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Post-election racial hate incidents spike

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- White supremacist activity and racial incidents have skyrocketed since U.S. President-elect Barack Obama won the Nov. 4 election, experts say.

More than 200 incidents of racial hate crimes have been recorded around the country since the election of the United States' first black president, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

"We've seen everything from cross burnings on lawns of interracial couples to effigies of Obama hanging from nooses to unpleasant exchanges in schoolyards," Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told the Times. "I think we're in a worrying situation right now, a perfect storm of conditions coming together that could easily favor the continued growth of these groups."

The Ku Klux Klan has re-emerged in two episodes -- one in Louisiana where a Klan leader has been charged with slaying a would-be recruit and in Kentucky, where two men were charged in a plot to assassinate Obama and kill 88 black students.

"The rhetoric right now is just about out of control," Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, told the newspaper. "When you get this depth of hatred, it usually is the smoke before the fire."

Iran threatens retaliation for nuke strike

TEHRAN, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- An Iranian military official says the country will launch retaliatory strikes against any country that attacks its nuclear energy sites.

Brig. Gen. Seyed Mohammad Hejazi, the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards' joint chiefs of staff, said Saturday Iran has drawn up plans to "take retaliatory measures against potential aggressors and their accomplices," Iran's Fars news agency reported.

The warning came after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem last week that Iran must be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying, "Iran cannot become nuclear. Israel cannot afford it. The Jewish people cannot afford it," the Jerusalem Post reported.

Tehran denies the Israeli claims and insists its nuclear enrichment program is purely for civilian electric power applications.

N. Korea seen likely to attend new talks

SEOUL, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- North Korea will likely agree to resume the six-party talks on its nuclear program before U.S. President George Bush leaves office, sources say.

Citing an unnamed senior South Korean foreign ministry official, the Yonhap news agency reported Sunday that officials are optimistic Pyongyang can be persuaded back to bargaining table to negotiate with Seoul, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

"I think North Korea will agree to the opening of the six-way talks before President Bush's term ends, as it is interested in receiving energy aid," the official said.

Bush pushed Asian leaders to resume the North Korea talks while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru Saturday and encountered success, Yonhap reported.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters a new round of six-way talks will likely be in early December and probably focus on formalizing a verification process for Pyongyang's June declaration of its nuclear program.

Four Ulster police officers die in crash

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Four Northern Ireland police officers were killed when their vehicle went off a road in County Down, officials said Sunday.

The officers were traveling along a shoreline highway linking Warrenpoint and Kilkeel at 4 a.m. Sunday when their four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed, officials told The Times of London.

No other vehicles were involved in the accident and there was no initial evidence of a link to terrorism, the newspaper said, adding police had sealed off the scene of the crash.

"This is a dreadful tragedy," Basil McCrea of the Ulster Unionist Party, told The Times. "And it is a stark reminder of the debt we owe the (Police Service of Northern Ireland) for the work they do for the community."