NEWS,21.04.2012.

France goes to first round of poll

 

After hectic months ot the hustings, France’s presidential contenders go to the first round ofelections on Sunday to whittle down the field of 10 to two frontrunners.The chances of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy winning look increasingly bleak as Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has notched up a commanding lead over UMP ruling party, according to the latest polls conducted in France ahead of the first round. The polls showed Hollande had opened a five-point lead for the first round of voting and a 16-point lead in voting intentions for the May 6 run-off. With those poll results, the Sarkozy camp was hit with the most damning opinion poll for weeks, but somehow Sarkozy briefly overtook Hollande in polls for round one following the Toulouse murders by an Islamist gunman. All in all, however, Hollande has made steady gains in recent days in most polls, with one survey giving him 29 per cent of the first round vote against 24 per cent for Sarkozy.As if the poll showings were not daunting enough, Sarkozy’s campaign was also hit by a potentially damaging revelation when it was revealed that his top donors met last Sunday at the Hotel Crillon, one of Paris’s most expensive and select venues. That meeting was in many quarters considered a major public relations gaffe given the incumbent’s recent attempts to shed his “president of the rich” tag.“That sums up his presidency,” sneered a jubilant Hollande. “He started in a top restaurant, Le Fouquet’s, and ends up in a grand hotel with the same guests.”Even as Sarkozy’s hopes appeared to crumble, some of his closest right-wing ministers openly came out against him, with Fadela Amara, the former town planning minister and a one-time star of Sarkozy’s ethnically diverse “rainbow” cabinet, becoming the latest leading political figure to desert the embattled incumbent.The incumbent’s popularity had earlier dropped dramatically following assertions that Jacques Chirac would vote for Hollande, a development that reportedly made Sarkozy’s popularity rating drop lower than any other French president seeking re-election.After Amara’s desertion other former ministers close to Chirac followed suit, including Brigitte Girardin, the former overseas minister, who said she wished to “end policies that for five years have weakened the country and divided the French”. At the same time Corinne Lepage, an ecologist environment minister in a previous centre-right government, announced that she would back Hollande, arguing that Sarkozy had veered too far to the right. The avalanche of desertions continued with Azouz Begag, the equal opportunities junior minister and Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the former culture minister joining the list of those jumping ship.

Mass rally against Czech regime

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered for an anti-government rally in Prague’s central Wenceslas Square on Saturday as the centre-right ruling coalition was teetering on the verge of collapse.Unions, pensioners, student associations and others angered by austerity cuts and graft scandals teamed up for what they said would be the biggest protest yet against the cabinet of right-wing leader Petr Necas.“The police estimate about 80-90,000 people are in Wenceslas Square right now,” Prague police spokeswoman Eva Kropacova.Union leader Jaroslav Zavadil put the number of protesters at 120,000 before lambasting the cabinet for “humiliating the powerless with its anti-social reforms.”“They promised budgetary responsibility but instead the government debt is growing. They promised to fight graft but corruption has gripped their parties and the entire society,” he told the crowd.The government — comprised of Necas’s right-wing Civic Democrats and the rightist TOP 09 and centrist Public Affairs parties — has vowed to cut the public deficit under 3.0 per cent of GDP in 2013 from 3.5 per cent expected this year.“As the prime minister... I feel responsible for keeping our country out of the debt trap,” Necas said on Saturday as protesters waved banners saying “down with the government,” “no to corruption,” or “an end to thieves and liars.”But Necas’s plans might vanish into thin air soon as the cabinet has lost its majority of 118 in the 200-seat parliament to find itself scrambling for 101 votes following the split-up of Public Affairs earlier this week.Necas gave the Public Affairs faction still backing his cabinet until Monday to secure the votes, and warned of early elections possibly in June.Recent surveys showed the leftist opposition Social Democrats would dominate an early vote ahead of the Communist Party, while Necas’s Civic Democrats would slump to the third place.Marching to Prague’s centre, Jana Sizlingova, a visibly angry pensioner from Prague, said she was fed up with the government that “doesn’t do anything for ordinary people.”“I’m upset with corruption, non-transparent procurement, the health system, the social system — simply, there’s nothing good about this government,” she said.

NEWS,20.04.2012.

A five-point checklist to help you prepare for another global crisis

The IMF just downgraded growth in Europe and projects a recession of -0.3 per cent in 2012. Imagine you are minister for finance in an average developing country. You survived the 2008-2009 global crisis, presided over more than five years of respectable economic growth, a boom in commodity prices fills your treasury with cash, and your central bank does not quite know how to keep your currency from appreciating. Old problems persist — too many young people are unemployed, your industrial sector is small and aging, and plenty of public money is wasted or simply missing. But, all in all, you feel pretty good about how things are going under your watch. Suddenly, you learn that a new global crisis may be looming on the horizon. Think of another rich country defaulting on its debt, pulling other rich countries’ banks into trouble. East Asia can no longer find avid consumers in the West for its exports, so it cuts back on its own consumption of raw materials. Commodity prices begin to fall, and your politicians start to worry aloud. What do you do then? Or better, what can you do now to prepare for all that? Five key measures may help. First, secure your financing — for at least the next 24 months. The last thing you want in the middle of a storm in international finance is to default on your payments. If you do, already-nervous investors — foreign and local — will rush for the door. Not to speak of what soldiers, teachers and civil servants would do if they were unpaid. So, calculate your cash needs as if all your expenditures were untouchable, and sign today the loans you know you will need tomorrow. (With interest rates currently at rock-bottom, this is smart debt management anyway.) While you are at it, assume that a good 10 per cent of those grants that developed nations regularly give you will no longer come in. It would also be nice if public companies that manage your oil, gas or minerals could buy insurance against their prices falling too much (this is called “hedging” in financial jargon); unfortunately, if they have not done it before, it is probably too late now. Second, prioritise your investments. Decide now which project you will slow down, postpone or drop, if you were to run out of money. In a way, you are looking for projects that are not “shovel ready”, that is, those that cannot be quickly implemented. Rule of thumb: if it involves massive, never-done-before, pride-of-the-nation construction, it probably can be put on hold. Remember, cutting investment expenditures is always tricky — the interest of the politically-connected are usually affected. You don’t want to have that discussion during a crisis. Third, audit your social safety nets. There will be plenty of people in need as jobs disappear and incomes fall. Poor families will respond in ways that may hurt them, and your country, in the long run — pulling teenagers from high school is the typical example. You will then be called upon to fund temporary employment programmes, feed children in schools, and pay for direct cash transfers. Fourth, stress test your banks. Your financial system is probably small and isolated from the sub-prime sophistication of Wall Street. It is made up mostly of banks that hold the deposits of the urban middle class and handle the remittances of the Diaspora. What would happen to your banks if, all of a sudden, foreign currency became expensive and scarce? Are their loans concentrated on a few construction or trading companies that would go belly up if the commodity boom came to an end? And are banks lending to each other? To each others’ owners? Your central bank should be able to answer all these questions — it is supposed to supervise banks in real time. So it can alert you early. And, fifth, identify who will suffer when crisis strikes. Who are the winners and losers? (Yes, there are winners in this.) Will the impact be felt in a single, remote rural area where your commodities are produced or extracted, or will it be primarily an industrial affair, hurting middle classes across cities? Will the affected belong to a specific racial, religious or regional group? Whose consumption will get more expensive? And whose assets will lose most value? This kind of “political economy analysis” is invaluable because it will highlight the roadblocks in your decision-making. One final point that may not depend entirely on you as finance minister. It would help to decide who, when the time comes, will speak for the government and what the message will be. Typically, in days of turbulence, cabinets tend to become dissonant and perceptions of policy paralysis — if not incompetence — make things worse. That would be a pity. All told, it is possible — and not too difficult — to get ready, at least for the first wave of impacts from a potential new global crisis. And if the crisis never comes, so much the better.

