PYONGYANG, March 26 (Xinhua) — The Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) accused the United States and South Korea of plotting to bring down its socialist system, the official KCNA news agency reported Thursday.
Several institutes of South Korea would hold a conference under U.S. command to discuss how to topple the DPRK\’s socialist system, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People\’s Army said in a statement.
This clearly proves that the United States and South Korea lacked the sincerity to improve their relationship with the DPRK, but instead sought to \”bring down its system\” and start a war, the spokesman said.
The People\’s Army and the people of the DPRK have a firm, unshakable faith, he added.
He stressed that the DPRK will bolster up its \”nuclear deterrent\” for self-defense capable of warding off any attack, and keep its arms ready for action all the times.
\”Those who seek to bring down the system in the DPRK … will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army and the just war to be waged by all the infuriated service personnel and people,\” he said.
The South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo reported that several institutes of South Korea would hold a conference presided over by the United States in mid-April to discuss the possibility of \”contingency\” in the DPRK and a \”proposal for cooperation.\”
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ISLAMABAD, March 26 (Xinhua) — Taliban militants in a pre-dawn attack on a security checkpost in a Pakistani tribal region killed five soldiers and injured several others on Friday, security sources said.
A senior army officer Lt. Colonel Anwar Abbas was among those killed when the militants launched attack in Orakzai tribal region, where the security forces, backed by fighter planes, are engaged in major operation, they said.
Sources said that the security forces launched counter attacks and killed at least 25 militants at Kayala checkpost in Orazkai.
There had been no independent confirmation of the casualties.
The security forces have started limited air strikes in Orakzai, the stronghold of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Officials said that a large number of militants fled from South Waziristan have arrived in Orakzai agency.
Thousands of people have been shifted to safe places as the security forces stepped up operations in the area. Locals said that some 80 percent people have left the area and moved to nearby cities including Hangu and Kohat.
On Thursday, jet fighters bombed a militants-linked religious seminary and a school in Orakzai agency and killed at least 11 militants, bringing death toll of the militants to 60, officials said.
Officials said the jet planes hit a seminary where the militants were holding meeting inside the compound at Mamozai area, the stronghold of the militants in Orakzai region.
Locals said that a nearby private school also came under the attack. Both buildings were completely destroyed, they said.
Several locals said that the jet fighters also bombed a center of non-political Tablighi Jmaat, where people gather on Thursday night for Islamic lectures.
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BANGKOK, March 26 (Xinhua) — Thai authorities has been on alert and prepared tight security measures for the 122 Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and Related Meetings this weekend.
Panitan Wattanayagorn, acting government spokesman, told a press briefing following a security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday night.
He said the meeting discussed security arrangements for the IPU between March 27 and April 1 at the Centara Grand, in Bangkok, when over 1,200 delegates from 124 countries are due to attend.
The police authorities are already working closely with National Assembly of Thailand, the host of the meeting, to ensure that there is adequate security and traffic facilitation in place for the venue of the meeting, the delegates, and their places of accommodation.
In view of the ongoing demonstrations led by the United front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), the police are also instructed to coordinate with the UDD leaders to ensure that there is no misunderstanding and that the IPU meeting can proceed smoothly.
The spokesman expressed confidence that the Thai people, whatever their political differences, will display their traditional hospitality in welcoming the international delegates to the IPU meeting.
\”The government is determined to avoid any undue activity to disrupt such important international gathering, since it would negatively impact the image of Thailand and the Thai people as a whole,\” he said.
He added that the police authorities also reported to the meeting the enhanced security measures which have been put in place following several incidents in Bangkok over the last few days.
Another 13 checkpoints jointly manned by both police and military personnel have been set up in Bangkok and surrounding areas.
As for the police investigation into earlier incidents, there has been good progress and warrants have been issued for the questioning of suspects.
Panitan categorically denied that the government was behind the incidents, since it was the duty of the government to provide security, not undermine it, and the government will not gain anything from creating such incidents.
As for the planned large-scale demonstration by the UDD on Saturday, it is expected that most people, who will join this activity, will be from Bangkok and surrounding provinces.
