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.

NEWS,14.04.2012.

North Korea's rocket launch failure an embarassment

 

North Korea said its much hyped long-range rocket launch failed, in a very rare and embarrassing public admission of failure by the hermit state and a blow for its new young leader who faces international outrage over the attempt.The isolated North, using the launch to celebrate the 100th birthday of the dead founding president Kim Il-sung and to mark the rise to power of his grandson Kim Jong-un, is now widely expected to press ahead with its third nuclear test to show its military strength.

"The possibility of an additional long-range rocket launch or a nuclear test, as well as a military provocation to strengthen internal solidarity is very high," a senior South Korean defense ministry official told a parliamentary hearing.The two Koreas are divided by the world's most militarised border and remain technically at war after an armistice ended the Korean War in 1953.The United States and Japan said the rocket, which they claimed was a disguised missile test and the North said was to put a satellite into orbit, crashed into the sea after travelling a much shorter distance than a previous North Korean launch.Its failure raises questions over the impoverished North's reclusive leadership which has one of the world's largest standing armies but cannot feed its people without outside aid, largely from its only powerful backer, China."(There is) no question that the failed launch turns speculation toward the ramifications for the leadership in Pyongyang: a fireworks display gone bad on the biggest day of the year," said Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations.In a highly unusual move, the North, which still claims success with a 2009 satellite that others say failed, admitted in a state television broadcast seen by its 23 million people that the latest satellite had not made it into orbit.The failure is the first major and very public challenge for the third of the Kim dynasty to rule North Korea just months into the leadership of a man believed to be in his late 20s."It could be indication of subtle change in the North Korean leadership in how they handle these things, something that may be different from the past," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute of Defense Analyses a thinktank affiliated with South Korean Defence Ministry."I mean it would have been unthinkable for them to admit this kind of failure in the past, something that could be seen as an international humiliation. The decision to have come out with the admission had to come from Kim Jong-un."Embarrassingly, the rocket flew for just a few minutes covering a little over 100km to explode over a sea separating the Korean peninsula and China, far less than the last rocket in 2009 that travelled 3,800km, alarming Japan which it over-flew.The launch is in breach of United Nations Security Council sanctions and drew condemnation from the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan.But North Korea looks to have avoided the threat of fresh UN sanctions - which neighbor Japan is pushing for - after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that at talks with his Chinese and Indian counterparts they had agreed new sanctions would do nothing to help resolve the situation.Regional powers are worried that the North is using launches to perfect technology to enable it to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States.North Korea has repeatedly defended its right to launch rockets for what it says are peaceful purposes and may have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the failed launch.China, the North's main backer, again appealed for "calm", although its failure to dissuade Pyongyang from undertaking the launch despite propping up the ailing and impoverished state, showed the limitations of its diplomacy, analysts said."North Korea's provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.The North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, said the first stage fell into the sea west of South Korea and the remainder was deemed to have failed."No debris fell on land," NORAD said. "At no time were the missile or the resultant debris a threat."

Chavez vows to knock out rivals despite tiring treatment

 

Feisty Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez acknowledged today that radiation treatment for cancer was wearing him down, but he vowed to squash his opponents in October's presidential election.Ramping up the political rhetoric at a huge rally to mark the 10th anniversary of his return to power after a brief coup, Chavez said three sessions of radiation therapy in Cuba had taken their toll.But he was more combative than usual, vowing to win the October 7 "by a knock-out," repeatedly denouncing his opponents as upper-class "bourgeoisie losers," and launching a new anti-coup force that would prevent any repeat of the events of 2002."I continue to recover from the surgery. The radiation has an impact on my body, it has some impact on my physical strength, but I am doing well. We will be alright, thank God," he told tens of thousands of supporters clad in red T-shirts in honor of his ruling Socialist Party.Chavez, 57, said his doctors had not decided whether he was fit to attend a summit of the hemisphere's leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, this weekend in Colombia.If he did attend, it would only be for a few hours before continuing on to Havana for a fourth session of radiation treatment. This time, he told the rally from the balcony of the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, he would spend the whole week in Cuba - longer than his recent trips.The president said he wanted to avoid "coming and going."His frequent visits to a tightly guarded hospital on the Communist-led island means he is taking himself off the political stage for much of the time, just as the opposition's candidate Henrique Capriles pushes on with a national campaign.The political temperature has heated up with the coup anniversary. All week, state TV has played video of the dramatic events of April 11-13, when big marches by both sides clashed in the streets around Miraflores and about 20 people died.Chavez was ousted from power for two days until giant demonstrations by his supporters, and allies in the military, returned him to power in a saga that has taken on almost religious overtones for some passionate "Chavistas."A decade later, they still fume at the illegality of how he was ousted from office. It is also an emotional date for some in the opposition who had a brief taste of long-sought power and a sense of what a post-Chavez Venezuela might feel like.Others in the opposition were happy to see him replaced, if only temporarily, but remain upset by how it happened.Chavez routinely accuses his political foes of plotting another attempt to seize power by force."Prepare yourselves to receive the biggest and most crushing defeat," he said as the crowd cheered.He gave very few details of the new anti-coup force he launched today, but his fiery comments set the stage for a bitterly contested election.They follow threats he made recently to nationalize private banks and any other local businesses that he said were supporting the opposition in its "violent plan" to topple him."We will make them repent forever," he said last month.While he has a solid 13 percentage point lead over Capriles in the most recent poll published last month, many Venezuelans remain undecided and Chavez faces his toughest electoral challenge.His illness has cast further doubt over the future of the man who has dominated politics in South America's biggest oil exporter during his 13 years in office.Very little is known about Chavez's health, including the type of cancer he is battling. He has undergone three operations in Cuba in less than a year and rumors persist that he is more ill than he has admitted.

