Threats from Russia on Missiles sites
Russia Threatens to Strike NATO Missile Defense Sites
“A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.
The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled.
“We have not been able to find mutually acceptable solutions at this point, and the situation is practically at a dead end,” Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.
Ellen Tauscher, the U.S. special envoy for strategic stability and missile defense, insisted the talks about NATO plans for a missile defense system using ground-based interceptor missiles stationed in Poland, Romania and Turkey were not stalemated.
But she acknowledged Wednesday that the recent elections in Russia and the upcoming elections in the U.S. make it “pretty clear that this is a year in which we’re probably not going to achieve any sort of a breakthrough.”
She reiterated that the U.S.-built system, still in development, is being designed to shoot down Iranian intermediate-range missiles aimed at Europe, not Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Russian officials insist that the system has the capability to shoot down their ICBMs, thus robbing their nuclear deterrent of its credibility and destabilizing the Cold War-era balance of mutually assured destruction.
Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon had any immediate comment on the Russian threat Thursday.
Russian passenger plane disappears
Russian plane missing in Indonesia
The Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russia’s newest civilian airliner, was carrying 42 passengers and eight Russian crew members, said Sunaryo, an official with Sukhoi’s Indonesian agent, Trimarga Rekatama.
However, the number was in dispute. The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said only 37 of the 42 invited passengers were on board. Russian state-run news agencies reported 44 people were on the plane.
The plane was on its second demonstration flight Wednesday when it lost contact with air controllers at Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.
“The first demonstration flight in the morning went smoothly,” said Sunaryo, who uses only one name. “There were no problems.”
On the second flight, the plane began making its descent but vanished from radar screens at 6,200 feet in a mountainous area.
The plane lost contact with air traffic controllers at 2:12 p.m., 21 minutes after taking off, said Marsda Daryatmo, head of the search and rescue agency. Two helicopters were immediately sent out to search for the plane but had to return to their bases due to strong winds and unpredictable weather.
Ground teams were continuing to search. The air search will resume at daylight, depending on the weather, Daryatmo said.
The plane was flying over Mount Salak, a volcano south of Jakarta, and was presumed to have crashed.
The Sukhoi jet arrived in Jakarta as part of a demonstration tour of six Asian countries. It had been to Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, and was due to visit Laos and Vietnam after Indonesia, said the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Sukhoi manufactures military aircraft and is known especially for its fighter jets. Its civilian aircraft is narrow-bodied with a dual-class cabin that can transport 100 passengers over regional routes. It flew its maiden flight in 2008.
In March, a Superjet 100 operated by Russia’s Aeroflot Airlines was forced to abandon its flight to Astrakhan, Russia, and return to Moscow because of problems with the undercarriage, according to RIA Novosti.
A similar defect in another Aeroflot-operated Superjet 100 plane had to be fixed in Minsk in December.
Russia’s state-run United Aircraft Corp. said the defect did not affect passenger safety.
Nuclear reactors are all closed in Japan’s plants
Japan shuts down last nuclear reactor
What makes this Monday so remarkable is that for the first time in four decades, none of the energy is derived from a nuclear reactor.
Over the weekend, Japan’s last remaining nuclear reactor shut down for regular maintenance. In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, reactors have not been allowed back on. Japan is now the first major economy to see the modern era without nuclear power.
Tomari Nuclear Power Plant’s reactor 3 in Hokkaido shut down Saturday evening in a much-watched move by government, industry and environmentalists, who are waged in a public battle over the future of Japan’s energy policy.
“I think it is not easy, but this challenge is worth fighting for,” said Greenpeace Japan’s Junichi Shimizu. “There is an increased chance of earthquakes in Japan, so that has a significant risk to the Japanese people and the Japanese economy. The only way forward is to rapidly shift the energy source from nuclear to other sources of energy.”
That’s not the call just from environmental activists, but from a public suspicious of nuclear energy and its regulatory bodies since a tsunami and earthquake triggered nuclear meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011.
The protesters waved colorful, traditional “koinobori” carp-shaped banners for Children’s Day that became a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.
