The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- North, S.Korea ministers meet as U.S. calls for proof of change
- Venezuela's Chavez faces second chemo treatment
- Tamils sceptical of development, voting in Sri Lanka's war-weary north
| North, S.Korea ministers meet as U.S. calls for proof of change Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:33 PM PDT NUSA DUA, Indonesia, (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of North and South Korea met briefly at an Asian security conference on Saturday as the United States maintained Pyongyang had to improve ties with its neighbour before six-party talks on its nuclear programme could resume.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was encouraged by a preliminary meeting between North and South Korean officials on the sidelines of the conference, but added nuclear-capable Pyongyang must prove it has changed. "We urge North Korea to demonstrate a change in behaviour, including ceasing provocative actions, taking steps toward irreversible de-nuclearisation and complying with its commitments," Clinton said in remarks to the ASEAN Regional Forum on the Indonesian island of Bali. Secretive and Stalinist North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests in the last five years, sending shockwaves across the region. But they have led to international sanctions which have squeezed the impoverished state. Friday's surprise meeting between the nuclear envoys of the two sides, which was described as cordial and lasted about two hours, was the first such contact between the two Koreas since the last round of the six-way nuclear disarmament talks in 2008. North Korea walked out of the talks at the time, but said last year it was in favour of resuming the dialogue, which also includes the United States, China, Russia and Japan besides South Korea. The South's foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, held a brief meeting with his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun before Saturday's plenary session of the conference, where foreign ministers or representatives from 27 countries were present, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. It gave no further details. China, North Korea's only major ally, said Pyongyang had proposed resuming the talks without any preconditions. The official Xinhua news agency said the issue was discussed in talks between the North's Pak and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Bali. The North's recent moves toward detente may be induced by food shortages. The impoverished North has reached out to dozens of countries and organisations around the world for aid, complaining that bad weather, rising global food prices and the termination of aid from principal donors South Korea and the United States had slashed supplies. Washington suspended aid to Pyongyang in 2008, while the South has linked aid to de-nuclearisation. The United States has however said it will soon decide on whether to resume aid. Tensions between the North and the South rose to the highest level in years when a South Korean navy ship was sunk last year in a torpedo attack, killing 46 sailors. South Korea blamed the North, but Pyongyang denied any role. The North shelled a South Korean island in November. South Korea has demanded some expression of regret from Pyongyang about the attacks as indication that the North is serious about reducing tensions and working to bring stability to the Korean peninsula. (Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Daniel Magnowski) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| Venezuela's Chavez faces second chemo treatment Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:02 PM PDT CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he was preparing for a second round of chemotherapy in Cuba to eliminate the risk of malignant cells after completing what he called a successful first session.
The announcement by the 56-year-old socialist leader that he had surgery in Havana last month to remove a baseball-sized cancerous tumor has called into question his fitness to run for re-election next year in the OPEC nation of 29 million people. Last weekend, Chavez flew back to the communist-led Caribbean island for chemotherapy after delegating limited powers to his finance minister and vice president. "I have completed the first cycle of chemotherapy treatment ... this cycle was completed successfully," he said in a phone call to a televised meeting of his ruling Socialist Party. "We are preparing for a second cycle ... to totally defeat and eliminate any risk of the presence of malignant cells." Chavez has not said what type of cancer he has or for how long he will be abroad as the guest of his friend and political mentor, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Before he flew out last Saturday he said his doctors had not found any malignant cells -- suggesting the cancer had not spread and thus become more dangerous and difficult to treat. A former soldier whose workaholic leadership style and image of invincibility have helped him win numerous votes, Chavez is visibly weakened as he plans his re-election bid. He had two operations last month that he described as complicated: the first for a pelvic abscess and another to remove the tumor. He was away almost a month until returning home a day before Venezuela's 200th independence celebration. 