Beijing

U.N. seeks food for North Koreans

The U.N. World Food Program is launching a new appeal for food donations for North Korea, an agency official said Saturday, warning that dwindling supplies are forcing it to cut off aid to children and the elderly in the isolated country.

The warning comes amid pressure on North Korea to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program, though participants say they will not let the tensions affect their donations.

WFP has received supplies in recent months that let it feed 6.5 million North Koreans, but those are running out, WFP’s Asia director, Anthony Banbury. said.

WFP already has stopped giving vegetable oil to 900,000 elderly North Koreans and will cut back supplies to schoolchildren next week, Banbury said. The oil is a source of nutrition for people whose only other food might be corn porridge and acorns.

Berlin

Poll: Some Germans want dividing wall back

Fifteen years after the Berlin Wall fell, 24 percent of west Germans surveyed said they wanted it back, according to a poll published Saturday.

Germany has poured some $2 trillion into rebuilding the former East Germany, after the collapse of its communist regime led to reunification in 1990. But the east still lags economically and is often blamed for Germany’s budget deficits and lagging growth.

When asked “would it be better if the wall between east and west still stood?” some 12 percent of easterners agreed, according to results from the Forsa poll reported in the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.

The report said 2,000 people in Berlin and the surrounding Brandenburg region were polled, as well as an unspecified number of people across all Germany. No margin of error was given.

Kyrgyzstan

Parliament scrambles to restore order

Kyrgyzstan’s parliament on Saturday scrambled to restore order to a country gripped by anxiety after the overthrow of the president and said new presidential elections would be held June 26. Police said they had halted rampaging looters after two nights of violent upheaval in the capital.

But in a sign of continuing tension, acting leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev changed the location of his first news conference at the last minute, saying he had been threatened with assassination.

And in Parliament competing groups met in separate chambers, each claiming to represent the people.

President Askar Akayev, who disappeared on Thursday after protesters stormed the presidential and government headquarters in a swelling protest demanding his resignation, had taken refuge in Russia, the Kremlin confirmed on Saturday.

Puerto Rico

Officers leave naval base after accepting charges

Three army officers involved with the detention camp for terror suspects have left the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay without appealing their punishments for “personal misconduct,” an official said Saturday.

A colonel and two lieutenant colonels left with their units Friday, said Army Col. Brad Blackner, a spokesman in Guantanamo.

Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the head of the detention mission, relieved the three of duty and took unspecified disciplinary action against them last week. The officers, who held undisclosed command posts, chose to accept their punishments, Blackner said. They did not have the option of appealing their removal from duty.