That movement grew from the grass-roots level in the wake of the disaster as the country watched tens of thousands of residents living within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius of the nuclear plant evacuated and the remaining area turn into a contaminated wasteland.
Before the Fukushima disaster, Japan relied on nuclear for about 30% of its energy. As reactors have come off-line, the country has increased its imports of fossil fuels.
Japan’s government predicts it won’t be able to keep up that pace, and the void will result in an energy crunch this summer, possibly leading to rolling blackouts.
The national government’s ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan, has been urging local communities to allow reactors to return to operation.
The party’s deputy policy chief, Yoshito Sengoku, bluntly said without nuclear energy the world’s third-largest economy would suffer. “We must think ahead to the impact on Japan’s economy and people’s lives, if all nuclear reactors are stopped. Japan could, in some sense, be committing mass suicide,” Sengoku said.
Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Japan’s biggest business lobby, Keidanren, joined the plea in an April press conference. “We cannot possibly agree to do the kind of energy saving yet again this year, or every year from now on,” he said, referring to the country’s efforts to turn off air conditioners and shift operation of production lines to weekends. “The government must bring the nuclear power stations back into operation.”
Economist Jesper Koll, managing director at JP Morgan, said Japan could avoid the economic fallout by defining a clear energy policy, something it has failed to do so far.
“The issue to the private sector of Japan is the government is taking its time in a very emotional, highly politicized debate. And the end result is very, very slow or no decision-making at all. After all, if you don’t have an energy policy, you don’t really have an economic policy because everything revolves around the energy,” he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised a clear energy policy sometime this year, perhaps by summer.
At a conference last month, the chairman of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said the nuclear industry was committed to rebuilding the municipalities around the Fukushima plant, decommissioning that facility and pushing for increased safety measures at plants nationwide.
“We, the nuclear industry, will learn what should be learned from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Based on that, we will endeavor to restore the image and position of nuclear energy,” Takashi Imai said.
Nuclear energy must remain part of the government’s policy, he said, “in order for Japan to continue sustainable growth as a nation committed to trade based on science and technology.”
But Yukie Osaki, who used to live in Fukushima, said she won’t accept any policy that includes nuclear energy. “Nobody believes the government anymore when it says nuclear plants are safe,” she said.
“Japan is an earthquake country. It is already dangerous to have nuclear plants here. If we have another accident, we won’t have anywhere to live in Japan anymore.”
Dementia drug manufacturer to ordered to pay huge settlement
Abbott Laboratories to pay $1.5 billion over misbranding drug
Washington (CNN) – Abbott Laboratories has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1.5 billion to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the company’s unlawful promotion of the prescription drug Depakote, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.
The total — the second-largest payment ever by a drug company — includes a criminal fine of $700 million and civil settlements with the states and federal government totaling $800 million.
Abbott pleaded guilty to misbranding Depakote by promoting the drug to control agitation and aggression in patients with elderly dementia and to treat schizophrenia when neither use was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Justice Department said.
Abbott will be subject to court-supervised probation and reporting obligations for Abbott’s CEO and board of directors.
Under the law, a drug maker’s promotional activities must be limited to uses approved by the FDA. Promotion by the manufacturer for “off-label” uses renders a product misbranded.
In this case, Abbott pleaded guilty to misbranding Depakote by promoting the drug for off-label uses.
The company admitted that, from 1998 through 2006, it “maintained a specialized sales force trained to market Depakote in nursing homes for the control of agitation and aggression in elderly dementia patients, despite the absence of credible scientific evidence that Depakote was safe and effective for that use,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
“In addition, from 2001 through 2006, the company marketed Depakote in combination with atypical antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia, even after its clinical trials failed to demonstrate that adding Depakote was any more effective than an atypical antipsychotic alone for that use.”
The FDA approved Depakote only for epileptic seizures, bipolar mania and the prevention of migraines.
In 1999, Abbott discontinued a trial of Depakote in the treatment of dementia due to adverse events that included drowsiness, dehydration and anorexia.
Abbott trained its sales force to promote the drug to health care providers and employees of nursing homes as better than antipsychotic drugs for controlling agitation and aggression in elderly dementia patients, the release said.
