South Africa Mine Shooting Mourned By Relatives

Mine workers attend a memorial service at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. Police shot and killed 34 striking miners and wounded 78 others last week. Demands for higher wages spread to at least two other mines, raising fears of further protests at more South African mines that provide most of the world's platinum. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

MARIKANA, South Africa — A fiery politician cast out of the ruling party Thursday hijacked the main memorial service for 34 striking miners killed by police, to accuse President Jacob Zuma's government of complicity in the shootings. Angry government ministers walked out.

Zuma did not attend any of the services. He called a news conference to announce a retired supreme court judge will head a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate "the facts and circumstances which gave rise to the use of force and whether this was reasonable and justifiable in the particular circumstances."

He announced a wide range of issues for the commission to investigate, including the role of London-registered Lonmin PLC, which owns the platinum mine where the violence was sparked by union rivalry.

The commission would look at Lonmin's conduct and report "whether the company, by act or omission, created an environment which was conducive to the creation of tension, labour unrest, disunity among its employees or other harmful conduct," Zuma said.

The somber and grieving tone of the memorial service at the mine was shattered by Julius Malema, who was expelled in April for sowing disunity in the African National Congress. Malema was applauded when he said the government has not intervened in the mines "because our leaders are involved in these mines." He said that President Zuma's foundation and other ANC leaders have shares in the mines.

"Our government has become a pig that is eating its children," charged Malema.

Malema's outburst came after church leaders had urged people not to use the memorial service to score political points.

About a dozen Cabinet ministers left before they could address the crowd of more than 1,000 at the mine at Marikana, 70 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

Last week's shootings were the worst display of state violence since apartheid ended in 1994 and have thrown the spotlight on growing anger at South Africa's massive inequality, poverty and unemployment.

The violence unfolded as some 3,000 rock drill operators demanded a minimum wage of 12,500 rand ($1,560). The poorest 10 percent of the population shares 1.1 billion rand ($137.5 million) while the country's richest 10 percent has 381 billion (nearly $48 billion), the Congress of South African Trade Unions noted Thursday.

In a statement it claimed Lonmin's financial officer is paid 152 times as much as a rock drill operator at the mine. It claimed the operators earn only 5,600 rand ($700) though researchers who work with miners say they make at least 10,000 rand ($1,250).

The relative of a miner killed in last week's shootings said he wants to see some arrests.

"If it were me I'd want everyone who was involved in this incident including the mine managers to be arrested, the whole lot of them, because a person's life is not worth money," Ubuntu Akumelisine told the AP.

Mungiswa Mphumza, the sister of a dead miner from Eastern Cape, said she was at peace.

"We have accepted everything that has happened and we ask that the dead rest in peace, there is nothing that we can do at the moment, what has happened has happened. God takes what he likes," Mphumza said.

Roger Phillimore, chairman of Lonmin PLC mine company, also offered condolences to the the mourners.

"It is with huge sadness that I join with you to mourn the loss of so many of our colleagues. It is unquestionably the saddest loss in the history of this company," Philimore said.

This was the first time since the shooting that a high-ranking Lonmin official addressed the miners and their community.

Zuma had decreed a week of national mourning to honor all victims of violence in South Africa, which has which has one of the world's highest murder and rape rates.

In the past week, three orphan children were stoned to death, with a 12-year-old girl among them raped, and a pastor is on trial for allegedly raping and molesting nine children in his wife's nursery school.

At the mine, strikers who captured two police officers hacked them to death with machetes. Strikers also set ablaze a car carrying two mine security guards, burning them alive.

Another six people died in the week before police fired volleys of gunfire at a group of charging miners, killing 34 and wounding 78.

"This ongoing violence is a part of our national and collective shame and we should take this time to seriously reflect on the state of our society," Prof. Yunus Ballim of Witwatersrand University said before students and lecturers marched in memory of victims of violence.

On Wednesday, Zuma demanded that mine companies provide decent homes and sanitation for miners. He singled out one mining house where 666 workers share four toilets and four showers, according to the Star newspaper. He did not name the company.

Zuma warned that those who do not comply with the Mining Charter requiring adequate housing risk losing their licenses.

Lonmin, the mine where the violence happened, remained shut down to honor the day of mourning.