NEWS,13.04.2012.

Russia rebukes North Korea for rocket launch

 

Russia has criticised North Korea for its rocket launch, saying that Pyongyang had defied the UN Security Council and that neighbouring powers all opposed it. Russia had urged Pyongyang not to conduct the launch, warning it would violate a UN Security Council resolution regardless of its purpose and complicate efforts to revive six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear programme."UN resolutions contain concrete calls not to conduct such launches, and this is the shared approach of ... Russia, China, the United States, South Korea and Japan," the Interfax news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying."These five (nations) are united in their position," said Lavrov, who was meeting the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers in Moscow today.Lavrov, whose country is a Group of Eight member along with six Western states and Japan, joined G8 foreign ministers in a statement condemning the launch and saying they were ready to consider measures in response.China's initial reaction sounded less critical, calling for calm and restraint from all sides.North Korea admitted its much hyped long-range rocket failed to deliver a satellite into orbit today while US and South Korean officials said it crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch.Regional powers have said that what North Korea has described as the launch of a weather satellite, months after Kim Jong-un succeeded his father as the leader of the reclusive state, is a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile."UN Security Council Resolution No. 1874 demands that the DPRK (North Korea) refrain from any launches using ballistic rockets. This applies to both military and civilian launches," Interfax quoted an unnamed Russian diplomat as saying.Russia, which shares a short border with North Korea - Moscow's client in the Soviet era - called on Pyongyang last month to refrain from the launch, expressing serious concern and calling for restraint from all sides.Russia has often balanced criticism of North Korea's nuclear activities and its missile launches with calls on other major powers to refrain from belligerent actions against Pyongyang, which it says can be counterproductive.A permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia is displeased when nations defy council resolutions, and North Korean missile tests have sparked concern among Russians living on the country's Pacific coast in the past.The UN Security Council was to meet today to discuss a possible condemnation of the launch, but Western diplomats said China was not expected to support new sanctions.Russia has been a participant in six-party talks with Pyongyang last held three years ago and hosted the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last August in Siberia, but has less influence on Pyongyang than China.McCully said the launch had violated the UN Security Council Regulations and had undermined efforts to build peace and stability in the region."It is a major disappointment following their recent agreement with the United States to put a moratorium on long-range missile launches," he said.  "The New Zealand government strongly urges North Korea to abide by its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, cease its provocations, and take steps to denuclearise." 

Cancer hasn't dimmed Hugo Chavez's electoral hopes

With less than six months left until Election Day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has hardly hit the campaign trail. Instead, he has been consumed with his fight against cancer, repeatedly traveling to Cuba for treatment and publicly vowing to defeat his illness. While cancer would end the presidential ambitions of many politicians, Chavez's struggle against the disease has in fact become his main rallying cry. Cancer could serve as a political asset if his health holds through the October vote, and that's the big "if" hanging over Venezuelan politics. Last week, Chavez offered his starkest outlook yet as he wept while holding hands with his parents at a Mass and then pleaded to Jesus Christ to give him more life. "Give me your crown, Christ," Chavez said in live footage broadcast nationwide. "Give me your cross, 100 crosses. I'll carry it, but give me life because there are still things left for me to do for these people and for this homeland. Don't take me away yet." Chavez said later that he has faith in a "miracle" as he undergoes radiation therapy in Cuba following two surgeries that removed tumors from his pelvic area. So far, what appears to be a serious life-or-death crisis hasn't dented his political support. To the contrary, one recent poll showed Chavez with a lead of 14 percentage points over rival Gov. Henrique Capriles. The poll by the firm Datanalisis had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. Chavez has managed to hold on to support even while his main image has been that of an ailing president climbing or descending airplane stairs on his frequent flights to and from Cuba for treatment. On top of that, many Venezuelans are supporting him despite 25-percent inflation and one of the worst homicide rates in the world. Information Minister Andres Izarra, one of Chavez's key aides, said on Monday that the president won't be out campaigning door-to-door like his rival because "he doesn't need to." Izarra also said Chavez's spirits are being lifted by his supporters. "That love of the people, it's arisen like a balsam, like part of his medicine, like part of his treatment to completely recover," Izarra said during a televised speech. On Friday, Chavez is expected to rally his supporters on the 10th anniversary of his return to power after a short-lived 2002 coup, and he has drawn a parallel between his cancer fight and his survival during that coup, when he was restored to the presidency amid large pro-Chavez street protests. "At that time, the love of the people rescued Chavez from the edge of death," Izarra said. "This time the love of the people is also rescuing Chavez from a particular health situation, in which if it weren't for that love, I'm sure his ailments would perhaps be greater." Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American studies professor at Florida International University in Miami, said compassion elicited by Chavez's illness "has naturally played to his advantage in the electoral process." "Not only President Chavez but certainly his supporters and certainly the people handling his political campaign are taking full advantage of it. And I think it would be crazy for them not to do so," Gamarra said. Chavez's illness also presents a challenge for the opposition, Gamarra said, because it might appear "cold and callous" to attack a seriously ill leader. For both sides in Venezuela's divided political landscape, Chavez's illness has the potential to be a game-changer. The subject of what would happen if Chavez were to die is taboo among his political allies, as leaders of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela insist that Chavez will be their candidate and that there is no backup plan. In the meantime, Chavez is adeptly using the uncertainty to once again cast himself as the protagonist in a larger narrative, at times evoking his own tragic hero, 19th century independence leader Simon Bolivar, who survived an assassination attempt and then resigned the presidency amid failing health. Bolivar was 47 when he died, and historians have generally cited tuberculosis as the cause. At a televised meeting this week, Chavez, 57, said the independence leader had been "left without people, left without soldiers." "What a painful end," Chavez said. In speeches and rallies, Chavez has regularly shouted the slogan: "We will live and we will win!" It appears to be both his personal mantra and his political bet. The odds of that bet remain unclear. Since he announced his diagnosis last June, Chavez has kept secret specifics about his illness such as the type of cancer and the precise location of the tumors that have been removed. Some medical experts say based on Chavez's accounts, it's very possible his cancer could come back yet again. "The tumor is recurrent, and to us that indicates that his chances for a cure are minimal because in cancer care, the best treatment is the first treatment," said Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Rochester, Minnesota. He noted that Chavez underwent surgery for a second tumor in February, indicating that his chemotherapy was ineffective. Other medical experts say that depending on the type and grade of Chavez's cancer, the outlook might not be so grim. Given Chavez's treatment regimen, he could have a soft-tissue sarcoma, said Dr. Steve Hahn, professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "It's not necessarily pessimistic," Hahn said. "If he had a low-grade sarcoma, then he really has very little chance of it spreading elsewhere and the radiation, if it prevents it from coming back in the pelvis ... that should pretty much hopefully be the end of the story for him, end of the story meaning control of his disease." Chavez's face has at times appeared puffy during his cancer treatments, and in September he acknowledged taking steroids along with other medications. Doctors say steroids can be prescribed as an anti-nausea medication to cope with the effects of chemotherapy and can help increase appetite and energy levels. Molina noted that excessive steroids use can spur side effects such as fluid retention, mood swings and increased blood pressure. "It's always possible that they gave him a short course of steroids, he felt good, and then he requested that, you know, keep on this. It's very hard when you're a president and you have the powers to say 'this is what I want to do,'" Molina said. The dearth of hard information about Chavez's illness, as well as the fluctuations in his tone and appearance, have fueled speculation and rumors about Chavez's health in the Venezuelan media and on the street. Chavez, for one, has urged political allies not to waste time responding to the gossip. Chavez communicated with the nation on Wednesday through several messages on his Twitter account while finishing his latest round of radiation treatment in Cuba. "I'm putting on my combat boots!" one of the messages read. "Wait for me!!" That night, Chavez made yet another homecoming at Caracas' airport, smiling as he descended the airplane stairs next to one of his daughters and saying he was doing well. He appeared vigorous as he chatted with aides at the presidential palace and reminisced about the 2002 coup during a televised talk that ended nearly an hour after midnight. Chavez's legions of supporters have shown intense loyalty to their hero, regularly gathering at government-organized events to pray for his health. On a downtown Caracas avenue, lampposts have been festooned with banners showing a healthy Chavez smiling and wearing the red beret of his years as an army paratrooper, along with the slogan: "Onward Commandant!" At one recent pro-Chavez rally outside the presidential palace, Magalys Martinez said she's optimistic Chavez can overcome his illness. "He very much wants to live," said Martinez, herself a cancer patient. "For this illness, what he needs to have is ambition to live." Another supporter at the rally, 63-year-old Bernarda Mena de Palacios, said she's thankful to Chavez for a government-run education program that helped her earn her high school diploma. "We're praying for the president," she said. "I have faith he's going to come out victorious. We can't lose a president like him."

