Two New Songs Hail Virtue of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

SEOUL-North Korea’s propaganda machine has moved swiftly to inspire loyalty toward new leader Kim Jong Un by officially approving two new songs to be sung in factories and other venues. One song, “Footstep,”si a tribute to Kim Jong Un. The other is titled, “We Will Defend Feneral Kim Jong Un at the Risk of Our Lives.” The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Sunday that the songs were performed at a concert in Pyongyang attended by Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un’s father, the late Kim Jong II, also promoted “music politics” as a means to unite society and inculcate loyalty.

Number of Missing in Philippines Floods Soars to 1,000

MANILA – The Philippines disaster agency said on Friday more than 1,000people were missing from a storm and flash floods last week, sharply raising the number of victims unaccounted for as the true extent of the disaster became known. Typhoon Washi and the flash floods it caused on the southern island of Mindanao are known to have killed 1,080 people, the national disaster agency said. The agency said on Thursday dozens of people were missing but on Friday it revised that figure to more than 1,000, saying more complete data had come in and people were reporting the disappearance of relatives.

After Alleged Massacre, Observers Enter Syria

BEIRUT – Arab League officials arrived in Syria yesterday to prepare for monitors overseeing an Arab peace plan, after activists said President Bashar al-Assad’s forces carried out the deadliest assault in their nine-month crackdown on protests. The Syrian Observatory for Human Right said Syrian forces killed 111 civilians and activists on Tuesday when Assad’s forces surrounded them in the hills of Idlib province and unleashed two hours of bombardment and heavy gunfire.

North Korea’s Enigmatic Strongman Dies

SEOUL- North Korean leader Kim Jong II, the mercurial strongman who styled himself as a “Dear Leader” while ruling over an impoverished police state, died at 69, according to North Korean state media. Kim was believed to have suffered from multiple chronic illnesses, but his death – reportedly from a heart attack while traveling by train on Saturday morning – was sudden. He had been grooming a son to succeed him and his death creates uncertainty about the future direction of a nation with few international friends but a nuclear weapons capability. His foreign-educated son, Kim Jong Un, who is in his 20s and is being primed to be the next leader, is largely unknown outside North Korea, to the point that even his exact age is debated. The elder Kim had raised his son’s profile and responsibilities over the past 18 months, but North Korea’s murky inner workings make it uncertain whether that succession will take. For nearly two decades, Kim both defied and baffled international leaders with his isolated regime’s nuclear ambition inflammatory rhetoric and surprise attacks on South Korea. Kim, who came to power in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, led one of the world’s most enduring dictatorships, a repressive regime that has long defied predictions of its demise.

Floods in Philippines Leave Hundreds Dead

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Rescuers searched for more than 800 people missing in the southern Philippines yesterday after flash floods and landslides swept houses into rivers and out to sea, killing more than 650 people in areas ill prepared to cope with storms, Cagayan de Oro and nearby lligan cities on Mindanao island were worst hit when Typhoon Washi slammed ashore while people slept late on Friday and early Saturday, sending torrents of water and mud through villages and stripping mountainsides bare.

Police Officer Questioned Over Suspects’ Escape

Three suspected drug dealers who escaped a holding cell at a Phnom Penh police station on Tuesday night are still at large, while the police officer on duty at the time of their escape remained under questioning, deputy municipal police chief Pen Roth said yesterday. “Although a team of municipal anti-drug police have not yet rearrested the three men, we are working hard to catch them and continuous to investigate how they managed to cut through the bars of their cell,” Mr. Roth said.

Afghan Worshippers Killed In Sectarian Attack in Kabul

KABUL – At least 14 people have been killed when a suicide bomber attacked a packed religious shrine in Kabul on one of the most important days in the Shiite religious calendar. Witnesses said the bomber carried a backpack full of explosives into the crowd of worshippers outside the Abul Fazl shrine before detonating the device yesterday. The shrine was packed with Shiite worshippers who had gathered for Ashura, the Shiite Muslim holiday marking the death of Hussein ibnAli, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad.

