02/02/12: ABC News reports that North Korea on Thursday demanded several tough preconditions for resuming talks with rival South Korea. South Korea quickly called the demands made in a statement by the Policy Department of the North's powerful National Defense Commission "unreasonable." But the timing of the statement, which follows comments Wednesday by a senior US diplomat that Washington is open to diplomacy if Pyongyang improves ties with Seoul, and the change in tone after weeks of refusal to talk with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak could signal a willingness to ease tensions.
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01/31/12: The Voice of America reports that China says it will boost the police presence in northwestern Xinjiang province, in a push to manage the area's huge migrant population and crack down on what Beijing calls illegal religious activities. The official Xinnhua news agency says an additional 8,000 police officers will begin patrolling villages in the northwestern region. It quotes a regional Communist party official as saying the move is aimed at consolidating "the lasting peace and [social] stability in the region."
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01/29/12: Reuters reports that an army officer who led a military revolt aimed at reinstating Papua New Guinea's ousted prime minister appeared in court on Sunday on mutiny charges, police said. Retired Colonel Yaura Sasa, who led last week's attempt to restore Sir Michael Somare to power, appeared in a court charged under the criminal code with incitement to mutiny following his arrest overnight. Police spotted Sasa by chance at a lodge away from the Taurama barracks, where his supporters have been holed up with weapons since last week's failed mutiny, police media spokesman Superintendant Dominic Kakas said.
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01/26/12: The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that about 300 Cambodians working at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal will not be paid this month — and some have worked without pay since October — because funds from donor countries have dried up. International staff are paid by the United Nations and will continue to receive salaries. The salaries of local staff, however, are funded by contributions from donor countries, said Huy Vannak, a tribunal spokesman.
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01/22/12: The Voice of America reports that the United States is ready to lift economic sanctions against Burma if the country’s civilian government presses ahead on political reforms including free and fair elections this April. The call was made by a visiting delegation of senior US senators, led by Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, who made a stop in Bangkok on their way to Burma. Before the United States makes a final decision, the senators said they will also look to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
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01/21/12: The Times of India reports that Bangladesh's elite counter-terrorist force has arrested five members of the banned Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir in connection with a botched coup attempt by some serving and retired army officers. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested five members of Hizb ut-Tahrir from the city yesterday, a day after the army said it had foiled a coup allegedly plotted by Maj Syed Mohammad Ziaul Huq, said to have links with the banned Islamist outfit.
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01/20/12: The Modesto Bee reports that a Lebanese-Swedish man detained in a terror probe in Thailand has told a Swedish newspaper that he's innocent and blamed Israel's Mossad spy agency for his arrest. The tabloid Aftonbladet on Friday said it spoke to 47-year-old Atris Hussein in a Bangkok prison where he's being held on allegations of illegally possessing explosive materials. Hussein was quoted as saying he is "100 percent innocent" and that "much of the material the police found in my warehouse had been placed there, probably by the Israeli security service Mossad." Police have said Hussein was storing 8,800 pounds of explosive materials in Bangkok before shipping them to another destination.
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01/18/12: The Washington Times reports that US officials have praised the re-election of Taiwan's president, even though it sets the island nation and longtime US ally on course for closer ties with mainland China. The reaction is prompting a stir among some Western observers concerned that Saturday’s victory by President Ma Ying-jeou and his Koumingtang Party presents an obstacle for US strategic interests in the region. The bottom line is that “it’s going to be harder for the United States to sell arms to Taiwan," says Patrick M. Cronin, who directs the Asia Program at the Center for New American Security.
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01/11/12: The Boston Globe reports that China warned the United States on Wednesday against using religious incidents as a pretext to interfere in its domestic affairs, after the US expressed concern over a series of self-immolations by Tibetans. At least 15 Buddhist monks, nuns and former monks are believed to have set themselves on fire in the past year, mostly in traditionally Tibetan areas of southwestern Sichuan province. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
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01/10/12: BBC News reports that North Korea says it will grant an amnesty for prisoners to mark the birthdays of two late leaders. State news agency KCNA said that the amnesty would begin on February 1, 2012, in honour of Kim Jong-il, who died last month, and his father Kim Il-sung. No information was given as to how many prisoners would be released or who. Amnesty International estimates as many as 200,000 people are being held in political prison camps around the country.
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12/29/11: The Denver Post reports that China plans to launch space labs and manned ships and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released Thursday that shows the country's space program is gathering momentum. China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon. It has made methodical progress with its ambitious lunar and human spaceflight programs, but its latest five-year plan beginning next year signals an acceleration.
