Detainee Due In U.S. Court; N. Korea's 'Ghastly' Camps; Recession Over Soon?

Good morning.

There's word from the Associated Press as the day begins that "the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to the United States is in New York." The wire service says it's been told by "a law enforcement official" that Ahmed Ghailani arrived early today and will be held in custody until his trial begins in New York City.

Ghailani, as AP reminds us, "was indicted in 1998 for the al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks which killed more than 224 people, including 12 Americans."

It calls his trial "an important test case for the Obama administration's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo and bring some of the suspects to trial."

The BBC says Ghailani is expected to make a court appearance in Manhattan later today.

As for the day's top stories, they include:

— Los Angeles Times — "North Korean Labor Camps A Ghastly Prospect For U.S. Journalists:" As the American TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee wait to hear if they really will be sent to a North Korean prison for 12 years, as a court ordered this week, the author of a 2004 study titled The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps says the women face a very hard life.

If the pair are held for a lengthy period, analysts believe they may be sent to a kyo-hwa-so, or "reeducation" reformatory, "that is the equivalent of a felony penitentiary in the U.S., as opposed to a county jail or misdemeanor facility," David Hawk said.

"It's extremely hard labor under extremely brutal conditions," he said. "These places have very high rates of deaths in detention. The casualties from forced labor and inadequate food supplies are very high."

Many North Korean reeducation camps, he said, are affiliated with mines or textile factories where the long work shifts are often followed by self-criticism sessions and the forced memorization of North Korean communist policy doctrine.

Related news — As NPR's Carl Kasell reported this morning, North Korea's government has issued a warning about the "merciless offensive" capability of its nuclear arsenal:

— Morning Edition — Chrysler's Future Left Hanging By Supreme Court Delay: As NLPR's Adam Hochberg explained today, Chrysler's planned sale to Fiat is in doubt because of questions over the legality of government efforts to aid the automaker.

— The Washington Post — "CIA Urges Judge To Keep Bush-Era Documents Sealed": "The Obama administration objected yesterday to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA detainees at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge that doing so would endanger national security and benefit al-Qaeda's recruitment efforts."

— The New York Times — "Hopeful Signs For U.S." In Lebanese Election Results: "There were many domestic reasons voters handed an American-backed coalition a victory in Lebanese parliamentary elections on Sunday — but political analysts also attribute it in part to President Obama's campaign of outreach to the Arab and Muslim world."

— Morning Edition — "Special Forces Fighting To Win Afghans' Trust": From western Herat province in Afghanistan, NPR's Tom Bowman reported on the efforts of U.S. Special Forces personnel to built trust among civilians who have been devastated in recent years by U.S. bombs aimed at militants:

Reminder: If you have questions about what life is like in Afghanistan that NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson might be able to answer, add them to this post.

— Bloomberg News — "Nobel Winner Krugman Sees U.S. Recession Ending Soon": "The U.S. economy probably will emerge from the recession by September, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said. 'I would not be surprised if the official end of the U.S. recession ends up being, in retrospect, dated sometime this summer,' he said in a lecture (Monday) at the London School of Economics. 'Things seem to be getting worse more slowly. There's some reason to think that we're stabilizing.' "