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SEOUL: North Korea announced Thursday it was suspending all
dialogue with South Korea and closing the border to Seoul officials,
its toughest action in a week of growing cross-border tensions. The
North said it went ahead with its threatened retaliatory action
after Seoul refused to apologize for recent remarks by its military
chief. “Our military does not engage in empty talk,” the Korean
Central News Agency said, disregarding an appeal from South Korean
President Lee Myung Bak for “straightforward” talking to calm
the atmosphere.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: The increasing violence in Iraq
recently will not halt US troops from withdrawing from the
country through July as planned, said a top military official on
Wednesday. The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike
Mullen, told a Pentagon press conference that recent violence in
Baghdad and Basra would not change plans to withdraw five more
combat brigades from the country. However, the Pentagon would stop
withdrawals to assess the security situation after the end of July.
-- Xinhua
BANGKOK: African activists, saying the continent
is getting a “raw deal” in climate talks, called Thursday for
major polluters to commit 1 percent of GDP to fight the ravages of
global warming. The bloody Darfur conflict has been termed the
world’s first war triggered by climate change but campaigners here
said few of the internationally funded projects to curb gas
emissions have gone to Africa.
-- AFP
HARARE: Zimbabweans waited anxiously Thursday
for an end to a deafening official silence over the outcome of
presidential elections after the opposition took control of
parliament. The electoral commission wrapped up final results on the
parliamentary contest in the early hours, in which President Robert
Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
lost its majority to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
-- AFP
NEW YORK: A New Yorker who for 40 years passed
himself off as a Vietnam War hero who had been decorated for extreme
gallantry was sentenced to community service Wednesday after
authorities found him fake. According to prosecutors, Louis Lowell
McGuinn claimed to have been a lieutenant colonel in the US special
forces and had used his fake military history since 1968 to get work
or to win kudos at social functions
-- AFP
HANOI: A factory that makes shoes for Nike in
Vietnam has been temporarily shut down after minor clashes broke out
at the end of a two-day work stoppage, government and union
officials said Thursday. More than 15,000 workers went on strike on
Monday at the Ching Luh factory in southern Long An province.
-- AFP
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s ailing genocide
tribunal received a 450,000-dollar boost from Australia on Thursday
in a bid to keep the cash-strapped court operating, officials said.
The contribution comes amid fears that money troubles could further
delay the UN-backed proceedings months before the first defendants
go on trial. Australia has already provided more than three million
dollars in funding. “It’s very important that this process
continues. We want to make sure that the resources are available,”
said Australian parliamentarian Bob McMullan.
-- AFP
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has suspended marriages
between foreigners and Cambodians amid concerns over an explosion in
the number of brokered unions involving poor, uneducated women, an
official said Thursday. The move follows an International
Organization for Migration (IOM) report highlighting the plight of
an increasing number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in
marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make large profits. Some
1,759 marriage visas were issued by South Korea in 2007, up from
just 72 in 2004, the report said.
-- AFP
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