Abbott sales representatives touted the fact that Depakote was not subject to certain provisions of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 and its regulations intended to prevent medications from being used unnecessarily in nursing homes, it added.
“Exploiting the fact that certain OBRA provisions did not yet apply to Depakote, Abbott sales representatives stated that by using Depakote, nursing homes could avoid the administrative burdens and costs of complying with OBRA,” the news release said.
The company wound up giving millions of dollars in rebates to pharmacists at long-term-care facilities that were based on increases in the use of the drug in nursing homes they serviced, the news release said.
“In addition to using its sales force to promote the drug to health care providers and employees of nursing homes, Abbott created programs and materials to train the pharmacy providers’ consultant pharmacists about the off-label use of Depakote to encourage them to recommend the drug for this unapproved use,” it added.
“Not only did Abbott engage in off-label promotion, but it targeted elderly dementia patients and downplayed the risks apparent from its own clinical studies,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West. “As this criminal and civil resolution demonstrates, those who put profits ahead of patients will pay a hefty price.”
The company also admitted that, from 2001 through 2006, it marketed the drug to treat schizophrenia. Though the company paid for two studies of the use of Depakote to treat schizophrenia, neither met the goals established for the study, it said.
“When the second study failed to show a statistically significant treatment difference between antipsychotic drugs used in combination with Depakote and antipsychotic drugs alone, Abbott waited nearly two years to notify its own sales force about the study results and another two years to publish those results,” it said. During that time, the company continued to promote the drug for the treatment of schizophrenia.
Abbott pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor for misbranding Depakote. Under the plea agreement, it will pay a criminal fine of $500 million, forfeit assets of $198.5 million, and submit to a term of probation for five years.
Under the civil settlement, Abbott agreed to pay $800 million to the federal government and to states that participate in the agreement to resolve claims that its practices caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs.
The settlement covers allegations that Abbott paid health care professionals and long-term-care pharmacy providers to induce them to prescribe the drug.
The civil settlement resolves four lawsuits pending in federal court in the Western District of Virginia under the whistle-blower provisions of the False Claims Act. As part of the resolution, the whistle-blowers will receive $84 million from the federal share of the settlement amount.
In a statement posted on its website, Abbott said it had cooperated fully with the government during its investigation.
The company plans to separate into two publicly traded companies by the end of the year.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter and are confident we have the programs in place to satisfy the requirements of this settlement,” said Laura J. Schumacher, Abbott’s executive vice president and general counsel. “The company takes its responsibility to patients and health care providers seriously and has established robust compliance programs to ensure its marketing programs meet the needs of health care providers and legal requirements.”
Is Microsoft still a competitor against rivals?
Microsoft’s master plan to beat Apple and Google
By David Goldman
Microsoft’s desktop (left), Xbox (middle) and Windows Phone (right) will soon share one common interface.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Microsoft is staging a comeback — and, unlikely as this sounds, it’s one Apple and Google should be worried about.
Microsoft’s recipe relies on three key ingredients: Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. The secret sauce, which features a dash of Bing and SkyDrive, is still simmering. But Microsoft is nothing if not patient, and it thinks its trio of core consumer products will blend together in the next few years to form a major new ecosystem.
Here’s the big vision: Whether you’re using your TV, PC, tablet, phone, or almost any other device that comes along, you’ll be able to accomplish all the same tasks through all the same platform. The form factor will change, but the core experience won’t.
“People are starting to see the same look-and-feel across the three screens and the cloud,” says Craig Beilinson, director of Microsoft’s consumer marketing. “This is all going to get pretty blurry.”
It’s a vision shared by Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), but their implementations are fundamentally different.
The linchpin of Microsoft’s plan is Windows 8, which is set to launch this fall. The new operating system features touchscreen integration and theinteractive tile-based “Metro” user interface, which debuted in late 2010 for Windows Phone 7 and made its way to Xbox last summer.
That lets Windows run — quite well, according to early reviews — on a host of new devices, including tablets, table tops, large touchscreen displays and convertible notebooks.
