The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Gazprom delegation visits North Korea - KCNA
- Tanks surround Syrian city of Hama after protests
- Japan reconstruction minister quits in fresh blow to PM
| Gazprom delegation visits North Korea - KCNA Posted: 04 Jul 2011 08:42 PM PDT SEOUL (Reuters) - A delegation from Russia's Gazprom has visited North Korea, North Korea's central news agency reported late on Monday. The trip follows a reported recent visit by Russia's spy chief to the North Korean capital to discuss economic projects involving North and South Korea, the world's second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer after Japan.
"A delegation of Gazprom of Russia led by Deputy Managing Chairman Alexandr Ananenkov arrived here Monday," KCNA said, without elaborating. According to a report by the Interfax news agency in May Foreign Intelligence Service director Mikhail Fradkov and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed projects including a railway junction, a gas pipeline and a power line from Russia to South Korea via North Korea. Russia and North Korea share a short border, but ties worsened and trade fell steeply after the collapse of the Communist Soviet Union in 1991. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il cancelled a visit to Russia last week because of worries about security following media reports about the trip, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported last Thursday. (Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Tanks surround Syrian city of Hama after protests Posted: 04 Jul 2011 07:41 PM PDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian tanks surrounded Hama on Tuesday, residents and activists said, threatening a large-scale assault on the city after the biggest protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Hundreds of youths blocked roads leading to the city's main residential neighbourhoods with garbage containers, wood and metal to try to prevent a possible advance. Inhabitants joined in their shouts of "God is greatest," from balconies and rooftops, residents said. Tanks and armoured vehicles moved overnight to the edges of the city, including 30 seen near a flyover on a road leading west, they said, a day after hundreds of troops and security police entered Hama at dawn in buses, killing at least three people in raids on main neighbourhoods. Hama, scene of a bloody crackdown by Assad's father nearly 30 years ago, has witnessed some of the biggest demonstrations and highest death tolls in Syria's 14-week uprising, inspired by revolts across the Arab world. "Assad may wait to see whether large-scale protests in Hama continue. He knows that using military aggression against peaceful demonstrations in a symbolic place like Hama would lose him support even from Russia and China," Syrian activist Mohammad Abdallah told Reuters from exile in Washington. The two countries have opposed a United Nations Security Council resolution proposed by the West against Syria, helping Assad withstand mounting international isolation. Abdallah said using tanks to attack Hama would "totally discredit" a promise by Assad to seek dialogue with his opponents. Troops and armour were already assaulting villages and towns in the Jabal-al-Zawya region, north of Hama, which had also seen large protests against Assad's 11-year rule, he said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said tanks stormed the town of Kfar Nubbul early on Tuesday "without meeting a single shot in the town that has seen peaceful protests since the beginning of the uprising." One month ago, security forces shot dead at least 60 protesters in Hama, activists said. The security presence later eased and last Friday a crowd of at least 150,000 people rallied in a central Hama square demanding Assad go, according to activists. The following day, Assad sacked the provincial governor and on Monday residents said troops and police poured into Hama to carry out arrests. The three people killed by the security forces included a 13-year-old boy and a man whose body had been dumped in the Orontes river, a doctor in Hama said. Residents said some of the soldiers and police opened fire in residential neighbourhoods and carried out arrests across the city. BURNING TYRES Young men, some carrying stones, blocked roads leading to central neighbourhoods with burning tyres and garbage containers, they added. Rami Abdelrahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters that at least 250 people were arrested across Hama on Monday. "The regime could not stand the large, peaceful protests and the fact that the governor did little to stop them. It has decided to subdue Hama one way or the other," he said. The authorities have banned most international media from operating in Syria since the protests began in March, making it difficult to verify reports from activists and authorities. Rights groups say Syrian security forces have shot dead at least 1,300 civilians across the country since the protests started and arrested over 12,000, with several troops and police officers killed for refusing to fire at civilians. Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen, who they blame for most civilian deaths. Assad has promised a national dialogue with the opposition to discuss political reform in Syria, which has been under the iron rule of the Baath Party for nearly 50 years. Many opposition figures reject dialogue while the killings and arrests continue. The United States said last week Assad was running out of time to allow a serious political process, and would otherwise face increasingly organised resistance. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of Assad who has grown more critical, said in May: "We do not want to see another Hama massacre" and warned the Syrian leader that it would be hard to contain the consequences if it were repeated. Assad's father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, sent troops into Hama in 1982 to crush an Islamist-led uprising in the city, where the Fighting Vanguard, the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, made its last stand. That attack killed many thousands, possibly up to 30,000, and one slogan constantly shouted by Hama protesters in the last several weeks was "damn your soul Hafez", a reminder of the scar still etched in the memory of the city of 650,000 people. (Editing by Janet Lawrence) Copyright © 2008 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Japan reconstruction minister quits in fresh blow to PM Posted: 04 Jul 2011 07:41 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Beleaguered Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan took another blow on Tuesday when his reconstruction minister resigned after barely a week in the job over criticism for remarks that offended victims of the March earthquake and tsunami.
The outcry among opposition parties over Ryu Matsumoto's comments had threatened to further hinder the unpopular Kan's efforts to pass key bills in a divided parliament as Japan tries to rebuild from the disasters and end a nuclear crisis. Analysts said the government probably hoped that Matsumoto's quick resignation would avoid further deadlock over a $25 billion extra budget to aid disaster-hit areas and a compensation scheme for victims of the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power's tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. But the furore over Matsumoto, who was also doubling as environment minister, could put added pressure on the prime minister to step down himself. Kan last month survived a no-confidence vote by pledging to quit but has since blurred the timing of his resignation. "The (opposition) Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito may be tempted to say that Kan should go right now and until he goes, we're not doing anything," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. Matsumoto, visiting the tsunami-hit regions on Sunday, had told Miyagi Prefecture Governor Yoshihiro Murai that the government would not help communities that failed to come up with ideas themselves. Speaking before TV cameras, Matsumoto reprimanded Murai for keeping him waiting and then ordered journalists not to report the exchange, warning that their companies would suffer if they did. Kan will now have to find another candidate to fill the post in charge of Japan's biggest reconstruction project since the years after World War Two, a costly effort that will add to a public debt already worth twice Japan's $5 trillion economy. Kan, under fire for his handling of the nuclear crisis, has said he wants to stay in his post until three bills are passed: the small extra budget, legislation to allow fresh borrowing to fund about 40 percent of this year's budget, and measures to promote renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power as Japan tries to wean itself from nuclear power. Opposition parties argue that Kan should keep his promise to quit soon, and are pressing the ruling Democratic Party to revise costly spending pledges before helping to pass the deficit-bond issuance bill and are expected to come up with counter-proposals on steps to promote renewable energy. (Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Edmund Klamann) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: World Updates To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan