The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Majority of Americans support gay marriage in poll
- FACTBOX - Ties between North Korea and China
- Mystery North Korean visitor in China under veil of security
| Majority of Americans support gay marriage in poll Posted: 20 May 2011 09:04 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fifty-three percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, according to a Gallup poll released on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony.
The findings are in line with two national polls earlier this spring that found support for legally recognized gay marriage has gained a newfound majority among Americans in recent months. Gallup said Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favoured gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposed. The percentage of Republicans favouring gay marriage held steady at 28 percent. Same-sex marriage remains a highly contested issue in U.S. politics, but homosexual couples have won the right to legally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa -- and Washington, D.C. The growing support for gay marriage comes after President Barack Obama signed into law legislation in December to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military under a 17-year-old law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gallup noted the policy change, but said it was unclear if that influenced Americans' attitudes about same-sex unions. "The trend toward marriage equality is undeniable -- and irreversible," Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay matrimony have been "shamed" into silence. "Polls are becoming very sensitive to wording, and the wording being used in the media are not predicting accurately what happens at the actual polls when people vote," she said. In a sign of a generation gap, Gallup found 70 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 support gay marriage, compared to only 39 percent among those 55 and older. A Washington Post/ABC News poll in March showed 53 percent of Americans said same-sex marriage should be legal, and 51 percent said the same thing in a CNN Poll released in April. By comparison, a 1996 Gallup found that 68 percent of Americans were opposed to same-sex marriage, a figure that has trended downward ever since. The Gallup poll was based on phone interviews conducted from May 5 to May 8, with a random sample of 1,018 adults 18 or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It can be found at http://www.gallup.com/poll/147662/First-Time-Majority-Americans-Favor-Legal-Gay-Marriage.aspx, (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman, Greg McCune, and Eric Walsh) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| FACTBOX - Ties between North Korea and China Posted: 20 May 2011 09:04 PM PDT REUTERS - A secretive convoy from North Korea reached the northeast Chinese city of Changchun on Saturday, in what may be the latest stop by the North's ruler Kim Jong-il as he seeks to shore up ties with his country's sole major supporter. Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang has said whether he, or possibly his son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un, is visiting China. Both sides are habitually secretive about such trips, and there have been no definitive sightings.
Here are some facts about their ties. COMRADES-IN-ARMS Communist China was a key backer of North Korean Communist forces in the Korean War, and sent soldiers across the border into Korea from October 1950. China continued to support North Korea following the armistice, and in 1961 the two signed a treaty which calls for either to aid the other if attacked. It remains in force, but its potential application is ambiguous. After China's rapprochement with the West and then its establishment of formal diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992, ties between Beijing and Pyongyang frayed. But Beijing still sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against the U.S. and its regional allies. In recent years, China has sought to shore up relations with the North with increased aid and trade and many visits there by leaders. CHINA GIVES NORTH KOREA DIPLOMATIC COVER Tensions spiked on the peninsula last year. In March, Seoul said Pyongyang was undoubtedly to blame for sinking a South Korean navy ship, killing 46 sailors. The North denies sinking the vessel. Then in November, North Korea shelled a South Korean island near disputed waters on the west coast of the Korean peninsula, killing four people and sparking another crisis. During both confrontations China did not publicly criticise North Korea, and instead urged restraint from all sides. Beijing also chided the United States for holding joint military exercises with South Korea in seas across from China's coast. NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY China has pressed North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, and the issue has previously produced cracks in their relationship. In October 2006, North Korea held its first nuclear test explosion, defying public pleas from China. Beijing condemned the test and supported a United Nations Security Council resolution that authorised sanctions against North Korea. It backed more sanctions after the North's second test in May 2009. China has sought to defuse confrontation by hosting six-party nuclear disarmament talks since August 2003. The now-stalled negotiations bring together North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia. North Korea has in recent months drawn back from its earlier renunciation of the talks and said it wants to rejoin negotiations over international aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament. But there are no plans for their resumption. Beijing has urged the United States, Seoul and their regional allies to be more flexible in negotiating with North Korea so the six-way talks can resume. ECONOMIC FLOWS China's trade and aid are crucial to North Korea's survival. In 2010, trade between China and North Korea was worth $3.5 billion, up 29.6 percent from 2009, according to Chinese customs statistics. China's imports from North Korea in 2010 grew by 50.6 percent to $1.2 billion, and its exports to North Korea grew 20.8 percent to $2.3 billion. In 2010, China's bilateral trade with South Korea was worth $207.2 billion, according to Chinese statistics. North Korea has dramatically increased its economic cooperation with China over the past two years to surmount international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests in 2009 and growing estrangement from South Korea. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper has reported that China and North Korea will soon launch two joint development projects on their border. A construction project to develop an island called Hwanggumpyong in the lower reaches of the Tumen River starts on May 28, and construction of roads connecting Hunchun in China and Rajin-Sonbong in North Korea on May 30, the paper said. REFUGEES China's 1,415-km (880-mile) border with North Korea includes stretches of rivers that freeze over in winter, and in past years many North Korean refugees have crossed over, sometimes then making their way to other countries and then South Korea. Outside groups have earlier estimated their numbers to be from tens of thousands to 300,000. Beijing worries that economic collapse or political turmoil in North Korea could unleash a surge of refugees into China. Tighter security and fences along the border have made it more difficult for North Koreans to flee into China. (Sources: Reuters; "China Monthly Exports and Imports"; International Crisis Group; Andrew Scobell, "China and North Korea: From Comrades-in-Arms to Allies at Arm's Length"; U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; Congressional Research Service, "China-North Korea Relations") (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Sanjeev Miglani) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Mystery North Korean visitor in China under veil of security Posted: 20 May 2011 08:34 PM PDT CHANGCHUN, China (Reuters) - A secretive convoy from North Korea reached the northeast Chinese city of Changchun on Saturday, in what may be the latest stop by the North's ruler Kim Jong-il as he seeks to shore up ties with his country's sole major supporter. Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang has said whether he, or possibly his son and heir apparent Kim Jong-un, is visiting China. Both sides are habitually secretive about such trips, and there have been no definitive sightings. But the tight security and unscheduled train movements echoed the script of past visits by 69-year-old Kim Jong-il, who visited twice last year to woo his powerful neighbour. This latest mystery visit from the North comes as China's Premier Wen Jiabao prepares for a weekend summit in Tokyo with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, both foes of Pyongyang, which rattled the region last year and has drawn closer to Beijing for support. Beijing has sought to steady ties with Seoul and Tokyo but also sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against the U.S. and its regional allies. In recent years, China has sought to shore up relations with the North with increased aid and trade and frequent visits there by leaders. The arrival in China on Friday of a distinctive train from North Korea prompted South Korean officials and media to conclude it was carrying Kim Jong-un, anointed last year as heir apparent to his aging father, but speculation then shifted to it being the father. On Saturday morning, the train reached Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in China's northeast, where the station's exit for official guests was cordoned off by police. A convoy of a dozen or so cars which included a black limousine with darkened windows then took the mystery guests to the heavily guarded South Lake Hotel, accompanied by an ambulance, several mini buses and police vehicles. In the past, such visits have been shrouded in mystery, and China or North Korea have acknowledged a visit only near or after its end. Kim Jong-il travels by train due to his fear of flying, and visited China last May and August. During his last trip, he met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Changchun and told him that Pyongyang remained committed to duclearisation as per previous international agreements. In November, however, the North showed a U.S. nuclear physicist what it said was a uranium enrichment programme, which could open a second route to make a nuclear bomb along with its plutonium programme. That announcement, say Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, shows the North is not serious about its push to restart aid-for-disarmament nuclear talks, stalled for over two years. Kim Jong-il is widely believed by South Korean officials and experts to have suffered a stroke in 2008, and analysts had thought his visits last year were aimed at shoring up support for a handover of power to his youngest son, Jong-un. But the elder Kim's health appears to have improved significantly since the visits to China last year, prompting diplomats and analysts to re-evaluate their assessment of the pace of succession. Recently published images of the so-called "Dear Leader" show him looking portly and well-fed, a far cry from the sickly figure photographed in parliament in 2009. (Additional reporting by Maxim Duncan in Harbin, China; Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Additional reporting and writing by Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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