Tag: InternationalNews

{{North Korea announced Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted.}}

The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions.

The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang’s decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test.

At the time, North Korea had custody of two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.

Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea’s far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media.

In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but North Korea accuses Bae, described as a tour operator, of seeking to overthrow North Korea’s leadership.

“In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. “His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment.”

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. No timing for the verdict issued at the austere Supreme Court in Pyongyang was given.

Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who traveled frequently to North Korea to feed the country’s orphans.

At least three other Americans detained in recent years also have been devout Christians. While North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the regime.

Under North Korea’s criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.

In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts after being arrested near the border with China and held for four months.

They were freed later that year to former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang to negotiate their release in a visit that then-leader Kim Jong Il treated as a diplomatic coup.

{AP}

{{Chilean police are searching for three people accused of burning a baby alive in a doomsday ritual.}}

Police began searching for the suspects on Friday in the southern region of Araucania.

Officials say the 3-day-old baby was thrown onto a bonfire in November because the leader of the sect believed that the child was the antichrist.

Police arrested four other members of the sect Thursday after a months-long investigation. Among them was the baby’s mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra.

In her written court statement, she said that all sect members knew that her child “would be murdered” and that they had to obey the leader because he “was God.”
The ringleader is 36-year-old Ramon Gustavo Castillo.

Police say he escaped to Peru and authorities are working with Interpol to capture him.

{AP}

{{An Iranian scientist held by the U.S. since late 2011 has returned to Iran.
The scientist, Mojtaba Atarodi said U.S. authorities had treated him “generally well.”}}

The microchip expert at Tehran’s high profile Sharif University, Atarodi was in U.S. custody since December 2011 over allegations he bought high-tech equipment in violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Atarodi arrived home via Oman, a Gulf state which has served as a mediator between Washington and Tehran before.

In 2012, the U.S. released Iranian national Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan after she spent five years in U.S. detention.

The U.S. has a history of occasional arrest and release of Iranian citizens on similar charges.

In 2010 and 2011, three Americans convicted of espionage by Iran returned home through Oman.

AP

{{The next head of the World Trade Organization will be either Mexico’s Herminio Blanco or Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, guaranteeing a Latin American nation will hold the top job at the global trade body for the first time.}}

Blanco and Azevedo emerged as the only candidates remaining after the second of three rounds of competition to succeed Pascal Lamy on Sept 1, a diplomatic source said on Thursday.

Three other candidates – Indonesia’s Mari Pangestu, New Zealand’s Tim Groser and South Korea’s Taeho Bark – were asked to withdraw from the race after not garnering sufficient support from the WTO’s 159 members, the source said.

The candidates were told of the results in a confidential meeting at the WTO’s headquarters where three senior ambassadors are presiding over a six-month process to pick a new WTO director general.

The winner, who will emerge by the end of May, faces a huge challenge of restoring confidence in the WTO’s ability to negotiate a global trade deal. The job confers little executive power, forcing the holder to rely on diplomacy, wit and persuasion.

Azevedo is Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO and Blanco is a veteran trade negotiator who led Mexico in the NAFTA free trade talks.

For both men their current posts were seen as handicaps they had to overcome. Some trade diplomats saw Azevedo as too junior and lacking ministerial rank, while others frowned on Blanco’s closeness to free-trade deals outside the WTO.

But the final pairing will please many WTO members who had said the next head of the organization should come from either Latin America or Africa. Some African nations may see the result as strengthening their own claim to the job next time around.

Two African candidates, from Kenya and Ghana, had been ejected after a first round earlier this month, along with contenders from Costa Rica and Jordan.

That round ended in acrimony, with Kenya saying the process was “grossly flawed” because one bloc – which diplomats said was a reference to the European Union – had not stuck to the rules of the competition.

The nine-strong field at the start of the competition was the biggest in the WTO’s 18 year history. It also included three women for the first time, but all three are now out of the race.

{reuters}

An Iranian Scientist Mojtaba Atarodi held hostage by the US since 2011 has arrived in Oman.

The announcement was made on Oman state owned television , However, no extra details were provided.

Oman has served as a mediator between Washington and Tehran before.

U.S. had seized Mojtaba since December 2011 over allegations he bought advanced technological equipment in violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Mojtaba is a microchip expert at Tehran’s Sharif University.

In September 2011, two Americans convicted of espionage by Iran were freed and traveled to Oman, which also briefly hosted a third member of the group after her release a year earlier.

The three Americans said they were hiking in northern Iraq and strayed across the Iranian border.

{wirestory}

{{A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing at least 38 people, most of them in their beds, officials said.}}

Health Ministry officials said that the one-story hospital housed patients with severe mental disorders.

Vadim Belovoshin from the emergency situations ministry official told media that the windows in the hospital were barred but said there were two fire escapes.