Microsoft is also baking cloud-based services like Windows Live, SkyDrive and Bing into all of its consumer products. Sign in on any device and you’ll have access to all of your content, apps, preferences and search history.
Apple and Google’s device ecosystems are more fragmented.
Apple says we’re in a “post-PC” world. Its solution puts mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone at the forefront, envisioning the PC as a wholly separate device and platform. Macs integrate with iOS devices, but there’s a clear schism in Apple’s world view: Mobile devices are for content consumption, Macs are for creation.
For example, it’s hard to build iPad apps on an actual iPad. To run Apple’s Xcode developer software, you need a Mac.
Google’s model focuses on the Web as the single platform of the future. It’s a device-agnostic approach, but it requires constant connectivity. Once you go offline, your connection to Google’s computing platform vanishes.
Right now, both are thrashing Microsoft in key markets. Microsoft has watched Apple race past it in media and tablets. Google captured search and the cloud, and both companies overtook Microsoft in smartphones. Meanwhile, sales of the PC — Microsoft’s bread and butter – have stalled.
That puts Microsoft in an unusual position. It’s the underdog.
Microsoft-turned-Google-turned-Microsoft engineer James Whittaker explained that phenomenon in a recent blog post about why he left his job as a head engineer on social network Google+ to return to Redmond.
Facing an existential crisis, Microsoft is making radical changes. Windows and Office “have clearly undergone some sort of genetic re-engineering,” he says.
In a lightly veiled swipe at Google, he added: “Most big competitors don’t want the disruption. When you make your money on the status quo, you are incented to move slow or not at all.”
Microsoft can’t afford to move slow. It knows that in five years, the PC won’t be what it is today.
Your office desktop will probably still have a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard, but those are just accessories. As mobile devices get better and faster, they’re taking over more of our computing tasks. Soon, a smartphone — or a tablet — could be your central device. Plug it into your desktop dock in the morning, then take it with you at night, and you’ll have have an extremely portable, all-in-one computer.
That’s the world for which Microsoft is building Windows 8. It can run everything from a touchscreen app like Angry Birds to resource-intensive software such as 3-D games and video editing tools. That sounds simple, but it’s an all-in-one approach Microsoft’s rivals have chosen not to pursue.
Windows 8 probably won’t be an instant hit. It’s a dramatic change, and corporate IT departments — Windows’ biggest customer base — are slow to shift directions.
That’s OK with Microsoft. It’s prepared to play the long game, devoting years — and, often, billions of dollars — to cracking the markets it considers critical.
That’s why it was willing to lose money for so long on Xbox, which recently became the world’s leading game system. That’s also why it is willing to plow billions each year into Bing, which remains a financial black hole.
“We’re a company that has extraordinary patience,” says Microsoft’s Beilinson.
Patience is great, but execution is critical. Microsoft’s mobile track record is littered with some spectacular failures — like Windows CE, the mobile operating system designed to look and function like Windows on the desktop. Sound familiar?
There’s signs Microsoft has finally learned from its previous catastrophes. Its “consumer preview” version of Windows 8 is drawing cautiously optimistic reviews.
Cnet reviewer Seth Rosenblatt calls it “the most ambitious operating system ever,” with a “speed and responsiveness” that Windows has never had before. Gizmodo deemed it a “daring” and “brilliant,” while The Telegraph says it’s Microsoft’s “most radical release in a generation.”
All the reviewers point out a key question mark hanging over Windows 8: Developer support. The platform will only take off if software makers embrace it as a legitimate third player in the Apple-and-Google field.
That’s why Microsoft is throwing everything it has into creating a new ecosystem. It can’t afford to be wrong. 
Tornadoes touch in Texas leaving people in chaos
Tornadoes thrash Dallas area
Multiple tornadoes struck the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas early Tuesday afternoon. CNN and its Texas affiliates are updating developments as they come in.
Are you there? When it is safe to do so, share your pictures and video via iReport.
Follow continuing developments here.
He reported multiple tornado touchdowns across the county, including in the city of Cleburne, south of Fort Worth and southwest of Dallas.
