LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “The Islamist extremists have not been defeated; they have melted into the heat haze of the desert.” Alex Vines,
head of the Africa program at Chatham House, as the
French mission in Mali scored another success in its effort to dislodge al-Qaida-linked militants Article, this pageNew satellite working, S. Korea says
SEOUL, South Korea - The first satellite launched from South Korean soil is working normally, officials said today, a day after Seoul achieved its space milestone amid high tensions over archrival North Korea’s recent threat to test a third nuclear device.
A South Korean rocket carrying the satellite blasted off Wednesday from a launchpad in the southwestern coastal village of Goheung. Science officials told cheering spectators minutes later that the rocket delivered an observational satellite into orbit. In a brief statement today, the Science Ministry said the satellite was working normally and transmitting data on its orbit.
The launch is a culmination of years of efforts by South Korea - Asia’s fourth-largest economy - to advance its space program and cement its standing as a technology powerhouse. North Korea’s long-range rocket program, in contrast, has generated international fears that it is getting closer to developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the U.S.
South Korea’s success comes as tension rises on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea’s threat to explode its third nuclear device.
Group says phosphorus hurt protesters
BANGKOK - A group of lawyers investigating a violent crackdown in Burma in November that left Buddhist monks and villagers with serious burns has concluded that police used white phosphorus, a munition normally reserved for warfare, to disperse protesters.
The suppression of a protest outside a copper mine in central Burma on Nov. 29 shocked the Burmese public after images of critically injured monks circulated across the country. It also gave rise to fears that the civilian government of President Thein Sein, which came to power in 2011, was using the same repressive methods as the military governments that preceded it.
Burmese lawyers and a U.S. human-rights lawyer gathered evidence at the site of the protest, including a metal canister that protesters said was fired by police. The canister was taken to a private laboratory in Bangkok, where a technician determined that residue inside contained high levels of phosphorus. Access to the canister and a copy of the laboratory report were provided to a reporter.
Reached Wednesday, Zaw Htay, a director in the office of Thein Sein, declined to comment on what kind of weapon was used. “I can’t say,” he said. “I can’t answer.”Shot Pakistani girl set for final surgery
LONDON - A Pakistani girl whose defiance of the Taliban turned her into an international icon is headed toward recovery once she undergoes a final surgery to reconstruct her skull, doctors said Wednesday.
Dr. Dave Rosser of Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital said 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai needs the operation to replace the bone shattered when a Taliban gunman, angered at her objection to the group’s restrictions on educating girls, fired a bullet through her skull. Rosser said Malala had made a “remarkable recovery.”
She was shot Oct. 9 as she headed home from school.
The Taliban said they the militants her because she promoted “Western thinking,” but the attempt to kill a teenage girl over her desire to go to school sent a wave of revulsion around the world. In a blaze of publicity over her plight, she was flown to England for advanced medical care - and for her own protection.
Russia scraps U.S. anti-crime deal
MOSCOW - Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States on Wednesday in a move the U.S.
called “self-defeating,” the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to scrap the 10-year-old agreement “because it was no longer relevant,” his office said.
The agreement covered fighting terrorism, corruption and cross-border crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.
Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia’s parliamentary foreignaffairs committee, said the decision reflected Russia’s ability to manage its affairs without outside help.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland expressed regret about the Russian move, saying that the agreement provided a framework for “very fruitful cooperation with Russia on rule of law, countercorruption efforts, preventing trafficking in persons, counternarcotics and strengthening our mutual legal assistance cooperation.”
Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/31/2013