The Washington Post reports that the U.S. may have misled its Allies into thinking that North Korea was actively helping build a new nuclear weapons state (Libya) instead of simply supplying an existing one (Pakistan):

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride — which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium — to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

Pakistan’s role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington’s partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states.

Of course, this may shed light on exactly what some of Condoleezza Rice’s OTHER business was on her trip to India and East Asia.

In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks today in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea.

And let’s end with the obligatory conclusion,

“The administration is giving Pakistan a free ride when they don’t deserve it and hurting U.S. interests at the same time,” said Charles L. Pritchard, who was the Bush administration’s special envoy for the North Korea talks until August 2003.

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Shashwati brings our attention to the news that the Indian passport will now recognize a third sex:

The new “Passport Information Booklet” relating to instructions for filling up application forms, states, “In case of Male / Female option, please write M or F in the box space provided. For eunuch, please write ‘E’ in this box.” … “Sexuality today is no longer restricted to male and female,” said Vivek Diwan, of Lawyers Collective. “Earlier, when hijras applied for a passport, their applications would be rejected on grounds that they were neither male nor female. This is a step in the right direction.” [cite]

But can they get insurance in Tamil Nadu? More seriously, what happens when they get to a country that doesn’t recognize a third sex – how will they be classified there? Will they be classified into Male or Female and let in, or turned away for the very same bureaucratic reasons that stopped them from getting passports in India earlier? Continue reading →