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Open to visit by Kim Jong-un: China
Kim Jong-Il now in warm corner of hell with Stalin: McCain
Prez Zardari’s return a ‘cameo appearance’
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Karzai wants immediate halt to NATO night raids
‘US drone strikes inside Pak The US has put its covert air campaign that targets Al-Qaida and Taliban operatives in Pakistan’s tribal agencies “on hold”, in the wake of strained ties between the two countries. Several US intelligence officials involved in the CIA programme said the drone strikes were on hold due to fears that an attack at this point in time would further damage the already fragile relationship, the Long War Journal reported. — PTI
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Open to visit by Kim Jong-un: China
Beijing, December 20 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, speaking at a daily news briefing, initially said he had "no information" about whether Jong-un would be welcome to visit China. But later he clarified: "I want to add that China and North Korea have always kept up high-level visits, and we welcome the North Korean leader to visit at a convenient time to both sides." He did not elaborate. The remarks follow a message from China's central leadership on Monday that gave Beijing's support for isolated North Korea and expressed confidence in Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's young and little-known successor. Hu, during his visit to North Korea's sprawling embassy in one of Beijing's leafy diplomatic quarters, offered his support for the country's new leader, Kim Jong-un, highlighting efforts to shore up friendship with Pyongyang under the younger Kim. State television showed a grim-faced Hu bowing in mourning for the elder Kim, accompanied with several other top officials, including Vice President Xi Jinping, the man most likely to succeed Hu from late next year. "We are confident that the people of North Korea will carry on the task bequeathed by Comrade Kim Jong-il, and closely unify around the Korean Workers' Party, and under Comrade Kim Jong-un turn their anguish into strength," Hu said in his condolence remarks. "Cooperative relations between China and North Korea is the immutable and unwavering guiding policy of China's party and government," the report paraphrased Hu as saying. The visit, unusual for China's highest ranked leader, is another sign of Beijing's determination to protect its ties with Pyongyang as it enters an uncertain transition. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had spoken in the morning with his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-hwan and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. All three agreed it was important to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, the statement, carried on the ministry's website, said. "Maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula accords with the interests of all sides. China is willing to work hard with all sides to this effect," it cited Yang as saying. Impoverished and squeezed by international sanctions for conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests since 2006, North Korea has increasingly turned to Beijing for help to fill the gap left by the drying up of economic assistance from South Korea and the United States. In turn, China has made clear that it wants to shore up North Korea as a buffer protecting its regional influence from the United States and its allies. Over the 18 months before his death, Kim visited China four times, although in the past he rarely travelled abroad. During Kim's China visit in May, the two sides vowed that their alliance, "sealed in blood", would pass on to their successors.
— Reuters
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Kim Jong-Il now in warm corner of hell with Stalin: McCain
“The world is a better place now that Kim Jong-Il is no longer in it,” said Senator John McCain, a Republican lawmaker who unsuccessfully contested for the President in 2008. McCain was not alone, several other lawmakers said that Kim, called “Dear Comrade” by his colleagues, had subjected his people to “dire poverty and cruel oppression under one of the most totalitarian regimes the world has ever known.” Another Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney said Kim
Jong-Il was a ruthless tyrant who lived a life of luxury while the North Korean people starved.
— PTI
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Prez Zardari’s return a ‘cameo appearance’
Washington, December 20 Quoting Pakistani and Western officials, The New York Times said Zardari’s hurried return was only to attend Benazir’s death anniversary on December 27. After that 56-year-old Zardari would probably leave for a long, perhaps permanent, convalesce in London or Dubai. The paper quoted officials as saying that the rush back was because of growing concern by his supporters that the military has been moving to strengthen its role in the country’s governance. The Times said that Pakistan’s president in fact could have flown into a storm, as pushed by the army, the Pakistan’s Supreme Court started to probe whether Zardari government was behind an unsigned memorandum that surfaced in October, purportedly asking the Obama administration to help curb the military’s influence and avert a possible coup. The paper said the court had yesterday put off a decision on whether to investigate the controversial memo. The court called on the Pakistan government to provide more details in the case and set the next hearing for Thursday. Pakistan’s powerful army chief and the ISI chief have urged the court to probe the origins of the memo.
— PTI
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Karzai wants immediate halt to NATO night raids Kabul, December 20 Karzai has led public criticism of the controversial raids, saying they endanger lives and harass local communities, and repeatedly called on US-led international forces to stop entering Afghan homes. The latest spat comes after the pregnant wife of an anti-drugs official was killed during a raid in the eastern Paktia province in the early hours of Saturday when NATO-led forces returned gunfire coming from a compound. NATO has defended the operations as the safest way of targeting insurgent leaders, insisting they will continue but with the increasing involvement of Afghan special forces. “The President of Afghanistan wants an immediate halt to the night raids and house searches of Afghans,” presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said. “He doesn’t want any foreigner to go to the homes of Afghans and search their homes.” A loya jirga meeting of Afghan elders last month made halting the raids a condition of a strategic partnership document being negotiated with Washington.
— AFP
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Washington, December 20