From Russian with news

South Korean hostages in Afghanistan go on hunger strike

2007-08-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

News about south korean hostages, august 20.

Three of the 19 South Korean hostages being held by the Afghan Taliban have gone on a hunger strike, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said Monday.

According to an undisclosed source, the hostages, who are purportedly still being held in the Afghan province of Gazni, began the hunger strike Sunday.

South Korean media reported earlier that the Afghan militants had issued a new ultimatum, saying they would start killing the hostages Monday unless the authorities released eight Taliban prisoners.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Korean nationals July 19 as they were traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on a humanitarian mission.

Taliban militants have executed two of the male hostages and threatened to kill others if South Korea does not pull its military contingent out of Afghanistan and if the Afghan government does not release its imprisoned fighters.

Following the first round of negotiations with South Korea, Taliban released two women hostages last Monday.

(RIA Novosti)

UN nuclear monitors arrive in Iran's capital for new talks round

2007-08-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, August 20 - A delegation from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran Monday morning for a new round of talks aimed at resolving the international dispute over Iran's nuclear program, local TV said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be represented by Deputy Director Olli Heinonen, and the Iranian delegation will be led by deputy chief nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi, vice secretary of the country's security council.

The last round of talks between the IAEA and Iran was held in July in Vienna. The country, which rejects allegations from the West that its nuclear program is geared toward developing atomic weapons, drafted an action plan in June on giving IAEA inspectors access to nuclear facilities, in a bid to avert new UN sanctions.

Iran has until late August to complete its action plan. After the July talks, Iran granted IAEA inspectors access to its Arak reactor, two months after having banned monitors, in protest against UN sanctions.

(RIA Novosti)

S. Korea, U.S. launch military drill despite N.Korean protests

2007-08-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

SEOUL, August 20 - South Korea and the United States began Monday an annual simulation-based joint military exercise to rehearse repulsing a hypothetical North Korean attack, Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported.

The Ulchi Focus Lens command post exercise had been postponed as it was to coincide with an upcoming summit between the North and South Korean leaders, but Seoul decided to press ahead with the exercises when the summit was put off, despite objections from Pyongyang.

The joint exercise involving 10,000 American troops, will run until August 31, and will be based on computer simulations, with few field activities. Pyongyang has called the exercise a preparation to invade, but the U.S. and the South say it is purely defensive.

The second-ever summit between North and South Korea had been scheduled for August 28-30, but was postponed to October 2-4 due to catastrophic flooding in North Korea.

South Korea delayed the drills, scheduled to overlap with the meeting, after Pyongyang warned that the exercises would have a disastrous effect on ongoing six-nation talks to resolve North's nuclear problem.

About 28,000 U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas formally at war.

(RIA Novosti)

Four in hospital after Taiwanese plane blast in Japan

2007-08-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

TOKYO, August 20 - Four people were admitted to hospital after the successful evacuation of passengers from a Taiwanese jet that burst into flames on landing on a Japanese island Monday, police and firefighters in Okinawa said.

All 157 passengers and eight crewmembers were evacuated on emergency inflatable chutes, minutes before the China Airlines Boeing 737 exploded.

Local police said one crewmember and one Naha Airport worker were in hospital but the degree of their injuries was not yet clear.

The local fire department said two passengers, a 57-year-old man and a seven-year-old girl, were in hospital suffering shock, but were not injured.

After landing at 10:27 a.m. local time (1:27 a.m. GMT) on Okinawa Island, a popular tourist resort halfway between Taiwan and the Japanese mainland, one of the airliner's engines caught fire. Investigators cited leaking fuel as a likely cause of the explosion on the plane, which had flown in from Taipei.

Taiwan-based China Airlines has a patchy safety record, with several fatal accidents since the early 1990s.

(RIA Novosti)

A Gulliver from Ukraine: 2 m 53 cm

2007-08-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

His height of 2 m 53 cm and the considerable weight that goes with it handicap the Ukrainian giant’s movements. When walking Leonid tries to lean against something. He refers to his horse, Ksyushka, as “my legs.”

Podolyantsy is a very small village. There is only one street, and the place has no school, or community center, or library, or church, or even a general store.

