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End Time News –
Posted 1 May 2008 -
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Earthquakes
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5.2-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Northern
California
Fox News
WILLOW CREEK, Calif. — A moderate earthquake hit a mountainous region of
Northern California on Tuesday night. There are no immediate reports or injury
or damage.
A magnitude 5.2 temblor struck at 8:03 p.m., centered about 11 miles southeast
of the town of Willow Creek in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake originated about 11 miles below the surface on an unmapped fault, said
USGS seismologist David Oppenheimer.
Because of its depth, few aftershocks were felt, scientists said. About three
were recorded, with the largest measuring a magnitude 2.4, the USGS reported.
Officials in Shasta, Trinity and Humboldt counties said there were no immediate
reports of injury or damage, although many residents said they felt the shaking.
The quake was felt as far north as Crescent City near the Oregon state line and
as far south as San Francisco, 320 miles away, according to citizen reports
posted on the USGS Web site.
Mary Daher, owner of the Bigfoot Motel in Willow Creek, said the quake lasted 10
seconds or less.
"It was pretty quick and it was pretty strong," she said. "It wasn't like one of
those rolling earthquakes. It was just a jolt."
She said she and her guests headed outside quickly but she was not aware of any
damage. One guest said the quake sent his soda sliding across a table.
The town of 1,800 sits on Highway 299, the main conduit between Redding and
Arcata, home of Humboldt State University. It has long been a draw for college
students escaping the coastal fog to sunbathe along the nearby Trinity River.
The quirky hamlet, surrounded by thick forests, also markets itself as
California's "Bigfoot capital" and displays numerous wood carvings of the
mythical creature.
The last significant earthquake in the region was on April 25, 1992, when a
magnitude 7.2 temblor struck on the Humboldt County coast near Petrolia, setting
off a minor tsunami, according to the USGS.
No tsunami warning was issued for the quake Tuesday night.
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Earthquakes
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7.3 Earthquake Among Series To Hit South
Pacific
CBS 5 Earthquake Section
VANUATU--A series of earthquakes has rocked an area of the South Pacific, the
strongest being a 7.3 magnitude Wednesday morning, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey.
At least 7 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or greater have occurred in the last 12
hours, according to the USGS website.
The earthquake have all hit about 50 miles southwest of Vanuatu, and 120 miles
northeast of the Loyalty Islands.
The 7.3 earthquake struck at 5:46am Pacific Time, 11:46pm local time.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said while no widespread tsunami threat
exists, earthquakes of such size could at times generate local tsunamis that can
be destructive along coasts within 62 miles of the epicenter.
The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami was not expected along the west
coast.
There have been no reports of damage or injuries.
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Earthquakes
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Earthquake hits Aleutian Islands
China View
HONG KONG-- An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit Aleutian
Islands at 02:04 p.m. local time ( 0604 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a
bulletin released by the Hong Kong Observatory.
The epicenter was initially determined to be 52.0 degrees north latitude and
179.1 degrees east longitude, about 870 km west of Unalaska Island, Alaska of
the United States.
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Earthquakes
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Earthquake rattles Mexico City
CNN
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- A moderate earthquake of 5.8 magnitude struck
southwestern Mexico on Sunday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Rafael Abreau of the USGS said there were no reports of damage from the
earthquake, which was centered about 54.5 miles (87.7 kilometers) below ground,
and about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south-southwest of Mexico City.
Abreau said the USGS had received reports that the earthquake had been felt in
the country's capital.
Because of the depth of the earthquake, Abreau said, "we may see some minor
damage."
"Yes, it scared us," Julio Lara, 38, a parking attendant in downtown Mexico City
told The Associated Press. "It was strong."
The earthquake struck at 7:06 p.m. local time (8:06 p.m. ET).
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Pestilence |
Avian influenza – situation in Indonesia –
update 42
WHO
The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced a new case of human infection
of H5N1 avian influenza. A 3-year-old male from Wonogiri District, Central Java
Province developed symptoms on 14 April, was hospitalized on 21 April and died
on 23 April. Investigations into the source of his infection indicate exposure
to sick and dead poultry.
Of the 133 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia, 108 have been fatal.
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Pestilence |
Virus under control, but 'will spread'
By Wang Jingqiong and Wang Hongyi (China Daily)
A virus that has claimed the lives of 20 children and infected more than 1,800
others in Fuyang, Anhui province will "probably continue spreading" in the
coming months, a health official said Wednesday.
No new fatalities from the intestinal virus Enterovirus 71 have occurred in the
past five days, but the number of children affected has increased to 1,884, Chen
Xianyi, an official from the Ministry of Health in charge of emergency response,
said at a news conference.
"The disease will probably continue spreading in the next two or three months as
it is a prime period for epidemics," he said.
Enterovirus 71, or EV71, usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters
and ulcers in the mouth and on the hands and feet.
It can cause high fever, meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis
in children. Paralysis is more common in children under 2 and meningitis is more
common in children aged 2 to 5.
It can be fatal if not treated in time.
Experts are being brought together to discuss putting the highly contagious
disease on the mandatory reporting list of infectious diseases, Chen said.
About 540 hospitalized children affected by the outbreak in Fuyang are in stable
condition and recovering well, the Anhui provincial health bureau said.
All the registered patients in the Fuyang outbreak are children aged 1 to 11,
with 80 percent of them under 3 and most fatal cases being children under 2,
Yang Weizhong, deputy chief of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, said.
"This disease is not comparable with SARS; Now we have strengthened treatment
measures, there's no need for people to panic, as the disease is curable so long
as the patients are treated in time, before the exhaustion of the central
circulatory system," Yang said.
Amid reports that the virus had spread from Fuyang to adjacent Henan province,
the Henan public health bureau said on Tuesday that 16 cases of the EV71
infections in the province were detected and treated successfully.
"So far, there is no evidence to show that the cases in Henan are infections
from Fuyang," Yang said.
The health ministry has also denied claims that local authorities delayed
reporting cases of the outbreak.
Medical teams were trying to work out what was afflicting the patients and it
took time to collect evidence to confirm the disease, the ministry officials
said.
Health authorities in Shanghai, which is near Anhui, said there are no reports
of infections in the city.
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Pestilence |
20 children dead, 1,200 sickened by infection
in eastern China
By AUDRA ANG
BEIJING (AP) — A viral outbreak in eastern China has sickened almost 1,200
children, killing 20 of them, health officials said Monday.
Enterovirus 71 infections were discovered in March in Fuyang, a city in Anhui
province, but may have gone undetected for a while because the symptoms appeared
to be ailments common in children, said Feng Lizhong, an official at the Anhui
public health bureau.
Hospitals in Fuyang started to take in patients with fever, blisters, ulcers in
the mouth, or a rash on their hands and feet, the official Xinhua News Agency
said.
Most were under 2 years old and none was older than 6, Xinhua said.
There were 1,199 reported cases between early March and Sunday, 20 of which were
fatal, the health bureau said in a statement on its Web site.
Some 371 children were still being treated and more than 550 had recovered, it
said.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the outbreak, but the bureau said it
is the season when the virus is prevalent.
Enterovirus 71 is one of several viruses that cause hand, foot and mouth
disease, which is characterized by fever, mouth sores and a rash with blisters.
It is spread by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid
from blisters, or the stool of infected persons.
The illness mainly strikes children below age 10 and is not related to foot and
mouth disease, which infects cattle, sheep and swine.
The World Health Organization's Beijing office said there didn't appear to be an
epidemiological link among the cases although most of the children lived in
rural areas.
"We believe the situation is still of concern, especially because of the current
high reported case fatality rate compared to previous years," said Dr. Cris
Tunon, the acting China representative.
The number of cases of hand, foot and mouth has been on the rise in China.
Last year, Beijing reported more than 1,000 cases in the first six months. In
the eastern province of Shandong, 1,200 children were infected in May.