A new tornado warning was issued about 2:45 p.m. CT for Arlington, which is between Dallas and Fort Worth.
[Update 3:40 p.m. ET] DFW airport spokesman David Magana told CNN that people in the airport’s passenger terminals had been herded away from windows in waiting areas.
“We have all kinds of shelters. We use all the available space we have including stairwells, store rooms and restrooms, that we can use,” Magana said. “We’re not shy about moving people around.”
He advised people to stay away from the airport until all danger had passed.
[Update 3:33 p.m. ET] CNN’s Ed Lavandera, who was in Dallas when the tornado struck, said there were several isolated cells of storms throughout the area.
Lavandara said the track of one tornado would have taken it through a heavily populated area near the stadiums of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, as well as Six Flags amusement park. If the storm had stayed on the ground there, it would have caused catastrophic devastation, he said.
“We right now are in shelter ourselves,” Red Cross spokesperson Anita Foster told CNN. “Some of our teams that are on the southern end of the metroplex have started making plans for how we are going to respond . … Many people are going to need help.”
She said Red Cross workers would fan out across the area “as soon as it’s safe, as soon as we can get out of our door.”
Foster warned people to heed warning sirens and seek shelter in interior areas of structures.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport halted all takeoffs and landings until the storm system ends.
CNN meteoroligist said hailstones 3 inches in diameter were being reported. CNN affiliate CBSDFW showed evening-like darkness amid heavy rain at 2:25 p.m. CT.
[Update 3:13 p.m. ET] At 2:05 pm CT (3:05 ET) Tuesday afternoon, trained weather spotters reported a tornado on the ground five miles east of downtown Dallas, Texas. The tornado is moving northeast at 20 mph.
[Update 3:09 p.m. ET] After the tornado passed through, CNN affiliate CBSDFWshowed dozens of orange Schneider trucks in various states of damage and disarray.
CNN affiliate WFAA showed severe damage to some homes in Lancaster, Texas.
[Update 2:59 p.m. ET] Separate tornadoes in Texas barreled toward the Dallas-Forth Worth area Tuesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue tornado emergencies.
Video from CNN affiliate WFAA broadcast dramatic footage of the scene, showing truck trailers being lifted and tossed like toys. Ominous clouds filled the skies.
There were no immediate reports of major injuries or damage, but CNN’s Chad Myers said the worst may be yet to come.
“Both storms right now are getting bigger. They both have been rotating, and they both have significant possibilities of damage on the ground heading into DFW,” he said.
The weather service urged people in the area to move to a bathroom, closet or hallway on the lowest floor of their buildings and take cover.
[Original post 2:51 p.m. ET] An apparent tornado ripped through Dallas County, Texas, Tuesday afternoon.
A news helicopter from Dallas CNN affiliate WFAA followed a funnel cloud churning through a truck terminal, tossing 80-foot metal cargo trailers hundreds of feet in the air.
CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras tweeted, “Watching homes being damaged now in Dallas. Large pieces of debris in the air. Lots of power flashes.”
Statistics decrease in U.S. for dropout rate
Decrease in High School dropouts in U.S.
Washington (CNN) – The number of “dropout factory” high schools in the United States is decreasing, according to a report from the Building a Grad Nation Summit being held this week in Washington.
Between 2009 and 2010, the number of “dropout factories” — the term used in the report for those high schools that graduate 60% or less of the number of freshmen who reported for class four years earlier — dropped from 1,634 to 1,550, continuing a trend that has accellerated in recent years, the report says.
It is estimated that around one-quarter of students in the United States do not complete high school. The Grad Nation campaign has a goal of attaining a 90% graduation rate by the year 2020.
Only the state of Wisconsin currently reaches that benchmark, although Vermont is less than half a percentage point away, the report says.
“The good news is that some states have made improvements in their graduation rates, showing it can be done,” said Robert Balfanz, one of the report’s authors. “But the data also indicate that if we are to meet our national goals by 2020, we will have to accelerate our rate of progress, particularly in the states that have shown little progress.”
