Second missile may have been moved
North Korea may have removed a long-range missile from a launch site, lowering the possibility of the communist regime immediately carrying out further tests, a South Korean official said today.
Intelligence reports have said North Korea may have moved two long-range Taepodong-2 missiles to its Musudan-ri launch site on its east coast before test-firing one of them July 5.
Fresh intelligence suggests the remaining missile may have been moved somewhere else, a government official said on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
But the intelligence is not conclusive and needs further confirmation, he said.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka
Artillery fire hits school shelters
Artillery fire hit three schools being used as shelters from fighting raging Thursday between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, killing 18 people in a northeastern town, the military said.
A military spokesman, Maj. Upali Rajapakse, blamed the rebels for the artillery attacks on the schools in the coastal town of Muttur. The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site blamed government forces for at least one school attack, where 10 people died. The rebels made no statements about the other two schools.
Rajapakse said one government soldier was killed Thursday in Muttur and five more were wounded in a gunbattle with the rebels.
MEXICO CITY
Protesters block stock market
Several hundred supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blocked the entrance to Mexico’s stock market Thursday, pledging to continue disrupting life in the capital until a court rules on their demand for a vote-by-vote recount.
Protesters called on the Federal Electoral Tribunal to grant Lopez Obrador the recount he demands – claiming it will expose fraud that tilted the race in favor of his conservative opponent.
Traders said the protests would not affect stock transactions, conducted electronically from brokerage offices. The market opened at about 9 a.m. and was operating at normal levels.
Official results from the July 2 election, which await the court’s certification, gave an advantage of less than 0.6 percent, or about 240,000 votes, to Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s former energy secretary.