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War and Rumors of Wars |
300,000 may have died in Darfur: UN official
Breitbart
A top UN official said Tuesday as many as 300,000 people may have died in the
Darfur conflict, amid warnings a joint UN-African Union peace force might not be
fully operational before 2009.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told the Security Council that it was likely
the death toll from five years of war, famine and disease in Darfur had risen in
the past couple of years.
"A study in 2006 suggested that 200,000 had lost their lives from the combined
effects of the conflict," he said.
"That figure must be much higher now, perhaps half as much again," he added, but
he conceded this was just an "extrapolation."
Adding to the grim picture, the head of the joint UN and African Union mission,
Rodolphe Adada, said the troop component of the UNAMID mission was unlikely to
be completely up and running until next year.
The force "is at less than 40 percent of its mandated level of 19,555 and it is
very unlikely to achieve full-operating capability before 2009," he told the
15-member Security Council.
"We are going to try to speed up the deployment," he later told reporters.
"Maybe we'll have 80 percent of the force at the end of the year."
Adada, a former Congolese foreign minister, also told the council that UNAMID
still lacked 24 critical attack and transport helicopters as well as key
military engineers and logistical support.
And he again appealed to the council "to redouble its efforts" to help UNAMID
overcome its current logistical and political obstacles.
Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem immediately dismissed the new
toll given by Holmes, telling reporters: "In our own calculation, the total
number (of deaths from fighting) does not exceed 10,000. This is the latest
figure."
He said this tally did not include those Darfurians who died from diseases,
malnutrition or starvation.
More than 2.2 million in Darfur are also believed to have fled their homes since
the conflict broke out in the remote western region in February 2003.
Fighting erupted when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the
Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and
power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.
Queried later about how he arrived at the new figure, Holmes told reporters: "I
am not saying I am sure. I said it's a reasonable hypothesis, a reasonable
extrapolation from the previous figures from studies done elsewhere.
"I am not trying to suggest this is a very scientifically-based figure," he
added.
Adada also painted a grim picture of prospects for peace between Khartoum and
the fragmented Darfur insurgency.
"Unfortunately, it is commonly understood today in Darfur that peace is not all
attractive, neither economically, nor politically," the UNAMID chief said.
Last week, the AU and UN envoys to Darfur wrapped up a visit to Sudan during
which they failed to set a date for peace talks between the parties.
Sudan's Abdalhaleem meanwhile denied that Khartoum was dragging its feet on
allowing non-African troops to join UNAMID.
And he blamed the United Nations for not considering African troops which he
said were perfectly qualified for the Darfur mission.
Western members of the council are pushing for the deployment of 3,600 Egyptian,
Ethiopian and Rwandan contingents for UNAMID by June, immediately followed by
that of battled-hardened Nepalese and Thai units.
UNAMID is to total 26,000 members, including around 6,000 police, tasked with
protecting the civilian population of a region the size of France.
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War and Rumors of Wars |
Syrian official: We're prepared for war
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's messages of reassurance to assuage Syrian fears
over Israel's nationwide drill did not succeed in curbing the rhetoric coming
out of Damascus on Tuesday.
A senior Syrian official said Tuesday that Syria would be prepared for all
possible scenarios as soon as the "language of understanding" with Israel over
the peace process ended.
"When the language of understanding with Israel regarding the peace process
comes to an end, Syria will be prepared for any possibility," Syrian Deputy
Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said in an interview with the
government-controlled Al-Thawra newspaper. "The Israelis aren't aware that we
know that every war has its own path? The more Israel tries to generate this
centralized atmosphere in order to reap benefit from the July downfall [the
Second Lebanon War], [Syria] cannot but also draw plans in advance of a
conflict."
Mekdad went on to say that the drill was meant to rehabilitate the IDF's
deterrence capability - which he claimed was lost in the Second Lebanon War -
restore the confidence of the Israeli public in the army and generate an
atmosphere of readiness among the ranks of the military.
