Morning Brief, Thursday, October 5

North Korean nukes The U.S. ramps up the rhetoric, with Christopher Hill warning the North Koreans that they can choose nuclear weapons or a future. Not both. China, as usual, appeals for calm.  War on terror Thousands of U.S. troops come under NATO command in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military works on a new counterinsurgency ...

North Korean nukes

North Korean nukes

The U.S. ramps up the rhetoric, with Christopher Hill warning the North Koreans that they can choose nuclear weapons or a future. Not both. China, as usual, appeals for calm

War on terror

Thousands of U.S. troops come under NATO command in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military works on a new counterinsurgency doctrine, with the welfare of civilians at the heart of the strategy. Al Qaeda finds a partner in Algeria. And surprise! Rice makes an unannounced trip to Iraq. No one is very surprised.

Elsewhere

Security officials in Pakistan foil an apparent plot to kill Musharraf. New leaders in Thailand say they have agreed to talks with rebels in the south in an attempt to end the insurgency there. Another Turkish writer goes on trial. Merkel's coalition in Germany survives after a late-breaking compromise on health reforms. 

And even dying isn't a safe enough excuse to get a woman out of forced marriage in China. 

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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