During a recent talk in Walnut Creek, acclaimed journalist Lisa Ling revisited the 2009 capture of her sister Laura and fellow journalist Euna Lee in North Korea while working for SF-based Current TV. Ling says North Korea planned it from the start.

As Contra Costa Youth Journalism reports, Ling — who grew up in nearby Carmichael — shared new insight during a recent speaking engagement at Lesher Center for the Arts’ Hofmann Theatre in Walnut Creek into what she described as a political trap set by the North Korean regime. Ling, who emphasized that her sister’s team never intended to cross the border, said they were misled by a fixer working secretly with the North Korean government.

As SFist reported at the time, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporting on the plight of refugees along the China–North Korea border for Current TV, which was based in San Francisco and co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, were detained by North Korean soldiers and held for five months.

According to Ling, her sister’s team had hired a fixer to guide them to the frozen Tumen River — a known escape route for North Korean defectors, but the fixer was secretly working with the North Korean government to lure high-profile targets across the border. “So we now know that the fixer Laura’s team had hired was receiving money from the North Korean government to bring high-value targets into North Korea,” she said. “And because Laura’s team was working for former Vice President Al Gore’s company, you couldn’t get a bigger target, right?”

Ling said the team was filming near the river when the guide quietly led them across the border and whistled. When soldiers began rushing toward them, they ran back into China. “They ran all the way back into China and were safely ensconced on Chinese soil,” Ling said. “[But] North Korean soldiers violently grabbed them and dragged them back into North Korea.”

She added that the regime used their detention to orchestrate a photo-op with former President Bill Clinton, implying the entire operation had been engineered to secure political leverage on the global stage.

“Now, many people often ask, ‘Why did it have to be President Clinton of  all people’? The answer came down to one simple reason,” Ling said.  “The reclusive leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il at the time, had always just wanted to meet him.”

Image: Lisa Ling (left) and Laura Ling (right); Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Previous Laura Ling and Euna Lee coverage

In southern Brazil last week, around 100 cycling activists were mowed down by an angry driver. Associated Press reports: "Cyclists in the Critical Mass ride tell the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the man argued with some riders, who had taken over all lanes of the street on Friday."

No bike riders died during the incident.

According to Deadspin, the suspect is motorist Richard Neis, who "tailed the Critical Mass bikers for some distance in his black VW Golf before gunning the engine and plowing into them. Neis later ditched his car but decided to give himself up to authorities."

The video, which you can view below, shows a peaceful protest in progress interrupted by a car accelerating through the riders, "leaving the injured on the street screaming as fellow cyclists administered first aid." It's pretty brutal. Watch it if you must.

Fortunately, bike-heavy San Francisco has yet to see a similarly venomous display from a terse driver during our end-of-month Critical Mass ride. However, back in June, a motorist went on a hit-and-run rampage targeting cyclists in the Mission and Potrero Hill.

Video below.

San Francisco gave a proper shout-out to the inarguably wonderful Catalan people today (full disclosure: your editor's family hails from the area) after signing a sisters-cities pact with Barcelona, Spain. Spearheaded by Sister Cities International, a nonprofit "designed to strengthen partnerships between U.S. communities and those abroad," Mayor Gavin Newsom made it official on Monday. Sister Cities International strives to "build global cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development."

San Francisco has 18 sisters cities, including Amman, Jordan; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast); Assisi, Italy; Bangalore, India; Caracas, Venezuela; Cork, Ireland; Haifa, Israel; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Krakow, Poland; Manila, Philippines; Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, China Taiwan; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Zürich, Switzerland.

Finland has got it going on. In addition to a truly awesome language, Finns, according to a law that will go into effect next July, will have the right to free broadband. YLE reports that Finland "will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications." This makes Sweden's neighbor "the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access." What's more, Finland will guarantee 100 Mb broadband a legal right by late 2015. [via snackfight]

Hey, don't blame us for the feces-related headline. If it were up to us, we would've stuck in another "i." See, Twitter for Sh-tters is this: a "grassroots" Twitter campaign to get people to pay attention to the serious lack of proper poopers in other countries. Wherever The Need (WTN) "aims to alleviate poverty and ill health through the implementation of environmentally-sound sanitation and water solutions that empower individuals and communities without undermining traditions and cultures." Targeting such regions as India, Kenya, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, WTN wants to "provide sanitation solutions by building specialized eco-sanitation (eco-san) toilets, and to facilitate the conversion of human waste for local agriculture usage." Cool, but how does this involve Twitter, you ask? Well, the idea is that Twitter users can follow TFS and invite their followers to donate to WTN or just raise awareness while grossing them out. Also, if you decide to join WTN, "you pledge to spend a day tweeting about shit (literally, or not, up to you) to raise money for Wherever the Need." Which could be fun. Or, possibly reduce your number of followers. For more information, visit www.twitterforsh-tters.com, or follow the them on Twitter. Because fecal matter matters.

The insane worldwide panic preceding a potential (though unlikely?) worldwide pandemic of swine flu reached new heights today, with Australian flights from California being screened before deplaning and a woman in Hong Kong hospitalized after visiting (gasp!) San Francisco.

Australian news org ABC has reports of passengers on a Qantas flight from SFO to Sydney being greeted upon landing by health officials who boarded the plane and asked anyone with the sniffles to please raise their hand (and presumably prepare for execution on the tarmac).

Meanwhile, China Daily reports of a 27-year-old woman hospitalized in Hong Kong for testing after returning from a visit to (gasp!) San Francisco!

Some images of today's torch relay/protest/insanity/Newsomness as the torch run turned into, well, complete chaos. Whew, what a day.

Brian Brooks, Jessica Kraft, and Chase Tingley: thanks for the sharp shots today of the Olympic torch melee.

Earlier

• Also, still no sign of torch. SFPD motorcycles are seen zipping up Third and Second Streets.
• "No reports of serious violence," declares Barbara Rodgers of CBS 5.
• Eerie sensation of local on-air talent far too close to SFist HQ right now. There is a presence in this neighborhood.
• British PM Gordon Brown boycotts opening ceremonies; Bush still debating similar boycott.
• Barbara Rogers calls bullshit on current torch run path on King Street. Wonders if it might be happening somewhere else. That would be awesome.
• Visible torch flame seen at McCovey Cove!

Ta-da. Now it's really on, folks.

The calm before the storm: McCovey Cove (just outside AT&T Park) awash in red flags, taken late this morning.