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Badruddin Haqqani Dead: Haqqani Network Commander Killed, Afghan Intelligence Agency Says

In this Sunday Aug. 5, 2012, file photo, a Pakistani Taliban militant holds a rocket-propelled grenade at the Taliban stronghold of Shawal, in Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, Pakistan. (AP Photo/ Ishtiaq Mahsud, File)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's intelligence agency said Sunday its operatives have confirmed that the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network was killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, even as the Taliban vowed that he was alive and well.

Shafiquallh Tahriri, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, said Badruddin Haqqani was killed last week. He did not provide any further details, and would not say what information the agency's operatives were basing their conclusion on.

Tahiri's account is similar to one provided Saturday by a senior Taliban leader who said Haqqani was killed in a drone strike. It also hews closely to a version provided by Pakistani officials who said they were 90 percent sure the militant commander was killed Tuesday in a missile attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.

Haqqani's death would mark a major blow to the organization founded by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, which is viewed by the U.S. as a powerful enemy in Afghanistan. The son is considered the network's day-to-day operations commander. The Haqqani network has been blamed for a series of high-profile attacks and kidnappings in Afghanistan, and the U.S. considers it one of the most powerful militant groups operating in the country.

The Taliban, who are closely allied with the Haqqani network, have rejected all reports of Haqqani's death.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Haqqani is alive and in good health in Afghanistan.

"A number of media have reported that Badruddin Haqqani has been killed. We would like to inform all media that this rumor is not correct," Mujahid said in the email to reporters late Saturday.

"Badruddin Haqqani is in the country and is occupied with his operational responsibilities. He is alive and healthy. The rumor about him being killed is more propaganda of the enemy," he said.

In a telephone call with The Associated Press on Sunday Mujahid continued to maintain that Haqqani was alive.

The U.S. does not comment publicly on its drone program, which is widely reviled by the Pakistani public and has been a source of tension with Islamabad.

The areas where the American drone strikes generally occur are extremely remote and dangerous, making it difficult for reporters or others to verify a particular person's death.

Badruddin is considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure and is believed to have played an active role in kidnappings, extortion and high-profile operations in Afghanistan. Tahiri said that Haqqani's responsibilities included arranging foreign suicide bombings, maintaining relations with other insurgent groups, recruiting Pakistani Taliban fighters to the Haqqani group and overseeing operations in southeastern Afghanistan and in Kabul.

"He was the mastermind of the organized suicide attacks in Kabul," Tahiri said, referring to a number of high-profile strikes in the Afghan capital targeting everything from hotels to Western embassies.

"He was the mastermind of the organized suicide attacks in Kabul," Tahiri said.

Still, there are likely people waiting in the wings to replace Badruddin, said former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, now an opposition leader.

"They are going to find another person to replace him. What I know is that his elder brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is playing a larger role in the the Haqqani network," Saleh said in an interview on Afghanistan's Tolo television. He said until the group's ability to operate across Afghanistan and Pakistan is limited, "killing their commanders or leaders will have its effect, but not that large of an effect."

The U.S. State Department has designated Badruddin, along with his father and brothers – Nasiruddin and Sirajuddin – as terrorists. The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin sits on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan.

Badruddin is also believed to have been responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times reporter, David Rohde, the department said.

After their father effectively retired in 2005, Badruddin and his brother Sirajuddin expanded the network into kidnapping and extortion, both highly profitable for the organization, according to a recent report by the West Point, N.Y.-based Combating Terrorism Center. Afghan intelligence authorities have released intercepts of Badruddin orchestrating an attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011, the CTC said.

The U.S. has long viewed the Haqqani network as one of the biggest threats to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as the country's long term stability. The group has shown little interest in negotiating with the Washington, and has pulled off some of the highest-profile and most complex attacks in Afghanistan, although not necessarily the most deadly.

___

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Islamabad and Anwarullah Khan in Khar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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Romney Adopts Harder Message for Last Stretch

TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney is heading into his nominating convention with his advisers convinced he needs a more combative footing against President Obama in order to appeal to white, working-class voters and to persuade them that he is the best answer to their economic frustrations.
Having survived a summer of attacks but still trailing the president narrowly in most national polls, Mr. Romney’s campaign remains focused intently on the economy as the issue that can defeat Mr. Obama. But in a marked change, Mr. Romney has added a harder edge to a message that for most of this year was focused on his business and job-creation credentials, injecting volatile cultural themes into the race.

