[TinyRedLeaf]

Ex-president Kim Dae Jung dies

Seoul (Aug 18): Former President Kim Dae Jung, who spent years as a dissident under South Korea's military dictatorship and later won the Nobel Peace Prize for seeking reconciliation with communist North Korea, has died. He was 85.

Mr Kim, who had been hospitalised with pneumonia since last month, died shortly after 1:40pm (0440 GMT) today, said Mr Park Chang Il, chief of Severance Hospital in Seoul. He said Mr Kim suffered respiratory distress, a pulmonary embolism and multiple organ failure.

The Nobel laureate's wife, three sons and former aides were at his side, according to lawmaker Park Jie Won, Mr Kim's former presidential chief of staff.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cocaine traces found in 90% of US banknotes

Washington (Aug 18): America's paper currency is roughed up and often soiled in circulation, but a study has found that some 90 per cent of greenbacks contain traces of cocaine, giving new meaning to the term "dirty money".

That is a more than 20 per cent jump over a similar study conducted two years earlier where 67 per cent of dollar bills were shown to contain cocaine traces, according to researchers who presented the study on Sunday at the annual National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The startling discovery points to the continuing widespread use of cocaine in the United States, one of the world's biggest consumers of the drug. The capital Washington topped US cities, with 95 per cent of banknotes from there found to contain minute amounts of cocaine.

Money is known to get contaminated with cocaine when drug dealers make a transaction or when users snort the drug using a rolled bill. But the study said the large-scale contamination takes place when the notes are whisked into currency-counting machines.

Evidence of the drug were more common in large cities like Baltimore, Boston and Detroit, while the cleanest bills were collected from Salt Lake City, Utah, the country's Mormon hub.

Cocaine is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. In the US, some six million people consume cocaine on a regular basis each year, for a whopping total of 259 to 447 tonnes worth US$35 billion to US$70 billion.

- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE