IHT Quick Read: April 6

Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press South Korean army reservists in Seoul on Friday.

NEWS North Korea’s torrent of threats â€" and the matching show of military power and political resolve from the United States and South Korea â€" began showing signs of unsettling foreign investors’ confidence Friday. South Korean stocks slumped 1.64 percent Friday in a selling spree among foreign investors that analysts attributed to jitters over North Korea. The South Korean won also sank against the U.S. dollar. Choe Sang-hun reports from Seoul.

Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program. And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade. EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. John Markoff reports.

China’s recent arrest of a well-known druglord was a hard-nosed display of Beijing’s political and economic clout across Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, the three countries of Southeast Asia that form the Golden Triangle. The capture shows how China’s law enforcement tentacles reach far beyond its borders into a region now drawn by investment and trade into China’s orbit, and where the United States’ influence is being challenged. Jane Perlez reports from Ban Mon, Laos.

A plan by the administration of President Barack Obama to change the way the United States distributes its international food aid has touched off an intense lobbying campaign by a coalition of shipping companies, agribusiness and charitable groups that say the change will harm the U.S. economy and hamper efforts to fight global hunger. Proponents of the plan, however, say it would enable the United States to feed about 17 million more people each year while helping to fight poverty by buying the crops of farmers in poor countries. Ron Nixon reports from Washington.

A potentially lucrative deepwater natural gas field could turn the debt-strapped island country of Cyprus into an energy exporter. Noble Energy, which found the field, estimates that the field contains 142 billion to 227 billion cubic meters, or 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet, of gas. Stanley Reed reports from London.

ARTS An exhibition at the British Museum offers a glimpse of how close in spirit the art of Pompeii and Herculaneum, cities buried in 79 A.D. by the eruption of Vesuvius, was to that of the Renaissance. In one of the most remarkable art shows put together at the British Museum, visitors can view the statuary, furniture and even silver plate of the kind that artists either imitated or interpreted across Western Europe from the 15th century into the 19th century. Souren Melikian reports from London.

SPORTS In the Heineken European Cup, rugby union’s answer to soccer’s Champions League, the old order is toppling. Only three of the eight teams in the quarterfinal round this weekend have made the final before â€" compared with seven at the same stage last season. All three â€" Munster, Ulster and Leicester â€" must travel for a stage that traditionally favors home teams. In 14 years since the tournament established its current structure, 43 out of 56 hosts have progressed, a success rate slightly better than three to one. Huw Richards reports.

Kim Jong-un’s Spanish Mouthpiece

LONDON â€" Kim Jong-un may lead the world’s most isolated state, but the North Korean leader is not entirely without foreign allies as tensions rise on the Korean peninsula.

According to his top man in Europe, an aristocratic Spaniard named Alejandro Cao de Benós, foreign volunteers have flocked to sign up for an International Defense Brigade to defend the country in the event of a showdown with the United States.

Around 430 had put their names down by Tuesday, the former IT consultant told Spain’s El Confidencial Digital news Web site shortly before he headed for Pyongyang.

The 38-year-old special delegate of North Korea’s Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries says on his blog that he started recruiting for the Brigade after receiving hundreds of e-mails from sympathizers around the world who wanted to do something to help confront the U.S. military menace.

As founder of the Korean Friendship Association, Mr. Cao de Benós has moved up the ranks in Pyongyang to become the only foreigner to work officially for the North Korean government, which has granted him honorary citizenship.

He claims the K.F.A. has 15,000 members. It attracts the kind of niche enthusiasts who “jostle to outdo each other with their trainspotters’ grasp of the minutiae of North Korean life,” according to Tim Hume of Britain’s The Independent.

Despite Mr. Cao de Benós’s devotion to all things North Korean, it took him a decade of wooing the authorities in Pyongyang before he was granted permission to set up the country’s first Web site, which has since painted an invariably rosy picture of life north of the 38th parallel.

Mr. Cao de Benós has said he was first drawn to North Korea in 1990 when, as a serious-minded teenager, he was seeking a solution to the world’s problems.

“I didn’t want to dedicate my life to be a slave in the capitalist system,” he told Mr. Page in an interview last year. “My dream was to be a part of the revolution.”

Born in the Catalan city of Tarragona to an aristocratic family with a strong military tradition, he says he is heir to the titles of Baron of Les, Count of Argelejo and Marquis of Rosalmonte and has not given up the idea of one day claiming them, according to El Confidencial Digital.

As Pyongyang’s voice to the outside world, the portly former soldier has been much in demand in the present crisis. But, as he explains on his Facebook page, he is turning down further interviews until he gets back from Pyongyang at the end of the month.

Before he left, he insisted that new sanctions on Pyongyang would barely affect the North Korean economy. “We want peace,” he told Russia Today’s Spanish-language service. “But we won’t go on our knees to get it.”

As for his International Defense Brigade, he says the list is open until mid July when it will be handed to Pyongyang as a gesture of solidarity with the North Korean people in their “just cause.”

IHT Quick Read: April 5

NEWS A visit to the Kachin region of Myanmar is a sobering reminder of how much hatred and mistrust exist between the majority Burman and the ethnic minorities who live in the country’s highlands. Thomas Fuller reports from Myitkyina, Myanmar.

An enormous leak of financial records shows thousands of holders of immense secret wealth from around the world who have stashed it in offshore tax havens. Andrew Higgins reports from Brussels.

South Korea’s defense chief said Thursday that North Korea had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable” range, but that the weapon was not capable of reaching the United States. The disclosure came as the North’s military warned that it was ready to strike American military forces with “cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.” Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

The firestorm touched off this week by a former budget minister’s admission to having secret foreign bank accounts â€" after months of public denials â€" widened Thursday as senior members of France’s Socialist government rejected accusations that President François Hollande and others might have been aware of the truth for months. Steven Erlanger and Nicola Clark report from Paris.

Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance. Justin Gillis reports.

The manhunt that led to a notorious trafficker’s capture was a hard-nosed display of the Chinese government’s political and economic sway across Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Jane Perlez and Bree Feng report from Ban Mom, Laos.

The German central bank is investigating allegations that Deutsche Bank hid billions of dollars in losses to avoid a potential bailout during the financial crisis, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. David Jolly reports from Paris.

ARTS With Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” the Hungarian National Theater and the Hungarian government are at odds. Jonathan Levi reports from Budapest.

Roger Ebert, the popular film critic and television co-host who along with his fellow reviewer and sometime sparring partner Gene Siskel could lift or sink the fortunes of a movie with their trademark thumbs up or thumbs down, died on Thursday in Chicago. He was 70. Douglas Martin reports.

SPORTS Until last year, the principal sponsor for the Tour of the Basque Country cycling race was the Basque regional government, but budget cuts forced it to reduce its contribution suddenly for the 2012 edition. Jon Brand reports from Bilbao, Spain.

One of the great quirks and strengths of Davis Cup is that it can put the game’s biggest stars in unlikely places, like a city of 210,000 that most foreigners would struggle to place on a map: Boise, Idaho. Christopher Clarey reports.

IHT Quick Read: April 5

NEWS A visit to the Kachin region of Myanmar is a sobering reminder of how much hatred and mistrust exist between the majority Burman and the ethnic minorities who live in the country’s highlands. Thomas Fuller reports from Myitkyina, Myanmar.

An enormous leak of financial records shows thousands of holders of immense secret wealth from around the world who have stashed it in offshore tax havens. Andrew Higgins reports from Brussels.

South Korea’s defense chief said Thursday that North Korea had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable” range, but that the weapon was not capable of reaching the United States. The disclosure came as the North’s military warned that it was ready to strike American military forces with “cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.” Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

The firestorm touched off this week by a former budget minister’s admission to having secret foreign bank accounts â€" after months of public denials â€" widened Thursday as senior members of France’s Socialist government rejected accusations that President François Hollande and others might have been aware of the truth for months. Steven Erlanger and Nicola Clark report from Paris.

Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance. Justin Gillis reports.

The manhunt that led to a notorious trafficker’s capture was a hard-nosed display of the Chinese government’s political and economic sway across Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Jane Perlez and Bree Feng report from Ban Mom, Laos.

The German central bank is investigating allegations that Deutsche Bank hid billions of dollars in losses to avoid a potential bailout during the financial crisis, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. David Jolly reports from Paris.

ARTS With Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” the Hungarian National Theater and the Hungarian government are at odds. Jonathan Levi reports from Budapest.

Roger Ebert, the popular film critic and television co-host who along with his fellow reviewer and sometime sparring partner Gene Siskel could lift or sink the fortunes of a movie with their trademark thumbs up or thumbs down, died on Thursday in Chicago. He was 70. Douglas Martin reports.

SPORTS Until last year, the principal sponsor for the Tour of the Basque Country cycling race was the Basque regional government, but budget cuts forced it to reduce its contribution suddenly for the 2012 edition. Jon Brand reports from Bilbao, Spain.

One of the great quirks and strengths of Davis Cup is that it can put the game’s biggest stars in unlikely places, like a city of 210,000 that most foreigners would struggle to place on a map: Boise, Idaho. Christopher Clarey reports.