Some elements of that revised strategy will be evident at the Republican convention, which was set to open here on Monday but will be delayed until Tuesday because of safety concerns from Tropical Storm Isaac. The Romney campaign was hastily rearranging the schedule, but officials said the convention would still amplify the conservative arguments against the president with speakers like Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

“We will absolutely be able to get our message out,” said Russ Schriefer, a senior campaign adviser. “We still have an opportunity to tell the story of the last four years of how President Obama has failed the country.”

The strategic shift in the campaign message that has been unfolding in recent weeks reflects a conclusion among Mr. Romney’s advisers that disappointment with Mr. Obama’s economic stewardship is not sufficient to propel Mr. Romney to victory on its own.

Republican strategists said that many middle-class voters had proved reluctant to give up entirely on Mr. Obama, and that they still needed to be convinced that Mr. Romney would look out for their interests.

Steven J. Law, the president of the conservative group American Crossroads, said some swing voters in focus groups had helped explain why support for Mr. Obama had not collapsed despite his poor marks on the economy.

“They’re somewhat seduced by the thought, ‘If the guy had more time, maybe he’d be able to turn it around,’ ” said Mr. Law, whose group is spending tens of millions of dollars to change that.

Republicans are nervously monitoring the pivotal battleground of Ohio, where Mr. Romney has had trouble making headway against Mr. Obama. Mr. Romney visited the state on Saturday and previewed the themes of his convention by offering faint praise of his rival, saying: “He says marvelous things. He just hasn’t done them.”

Mr. Obama, unwilling to cede the stage fully to his opponents this week, leveled a counterattack in an interview released Saturday by The Associated Press, painting Mr. Romney as beholden to “extreme” House Republican policies harmful to the middle class.

“He has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken,” Mr. Obama said. “Governor Romney’s policies would make things worse for middle-class families and offer no prospect for long-term opportunity for those striving to get into the middle class.”

The battleground map has remained remarkably stable in recent months, which leaves Mr. Obama with more paths to winning 270 electoral votes and places a burden on Mr. Romney to break through in states where he so far has not. But Republicans suddenly see encouraging signs in Wisconsin after the selection of Representative Paul D. Ryan as his running mate.  Mr. Romney’s chances hinge to a large degree on running up his advantage among white voters in swing states who show deep strains of opposition to Mr. Obama but do not yet trust Mr. Romney to look out for their interests, Republican strategists say.

Many of those voters are economically disaffected, and the Romney campaign has been trying to reach them with appeals built around an assertion that Mr. Obama is making it easier for welfare recipients to avoid work. The Romney campaign is airing an advertisement falsely charging that Mr. Obama has “quietly announced” plans to eliminate work and job training requirements for welfare beneficiaries, a message Mr. Romney’s aides said resonates with working-class voters who see government as doing nothing for them.

The moves reflect a campaign infused with a sharper edge and overtones of class and race. On Friday, Mr. Romney said at a rally that no one had ever had to ask him about his birth certificate, and Mr. Ryan invoked his Catholicism and love of hunting. Democrats angrily said Mr. Romney’s remark associated him with the fringe “birther” camp seeking falsely to portray Mr. Obama as not American.

The convention will focus on a dual fire-Obama-hire-Romney message that will be presented in an abbreviated fashion from Tuesday through Thursday. Party leaders said Saturday evening that the themes of the convention would be preserved, despite the disruption from Tropical Storm Isaac. Through videos, speeches and carefully staged programming, the convention will amplify what will constantly be described as Mr. Obama’s failures, with a focus on accusations that he has undercut middle-class workers and small-business owners.
But with Ann Romney, Mr. Romney’s wife, taking the stage on Tuesday night, the Republican gathering will be as much about presenting Mr. Romney as a warm-blooded family man who understands the tribulations of everyday people. The campaign, after spending months arguing that the family’s Mormon faith was off limits, invited speakers from Mr. Romney’s church to testify how he had helped them when they were in need.