Leonid Stadnik was a normal boy until doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor at the age of 12. He underwent treatment and survived, but following the operation his excessive growth began. His parents soon found it impossible to keep up with his growth and the constant need for new clothes and footwear. Already in the senior grades, because of his height, he drew excessive attention to himself.

After leaving school he found work as a veterinarian, which proved to be a source both of great joy and great problems. During his first year he broke two bicycles and had to switch to a horse and cart.

After leaving his job Leonid spent his time looking after the house and tending to his horse, cow, pigs and hens.

Eventually Leonid was compelled to drop his job, but not because of broken bicycles. A person as tall as 253 cm needs shoe size 62, and he simply could not obtain appropriate footwear in his size. Without clothes and footwear Leonid could not go outside and he became increasingly unsociable.

The mass media were the first to highlight the plight of the world’s tallest man, first in Ukraine and then the world. The first to come to the man’s aid were not regional officials, but businessmen from Transcarpathia and Germany, who gave him shoes.

Life has improved for the giant since then. The room where he used to sleep on two bedsteads now contains only one, specially built for him in Zhitomir. Another custom bedstead has been brought in from Germany.

Stadnik knows about the Chinese Bao Xishun, who at 2 m 36 cm tall is the current record holder. But he says he does not aspire to replace him in the Guinness World Records book.

Leonid diplomatically skates over the issue of his personal life. “I am not going to marry as yet. Perhaps I will in time,” he said. “The difficulties I have experienced were so great that I would not want to pass them onto anybody else.”

In 2005, a Kiev firm presented him with a computer and hooked him up to the Internet via satellite. An American doctor from California, James Pember, learned about him and is now e-mailing his advice to the giant. Leonid’s eyesight is poor, and he says it can never be improved. But he manages to keep reading by printing out text files in large fonts.

RIA Novosti, Alexander Savochenko

About fifty people injured after bridge collapses in Georgia

2007-08-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

TBILISI, August 19 - About fifty people have been injured after a bridge collapsed in western Georgia, a spokesman for the Georgian president's envoy to the region said Sunday.

The bridge across the Bakhvi River in the resort city of Bakhmaro in the South Caucasus republic's Racha region collapsed at about 4 p.m. Moscow time (12 p.m. GMT) Sunday after crowds of believers tried to cross it to get into a nearby church to celebrate Holy Transfiguration, the spokesman said.

The injured persons have been hospitalized, the spokesman said.

(RIA Novosti)

Iran to hold new round of talks with UN nuclear watchdog Aug. 20

2007-08-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, August 19 - A delegation of the UN nuclear watchdog arrives in Tehran Monday for a new round of talks with the Islamic Republic aimed at allaying international concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

The delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), led by Olli Heinonen, IAEA deputy director, will meet with Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi to discuss the Iran nuclear file.

Iran, which Western countries suspect of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, recently intensified cooperation with the IAEA, and invited weapons inspectors to visit a 40-MW heavy water reactor in Arak in late July.

Iran insists it needs nuclear power purely to generate electricity. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in early April the start of uranium enrichment on an industrial scale.
Iran has defied three consecutive UN resolutions against its nuclear program since last year.

The six countries negotiating the dispute - permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - have demanded that Tehran suspend all uranium enrichment before negotiating a solution to the dispute.

(RIA Novosti)

Taliban threatens to execute South Korean hostages

2007-08-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

SEOUL, August 19 - Taliban militants have threatened to start killing South Korean hostages, if the Afghan government does not release eight Taliban prisoners by Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Sunday.

"We had a telephone contact with the South Korean side today (Saturday) and the South Korean side asked to give two days," Abdullah Jan, a Taliban commander, was quoted by Yonhap as saying in a telephone interview with the agency.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans on July 19, when they were traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on a humanitarian mission.

Taliban militants have already executed two men and threatened to kill others, many of whom are women, if the South Korean military contingent does not leave Afghanistan and the Afghan government does not release its imprisoned fighters.

Following the first round of negotiations with South Korea, Taliban released two seriously ill women hostages Monday. The negotiations resumed Thursday.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said Saturday that the militant group would kill one or two hostages, if South Korean negotiators were not "as active in negotiations" as they were in the past, according to Yonhap.