Over the past decade, the report says, the number of high schools considered “dropout factories” has declined by 457, with the largest decrease coming since 2008.
The Obama administration has targeted such schools with School Improvement Grants, which provide money to school districts that agree to follow certain criteria, such as closing down underperforming schools or changing a certain percentage of staff at those schools.
The grants have been criticized by those who say they don’t take into account the realities of rural school districts where it is hard to replace those staff members let go.
According to the report, the battle to meet the goal of a 90% national high school graduation rate by the year 2020 will be won or lost in 13 states that have the largest number of students to get back on track to graduate.
Those states are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington.
Tennessee and New York are the states that have shown the largest jump in graduation rates since the annual study began in 2002.
To increase high school graduation rates, the report recommends a focus on the middle schools that feed “dropout factory” high schools so that students begin their high school years with the reading skills needed to complete high school.
The Building a Grad Nation report is produced annually by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, the America’s Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education.
Facebook versus Yahoo face off in court
Yahoo sues Facebook for infringing 10 patents
By Dan Levine and Alexei Oreskovic
SAN FRANCISCO |
(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc sued Facebook Inc on Monday over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, the first major legal battle among big technology companies in social media.
The lawsuit, filed in a San Jose, California federal court, marks a major escalation of patent litigation that has already swept up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
Yahoo’s patent lawsuit follows Facebook’s announcement of plans for an initial public offering that could value the company at about $100 billion.
Facebook spokesman Jonathan Thaw said Facebook learned of the lawsuit through the media.
“We’re disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Yahoo said it is confident it will prevail.
“Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court,” the company said in a statement.
Yahoo said late last month it was seeking licensing fees from Facebook over its patents and that other companies have already agreed to such licensing deals.
In deciding to sue Facebook, Yahoo has retained the same law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, used by Google and other manufacturers in many android-related smartphone patent cases. Google is also a player in social media with its Google+ service.
Quinn Emanuel also counts social gaming service Zynga Inc as a client, according to its website.
Yahoo has not indicated whether it will bring patent claims against other social networking companies and a Google spokesman declined to comment on Quinn Emanuel’s involvement. Zynga declined to comment.
In the lawsuit, Yahoo says Facebook was considered “one of the worst performing sites for advertising” prior to adapting Yahoo’s ideas.
“Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, has conceded that the design of Facebook is not novel and is based on the ideas of others,” the lawsuit said.
Several social networking companies, including Facebook, have seen an uptick in patent claims asserted against them as they move through the IPO process.
However, most of those lawsuits have been filed by patent aggregators that buy up intellectual property to squeeze value from it via licensing deals and none by a large tech company such as Yahoo.
North Korea and U.S. diplomats meet to stop nuclear tests
North Korea agrees to nuclear moratorium, IAEA inspections
By Andrew Quinn
(Reuters) - North Korea agreed on Wednesday to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to allow nuclear inspectors to visit its Yongbyon nuclear complex to verify the moratorium has been enforced.
The breakthrough, announced simultaneously by the U.S. State Department and North Korea’s official news agency, paves the way for a resumption of six-party disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang and follows talks between U.S. and North Korean diplomats in Beijing last week.
It also appears to mark a significant policy shift by North Korea’s reclusive leadership following the death in December of veteran leader Kim Jong-il – although analysts cautioned that Pyongyang has backtracked repeatedly on past deals.
“The DPRK, upon request by the U.S. and with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere for the DPRK-U.S. high-level talks, agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity at Yongbyon and allow the IAEA to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment while productive dialogues continue,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.
North Korea is known formally as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The State Department said that in return the United States was ready to go ahead with a proposed 240,000 metric-ton food aid package requested by North Korea and that more aid could be agreed to based on continued need.
“Today’s announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Congressional panel on Wednesday, noting that Washington continued to have profound concerns over a range of North Korean activities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which withdrew its inspectors from North Korea in 2009, said it was ready to return, calling the moratorium deal “an important step forward.”
South Korea and Japan both welcomed the announcement, with the Foreign Ministry in Seoul saying it could form the basis for a broader agreement on North Korea’s nuclear program.