Those concurrent themes reflect a realization by strategists inside the Romney campaign and its allies at outside groups in recent weeks: Republicans need to do more than critique Mr. Obama’s economic record for Mr. Romney to win. With the race entering its final, decisive phase, strategists on both sides agree that Mr. Obama maintains a razor-thin edge.

That, several Republican officials said in interviews, is the result of a stubborn affinity for Mr. Obama among key swing voters who otherwise say they are disappointed in his job performance — a dynamic the Romney campaign and its allies are seeking to change.

Mr. Law said his group, Crossroads, had reserved roughly $35 million in advertising for the rest of the campaign and planned to spend more on efforts speaking to their other perception, that Mr. Obama had not been able to deliver.

“These folks know they are not happy with what Obama has done, but they are struggling between, ‘I voted for him, I liked him, but he’s not getting the job done,’ ” said Carl Forti, political director for American Crossroads. “That’s where Mitt needs to take advantage.”

But, strategists acknowledge, Mr. Romney still has work to do before those critical swing voters will view him as that alternative, particularly with polls showing that voters see him as less attuned to their needs and values than Mr. Obama is. While he hopes to improve his standing among women, strategists say Mr. Romney’s chances hinge to a large degree on running up his edge among white voters who do not yet trust Mr. Romney.

“Right now the perceptions of him are allowing Barack Obama to stay in this race and keep a slight lead in spite of all the environmental factors that lead you to think he should be gone,” said Matthew Dowd, a pollster for George W. Bush’s campaigns. “If he can change perceptions about himself, then the environment takes hold, and if the environment takes hold, they win.”

Mr. Romney’s team is hoping to change perceptions starting with the Republican convention and, more important, with full access to the $186 million he and the Republican National Committee have on hand and can use as soon as Mr. Romney accepts the party’s nomination. It will give him his first real financial advantage over Mr. Obama this year.

Here and in Boston, Mr. Romney’s team is poised to sift through post-convention polling before pressing its new advantage with final advertising bets in key states.

“For undecided voters, Obama’s job performance weighs more heavily than Mitt’s current image,” said Neil Newhouse, the pollster for Mr. Romney. “They can measure what Obama has done, and his job performance numbers among those voters are extraordinarily weak.”

Central to the weeks ahead, strategists from both parties said, will be the perceptions of voters in battleground states like Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. Both sides agree that Mr. Romney’s choice of Mr. Ryan has given Mr. Romney a new opportunity in Wisconsin. But, even Republicans say, the bigger electoral prize of Ohio, as of now seems to be tilting in Mr. Obama’s direction.

With Crossroads and like-minded groups providing critical backup, Mr. Romney’s campaign is freer to concentrate on building its candidate up and trying to repair the damage done to his image over the summer.

TheNewYorkTimes

Texas Prisoners Fed Pet Food, After Horrible Labeling Gaffe

Pet food found its way onto the plates of prisoners in an East Texas jail after John Soules Food Inc. mislabeled its fajita meat.

You can skip today’s "Scared Straight" episode, kids. This prison horror story should suffice.

Pet food found its way onto the plates of prisoners in an East Texas jail after a food company that distributed products to the prison mislabeled its fajita meat, according to federal court documents.

John Soules Food Inc. allegedly screwed up the labels, resulting in prisoners eating thousands of pounds of “meat trimmings” intended for animals. The company has agreed to pay $392,000 to settle the dispute.

Under the settlement, John Soules will change its food safety procedures, but the company did not admit any wrongdoing. “There is no evidence that anyone who consumed any of the ‘beef trimmings’ product suffered any ill effects,” the U.S. Attorney said in a news release.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons bought the meat and served it to inmates in 2006 and 2007, according to the feds, who announced the settlement last week. The settlement funds will go to reimbursing the government for the cost of its three-year investigation, officials said in the release.

“Food security and safety are stressed in all aspects of operations,” and “[facility design] allows for complete separation between raw and ready to products,” according to John Soules’ website, which also says it is a leading provider of meat products for food service distributors, chain restaurants and supermarkets.

Earlier this month, a batch of bad chicken salad caused over 300 inmates in Arkansas to contract food poisoning.

