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Hello, This is Motoko Uzumkai with the world report for today.In today's news A judge accepts a Mumbai gunman's confession. In mumbai, india An Indian judge accepted the confession of the lone surviving gunman from the shooting attacks in Mumbai, but said Thursday the trial would proceed anyway.The young Pakistani gunman, Ajmal Kasab, unexpectedly confessed Monday to taking part in the November attack that paralyzed India's financial capital and killed 166 people.The court had delayed a decision on whether to accept his confession and guilty plea, with prosecutors arguing that his statement was incomplete and accusing Kasab of seeking clemency. In response, Kasab said he was willing to be hanged for his actions.Judge M.L. Tahiliyani decided Thursday to accept Kasab's confession, but he ordered the trial to continue because the accused did not address all 86 charges against him."The trial will proceed," he said.Kasab's confession linked the attack to a shadowy but well-organized group in Pakistan. The statement bolstered India's charges that terrorist groups across the border were behind the well-planned attack, and that Pakistan is not doing enough to clamp down on them.After the judge made his ruling, defense lawyer Abbas Kazmi asked to be recused from the case saying that his client had no faith in him."If he has no confidence in me, there is no sense in me continuing in the case," he said.The judge urged Kazmi to remain on the case and told the lawyer and defendant to discuss their relationship during a recess.Chief Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had tried to get Kasab's confession thrown out, saying it was neither complete nor accurate.Kasab admitted spraying gunfire into the crowd at Mumbai's main train station, and described in detail a network of training camps and safe houses across Pakistan, revealing the names of four men he said were his handlers.He denied killing four Mumbai policemen whose deaths remain touchstones of grief and anger in India.Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Islamabad was waiting for copies of the confession, but he said it would not impede the ongoing effort at dialogue between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.The court has issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistanis accused of conspiring in the attack. Next on the news is Observers in Georgia ask Biden for weapons. In TBILISI, Georgia Georgia's president was expected to ask U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday for advanced weaponry and U.S. observers to monitor a cease-fire along the boundaries of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions.President Mikhail Saakashvili also plans to urge Biden at a meeting in his presidential offices to push for NATO membership for Georgia, despite skepticism among some other members of the Western military alliance.The White House has so far avoided making any public commitment on arms or observers, although it says it stands behind Georgia's application for NATO membership despite determined opposition from Russia.Biden is on a four-day mission to Ukraine and Georgia to demonstrate U.S. support for the two countries, where Western-style democracies have struggled in the wake of peaceful revolutions.A number of Eastern European political figures have expressed concern that the Obama administration could weaken its support for democratic reform, in its effort to build better relations with Russia.But Biden's message on the trip so far has been that restoring cordial relations with the Kremlin will not come at the price of weakening support for democratic allies in the region. Nor will the U.S. recognize Moscow's claim to an exclusive sphere of influence among former Soviet states.In the Georgian capital, Biden sought to calm concerns that the U.S. might weaken its support for Georgia in the wake of its defeat in a brief war with Russia in August.At a banquet in Tbilisi on Wednesday, Biden said he wanted to send "an unequivocal, clear message to all who will listen and some who don't want to listen, that America stands with you and will continue to stand."But the U.S. vice president has also come to urge the leaders of Ukraine and Georgia to heal divisions among pro-Western political factions that in Ukraine have crippled the government and in Georgia led to weeks of street protests this spring.Before Biden's arrival in Georgia, Saakashvili announced a series of political reforms, including making the post of Tbilisi mayor directly elective.Georgian police also removed dozens of metal cages protesters erected in front of the parliament building to block traffic along Tbilisi's central street.The cages were meant to represent jails — symbolizing what opponents say is Saakashvili's increasing authoritarianism.In Wednesday's banquet speech, Biden called Saakasvhili's 2003 Rose Revolution, which drove a Soviet-era leader from power, "a clarion call for freedom-loving people around the globe."But he also urged Saakasvhili to "plant the roots of democracy deep," alluding to criticism of Saakashvili's rule.He said the U.S. encouraged the growth of civil societies that "hold all governments accountable, yours and mine accountable."At one point, Biden said in a joking manner: "You mentioned protesters. Welcome to democracy."Now in further news Clinton: N. Korea running out of options on nukes.PHUKET, Thailand – Faced with a fresh refusal by North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday the communist regime has "no friends left" to shield it from punishing U.N. penalties."North Korea's continued pursuit of its nuclear ambitions is sure to elevate tensions on the Korean peninsula and could provoke an arms race in the region," Clinton