World Briefs

BOGOTA, Colombia – Amnesty International urged the United States and other nations Tuesday to halt military aid to Colombia until it stems a rise in killings of noncombatants by security forces and heeds other U.N. prescriptions for ending its long-running internal conflict.

In a 94-page report, the international human rights group questions President Alvaro Uribe's claims that Colombia "is experiencing an irreversible renaissance of relative peace" and "rapidly falling levels of violence."

Amnesty acknowledges that kidnappings and conflict-related killings of civilians have decreased since Uribe first took office in 2002, and some major cities are safer. But the report says that's only part of the picture. "Impunity remains the norm in most cases of human rights abuses."

SEOUL – North Korea, angry at a leaflet campaign by Seoul groups urging the overthrow of its leader, accused South Korea on Tuesday of planning a pre-emptive strike and threatened to reduce it to "debris" in retaliation.

The North's military said it would use a "more powerful and advanced" strike of its own if South Korea launched a pre-emptive strike.

"The puppet authorities (Seoul) had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything... to debris, not just setting them on fire," it said in a statement carried by the state news agency, KCNA.

"It will turn out to be a just war... to build an independent reunified state on it. "The North's military described its pre-emptive capability as "beyond imagination, relying on striking means more powerful than a nuclear weapon".

LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on China and oil-rich Gulf states to bolster the International Monetary Fund as more countries rocked by the global economic downturn seek help, saying Tuesday those with the greatest surpluses should do more.

The British leader, who has been at the forefront of efforts to combat the global financial meltdown, said the IMF needs "substantially" more than the current $250 billion set aside for struggling nations. The IMF's executive board is expected soon to consider ways to streamline its emergency loan programs as it braces for a stream of petitions.

In the past few weeks alone, Iceland, Pakistan, Hungary, Ukraine have all sought help from the IMF, long known as the lender of last resort.

Brown's office said the British premier will discuss exactly how much more money he believes should be pledged during upcoming talks with fellow world leaders.