SEOUL/GENEVA (Reuters) – North Korea insisted on Tuesday that it be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, a demand the United States promptly dismissed as “neither realistic nor acceptable”.

After weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula, including North Korean threats of nuclear war, the North has in recent days begun to at least talk about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea issued new threats against South Korea on Tuesday, vowing “sledge-hammer blows” of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader.

On Monday, the North dropped its shrill threats of war against the United States and South Korea as it celebrated the 101st anniversary of the birth of its first leader, Kim Il-Sung, raising hopes for an easing of tension in a region that has for weeks seemed on the verge of conflict.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – International drug gangs from Africa and Iran are muscling in on Southeast Asia’s booming methamphetamine business which has shown a staggering increase and is spreading through the region, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday.

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), including amphetamine and methamphetamine, have become the drugs of choice in many parts of Southeast and East Asia since the 1990s, replacing plant-based drugs such as heroin, opium and cannabis, the U.N. drugs office said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – International drug gangs from Africa and Iran are muscling in on Southeast Asia’s booming methamphetamine business which has shown a staggering increase and is spreading through the region, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday.

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), including amphetamine and methamphetamine, have become the drugs of choice in many parts of Southeast and East Asia since the 1990s, replacing plant-based drugs such as heroin, opium and cannabis, the U.N. drugs office said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Myanmar soldiers are committing serious human rights abuses including extra-judicial killing and rape in a campaign against guerrillas in the north of the country despite reforms aimed at ending harsh military rule, a relief group said Monday.

The abuses could amount to war crimes and Hillary Clinton should bring up the issue in talks this week when she becomes the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar in five decades, the group Partners Relief and Development said.

BANGKOK, Nov 3 (Reuters) – As waterlogged Thailand struggles
to contain the worst floods in decades, it faces a simple truth:
not a whole lot can be done to avoid a repeat disaster in the
short term even with a new multi-billion dollar water-management
policy.

City dwellers and farmers displaced since the floods began
in July, killing 427 people, and foreign investors waiting to
pump out factories could face the same thing when the rainy
season rolls around again in the middle of next year.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Authorities in the Thai capital repaired on Wednesday a damaged flood gate that has become the focus of the city’s fears and rivalry between political factions battling the country’s worst floods in decades.

The floods began in July, at the beginning of a particularly heavy rainy season, and months later the water is still rising and anger is boiling over.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Anger mounted among victims of Thailand’s catastrophic floods on Tuesday as water flooded new neighborhoods as it made its way to sea and the government plotted a recovery aimed at securing the long-term confidence of investors.

The floods began in July and have devastated large parts of the central Chao Phraya river basin, killed nearly 400 people and disrupted the lives of more than 2 million.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand hopes industrial estates swamped in the country’s worst floods in half a century can be up and running again within three months, the prime minister said on Monday, as the center of the capital finally appeared to have escaped inundation.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in months of floods, the lives of more than two million disrupted, economic growth has been set back and global supply chains for Thai-made computer and auto parts thrown into disarray.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Peak tides tested Bangkok’s flood defenses on Sunday as hope rose the center of the Thai capital might escape the worst floods in decades, but that was little comfort for swamped suburbs and provinces where worry about disease is growing.

The floods have killed at least 381 people since July and affected more than 2 million. Authorities have slashed growth forecasts for Southeast Asia’s second biggest economy and disruptions to auto and computer-part producers have been felt worldwide.