NEWS,19.04.2012.

India tests missile capable of reaching China

India test-fired a long range missile capable of reaching deep into China and Europe, thrusting the emerging Asian power into an elite club of nations with intercontinental nuclear weapons capabilities.A scientist at the launch site said the launch was successful, minutes after television images showed the rocket with a range of more than 5,000 km blasting through clouds from an island off India's east coast."It has met all the mission objectives," S.P.Dash, director of the test range. "It hit the target with very good accuracy."The Indian-made Agni V is the crowning achievement of a now-mothballed missile programme developed primarily with a possible threat from neighbouring China in mind.Only the UN Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia the United States and Britain - along with Israel, are believed to have such long-range weapons.Fast emerging as a world economic power, India is keen to play a larger role on the global stage and has long angled for a permanent seat on the Security Council. In recent years it has emerged as the world's top arms importer as it rushes to upgrade equipment for a large but outdated military."It is one of the ways of signalling India's arrival on the global stage, that India deserves to be sitting at the high table," said Harsh Pant, a defence expert at King's College, London, describing the launch as a "confidence boost".The launch, which was flagged well in advance, has attracted none of the criticism from the West faced by hermit state North Korea for a failed bid to send up a similar rocket last week.But China noted the launch with disapproval."The West chooses to overlook India's disregard of nuclear and missile control treaties," China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial published before the launch, which was delayed by a day because of bad weather."India should not overestimate its strength," said the paper, which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party's main mouthpiece the People's Daily.India has not signed the non-proliferation treaty for nuclear nations, but enjoys a de facto legitimacy for its arsenal, boosted by a landmark 2008 deal with the United States.On Wednesday, NATO said it did not consider India a threat. The US State Department said India's non-proliferation record was "solid," while urging restraint.India says its nuclear weapons programme is for deterrence only.It is close to completing a nuclear submarine that will increase its ability to launch a counter strike if it were attacked.India lost a brief Himalayan border war with its larger neighbour, China, in 1962 and has ever since strived to improve its defences. In recent years the government has fretted over China's enhanced military presence near the border.

Thursday's launch may prompt a renewed push from within India's defence establishment to build a fully fledged intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programme capable of reaching the Americas, though some of India's allies may bridle at such an ambition."Policy-wise it becomes more complicated from now on, until Agni V, India really has been able to make a case about its strategic objectives, but as it moves into the ICBM frontier there'll be more questions asked," said Pant.The Agni V is the most advanced version of the indigenously built Agni, or Fire, series, part of a programme that started in the 1960s. Earlier versions could reach old rival Pakistan and Western China."India can now deter China, it can impose maximum possible punishment if China crosses the red line," Srikanth Kondapalli, professor in Chinese studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University told Reuters.The rocket is powered by easier-to-use solid rocket propellants and can be transported by road.

Too early to tell on Kim Jong-Un: Clinton

Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered some hope on Wednesday that North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-Un, may yet change course despite the reclusive Communist state's recent rocket launch and the threat of a new nuclear test.Clinton said it was too early to tell what to make of the surprise remarks to soldiers on Sunday by the youngest son of the late Kim Jong-Il, who saw North Korea fall into deep poverty and developed a nuclear weapons programme during his 17-year rule.Without elaborating, Clinton said Jong-Un's speech was analysed as "some of the old - same old stuff" and "some possible new approach"."We really are waiting and watching to see whether he can be the kind of leader that the North Korean people need."If he just follows in the footsteps of his father, we don't expect much other than the kind of provocative behaviour and the deep failure of the political and economic elite to take care of their own people," Clinton said."But he is someone who has lived outside of North Korea, apparently, from what we know. We believe that he may have some hope that the conditions in North Korea can change. But again we're going to watch and wait," she said. Jong-Un is in his late 20s.North Korea said on Wednesday it was ready to retaliate in the face of international condemnation of last week's failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood it will push ahead with a third nuclear test.The United States and others said the launch was a test for a long range missile, while North Korea has insisted it was meant to put a satellite into orbit.

