My World Earth News

Syria unrest: Arab League discusses observer mission

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 8 Jan 2012 06:55:00 -0800

Foreign ministers from the Arab League are meeting in Cairo to assess the progress of their mission in Syria and to discuss whether to ask for UN help.

North Korea to top agenda at Lee-Hu summit in China

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 8 Jan 2012 06:53:00 -0800

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will this week ask China to use its influence to lean on North Korea to show restraint amid a delicate transition to a new leadership in Pyongyang focused on projecting a militaristic image.

Lee will hold a summit with China’s president, Hu Jintao, in Beijing and will “discuss ways to develop the strategic partnership between the two nations and cooperative measures for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula”, the South Korean president’s office said in a statement.

Lee’s three-day state trip to China, his second in four years, starts tomorrow.

The South has said its primary foreign policy goal this year is maintaining stability on the divided peninsula as its unpredictable neighbour embarks on a third generation of dynastic rule following Kim Jong-il’s death last month.

Little is known about Kim’s chosen successor, his son Kim Jong-un, who in his late 20s and who will be relying on a small circle of trusted members of the military and political elite to act as minders while he cements his grip on power.

As part of efforts to consolidate his power, state television in Pyongyang released a documentary today containing footage of the young Kim watching a 2009 long-range rocket launch with his father. He was also shown driving a tank.

The 50-minute documentary, aired on what South Korean media speculated was Kim Jong-un’s birthday, offered no new personal details or insights into his thinking.

Analysts say the young Kim may order a “provocation”, such as a small-scale military attack or nuclear or missile test, to burnish a hardline image with the powerful military.

In line with his push to project a songun, or military-first, policy, the documentary today quoted Kim Jong-un as saying he was determined to wage war if any enemies intercepted the 2009 rocket launch.

Over the past week, the North, which has twice tested nuclear devices, has also stepped up its use of hostile language against the South.

Both South Korea and the United States have urged China, the North’s main ally and benefactor, to help restrain the new leadership from staging any hostile acts.

China voiced its support for the North’s new leadership soon after Kim’s death was announced.

South Korea’s ambassador to China, Lee Kyu-hyung, said last week that the South would continue to raise the issue of China’s unwillingness to condemn North Korea when it provokes the South.

‘Problematic’

In 2010, South Korea criticised China for refusing to censure North Korea for torpedoing a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors. The North denied it sank the vessel.

“It is problematic because China has appeared to take an attitude of protection and support for North Korea, while the North sometimes makes military provocations and implements some incorrect policies,” ambassador Lee Kyu-hyung told the South’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korea would “continue to raise the issue and make efforts to persuade” China to change that attitude, he said.

China backed North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War while the United States fought for the South. The United States still has about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

Lee and Hu are also expected to discuss how the two nations will push preliminary talks to launch formal negotiations for a free trade agreement.

Since 2008, South Korea and China have held a series of joint feasibility studies on a possible free trade deal, and reached an agreement to exchange their views on sensitive issues.

The two leaders will also discuss the rising number of Chinese fishing boats caught illegally fishing off South Korea’s west coast. Last December, a South Korean coastguard was killed while trying to apprehend a Chinese vessel.

More than 20 feared dead in Kenyan boat crash

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 07:14:00 -0800

Kenyan police officers search for survivors after a passenger boat capsized off the Kenyan island of Lamu on January 2, 2012. At least seven people died and many more were feared missing. — Reuters picormation desk after a passenger boat capsized off the Kenyan island of Lamu on January 2, 2012. At least seven people died and many more were feared missing after a boat carrying dozens of passengers hit another vessel.

More than 20 people were feared dead after a Kenyan ferry carrying more than 80 passengers capsized last night following a collision with a cargo boat off the island of Lamu, a popular tourist destination.

Survivors confirmed earlier suggestions that the small ferry was overloaded when the two vessels collided in the dark at about 9pm (1800 GMT).

The Kenya Red Cross said of the 82 passengers, seven were confirmed dead as of last night, 25 had been rescued and 23 managed to swim to shore. Fifteen people pulled from the water were admitted to hospital.

Abdalla Miraj, regional head of the Kenya Red Cross, told Reuters at least 16 people were still believed missing.

“We have stopped diving now because we have been told that after 24 hours the bodies will float to the surface, so at around 8pm we will all go out again and try to collect the rest,” he said.

Speedboats scoured the channel separating Lamu Island from the mainland. One police boat carried the body of a victim under a white patterned sheet.

The ferry had just left Lamu at the time of the collision. The other vessel was carrying oil drums.

A Lamu resident said the small ferries can typically take up to about 50 passengers, but survivors said the boat was overloaded with people and baggage. Kenyans flock to the Indian Ocean coast over Christmas and New Year for holidays.

“Soon after leaving it hit another vessel and water started flowing in. I was on it with my three children and wife and luckily we were all saved,” said survivor Ali Bakari.

“The boat itself was overloaded. Before it left there was a police officer who tried to stop it leaving, but the operator talked him out of it,” Bakari told Reuters at the hospital, adding that neither vessel appeared to have lights.

“All we heard was the impact,” he said.

Locals lamented the fact a new water ambulance equipped with first aid facilities and oxygen tanks, donated to Kenya by an international donor, had remained moored throughout the rescue.

“There’s a brand new ambulance boat with new engines but no one can use it because there is no driver and no petrol,” said resident Mohamed Ali. “It has never been used because the government won’t put the money towards using it. It’s another tragedy for Lamu,” he said.

A British tourist was shot dead and his wife kidnapped by gunmen from a beach resort north of Lamu in September. The wife is still being held hostage in Somalia. In October, gunmen seized a French woman from Lamu. She later died in Somalia.

Overloading was blamed for another ferry disaster off the Indian Ocean coast in neighbouring Tanzania in September. More than 200 people died when the MV Spice Islander sank as it sailed from Zanzibar to Pemba island.

Iran test-fires new missile as Strait of Hormuz posturing continues

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:50:00 -0800

Iran test-fired a new Qader missile today, in the latest bout of martial posturing over the country's nuclear program and the security of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane for oil.

