Moscow

N. Korea rejects U.S. demand to scrap its nuclear program

Keeping up its bellicose rhetoric, North Korea on Monday dismissed U.S. demands that the communist nation scrap its nuclear program as “a game even kids won’t play.”

North Korea took an angry, hard-line stance after last week’s landmark talks in Beijing with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia about its nuclear programs.

“Despite our goodwill and generosity, the United States has shown no readiness to drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK during the latest talks and blatantly put forward new gang-style demands,” the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a statement from its Moscow embassy, according to the Interfax news agency.

“That means … they promise not to shoot and we are supposed to lay down weapons first,” the North Korean statement said. “It’s a game even kids won’t play.”

Washington, D.C.

Depression, sadness can weaken body, too

Depression doesn’t just make people feel bad mentally, it can leave them vulnerable to physical illness, too.

That’s the word from a research team led by Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their findings are bring published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists were studying links between a person’s psychological state and their immune response.

To do this, they asked 52 volunteers, male and female, to write about the worst time of their lives and the best time. Researchers then measured their brain activity electronically.

After the testing the individuals were given flu shots and were tested two weeks, four weeks and six months later to determine their reaction.

Individuals who had shown greater activity in the right prefrontal part of the brain later had lower amounts of flu antibodies in their blood, indicating a weaker response by their immune system.

Afghanistan

Taliban ambush two patrols, kill eight Afghan soldiers

Suspected Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan government checkpoint Monday and ambushed soldiers along the main road linking the south with the capital, killing at least eight soldiers and taking two prisoner, Afghan officials said.

The attacks came a day after two U.S. soldiers were killed in a 90-minute gun battle with insurgents in Paktika province, in the east near the border with Pakistan. Four suspected Taliban were killed in that fighting.