It looks like North Korea is digging an underground complex north of Pyongyang that may be used to build nuclear weapons. This information from spy satellite photos showing thousands of workers burrowing into a mountainside 25 miles northeast of Yongbyon, the nuclear center where North Korea was believed to have made enough plutonium for at least six bombs before the 1994 accord. Under the so-called nuclear framework accord, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program. In exchange the United States promised yearly deliveries of heavy fuel, a program to build two light-water nuclear reactors for peaceful energy use and the gradual easing of economic sanctions. The North has ignored the requirement for dialogue, though, and there is major criticism of the accord that it leaves the entire nuclear program in North Korean hands.

The U.S. commitment to deliver about 500,000 tons heavy oil a year to North Korea, at an estimated cost of $60 million a year, is supposed to be funded half through U.S. money and half through solicitations from other nations. The world's current financial problems have made it difficult for other countries to participate, and in fact only the European Union has kicked in any funds. The U.S. is reluctant to make up the difference on its own, and has shipped only half of the 500,000 tons of oil. The North Koreans frequently threaten to renew its nuclear program if the oil is not delivered.

The Department of Defense is currently testing seven high-tech dog tags at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. They are being put through the torture of extreme heat, cold, submersion, shock, rain, dust, and other environmental and human challenges. The identification units range in size from a dime to a credit card. Check out a picture of them here.

After making history by being the first sitting President to testify before a grand jury, President Clinton made a short speech to the American public via television where he admitted to having had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He reiterated that he had not asked anyone to lie, and that this was a private matter between him, Hilary, and God. While many people expressed sympathy for his wife and daughter, several who were questioned afterwards expressed the similar opinion of wanting it all to just come to an end. On a related note, Dr. Joyce Brothers, as a guest on the popular program "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, related that she had recently returned from France, where she discovered that the United States "is the laughingstock of the world" because of our preoccupation with the Lewinsky scandal.

Former Green Beret Col. James "Bo" Gritz said Monday that one of his volunteers searching for clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph twice encountered someone during the night who might have been an intermediary for the fugitive. Gritz also said he has spoken to three property owners who said they saw a young man with a ponytail taking food from their unoccupied rental units but did nothing to stop him. The two sightings during the night occurred in the forest near Andrews, North Carolina, Gritz said Monday during his regular radio show on Talk America Radio Network. Apparently locals are offering information to Gritz's group that they would not share with the federal authorities who have been searching for Rudolph. Gritz helped negotiate an end to the 1992 FBI siege of a family of white separatists at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and briefly was a mediator in the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996.

Opposition to Boris Yeltsin has been trying to impeach him since day one. Proceedings are underway again, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was invited to testify against the current Russian leader. He did not appear. Past attempts to impeach Yeltsin have failed, and this endeavor is expected to do the same. In related news, after months of financial upheaval, the Russian government devalued the Ruble. This was in a move that includes bailing out a dozen of Russia's largest banks, scrapping the domestic government bond market, and freezing payments by companies on their foreign debts. Despite a recent promise of $22.6 billion in new loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), officials moved quickly after concluding that financial markets had lost confidence in Russia, banks were near collapse, and the public was beginning to panic. Clinton administration officials made clear that they had not approved of Russia's policy shift.

The Bay Area Reporter newspaper in San Francisco ran a headline this morning that reads: No obits. It was a celebration of the fact that this was the first time in more than 17 years of the AIDS epidemic that the paper received no obituaries for victims of the disease. The gay weekly has reflected the course of the AIDS epidemic, averaging a dozen obits a week in the mid-1980s. One week, there were 31 obituaries. The first noticeable drop in obits began two years ago with the introduction of protease inhibitors and other powerful AIDS drugs that subdue the virus.

In Boston, surgeons have attached the first stage of a thumb joint replacement for a man who lost the last joint of his thumb in a car accident. Cells were harvested from his body, cultured and shaped, then attached to his hand to form a thumb tip. The bone scaffolding was attached then encased in flaps of skin and fat at the end of his thumb. Capillaries were diverted to feed those immature bone cells, with the hope they will grow into the shape of the scaffolding, and provide the man with skeletal structure for a new thumb tip. If that works, a second operation will be performed to add cartilage and tendons, so it can become a working appendage. It will take 12-16 weeks to know if the bone is growing properly.

Researchers have been working on these techniques in animals for about 10 years and had demonstrated their ability to build new ears and tracheas for animals. Friday's operation was their first attempt at creating new bones for humans. The researchers said they were optimistic because of their success in the animal models. Still, the holy grail of tissue engineering - nerves - is still out of reach. The laboratory growing of nerves is still being researched, but they have had preliminary success with experiments in rats.