Iran fires long-range missile during Gulf drill, IRNA reports

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:48:00 -0800

An Iranian warship launches a missile in an unknown location in this still image taken from footage released by Islamic Republic of Iran News Network on January 1, 2012

Iran said today it had successfully test-fired a long-range missile during its naval exercise in the Gulf, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“We have test fired a long-range shore-to-sea missile called Qader (capable), which managed to successfully destroy predetermined targets in the Gulf,” the agency quoted deputy navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi as saying.

Psycho Stapleton: Extraordinary name given to court by man accused of shooting dead Indian student

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:46:00 -0800

'I'm Psycho... Psycho Stapleton: Extraordinary name given to court by man accused of shooting dead Indian student

* Kiaran Stapleton, 20, from Salford, is charged with murder
* Anuj Bidve was shot dead at point-blank range on Boxing Day

The man accused of gunning down Indian student Anuj Bidve on Boxing Day gave his name as 'Psycho Stapleton' when he appeared in court today charged with murder.

Kiaran Stapleton, 20, from Ordsall, Salford, was remanded in custody for 24 hours at City of Manchester Magistrates' Court.

A scrum of TV cameramen and photographers crowded the prison van carrying Stapleton as it arrived at court, while inside the courtroom was packed with reporters.

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Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot at close range in the Ordsall district of Salford, Greater Manchester on Boxing Day

Shortly before the hearing began, four armed officers dressed in black stood in each corner of the court.

Wearing handcuffs, Stapleton was brought into the dock and asked for his name.

He replied: 'Psycho. Psycho Stapleton.'

The defendant, wearing a grey Nike T-shirt and grey jogging bottoms and flanked by two police officers, then confirmed his date of birth.

Ben Southam, prosecuting, said: 'He appears charged with murder. That’s a matter that can only be dealt with at the crown court by a judge under section 115 of the Coroners and Justices Act.'

He added: 'He will be sent to Manchester Crown Court in due course.

'Bail can only be considered by a crown court judge. As far as bail is concerned that’s opposed by the Crown.'

There was no application for bail.

Mr Bidve, 23 was shot once in the head after being approached by a lone gunman at around 1.30am on December 26. He died a short time later in hospital.

He was with a group of fellow Indian students visiting Manchester for Christmas when he was shot dead.

The apparently motiveless killing generated national and international shock, especially in the victim’s home country.

The court appearance comes after two officers from Greater Manchester Police flew out to India to meet Mr Bidve's family.

His father, Subhash Bidve, has been critical of the way the British and Indian authorities have handled the case. He found out about his son's death on Facebook at home in Pune, India, before police in the UK could contact him.

A total of five people have been arrested by police hunting the killer. A 19-year-old man was bailed until the end of March. Three others, a 16-year-old boy and two 17-year-old boys, were also released on bail pending further inquiries.

Senior officers described the shooting of Mr Bidve as 'horrific' and a £50,000 reward was put up by police to help catch the killer.

The victim was in a group of nine male and female Indian students visiting Manchester for a short break over Christmas.

He was killed at around 1.30am on Boxing Day as they walked from their hotel through the inner-city Ordsall district, heading for Manchester city centre.

The gunman was thought to have walked across the road and allegedly engaged the victim in a short conversation before shooting him at close range in the side of the head. Mr Bidve died in hospital a short time later.

Police say they are treating the murder as a 'hate crime' which may have been racially motivated.

According to a Facebook page set up in Mr Bidve's memory, he 'was killed for not answering a simple question - 'What's the time?''

Police have not yet disclosed what was said between the killer and his victim.

Mr Bidve was studying for a micro-electronics postgraduate qualification at Lancaster University and was described by tutors as 'an outstanding applicant at the very beginning of a promising career'.

Described as 'clever and sporty', he arrived in the UK in September after completing an electronics degree at Pune University.

Throughout the week, locals left tributes to Mr Bidve at the scene in Ordsall, an area known for high crime levels.

The killing has disgusted members of the community in the tough inner-city suburb, which has found itself the subject of worldwide condemnation on news and social networking sites.

A note addressed to Mr Bidve and attached to a small bouquet of flowers said: ‘Evil and mindless people took your life away for nothing.

‘We are local residents who are so saddened and sickened at this senseless act. We don’t think living here will ever be the same.’

Alert: An armed officer stands guard as a convoy of vehicles carrying Stapleton arrives at the City of Manchester Magistrates court today

Convoy: A line of police vehicles delivered Stapleton to court for the preliminary hearing

Myanmar cuts prison terms but no political amnesty

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:41:00 -0800

Laos’s Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong (left) and Myanmar President Thein Sein pose before a gala dinner to mark the Fourth GMS Summit at Myanmar International Convention Centre (MICC) in Naypyitaw on December 19, 2011.

Myanmar President Thein Sein has commuted death sentences to life in prison and cut the terms to be served by other prisoners in a gesture to mark Independence Day, state media said today, but it appeared no political prisoners would be freed.

The nominally civilian government that took office in Myanmar last March has begun to implement gradual political and economic reforms. In October, it released around 230 political prisoners jailed by the former junta.

Several hundred are still thought to be behind bars and some observers had suggested there could be an amnesty early in the New Year.

Independence Day falls on January 4, marking the day when the country, formerly known as Burma, gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948.

Western governments that are keen to nurture the changes in Myanmar want to see political prisoners released before they will fully lift economic sanctions imposed during the period of military rule.

State-owned MRTV-4 said the president had signed an order to commute death sentences and reduce prison terms. For example, prisoners with more than 30 years to serve would now have to serve “up to 30 years” and those facing 20 to 30 years would now have up to 20 years in jail.

Many political prisoners, including Min Ko Naing, a prominent leader of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, and colleagues have sentences with far longer than 30 years to run.

“We didn’t see the announcement ourself but so far as we have heard from friends, we don’t think he will be freed under this,” Min Ko Naing’s father, Thet Nyunt, told Reuters.

A senior prison official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said: “So far as I understand from the announcement, those sentenced to over 60 years cannot be expected to be freed under this amnesty.”

Person of interest detained in LA arson fires

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:38:00 -0800

Los Angeles police this morning detained and are questioning a "person of interest" in the spate of arson fires occurring around the city since Friday.

Syrian rebels capture troops in north

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 06:35:00 -0800

Demonstrators against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad gather in Derbasia near Hassaka on December 13, 2011. Security forces shot dead 17 people in Syria on Tuesday and rebels killed seven police in an ambush.

