health: Lincoln Tribune

الاثنين، 2 يناير 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Seoul Sees Opportunity for Better Ties with North Korea
Iran test fires missiles during war games
Moscow police detain 60 during anti-government protest
Turkish state official attacked in village where airstrike killed dozens
Nearly 1,600 kidnapping victims in Mexico rescued in 5 years

Seoul Sees Opportunity for Better Ties with North Korea

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 11:05 PM PST

South Korea's president is predicting "big changes" on the peninsula following last month's death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

President Lee Myung-bak, delivering his nationally televised New Year's address Monday, spoke of a turning point that he hopes can lead to progress.

Mr. Lee says South Korea is ready to resolve security concerns on the peninsula and provide assistance to revive impoverished North Korea's economy. But that can only happen, he explains, if Pyongyang suspends its nuclear development and an agreement can be reached at six-party talks.

The international talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program have been on hiatus for several years.

The South Korean president also reiterated a warning that Seoul will respond strongly to any further provocation from Pyongyang.

Tension on the peninsula soared to its highest level in decades after two fatal incidents last year that the South blamed on the North: the sinking of a coastal naval vessel and the shelling of an island near disputed frontier waters in the Yellow Sea.

North Korea is maintaining its harsh criticism of the South Korean president. The latest commentary in a party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, demands Mr. Lee "kneel down and apologize" for his stance towards the North.

Pyongyang does not have diplomatic relations with either Seoul or Washington. The two Koreas never signed a peace treaty following their civil war six decades ago. But during 2011 North Korea was engaged in separate one-on-one preliminary talks with both South Korea and the United States. Those discussions, prior to Kim Jong Il's death, raised hopes there might be a resumption soon of the long-stalled six-way talks about North Korea's nuclear programs.

But the immediate priority in Pyongyang appears to be on securing an orderly transition to a third generation of the Kim family.

The announcer on North Korea' central television Monday requests the people follow, politically and militarily, the new supreme commander, Kim Jong Un.

North Korea's New Year's message, carried in the newspapers the previous day, urged everyone to be "human shields" to defend Mr. Kim "unto death."

Mr. Kim, who is under 30 years of age, has yet to be bestowed all of the key leadership titles of his late father. Besides being officially deemed supreme commander of the military and supreme leader of the country's only political party, he is now referred to as the "Great Successor."

North Korea's news agency says Mr. Kim, on New Year's Day, was already at work. He paid his respects at a mausoleum to his father and grandfather - Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder - and inspected a military tank division.

Iran test fires missiles during war games

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 06:58 PM PST

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- The Iranian Navy on Sunday test fired a medium range missile which is designed to evade radars, state-run media reported. It comes a day after Iran test fired long range missiles.

The missile tests, which were announced earlier this week, are part of a 10-day naval exercise which began on December 24. The war games are reportedly being held in an attempt by the Iranian government to prove its ability to respond to any foreign attack.

During Sunday's games, described as the 'power phase', the Iranian Navy test fired what it said is its first domestically-built, medium-range anti-radar missile. Few details about the test were provided, but state-run media said the surface-to-air missile was launched in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the war games which were dubbed 'Velayat 90', told Iran's Press TV that the missile launched on Sunday was designed and manufactured by Iranian experts. He said it is equipped with modern technology and a system which enables it to target radio emission sources and thwart jammes.

On Saturday, the Iranian Navy test fired long-range missiles in the Sea of Oman. More missiles are expected to be launched on Monday as the war games continue.

On Tuesday, Iran said the missiles would be tested in order to prepare for possibly having to confront an enemy in a war situation. They said they would test short-range, mid-range and long-range missiles, as well as torpedoes before the end of the games.

Moscow police detain 60 during anti-government protest

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 04:19 PM PST

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- Russian police arrested at least 60 people in the capital of Moscow on Saturday during anti-government protests, the country's RIA Novosti news agency reported on Sunday.

