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WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday announced a
resumption of military aid to Thailand suspended in the wake of the
2006 coup, after a democratically-elected government was unveiled in
Bangkok. Washington is also sending Christopher Hill, the State
Department’s pointman for East Asian affairs, to Bangkok to help
advance relations with its oldest treaty ally in the region. Deputy
US Secretary of State John Negroponte “has determined and
certified to Congress that a democratically- elected government has
taken office in Thailand,” Tom Casey, a State Department
spokesman, said Wednesday.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: Democratic White House hopeful
Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she loaned her campaign $5 million of
her own money in January to keep up with rival Barack Obama’s
record cash windfall. “I loaned the campaign five million from my
money,” Clinton said a day after more than 20 state nominating
contests resulted in no clear frontrunner for the Democratic Party
ticket. “I loaned it because I believe very strongly in this
campaign and we intended to be competitive, and we were. And I think
the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment,”
Clinton said.
-- AFP
SEOUL: North Korea on Thursday condemned an
upcoming military exercise by South Korea and the United States,
alleging it is a preparation for an invasion of the communist state.
The Key Resolve drill, scheduled for March 2 to 7 in South Korea,
replaces the annual Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and
Integration joint exercise. It will be the first joint drill to test
Seoul’s ability to wage war under a scenario in which South Korea
has regained wartime control of its troops from the US.
-- AFP
GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH: Thousands of people massed
around Benazir Bhutto’s tomb in southern Pakistan early Thursday
to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for the slain
opposition leader. The day of Muslim prayers and rituals also
signals the launch of campaigning by her Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP) for elections on February 18, with her widower Asif Ali
Zardari set to deliver a keynote speech. Many mourners spent the
night in tents outside the huge white Bhutto mausoleum in the rural
village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, listening to mourning songs on tape
recorders and reciting verses from the Koran.
-- AFP
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan: US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband
traveled to the heart of the Taliban insurgency Thursday during a
surprise trip to Afghanistan. The pair flew to the major NATO air
base in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement,
shortly after arriving in the country with calls for NATO nations to
boost support for the fight against the extremists. They were due to
meet military commanders who are based at the Kandahar Air Field and
address soldiers who are on the frontline of efforts to tackle the
al-Qaeda-linked insurgent movement.
-- AFP
NEW YORK: Hollywood star Heath Ledger, found
dead in his New York apartment two weeks ago, died of accidental
intoxication caused by a cocktail of painkillers and anti-anxiety
drugs, officials said Wednesday. Ledger, who scored critical acclaim
for his performance as a repressed gay cowboy in the 2005 movie
Brokeback Mountain, had six prescription medicines including
the drugs marketed as Xanax and Valium in his system when he died.
According to the New York chief medical examiner’s office, Ledger
died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of
oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and
doxylamine from the abuse of prescription medications.
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday it
planned to compensate North Korea with a second shipment of fuel oil
even though the reclusive state has not provided a full declaration
of its nuclear programs under an aid-for-disarmament deal. “We
have another shipment which we are beginning to get going on this
week,” said Christopher Hill, the US envoy to the six-party talks
aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons drive.Under the
deal, the North Koreans would receive about one million tons of fuel
oil or its equivalent as well as diplomatic and security guarantees
as it moves to disband its nuclear program.
-- AFP
GAZA CITY: Six Palestinian fighters and a
teacher were killed in Israeli raids on Gaza on Thursday, the latest
deadly strikes on the Hamas-run territory since a suicide bombing on
Israeli soil this week. Escalating violence in and around Gaza has
already seen nine Hamas militants killed in air strikes on the Gaza
Strip this week and several Israelis, including two young children,
injured by militant rocket attacks. In the first air strike on
Thursday, four militants were killed near Jabaliya in the north of
the territory by a missile fired from a drone, medics said.
-- AFP
ANKARA: The Turkish parliament early Thursday
adopted a constitutional amendment allowing women to wear Islamic
headscarves in universities, a move that is strongly opposed by
secularists and still has to be ratified. Assembly deputy speaker
Nevzat Pakdil announced that two votes by secret ballot easily
achieved the two-thirds majority necessary to modify the
constitution. The ban on headscarves in universities has been
implemented in varying degrees over the years, forcing many women to
abandon their education and others to hide their headscarves under
wigs to attend classes.
-- AFP
GENEVA: The recent snowstorms in China have
signaled that “freak weather” is becoming increasingly more
common, a United Nations body that seeks to mitigate the impact of
natural disasters warned on Wednesday. The unprecedented scale,
cost, and human impacts of China’s freak month of snowstorms, its
worst in 50 years, herald a need for the world to get ready for
“new kinds of disasters,” said the Geneva-based International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). ISDR emphasized the growing
importance of ensuring infrastructure can withstand weather that was
previously unthinkable. “Reducing vulnerability to these
unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments,” the
agency said in a statement.
-- Xinhua
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