told a news conference after conferring with officials from 26 other countries. She cited near unanimity on vigorously enforcing the latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its repeated nuclear and missile tests.Clinton said the U.S. will continue to insist that North Korea return to the bargaining table and verifiably dismantle its nuclear program. At the same time, she held out the prospect of restoring U.S. diplomatic ties to North Korea and other incentives — actions the Obama administration would be willing to consider only if the North Koreans take irreversible steps to denuclearize.Just moments before she spoke at this southern Thai seaside resort, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation at the Phuket conference said his government will not return to six-party talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, citing the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States."The six-party talks are over," Ri Hung Sik said.The Phuket forum, known as the Asian Regional Forum and drawing senior officials from 27 nations, is one of the rare instances of U.S. and North Korean diplomats appearing together, although U.S. officials said there was no substantive contact. Clinton told the news conference she was disappointed in what she heard from the North Korean delegate who addressed the conference."Unfortunately, the North Korean delegation offered only an insistent refusal to recognize that North Korea has been on the wrong course," she said. "In their presentation today they evinced no willingness to pursue the path of denuclearization, and that was troubling.""The question is: Where do we go from here?" she asked.Her reply, essentially, was that the U.S. and its negotiating partners will not back down from their insistence that North Korea not only resume negotiations but scrap its nuclear program in a verifiable way and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which it once was a signatory but recently abandoned. And she said the U.N. sanctions will be applied as strictly and fully as possible."The bottom line is this: If North Korea intends to engage in international commerce its vessels must conform to terms" of the U.N. sanctions, "or find no port," she said. "Our goal in enforcing these sanctions and others proposed earlier is not to create suffering or destabilize North Korea. Our quarrel is not with the North Korean people."Clinton said the Obama administration would soon send Philip Goldberg, its coordinator for implementing the U.N. sanctions that were approved by the Security Council in June, back to Asia for a new round of consultations on a joint enforcement strategy.And, in what she called an illustration of U.S. concern about the welfare of North Korea's people, Clinton said the administration intends to appoint a special envoy to focus on North Korean human rights.North Korea's Foreign Ministry, bristling at an earlier Clinton comment likening the regime to "small children" demanding attention, released a statement Thursday saying: "We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community. Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."Turning to another major security problem, Clinton held a one-on-one meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and said afterward that the Pakistani military's progress in fighting Taliban insurgents has been "encouraging" but incomplete.Clinton said she hoped to learn more about the situation when she visits Pakistan this fall.Qureshi told reporters that the military operations have been successful, and said he asserted that public opinion in Pakistan has changed decisively against extremism.Clinton also called for Myanmar to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate faces up to five years in prison if convicted, as expected. Next on the news is Exiled Honduran leader to start return to bid.MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said he will head to Nicaragua's northern border Thursday and cross over into Honduras the next day after internationally mediated talks failed to return him to power.Zelaya, who was toppled and flown out of the country in a June 28 military coup, said U.S.-backed talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias failed because "the coup leaders totally refuse to reinstate me.""I will go back unarmed, pacifically so that Honduras can return to peace and tranquility," Zelaya said at a news conference late Wednesday in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. "My wife and kids will accompany me and the military will be responsible for any harm" that befalls them.He said he would go to Nicaragua's border and cross over by land into Honduras on Friday.The Honduran military thwarted Zelaya's first attempt to return home July 5 by blocking the runway at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa. The flight sparked clashes between Zelaya's supporters and security forces at the airport and left at least one person dead.In Costa Rica, talks on resolving the standoff generated by the coup headed toward failure Wednesday when the interim government of Roberto Micheletti indicated it would reject Arias' final proposal for resolving the crisis.Arias presented an 11-point plan that called for Zelaya's return to the presidency in two days and offered amnesty for the coup leaders that ousted him.Arias said the plan was his last attempt at mediating a peaceful solution. He said Zelaya and the interim government should turn to the Organization of American States for a new mediator if they refused to sign the agreement.Arias warned both sides that time was running out for a peaceful solution and urged them to set an example by becoming the first country in modern history to reverse a coup through a negotiated