THEHUFFINGTONPOST

Head of diplomatic mission to the European Union approved

The Senate’s Plenary approved on Wednesday (8) the nomination of Vera Lúcia Barrouin Crivano Machado as head of the Brazilian diplomatic mission to the European Union. The nomination of Lígia Maria Scherer as ambassador of Brazil to the Republic of Mozambique, to Kingdom of Swaziland and to Republic of Madagascar was also approved. Both nominations were approved in July at the Committee on External Relations and National Defense.

Vera Lúcia Machado was born in Rio de Janeiro and, since 1988, she is first class minister in the diplomatic career of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2001, she joined the special framework of the career. In the last years, she was, among other offices, ambassador to Nepal, to Falkland Islands, to Sri Lanka, and to Vatican. Nowadays she is subsecretary-General of Politics I of the ministry.

Born in Curitiba, Lígia Maria Scherer is also first class minister in the diplomatic career of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and she worked as first secretary and councilor in many embassies such as Tokyo, Washington, Tel Aviv, Dili and in the mission with the European Economic Community.

The nominations for ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions are an exclusive competence of the Brazilian Federal Senate, according to the Brazilian Federal Constitution. The propositions must be analyzed and voted by the Committee on External Relation and by the Plenary, in secret voting.

Senado

Gays Giveth and Gays Taketh Away: An Open Letter to Bailey Hanks

Dearest Bailey Hanks,

Like you, I am a Broadway performer. I am also gay. While I very much support your right to free speech and free association, I would like to hold you accountable for your stance on the whole fried chicken thing. On Aug. 1, when you went to "feast" at Chick-fil-A, you did not merely sit quietly and enjoy your fried chicken sandwich; you decided to make it a political statement:

So here I am, as well, exercising my rights -- that is, until your deliciously bigoted poultry company pours more money into taking them away.

Truth be told, even though we are in the same field, I had never heard of you until I readJamie McGonnigal's revealing article here on HuffPost. Coincidentally, that same night, I had dinner with a very close friend of mine who was on the creative teams of both the Broadway show of Legally Blonde and the reality show in which you appeared. I also received messages from friends of mine, cast members of yours who shared the stage with you eight times a week, people who thought you were their friend.

Just a reminder: You were plucked out of obscurity by a team of gay men, gay men who not only believed in you and gave you the chance of a lifetime but treated you with loving kindness and respect -- the same gay men you discriminated against by publicly supporting Chick-fil-A. You were chosen to star in the show Legally Blonde specifically by the director/choreographer, who is a gay man. The associate choreographer and vocal coach who helped you win the reality show you were on are two gay men. A few of the Broadway show's producers (the ones who paid you) are gay. Your costume designer is a gay man, as is the designer of the wigs and makeup you wore. You were taught the choreography and put into the Broadway show by a gay man, and you were supported and made to feel safe and part of the Broadway community by the many gay people in your cast. These people are not only my coworkers, Bailey, but, more importantly, they are my friends. After your time on Broadway (surrounded by gay people), you did not run screaming home, where the hills have eyes. You stayed here, in Sodom and Gomorrah. You auditioned and continued to make friends and work with -- guess what -- more gay people. We invited you into our homes and offered you a place at our table. You stayed for dinner, ate all the food, even stuck around for dessert, and now vomited it all up in our faces. Your website describes you as "sweet, kind, caring"; perhaps you should add "unless you're gay."

You say you are a "proud Christian." Bailey, I, too, am a proud Christian. Many LGBT people I know are people of faith. So what's your point? Is your point to hide your ignorance and bigotry behind Christ? That's not very "Christ-like." And while we are on that topic, let's not pick and choose what passages from the Bible we want to believe in because they suit our social and political gain. If we are going to hold on to Leviticus 18-20, then let us also hold on, with a white-knuckle grip, to Leviticus 15:19-30, which states that if a woman is on her period, she has to get out of the house for seven days, and if anyone -- God forbid (literally) -- touches her, that person is "unclean." Bailey, I know we are not close, but I venture to guess that you menstruate. I therefore assume that when your Aunt Flo comes to visit, you are living outside for those seven days. I also assume that when you are riding the "crimson canoe," you call out sick from your show, because, according to the Bible, all those fellow actors who might come into contact with you would be unclean and would have to bathe with water and wash their clothes (oh, how the wardrobe department would hate you!). Also, let's really try to do our best and pay special attention to 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. Bailey, are you listening? It states here that women should be silent in church. Sorry, that means no talking and absolutely no singing (bummer, because I know how you love to sing!). Biblically speaking, because you are a woman (and I don't want you to feel the wrath of God), I should pray that you don't open your mouth. You might just shove your foot in it, the same way you did when you were stuffing it with a "#1 w/ a large sweet tea and a fudge brownie." Hating on gays while eating a "fudge brownie." Is that some sort of perverted sexual insult, Bailey? Well, I never!