Armed Syrian rebels captured dozens of members of the security forces by seizing two military checkpoints in the northern province of Idlib today, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said the army deserters also clashed with security forces at a third checkpoint, killing and wounding an unspecified number of troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Rami Abdelrahman, director of the British-based Observatory, said Monday's operation took place in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib. It was not immediately clear how many people had been killed or captured by the rebels, he said.

The Syrian government bars most international journalists from operating in the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of incidents.

The reported attack came three days after the anti-government Free Syrian Army said it had ordered its fighters to stop offensive operations pending a meeting with Arab League delegates monitoring Assad's compliance with a peace plan.

Monitors from the Arab League are checking Syria's compliance with an Arab peace plan that calls for Assad to withdraw troops and tanks from the streets, release detainees and talk to the opposition.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests which broke out against Assad in March. Syrian authorities say armed groups have killed 2,000 security forces personnel during the 10-month uprising.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said on Friday he had ordered fighters to halt all attacks when the Arab monitors first arrived in Syria 10 days ago.

But a video shot by rebel fighters last week showed the ambush of a convoy of army buses in which activists said four soldiers were killed.

Indonesia probes Bali tattoo HIV infection report

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:59:00 -0800

A local artist tattoos the back of a foreigner (L) during a tattoo festival at Legian Kuta on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. An investigation is being launched into an alleged case of an Australian tourist contracting HIV while getting a tattoo on the island.

Indonesia is investigating the case of an Australian who is believed to have been infected with HIV while getting a tattoo on the resort island of Bali, an official said today.

“We received a report about this case from the health ministry yesterday and officials will be visiting tattoo parlours today to verify this claim,” Bali health department chief Nyoman Sutedja said.

“At this point, we are still investigating. We can’t say for sure if the patient caught the virus from getting a tattoo or sexual contact,” he added.

There are currently 4,200 HIV/AIDS cases on Bali, Sutedja said.

Australian health authorities on Friday said a patient diagnosed with HIV probably contracted the virus while being tattooed on the island. They did not reveal any details of the individual concerned.

More than a million tourists visit Bali every year to enjoy its white, surf beaches, nightlife and Hindu culture.

Indonesian officials said last year that the number of known HIV/AIDS cases on Bali was soaring, with one in four prostitutes reported to be HIV-positive and the number of infections jumping almost 19 per cent from the year before.

Iran threatens to stop Gulf oil if sanctions widened

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:56:00 -0800

Iran’s Navy Commander Habibulah Sayari holds a news conference in Tehran, December 22, 2011, on its war games.

Iran threatened yesterday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf oil.

Western tensions with Iran have increased since a November 8 report by the UN nuclear watchdog saying Tehran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end. Iran strongly denies this and says it is developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran has defiantly expanded nuclear activity despite four rounds of UN sanctions meted out since 2006 over its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment and open up to UN nuclear inspectors and investigators.

Many diplomats and analysts believe only sanctions targeting Iran’s lifeblood oil sector might be painful enough to make it change course, but Russia and China — big trade partners of Tehran — have blocked such a move at the United Nations.

Iran’s warning yesterday came three weeks after EU foreign ministers decided to tighten sanctions over the UN watchdog report and laid out plans for a possible embargo of oil from the world’s No. 5 crude exporter.

“If they (the West) impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz,” the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying.

The US State Department said it saw “an element of bluster” in the threat but underscored that the United States would support the free flow of oil.

“It’s another attempt to distract attention away from the real issue, which is their continued non-compliance with their international nuclear obligations,” spokesman Mark Toner said.

Rahimi’s remarks coincided with a 10-day Iranian naval exercise in the Strait and nearby waters, a show of military force that began on Saturday.

“Our enemies will give up on their plots against Iran only if we give them a firm and strong lesson,” Rahimi said.

January meeting

EU ministers said on December 1 that a decision on further sanctions would be taken no later than their January meeting but left open the idea of an embargo on Iranian oil.

Countries in the 27-member European Union take 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, about 18 per cent of the Islamic Republic’s exports, much of which go to China and India. EU officials declined to comment yesterday.

About a third of all sea-borne oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz in 2009, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and US warships patrol the area to ensure safe passage.

Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq — together with nearly all the liquefied natural gas from lead exporter Qatar — must slip through the Strait of Hormuz, a 6.4-km wide shipping channel between Oman and Iran.

Iran has also hinted it could hit Israel and US interests in the Gulf in response to any military strike on its nuclear installations — a last-resort option hinted at by Washington and the Jewish state.

However, some analysts say Iran would think hard about sealing off the Strait since it could suffer just as much economically as Western crude importers, and could kindle war with militarily superior big powers.

“To me, if Iran did that it would be a suicidal act by the regime. Even its friends would be its enemies,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFG Best Research in Chicago.

Saudi replacement?

Industry sources said yesterday No. 1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia and other Gulf OPEC states were ready to replace Iranian oil if further sanctions halted Iranian crude exports to Europe.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had said that Saudi Arabia had promised not to replace Iranian crude if sanctions were imposed.

“No promise was made to Iran, it’s very unlikely that Saudi Arabia would not fill a demand gap if sanctions are placed,” an industry source familiar with the matter said.

Gulf delegates from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said an Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz would harm Tehran as well as the major regional producers that also use the world’s most vital oil export channel.

Oil prices spiked yesterday, fuelled by fears of supply disruptions and Iranian naval exercises in a crucial oil shipping route, with gains capped by simmering euro zone debt concerns.

Brent crude oil futures jumped more than a dollar to over US$109 a barrel after the Iranian threat, but a Gulf OPEC delegate said the effect could be temporary. “For now, any move in the oil price is short-term, as I don’t see Iran actually going ahead with the threat,” the delegate told Reuters.

The industry source said that in the case of EU sanctions, Iran would most likely export more of its crude to Asia, while Gulf states would divert their exports to Europe to fill the gap until the market was balanced again.

A prominent analyst said that if Iran did manage to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the ensuing spike in oil prices could wreck the global economy, so the United States was likely to intervene to foil such a blockade in the first place.

“First, the US will probably not allow Iran to close the Strait. That’s a major economic thoroughfare and not just for oil. You shut that Strait and we are talking a major hit on many Middle East economies,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks in New York.