agreement."The clock is ticking fast, and it's ticking against the Honduran people," Arias said in Costa Rica's capital, San Jose. "I warn you that this plan is not perfect. Nothing in democracy is perfect."Mauricio Villeda, a member of interim President Roberto Micheletti's delegation at the talks, said he would take the proposals back to Honduras to present to the president, congress and the Supreme Court for consideration.But Micheletti's foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, flatly rejected putting Zelaya back in the presidency, saying the executive branch cannot overturn a Supreme Court ruling forbidding the reinstatement of the ousted leader."A proposal of that nature is inconceivable, unacceptable," Lopez told Radio America.Micheletti's refusal to budge came despite stepped up pressure from the United States and other nations, which warned of tough sanctions unless Zelaya is restored.Rixi Moncada, of Zelaya's delegation, called the mediation effort a failure and urged the United Nations and the OAS to "adopt the coercive measures necessary to force the interim government to submit" to the resolutions that both organizations adopted demanding the return of Zelaya."The mediation had only one goal: to enforce the mandate of the OAS and restore the constitutional order in Honduras with the return of President Manuel Zelaya," Moncada said. "That is why, for us, the accord of San Jose has failed."Zelaya's has repeatedly vowed to return to Honduran to reclaim the presidency and seek the prosecution of leaders of the coup that forced him into exile.Arias' final plan was similar to an earlier proposal that Micheletti rejected. It included a timetable that would return Zelaya to Honduras by Friday to carry out the rest of his four-year term, which ends in January, under a power-sharing government. The plan also would require Zelaya to drop efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that provoked his ouster. Zelaya angered many people in Honduras by ignoring Congress' and the courts' rejection of his push to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, which many saw as an attempt to abolish presidential term limits and impose a socialist government in the style of his ally, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. The reconciliation plan would provide Zelaya immunity from prosecution for trying to hold the referendum, along with amnesty for coup leaders. Arias said he included several new points, including some proposed by the interim government with the help of a U.S. senator, who was not identified. Among the new ideas was a truth commission to investigate the events leading up to the coup. Tens of thousands of Micheletti's supporters rallied in the Honduran capital Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations seen yet. They accused Zelaya of being a pawn of Chavez, exchanging shouts and insults with Zelaya supporters. No foreign government has recognized the Micheletti administration. U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood, speaking to reporters in Washington, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Micheletti's government in a phone call over the weekend. U.S. officials are considering sanctions and the European Union has already frozen euro65 million ($92 million) in development aid and warned of further steps. "The secretary of state made very clear that Mr. Micheletti, the de facto regime, needs to take this mediation effort seriously and respond appropriately," Wood said. "Should that not happen, there are clear consequences with regard to our assistance to Honduras."
In nawam, afganistan AP IMPACT: Many translators unfit in any language.NAWA, Afghanistan – Josh Habib lay in a dirt field, gasping for air. Two days of hiking with Marines through southern Afghanistan's 115-degree heat had exhausted him. This was not what he signed up for.Habib is not a Marine. He is a 53-year-old engineer from California hired by a contracting company as a military translator. When he applied for the lucrative linguist job, Habib said his recruiter gave no hint he would join a ground assault in Taliban land. He carried 40 pounds of food, water and gear on his back, and kept pace — barely — with Marines half his age.U.S. troops say companies that recruit military translators are sending linguists to southern Afghanistan who are unprepared to serve in combat, even as hundreds more are needed to support the growing number of troops.Some translators are in their 60s and 70s and in poor physical condition — and some don't even speak the right language."I've met guys off the planes and have immediately sent them back because they weren't in the proper physical shape," said Gunnery Sgt. James Spangler, who is in charge of linguists at Camp Leatherneck, the largest U.S. base in Helmand province."They were too old. They couldn't breathe. They complained about heart problems," he said. "We almost made a joke of it. We're almost receiving people on oxygen tanks and colostomy bags; it's almost getting to that point."And that's not the worst of it.Troops say low-skilled and disgruntled translators are putting U.S. forces at risk."Intelligence can save Marines' lives and give us the advantage on the battlefield," said Cpl. William Woodall, 26, of Dallas, who works closely with translators. "Instead of looking for quality, the companies are just pushing bodies out here, and once they're out the door, it's not their problem anymore."Spangler, 36, of Lecanto, Fla., emphasized that translators need to be physically fit.