As usual, the government and the authorities will coordinate with the UDD leadership about security and traffic facilitation.
http://www.lersus.com
NEW DELHI, March 26 (Xinhua) — A major fire triggered a blast at an ammunition depot early Friday morning in an Indian Army base in eastern West Bengal\’s Panagarh town, some 100 km north of state capital Kolkata, an Indian army official said.
\”The fire broke out in a store house of the depot at 1:30 a.m. Friday. Within five minutes, the entire fire fighting machinery of the Army was activated to battle the blaze,\” Wing Commander M. Upasani of Eastern Command told local media.
However, there were no reports of casualties. Army personnel tried to reign in the fire throughout the night and it was brought under control around 3:30 a.m., but the facility was totally destroyed, he said.
Though the Indian Army has ruled out any act of sabotage, a court of inquiry will be soon formed to ascertain the cause of the fire.
In Panagarh are located one of the largest ammunition depots of the Indian Army and an important Indian Air Force base. An airport is also built here, extensively used by Indian Air Force.
http://www.znnw.com
ALMATY, March 26 (Xinhua) — According to the preliminary results by Tajikistan\’s electoral commission on Friday, 25 members for the country\’s upper house have been chosen.
Tajikstan\’s politicians went to the polls Thursday to choose 25 members for the country\’s upper house of parliament, following elections for the lower chamber earlier this month.
Members of the local district parliaments will choose five Senate members for each of the five districts to sit in the 33-seat Senate, according to reports reaching here from Dushanbe.
The remaining eight seats will be appointed by President Emomali Rakhmon.
Since its independence in 1991, Tajikistan has held three parliamentary elections in 1995, 2000 and 2005.
http://www.zokn.com
MANILA, March 26 (Xinhua) — Philippine First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was still being monitored on Friday for possible complications due to the tearing of another section in the wall of his heart\’s main artery, doctors said.
Jose Miguel Arroyo was rushed to the St. Luke\’s Global City Hospital in Taguig City Thursday morning after complaining of back pains. His doctors tried to prevent a rupture in his artery by lowering his blood pressure.
The First Gentleman\’s aorta suffered a tear on April 9, 2007 and he underwent a heart bypass operation.
A medical bulletin released by the hospital Friday morning reported a \”marked improvement\” in his back pain so that his pain reliever would just be given on an \”as-needed basis.\”
Dr. Juliet Gopez Cervantes, Arroyo\’s attending physician who read the medical bulletin, said the First Gentleman\’s doctors are reducing the dosage of his anti-hypertension drugs following the lowering of his elevated blood pressure.
\”We are now gradually putting him on progressive diet. While his overall condition is remarkably improved, we still have to closely monitor him as he could still encounter some possible complications of his re-dissection of thoracic aorta,\” Cervantes said, adding the hospital will issue another medical bulletin on Saturday.
Philippine presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo called for prayers for Mr. Arroyo\’s recovery and for the comfort of the First Family, especially President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who has canceled all her schedules since Thursday.
Saludo urged cabinet members and other top government officials to \”lighten the burden of the President\” by \”redoubling efforts to address pressing concerns of our people, especially hardships brought by El Nino\” and finish her development agenda before she steps down in June.
http://www.gemuhope.com
NEW DELHI, March 23 (Xinhua) — India\’s extreme left-wing Naxalite rebels have been on an offensive in eastern India since Monday night in the wake of a two-day strike in six states, killing at least one of the security personnel and disrupting train services by blowing up railway tracks.
\”At least one security man has been killed in overnight encounter in Jharkhand, eastern India, where some 50 armed Naxalites and more than 30 security men have been engaged in a fierce gunbattle at the Chowka police station near Saraikela since Monday night,\” a senior police official said.
In the neighboring state of Bihar, seven coaches, along with the engine of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train, got derailed near Gaya station after Naxalites blew up a section of a railway track in the area, the official said.
However, there were no casualties as the train was running at a slow speed and so it did not fall on its side after being derailed, he said.
The Naxalites also blew up railway tracks in Jharkhand\’s Ranchi district, between Jhargram and Gidhni in West Bengal and near Birsa railway station in Orissa, both in eastern India.
\”The attack on the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani late Monday night was part of a coordinated strike on railway tracks in four states – - Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Orissa. This was a well-planned effort by the rebels to completely disrupt the Howrah-Mumbai and Howrah-Delhi trunk routes at three places,\” a railway spokesperson said.