Bailey, you used gay people for your personal gain to make your dreams come true and then sold them down the river with your message condoning a company that is publicly known to donate money to anti-gay groups. With your actions, you agreed to treat gay people like second-class citizens and, in doing so, disrespected my friends, my family, my marriage, and me -- all this in an Instagram photo of your hate-filled waffle fries. Stop hiding bigotry and hatred behind religion; let's call it exactly what it is. If we are going to live by any biblical rule, let it be the golden one.

John Carroll

 

Follow John Carroll on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MrJohnCarroll

North Korea-China Trade: Jang Song-Thaek, North Korea Leader's Uncle, In China To Talk Busines

In this March 28, 2006 file photo, Jang Song Thaek, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law and first vice director of the Workers' Party of Korea, leaves Beijing international airport for home. (AP photo/Kyodo News, File)

By Jack Kim

SEOUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's uncle and the man seen as the power behind the young and untested dictator went to Beijing on Monday in the latest signal that the reclusive state is looking seriously at ways to revive its broken economy.

The official KCNA news agency said Jang Song-thaek was visiting China, the North's only major ally, to discuss setting up joint commercial projects and comes after leader Kim recently told Beijing that his priority is to develop his impoverished country's decaying economy.

"A delegation of the DPRK-China Joint Guidance Committee Monday left here for Beijing, China to take part in the third meeting of the committee," KCNA said.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"It was headed by its DPRK side Chairman Jang Song Thaek who is a department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea."

KCNA said the meeting is to discuss the joint economic projects in Rason on the North's east coast, and in Hwanggumphyong, an area on the border between the two countries that is yet to be developed.

The dispatch gave no details about the projects or who else was in the delegation.

The visit by Jang, who has long advocated economic reforms in one of Asia's poorest states, follows growing speculation that Pyongyang and its new leaders want bring changes to the way the economy is managed.

The two countries have planned to develop a new industrial district on the Yalu River that runs along their border, but the construction of a new bridge that will be part of the project has been suspended because of disagreements on how to proceed.

China is believed to be wary of pursuing a major new commercial venture with North Korea at a time of its own leadership transition and as Pyongyang continues to defy calls to divert scarce resources away from arms development programme.

South Korea is the only other partner in commercial development in the North, with an industrial park just north of their heavily fortified border the site of factories where about 120 South Korean firms use cheap local labour to make goods.

But South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate has learned a harsh lesson of the risk of doing business with the North when it had its assets it built in the Mount Kumgang resort on the east coast frozen after the shooting death of a visitor in 2008 that led to the suspension of the tours there.

North Korea already relies heavily on China to support its crumbling economy but its leadership has in the past proven deeply suspicious of any changes, seeing them as a threat to its control over the country.

But Kim Jong-un, who took over the state's family dictatorship when his father died in December, has presented a sharply contrasting image to his father and is believed to be planning to carry out economic and agricultural reform.

"There is an element of explaining to China the reforms and opening that Kim Jong-un has been planning, and of seeking support by China, which will be crucial" said Yang Moo-jin of University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

The destitute, centrally-planned North Korean economy has been on the decline for years and is unable even in years of good harvests to feed its 24 million people.

The problems have been compounded by United Nations sanctions imposed after Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests in defiance of international warnings including disapproval by its ally China.

In another sign that Kim may be looking to end international isolation, he has sent the country's nominal head of state Kim Yong-nam this month to Vietnam and Laos, where he was reported to have discussed economic development.