"When we have convoys that are out days or weeks at a time and you have someone that's 60 or 70 years old, I have to put the directive in: I need someone younger, can get out of a vehicle quickly, can run for short periods if needed, anything that's required for combat operations with Marines," Spangler said.The company that recruits most U.S. citizen translators, Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel, says it's difficult to meet the increased demand for linguists to aid the 15,000 U.S. forces being sent to southern, Pashto-speaking provinces this year as part of President Barack Obama's increased focus on Afghanistan. Only 7,700 Pashto speakers live in the U.S., according to the 2000 census.Mission Essential's senior vice president, Marc Peltier, told The Associated Press that the linguists the company deploys to Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries meet government standards. The military sets no age or weight requirements, he said."I really wish everyone we send over was a 21-year-old who can pass the Marine Corps physical fitness exam. They're not," said Peltier."It's been a shock to some of them. You can't really acclimate them. We don't have centers to run scenarios out in the heat. It is a surprise to many of them and it's very, very hard work, especially with a lot of the new Marines that are going into Helmand province," he said.How translators come to believe they won't face danger could originate with recruiters."They're going to tell you whatever it is to get you hired," Spangler said.Khalid Nazary, an Afghan-American citizen living in Kabul, called Mission Essential about a job and let an AP reporter listen. He asked if he would go to "dangerous places." "Oh, no, no, no. You're not a soldier. You're not a soldier. Not at all," the recruiter, Tekelia Barnett, said. "You're not on the battlefield." The Afghan-American asked repeatedly if he would be sent on battlefield missions. Barnett said he would translate for soldiers at schools, mosques or hospitals. After being pressed on the point, Barnett said the linguist would be subject to "any" assignment, and if he didn't want the task he could quit. Peltier later told AP it was indeed possible that translators would be on the battlefield. He said he would talk to Barnett to make sure she made that more clear. Peltier also said the first phone call was "introductory" and that recruits go through two weeks of training "and get a very clear picture of what they're going to do." Others disagreed. "They say you'll get a shower once a day, have access to Internet and TV, call home six times a week," Woodall said. "And when the guys get out, they're completely shell-shocked. They've been lied to." Habib, the translator who spoke to the AP while carrying a heavy pack in the stifling heat, said a Mission Essential recruiter originally told him that if he passed his language test, he would work out of the main U.S. base at Bagram about 30 miles north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. "That's what she promised me over the phone. That was attractive to me, and it was safe," Habib said. Once in Afghanistan, he says he was told he would lose his job if he didn't go with the Marines to Helmand. "It's been very hard, very hard, physically," said Habib, a Pashto-speaking U.S. citizen born in Pakistan who says he signed up because he wanted to serve his country. Troops and translators say they suspect recruiting companies try to send as many interpreters as possible to Afghanistan to collect fees. Millions of dollars are involved. Known as Category II translators — U.S. citizens who obtain a security clearance — such linguists earn a salary that starts at $210,000 a year. Mission Essential Personnel recruits and hires most Category II linguists in Afghanistan. Peltier said the company was founded by two former Army Special Forces reservists who sought to improve the quality of translators after seeing them "pushed out the door and being mistreated." The military gave Mission Essential performance bonuses in each quarter last year, Peltier said. When the company took over the Afghanistan language contract in late 2007, only 41 percent of linguists' jobs were filled. Today 97 percent of the jobs are taken, he said. At Camp Leatherneck, four U.S.-citizen interpreters spoke with AP but none gave his name for fear of losing his job. The translators said dozens of linguists quit soon after arriving in Afghanistan in recent weeks. Spangler declined to provide numbers but said "quite a bit" resigned or were fired because they were too old, unfit or couldn't speak Pashto. Army Sgt. Will Gamez, 26, of Los Angeles, said he recently worked with a linguist who spoke only the Afghan language of Dari, instead of Pashto. One translator alleged that most of his colleagues cannot speak Pashto, and that some recruits in the U.S. were bypassing the language test administered for Mission Essential by having a skilled Pashto speaker take it over the phone. The company does not require the initial test be taken in person but later gives in-person tests. Spangler said the military is working its way through dozens of newly arrived interpreters and that the system will weed out the weaker ones by September. But Gamez said soldiers need translators now, and that some feign sickness to avoid work. "If he doesn't go out, I can't do my job," Gamez said. "If locals come up to us, we can't tell what they're saying. They might be warning us about a minefield. They might be warning us about an ambush." In this news Court Shrinks Borders of Sudan's Oil-Rich Region.Even though Sudan's civil war officially ended four years ago, tensions continued to fester between the country's north and south over a region rich in oil and symbolism. But on Wednesday, an international panel decided to shrink the borders of the disputed Abyei region, in a move that may strengthen Sudan's fragile peace. The Permanent Court of Arbitration's remapping of the Abyei region reduces its size by more than a