"If Syria is the target of all of this, know that we are following the drill and
are also developing our capabilities and our plans to face the Israeli
maneuvers," he warned.
Olmert and his associates reiterated Tuesday that Syria should have nothing to
worry about.
"We don't expect anything to happen [with Syria]," Olmert said on a tour of IDF
Central Command. "We are not worried that they want something to happen. I think
they know it would not be a good thing for something to develop in the North.
They know what our abilities are, and that's why I think reports of tension are
exaggerated."
An Olmert associate added: "There is no reason any of Israel's neighbors should
be concerned. This exercise is internal, and it is part of the lessons learned
from the Second Lebanon War about better preparing our civilian populations.
Israel does not seek conflict with our neighbors. We seek peace with them,
including Syria."
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida reported Tuesday that Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni was planning to visit Qatar next week, where she is expected meet
senior Syrian envoys in order to "complete the covert negotiations between
Israel and Syria."
According to the report, which quoted sources in Jerusalem, talks between the
two countries have been going on over the past two years with the intention of
setting down the groundwork for a peace agreement.
Livni's office could not confirm or deny the report.
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War and Rumors of Wars |
More than 80 die in Mogadishu fighting: rights
group
By Abdi Sheikh and Aweys Yusuf
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Islamist insurgents and government troops exchanged
mortar fire on Sunday and a prominent human rights group said 81 people had been
killed in the past 24 hours in some of the heaviest clashes in months.
The fighting was fiercest in the Islamist stronghold of northern Mogadishu where
the government and its Ethiopian allies are trying to flush out the remnants of
a sharia courts movement ousted from the capital at the end of 2006.
"Eighty-one people were killed and 119 were wounded in the violence in Mogadishu
since Saturday," Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of the Elman Peace and Human Rights
Organization, told Reuters by telephone.
He said he had collated the death toll from local hospitals, undercover
activists counting bodies in the street and families.
There was no independent verification of the death toll, but residents had
reported escalating clashes since Saturday.
"We condemn the unceasing fighting and the use of artillery on the civilian
population," Ahmed said. "We also condemn the opposition groups who fight among
the civilians and use them as (human) shields."
His group estimates that 6,500 people were killed last year in Somalia's
conflict and 1.5 million uprooted from their homes.
The interim administration is struggling to contain a deepening Islamist-led
insurgency involving near-daily attacks on allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.
The Islamists have also carried out an increasing number of hit-and-run attacks
on towns -- seizing control from local administrations that often amount to
little more than militias, only to melt away before government reinforcements
arrive
HEAVY FIGHTING
Residents said the two sides had strengthened their positions overnight and
exchanged heavy fire in the early hours of Sunday around the Save Our Souls
(SOS) Hospital.
"A mortar shell landed on a house just behind SOS hospital, killing an old man
and seriously wounding his wife and her 3 children," said a medical worker who
declined to be named.
"As we were running to help this family we saw an unidentified dead man lying on
the ground," he added.
Health workers in various hospitals said they were treating scores of patients
wounded in the fighting.
One witness said he saw the bodies of four men near the main livestock market,
adding that no one had dared to take the bodies away "because the whole place is
under Ethiopian siege."
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein expressed regret for Somalis forced to flee
the violence but said his interim government and its Ethiopian allies had the
right to self-defense.
"I am very sorry for the poor civilians who evacuate when fighting takes place,"
he told a news conference.
"The government of Somalia is always ready for peace, but if our troops and
Ethiopian troops are attacked, fighting with any group that is against peace
will be inevitable."
(Additional reporting by Mohamed Abdi; writing by Katie Nguyen; editing by Tim
Pearce)
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit:
http://africa.reuters.com/ )
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War and Rumors of Wars |
Sri Lanka Says 43 Soldiers, 100 Rebels Die in
Clashes
By Paul Tighe and Jay Shankar
Sri Lanka said 43 soldiers and about 100 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam were killed in the bloodiest clash since the army began almost daily
attacks to capture the last bases held by the rebels in the north.