“Second, there is no way that the Saudis (alone) have enough oil or quality of oil to replace Iranian crude. Figure Saudi spare capacity is 2 to 4 million at best. Of that spare, about 1-2 million is real oil that is comparable out of Iran. Lose Iran, lose 3.5 million barrels per day of imports. No way.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed hitting Iran with an oil embargo and won support from Britain, but resistance to the idea persists within and outside the European Union.

An import ban might raise global oil prices during hard economic times and debt-strapped Greece has been relying on attractively financed Iranian oil.

Iran’s seaborne trade is already suffering from existing trade sanctions, with shipping companies scaling down or pulling out as the Islamic Republic faces more hurdles in transporting its oil.

Argentine president diagnosed with thyroid cancer

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:51:00 -0800

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at a ceremony outside the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires in this December 10, 2011, file photo.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month, a government spokesman said yesterday, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread.

Fernandez, 58, was easily re-elected to a second four-year term in October and her new government was sworn in earlier this month.

Fernandez was diagnosed with a papillary carcinoma that has not metastasised, said her spokesman, Alfredo Scoccimarro. The operation is scheduled to take place on January 4 and she is expected to take a leave of absence until January 24.

“If everything is as they said officially, she shouldn’t have any other problem. The sickness hasn’t spread,” said Buenos Aires-based oncologist Mario Bruno.

Papillary carcinoma is the most common type of thyroid cancer and normally affects people under the age of 40, especially women.

A skilled orator fond of glamorous clothes and make-up, Fernandez still wears black as she mourns her husband and closest adviser, former President Nestor Kirchner, who died late last year.

When Kirchner died, many thought it spelled the end of the couple’s idiosyncratic blend of state intervention, nationalist rhetoric and the championing of human rights.

But Fernandez pulled off a remarkable political comeback on the back of brisk economic growth and an outpouring of public sympathy. She was re-elected with 54 per cent of the vote, vowing to deepen her unorthodox economic policies.

The fiery president is popular among many Argentines who have benefited from her hefty welfare spending but she is often criticised by business leaders for her heavy-handed management of the economy.

She is one of several Latin American leaders to have cancer.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent chemotherapy earlier this year while Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo’s lymphatic cancer is in remission.

Globe and Mail Challenges Emerge as Arab League Observers Begin Work in a Syrian City

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:49:00 -0800

A team of observers from the Arab League traveled to the embattled Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday in a visit that quieted days of fierce violence but also provided hints of the potential challenges of a group trying to monitor a ...

UK’s Prince Philip leaves hospital after heart op

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:33:00 -0800

Britain’s Prince Philip is driven away from Papworth Hospital in southern England December 27, 2011. Queen Elizabeth’s 90-year-old husband spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day in a hospital bed after successful surgery to clear a blocked heart artery, missing the royal family’s celebrations at its rural Sandringham estate in eastern England.

Queen Elizabeth’s 90-year-old husband Prince Philip left a British hospital today after undergoing successful surgery to clear a blocked heart artery.

With the window of the jeep he was travelling in wound down, Philip waved at the media as he left Papworth hospital near Cambridge.

Philip, who was rushed into hospital by helicopter on Dec. 23, has missed most of the royal family’s Christmas festivities. The queen and Philip’s grandchildren, including Prince William and Prince Harry, have visited him in hospital.

Philip was on his way to his family’s rural Sandringham estate in eastern England, Buckingham Palace said.

Putin ejects Kremlin ‘puppet master’ after protests

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:29:00 -0800

Vladislav Surkov (right) in this February 6, 2007, file photo with then President Vladimir Putin.

The architect of Vladimir Putin’s tightly controlled political system became one of its most senior victims yesterday when he was shunted out of the Kremlin in the wake of the biggest opposition protests of Putin’s 12-year rule.

The sacrifice of Vladislav Surkov, branded the Kremlin’s “puppet master” by enemies and friends alike, is also a rare admission of failure for Russia’s “alpha dog” leader: Surkov’s system was Putin’s system.

With irony worthy of Surkov’s cynical novels, the Kremlin’s 47-year-old political mastermind was shown grinning on state television when told by President Dmitry Medvedev that he would oversee modernisation as a deputy prime minister.

When asked why he was leaving the Kremlin, Surkov deliberately misquoted a slogan from the French Revolution, saying: “Stabilisation is eating up its children.”

Almost in passing, Surkov told Interfax news agency he would not be running domestic politics after nearly 13 years doing exactly that from the corridors of the Kremlin.

Why? “I am too notorious for the brave new world.”

His post will be taken by Putin’s chief of staff and Surkov’s arch enemy, Vyacheslav Volodin, a wealthy former lawyer who hails from Putin’s ruling United Russia party. Anton Vaino, a 39-year-old former diplomat, becomes Putin’s chief of staff.

By ejecting Surkov from the Kremlin just two months before the presidential election, Putin is betting that he can neutralise some of the anger against his rule by projecting the impression of a brave new world of political reform.

“What happened today is nothing more than shuffling people from one office into another,” Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s third richest man who demanded Surkov be sacked in September, said through a spokesman. “Little will change from these shifts.”

Though Surkov’s exit may not usher in a vast political change, it is the end of an era for one of Putin’s most powerful aides. And at Putin’s court, personalities count for everything.

Putin’s artist

Described as Russia’s answer to France’s Cardinal Richelieu or a modern-day Machiavelli, Surkov was one of the creators of the system Putin crafted since he rose to power in 1999.

To admirers, “Slava” Surkov is the most flamboyant mind in Putin’s court: a writer of fiction who recited poets such as Allen Ginsberg but also strong enough to hold his own against the KGB spies and oligarchs in the infighting of the Kremlin.

To enemies, Surkov is a dangerous artist who used his brains to expand Putin’s power and whose intellectual snobbery made Russian citizens beads in a grand political experiment called “Vladimir Putin”.

Fond of black ties and sometimes unshaven, Surkov survived many turf wars but he could not survive the biggest protests of Putin’s rule or Putin’s need to find someone to blame for them.

As the manager of United Russia, the Kremlin’s point man on elections and ultimately the day-to-day manager of Putin’s political system, Surkov bore direct responsibility for the protests that have pitted Russia’s urban youth against Putin.