“It is our assessment that the basis has been set for moving forward on our efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue in a comprehensive and fundamental manner,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Buyung-jae said in a statement.
IMPROVING TIES?
As part of the deal, Washington reaffirmed that it did not have hostile intentions toward North Korea and was prepared to take steps to improve bilateral ties and increase people-to-people exchanges.
The surprise announcement was a step forward for Washington’s campaign to rein in renegade nuclear programs around the world and comes as the Obama administration steps up pressure onIran over its nuclear ambitions, which western governments fear are aimed at producing nuclear weapons.
Analysts called the deal an important preliminary step and said the return of IAEA inspectors would give the international community an important window into North Korea’s nuclear work.
“This puts an element of control back on the North Koreans’ nuclear development program as well as their existing capabilities that we have not had for almost four years,” said Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. negotiator with North Korea who heads the Korea Economic Institute.
But Pritchard said he believed it was unlikely that Pyongyang’s young and untested new leader Kim Jong-un was ready to comply with demands that he scrap the entire nuclear program.
“How does a 28-year-old give up the only legitimate piece of leverage that he has in dealing with the superpowers to preserve the survivability of his regime? He’s not going to do that,” Pritchard said.
NEW LEADER AT THE TOP
The announcement followed talks between the United States and with North Korea last week in Beijing, the first such meeting since Kim Jong-un succeeded his father as leader of the communist state two months ago.
North Korea agreed to curtail its nuclear activities under a an aid-for-denuclearization agreement reached in September 2005 by six-party talks bringing together North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Under the agreement, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives to be provided by the other parties involved in the negotiations.
But the embryonic deal was never fully implemented.
Instead, the North held two nuclear test blasts — in 2006 and 2009 — and later disclosed a uranium enrichment program, giving it a second path to obtaining fissile material for bombs, in addition to its long-standing program of producing plutonium.
The United States, South Korea and their allies had been skeptical of North Korea’s assertions that it stands ready to return to the six-party talks, and said they would insist on demonstrable evidence of Pyongyang’s willingness to denuclearize before any such talks could resume.
Victor Cha, a Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it could be some time before the IAEA inspectors are back in the ground in North Korea.
“I think it is going to be a tortuous process of synchronizing the shipment of the food aid with the arrival of the IAEA inspectors,” Cha said.
“That’s the way the North Koreans like to do things, and it could get drawn out for a very long time.”
“Newport Beach spinal surgeon attempts to “buy his way” to favorable reviews
Evidence continues to pile against Dr. Tony Mork AKA DR. Anthony Mork.
Money cannot buy everything, not even good reviews from websites that specialize in the review game.
This is especially true on Doctor rating and review sites. When doctors have a continual habit to perform questionable practices even if not true, perception is reality in most cases, especially on a information highway such as the internet. What has become a review website game among users, advertisers, and businesses, has become a focus of this doctor. However, it is hard to overlook the compounding reviews that all point in a similar direction.
IJRNews has been investigating Dr. Tony Mork AKA Anthony Mork, a Newport Beach spinal surgeon, for the last month,and has uncovered many patterns.
Dr. Mork MD, who recently transferred his business from Florida where many internet users claim was the start of his downfall. After numerous self-posted articles on IJRNews website, IJRNews decided to investigate the claims. After countless review testimonies and no return calls by Dr. Mork’s office, we found an abundance of similarity in many of the patient reviews.
The most disturbing feedback that we uncovered was that by a web specialist who showed the IJRNews staff how they described of how Dr. Mork was paying to advertise with various review websites to get on top of the same review websites were Dr. Mork had complaints. Because of the recent class action lawsuits against review websites, such as Yelp, websites cannot remove bad reviews once posted until they naturally fall off the radar. That is the way it is supposed to be, although not always observed.
IJRNews asks that if anyone else has comments or testimonials whether good, bad or indifferent regarding Dr. Tony Mork or Dr. Anthony Mork, a Newport Beach spinal surgeon, please contact us or leave your comments. We appreciated and want to share the information gathered from our readers to inform the readers of vital information prior to going under any surgical procedures.
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