The Naxalites have called the strike across West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh as well as three districts of Maharashtra beginning on Monday.
The bandh (strike) has been called in protest against the Operation Greenhunt, the Indian government\’s latest offensive against the rebels. The bandh also protests the Union Budget, which the rebels have labeled as \”anti-poor.\”
Naxalites are now considered the biggest internal security threat by the Indian government.
According to statistics, Naxalites are active across approximately 220 districts in 20 states of India, accounting for about 40 percent of India\’s geographical area.
According to intelligence reports, 20,000 armed Naxalites were operating apart from 50,000 regular cadres working in their various organizations.
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JAKARTA, March 26 (Xinhua) — Flood in West Java province of Indonesia has forced more than 24,900 people to take shelters as their houses have been submerged since earlier this week, the Disaster Management Agency reported here Friday.
The floods in Karawang of the province have submerged over 15, 000 houses since Tuesday, it occurred after the authorities opened the water gate at Jatiluhur dam at the province, as the dam could not hold water as its volume has exceeded the dam capacity, spokesman of the agency Priyadi Kardono said.
\”Heavy rains for days have led more waters from several areas flow into the Jatiluhur dam, so the dam could not hold the excessive water,\” he told Xinhua over phone.
The spokesman said that most of the evacuees lived in tents and got relief aids from the government.
The waters submerged the houses up to three meters high, he said.
But, the spokesman said that so far there was no casualties of the natural disaster.
Indonesia has been frequently hit by floods and landslide. The lack of forest-covered areas has been blamed for the natural disaster.
http://www.marconimedical.com
HANOI, March 23 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet said here on Tuesday that Vietnam expects to further strengthen cooperation with Russia in all fields, especially trade and investment, national defense and security.
Triet made the statement while welcoming Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on his visit to Vietnam.
Expressing thanks to Russia\’s support to Vietnam\’s national course of national defense and construction, Triet said that Vietnam will always be a good friend of Russia. Vietnam and Russia have seen fine development in past years.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov briefed Triet on outcome of talks between national defense ministries of the two countries during his visit.
The two sides agreed to tighten military and technical cooperation for national defense and security, said Anatoly Serdyukov.
Anatoly Serdyukov said that Russia always sees Vietnam as a strategic partner, Vietnamese people as close friend. Therefore, Russia will continue to deepen and foster the comprehensive relation with Vietnam.
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BANGKOK, March 26 (Xinhua) — Thailand\’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has ordered involved authorities, including police, to ensure security for participants of the 122nd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and Related Meetings, state media reported Friday.
Though the red-shirted protesters announced they would not march to the meetings\’ venue, the peace-keeping operation center has coordinated with the Parliament and police to ensure security for the meeting participants, government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said late Thursday, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported.
Members and associated members from 153 countries will attend the 122nd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly and Related Meetings from March 27 to April 1 at a hotel in the center of capital Bangkok.
The meetings coincide with the mass rally staged by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) which has mobilized tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters since March 12 to press Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve the Lower House of parliament and call new election.
The main rally site of UDD is located at the Phan Fah Bridge in the center of capital Bangkok.
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BANGKOK, March 26 (Xinhua) — The Metropolitan Police are ready to deal with the red-shirted protesters\’ march around the capital Bangkok Saturday, spokesman of the Metropolitan Police Bureau Major General Piya Utayo said Friday. the National News Bureau of Thailand .
The march will coincide with the opening of the 122nd Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly and Related Meetings in Bangkok.
The meetings will be held at Centara Grand Hotel at Ratchaprasong Intersection in central Bangkok drawing over 2,000 participants from 153 countries.
Piya said that security will be beefed up at Ratchaprasong Intersection.
Police Major General Wichai Sangprapai has been appointed to negotiate with the protesters to avoid marching nearby or to the meetings\’ venue.
Ten of thousands of protesters led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) have held mass rally in Bangkok since March 12 to press Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve the Lower House of parliament and call new election.
http://www.znnw.com
by Jamil Bhatti, Yangtze Yan
ISLAMABAD, March 26 (Xinhua) — \”We want a promotion of the Gandhara heritage of Pakistan under many steps that we have proposed to the government of Pakistan,\” a chief monk said Friday in Islamabad.