He did not answer requests for comment.

Brought into the Kremlin under Boris Yeltsin in 1999 to serve as an aide to then chief of staff Alexander Voloshin, Surkov helped ease the handover of power to Putin.

He then worked with Putin and then President Medvedev to consolidate power, repeatedly using the spectre of the chaotic 1990s to warn against swift change.

Putin’s system

In practice, Surkov’s rule meant centralising power in Putin’s hands: Surkov moved regional decision-making to the Kremlin, struck down any attempt at autonomy and directed party politics.

Such was his power that Russia’s top party officials, journalists and cultural leaders would visit him in the Kremlin for “direction” on how to present events to the public.

“He is considered one of the architects of the system,” Putin’s former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, told Kommersant FM radio.

“Now this system is being revised. New organisers are needed with different views on the political system,” said Kudrin, who has offered to lead dialogue between the opposition and the authorities.

Signs of trouble for Surkov appeared in May when Volodin — the man who eventually took his job — helped Putin create a new movement, or popular front, that would compete with the United Russia party for Putin’s patronage.

Volodin, a dollar millionaire fond of ducking reporters’ questions with irony or personal needling, presented the popular front to Putin as a way to revive the ruling party.

Volodin’s stock rose after securing 65 per cent of the vote for Putin’s party in Saratov, a region where he was born.

Then in September, the main scriptwriter of Russian politics became the focus of an intriguing unscripted conflict with Prokhorov — the whizz kid of Russian finance — over the fate of a minor opposition party that was crippled by the Kremlin.

“There is a puppet master in this country who long ago privatised the political system and has for a long time misinformed the leadership of the country,” Prokhorov, whose fortune Forbes put at US$18 billion (RM56.7 billion), said at the time.

“His name is Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov,” said Prokhorov, who demanded Putin sack Surkov. Putin had to personally calm down the two sides in the row, two sources said.

But after mass protests in major Russian cities against the parliamentary election and against Putin himself, Surkov’s analysis differed to that of his boss.

Putin has dismissed the protesters as chattering monkeys or a motley crew of leaderless opponents bent on sowing chaos, but Surkov gave a more refined view: he said they were among the best people in Russian society.

“You cannot simply swipe away their opinions in an arrogant way,” said Surkov, who will now have to move his portrait of Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara from his Kremlin office.

North Korean Mourners Line Streets for Kim Jong-il's Funeral

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:28:00 -0800

Kim Jong-un, the designated successor to the socialist throne in Pyongyang, North Korea, bid farewell on Wednesday to his deceased father, Kim Jong-il, walking along his hearse through snow-covered downtown Pyongyang in an ...

Funeral for North Korean leader starts

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:26:00 -0800

North Korea's military staged a huge funeral procession on Wednesday in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased "dear leader," Kim Jong-il, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un.North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un cries as his father, North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il, lies in state during the run-up to his funeral in Pyongyang in this still image taken from video broadcast on December 27, 2011.

Pictures from state television showed a funeral cortege led by a limousine carrying a huge picture of the 69-year old, who died on December 17, passing serried ranks of olive green-clad soldiers whose heads were bowed.

A hearse carrying the coffin was led by a weeping Kim Jong-un, accompanied Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and a key power-broker in the transition, and Ri Yong-ho, the army chief of staff.

Kim Jong-un will become the third member of the family to run the isolated and unpredictable Asian country.

The coming year was supposed to mark North Korea's self-proclaimed transformation into a "strong and prosperous" nation, but it faces a dangerous transition to a young, untested leader at a time when dictatorships across the world have tumbled.

It would seem however that little is set to change in a country that has staged what many analysts have dubbed a "Great March Backwards" over the last 20 years.

Strong it may be - North Korea is backed by neighbouring China, has conducted two nuclear tests and has ambitions to become a nuclear power and boasts a 1.2 million-strong armed forces - but prosperous it is not.

On average, North Koreans die three-and-a-half years earlier than they did when "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung died, according to U.N. data.

The North is one of the most closed and poorest societies on earth, ranking 194 out of 227 countries in terms of per capita wealth, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The United Nations, in a country programme for 2011-15, says North Korea's main challenge is to "restore the economy to the level attained before 1990" and to alleviate food shortages for a third of its 25 million-strong population.

Indications from the transition since Kim Jong-il's death on December 17 suggest the father's hardline "military first" policy will continue, leading to further hardship in a country that endured mass starvation in the 1990s.

Leverage from outside, with the exception of China, is limited so all the United States, South Korea and Japan can do is hope that the regime does not collapse, nor flex its military muscle as it did in 2010, when it shelled a South Korean island.

"So far, there is little reason to expect policy changes given that the leadership hierarchy is basically the same with the exception that Kim Jong-un is replacing Kim Jong-il," said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea Studies at Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. thinktank.

HALO FADES

North Korea was established in 1948 and under its founding father, Kim Il-sung, went to war to try to conquer the South. It failed and in 1953 a dividing line that would become the world's most militarised frontier was drawn across the peninsula.

While Kim Il-sung was revered by his people for fighting Japanese colonial rule, the halo surrounding his successors has steadily dimmed to such an extent that his grandson, the new ruler, will have to rely on people such as his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, to hold on to power, at least in the short term.

"The outlook for stability is not good, because Kim Jong-un's succession is very different from Kim Jong-il's," said Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Peking University.

"Kim Il-sung was the country's founding father with an extraordinary career and a great deal of personal authority, so when he transferred power to his son, his son assumed quite a lot of authority."

Official media in the North have built Kim Jong-un, a jowly and rotund man in his late 20s, into a leader worthy of inheriting the crown, naming him "respected general", "great successor", "outstanding leader" and "supreme commander".

This year, dissident groups based in South Korea, citing North Korean refugees and businessmen working in China, linked the youngest Kim to a crackdown on business activities and a tougher policy on people seeking to flee from North Korea.

Those reports could not be independently verified, but would again suggest that further repression is more likely than an economic opening under the new man.

It also gives little hope for the 200,000 North Koreans who human rights group Amnesty international says are enslaved in labour camps over some infringement, subjected to torture and hunger or execution.

"There is likely to be a politically motivated purge and imprisonment, and it could go on for a considerable period of time," said Pak Sang-hak, who heads a group in Seoul working to support defectors, and is himself a defector.