third. The new borders award several major oil fields to the north Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, but also make it more likely that the region will become part of south Sudan when the people of Abyei vote on their future in 2011. Officials from Bashir's government called the Hague-based court's decision a step in the right direction, while south Sudanese leaders said it was acceptable. "We want peace [and] we think this decision is going to consolidate the peace," said Riek Machar, a leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which fought against the north in the 22-year civil war that killed 1.5 million people. "We came to see justice and it's a decision we will respect." In 2005, when the north and south signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ending the war, they could not agree on the fate of Abyei, a region that sits along the hazy border and is home to several oil fields and an oil pipeline. In a bid to settle the dispute, negotiators drew up clear boundaries for Abyei, put it under joint administration, and planned a 2011 referendum for its people to decide their region's fate.But the north rejected that decision, threatening the peace deal. The region's most important city, also called Abyei, saw fighting last year that killed dozens of people and forced some 60,000 people from their homes. Abyei also came to be seen locally as a symbol of the entire peace process: as goes Abyei, so goes the conflict. In a bid to salvage the CPA, the two sides agreed to ask the Permanent Court of Arbitration, essentially a stop of last resort for disagreements that can't be solved elsewhere, to determine if the earlier ruling on Abyei's boundaries was correct. Making its ruling on Wednesday, the court issued a 286-page document that, while heavy on legalistic language justifying its decision to redraw Abyei's borders, seemed to be a fairly straightforward political compromise."Because I've always assumed that judges are impartial and neutral, I would say it's not a political compromise, but it is certainly in line with compromises that have been imposed in the past," says Douglas H. Johnson, a Sudan scholar who has advised the South Sudanese and who was in the original group of experts that determined Abyei's boundaries. "By excluding [some of] the oil fields, it removes the main objection that Khartoum had to this." The south may have gotten what it wanted too. For one thing, independent experts - including the International Crisis Group - say that the oil fields now falling to the north are nearly depleted, and the south has many more within its borders anyhow. For another, the new boundary excludes several towns from Abyei that are mostly inhabited by Arabs. This means that when Abyei holds its referendum in 2011 on whether to join the north or the south, it will more likely go to the south - Arabs are allied with the north, while the Dinka tribesmen who make up the rest of Abyei's population will almost certainly vote to join the south. All well and good, but few people are getting their hopes up that the Abyei deal is anything more than a tiny step. The north and south still disagree on a host of other issues. South Sudanese are losing faith in their own leaders, who are seen as corrupt. And looming in the background are nationwide elections in 2010 and then a 2011 referendum - to be held concurrently with the Abyei vote - in which South Sudanese will decide whether to remain a part of Sudan or become a separate country. "While Abyei is the focus of everyone's attention today, it's only one of a host of contentious issues that the parties are facing, not least of which is the demarcation of the entire north-south border, which has many other oil fields," says Colin Thomas-Jensen, a policy adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Enough Project, who has written extensively on Sudan. "We've seen a lot of rhetoric and commitments on both sides, and that's positive. But there's a history in this region of saying one thing and doing another." This news Is all the way from london.Legless Alice Cooper fan is not 'armless'.LONDON (AFP) – An Alice Cooper fan who removed his prosthetic leg and waved it around in appreciation at one of the US rocker's raucous shows has been spared jail after he assaulted a fellow gig-goer, it was reported Thursday.Andrew Miller, 46, took the American's notoriously macabre stage-show into the stalls by brandishing his Cooper motif decorated limb, but got aggressive when he was asked to desist by fellow fan John Lynch.Lynch, who works with people with disabilities, was then subjected to a barrage of blows from Miller, who lost part of his leg in a motorcycle accident.The Portsmouth resident was given a year-long ban from the Southampton Guildhall, where the incident took place, and received a six-month sentence suspended for 18 months.Giving evidence during the trial, Lynch said: "Sitting next to him was not a great experience. During the interval I asked him politely if he could remain in his own seat, but he responded in an aggressive manner."Sentencing him, the judge, John Boggis QC, said: "It's perfectly clear you were making an exhibition and a nuisance of yourself. Mr Lynch asked you to be still and confine yourself to your seat but you would not have it so you hit him and injured him."You thoroughly ruined his evening and this sort of behaviour is unacceptable - you are old enough to know that," he added.Now Arabs advise young, old and sick to avoid hajj.CAIRO – Arab health ministers decided in a late night meeting Thursday to ban children, the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions from attending the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia this year in effort to slow the spread of swine flu.