NEWS,18.04.2012.

Angry North Korea threatens retaliation

A bristling North Korea today said it was ready to retaliate in the face of international condemnation over its failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the hermit state will push ahead with a third nuclear test.The North also ditched an agreement to allow back inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. That followed a United States decision, in response to the rocket launch it says was a disguised long-range missile test, to break off a deal earlier this year to provide the impoverished state with food aid.Pyongyang called the US move a hostile act and said it was no longer bound by its February 29 agreement with Washington, dashing any hopes that new leader Kim Jong-un would soften a foreign policy that has for years been based on the threat of an atomic arsenal to leverage concessions out of regional powers."We have thus become able to take necessary retaliatory measures, free from the agreement," the official KCNA news agency said, without specifying what actions it might take.Many analysts expect that with its third test, North Korea will for the first time try a nuclear device using highly enriched uranium, something it was long suspected of developing but which it only publicly admitted to about two years ago."If it conducts a nuclear test, it will be uranium rather than plutonium because North Korea would want to use the test as a big global advertisement for its newer, bigger nuclear capabilities," said Baek Seung-joo of the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.Defence experts said by successfully enriching uranium, to make bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima nearly 70 years ago, the North would be able to significantly build it up stocks of weapons-grade nuclear material.It would also allow it more easily to manufacture a nuclear warhead to mount on a long range missile.The latest international outcry against Pyongyang followed last week's rocket launch, which the United States and others said was in reality the test of a long range missile with the potential to reach the US mainland.North Korea has insisted the rocket launch, which in a rare public admission it said failed, was meant to put a satellite into orbit as part of celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of President Kim Il-sung, whose family has ruled the autocratic state since it was founded after World War Two.The peninsula has been divided ever since with the two Koreas yet to sign a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.Recent satellite images have showed that the North has pushed ahead with work at a facility where it conducted previous nuclear tests.While the nuclear tests have successfully alarmed its neighbours, including major ally China, they also showcase the North's technological skills which helps impress a hardline military at home and buyers of North Korean weapons, one of its few viable exports.The North has long argued that in the face of a hostile United States, which has military bases in South Korea and Japan, it needs a nuclear arsenal to defend itself."The new young leadership of North Korea has a very stark choice; they need to take a hard look at their polices, stop the provocative action," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference in Brazil's capital.The Swiss-educated Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s, rose to power after his father's death last December. The country's propaganda machine has since made much of his physical likeness to his revered grandfather, the first leader and now North Korea's "eternal president".But hopes the young Kim could prove to be a reformer have faded fast. In his first public speech on Sunday, the chubby leader made clear that he would stick to the pro-military policies of his father that helped push the country into a devastating famine in the 1990s.Kim is surrounded by the same coterie of generals that advised his father and he oversaw Sunday's mass military parade.He urged his people and 1.2 million strong armed forces to "move forward to final victory" as he lauded his grandfather's and father's achievements in building the country's military.

Russia creates 'police crimes' unit

Russia on Wednesday created a special unit to investigate crimes committed by the country's vast but corruption-laden police force.The powerful Investigative Committee's decision to form the unit follows a spate of reports of police torture in the country's prisons and a new focus on the problem in Russia's Kremlin-controlled media."The need to create such a special unit is based on objective reasons," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.It said investigators currently looking into police crimes run into "certain difficulties" because officers and their bosses often use their professional skills "to mislead the investigation and avoid criminal responsibility".Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev was forced to report to parliament last week about a spike in reported police violence and other abuses.The recent death in custody of a petty crime suspect after being raped by officers with a champagne bottle has focussed attention on the problem which has dogged Russia for years.Investigators said they have received 65 complaints against the same police precinct in the central Russian region of Tatarstan since the case initially came to light last month.Russia's outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev had made police reforms one of the planks of his four years in power.But he was recently forced to admit that his campaign to improve the police force may take years.