"That is especially because of the relative instability of Kim Jong-un's leadership. There might also be persecution as a way of intimidation and discipline."

Japan getting ready for unexpected after Kim’s death

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:44:00 -0800

Portraits of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung (left) and his son Kim Jong-il at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang

Japan scurried to prepare for the unexpected today after news that Kim Jong-il, the leader of its unpredictable neighbour North Korea, had died of a heart attack.

“We hope this sudden event does not have an adverse effect on the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference after a hastily called ministerial meeting on security.

“Prime Minister (Yoshihiko) Noda told members of the security meeting to strengthen information gathering efforts, work closely and share information with relevant states including the United States, South Korea and China, and to prepare for any unexpected circumstances. The government hopes to take appropriate action as needed,” Fujimura added.

But he said the ministers at the security meeting had reached no conclusion on whether to raise the level of alert for Japan’s military.

“I ordered each division within the ministry to do their utmost in information gathering and in staying vigilant and watchful,” a Defence Ministry spokesman quoted Defence Minister Yasuo Ichikawa as saying.

Fujimura said the matter might be raised in subsequent meetings. “At present, we have no confirmation on the successor but we’re closely watching. According to the North Korean announcement, they will accept people expressing condolences from December 20 to 27 and the funeral will be held on December 28 in Pyongyang,” he said.

“We need to watch risks related to the succession.”

Kim died of a heart attack on Saturday while on a train trip, state media reported today, sparking immediate concern over who is in control of the reclusive state and its nuclear programme.

Japan’s ties with North Korea, with which it has no diplomatic relations, have long been fraught due to Pyongyang’s bitterness over Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula, Tokyo’s worries about North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes, and Japanese anger over the abduction of its citizens by North Korean agents decades ago.

Anxious wait

Talks to normalise ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang have been halted for years with the issue of the Japanese abductees, an emotional subject in Japan, a major obstacle.

The report of Kim’s death grabbed immediate headlines in Japan, where newspapers issued extra editions.

Some Tokyo residents said they were concerned about what will happen next inside the borders of their unpredictable neighbour.

“I am worried indeed. I am very interested in knowing how this will all turn out,” 73-year-old retiree Kosuke Yoshimasa told Reuters.

Another retiree, 68-year-old Michiko Matsuzaki, sounded a note of cautious optimism. “I hope this will lead North Korea to become more democratic,” she said.

Japan, like others in the region, will be watching to see what stance Pyongyang adopts towards the outside world following Kim Jong-il’s death and whether his youngest son, Kim Jong-un — seen as the leader-in-waiting — can consolidate his power.

“At present, when they are trying to firm up their internal regime, they are more likely to prioritise firming domestic stability, rather than trying to boost tension with the outside,” said Tadashi Kimiya, a Tokyo University professor who specialises in Korean affairs.

“If the government cannot exercise control there will be confusion and instability,” he added.

Kimiya said he did not expect any sudden flood of refugees from North Korea headed for Japan nor did he think Pyongyang’s military was likely to take aggressive military action.

Security was tight at the Tokyo headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, Pyongyang’s de facto diplomatic mission in Japan, where a North Korean flag flew at half-mast.

Japan has about 400,000 permanent residents who are ethnic Koreans backing either Seoul or Pyongyang, many of them descendents of those brought here as forced labour when the peninsula was a Japanese colony.

U.N.'s Ban condemns excessive force in Cairo clashes

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:42:00 -0800

A protester shouts during clashes with riot police near cabinet offices near Tahrir Square in Cairo December 18, 2011

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned excessive use of force by Egypt's security forces as hundreds of demonstrators demanding an end to military rule clashed with police in Cairo for a fourth day.

Police and soldiers using batons drove stone-throwing protesters out of Cairo's Tahrir Square, hub of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February, early Monday, a Reuters witness said.

Protesters fled down sidestreets, away from sensitive areas where parliament, the cabinet offices and Interior Ministry are located. Security forces have previously cleared the square briefly only to pull back when protesters return in force.

At least 10 people have died in the past three days of clashes as protesters demand that the generals who took charge after Mubarak's overthrow quit power. The violence broke out just after the second stage of elections that Egyptians hope will bring stability and civilian rule.

"Down with Tantawi," protesters chanted late Sunday, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi who heads the army council and was Mubarak's defense minister.

Youths had earlier hurled rocks and petrol bombs at lines of security forces. Riot police appeared to have moved to the front line instead of soldiers.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply concerned" about the violence in Egypt and urged the security forces "to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians." In a statement, she also urged protesters "to refrain from acts of violence."

Ban Ki-moon "is highly alarmed by the excessive use of force employed by the security forces against protesters, and calls for the transitional authorities to act with restraint and uphold human rights, including the right to peaceful protest," the U.N. Secretary-General's office said in a statement.

Troops in riot gear have been filmed in recent days beating protesters with long sticks after they had fallen to the ground. A Reuters picture showed two soldiers dragging a woman lying on the ground by her shirt, exposing her underwear.

The violence has overshadowed a staggered parliamentary election, the first free vote most Egyptians can remember, that is set to give Islamists the biggest bloc.

Some Egyptians are enraged by the army's behaviour. Others want to focus on voting, not street protests.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will retain power even after the lower house vote is completed in January, but has pledged to hand over to an elected president by July.

BOUTS OF VIOLENCE

Sunday, when hundreds of protesters were in the square, a group of activists urged those hurling stones at police lines to stop, but they refused, citing the deaths of 10 people as a reason not to "negotiate."

Other activists handed over to the army people they said were making petrol bombs.

A hard core of activists have camped in Tahrir since a protest against army rule on November 18 that was sparked by the army-backed cabinet's proposals to permanently shield the military from civilian oversight in the new constitution.

Bouts of violence since then, including a flare-up last month that killed 42 people, have deepened frustrations of many other Egyptians, who want an end to protests. They see the military as the only force capable of restoring stability.

"There are people who wait for any problem and seek to amplify it ... The clashes won't stop. There are street children who found shelter in Tahrir," said Ali el-Nubi, a postal worker, adding the army should have managed the transition better.

Reuters television footage showed one soldier firing a shot at fleeing protesters Saturday, though it was not clear if he was using live rounds. The army said it does not use live ammunition and has said troops tackled "thugs," not protesters.