(RIA Novosti)

Kazakh ruling party wins parliamentary vote - 1

2007-08-19T03:43:00.000-07:00

ASTANA, August 19 - President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party has won 88% of votes in a parliamentary election, with all other parties falling short of the 7% vote share required to enter parliament, preliminary results showed Sunday.

A total of 5,174,000 Kazakh citizens representing 88.05% of the vote cast their ballot papers in favor of the Kazakh leader's party at the parliamentary elections held Saturday, said Kuandyk Turgankulov, chairman of the Central Election Commission of the oil-rich Central Asian state.

In June, Nazarbayev dissolved parliament and called an election two years ahead of schedule in line with constitutional amendments he proposed in May and as part of a drive to improve Kazakhstan's image abroad as a democratic nation.

He said the election would result in a more powerful parliament. For the first time, the Mazhilis will have a say in the nomination of a prime minister and other government officials.

However, critics have pointed out that the same constitutional changes, which prompted Saturday's polling, will also expand Nazarbayev's own power by lifting term limits on the president.

More than 1,000 foreign observers monitored polling stations throughout the country.

(RIA Novosti)

Iranian president invites Putin to summit of Caspian nations

2007-08-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, August 18 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has invited President Vladimir Putin to a summit of Caspian nations, the Tehran Times newspaper reported Saturday.

The invitation was made during a session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan August 16, where Iran has observer status. A date for the summit was not mentioned.

Iranian media reported that no meeting between the two leaders had been planned for Bishkek, but that they met informally and had a friendly exchange of views.

The first summit of Caspian nations, which includes Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, took place in 2002. It was decided at the time to hold the second the following year, however it was repeatedly put off until now.

The 2002 summit in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan discussed the legal rights of the Caspian nations to explore the huge oil reserves beneath the world's largest saline lake.

(RIA Novosti)

Russia restores Soviet-era strategic bomber patrols

2007-08-19T02:40:00.000-07:00

CHEBARKUL (Urals), August 17 - President Vladimir Putin said Russia permanently resumed Friday long-distance patrol flights of strategic bombers, which were suspended in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"I made a decision to restore flights of Russian strategic bombers on a permanent basis, and at 00:00 today, August 17, 14 strategic bombers, support aircraft and aerial tankers were deployed. Combat duty has begun, involving 20 aircraft."

The president, speaking on the final day of large-scale military exercises involving Russia, China, and four Central Asian countries in the south Urals, said that on the first day of patrol flights, bomber planes would spend about 20 hours in the air, with midair refueling, and would interact with naval forces.

"Air patrol areas will include zones of commercial shipping and economic activity. As of today, combat patrolling will be on a permanent basis. It has a strategic character," Putin said.
The president said that although the country stopped strategic flights to remote regions in 1992, "Unfortunately, not everyone followed our example." Other states' long-distance strategic patrol flights have created certain problems for national security, he said.

"We act on the assumption that our partners will treat with understanding the resumption of strategic air flights. Our pilots have been grounded for too long. There is strategic aviation, but there are no flights," Putin said.

Leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) were in Russia's Chelyabinsk Region for the final day of Peace Mission 2007 counter-terrorism exercises, which began August 9. The drills involved about 6,000 servicemen from Russia and China, along with around 1,500 from the other four member states, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
A former Russian Air Force chief said the resumption of patrols would strengthen Russia's defense capability. "It's a good thing that the old geopolitical setup has been revised. It used to be based on the principle, 'No one is going to attack us.' Practice testifies to the contrary," Army Gen. Pyotr Deinekin said.

He highlighted the new potential security threats Russia faces, saying NATO fighters were based in the Baltic States - formerly part of the Soviet Union and now EU members - while radar stations are being built around Russia's borders.

The general said that the early 1980s, in response to the U.S.'s deployment of cruise missiles in Europe, Soviet strategic aviation started patrolling areas as far afield as the U.S. coast. Patrols were discontinued following the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, and due to severe economic difficulties, including an acute fuel shortage.

"Flights will be conducted on the same basis as they were in the past," Deinekin said.

Following Putin's announcement at Peace Mission 2007, exercises that were viewed by Western media as a display of Beijing and Moscow's renewed military might, Washington played down the significance of Russian strategic bomber flights.

"That's a decision for them to take," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "It's interesting. We certainly are not in the kind of posture we were with what used to be the Soviet Union. It's a different era. If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision."

(RIA Novosti)