NEWS,17.4.2012

 New US anti-drug policy stresses treatment, prevention

 

The White House unveiled a new drug policy strategy Tuesday that veers away from imposing heavy prison sentences for illicit drug use and focuses instead on prevention and treatment.Officials said the new approach looks at drug addiction as a treatable disease rather than a crime."Outdated policies like the mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders are relics of the past that ignore the need for a balanced public health and safety approach to our drug problem," said Gil Kerlikowske director of the National Drug Control Center in a statement."The policy alternatives contained in our new strategy support mainstream reforms based on the proven facts that drug addiction is a disease of the brain that can be prevented and treated and that we cannot simply arrest our way out of the drug problem," he said.The announcement of a revised administration drug policy approach comes just days after a regional summit in Cartagena, Colombia, where leaders from across the Americas agreed to consider alternatives to the US-led "War on Drugs," which over the decades has claimed tens of thousands of lives, but yielded only meager results.Obama at last weekend's summit told his counterparts from Mexico, Central and South America that he opposed legalising drugs, but agreed for the first time to direct talks on the thorny issue of rampant drug consumption in the United States -- the world's most voracious consumer of cocaine.The US leader also agreed to ramped up US efforts to stem the flow of money and arms toward Latin America.His administration's revamped drug policy accelerates administration efforts to divert non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of incarceration, while imposing stiffer penalties on major drug traffickers.Officials said the new anti-drug strategy also puts a greater emphasis on the healthcare system and youth outreach.The overall goal is to break "the cycle of drug crime, incarceration and arrest," said Charles Ramsey, chief of police in the city of Philadelphia and one of the key partners from the field of law enforcement in the effort."Policing in the 21st century means being tough but smart in how we address our nation's drug problem," he said."Those of us in law enforcement understand that too often drug addiction is the underlying cause of crime," he said, adding that enforcement can play a vital role in breaking the vicious cycle.Officials said they also would ramp up efforts to secure America's southern border with Mexico, increase US antidrug cooperation with overseas partners and target violent international drug gangs.The policy shift comes at a time when illicit drug use in the United States is on the decline.The administration said drug abuse currently is only about one-third the rate it was in the late 1970s.

 

Barak says Israel never ruled out attacking Iran

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday said his country has never promised the United States it would hold off from attacking Iran while nuclear talks were taking place. The comments, in which Barak said that a diplomatic push to reach a compromise with Iran was a waste of "precious time," further exposed a rift between Israel and the US over how to deal with the Islamic Republic and its nuclear programme. Israel, arguing that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat, has said it will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. It cites Iranian calls for Israel's destruction, Iran's support for Arab militant groups and its development of long-range missiles capable of striking the Jewish state. Fearing that Iran is moving quickly toward nuclear capability, Israel has repeatedly threatened to attack if the country's uranium enrichment program continues to advance. Enrichment is a key process in developing weapons, and Israel says Iran is closely approaching a point where it can no longer be stopped. The US favours diplomacy and economic sanctions, and has said military action on Iran's nuclear facilities should only be a last resort if all else fails. Officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany met with Iran in Istanbul last weekend to discuss the country's nuclear programme. The talks were described as positive, and they agreed to meet again on May 23 in Baghdad. Barak told Israel's Army Radio he did not believe the talks would prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. "We regret the time being lost. This is precious time," he said. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said Iran got a "freebie" from the international community, saying the May meeting gave the Iranians an additional five weeks to continue uranium enrichment without any restrictions. He said Iran should be forced to stop this immediately. Netanyahu was publicly rebuked by President Barack Obama who said the US had not "given anything away" in the talks. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and says it does not seek a bomb. But the US and its allies do not take the promise seriously. The Obama administration has urgently sought to hold off Israeli military action, which would likely result in the US being pulled into a conflict as well.