A group of 10 top monks from Thailand, led by Phallop Thaiarry, the secretary general of World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB), is on an official visit to Pakistan, a center of the ancient Gandhara civilization.
\”Pakistan can be a great Buddhist pilgrimage destination in the world,\” said the chief monk after visiting the historical museum and the archaeological site in Taxila, 32 km to the northwest of Islamabad.
The ruins of Taxila consist of many different parts of the city buildings and buddhist stupas which are located in a large area. In 1980, Taxila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with multiple locations and recently it has been ranked as the top tourist destination with Gandhara heritage.
Gandhara is the name of an ancient kingdom, located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River. The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from early 1st millennium BC to the 11th century and attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Buddhist Kushan Kings.
The WFB offered to promote Gandhara heritage including the establishment of Gandhara chair in any renowned university and association of WFB with some of Pakistani institutions and the translation of literature on Gandhara in Thai Language.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari assured the delegation to preserve and develop the ancient cultural heritage of Gandhara to promote the inter-faith harmony and the tourism in the country.
\”The existence of large number of Buddhist stupas and monasteries in Gandhara, is very sacred for Buddhists and an important part of our historic culture,\” Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti told Xinhua.
\”The government always takes care of these sacred religious sites and welcomes tourists to Pakistan,\” said Bhatti.
Besides Taxila, the neighboring districts of Mansehra, Swabi, Mardan, Swat, Peshawar and the Khyber Agency also possess many similar sites, including the edicts of Indian King Ashoka (304 BC – 232 BC) engraved on stones.
During 1990s, a large number of tourists, cultural enthusiasts, scholars and Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world started to crowd in Pakistan. But tourism rate dropped drastically after 9/11 in America, as the war on terror spread to Pakistan.
The visiting monks told media at Taxila that they would love to come to Pakistan again for religious tourism and would also promote it in their own country.
\”We had a lucky chance to visit spiritual place Taxila, it was an amazing site. The people of Pakistan are friendly and kind, I shall try visit again,\” said Dr Anil Sakya, an anthropologist and a monk by birth.
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TOKYO, March 26 (Xinhua) — Japan\’s Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima on Friday that the possibility of Japan sticking to an existing accord with Washington to relocate a U.S. military facility within Okinawa would be close to impossible.
Kitazawa told the Okinawa Governor that the central government is considering a number of alternative scenarios that would involve relocating the functions of U.S. Marine Corps\’ Futemma Air Station to more than one place and as such the possibility of Japan sticking to the existing bilateral accord made by the two countries in 2006 has become \”extremely close to zero,\” local media sources reported.
Meanwhile Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos in Tokyo to present the alternative scenarios and agreed with a plan to start working-level consultations over the issue soon.
\”Today, the government of Japan shared its current thinking with regard to the Futemma issue, which we will carefully consider, \” Roos said in a written statement after talks with Okada.
\”The United States and Japan will continue to work together as allies in a spirit of partnership as we move forward to resolve this issue,\” said Roos.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said earlier that his government had just begun the process of briefing local Okinawa officials and U.S. delegates involved on the options being considered and resolved to settle the issue by the self-imposed deadline of the end of May.
\”We will decide by the end of this month on a government plan for the relocation, which is intended to gain understanding of Okinawa, the public, and the United States. We have just started to give explanations as to what we\’ll do,\” said Hatoyama.
Ahead of Okada\’s possible visit to the U.S. in the next few days, Friday\’s developments will further test the patience of Washington whose stance on the matter has remained unequivocal — repeatedly calling for Tokyo abide by the existing agreement, as the U.S. for their part believe this represents the best way forward.
The existing agreement, which took years to reach, was for the heliport functions of the Futemma facility, located in a crowded residential area in Ginowan, to be transferred to a coastal area of the U.S. Marines\’ Camp Schwab in the city of Nago, Okinawa by 2014.
