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Defiant North Korea begins injecting fuel into rocket
Santorum quits White House race
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China banishes top leader Bo Xilai from elite ranks
Beijing, April 11China’s Communist Party has banished the country’s brashest and most controversial politician from its top ranks and detained his wife in connection with the murder of a British businessman, the most tumultuous upheaval in the nation’s leadership in decades. Communist Party leader Bo Xilai with wife Gu Kailai. — File photo
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Defiant North Korea begins injecting fuel into rocket
Pyongyang, April 11 If all goes to plan, the launch, which North Korea's neighbours and the West say is a disguised ballistic missile test, will take a three-stage rocket over a sea separating the Korean peninsula from China before releasing a satellite into orbit when the third stage fires over waters near the Philippines. Regional powers also worry it could be the prelude to another nuclear test, a pattern the hermit state set in 2009. "We don't really care about the opinions from the outside. This is critical in order to develop our national economy," said Paek Chang-ho, head of the satellite control centre at the Korean Committee of Space Technology. Once the refuelling has been completed, the North Koreans will have to inject chemicals into the rocket which cause corrosion, which means the firing could come on Thursday, at the start of a five-day window announced already by Pyongyang. Weather conditions on the peninsula also appear to favour a launch on Thursday or Saturday, according to meteorological reports from Japanese television. "The likelihood of a launch (on Thursday) is the greatest," said Francis Yoon, a professor of engineering at South Korea's Yonsei University and an expert on rocket technology. The launch of the Unha-3 rocket, which North Korea says will merely put a weather satellite into space, breaches UN sanctions imposed to prevent Pyongyang from developing a missile that could carry a nuclear warhead. James Oberg, a former rocket scientist with the US space shuttle mission control who is in North Korea, said the rocket was not a weapon, but "98 per cent of a weapon", requiring more technology, although not much. This is the third long-range rocket test by North Korea. It says its second succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit in 2009, although independent experts say it failed. The firing coincides with the 100th birthday celebrations of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, whose young, untested grandson, Kim Jong-un, now rules. Kim Il-sung died in 1994. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that history pointed to "additional provocations" from North Korea after the launch, an apparent reference to a nuclear test. She also called on China to do more to ensure regional stability. — Reuters N Korea names new defence minister Seoul: North Korea has appointed a new armed forces minister, official media said on Wednesday, as it prepares for a widely criticised rocket launch. Ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun referred to Kim Jong-Gak, previously in charge of military administration and organisation, as "minister of the people's armed forces" in a report. He replaces Kim Yong-Chun, 75, who had served in the military since 1956. An analyst said the appointment was a sign that the North's new leader Kim Jong-Un is installing close confidants to key posts as he cements his grip on power. South Korea votes under rocket threat Seoul:South Koreans cast ballots on Wednesday in a tight parliamentary vote that centred on domestic issues but has implications for Seoul's relationship with the North. Exit polls suggested President Lee Myung-bak's conservative ruling party and his liberal rivals were neck and neck. Ties between the two Koreas plummeted during Lee's tenure, with two attacks Seoul blames on Pyongyang killing 50 South Koreans in 2010. North Korea also conducted a long-range rocket launch and tested a nuclear device in 2009.
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Santorum quits White House race
Gettysburg, April 11 Trailing in polls and fundraising, the conservative former Pennsylvania senator suspended his campaign and cleared the way for Romney to clinch the nomination to face President Barack Obama in the November 6 election. A staunch social conservative with a penchant for sleeveless sweaters, Santorum was the underdog who clawed his way to near the top of the Republican race and won the first 2012 nominating contest in Iowa by a thread. His rise forced the issues of birth control and the role of Christianity in public life to the forefront of the campaign, frustrating Romney, a former private equity executive who sought to keep the focus on the economy. During his exit speech on Tuesday, Santorum again reached out to the working class and the Republican Party’s right wing, which he had courted throughout the campaign with his focus on manufacturing, religion and conservative family values. “Over and over again we were told, ‘Forget it, you can’t win.’ We were winning, but in a different way. We were touching hearts; we were raising issues that frankly a lot of people didn’t want to have raised,” Santorum said at a news conference in a hotel near the Civil War battlefield site of Gettysburg. Santorum’s exit leaves the stage free for a two-man fight between Romney and Democrat Obama for the presidency. That contest intensified on Tuesday when Obama’s campaign accused the multimillionaire Romney of not paying his “fair share” of taxes, and tried to paint the Republican as an elitist. Romney campaigned in Wilmington, Delaware, where he met with women who owned small businesses and called Obama’s handling of the economy a failure. On Santorum, Romney said the news about his rival was unexpected. He added that Santorum has been an important voice and will continue to play a major role in the Republican Party. “This has been a good day for me,” Romney said. Santorum lagged Romney in opinion polls and in the fight for the 1,144 party delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. He was facing the possibility of an embarrassing defeat in his home state of Pennsylvania on April 24. Romney has 659 delegates to 275 for Santorum, according to a CNN estimate. The father of seven children, Santorum’s decision to quit was partly influenced by a serious illness suffered by his three-year-old daughter, Bella. She was hospitalised over the long holiday weekend with Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition that hinders a child’s development. — Reuters
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China banishes top leader Bo Xilai from elite ranks
Beijing, April 11 The decision to cast out Bo Xilai from the party’s Central Committee and its Politburo effectively ends the career of the former high-flyer, widely seen as pressing for a top post in China’s next leadership to be decided later this year. The official Xinhua news agency confirmed a Reuters report several hours earlier on Tuesday that Bo had been suspended from his party posts, and separately reported that his wife, Gu Kailai, was suspected in the murder of Briton Neil Heywood. “Comrade Bo Xilai is suspected of being involved in serious disciplinary violations,” said Xinhua, citing a decision by the central party leadership to banish Bo from its top ranks. “The police set up a team to reinvestigate the case of the British national Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing,” the news agency said, referring to the sprawling southwestern municipality where Bo was party chief until he was dismissed in March as a scandal surrounding him unfolded. Meanwhile, China’s Chongqing city witnessed major demonstrations hours before Bo Xilai was removed, plunging the country into its biggest political crisis in decades. — Reuters
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