Fact Of The Day #15: Health Care Spending Takes A Bite Out Of Your Budget (INFOGRAPHIC)

Health care spending per capita in the US increased 36 percent between 2000 and 2010, from $6,177 to $8,402 for every person in the country. During the same period, inflation-adjusted pay went down approximately 6.4 percent, from $28,293 per capita in 2000 to $26,487 in 2010.

What if wages per person had gone up like health care spending?

Afghanistan: Police Commander, Officers Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers In Helmand

LASHKAR GHAR, Afghanistan, Aug 10 (Reuters) - An Afghan police commander and several of his men killed three U.S. soldiers in the southern province of Helmand, turning guns on them after inviting them to a dinner to discuss security, Afghan officials said on Friday.

The men were all American special forces members and were killed on Thursday night while attending a meeting in the Sarwan Qala area, in what appeared to be a planned attack by rogue Afghan forces.

"During dinner, the police commander and his colleagues shot them and then fled. The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in Sangin," a senior Afghan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Sangin is a district.

"It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously," the official said.

A spokeswoman for NATO-led forces in the country confirmed the incident but said it was too early to say whether it was a rogue shooting or due to insurgent infiltration.

"All we know is that they were killed by an Afghan in a uniform of some sort," the spokeswoman said.

So-called green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western colleagues, have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to hand over to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country.

According to NATO, there have been 24 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 28 people have been killed, not including Thursday's attack. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.

Another foreign soldier was killed in the south on Friday during an insurgent attack, NATO said, while seven civilians were killed and three were wounded by an insurgent roadside bomb, also in Helmand.

In a grim 24 hours for the NATO-led force, three U.S. soldiers and an American aid worker were killed earlier on Thursday in the eastern province of Kunar in an attack by a suicide bomber. (Additional reporting by Rob Taylor and Mirwais Harooni; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Health Care Reform Law Could Expose Undocumented Immigrants

By Salimah Ebrahim

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - As she was ushered into surgery eight years ago, Paula was confident that doctors at Washington's Howard University Hospital would find the cancer that had been growing in her right breast for months. She was less certain about where she would wake up the next day.

"I felt scared because of the stories in other states ... It was always in the back of my mind that a doctor, or an immigration officer dressed as a doctor, could take me," said Paula, 60, of the fear that she would be exposed as an undocumented immigrant and deported.

Still cancer-free, Paula, who asked to have her last name withheld, waits in the tiny chapel of La Clinica Del Pueblo, a community health clinic in Washington, DC, where she receives routine care.

She and other illegal immigrants worry that their ability to access healthcare at facilities like La Clinica will become even more risky once President Barack Obama's healthcare law takes effect. The reform requires all U.S. citizens and permanent residents to obtain health insurance, either through the government-run Medicaid program for the poor or by purchasing private insurance via state exchanges starting in 2014.

It also bars undocumented immigrants from participating. As more low-income citizens receive insurance, the fear is that many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants will be easier to identify just because they lack coverage.

"It's my 3 a.m. nightmare," said Alicia Wilson, La Clinica's executive director. "While we do not collect information about the immigration status of our patients, the fact that they will be uninsured could be taken as 'code' for also being undocumented."

Paula is one of thousands of undocumented immigrants who benefit from the DC Health Care Alliance, one of the most generous taxpayer-funded health plans in the country for patients regardless of income or immigration status. Looking out at La Clinica's crowded waiting room, she firmly clasps the card that gives her membership in the program.

"This is the card that opens a lot of doors ... This clinic has protected us and it is helping us to get the help we need regardless of the risks," said Paula, who entered the United States from Mexico on foot nearly 10 years ago.

In recent years, funding for both the clinic and the healthcare alliance has come under fire from conservative groups who oppose using tax dollars to pay for the care of illegal immigrants, as local governments already struggle with budget cuts in a weak economy.

Wilson and other advocates see that opposition gaining momentum once the healthcare law takes effect, particularly in states where anti-immigration sentiment runs high.


THE PARADOX OF MIXED STATUS

The 4 million U.S.-born children of such immigrants are also vulnerable when policies on immigration and healthcare collide.

According to the Urban Institute, nearly 1 in 10 U.S. families with children are of "mixed status," with at least one parent who is undocumented and one child who is a citizen.

These children are likely to be eligible for insurance, including the government-sponsored Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But many remain out of the system because of their parents' dread that the undocumented spouse will be identified and deported, since U.S. immigration authorities, part of the Department of Homeland Security, must verify a child's residency status.

