More North Koreans flown to the south

INCHON -- More than 200 North Koreans were flown into South Korea today, the second day of a secretive operation that has spirited North Korean refugees from an unidentified Southeast Asian country. The new arrivals followed a similar number that reached South Korea yesterday, the biggest single batch ever among the thousands who have fled famine and repression in their isolated homeland since the late 1990s. The South Korean government, which has been working behind the scenes to bring the refugees to Seoul, has been tight-lipped about the process and declined to confirm where the chartered Korean Air plane had come from, or who was on board. (Reuters)

AFGHANISTAN

Key aid group says it will end operations

KABUL -- Medical relief agency Doctors Without Borders said today that it will withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years there because of the killing of five of its staff and the danger of further attacks. The group said it was unhappy with a government investigation into the June 2 deaths and with the ''co-optation of humanitarian aid" by the US military. ''Today's context is rendering independent humanitarian aid for the Afghan people all but impossible," it said in a statement. It was unclear when the 80 international volunteers and 1,400 Afghan staff who worked for the agency in Afghanistan before the attack would cease their activities. Many operations were already suspended after the June attack. The pullout is the most dramatic example yet of how deteriorating security is hampering the delivery of badly needed aid and reconstruction. (AP)

GREECE

Olympics bringing defense systems up

ATHENS -- Olympic security officials received US scanners to check vehicles for bombs yesterday as other key elements began operating across a defense and surveillance grid that includes hundreds of ultrasensitive cameras and Patriot missiles. An air defense official said Athens has contingency plans to shoot down hijacked planes that could be used in an attack, and plans to impose a no-fly zone over the city several days before the Aug. 13-29 Olympics. ''The threats we're considering include renegade aircraft, missiles . . . gliders, kites, remote-controlled planes, unmanned craft, and others," Air Force Brigadier General Dimitris Mandilis said. (AP)