NEWS,16.04.2012.

UN tightens North Korea sanctions

The UN Security Council on Monday tightened sanctions against North Korea over its failed rocket launch and warned of new "action" if the isolated state stages a new nuclear test.The 15-member council - including permanent member China - unanimously agreed a statement strongly condemning the launch on Friday which it said had caused "grave security concerns" in Asia.The council ordered new "entities and items" to be added to the sanctions committee list created after North Korea staged nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.It also ordered the sanctions committee to revise the individuals and North Korean firms and entities subject to the international measures.The council said the launch of the rocket, which disintegrated over the Yellow Sea shortly after it was sent up, was a "serious violation" of UN resolutions 1718 and 1874.North Korea said its rocket launch was a weather satellite, but the United States and its allies said it was an attempt to test a missile launcher.The council demanded that North Korea hold back from any launches "using ballistic missile technology," suspend "all activities related to its ballistic missile programme" and keep to its promised "moratorium on missile launches"."The Security Council expresses its determination to take action accordingly in the event of a further DPRK launch or nuclear test."

Iran nuclear dispute 'can be solved'

A semi-official Iranian news agency is quoting the country's foreign minister as saying that Tehran is ready to resolve all of its nuclear disputes in talks with world powers scheduled for late May in Baghdad.Isna on Monday quoted Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that Tehran is "ready to solve all issues very quick and easily" if there is goodwill.Tehran appears to be signalling flexibility after Saturday talks in Istanbul with world powers that both sides hailed as positive. They agreed to a new round of negotiations in the Iraqi capital.Salehi urged the West to lift sanctions imposed on Tehran after it refused to stop controversial nuclear activities that the US and its allies say are aimed at developing weapons technology. Iran denies the charges.

Karzai blames Nato for attacks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Monday blamed intelligence failures, particularly on the part of Nato forces supporting his government, for the worst coordinated insurgent attacks in 10 years of war.Karzai's accusation came after an unprecedented 18-hour assault by squads of Taliban militants, some disguised as women in burqas, on government offices, embassies and foreign bases in Kabul and neighbouring provinces."The terrorists' infiltration in Kabul and other provinces is an intelligence failure for us and especially for Nato and should be seriously investigated," Karzai said in a statement.Explosions and gunfire rocked the Afghan capital on Sunday and overnight before Afghan forces regained control, heightening fears for the future of the vulnerable nation as Nato prepares to withdraw its 130 000 troops.The Western alliance, which is committed to pulling out by the end of 2014 whatever happens militarily, put a positive spin on the attacks, hailing the performance of Afghan security forces.Karzai also praised the rapid response by Afghan security forces, saying it "proved to the people that they can defend their country successfully".But his laying of the major share of the blame on troops whose home countries are already tired of the long war and its enormous cost, is unlikely to go down well with his allies.The attacks in Kabul and neighbouring provinces killed 11 members of the security forces and four civilians and wounded 32 civilians and around 42 security personnel, Karzai said.Thirty-six insurgents were also killed, the interior ministry said."That they did manage to pull off simultaneous complex attacks shows quite a level of sophistication in preventing detection... so that would be a failure in intelligence," said Martine van Bijlert of the Afghanistan Analysts' Network."But having said that, in a big bustling city like Kabul it is incredibly difficult to stop this type of attack."Afghan security forces took the lead in countering the insurgents, who were finally routed early on Monday, but a spokesperson for Nato forces said they had provided air support in response to requests from the Afghans."I am enormously proud of how quickly Afghan security forces responded to [the] attacks in Kabul," said General John Allen, commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the ability of Afghan forces to respond to the attacks was a "clear sign of progress", while ISAF labelled the attacks "largely ineffective".However, the fact that so many militants managed to make it through Kabul's so-called "Ring of Steel" checkpoints and attack high-value targets was a propaganda coup for the Taliban.A Western diplomat with security expertise told AFP: "I don't share at all the optimism of Nato or the Americans."It's true that they did it better than in the past - there is progress but still, to build up so many attacks and being able to launch them simultaneously demonstrates clearly [the Taliban's] ability to strike where and when they want," he said on condition of anonymity.Nato insisted that the attacks would not influence its plans to withdraw."Clearly we still face security challenges," Nato spokesperson Oana Lungescu told a news briefing in Brussels. "But such attacks don't change the transition strategy, they don't change the goal and they don't change the time line that we all agreed to at the Lisbon summit in November 2010," she said.The US, British, German and Japanese embassy compounds came under fire as militants attacked the city's diplomatic enclave and tried to storm parliament, sparking a gun battle as lawmakers and bodyguards fired back from the rooftop.Outside the capital, militants attacked government buildings in Logar province, the airport in Jalalabad, and a police facility in the town of Gardez in Paktya province.The attacks marked the biggest assault on the capital in 10 years of war in terms of their spread and coordination, observers say.In September last year Taliban attacks targeting locations including the US embassy and headquarters of foreign troops in Kabul killed at least 14 during a 19-hour siege.And in August, nine people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the British Council cultural centre.