Around 300 people, including protesters and journalists, gathered at Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square to participate in the opposition demonstration, which had not been authorized. Police later said "approximately 60" people were detained.

According to reports, police detained anyone who was carrying a placard or giving an interview to media correspondents. Firebrand writer and activist Eduard Limonov, the leader of the Other Russia movement, was one of those detained on Saturday.

About an hour before the protests, police parked about 40 buses and trucks around the square and closed off pedestrian access. Triumfalnaya is the regular venue for unsanctioned Strategy-31 protests held on the 31st of the month to highlight Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.

Sixty-eight people were detained at last year's protest in Moscow, including opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin.

Throughout December, huge demonstrations have taken place across the country to criticize the recent elections which they claim were rigged in favor of Vladimir Putin's governing United Russia party. Some of the demonstrations have been the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

On December 4, Russia held parliamentary elections which many Russian voters and international observers said were marred by large-scale fraud. The ruling United Russia party won more votes than any of the other three parties, but it still suffered a significant drop from the two-thirds constitutional majority it has enjoyed for the past four years.

Turkish state official attacked in village where airstrike killed dozens

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 04:10 PM PST

ANKARA (BNO NEWS) -- A group of angry Kurds on Saturday attacked a Turkish government official in the Uludere district of Sirnak province where 35 civilians were killed in an airstrike earlier this week, the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Sunday.

A group of people wielding sticks attacked and hurled stones at the deputy governor of Uludere, Naif Yavuz, who was traveling to Gülyazı village to offer condolences over the killings. The 35 civilians were mistakenly killed when Turkish warplanes carried out an airstrike in Uludere on Wednesday night after receiving information that Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members were preparing to cross into Sirnak.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Hasip Kaplan has warned against any visits from state officials to the village of Uludere. "The people do not want to see them [state officials] right now," Kaplan said, as quoted by the newspaper. "If they come here, we would not be able to control the young people."

"Everyone will be armed," Kaplan said and added that any state visit to the village would act as a provocation.

The Turkish government on Friday said it regretted the airstrike along the Turkey-Iraq border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had noticed that nearly 40 people were moving in a region where the main camps of the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are situated.

"Naturally it is not possible for unmanned aerial vehicles to identify the group exactly. In a further identification, it is revealed that the group was comprised of cigarette and diesel oil smugglers," Erdogan added.

A mass funeral for the victims took place on Friday afternoon in Uludere. Thousands of Kurds gathered to mourn the victims and condemn the attack.

The PKK, which has been labeled as a terrorist organizations by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, was established in 1984 in its efforts to establish the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey as an autonomous Kurdish state. Over 40,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in violent clashes since the group took arms. The PKK maintains its military bases across the Iraqi border.

Nearly 1,600 kidnapping victims in Mexico rescued in 5 years

Posted: 01 Jan 2012 04:01 PM PST

MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) -- More than a thousand kidnapping victims have been rescued by Mexican authorities over the past five years, the country's Public Security Ministry said in a report on Sunday.

According to the federal police, a total of 1,587 kidnapping victims have been rescued, including 704 who were rescued in 2011 alone. Meanwhile, 1,756 people accused of belonging to gangs of kidnappers have been arrested over the five-year period, the report said.

The report also showed that three out of ten people arrested by the federal police, accused of belonging to gangs of kidnappers, are directly related to criminal groups engaged in drug trafficking. Of the 527 people accused of kidnapping and having links to organized crime, more than half belong to Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

The vast majority of suspects are men between 25 and 35 years old, although 8.1 percent were women. The report also reveals that organized crime groups prefer to recruit minors for kidnapping activities.

According to government figures, a total of 15,273 drug-related crimes were reported to authorities in Mexico in 2010. More than 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderón began his campaign to fight organized crime in December 2006, although some estimates put that number at more than 45,000.

health

الاثنين، 2 يناير 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Lincoln Tribune

ليست هناك تعليقات:

إرسال تعليق