NEWS,12.04.2012.

North Korean missile crisis: Will Pyongyang defy the world?

Fighter jets roared through the skies over downtown Pyongyang on Thursday as the world watched to see whether North Korea would defy international warnings and launch a long-range rocket over the Yellow Sea. The five-day window for the launch of a rocket mounted with an observation satellite opened on Thursday as North Koreans woke to details about developments at a Workers' Party conference where leader Kim Jong Un ascended to top posts and brought with him a new generation of officials. His father, Kim Jong Il, was granted the posthumous title of "eternal general secretary" at the special one-day party conference on Wednesday. The immortalisation of the late leader provided a glimpse into how North Korea will handle the nation's second hereditary succession and indicates he will be honored much in the same way his father, Kim Il Sung, was made "eternal president" following his 1994 death.Footage on state TV Thursday showed Kim Jong Un seated at the front of the conference with white statues of his grandfather and a new statue of his father in his trademark khaki work ensemble, one arm on his hip. There was no word on Thursday morning on the timing of the controversial launch, which the North has said will take place sometime between Thursday and Monday. In 2009, a similar launch from an east coast site took place on the second day of a five-day window. The United States, Japan, Britain and others say the launch would constitute a provocation and would violate UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs.
Experts say the Unha-3 carrier is similar to the type of rocket that could be used to fire a missile mounted with a nuclear warhead to strike the US or other targets.

 Software engineer's job best, reporter's fifth worst

A reporter's job figures among the ten worst professions, alongside the likes of butchers, waiters and dishwashers, as per a new study by the US-based consultancy CareerCast, which has named a software engineer's occupation as the best for the year 2012.The annual study has ranked a total of 200 jobs from best to worst on the basis of five core criteria such as physical demands, work environment, income, stress and hiring outlook.It mostly covered the jobs in the US and is based on data from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics and other government agencies.Among the ten worst jobs, the study has named a newspaper reporter's occupation at the fifth position, after that of a lumberjack, dairy farmer, enlisted military soldier and oil rig worker.Others in the ten worst jobs for 2012 include waiter/waitress, meter reader, dishwasher, butcher and broadcaster."As the digital world continues to take over and provide on-demand information, the need for print newspapers and daily newscasts is diminishing. To be sure, both jobs once seemed glamorous, but on-the-job stress, declining job opportunities and income levels are what landed them on our worst Jobs list," the report noted.The study has also listed out ten most stressful jobs and none of these occupations figure in the list of ten best jobs.CareerCast has ranked enlisted soldier, firefighter, airline pilot, military general, police officer, event coordinator, public relations executive, senior corporate executive, photo-journalist and taxi driver among the most stressful jobs.On the other hand, job of a software engineer has topped the list in the best jobs category, followed by actuary, human resources manager, dental hygienist and financial planner.Software engineers earn a median income of more than $ 88,000 with few physical demands and minimal stress, it noted.The report further said that those in the top categories earn between $ 68,000 to $ 104,000 annually.