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12/16/11: Bloomberg reports that Google and Intel were logical targets for China-based hackers, given the solid-gold intellectual property data stored in their computers. An attack by cyber spies on iBahn, a provider of Internet services to hotels, takes some explaining. Hackers might have used iBahn’s system as a launching pad into corporate networks that are connected to it, using traveling employees to create a backdoor to company secrets. The networks of at least 760 companies, research universities, Internet service providers and government agencies were hit over the last decade by the same elite group of China-based cyber spies.
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12/16/11: The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that three men who plotted a suicide attack against an Australian army base because they believed Islam was under threat from Western nations were sentenced Friday to more than 13 years in prison. The men — Australian citizens originally from Somalia or Lebanon — were convicted last year of conspiring to plot a terrorist attack against Holsworthy Barracks, an army base on the outskirts of Sydney. Officials said the group planned to send a team of men with automatic rifles into the base in a bid to kill as many soldiers as possible.
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11/21/11: The BBC reports that a leader of a Bangladesh Islamist party has gone on trial accused of crimes against humanity during the country's independence struggle against Pakistan. Delawar Hossain Sayedee is the first of seven suspects set to face a tribunal on charges relating to the 1971 war. Charges listed against him include genocide, rape and religious persecution - all of which he denies.
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11/20/11: The Miami Herald reports that a Sri Lankan commission that investigated alleged abuses during the country's civil war delivered its final report to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday, amid rising international pressure for an independent probe on war crimes allegations. The government appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission last year under intense international pressure to probe possible war crimes in the final stages of the war with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
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11/14/11: The Boston Globe reports that Pakistan and China are staging joint military exercises, showcasing their relationship as Islamabad's ties with Washington suffer. The war games that began Monday follow remarks by Pakistani officials suggesting that China could step into the economic, military and diplomatic void if Pakistan's relationship with the United States collapsed.
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11/02/11: The Miami Herald reports that China has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to do more to strengthen nuclear safety and to use lessons taken from Japan's crisis to improve the handling of emergencies. Wang Min, a Chinese delegate to the United Nations, said Tuesday at a UN session on the IAEA's annual report that the body should work to restore confidence in atomic energy shaken by the meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant caused by the March earthquake and tsunami.
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11/01/11: The New York Times reports that in one of his first statements as Kyrgyzstan’s new president, Almazbek Atambayev said Tuesday that he would seek to close an important American military base when its lease runs out in 2014, reviving a threat dropped by past leaders after the United States agreed to increased payments. Officially called a “transit center,” the base, which is located at the Manas airport close to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, has been a crucial supply hub for the war in Afghanistan since 2001 and is the only one of its kind in Central Asia.
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10/29/11: CBS News reports that China's legislature is authorizing new guidelines to define and combat terrorism, taking a step toward bringing its practices in line with international norms as Beijing battles a sporadically violent rebellion in the far west. The legislative resolution approved Saturday clearly lays out for the first time China's legal definition of terrorism and the steps for formally declaring groups and individuals terrorists and freezing their assets.
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10/26/11: ABC News reports that a radical Islamic cleric accused of setting up a terror training camp in western Indonesia had his prison sentence slashed from 15 years to nine years, an appeals court said Wednesday. No reason was given for the decision. Abu Bakar Bashir, known as the spiritual leader of al-Qaida-linked militants blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, was accused of providing key support for the camp that brought together men from almost every known extremist group in the predominantly Muslim country.
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10/22/11: The New York Times reports that a much-despised law that suspends basic rights and shields security forces from prosecution in the disputed province of Kashmir will be lifted in some areas in the next few days, officials said Friday. Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir, said in a speech to police officers that the situation in many areas of Kashmir had become peaceful enough to warrant revoking the law, which is known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
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Commentary: North Korea succession offers US opportunity
01/28/12: The San Francisco Chronicle features an opinion piece by Joel Brinkley concerning the succession of Kim Jong Un. Brinkley contends that North Korea’s elite has its own goals in mind when it presents him as a militant god-like leader. Brinkley argues that even in his first few days in office, Kim has offered indications that he may not preside over business as usual. North Korea did not go through with a predicted unprovoked attack on South Korea, and announced it would release prisoners, the first general amnesty in seven years. And then, for the first time, it agreed to allow a Western news agency, the Associated Press, to open an office in Pyongyang.
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January 28, 2012 at 11:26 AM in International Law / Law of War / Human Rights, Asia, Commentary / Opinion | Permalink