TOP 100 NEWS SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| N Korea calls for end to hostilities New Year's Day message raises prospects of return to nuclear talksNorth Korea called for an end to hostile relations with the US in a new year message today and said it was committed to making the Korean peninsula nuclear-free through negotiations.North Korea has long demanded an end to Washington's hostility and said it developed nuclear weapons to deter a US attack. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading the country.The new year statement brightened prospects of North Korea rejoining stalled international talks on ending its nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for aid and other concessions. Washington has sought to coax it to return to the six-country talks, which include South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.North Korea has often said it wants to replace a ceasefire that ended the 1950-53 Korean war with a peace treaty and forge diplomatic relations with the US as a way to win security guarantees. Washington says this should be linked to North Korea's verifiable denuclearisation."The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship" between North Korea and the US, Pyongyang said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, state radio and television.It said it was committed to establishing "a lasting peace system" on the Korean peninsula and to making it nuclear-free "through dialogue and negotiations".The US and North Korea agreed on the need to resume the nuclear negotiations during a trip by Barack Obama's special envoy to Pyongyang in December, but North Korea did not make a firm commitment on when it would rejoin the talks.Stephen Bosworth said he conveyed a message from Obama calling for a "complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" and underlining Washington's willingness to help bring the isolated country back into the international fold.North Korea quit the disarmament talks last year after international criticism of a long-range rocket launch, which was seen as a test of missile technology. The regime then conducted a nuclear test in May, drawing widespread condemnation and tighter UN sanctions.Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the private Sejong Institute security thinktank, said North Korea was likely to maintain its conciliatory approach toward the US."The North extended an olive branch to the US," Cheong said, adding that he expected the two sides to agree to set up a liaison office as a symbolic move to end hostilities.But Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, said North Korea was unlikely to surrender its nuclear programme or make any other important concessions.The North Korean statement said it remained committed to improving relations with South Korea, and urged it to refrain from actions that might aggravate tensions.The lengthy statement stressed the need to improve living standards by accelerating the development of light industry and agriculture and called for efforts to gain access to more foreign markets."When the people's living standards are decisively improved … the gate to a prosperous nation [will] be opened," the statement quoted leader, Kim Jong-il, as saying.In South Korea, about 70 conservative activists tied tens of thousands of leaflets condemning Kim to balloons and launched them across the border. Some protesters burned North Korean flags with Kim's picture printed on them.North KoreaUnited StatesSouth KoreaUS foreign policyNuclear weaponsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Accident Kills Pakistan 'Militants' A blast at a suspected militant safe house in the southern city of Karachi killed eight people Friday, and authorities said they believed explosives being stored in the building for use in future terror attacks had accidentally detonated. online.wsj.com |
Lawyers' Office Ransacked as 'Allah' Dispute Intensifies in Malaysia Intruders raided the offices of the legal team that is defending a Malaysian Roman Catholic newspaper's right to use the word 'Allah' to refer to God in its Malay-language pages, marking the latest escalation in an increasingly bitter dispute. online.wsj.com |
Israel deports US journalist News editor for Palestinian agency put on flight to New YorkIsraeli authorities today deported an American journalist who was working as an editor for a Palestinian news agency.Jared Malsin, who is Jewish and in his late 20s, was detained at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport eight days ago as he returned from a holiday in Prague.His girlfriend, a Lutheran church volunteer who flew back with him, was deported two days later., but Malsin was held in detention at a cell in the airport while he began a legal challenge to his deportation order.Early today Malsin, who has worked with the Ma'an news agency for two years as its English news editor, spoke by telephone to a colleague to say he was being deported and was then put on a flight to New York. "He was not in a good place. He sounded very confused," said George Hale, a staff writer at Ma'an.Sabine Hadad, a spokeswoman for the Israeli interior ministry, said Malsin had refused to answer questions and co-operate with security staff when he landed at the airport last week. "It is the minimal right of every immigration authority to ask questions or to clarify things that are not clear about every person who wants to enter Israel," she said. "He refused to co-operate and we told him if he continued to refuse he would not enter Israel."Hadad said they did not know Malsin was a journalist until they were contacted by the press about his detention.However, Hale said Malsin was interrogated repeatedly and was asked about articles he had written from the occupied West Bank that were critical of Israeli policies. Hale said Malsin had briefly overstayed his last tourist visa, but was registered as a journalist with the Palestinian Authority and with the authority's labour ministry. He had applied for an Israeli government-issued press card, which most foreign journalists here carry, but was told it would not be granted because he was based in Bethlehem, in the West Bank."They knew he was a journalist," said Hale. "We are in contact with Israeli spokespeople going about our daily work and we have never had someone so much as held up, much less deported. My opinion is that this is a mistake. I can't believe they didn't call it off."Court documents seen by Ma'an showed that Malsin's interrogators said he was denied entry to Israel at the airport because he refused to co-operate, lied to border officials, gave unclear reasons for arriving and violated his visa terms.Hale said he was concerned and puzzled about a document that Malsin signed on Tuesday, after his lawyer had left him, in which he annulled his legal challenge to the deportation order. After that the Israeli judge on the case closed the deportation file, meaning it can no longer be challenged.After Malsin was first held at the airport Ma'an described his detention as arbitrary and "an affront to journalists not only in Palestine, but in Israel and abroad." Ma'an scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine. It has no other agenda," it said in a statement. . IsraelPalestinian territoriesRory McCarthyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Regulation clash as Davos begins The World Economic Forum in Davos begins with bankers and regulators clashing on plans for further regulation. news.bbc.co.uk |