N. Korean army chief relieved of posts
SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Un’s top military official — a key mentor to North Korea’s new young leader — has been removed from all posts because of illness, state media said Monday.
The decision to relieve Ri Yong Ho of his duties was made at a Workers’ Party meeting Sunday, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri’s place, and the North Korean media dispatch did not elaborate on Ri’s condition or future.
Ri was vice marshal of the Korean People’s Army and the military’s General Staff chief, as well as a top figure in the Workers’ Party.
He has been at Kim Jong Un’s side since the young man emerged as father Kim Jong Il’s successor in 2010, often standing between father and son at major events. That role appeared to deepen after Kim Jong Il’s death in December, helping Kim to solidify support among the military.
Kim Jong Il’s “military first” policy made the army North Korea’s most powerful institution. Ri wielded power from his position at the intersection of three crucial institutions: the Korean People’s Army, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and the Standing Committee of the party’s influential Political Bureau.
Feds to reroute SF Bay ship traffic after spike in whale-ship collisions
SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists studying the carcass of a 47-foot fin whale that washed up on a beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore last month found the creature’s spine and ribs severed, likely from the propeller of one of the huge cargo ships that sail those waters.
There have been many victims of such accidents in recent years as migrating blue, fin and humpback whales have been lured close to California’s shore by plentiful krill, the shrimp-like organisms they eat. All three species are endangered.
Now, after a two-year effort spurred by the uptick in accidents, federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay. It includes rerouting shipping traffic and establishing better ways to track whale locations.
The changes crafted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shipping industry representatives, whale researchers and the Coast Guard will likely take effect next year, after a final review by the United Nations International Maritime Organization.
Montana town marks milestone with asbestos cleanup
BILLINGS, Mont. — Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby — a welcome dose of normalcy for a city that has become synonymous with lung disease and death.
It’s a major milestone for the mining town of about 3,000 people near the Canadian border where an estimated 400 people to date have been killed by asbestos exposure. More than 1,700 have been sickened. Lethal dust from the WR. Grace and Co. plant and the company’s nearby mine once blanketed the town, and asbestos illnesses are still being diagnosed more than two decades after the mine was shuttered.
Following a 12-year cleanup, Riverfront Park hosted a wedding last weekend. Officials said another wedding and a blues festival are scheduled for early August. For Mayor Doug Roll, the federal government’s recent transfer of the park to the city offers a symbolic break from Libby’s lethal past.
But the park — the first major finished piece of a federal cleanup that so far has cost $447 million — carries a significant asterisk: Because of the difficulty of removing all the asbestos-containing vermiculite from the highly-contaminated site, federal regulators say some of the dangerous material remains.
By wire sources