As many as 33 soldiers are ``yet to marry up with the rest of the troops'' after
the fighting in the Muhamalai region of the northern Jaffna Peninsula yesterday,
the army said in a statement. The army broke the LTTE's defense line in the
area, the Defense Ministry said.
Tamil Tiger units confronted the army for more than 10 hours, TamilNet cited
Irasiah Ilanthirayan, the LTTE's military spokesman, as saying. As many as 150
soldiers were killed, TamilNet reported. There has been no independent
confirmation of the casualty figures.
Sri Lanka's army turned its attention to the LTTE's northern bases after
capturing the eastern region in July, inflicting the worst defeat on the Tamil
Tigers. The group has been fighting for 25 years for a separate Tamil homeland
in the South Asian island nation.
``The government needs to show progress on the ground,'' Jehan Perera, director
of the National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan non-governmental advocacy
organization, said in a telephone interview from the capital, Colombo. ``Killing
of Tamil rebels is not a viable option now. It is only by controlling territory
the government can prove progress.''
Attacks Repulsed
Army units were defeated at two points as they attempted to overrun LTTE
strongholds along a 7-kilometer (4.4-mile) front, Ilanthirayan said, according
to TamilNet. The Tamil Tigers lost 16 fighters, he said.
Intercepted rebel radio communications revealed that more than 50 fighters were
killed, the Defense Ministry cited Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara as saying. A total
of 84 soldiers were wounded in the fighting and airlifted to Colombo for
treatment, it said.
Fighting intensified in the north after the government ended a 2002 cease-fire
with the Tamil Tigers in January, saying the rebels used the truce to boost
their forces and plan attacks.
The military's offensives in the north amount to genocide of Tamils, the LTTE
said in March. It accused the air force of dropping bombs in a civilian area
April 19, destroying houses that replaced buildings swept away in the 2004
tsunami disaster.
Air Strikes
Sri Lankan jets bombed a ``Black Tiger'' training base in the northern
Mullaittiuvu district today, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The
target was attacked at about 6.20 a.m. local time after the military received
information about ``intensified terrorist activities'' there, it cited spokesman
Andrew Wijesooriya as saying.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government rejects LTTE demands for a separate
state, saying there must be no break up of the country of 20 million people.
Tamils make up 11.9 percent of the population and Sinhalese almost 74 percent,
according to a 2001 census.
Rajapaksa has vowed to eradicate terrorism in the country. The LTTE is
designated a terrorist group by the U.S., the European Union and India
To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at
ptighe@bloomberg.net; Jay Shankar in
Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net.
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Famine |
Asia Risks `Silent Famine' as Food Soars, WFP
Warns (Update3)
By Jason Gale and Paul Gordon
A ``silent famine'' risks emerging in some Asian countries where food prices
including rice are escalating beyond the reach of the poorest people, the World
Food Program warned.
``There is food on the counters and on the shelves in stores but there is a
certain population that cannot afford that food,'' Paul Risley, a spokesman for
the United Nations agency, said today. ``There's a risk of a silent famine.''
Record prices for rice and wheat are ratcheting up the cost to aid agencies of
providing relief, Risley said from Bangkok. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
said yesterday that rising food costs may hurt economic growth and threaten
political security.
``In Asia, supply is not the main constraint, but the huge price increases
are,'' said Rajat Nag, managing director at the Asian Development Bank. ``That
has a very massive impact on the poor and we need to focus on the huge price
increases.''
Rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, which have more than doubled in the
past year, traded near a record today amid concern export curbs by producing
nations will crimp global supplies. The July contract gained as much as 2.3
percent to $24.615 per 100 pounds, and traded at $24.50 at 12:22 p.m. Singapore
time. The price touched a high of $24.67 on April 18.
`We're Struggling'
``We find we can't buy as much rice as we thought we would be able to buy,''
Risley said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The agency feeds 28
million of the poorest Asians across 14 countries. ``Because of the high prices
right now, we're struggling,'' he said.
