Three soldiers have been killed in an attack on a U.S. coalition base in Basra, Iraq. … Update: It has been confirmed that the three American soldiers killed in a rocket attack on a U.S. base in Basra were members of the Minnesota National Guard 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls. … Taliban commanders are threatening to execute a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan. … Update: Taliban releases video showing captured soldier. … Coordinated bombings kill at least 8 and wounding 50 at the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the third day of his 2008 campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman was interviewed by Tim Pugmire of Minnesota Public Radio, who quoted political analyst Steve Frank of St. Cloud State University as saying Immelman was “a serious candidate.”

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Summary: Why North Korea could become one of President Obama’s most vexing foreign-policy challenges: For the moment, the Obama White House has bigger priorities than North Korea. Still, the new U.S. president would do well to keep in mind that Pyongyang is continuing to tweak its nuclear-weapons program. It already has an arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of hitting all of Japan and potentially parts of the United States. For all its paranoia, North Korea insists it’s still under the threat of “American and Japanese imperialists,” and says that it has every right to possess a “nuclear deterrent” to defend itself. Appeasing them with money and oil won’t be enough.

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