrs of Showa" who were cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces (United States, England, the Netherlands, China and others). These martyrs are also the Kami of Yasukuni Jinja.

[emphasis added]