"You've got a community that's caught in the nexus, the crossroads of two different laws," said Jennifer Ng'andu, a lawyer and deputy health policy director at the National Council of La Raza - a national Latino civil rights and advocacy group.

According to Ng'andu, 8 percent of children from families where both parents are U.S. citizens don't have insurance, compared with 25 percent in households where children live with at least one undocumented parent.

Robert Rector, a senior researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that making it easier for such families will set an unwelcome precedent that the country cannot afford, even if their children were born within its borders.

"These kids are very expensive. They are getting on average $10,000 a year in public education and welfare and other services that their parents are really going to never earn enough to pay for," Rector said. "If you say this child was born in the U.S. and therefore gets to stay and we're not going to do anything about it, you're kind of creating an unlimited open avenue for future illegal immigration."

FEAR OF EXPOSURE

Elisabeth, 26, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico City, is a single mother with three children, two of them U.S. citizens. Her worry that government authorities might split up her family is present each time she takes them to the doctor.

"I have a fear of hospitals, questions about my status and am always worried that the police will intervene, that my children will be taken away from me," she said. "I live in the fear with every document I fill out, that it all goes to immigration."

Elisabeth, who also asked for her full name to be withheld, said her own health has been compromised as a result. For two years she suffered in silence as a victim of domestic violence, enduring repeated beatings by her then partner and having her ribs broken while pregnant with her youngest child. The couple has since separated.

The healthcare she has received - such as giving birth to her children in the hospital - has been organized by Mary's Center, another community clinic in the Washington area, and through the DC Health Care Alliance.

While immigrants do have legal protections that allow them to receive care from hospitals and other providers without endangering their status, even the slightest chance of exposure can be terrifying. In the first half of 2011, 46,486 who claimed to have at least one U.S. citizen child were deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs reported.

SPREADING THE RISK

Ezekiel Emmanuel, a senior Obama healthcare advisor, acknowledges the concern that the law may expose immigrants.

"We were all aware of it," he says. "Is that a negative tradeoff for getting universal coverage? Yes ... It's a visible consequence that we couldn't do anything about given the politics of the situation."

As the political debate over healthcare becomes increasingly focused on cutting costs, experts expect more scrutiny on the fate of undocumented immigrants.

"We're in a time of fiscal austerity where you have 8 percent unemployment among predominantly legal citizens and yet you continue to have a system that openly invites illegal immigrants to come and stay," says the Heritage Foundation's Rector. "The first solution to the healthcare costs is to enforce the law (barring employment to illegal immigrants)."

Some health policy experts disagree, saying U.S. citizens would benefit even more if the health law included undocumented immigrants within its requirements.

Even when immigrants have insurance, their health costs amount to only half or two-thirds of the expenditures seen with U.S.-born citizens, according to a 2009 study by Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University.

"Many people think immigrants are overusing and overtaking emergency rooms, yet all the data shows they use emergency rooms less than citizens. They use everything less than citizens," he said.

Broadening the pool of insured people to include those who use less health care means a larger population can help shoulder the costs of sicker Americans. State health insurance exchanges, which will allow individuals to buy subsidized health plans starting in 2014, exclude illegal immigrants, leaving out millions of young, healthy people who could otherwise spread the risk.

Health insurers are seeking a way around the problem, according to a senior official at one of the largest U.S. insurance companies.

"Here you've got a law which says everybody has to have coverage, but you have classes of people without access to coverage," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Washington makes it very difficult for us to do the right thing.

"Obviously, we're capitalistic and we want to make money, but at the same time we want the health system to work better, and the health system works better when people have access to coverage."

An estimated 600,000 undocumented workers have private insurance plans through employer-sponsored programs. But they may lose out if their employers can't manage those same plans within the state health insurance exchanges, or if premiums rise. The Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles, which provides affordable health coverage to 75,000 undocumented restaurant workers, is trying to figure that out.

"It's not merely that they are not eligible for the subsidies, but that they cannot even get a policy from the health insurance exchanges even if they wanted to pay the full cost themselves," Ku said. "If you're an undocumented alien, we still let you go to the store and buy cereal

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