The ministers, however, stopped short of calling for the cancellation this year of the hajj — a duty for all Muslims in their lifetime — which attracts about 3 million people every year to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The fear is that the close proximity of millions of people from around the world in late November following peak flu season will fuel the outbreak of the deadly disease. The ministers hope to blunt the possibility of contagion by exclude those most vulnerable to the influenza.

Deaths from the H1N1 virus have doubled in the past three weeks, to over 700 from about 330, according to the World Health Organization.

There are 952 reported cases in WHO's eastern Mediterranean region, which consists of the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan.

So far, an Egyptian woman has died from the disease, after returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The ministers say if a vaccine is ready before the hajj, pilgrims will have to provide an immunization report to obtain their visa for the pilgrimage.

They also demanded the WHO to set aside a quota of any future vaccine for developing countries.

Egypt is the only country in the world that responded to the threat of the disease by culling its estimated 300,000 pigs raised mainly by Coptic Christians.

There has been a great deal of discussion in Egypt and across the Middle East over skipping hajj this year to avoid exacerbating the threat of the disease. Thursday's decision appears to be an attempt to head off such a controversial move.

"The (Egyptian) health ministry will take this decision if it poses danger on Egypt but we haven't reached this level yet," said Egyptian Health Minister Hatem al-Gibali said about canceling the hajj, following the meeting, according to state news agency.

Mexican drug lords sport flashy, goofy nicknames. MEXICO CITY — Edgar Valdez Villarreal is believed to be the chief hit man for one of Mexico's most brutal drug cartels. His nickname? "Barbie."

That's right, the American fashion doll. Because the U.S.-born Valdez has blond, blue-eyed good looks.