However the Democratic Party of Japan-led government has earmarked three alternative locations as possible sites for the relocation: the inland part of Camp Schwab, a marine area to be reclaimed off the coast around the U.S. Navy\’s White Beach facility in Uruma, Okinawa, and Tokunoshima Island located outside Okinawa in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Currently being proffered by DPJ is the idea of transferring some of the training drills currently held at the Futemma facility outside Okinawa to reduce the burden on southern island prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
JAKARTA, March 26 (Xinhua) — ASEAN member countries will sign a dispute settlement mechanism during the regional grouping\’s summit on April 9-11 in Hanoi, a paper reported here Friday.
Foreign Ministry\’s director for ASEAN political and security cooperation Ade Padno quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that the mechanism is aimed at resolving disputes resulting from different interpretation on the ASEAN Charter and its instrument.
\”There are three options to settle dispute, namely: mediation, conciliation, good offices and arbitrary,\” he said, adding that third parties could be involved in the dispute settlement upon approval of the disputed parties.
The director said that some pending issues, including sanctions for non-compliance, would be negotiated further after the signing.
The summit will also inaugurate the guideline of Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), dubbed ASEAN peace treaty.
\”The guideline will allow countries with substantial relations with ASEAN to accede to TAC,\” he said.
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NEW DELHI, March 26 (Xinhua) — India\’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top leader L.K. Advani Friday landed into trouble, after his former female security officer deposed against him in a 1992 mosque demolition case in the northern state Uttar Pradesh which triggered communal riots in India.
Sources said that Gupta told a special Central Bureau of Investigation court hearing the case that she accompanied Advani to Ram Katha, a place where the dais was located, near the disputed structure, on Dec. 6, 1992.
\”She said she recognized 80 to 100 people, who were on the dais, by face. Advani and others, she said were there on the dais till 19:55 p.m.,\” the sources said.
\”Gupta also told the court in Rae Bareilly that Advani gave an instigating speech which encouraged the crowd. Advani repeatedly told the crowd that a temple would be built at the disputed site. She also said that BJP hardliner, Vinay Katiyar, delivered a provocative speech and encouraged the crowd gathered, and as the dome of the mosque fell, sweets were distributed,\” the sources said.
The case dates back to 1992 when Babri Masjid or Mosque of Mughal ruler Babur in Ayodhya was destroyed during a political rally by Hindu outfits which developed into a riot involving 150, 000 people, despite a commitment to the country\’s Supreme Court by the rally organizers that the mosque would not be harmed.
More than 2,000 people were killed in ensuing riots across India, including Mumbai.
http://www.zokn.com
by Kim Junghyun
SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) — Tensions between South Korea and the Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) intensified this week over suspended cross-border tour programs.
The DPRK has warned of \”extraordinary measures\” including seizure of South Korean assets in the tourist resorts unless Seoul agrees to resume the tour to a mountain resort and a border town in neighboring DPRK.
FRAGILE SYMBOL OF PEACE
The tour to a scenic mountain and a historic border town, flourished under a decade of liberal rule of former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, have been a long-standing but fragile symbol of peace and cooperation on the Korean peninsula divided in half following the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Tour to Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998 and run by South Korea\’ s Hyundai Asan Corp., had attracted more than 1.95 million South Korean tourists until a fatal shooting incident put the tour on hold in 2008.
Tour to the border town of Keasong, home to an ancient capital of an early Korean dynasty, were also launched in December 2007. Several hundreds of tourists visited the town on a daily basis before the tour was suspended a year later due to tension between the two Koreas.
President Lee Myung-bak, whose hard-line policy strained the inter-Korean ties, halted Kumgang tours after a female South Korean tourist was shot dead by a DPRK soldier for allegedly entering military no-go area near the resort in July 2008.
CARROT-AND-STICK APPROACH
At Pyongyang\’s request, the two Koreas held working-level talks earlier this year on reviving the moribund tour projects, but only reaffirmed their differences.
Seoul reiterated its position that tour to Kumgang resort would not resume until safety measures was taken to prevent similar tragedy and the truth of the shooting incident was found, while Pyongyang claimed the preconditions have been met.
The row further deepened in early March after the DPRK threatened to revoke all inter-Korean business deals related to tour programs, denouncing South Korea for blocking the resumption of the tours.
\”As far as I understand, North Korea (DPRK)\’s internal law also stipulates protection of investment. So the unilateral abrogation of the inter-Korean contracts or agreements would contradict the internal law,\” South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
The DPRK threatened last week to confiscate the South Korean real estate in the resort and seek new business partners, a move that experts believe is aimed at intimidating Seoul to resume the tour.