NEWS,15.04.2012.

Kim Jong Un's makes first public speech

 

Pyongyang - North Korea's new leader addressed his nation and the world for the first time on Sunday, vowing to place top priority on his impoverished nation's military, which promptly unveiled a new long-range missile.The speech was the culmination of two weeks of celebrations marking the centenary of the birth of his grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung - festivities that were marred by a failed launch on Friday of a rocket that generated international condemnation and cost North Korea a food aid-for-nuclear-freeze deal with Washington.Kim Jong Un's speech took North Koreans gathered at Kim Il Sung Square and around televisions across the country by surprise. His father, late leader Kim Jong Il, addressed the public only once in his lifetime.Appearing calm and measured as he read the 20-minute speech, Kim Jong Un covered a wide range of topics, from foreign policy to the economy. His speech, and a military parade that followed, capped the carefully choreographed festivities commemorating Kim Il Sung's birthday.It was the best look yet the outside world has had of the young Kim, who is believed to be in his late 20s.Punctuating Kim's message that the North will continue to pour funds into its military, the parade culminated with the unveiling of a new long-range missile, though it's not clear how powerful or significant the addition to the North Korean arsenal it is. Some analysts suggested it might have been a dummy designed to dupe outside observers.Although the rocket launch on Friday was a huge, costly embarrassment for the new leadership, Kim's address was seen by analysts as an expression of confidence by the young leader and meant to show that he is firmly in control."Superiority in military technology is no longer monopolised by imperialists, and the era of enemies using atomic bombs to threaten and blackmail us is forever over," Kim said.His message suggested no significant changes in national policy - the "Military First" strategy has long been at the centre of North Korea's decision-making process.But there was strong symbolism in the images of the new leader addressing the country on state TV and then watching - and often laughing and gesturing in relaxed conversation with senior officials - as the cream of his nation's 1.2 million-strong military marched by.Outside analysts have raised worries about how Kim, who has been seen but not publicly heard since taking over after his father's December death, would govern a country that has a nuclear weapons programme and has previously threatened Seoul and Washington with war.At the celebration of Kim Il Sung, he appeared to clear his first hurdle.The speech was a good "first impression for his people and for the world," said Hajime Izumi, a North Korea expert at Japan's Shizuoka University. "He demonstrated that he can speak in public fairly well, and at this stage that in itself - more than what he actually said - is important. I think we might be seeing him speak in public more often, and show a different style than his father."Kim said he will strengthen North Korea's defences by placing the country's "first, second and third" priorities on military might. But he said he is open to working with foreign countries that do not have hostile policies toward his nation, and said he would strive to reunify Korea.He also stressed the importance of national unity, calling his country "Kim Il Sung's Korea" rather than North Korea."That suggests to me that they want to let the country, and the world, know that this is a 'new' country," said Han S Park, a University of Georgia professor who works frequently with top US and North Korean officials, after watching the events in Pyongyang.Despite his youth, Kim has been groomed since his teens to step into this role, Park said, citing conversations with North Koreans with knowledge of the leader's personal history.Cha Myong Hui, a journalist with the government-run Minju Joson newspaper, said she was struck by how much he resembles his father and grandfather."I can tell you every person in my country cried when they heard his voice," she said.The young leader said he will aggressively pursue economic growth to improve people's daily lives. North Korea has suffered decades of economic hardship following a famine in the mid-1990s and the loss of aid from the Soviet Union. Kim Jong Un's formal three-year succession has coincided with a push to improve the economy by employing modern technology.Kim made no direct mention of the rocket failure. But North Korea's state media made an extraordinary announcement hours after the launch, saying that the attempt to send a satellite into space had flopped. It still claims past launches succeeded, which international experts deny.Concerns remain high that North Korea may now feel itself under pressure to make up for the botched rocket launch with a nuclear test - as it did in 2006 and 2009.The finale in Sunday's military parade added to the worries over North Korea's military. But analysts in Japan and South Korea said further examination is needed to determine whether it's a new intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea reportedly has been building.Narushige Michishita, a North Korea military expert at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said the missile appeared to be new, but strongly resembled the rocket used on Friday and also the long-range Taepodong-2, which North Korea first launched, unsuccessfully, in 2006.He said it probably has three stages but did not appear to be big enough to have the 15 000km range needed to effectively attack the United States, which would be the goal of an ICBM for the North."I don't think this is a serious ICBM," Michishita said. "Putting it on display has a psychological impact, and that would have been greater if Friday's launch had worked. But North Korea has a very bad record with long-range missiles. It think this is more a propaganda ploy than a military advance."

Ex-dictator admits 'disappearances'

 

Buenos Aires - Former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla admitted for the first time in a new book that "7 000 or 8 000 people" disappeared under his regime between 1976 and 1981.Caferino Reato, author of the book called Final Disposition, says Videla admitted the disappearances during 20 hours of interviews in the federal military prison where he is held."Let's say there were 7 000 or 8 000 people who had to die to win the war against subversion," the book quotes Videla as saying.Sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, the former dictator, 86, also admitted he decided on "the disappearance of the bodies to avoid provoking protests inside and outside the country," according to the book by Reato, who is a journalist and political scientist."Each disappearance must certainly be understood as a way to hide, to conceal a death," Videla is quoted as saying in excerpts published on the website of publisher Random House Mondadori.Videla was the first president of the last Argentine dictatorship, which ran from 1976 to 1983.He said insurgents compelled him to take action that ended in their disappearances and deaths."There was no other alternative," Videla said. Military leaders "were in agreement that it was the price that must be paid to win the war against subversion and we needed that it not be obvious so society would not realise it. It was necessary to eliminate a large group of people who could not be brought to justice nor shot either," he said.The author drew the name of the book, Final Disposition, from a comment made by Videla."Final Disposition" was the phrase used. They are two very military words and they mean to take something out of service that is useless. When, for example, you're talking about a piece of clothing that you no longer use or is no good because it's worn out, it goes to final disposition."The former general said that two months before the 24 March 24 1976 coup, military leaders began drawing up lists of people they thought should be arrested immediately after the overthrow of Isabel Peron, who was president from 1974 to 1976."There are no lists with the fate of the disappeared," Videla said. "There might be partial lists, but they're messy."He added that "from a strictly military point of view, we did not need the coup. It was a mistake."Humanitarian organisations estimate that about 30 000 people disappeared during the dictatorship, most of them in about 600 clandestine detention centres.The Argentine government continues to prosecute some of the accused human rights violators of the military dictatorship. There were 84 new convictions in 2011 and 843 more trials are pending.