16 Pages Number 125 10th year
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
Price: Rp 3.000,-
Monday, June 11, 2018
Bollywood star Chopra apologises over ‘Quantico’ Hindu terror plot
The decades-long drive to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons For almost three decades, successive US presidents, other world leaders and the United Nations have tried in vain to pressure or cajole North Korea into scrapping its nuclear weapons programme. Now Donald Trump is set to meet its leader Kim Jong Un at an unprecedented summit on Tuesday in Singapore, in an attempt to reach a deal which eluded his predecessors. Here is a look at previous efforts:
NEW DELHI - Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra apologised Sunday after a furore over a US TV series that showed her uncovering a terror plot hatched by Indian Hindu nationalists. The episode of spy thriller “Quantico” showed Chopra’s character, an FBI agent named Alex Parrish, thwarting the plan and noticing one of the terrorists wearing a Hindu rosary. The terrorists had tried to frame Pakistanis for the attack planned ahead of a summit on Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory that arch-rivals India and Pakistan claim as their own. Kashmir has been a source of historical tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours who have fought two wars over it. The episode, aired on June 1, triggered outrage in India with many fans taking to social media to “shame” the Indian-born actress and calling her a “traitor”. Chopra, a former Miss World, said she was “a proud Indian and
that will never change”. “I’m extremely saddened and sorry that some sentiments have been hurt by a recent episode of Quantico,” Chopra, 35, wrote on Twitter. “That was not and would never be my intention. I sincerely apologise.” ABC Studios, the producers of the crime drama, have also offered an apology while defending Chopra who is the lead actor of the show. “The episode has stirred a lot of emotion, much of which is unfairly aimed at Priyanka Chopra, who didn’t create the show, nor does she write or direct it,” US media quoted the studio as saying in a statement. “The show has featured antagonists of many different ethnicities and backgrounds, but in this case we inadvertently and regrettably
stepped into a complex political issue. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone.” Chopra has been trolled on Twitter since the telecast and a street protest was also held in New Delhi on Saturday by a fringe Hindu outfit that demanded she be sent to Pakistan as a punishment. (afp)
Priyanka Chopra attends the CHANEL Dinner Celebrating Our Majestic Oceans, A Benefit For NRDC on June 2, 2018 in Malibu, California.
Banderas: Hayek stayed mum on abuse ‘to protect us’ from Weinstein LOS ANGELES - Salma Hayek never told Antonio Banderas about the abuse to which she says Harvey Weinstein subjected her, according to the Spanish actor, who classes her a close friend. When he learned about it years after the pair had filmed the Weinstein-produced movie “Frida,” Banderas picked up the phone and called to ask her why she had never said anything.
She said she was “trying to protect us.” Hayek was one of the many alleged victims of the disgraced film producer, who had the power to make -- or break -- a career. She said he had harassed her for sexual favors and forced her to do a lesbian sex scene in “Frida.” “I’ve worked with Harvey Weinstein, he has produced films I have been in, but I was not aware” of the allegations,
Banderas told AFP in a telephone interview. “When the issue of Salma came up, the first thing I did was call her to ask, ‘Why didn’t you tell me anything?’” She told Banderas she was trying to protect herself and her friends, because she “knew he was a very powerful character and that if she said something to us and we confronted him, we would pay a very high price.”
e-mail: info_ibp@balipost.co.id online: http://www.internationalbalipost.com. http://epaper.internationalbalipost.com.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Mexican-born Hayek, writing in The New York Times last December, described Weinstein as a “monster” and detailed the tortuous filming of a movie that won her a best-actress Oscar. They would go on to work together in other films, including “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “Puss in Boots.” The Weinstein scandal first erupted last October, drawing in other big names in the enter-
tainment industry and leading to movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up. “I think it was bound to explode,” said the 57-year-old Banderas. “It’s unacceptable... These people should be brought before a jury.” In fact, Weinstein has been charged in another case in New York with rape and assault. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail of $1 million. (afp)
- Agreed Framework North Korea joined the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) in 1985 but suspicions grew that it was cheating on the deal. In 1989, US satellite photos revealed a nuclear reprocessing plant at Yongbyon. Four years later, Pyongyang announced its intention to quit the NPT, prompting a dialogue with Washington. Under an agreement signed in October 1994 with the Clinton administration and dubbed the Agreed Framework, the North agreed to freeze and eventually dismantle existing nuclear plants, which could easily produce plutonium but which Pyongyang said were intended to produce electricity. The US in return pledged alternative energy in the form of 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil a year, plus the construction by 2003 of two proliferation-resistant lightwater reactors. Several oil shipments were delivered late due to hostility to the deal among Republicans in Congress and work on the reactors was delayed for years. The pact finally broke down in 2002 when the US accused the North of running a secret uranium enrichment programme. - Six-party talks The six-party talks, which began in 2003, were hosted by China and also grouped North and South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States. Several rounds of talks culminated in September 2005 with a wideranging agreement. The North agreed to scrap its nuclear programme, rejoin the NPT and accept foreign nuclear monitors in exchange for food and energy aid -- plus the eventual normalisation of relations with the US and a peace deal formally ending the Korean War.
But talks quickly hit a snag when the US imposed restrictions on a Macau bank suspected of laundering money for North Korea. In October 2006, Pyongyang staged its first nuclear test. At a new round of talks in February 2007, members reached a deal for the North to freeze its nuclear programme in return for aid and the release of its funds in the Macau bank. Later that year, the North began shutting down its Yongbyon nuclear plant, removing thousands of fuel rods under the watch of US experts. In 2008, Pyongyang handed Washington voluminous details of its nuclear programme and blew up the Yongbyon cooling tower in front of foreign media. The Bush administration eased sanctions and removed the North from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. But the two sides failed to agree procedures to verify disarmament and by the end of 2008, Pyongyang had restarted its programme and banned nuclear inspectors. The last round of six-party talks was held in December 2008, and the North in 2009 staged a series of missile tests along with its second nuclear test. In 2010, it showed a visiting US expert a n ew u r an iu m en r ich men t plant and light-water reactor at Yongbyon. Under an agreement announced on February 29, 2012, the Obama administration offered substantial food aid in return for a moratorium on uranium enrichment and missile testing and the return of nuclear inspectors to Yongbyon, leading to a restart of the sixparty talks. Just 16 days later, the North announced plans for a satellite launch, which went ahead in April, and the deal fell apart.(afp)
AP Photo/Xinhua, Gao Haorong, File
In this June 27, 2008, file photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, the cooling tower of the Yongbyon nuclear complex is demolished in Yongbyon, North Korea. An unknown number of nuclear warheads. Stockpiles of plutonium and uranium. ICBMs. Weapons factories - and the scientists who work at them. The list of what it would take for the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea is long. North Korea has said it’s willing to deal away its entire nuclear arsenal if the United States provides it with a reliable security assurance and other benefits.