As a result, a group of South Korean businessmen, including Hyundai Asan and the state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), took part in the meeting in DPRK on the survey of their real estate in the resort, estimated to be worth 360 billion won (31 million U.S. dollars) in total.
ISLAMABAD, March 26 (Xinhua) — Indian authorities Friday handed over 17 Pakistani prisoners at the Wagah border to Pakistani officials, local sources said.
The prisoners have already completed their term in different jails in India. They were arrested on various charges including illegally crossing the borders, visiting cities not mentioned in their visas and fishing in Indian waters.
Earlier this month, the Indian Supreme Court ordered its government to immediately release 16 prisoners against the wish of the authorities in New Delhi that desired Islamabad to release the similar number of Indian prisoners in exchange. However, the Indian Supreme Court refused to accept it.
A bench of the Indian Supreme Court on March 8 declared that \” Under the Constitution, detention even for a second beyond the permitted period of sentence is illegal.\”
The release and repatriation of Indian and Pakistani prisoners is governed by a bilateral agreement signed by the two countries on May 21, 2008. Earlier, it was being governed by a Protocol on Consular Access signed between India and Pakistan in 1982.
Pakistan released 100 Indian fishermen in December 2009. India handed over 31 Pakistani fishermen including three children at Wagah-Atari border in January 2010.
Pakistan has demanded the release of over 700 Pakistani prisoners in Indian custody.
http://www.chinacourse.com
TOKYO, March 26 (Xinhua) — Japan\’s Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) held a ceremony on Friday in Okinawa to mark the upgrading of a troop unit, said reports from the Japanese island in the west Pacific Ocean.
The GSDF\’s 1st combined brigade, which is based in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture, has been upgraded to the 15th brigade with 2,100 troops, up from 1,800 troops, according to the reports.
The 15th brigade has increased the number of its patrol troops and is charged with patrolling Japan\’s southwestern waters and monitoring its borders.
Additionally, the new brigade has a dedicated unit on hand to deal with eventualities occurring from nuclear, biological or chemical attacks.
The brigade\’s infantry regiment will be provided with armored vehicles and artillery to be used in the event of attack.
Despite the intermittent upgrading of its troop units, Japan\’s Ground Self-Defense Force and de facto military in general has very limited capabilities to operate overseas under Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and lacks long range offensive capabilities such as long-range surface-to-surface missiles, aerial refueling, marines, amphibious units, and large caches of ammunition.
http://www.lersus.com
NEW DELHI, March 26 (Xinhua) — India\’s paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) personnel killed two intruders at the India- Pakistan border in the northern Indian state of Punjab, the Indian official broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) reported Friday.
According to AIR, the intruders, identified as Pakistani nationals, tried to infiltrate into the Indian territory near the border village of Naushera-Dhalla late Thursday night.
\”In Punjab, two Pakistani intruders were shot dead by Border Security Force at Naushera Dhalla village near the border. BSF officials told AIR correspondent that fake Indian currency with a face value of 6.5 million rupees (150,000 U.S. dollars) was seized from them. When the troops asked them to surrender, they tried to flee, following which they were shot dead,\” AIR reported.
http://www.ceshq.com
SINGAPORE, March 24 (Xinhua) — More than two out of three Singaporeans view family as important when it comes to dealing with personal or financial crises, local media reported on Wednesday.
According to a survey by the National University of Singapore ( NUS) Business School, some 67 percent of the respondents said they will first consider another adult member of the household to help maintain the family budget if the breadwinner should die or become unable to work, local radio 938live reported.
During times of need, insurance is the second preferred option (47 percent) for Singaporeans, and 9.8 percent said they will consider sending at least one of their school-going children out to work.
The survey also showed that half of the Singaporeans think it is desirable to adopt to continue the family line if there are no descendants.
NUS conducted the survey for its AsiaBarometer Project, and interviewed 8,000 adults in eight Asian countries.
http://www.gtrip.net
KOLKATA, India, March 26 (Xinhua) — With another body found Friday on the 4th floor of the burnt Stephen Court building of the posh Park Street on Friday, the death toll in Tuesday\’s massive fire at the center of the eastern Indian metropolis has risen to 25.