The Health Ministry said 10 people had been killed in the violence since Friday and 505 injured, of whom 384 had been taken to hospital.

The latest bloodshed began after the second round of voting last week for parliament's lower house. The staggered election began on November 28 and will end with a run-off vote on January 11.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties repressed in the 30-year Mubarak era have emerged as strong front-runners.

Last Convoy of American Troops Leaves Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:40:00 -0800

An American soldier walked last week through Contingency Operating Base Adder, where the last convoy of the military withdrawal left early Sunday under cover of darkness.

Crew fled with life vests as packed Indonesian boat sank

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:30:00 -0800

Most of the survivors are believed to be economic migrants from countries including Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.Surviving asylum seekers said the boat that was heading for Australia broke apart in stormy seas about 90km off the coast of Java.

The crew and captain of an Indonesian boat packed with illegal immigrants grabbed life vests and swam away as it sank during a heavy storm, leaving more than 200 passengers missing, Australian media reported today.

Surviving asylum seekers said terrified passengers on the boat that was heading for Australia were left to drown as it broke apart in stormy seas about 90km off the coast of Java, Indonesia.

“The captain and six crew took the life vests and started swimming away,” Pakistani Saed Mohammad Zia, 18, told the Daily Telegraph.

“They were all from Indonesia. We lost sight of them in the big waves and we never saw them again. We don’t know if they were rescued.”

The number of survivors, missing and those feared dead is still not clear, authorities said of the latest of such disasters in recent years for immigrants travelling via Indonesia in search of a better life in Australia.

Many of the passengers on the wooden vessel, which sank on Saturday, are believed to be economic migrants from countries including Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those that survived suffered severe dehydration and exhaustion after struggling to stay afloat in the rough seas, some clinging to wreckage for five hours.

“We were just praying to God that someone would help us. We thought it was the last of our life story,” said Esmat Adine, 24, from Afghanistan.

“People were dying in front of us. The bodies were lying in front of us in the water, women and children mostly,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

Indonesia is in its wet season, when its waters are prone to storms, making the journey even more hazardous

One survivor told authorities four buses with about 60 or more adult passengers each had turned up at the port where they embarked, Antara said, giving no further details.

“The reason for our journey is that I, along with the rest of the people on the boat, wanted to seek asylum in Australia,” one Iraqi survivor, who gave his name as Fahmi, told Reuters in Arabic.

An Australian navy patrol boat and a surveillance aircraft will take part in the search and rescue operation later today. While Australian federal police based in Jakarta will assist the Indonesian investigation.

“It’s almost been two days since the boat capsized, the water is warm, but very rough. The chances of finding people is becoming more and more remote,” Australian Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare told Australian radio.

Boat people are a major political issue in Australia, although according to UN figures the number of asylum seekers reaching Australia is tiny in comparison with other countries.

Indonesia enacted a law this year making people smuggling punishable by a minimum of five years in jail, while Australia has a tough border security policy of preventing asylum seekers reaching its shores by boat.

Most illegal migrants who set sail from Indonesia are intercepted by the Australian navy or customs and taken to Australia’s Christmas Island for offshore processing.

The Australian government says its tough policy is a deterrent to people smugglers, but refugee and humanitarian groups say it has little impact on the lucrative trade.

Philippines mulls mass graves after typhoon kills hundreds

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:27:00 -0800

An aerial view shows shanties damaged by flash floods brought by Typhoon Washi (Sendong) in Cagayan De Oro city, southern Philippines December 18, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer

Disaster agencies Monday rushed to deliver body bags, food, water, and medicine to crowded evacuation centres in the southern Philippines as officials considered digging mass graves for hundreds killed in weekend flash floods.

The national disaster agency said 533 died and 309 remain missing, while the local Red Cross put the toll at 652 killed and more than 800 missing.

Casualties from the flashfloods exceeded the more than 450 people killed in 2009 when a tropical storm dumped heavy rains on the main Luzon island, inundating nearly the entire capital Manila.

Typhoon Washi slammed ashore in the Mindanao region of the Philippines while residents slept at the weekend, sending torrents of water and mud through riverside villages and sweeping houses out to sea.

In the aftermath, radio stations and local governments have been deluged by calls and appeals from survivors asking for help to bury the dead or find missing relatives.

"My suggestion is, so that illnesses won't spread, let's have mass graves," Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, said in a radio interview. "This will be the discretion of local governments and the DOH (Department of Health)."

"From the helicopter, we saw four major river systems, all houses along the riverbanks were totally destroyed."

Josephine Dalangin, a resident of Cagayan de Oro, said she and three other residents, including a boy, survived by clinging on a tree trunk for 11 to 12 hours while floating in the sea before they were rescued by a passing boat.

"I did not feel hunger, I did not feel any thirst," Dalangin told a local radio station. "I just prayed to the Lord that the rains, winds and waves would stop."

The cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, worst hit by the disaster, are running out of evacuations centres and coffins for the dead, with churches also converted into temporary evacuation.

Brigadier General Roland Amarille, head of an army task force in Iligan, said Sunday soldiers had been mobilized to recover bodies and build coffins.

"We need body bags and lime to deal with too many cadavers," Amarille said, fearing an outbreak of disease.

"Local mortuaries are no longer accepting cadavers and they are even asking people to bury the dead at once because there are too many bodies even in hallways."

Mindanao island, the southernmost in the Philippines, is a mineral-rich region that also produces rice and corn but is not normally in the path of an average 20 typhoons that hit the Southeast Asian country each year.

Kim Jong Il: Revered at home; remembered outside as repressive

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:22:00 -0800

North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died.

Dear Leader Kim Jong-il dead at 69

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:19:00 -0800

A file photo shows a national meeting held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s start of work at the central committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea in Pyongyang June 18, 2004. Father and son together in later life. Kim Jong-il is seen in this combination of file photographs from 2004 to 2009.

orth Korean leader Kim Jong-il, revered at home by a propaganda machine that turned him into a demi-god and vilified in the West as a temperamental tyrant with a nuclear arsenal, has died, North Korean state television reported today.

Kim, who was 69 years old, died early on Saturday of a heart attack while on a train journey, it said.

