Kim said Pyongsong was the North's biggest wholesale market

Authorities closed the Pyongsong market on the outskirts of the capital of Pyongyang in mid-June and set up two smaller markets in nearby districts, the Seoul-based Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights said in a newsletter provided Monday.

Kim said Pyongsong was the North's biggest wholesale market with some 30,000-40,000 stalls.

The group regularly issues a newsletter on developments inside the North, citing information collected from sources it does not identify inside the country. North Korea is one of the world’s most closed nations, keeping tight control over its 24 million people without tolerating dissent or independent media.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles Seoul’s relations with the North, said it cannot confirm the report.

Street markets have been allowed to spring up in communist North Korea in recent years as a way for hungry people to seek food and other necessities at a time when the central government is unable to adequately feed them.

But the regime has grown wary of capitalist influence resulting from the spread of markets where imported goods, including even DVDs of South Korean films and television soap operas, are sold, according to analysts, defectors and news reports.

The group regularly issues a newsletter on developments inside the North, citing information collected from sources it does not identify inside the country. North Korea is one of the world's most closed nations, keeping tight control over its 24 million people without tolerating dissent or independent media.

Wholesale inventories are goods held by distributors

Wholesale inventories are goods held by distributors who generally buy from manufacturers and sell to retailers. They make up about 25 percent of all business stockpiles. Factories hold another third of inventories and retailers hold the rest.

Wholesale inventories have been falling since last September as the economic downturn that began in December 2007 grew more severe following the financial crisis that hit last fall.

On an annual basis, domestic china wholesale trade plunged 28.1% in the second quarter. After adjusting for price changes, domestic wholesale trade volume recorded an annual growth of 3.2%.

Further, the report showed that foreign wholesale trade grew 6.7% in the second quarter compared to first quarter with most major sectors recording higher sales. Meanwhile, foreign wholesale trade dropped 31.6% from the second quarter of 2008.

The consensus of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters is that inventories held by wholesalers dropped by 0.9 percent in June, following an 0.8 percent decline in May as businesses continued to reduce their stockpiles in the face of slowing sales. The Commerce Department is scheduled to release the report at 10 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there, Interior Minist

ETA was founded on July 31, 1959, and has killed more than 825 people since beginning its violent campaign for an independent Basque state in 1968.

Authorities blame ETA for two attacks this week — an explosion that killed two officers near a police barracks on Mallorca island Thursday and a car bomb that injured more than 60 people in the northern city of Burgos on Wednesday.

If confirmed as ETA attacks, the blasts would conflict with government assertions that the group is seriously weakened after major police crackdowns in Spain and France in recent years. Their timing, two days before the milestone anniversary, may be part of an ETA effort to demonstrate it is in no danger of breaking up.

Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there, Interior Ministry official Ramon Socias said.

The attack Wednesday morning on the Spanish mainland also targeted a police compound and surrounding buildings, in which around 120 people including dozens of children were at the time of the blast. More than 60 people were reported injured.

There were no warning calls before the two attacks, for which no group has claimed responsibility.

Zapatero said the attacks were staged as Spanish police in collaboration with French counterparts were hitting ETA hard "dismantling its organization, thwarting its action, identifying its members and detaining them more rapidly each time and in greater numbers."

"The government has given orders to the security forces to be on maximum alert, to double their work, to increase even more their efforts and to protect themselves from these vile murderers," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said late Thursday.

ETA is now blamed for nine attacks this year.

Minnesota Timberwolves cannot reach a deal to bring their first round draft pick to the NBA

GERONA, Spain – plans to part ways with Spanish basketball club DKV Joventut even if the Minnesota Timberwolves cannot reach a deal to bring their first round draft pick to the NBA.

Regardless of whether Rubio makes the trip across the Atlantic next season, he won't be playing at Joventut.

with Joventut. Rubio is at odds with his boyhood club over a buyout clause that could cost the 18-year-old point guard as much as $6.6 million. Timberwolves president David Kahn was in Spain this week to try and help the fifth overall pick negotiate a buyout of his contract ,The NBA's collective bargaining rules limit the Timberwolves' contribution to $500,000.

"I want to continue with the club but, after everything that's happened, I don't think they're too comfortable having me in their squad," Rubio said Wednesday. "I want to play in a winning team, on a team that can achieve many things."

Rubio signed with Joventut at 14 years old, becoming the youngest player ever to play in a Spanish ACB League game. He rose to prominence over the next few years, playing for Spain's silver medal-winning team in the Beijing Olympics at 17 and becoming a popular player thanks to his flashy passes and floppy hair.

Minnesota drafted him fifth overall in June and holds his NBA rights for as long as Rubio is playing basketball professionally. But it is not exactly clear what ramifications, if any, Rubio's parting with Joventut has on the Timberwolves' chances of bringing the popular point guard to the United States this season.

"When the exalted supreme leader takes a position explicitly, his statement must be accepted by all means and implemented immediately," he said, according to the Mehr news agency. "Those who voted for Ahmadinejad because of his loyalty to the supreme leader expect the president to show his obedience ... in practice."

Rubio has two years remaining on his deal with Joventut. The enormity of the buyout has a player who made less than $100,000 last season thinking twice about coming to the NBA right away.

That's what prompted Kahn to hop a plane to Spain on Monday. He met with Joventut officials to see if he could help resolve the issue, but declined to comment — both on the news that Rubio will leave Joventut and the trip in general — when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

unanimously gave power to the management to seal the discussions

Porsche's supervisory committee "unanimously gave power to the management to seal the discussions" with the Gulf state for it to take a stake in the firm, a statement said.

This paves the way for a tie-up with its giant rival Volkswagen (VW), Europe's biggest car maker, it said.

Another statement said later that Wiedeking and financial director Holger Haerter would both resign "with immediate effect."

At the center of the dispute between the president and supreme leader is Mashai, a member of Ahmadinejad's personal inner circle. Iran has 12 vice presidents, and Mashai has been serving in one of the slots in charge of tourism and culture. Ahmadinejad said last week he was elevating Mashai to the first vice presidency. That is the most important of the 12 because it is in line to succeed the president if he dies, is incapacitated or removed. The first vice president also leads Cabinet meetings in the president's absence.

Ahmadinejad is a member of the hard-line camp, but throughout his first term he had disputes over policy and appointments with fellow conservatives, some of whom accused him of hoarding too much power for close associates rather than spreading it among factions.

Wiedeking -- said to be the best-paid boss in Germany -- was to get a leaving payment worth 50 million euros (71 million dollars), of which half would go to a "social foundation."

Porsche also said it would seek to raise at least five billion euros in fresh capital beyond what Qatar might bring to the table, without saying who would take part in that increase.

Most surprising is Ahmadinejad's defiance of Khamenei's order for Mashai's removal. The supreme leader has been the president's top defender in the election dispute, dismissing opposition claims that Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 vote was fraudulent. The opposition says pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein was the real winner and calls Ahmadinejad's government illegitimate.