Belovoshin also said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.

Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they are looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the hospital fire in the Ramenskoye settlement.

Investigators listed 38 people — 36 patients and two doctors — as dead. Only one nurse and two patients managed to escape, according to the health ministry. The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly. Belovoshin said the fire first broke in a wooden annex.

A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds and did not try to escape.

Deadly fires are common in Russia because of wide-spread violations of fire safety rules.

{wirestory}

{{South Korea says Pyongyang has ignored Seoul’s deadline for responding to a demand for talks on a shuttered inter-Korean factory park.}}

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Friday that Seoul is considering countermeasures but refused to discuss what they might be.

Pyongyang barred South Korean managers and cargo from entering North Korea’s Kaesong factory complex this month and recalled 53,000 North Korean workers.

Seoul promised unspecified “grave measures” if Pyongyang didn’t respond to its demand for talks by noon Friday (0300GMT).

Some analysts said Seoul may pull out the roughly 175 South Korean managers who remain at the complex.

The suspension came amid weeks of North Korean threats aimed at Washington and Seoul over joint military drills and U.N. sanctions meant to penalize Pyongyang over its February nuclear test.

{wirestory}

{{Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s appeared for his 11th televised call-in show, the first since he returned to the presidency last year. }}

The show was broadcast on three federal TV channels — Channel One, Rossia 1 and Rossia 24 .

below are excerpts of the show

{{16:48}}: The call-in show has ended after almost five hours.

{{16:39}}: The show is ending on a series of more lighthearted questions. Sittel asked Putin whether he is happy. “That’s a philosophical question, but I’m eternally grateful for my fate and that Russian citizens have trusted me to lead the country. That is my life. Whether that’s enough, I don’t know,” Putin said.

{{16:33}}: The call-in show has just set a new record length, surpassing the duration of the 2011 show.

{{16:26}}: Putin’s call-in show is approaching its closing stages, according to the show’s hosts. For the final section, Putin is answering quickfire questions.

One such question concerned Putin’s successor. “Do you consider [Defense Minister] Sergei Shoigu as your successor?” Maria Sittel asked Putin. “The Russian people will choose my successor,” Putin replied.

{{16:18}}: Call-in show moderator Maria Sittel read out a question submitted by text message: “When will all the money for the Skolkovo innovation center be stolen?”

Putin vowed that “any plundering of money will be prevented.” Citing investigators, he said State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, who is suspected of illegally obtaining $750,000 from the Skolkovo Foundation, might have not performed the lectures he was paid to give.

“I don’t assert anything though,” Putin said. He didn’t mention Ponomaryov’s name but said that if investigators are wrong and the deputy gave the lectures, he did a good job. “Let him continue performing lectures, although I don’t know whether they’re worth $750,000.”

{{16:15}}: Commercial banks fuel risks in the economy by setting excessive interest rates, Putin said, adding that private lenders “are much too fond of their own benefits.” He also pointed out that Cyprus is not always a safe place to invest.

{{16:08}}: Putin assessed the development of Russia’s scientific infrastructure positively. He pointed out that Russia participates in many prominent international projects and provides scientific grants. “We have an intellectual services market, … but it’s difficult to promote it without government support,” he said.

{{16:05}}: А call center representative interrupts the call-in show to inform viewers and listeners that over 2 million people have submitted questions for today’s event. “An absolute record,” she says.

{{15:49}}: Putin defended the fact that French actor Gerard Depardieu received fast-tracked Russian citizenship, while other foreigners wait years to become Russian citizens. The president described Depardieu as a special case owing to his career as an actor who has contributed to Russian culture, describing Depardieu as an “impulsive man.”

Putin then invited other foreigners from CIS countries and further afield to become Russian citizens. “If they are of a reproductive age, are well-educated and can adapt well to our culture, we are waiting for such people,” he said.

{{15:39}}: Russia has the potential to develop shale gas exploration, Putin said. “I don’t think that we have slept through something here,” he said. He pointed out that shale gas exploration is extremely costly and requires strict environmental protection measures.

{{15:19}}: Editor-in-chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta Konstantin Remchukov asked the president about Russian-U.S. Relations and suggested finding a strategy to restore trust between the two sides, since the current situation recalls the Cold War.

Putin agreed with Remchukov that there is a coolness in Russia’s relationship with Western countries, especially the United States. But he laid the blame on the U.S. side for escalating the tension.

“Did we approve this Magnitsky List? Why on earth did they do that?” he said. Canceling the Jackson-Vanik amendment after Russia’s accession to the WTO was a good chance for the U.S. government to “forget everything from the Cold War era,” Putin claimed. He called the Magnitsky List the U.S. government’s effort to demonstrate that they are “the coolest,” accusing the U.S. of an “imperialist” attitude to foreign policy. He said Russian-U.S. relations deteriorated from the invasion of Iraq.