\”The body has been sent to the SSKM hospital,\” a local police official said here. \”The body is in such a bad state that it cannot be ascertained immediately whether it is a male or female.\”
Police said about a dozen people were still missing by Friday and several seriously people were undergoing treatment.
Lack of security precautions and illegal construction inside Stephen Court, located in the heart of the city, were blamed for the high death toll.
http://www.zokn.com
NEW DELHI, March 26 (Xinhua) — At least six laborers were killed and a dozen injured Friday when a stone mine they were working in collapsed in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, reported the Press Trust of India.
The incident took place at the state\’s Pratapgarh district. Bodies of six persons have been pulled out while around 16 others were hospitalized in critical condition, said the report, quoting local officials.
Rescue operation was still underway in the mine which is about 200 feet (about six meters) deep, said the report.
http://www.cne.cc
SEOUL, March 25 (Xinhua) — South Korea is expanding the government-led program aimed at sharing its experiences in emerging from a war-torn country to a robust economic powerhouse, local media reported.
The government is now seeking to invite several developing countries that fought on the side of South Korea during the devastating 1950-1953 Korean War to join the so-called Knowledge Sharing Program, led by Seoul\’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The program, which started in 2004 at the request of developing nations looking to tap into South Korea\’s know-how, include providing comprehensive economic policy consulting to rising economies.
The number of countries receiving three-year financial consulting has risen for the past years, from two when the program kicked off to up to 17 countries this year, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The ministry previously said the program is part of an effort to establish South Korea\’s own model of official development assistance (ODA) that can be distinguished from the Western models.
The country in 2010 increased the amount of ODA by 18 percent from the previously year to 419 billion won (362 million U.S. dollars), after Seoul last year joined the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a body comprised of donor nations, as the 24th member.
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MUMABAI, March 25 (Xinhua) — The Indian Navy will induct the first homemade stealth frigate next month, India\’s media reported on Thursday.
The first indigenous stealth frigate Shivalik will be commissioned \”by the second week of April\”, the Indian newspaper Mint quoted Parvez Panthaky, spokesman of Shivalik\’s maker Mumbai- based Mazagon Dock Ltd, as saying.
Shivalik is the first ship of 12 Shivalik-class stealth frigates being built or planned to be built by the Indian Navy, and two more Shivalikclass frigates will be deployed within a few months of each other, said the spokesman.
The Indian Navy has three stealth frigates presently in its surface fleet, however, they were bought from Russia, while 12 shivalik frigates are the first stealth frigates designed by the Indian Navy and being made or to be made in India, and will become the mainstay frigates in the first half of new century.
Shivalik with the full load of 5,000 tons, was launched in April, 2003, incorporates structural, thermal and acoustic stealth features against the rival\’s radars and heat seekers, and will be equipped with the advanced anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
The Indian Navy will become one of a few countries\’ navies in the world which could design and build the stealth frigates as Shivalik is commissioned.
http://www.gtrip.net
PYONGYANG, March 26 (Xinhua) — Two political parties from the Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea issued a joint statement Thursday to mark the 100th anniversary of patriotic martyr An Jung Gun\’s death,the official news agency KCNA reported.
The Korean Social Democratic Party of the DPRK and the Democratic Labor Party of South Korea jointly issued the statement, demanding that Japan apologize for the crimes it committed against the Korean nation during its colonial rule over Korea, the KCNA reported
An Jung Gun was hung in 1910 after he assassinated Hirobumi Ito,then Japanese Governor-General of the Korean peninsula.
Born in 1879, independence activist An fatally shot Hirobumi Ito at the Harbin Railway Station in northeast China on Oct. 26, 1909. The Japanese hanged him at the Lushun Prison in Dalian City of Liaoning Province in northeast China on March 26, 1910.
http://www.cne.cc
JAKARTA, March 26 (Xinhua) — An earthquake with magnitude of 6. 2 rocked eastern parts of Indonesia on Friday afternoon, but there was no reports of damages or casualty, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency reported here.
