W O R L D

UN lowers flag to mark Kim’s funeral
Honour prompts objections from human right activists
United Nations, December 29
The United Nations' flag was lowered to half-mast at the world body's headquarters here and at its Geneva offices to mark the funeral of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a move that drew flak from human right activists.

PAYING TRIBUTES: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un (2nd left) attends a memorial service for Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Thursday. — AP/PTI

Kim Jong-un declared ‘supreme leader’

Warehouse blast claims 17 lives in Myanmar
Yangon, December 29
A large pre-dawn explosion at a warehouse in Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon today killed at least 17 persons and injured dozens but was not caused by a bomb, an official said. “It was not a bomb explosion,” the official said, though the cause of the blast, which sparked a large fire that destroyed many nearby storage places and homes, was still unknown. At least 17 persons, including four firefighters, had died, while 79 people were injured, including around 30 firemen, another government official told AFP. Residents in several areas of the city were woken by the blast around 2 am local time (1930 GMT), which appeared to have hit a medical warehouse in the eastern township of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, witnesses said.

Smoke billows out from a warehouse in Pazundaung township, Myanmar, on Thursday. — AP/PTI

Fifth arrest in Bidve killing
London, December 29
A fifth youth has been arrested by British police in connection with the killing of an Indian student in Manchester, as Indian authorities here launched efforts to repatriate his body back to Pune at the earliest. The 23-year old Anuj Bidve was shot dead by a gunman on Boxing Day while on a Salford street, where local residents and leaders expressed disgust over the incident.

Saudi women to contest, vote without male nod
Riyadh, December 29
Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said today.

US downsizing top-heavy ranks in military
Washington, December 29
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the US has started culling generals and admirals from its top-heavy ranks to save money and make the military more nimble. With the Iraq war over and US troops in Afghanistan on their way home, the Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March.

 

 

UN lowers flag to mark Kim’s funeral
Honour prompts objections from human right activists

United Nations, December 29
The United Nations' flag was lowered to half-mast at the world body's headquarters here and at its Geneva offices to mark the funeral of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a move that drew flak from human right activists.

A spokesman at the UN, Eduardo del Buey, said it was a "matter of protocol" and customary for the UN flag to be lowered to half-mast to mark the death of a leader of any UN member state, and North Korea is a full UN member. North Korea's UN mission had requested that the flag be lowered, Buey said.

However, the honour shown to Kim yesterday prompted objections from human rights activists.

A Geneva-based advocacy group, UN Watch, said the UN human rights message was "at serious risk of being blurred" because of the honoring of Kim, who died on December 17.

"Today should be a time for the UN to show solidarity with the victims, the millions of North Koreans brutalised by Kim's merciless policies of starvation, torture and oppression, and not with the perpetrator," the group's executive director, Hillel Neuer, said.

Last Thursday, the UN General Assembly had granted a request from North Korea's mission and observed a minute of silence to condole the death of the country's leader.

The tribute was paid before the start of the General Assembly's afternoon session with Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser saying the minute of silence will be observed for the North Korean leader in keeping with the "existing practice." "I request the representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to convey condolences to the government and the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Al-Nasser had said.

However, the General Assembly hall was almost half empty when the condolence was paid, with a majority of the delegates waiting outside the hall doors and walking in only after the end of the minute of silence.

North Korea's UN mission had made a similar request to the Security Council but it was turned down. — PTI

Kim Jong-un declared ‘supreme leader’

Pyongyang: North Korea's power brokers on Thursday declared Kim Jong-un the supreme leader at a massive public memorial for his father Kim Jong-il, cementing the Kim family's hold on power for another generation. The son, dubbed North Korea's Great Successor, stood with his head bowed and somber in a dark overcoat on a balcony at the Grand People's Study House overlooking Kim-il Sung Square and watched the memorial that doubled as a show of support for his burgeoning role as leader. — AP

Warehouse blast claims 17 lives in Myanmar

Yangon, December 29
A large pre-dawn explosion at a warehouse in Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon today killed at least 17 persons and injured dozens but was not caused by a bomb, an official said.

“It was not a bomb explosion,” the official said, though the cause of the blast, which sparked a large fire that destroyed many nearby storage places and homes, was still unknown.

At least 17 persons, including four firefighters, had died, while 79 people were injured, including around 30 firemen, another government official told AFP.

Residents in several areas of the city were woken by the blast around 2 am local time (1930 GMT), which appeared to have hit a medical warehouse in the eastern township of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, witnesses said.

Firefighters battled for hours to douse the flames and finally succeeded in extinguishing the massive fire at around 6:45 am, leaving behind a scene of utter devastation.

The second government official said the blast had created a large crater and damaged several warehouses and around 50 houses in the area, most of them wooden dwellings. An AFP photographer at the scene saw rescue workers frantically searching for survivors and pulling a dead body from the debris. — AFP

Fifth arrest in Bidve killing

London, December 29
A fifth youth has been arrested by British police in connection with the killing of an Indian student in Manchester, as Indian authorities here launched efforts to repatriate his body back to Pune at the earliest.

The 23-year old Anuj Bidve was shot dead by a gunman on Boxing Day while on a Salford street, where local residents and leaders expressed disgust over the incident.

A 20-year-old man was the fifth person arrested by the police, which has already rounded up four persons, including two teenagers. The man is being questioned on suspicion of murdering Bidve, who was shot in the head at close range in what was described as an “unprovoked” attack on December 26.

The Indian High Commission in the UK assured all possible help in expediting the process of repatriation of Bidve’s body to India.

The Consulate General of India in Birmingham and the Indian High Commission said they were “deeply” saddened at the “unfortunate” and tragic killing.

“The concerned authorities have also been suitably sensitised about the family’s wish to have the dead body repatriated to India at the earliest,” the High Commission said in a statement today.

Friends of Pune-based Bidve have organised a candle light march on January 2 at the spot in Manchester where he was killed by a white man who shot him point blank in the head for what the police described as an unprovoked attack.

Amid an outrage over the incident, a top British parliamentary panel will seek a full report on the circumstances of the attack. — PTI

Saudi women to contest, vote without male nod

Riyadh, December 29
Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said today.

The change signifies a step forward in easing the kingdom’s restrictions against women, but it falls far short of what some Saudi reformers are calling for.

Shura Council member Fahad al-Anzi was quoted in the state-run al-Watan newspaper saying that approval for women to run and vote came from the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites, the Saudi king, and therefore women will not need a male guardian’s approval. The country’s Shura Council is an all-male consultative body with no legislative powers.

Despite the historic decision by the king to allow women the right to participate in the country’s only open elections, male guardian laws in Saudi Arabia remain largely unchanged.

Women cannot travel, work, study abroad, marry, get divorced or gain admittance to a public hospital without permission from a male guardian. — AP

US downsizing top-heavy ranks in military

Washington, December 29
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the US has started culling generals and admirals from its top-heavy ranks to save money and make the military more nimble. With the Iraq war over and US troops in Afghanistan on their way home, the Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March.

The cuts are part of a broader plan to shrink the upper ranks by 10 per cent over five years, restoring them to the their size when the country was last at peace, before the attacks of September 11, 2001. — PTI