{{15:00}}: Fending off claims that authorities are clamping down on free speech on the Russian Internet, Putin said: “What restrictions on the Internet? It’s a free space, but society should be protected from pedophilia, child pornography, from sites promoting drug use and suicide. Such restrictions have been in developed countries for a long time.”

{{14:55}}

{{All the living American presidents past and present are gathering in Dallas, a rare reunion to salute one of their own at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.}}

Profound ideological differences and a bitter history of blaming each other for the nation’s woes will give way — if just for a day — to pomp and pleasantries Thursday as the five members of the most exclusive club in the world appear publicly together for the first time in years.

For Bush, 66, the ceremony also marks his unofficial return to the public eye four years after the end of his deeply polarizing presidency.

On the sprawling, 23-acre university campus north of downtown Dallas housing his presidential library, museum and policy institute, Bush will be feted by his father, George H.W. Bush, and the two surviving Democrats, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. President Barack Obama, fresh off a fundraiser for Democrats the night before, will also speak.

In a reminder of his duties as the current Oval Office inhabitant, Obama will travel to Waco in the afternoon for a memorial for victims of last week’s deadly fertilizer plant explosion.

Key moments and themes from Bush’s presidency — the harrowing, the controversial and the inspiring — won’t be far removed from the minds of the presidents and guests assembled to dedicate the center, where interactive exhibits invite scrutiny of Bush’s major choices as president, such as the financial bailout, the Iraq War and the international focus on HIV and AIDS.

On display is the bullhorn that Bush, near the start of his presidency, used to punctuate the chaos at ground zero three days after 9/11.

Addressing a crowd of rescue workers amid the ruins of the World Trade Center, Bush said: “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

“Memories are fading rapidly, and the profound impact of that attack is becoming dim with time,” Bush told media earlier this month.

“We want to make sure people remember not only the lives lost and the courage shown, but the lesson that the human condition overseas matters to the national security of our country.”

More than 70 million pages of paper records. Two hundred million emails. Four million digital photos. About 43,000 artifacts.

Bush’s library will feature the largest digital holdings of any of the 13 presidential libraries under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration, officials said.

Situated in a 15-acre urban park at Southern Methodist University, the center includes 226,000 square feet of indoor space.

A full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush’s tenure sits on the campus, as does a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.

In the museum, visitors can gaze at a container of chads — the remnants of the famous Florida punch card ballots that played a pivotal role in the contested 2000 election that sent Bush to Washington.

Former first lady Laura Bush led the design committee, officials said, with a keen eye toward ensuring that her family’s Texas roots were conspicuously reflected. Architects used local materials, including Texas Cordova cream limestone and trees from the central part of the state, in its construction.

The public look back on the tenure of the nation’s 43rd president comes as Bush is undergoing a coming-out of sorts after years spent in relative seclusion, away from the prying eyes of cameras and reporters that characterized his two terms in the White House and his years in the Texas governor’s mansion before that.

As the library’s opening approached, Bush and his wife embarked on a round-robin of interviews with all the major television networks, likely aware that history’s appraisal of his legacy and years in office will soon be solidifying.

An erroneous conclusion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a bungling of the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and a national debt that grew much larger under his watch stain the memory of his presidency for many, including Obama, who won two terms in the White House after lambasting the choices of its previous resident.

But on Wednesday, Obama staunchly defended Bush’s commitment to the America’s well-being while addressing Democratic donors.

“Whatever our political differences, President Bush loves this country and loves his people and shared that same concern, and is concerned about all people in America,” Obama said.

“Not just some. Not just those who voted Republican.”

There’s at least some evidence that Americans are warming to Bush’s presidency four years after he returned to his ranch in Crawford, even if they still question his judgment on Iraq and other issues.

While Bush left office with an approval rating of 33 percent, that figure has climbed to 47 percent — about equal to Obama’s own approval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released ahead of the library opening.

Bush pushed forcefully but unsuccessfully for the type of sweeping immigration overhaul that Congress, with Obama’s blessing, is now pursuing. And his aggressive approach to counterterrorism may be viewed with different eyes as the U.S. continues to be touched by acts of terrorism.

Although museums and libraries, by their nature, look back on history, the dedication of Bush’s library also offers a few hints about the future, with much of the nation’s top political brass gathered in the same state.

Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, stoked speculation about her own political future Wednesday in a Dallas suburb when she delivered her first paid speech since stepping down as secretary of state earlier this year.

And Bush talked up the presidential prospects of his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in an interview that aired Wednesday.

“He doesn’t need my counsel, because he knows what it is, which is, ‘Run,’” Bush said.

Obama, too, may have his own legacy in mind. He’s just a few years out from making his own decision about where to house his presidential library and the monument to his legacy.

{wirestory}