Indonesia, the world's third-largest rice producer, will hold back surplus rice
from export this year to bolster domestic stockpiles, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said April 18. China, Egypt, India and Vietnam have also restricted
exports of the food that's the staple for half the world's population.
Households in poorer countries spend a larger share of their income on food
compared with those in richer nations, magnifying the impact of costlier rice,
wheat and meat on family budgets, according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
``If you're making $1 a day, $2 a day, somewhere near the bottom of the economic
scale, a sudden doubling of the price of rice or of wheat is going to make it
impossible for you to put food on the table,'' Risley said.
An average household in India spent 32 percent of its income on food last year
compared with 6 percent for a household in the U.S., data from the department
show. The figure for Indonesia was 43 percent, and 36 percent for the
Philippines.
Social Unrest
The World Bank has forecast that 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face social
unrest because of higher food and energy costs. Crude oil rose above $117 a
barrel for the first time in New York today after the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries rejected calls for higher output.
The Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, failed to fill a government
tender last week for 500,000 tons of the staple. The country needs to have 2.1
million tons of rice shipped by July to ensure a stable supply between June and
August when local production is at its lowest, the National Food Authority has
said.
The Philippines `` is struggling to increase the amount of rice that can be
provided at a subsidized rate,'' Risley said. ``The real concern is for the
poorest people.''
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Famine |
North Korea heading towards famine - report
says
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL-(Reuters) - Soaring global food prices and reluctant donors are pushing
North Korea back towards famine, which could see the secretive government turn
even more repressive to keep control, a paper released on Wednesday said.
"The country is in its most precarious situation since the end of the famine a
decade ago," said the paper from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for
International Economics.
Stephan Haggard, who wrote the paper with Marcus Noland, said the sharp increase
in world prices for commodities had sent ripples through the communist state's
economy.
The authors are specialists in reclusive North Korea's trade with the outside
world.
"The North Korean rice market is much more integrated with world markets than
most people think," Haggard, a professor at the University of California, San
Diego, said by telephone.
North Korea, which even in time of good harvests is about 20 percent short of
what it needs, has grown more dependent on rice imported from neighboring China
since a famine in the late 1990s that experts estimate killed at least 1 million
people, he said.
Its limited foreign currency reserves, and poor reputation as a trade partner,
mean the rice trade is being hit and ordinary North Koreans are feeling the
squeeze, Haggard said.
On top of that, North Korea also lost crops and farmland last year to floods.
A senior official with U.N. World Food Programme, which earlier this month
warned of a food crisis in North Korea, said that in some places the price of
rice has more than doubled in a year with 1 kg costing about one-third of the
monthly salary of an average North Korean worker.
FOOD SHORTFALL
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in late March it expected North
Korea to have a shortfall of about 1.66 million tonnes in cereals for the year
ending in October 2008, which would be the largest deficit in about seven years.
North Korea has in the past relied heavily on aid from China, South Korea and
U.N. aid agencies to fill the gap.
But the new conservative government in South Korea has said it will tie aid to
progress its capricious neighbour makes in giving up development of nuclear
weapons -- on which Pyongyang is stalling.
Under previous left-of-centre governments in Seoul, the North could expect about
half a million tonnes of rice and massive fertilizer shipments, with few
questions asked -- the price the South was prepared to pay for stability of the
Korean peninsula.
And China has its own problems keeping runaway grain prices under control, which
means it cannot afford to be as generous this year.
North Korea has been successful in separating appeals for humanitarian aid from
international talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme and is unlikely to
bend in disarmament bargaining due to the food crisis, analysts have said.
Noland and Haggard said North Korea will "ultimately weather this challenge
politically by ratcheting up repression and scrambling, albeit belatedly, for
foreign assistance".
But without fertilizer and other aid to help farm production it may be too late
to avoid deaths from hunger in the country of some 23 million, they added.
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Alex Richardson)
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