N. Korea says floods kill 88, leave 63K homeless
N. Korea says floods kill 88, leave 63K homeless
SEOUL — North Korea said flooding caused by Typhoon Khanun last week killed 88 people and left 62,900 homeless in the isolated communist nation where drought has already added to chronic food shortages.
Torrential rains and flooding between July 18 and 24 inundated more than 12,030 houses and destroyed scores of factory buildings, educational facilities and health-care establishments, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, citing data collected until Saturday.
About 16 million of North Korea’s 24 million people suffer from chronic food insecurity, high malnutrition rates and deep-rooted economic challenges, Jerome Sauvage, United Nations resident coordinator in the capital of Pyongyang, said in a June 12 statement.
As many as 2 million people starved to death since the mid-1990s as the communist regime pursued nuclear weapons and missile development, further isolating itself from the international community.
North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, lost a deal with the United States for 240,000 metric tons of food in exchange for a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests when his country tested a long-range rocket on April 13.
Cheney: McCain erred in choosing Palin
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney said it was “a mistake” for Arizona Sen. John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate in 2008.
Cheney headed George W. Bush’s vice-presidential search in 2000 before becoming Bush’s running mate. Of the Republican selection process four years ago that led to Palin, he said, “That one I don’t think was well-handled.”
Palin hadn’t “passed that test” of readiness to serve as president because her political experience was limited, Cheney said in an interview with ABC News. The television network showed portions of Cheney’s remarks Sunday on its “This Week” program. The full interview is to air Monday.
Cheney, 71, said demographic and political factors in the selection process “are important issues, but they should never be allowed to override that first proposition” of being ready to serve as president.
“I think that was one of the problems McCain had,” Cheney said.
Palin was “an attractive candidate” but the fact that she’d served as Alaska governor for less than two years raised questions about her “being ready to take over” as president, Cheney said.
“I think that was a mistake,” he said.
Cheney said that it was “pretty important” that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney handle his selection process differently. Romney is expected to announce his running mate before the party’s national convention Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Fla.
Romanian officials say referendum to impeach president is invalid because of low turnout
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian election officials declared late Sunday that a referendum to impeach the nation’s president on grounds that he overstepped his authority had failed because of low voter turnout.
The Central Election Bureau put the voter turnout in Sunday’s referendum on President Traian Basescu at 45.92 percent, with a 3 percent margin of error. By law, such referendums are invalid if less than half the electorate cast ballots. The bureau did not immediately give the outcome of the vote, but two exit polls showed more than 80 percent favored impeaching Basescu.
“Romanians have invalidated the referendum by not voting,” Basescu said on national TV as he announced he had survived the vote.
However, he acknowledged he had lost popular support, and pledged to work toward reconciliation in the nation of 19 million which threw off communism in 1989.
By wire sources