The quake struck at 17:39 p.m. Jakarta time (1039 GMT) with the epicenter at 205 km northwest Saumlaki of Maluku province and with a depth of 112 km under sea bed, official of the agency Subagio.S told Xinhua over phone.
Spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency Priyadi Kardono confirmed that there was no report of damages or casualty.
\”We have checked and got reports that there were no damages or casualty caused by the quake,\” he told Xinhua.
The intensity of the quake was only felt at 2 to 3 MMI ( Modified Mercally Intensity) at Saumlaki, said Subagio.
Indonesia sits on a vulnerable quake-hit zone so called the \” Pacific ring of fire.\”
http://www.minamik.com
CANBERRA, March 25 (Xinhua) — Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has rejected calls to cut overseas migration as new figures revealed Australia\’s population passed 22 million.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday released an update on the nation\’s population, which reached 22,066,000 last September.
This was an increase of 451,900 people during the year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1 percent.
The majority of the growth, 66 percent, was due to overseas migration, with the remainder, 34 percent, due to natural increase.
Rudd is under increasing scrutiny to explain how the nation can sustain an expected 35.9 million people by 2050.
The Australian Conservation Foundation this week nominated population growth to be listed in federal environmental laws as a threat to biodiversity, a move that would push the government into developing a strategy.
Former New South Wales Labor premier Bob Carr on Wednesday called for Australia\’s immigration intake to be slashed by half, while Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who has Australia\’s fastest growing region in the state\’s south-east, urged a national approach.
However, Rudd said he saw the problem of population growth in terms of planning for future demand.
\”The key challenge for us … is how do we as a nation prepare for that in terms of infrastructure, in terms of planning for our cities, and all those other practical things which need to be done, \” he told Fairfax Radio.
The intake of migrants had been scaled back as the economic crisis hit and would continue to be dictated by workforce needs, Rudd said.
http://www.minamik.com
NEW DELHI, March 25 (Xinhua) — The Indian customs has seized 1, 250 tons of \”toxic\” wheat imported from Australia at the port in the southern state of Tamil Nadu\’s capital Chennai, local daily The Times of India said Thursday.
The consignment, contained in 50 containers, was found to contain more than permissible levels of pesticide chloropyrifos, said the report, claiming that three clearing agents were arrested on charges of attempting to get clearance for the consignment using fake documents.
\”This is the first time that such a huge quantity of imported food grain has been found to have excessive pesticide content. The consignment will not be cleared for import. It will have to be sent back to Australia,\” Customs commissioner C. Rajan was quoted as saying.
Customs officials took samples of the wheat as soon as the consignment arrived 10 days ago from Melbourne and sent it to the Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore in southern India.
\”It is the procedure. We take samples and send them to the laboratory for testing the pesticide content. The test revealed that the consignment contained high pesticide levels and hence was not fit for consumption,\” said Rajan.
http://www.chinacourse.com
SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) — A South Korean naval vessel with 104 crew members onboard is sinking into waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula late Friday due to an unknown cause, local media reported, citing naval officials.
The 1,200-ton ship sank off the South Korean island of Baekryeongdo off the west coast with an explosion in the back of the ship, and another South Korean naval vessel fired at an unspecified target toward the north in response, South Korea\’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
No casualties or injuries have been reported, and 58 out of the 104 crew members have been rescued thus far, Yonhap said.
The South Korean government immediately convened an emergency meeting with security officials, and is not ruling out the possibility of an attack from a naval vessel from the Democratic People\’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to Yonhap.
South Korea\’s Defense Ministry, while forming an emergency team to help rescue operations and find out the cause, cautioned against hastily linking the incident to a possible attack by the DPRK, according to Yonhap.
The incident occurred less than three months after tensions abruptly rose on the Korean peninsula following the DPRK\’s repeated firing of artillery shells earlier this year into waters near the de facto sea border, where the two Koreas had naval skirmishes before. Pyongyang refuses to acknowledge the maritime border, which was fixed unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command after the 1950- 1953 Korean War.
http://www.znnw.com
SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) — A South Korean navy patrol ship sank in western waters off the Korean Peninsula near the disputed maritime border Northern Limit Line (NLL) around 21:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) Friday, some people on broad were feared dead, according to local media YTN.
The cause of the accident is yet to be determined.
http://www.tbogg.com
