South Korean PM quits over ferry disaster
Jindo, April 27
South Korea's Prime Minister resigned today over the sinking of a passenger ferry that left more than 300 people dead or missing, amid huge public anger over what is seen as a bungled response to the tragedy.

Kuala Lumpur/Slaviansk, April 27
US President Barack Obama on Sunday said the United States and Europe must join forces to impose sanctions on Russia to stop it destabilising Ukraine, where armed pro-Russian separatists were for a third day holding eight international observers prisoner.

Washington and Brussels are expected, possibly as early as Monday, to name new people and firms close to Russian President Vladimir Putin who will be hit by punitive measures, but there is no consensus yet on wider economic sanctions.

Speaking during a visit to Malaysia, Obama said any decision on whether to slap sanctions on sectors of the Russian economy at a later time would depend on whether the United States and its allies could find a unified position on how to proceed.

"We're going to be in a stronger position to deter Mr. Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified rather than this is just a U.S.-Russian conflict," Obama told reporters. The stand-off over Ukraine, an ex-Soviet republic of about 45 million people, has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

Obama said Russia had not "lifted a finger" to get pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine to comply with an international agreement to defuse the crisis. "In fact, there's strong evidence that they've been encouraging the activities in eastern and southern Ukraine," he said.

Washington is more hawkish on further sanctions than Brussels, and this has caused a degree of impatience among some US officials with the European response. Many European countries are worried about the risks of imposing tougher sanctions, not least because Europe has extensive business ties with Moscow and imports about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that in the coming days there would be "an expansion of existing sanctions, measures against individuals or entities in Russia".

Since Ukrainians demanding closer links with Europe toppled their pro-Russian president in February, Russia has annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and massed tens of thousands of troops on the country's eastern border. NATO has responded by sending reinforcements to eastern Europe. The Western-backed government in Kiev accuses the Kremlin of planning to invade the east of Ukraine, and of preparing the ground by training and supporting the armed separatists who have seized about a dozen public buildings around the region.

Moscow denies interfering. It says Ukraine's east is rising up in a spontaneous protest against what it calls an illegitimate government in Kiev which is mounting a "criminal" operation to suppress dissent. Separatists who control the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk are holding eight European observers who were in the area under the auspices of the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. — Reuters

Kabul, April 27
The two leading candidates in Afghanistan's presidential election raised allegations of ballot fraud today, setting the stage for a difficult second-round vote likely to be targeted by Taliban attacks.

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani will compete in a head-to-head vote after results from the April 5 election showed neither gained the 50 per cent needed for first-round victory.

The eventual winner will lead Afghanistan into a new era as US-led NATO combat troops end their 13-year war against the Islamist insurgency that erupted after President Hamid Karzai took power in 2001.

"With the evidence we have, the victory of our team is evident and clear," Abdullah said, adding that he would have won the first round decisively if the election had been clean.

"We said from the beginning that fraud is our only rival, and we still hope that the complaints we have delivered will be addressed in a transparent way.

"There were fraud violations-organised, systematic fraud." Abdullah also accused the government of "meddling" in the vote.

The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power after defeating Abdullah, was marred by massive fraud in a chaotic process that shook the multinational effort to develop the country after the ousting of the austere Taliban regime.

Preliminary results released on Saturday showed Abdullah secured 44.9 per cent of the first-round vote, with Ghani on 31.5 per cent.

The final result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of fraud complaints, followed by a run-off tentatively scheduled for June 7. Another expensive, and potentially violent, election could be avoided by negotiations in the coming weeks, but both sides have dismissed talk of a power-sharing deal. — AFP

Seoul, April 27
Pyongyang launched a vicious personal attack on South Korean President Park Geun-Hye today, calling her a "prostitute" in thrall to her "pimp" Barack Obama, as it said it was ready for "full-scale nuclear war".

In a diatribe that was strongly worded even by the standards of its normally florid prose, the North lashed out at the relationship between a "master and its puppet" and threatened Park would pay a "dear price".

"Park Geun-Hye's recent behaviour with Obama was like a mean, immature girl begging gangsters to beat up someone she does not like," the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said.

"Or a crafty prostitute eagerly trying to frame someone by giving her body to a powerful pimp," it added, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The vitriol came the day after US President Obama wrapped up a two-day visit to the South, during which he called the North a "pariah state" whose isolation would deepen further if it pushed ahead with a feared fourth nuclear test.

Recent satellite imagery has revealed heightened activity at the North's nuclear test site, and Park warned Friday that Pyongyang was ready to stage another atomic test "anytime."

Both presidents cautioned defiance of international rules would mean harsher sanctions on the impoverished country, and urged China to discourage its wayward ally from a new provocation. — AFP 

Vatican City, April 27
Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints in front of more than half a million pilgrims on Sunday, hailing both as courageous men who withstood the tragedies of the 20th century.

Cheers and applause rang out across St Peter's Square after the historic double papal canonisation as many in the crowd fixed their gaze on huge tapestries of the two popes on the facade of the basilica behind Francis.

"We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church," Francis said in his formal proclamation in Latin. Relics of each man, a container of blood from John Paul II and skin from John XXIII, were placed near the altar.

The fact that the two being canonised are widely seen as representing contrasting faces of the Church has added to the significance of an event that Francis hopes will draw the world's 1.2 billion Catholics closer together after a string of sex abuse and financial scandals. — Reuters

Islamabad, April 27
Senior Pakistani TV journalist Hamid Mir, who escaped an assassination attempt, has blamed the "ISI within the ISI" for orchestrating the attack on him alleging that he is receiving messages which "advise" him to leave the country.

Mir, who is currently being treated after being shot six times in Karachi, said his attackers were "those who track the movement of Pakistani journalists, tap their phones".

The 47-year-old Mir said he has been told to leave Karachi and Pakistan as "it will be a long fight". "People visit me in guise of friends but leave after conveying threatening messages of the foes," said the senior journalist in his first interview yesterday after the attack.

A high voltage controversy erupted in the wake of the gun attack on Mir with his brother accusing "certain elements" in the ISI and its chief of orchestrating the attack.

Mir said it was the "ISI within the ISI" with ties to jihadi groups which was behind the April 19 gun attack.

"I am pointing towards the 'ISI within the ISI'. I have informed my organisation in writing on numerous occasions," he told BBC Urdu.

"The most worrying thing is that outfits that have been banned by the government have been staging rallies in the support of ISI," he stressed. — PTI