In Mexico's cutthroat drug underworld, "Barbie" shares the stage with such fearsome characters as "Bunny Commander" and "Smurf," "Taliban" and "Monkey."

Mexican drug traffickers' nicknames run from flashy and threatening to surreal and downright goofy. Some reflect a thug's rank in his cartel, others simply a school yard taunt that stuck. Still others denote a reputation, such as the cartel leader known as "El Mas Loco" — "the Craziest One."

And many, like "Barbie," contrast sharply with their real-world personas.

The handles make police work tricky: Traffickers hide their identities by using different nicknames as well as credentials with assumed names.

Law enforcement officials say they list as many aliases as they can for each suspect — sometimes as many as a half-dozen — because individual nicknames are often used by more than one person. For instance, several drug suspects are known as "El Gordo" — "Fatty."

It also makes prosecution tough, since gang members who become protected witnesses often know their comrades only by their nicknames, making it harder to squeal.

The monikers can be intentionally feminine — like "Barbie" — to make light of a trafficker before he proves his mettle, says Homero Aridjis, who wrote the novel "Hit Men."

"Nicknames are like a second baptism, a social transformation into the criminal world," he said.

Or they can come innocently in a culture with a penchant for doling out sobriquets, starting on the playground — like in the case of hit man Israel Nava, whose nickname "Oyster" followed him until he was killed in northern Mexico in April.

"Theoretically, that would be a nickname for somebody who's closed, and doesn't talk much," said crime novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II. "But that wasn't it. They called him Oyster in grade school because his father had a seafood stand."

Colombia, which produces most of the cocaine trafficked through Mexico, has also long had a zeal for colorful nicknames. Colombian gunman Marco Tulio Moya was so effective before his 1999 death that he was called "Baygon," after the insecticide.

"If you go into a poor neighborhood here and ask for somebody by their real name, you'll never find them," said Colombian novelist Juan Jose Hoyos.

Many are as silly as Mexico's nicknames. Drug lord Pablo Escobar's brother, Roberto, is called "Osito" — "Little Bear" — because that was the name of a bicycle shop he once ran.

A more serious system is used by Mexico's Zetas, a gang of ex-soldiers working as Gulf Cartel hit men, who opted for military style nicknames that start with a Z — police radio code for commander — followed by a number. Z1 through Z10 are founding members.

Nicknames starting with the letter "L" are reserved for bodyguards and lieutenants, and also carry a number; the higher the figure, the lower in rank.

Some hold on to their number even as they rise through the ranks, although Ivan Velazquez Caballero traded his lowly "L-50" for a more fearsome moniker, "Taliban."

Authorities don't know why kidnapper Armando Santiago Orozco, arrested in Oaxaca state in January, is called "Bunny Commander."

Cartel leader Alfredo Beltran Leyva, arrested last year, is "El Mochomo," a big, nasty biting ant from northwestern Mexico.

Many of the traffickers revel in their nicknames.

Steve Robertson, a veteran Drug Enforcement Administration agent, said smuggler Gilberto Ontiveros liked his nickname "El Grenas" — "Longhair" — so much that when he was imprisoned in 1989, he had fellow inmates make pins with artificial hair to sell to visitors.
EU anti-piracy force to move some air assets south
NAIROBI, Kenya – The head of the European Union's anti-piracy force says he will move some air assets south to help counter the spread of Somali pirates to the Indian Ocean.

Rear Adm. Peter Hudson says stationing aircraft further south in Kenya will help surveillance when the monsoon period ends in four to six weeks time and pirate attacks are expected to sharply increase.

The pirates expanded their range hundreds of miles south of Somalia last year, partly in reaction to the increased naval presence on the Gulf of Aden. There are currently around 30 warships in the Gulf and many manned and unmanned aircraft on surveillance missions.

Kenyan military spokesman Bogita Ongeri said Thursday that Kenya is eager to help stop piracy.

Thats it for this worlds news report. i'll catch you next time. Have a good day.