Kim was the unchallenged head of the reclusive state whose economy fell deeper into poverty during his years in power as he vexed the world by developing a nuclear arms programme and an arsenal of missiles aimed to hit neighbours Japan and South Korea.

Kim had been portrayed as a criminal mastermind behind deadly bombings, a jovial dinner host, a comic buffoon in Hollywood movies and by the administration of former US President George W. Bush as the ruler of “an outpost of tyranny”.

He was thought to have suffered a stroke in August 2008.

Known at home as “the Dear Leader”, Kim took over North Korea in 1994 when his father and founder of the reclusive state Kim Il-sung, known as “the Great Leader”, died.

Kim Jong-il, famed for his bouffant hair-do, platform shoes and jump suits, slowly emerged from his father’s shadows to become one of the world’s most enigmatic leaders who put North Korea on the path of becoming a nuclear power.

His state was also frequently cited as a threat to global stability.

Early years

Despite being on the world stage longer than most world leaders, little was known about Kim. He rarely spoke in public, almost never travelled abroad and has an official biography that is steeped in propaganda but lacking in concrete substance.

Kim had a host of titles in North Korea, but president was not one of them. Kim Il-sung was given the posthumous title of president for life, while his son’s most powerful posts included the chairman of the National Defence Commission, the real centre of power in North Korea, and Supreme Commander of the Korea People’s Army.

North Korean propaganda said Kim Jong-il was born on February 16, 1942, at a secret camp for rebel fighters led by his father near Korea’s famed Mount Paektu. But analysts say he was likely born in the Soviet Union when his father was with other Korean communist exiles receiving military and other training.

His official biography said that in elementary school he showed his revolutionary spirit by leading marches to battlefields where Korean rebels fought against Japanese occupiers of the peninsula.

By the time he was in middle school he had shown himself to be an exemplary factory worker who could repair trucks and electric motors.

He went to Kim Il-sung University where he studied the great works of communist thinkers as well as his father’s revolutionary theory, in a systematic way, state propaganda said.

North Korea analysts said however, Kim lived a life of privilege in the capital, Pyongyang, when his family returned to the divided peninsula in 1945.

The Soviets later installed Kim Il-sung as the new leader of North Korea and the family lived in a Pyongyang mansion formerly occupied by a Japanese officer.

Kim Jong-il’s younger brother mysteriously drowned in a pool at the residence in 1947.

Kim likely spent many of his younger years in China to receive an education and to keep him safe during the 1950-1953 Korean War, analysts said.

Anointed successor

After graduating from college, Kim joined the ruling Worker’s Party of Korea in 1964 and quickly rose through its ranks. By 1973, he was the party’s secretary of organisation and propaganda, and in 1974 his father anointed him as his successor.

Kim gradually increased his power in domestic affairs over the following years and his control within the ruling party greatly increased when the younger Kim was given senior posts in the Politburo and Military Commission in 1980.

Intelligence experts say Kim ordered a 1983 bombing in Myanmar that killed 17 senior South Korean officials and the destruction of a Korean Air jetliner in 1987 that killed 115.

He is also suspected of devising plans to raise cash by kidnapping Japanese, dealing drugs through North Korean embassies and turning the country into a major producer of counterfeit currency.

Kim was known as a womaniser, a drinker and a movie buff, according to those people who had been in close contact with him and later left the country. He enjoyed ogling Russian dancing girls, amassing a wine cellar with more than 10,000 bottles and downing massive amounts of lobster and cognac.

North Korea’s propaganda machine painted a much more different picture.

It said Kim piloted jet fighters — even though he travelled by land for his infrequent trips abroad. He penned operas, had a photographic memory, produced movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf, shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.

When he first took power in 1994, many analysts thought Kim’s term as North Korea’s leader would be short-lived and powerful elements in the military would rise up to take control of the state.

The already anaemic economy was in a shambles due to the end of the Cold War and the loss of traditional trading partners. Poor harvests and floods led to about 1 million people to die in a famine in the 1990s after he took power.

Despite the tenuous position from which he started, Kim managed to stay in power. He also installed economic reforms that were designed to bring a small and controlled amount of free-market economics into the state-planned economy.

Nuclear Power

His greatest moment may have come on June 15, 2000, when he hosted the first summit of the leaders of the two Koreas when then South Korean Kim Dae-jung visited Pyongyang.

Kim’s image was transformed from a feared and mysterious leader to a kind-hearted host who had the world knocking on his door. A landmark summit with then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Russian President Vladimir Putin soon followed the visit by South Korea’s president.

The ray of sunshine out of the North then came to an end.

In 2002, tension rose after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to pursuing a nuclear arms programme in violation of a 1994 agreement that was to have frozen its atomic ambitions.

North Korea expelled International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in December 2002 and said in January 2003 it was quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In February 2005, North Korea said it had nuclear weapons and in October 2006, it rattled the region by exploding a nuclear device. North Korea conducted a second nuclear test in May 2009.

Kim Jong-il reportedly told visitors that it was the dying wish of his father to see the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons and he wanted to work toward that end, but he first wanted to see the United States treat his state with respect.

Tensions heightened to their highest levels in years in 2010 with the torpedoing of a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors. The South blamed the attack on Pyongyang, but North denied responsibility. Later that year, the North bombarded a South Korean island, the first such attack against civilian target since the 1950-53 Korean War.

This year, Kim’s health appeared to have improved and he visibly gained weight. He visited China twice and travelled to Russia for the first time in nearly a decade.

Kim has three known sons. He is believed to have anointed the youngest, Kim Jong-un, to succeed him.

Kim Jong-il visits the 593 Military Unit’s Commander School at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this undated picture.

A photograph of former North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung hugging his son Kim Jong-il, which was taken in April 1946

Kim Jong-il and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meet at the Pae Kha Hawon Guest House in Pyongyang in this October 23, 2000 file photo.

Russian President Vladimir Putin embraces Kim Jong-il during their meeting in Vladivostok in this August 23, 2002 file photo

Kim Jong-il suffered a massive heart attack on a train on Saturday.

Steve Jobs Named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person Of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (KUKU(Penis) Eye) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:21:00 -0800

When it comes to end-of-the-year honors, being named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person isn't exactly Time's Man of the Year-- or even Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year-- but it's definitely a fitting tribute for this year's honoree, ...