ASHBURTON GUARDIAN, Saturday, June 8, 2013
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World
N Korea proposes talks with S Korea North Korea has proposed holding low-level government talks with South Korea this weekend as the rivals look to mend ties that have plunged during recent years amid hardline stances by both countries. Pyongyang, which wants to meet Sunday in its border city of Kaesong, also said it would reopen a Red Cross communication line with South Korea in their truce village. During a weeks-long period of animosity marked by a string of North Korean threats of war and South Korean vows of counterstrikes, the North in March shut down the communication line used for exchanging messages on humanitarian photo AP issues. The statement by the North’s South Korean Army soldiers patrol on Unification bridge, which leads Committee for the Peaceful to the demilitarised zone, separating North Korea from South Korea in Reunification of Korea, which Paju, South Korea. handles relations with Seoul, folOfficials in Seoul said it wasn’t lowed the countries’ agreement a but Pyongyang said lower-level day earlier to hold talks on issues talks are needed first because yet clear what proposed talks including reopening a jointly run “bilateral relations have been Sunday would focus on if they industrial complex in Kaesong stalemated for years and mis- happen. Such meetings in the that had been the last symbol of trust has reached the extrem- past have involved lower-level inter-Korean co-operation before ity.” The North’s statement did officials charged with ironing out not say whether it would accept administrative details and reportit closed this spring. South Korea had suggested ministerial-level talks Wednesday ing back to their bosses. The next holding high-level ministerial following a weekend meeting in step would be higher-level talks. The last government-level talks in Seoul on Wednesday, Kaesong.
• Tapping leak The monumental scope of the US government’s surveillance of Americans’ phone records — hundreds of millions of calls — was laid bare by a leaked document in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection programme aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. At issue is a court order that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an “ongoing, daily basis” the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers. -AP
• Safety ‘chaotic’ China’s workplace safety agency blamed both factory managers and government inspectors for the “extremely chaotic” neglect of safety at a poultry plant where a deadly fire killed 120 workers this week. Safety exits were blocked and managers neglected to hold required safety drills or educate workers. -AP
• Suspension over Police officers protesting over the suspension of 1400 investigators said they reached an agreement with Honduras’ government that will let them keep working while authorities conduct polygraph tests looking for organised crime ties. -AP
• Buried alive Villagers in Bolivia’s southern highlands buried a man alive in the grave of the woman he is suspected of having raped and murdered, an official said. Police had identified 17-yearold Santos Ramos as the possible culprit in the attack on 35-year-old Leandra Arias Janco in a Quechua community near the municipality of Colquechaca, said Jose Luis Barrios, the chief prosecutor in Potosi province where the community is located. -AP
contact between the Koreas on their peninsula took place in February 2011 at the truce village of Panmunjom, according to the South’s Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korea issues. The mood on the Korean Peninsula has been tense since North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died in December 2011 and his son, Kim Jong Un, took over. Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, has committed a drumbeat of acts over the last year that Washington, Seoul and others deem provocative. The proposed talks could represent a change in North Korea’s approach, analysts said, or could simply be an effort to ease international demands that it end its development of nuclear weapons, a topic crucial to Washington but not a part of envisioned interKorean meetings. If the Koreas meet Sunday in Kaesong, the talks will come on the heels of a high-profile summit yesterday by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in which North Korea was expected to be a key topic. Xi is also scheduled to meet with
Four dead in shooting in Mexico City neighbourhood Four people died in a shooting in a tough Mexico City neighbourhood that is home to the area’s biggest black market. District prosecutor Alberto Ramos said three were killed at the scene and gave no more details. Paramedic Fernando Ochoa said a fourth person died later in the hospital. Witnesses said the shooting happened in the Body Extreme gym in Tepito, one of Mexico City’s most dan-
gerous neighbourhoods. Ochoa said the shooting appeared targeted and the gunmen shot several rounds. “It looks at like that attack was directed at them,” he said. Josefina Ramirez said her nephew was one of the four killed, along with two friends and an instructor. “Two masked men came and just started shooting,” she said. “He had no enemies.” Tepito is the main clear-
inghouse for millions of dollars of contraband, from guns and drugs to counterfeit handbags that come through Mexico City. The shooting brought an enormous police operation, including helicopters flying over the mostly residential street. One woman crying at the scene said her boyfriend was killed, but wouldn’t give her name, only claiming his innocence and shouting “you know who did this.” -AP
Taiwan charges 2 in failed train, office bombings Two men have been charged with planting cyanide-tainted bombs on a Taiwan high-speed train and at an office where the head of global electronics powerhouse Foxconn was scheduled to visit in April. The devices failed to explode. One suspect, a nonpractising lawyer, hired the other man to place the bombs and made stock market orders anticipating he could profit in the aftermath of the explosions, according to the Xinbei Prosecutors’ Office. The bombs placed at a lawmaker’s office targeted Terry Gou, head of Foxconn Technology Group, a statement from the prosecutors’ office said. Gou was scheduled to visit the lawmaker’s office that day, April 12, to attend a religious event he had sponsored. Taiwan-based Foxconn produces parts for popular electronic devices
at its extensive network of factories in mainland China, including iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc. The lawyer, Hu Tsunghsien, 44, and Chu Ya-dong were indicted on charges of attempted homicide and endangering public security, which could carry the death penalty or life imprisonment if they are convicted. Prosecutors said Hu made the bombs at his home with knowledge gathered from the Internet and employed Chu to place the devices. Scores of bottles containing various chemicals were seized from Hu’s home in the southern city of Tainan, the statement said. Hu attorney Fang Nanshan said Hu has denied the charges. He said Hu was seeking to raise public awareness on Taiwan’s widening gap between rich and poor. Chu has acknowledged he placed
the luggage but denied knowing the contents. Each device had a timer to set off an attached gas can and release toxic cyanide into the air. Police say the bombs failed to explode because the electric current meant to ignite the gas cans was not sufficiently strong. Prior to the bombing attempts, Hu had placed short sell orders on the local stock exchange, betting the bombings would destroy investor confidence and allow him to reap huge profits, the prosecutors’ statement said. Prosecutors said Hu plotted the bombings after he was charged in February in a separate case of intimidating a businessman. Data seized from his computer indicated Hu had been inspired by the English freedom fighter in the 2005 action thriller V for Vendetta, they said. -AP
South Korean President Park Geun-hye later this month. Beijing, which is Pyongyang’s only major economic and political ally, has expressed growing frustration with its neighbour, tightening inspections on crossborder trade and halting business with North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank. But Beijing, worried about its own economy and a possible influx of refugees, also views stability in Pyongyang as crucial. The proposals for dialogue by the Koreas follow a meeting late last month in Beijing by Xi and the North Korean military’s top political officer, who reportedly expressed a willingness to “launch dialogue with all relevant parties.” Kwak Sok Gyong, a Pyongyang resident, said the North’s announcement “reflects what people want in both north and south. I think the relations between north and south should be improved as soon as possible.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington supports improved inter-Korean relations but cautioned that it doesn’t signal progress on restarting talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme. -AP
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