'GOING TO BED ON TIME' On Friday, the president said he was putting on weight again and was back to 86 kilos (190 lbs). "I'm at the ideal weight for me ... I was too fat. I'm doing exercise, rehabilitation, and I'm going to bed on time, by 11 o'clock at night at the latest," Chavez said. "I want to tell the country, the Venezuelan people, that this battle for life continues, with the help of God." In a message on Twitter, Chavez said Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona had visited him later on Friday. Maradona lived on-and-off in Cuba, undergoing drug rehabilitation, after retiring from professional sport in 1997. "I am grateful to Diego Maradona for the fraternal visit he paid me this afternoon. We were together with Fidel. Thanks kid!" he wrote on his @chavezcandanga account. State media in Venezuela then broadcast footage of Chavez meeting several of his senior government officials in Havana, including Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. The president has been keen to show he is still fully in control despite his illness. Parliamentary elections last September showed the South American country split down the middle between Chavez supporters and opponents. Now, a fractious opposition coalition senses a chance to unseat a convalescing Chavez in 2012. Venezuelan pollster Datanalisis said on Friday its most recent poll showed his popularity at 50 percent -- lower than the 52 percent recorded in June, but within the margin of error of 2.42 percentage points. The polling was conducted at the end of June and start of July, meaning some of the interviews took place before Chavez's June 30 announcement that he had been diagnosed with cancer. It was not designed to measure how his illness would affect his popularity, said Datanalisis President Luis Vicente Leon. "We cannot reach a conclusion, Leon told reporters, adding that a full recovery might improve his ratings. "The epic saga of Chavez cheating death could boost his popularity." (Additional reporting and writing by Daniel Wallis; editing by Todd Eastham) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| Tamils sceptical of development, voting in Sri Lanka's war-weary north Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:02 PM PDT JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's minority Tamils say President Mahinda Rajapaksa's post-war development and infrastructure projects in the former war zone in the island's north have yet to address their real concerns and have not excluded their participation.
Sri Lanka's northern cities hold local polls for the first time in many years on Saturday amid opposition and poll monitor complaints of intimidation. Healing after a 25-year war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended in May 2009, Tamils in the northern city of Jaffna, long the centre of Sri Lanka's Tamil culture, feel there is little to gain from voting. "There were a number of elections like this and a change has never happened. I have little doubt that this is also going to be the same," said Thuvaraki Nakeswaran, 22, a journalism student who will vote for the first time in her life. "I will vote for those who think to help Tamils." She is among 350,000 voters in 16 constituencies registered to elect local leaders. But voting in Jaffna, as it did in war time, will take place with a heavy military presence. Tamils in Jaffna are reluctant to speak in public due to the presence of government intelligence officers and soldiers, and many Reuters approached gave a brusque "No comment." Free expression has not been a way of life for decades: either the government or the LTTE routinely killed, beat, harassed or otherwise punished critics via unidentified gangs. Rajapaksa has launched many infrastructure projects under a rebuilding programme he has dubbed the "The Northern Spring", some of which are rejuvenating roads and railways that fell into neglect during the war. But building trust between Rajapaksa, who is from Sri Lanka's Sinhalese ethnic majority, and Tamils is a difficult task. No government since independence in 1948 has given Tamils much confidence, and many have grown up around the LTTE's rabidly separatist and anti-Sinhalese doctrine. "I am your friend; I am your relative; You can trust me," one poster of Rajapaksa says. "We will build our villages together." The campaign posters of Rajapaksa and candidates from his ally, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), were all over Jaffna, but those of the opposition were scarce. SELFISH MOTIVE The evidence of development and economic revival, which Rajapaksa has said will help Tamils rebuild their lives, are ample in Jaffna. Numerous private banks have opened up in the town and many roads are under construction. "There is a selfish motive behind the government's development programme and it's Sinhalisation that really has been taking place," a 59-year old man told Reuters on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal. Sinhalisation, a term espoused by the LTTE, refers to the moving of Sinhalese people into areas the separatist group said were traditionally Tamil-majority, throughout Sri Lanka's nearly three millennia of history. "All the jobs created through these projects are given to Sinhalese people," the man said. "The government has never involved us in the development projects either through providing job opportunities or giving the contracts to Tamils here." Thambithurai Hariharan, a 55-year-old farmer, complained that the development has not helped bring down the high cost of living or created jobs for the unemployed. "Now some agricultural produce is brought here from the rest of the country despite being grown here. That has reduced our profit margins," he said. (Editing by Bryson Hull and Daniel Magnowski) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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