Volcano Erupts in Eastern Indonesia; Thousands Flee

JAKARTA – Mount Gamalama erupted to spew lava and ash on Ternate in eastern Indonesia, prompting thousands of residents to flee the volcano on one of the former Spice Islands. There were no immediate reports of casualties after the 1,715-meter-high volcano first erupted late Sunday. Residents grabbed warm clothing before fleeing their house, with many taking refuge at the local governor’s house. “We advised residents to use masks and the local authority to close the airport until everything is normalized,” said Surona, head of Indonesia’s Center of Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

Somali Pirates Abandon Ship, Hold Four S. Korean Hostages

SENGAPORE- Somali pirates released a chemical tanker owned by Singapore shipping company Glory Ship Management, but broke an agreement to release all the crew, keeping four South Korean seamen including the captain captive, the company said yesterday. The crew comprised 13 Indonesians, five Chinese nationals and three crew from Burma in addition to the South Koreans. The pirates have called for the release of five other Somali pirates captured in a South Korean naval operation earlier this year.

Suu Kyi’s NLD Applies for Registration as Legal Party

BANGKOK – Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition group moved a step closer to official recognition in Burma after its senior members applied for registration as a political party, sources said. The officials of the National League for Democracy filed registration papers at the country’s election commission in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, on Friday, the sources said. If approved, the NLD will be allowed to engage in activities as a legal political party for the first time since it was forced to disband in May last year. Completion of the process is expected to take about a week to 10 days.

Arab League to Suspend Syria Over Killings

In stinging rebuke to Assad regime, regional body threatens sanctions, mounts pressure

The Arab League approved on Saturday a sweeping package of measures censuring Syria, clearing the way for a significant escalation of international pressure against President Bashar al-Assad and deepening the isolation of his increasingly embattled government. The 22-member regional body said it would suspend Syria’s membership, impose sanctions and seek UN help unless the Syrian government stops using violence to suppress the country’s eight-month-old uprising.

Qaddafi's Demise Cost Russia Billions in Arms Deals

ST PETERSBURG, Russia- Russia lost tens of billions of dollars in potential revenues from arms deals with Libyan leader Munammar el-Qaddafi's fall, the official in charge of Russia's arms exports said Wednesday. Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter, has frequently cited loss of $4 billion is only nominal. The real lost revenue could top tens of billions of dollars in Libyan arms contracts. "The figure of $4 billion is only nominal.

US and North Korea Start Two-Day Talks in Geneva

GENEVA- US and North Korean negotiators began a two-day meeting in Geneva yesterday, the second such encounter since six-party talks on disarmament collapsed more than two year ago. The session, which follows talk in New York in late July, is aimed more at managing tensions on the tense divided Korean peninsula than resuming regional talk on ending the North’s nuclear programs. “Talks have started, they are in the room and talking,” a US official said outside the US Embassy in Geneva where the two sides were meeting. the two delegations, who are staying at the same Geneva lakeside luxury hotel, arrived separately by car, Yesterday’ session was expected to run until midday when the two are sides break to have lunch separately, and resume at 2 pm. US officials and analysts were keeping expectation, low this week, despite a recent sight easing of tensions between American ally South Korea and North Korea and Pyongyang’s repeated calls for resuming nuclear talks. The six-party talks, including North Korea’s ally China, as Russia, Japan and south Korea, fell apart in 2009 when North Korea quit the Process after Un sanction were imposed following its second nuclear test,
(Reuters)

Grenade Attack at Bar in Kenya’s Capital Wound 12

NAIROBI, Kenya- A grenade attack on a bar in the center of Nairobi in the early hours yesterday wounded 12 people, Kenya police said, an incident that come as Nairobi battles al-Qaida-linked militants in neighboring Somalia. Capital news radio quoted a witness who said a man had asked to be let in to the bar shortly after 3 am, when he hurled a grenade and fled the scene. No one has claimed responsibility for the incident. Footage showed blood and beer bottles splattered on the ground of Mwaura’s bar, which is frequented by blue-collar workers attracted by its cheap beer and spirits. Blood stained a sink and overturned seats and debris littered the floor. Police cordoned off the area as an officer examined damage on the walls from the force of the explosion. “The guys came out running covered in blood...and they were carried away by ambulances,” said Jacob Musembi, a vendor at the scene. “I’m very scared for my life because I don’t know who they’ll target next,” he said. 

Qaddafi Dead as sirte Falls, Libyan Officials Say

SIRTE, Libya – Former Libyan leader Munammar el-Qaddafi died of wounds suffered yesterday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown, Sirte, Libya's interim rulers said. His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen. "[Qaddafi] was also hit in his head," National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid Mlegta said. "There was a lot of firing against his group, and he died." Mlegta said earlier that Qaddafi, who was in his late 60s, was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn yesterday as he tried to flee in a convoy that NATO warplanes attacked. he said he had been taken away by an ambulance. There was no independent confirmation of his remarks.

An anti-Qaddafi fighter said Qaddafi had been found hiding in a hole in the ground and had said "Don't shoot, don't shoot" to the men who grabbed him. His capture followed within minutes of the fall of Sirte, a development that extinguished the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader. The capture of Sirte and the death of Qaddafi means Libya's ruling NTC should now begin the task of forging a new democratic system, which it had said it would get under way after the city, built as a showpiece for Qaddafi's rule, had fallen. Qaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, was toppled by rebel forces on Aug 23 after 42 years of one-man rule.       

China Vaccinates 4.5 Million Youth in Fight Against Polio

HONG KONG- China vaccinated 4.5 million and young adults over the last five weeks in the western region of Xinjiang in a fight against polio after the disease paralyzed 17 people and killed one of them, the World Health Organization said. Polio has broken out in China for the first time since 1999 and scientists say the strain originated from Pakistan. The outbreak marked the latest setback to a global campaign to eradicate polio, now endemic in only four countries-Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. "Even if they don't come down with any symptoms [carriers], by giving them polio vaccine we make that person less infectious," said Oliver Rosenbauer, WHO spokesman for the Global Polio eradication Initiative in Geneva. All 17 polio cases occurred in Hotan prefecture in the province of Xinjiang and the patients fell ill between early July and mid-September. The Geneva-based WHO assumes that for every case it finds, there would be 199 others infected with the virus without displaying symptoms, he added. In large vaccination drives that started in early September, health workers have since vaccinated 4.5 million people with three doses each of the polio vaccine the WHO said. Patients and carriers of polio can shed the virus for up to eight weeks in their stools, and transmission occurs through contact with contaminated objects and sewage water. With vaccination, Patients and carriers will be infectious for 1 to 2 weeks. "We are sensitizing disease surveillance in large hospitals to like for any child or adult displaying polio-like symptoms. We'll look out for new cases. We hope there won't be," he said in a telephone interview. Polio has flu-like symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache and can result in paralysis within 24 to 72 hours. There is no cure for polio, and doctors only manage the symptoms.  

US, South Korea Plan Strategies For North Korean Aggression

SEOUL- The US and South Korea are expected to finish hashing out, by the year's end, a joint military strategy to respond to any North Korean Provocation, according to South Korean Ministry of National Defense documents. The move is aimed at US desires to have a joint and coordinated plan for dealing with any rise in tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The US military is expected to play an active role should a situation arise similar to the March 2010 sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, or the November 2010 artillery attack on Daeyeonpyeong island, which killed two marines and two civilians. According to an operational report submitted recently to the South Korean National Assembly by the Ministry of National Defense, the militaries of both countries will classify signs of military provocation, including movements of personnel and weaponry in the North Korean military. The strategy will define levels of counterattack in response to varying levels of provocation, such as intrusion by sea and artillery attack on South Korean territories. When the new plan is completed, the US and South Korea will have at least three classes of joint military strategies, including one that deals with an all-out war with North Korea and one that addresses any contingency that may occur within North Korea. When Daeyeonpyeong island was attacked in November, the South Korean military Scrambled F-15 fighter jets without notifying the US military beforehand. The attack was followed by a succession of hard-line remarks from within the South Korean military. Mike Mullen, then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Seoul in December and agreed with his South Korean Counterparts on drawing up a new plan. The new strategy will allow the US military to play a role in preventing the accidental occurrence and expansion of hostilities. 

The Ashai Shimbun    

Woman Freed After Months Held Hostage in Philippines

MANILA- Muslim gunmen have treed a Philippine-born American woman after nearly three months in captivity on a remote southern island in the Philippines where al-Qaida-linked militants are active, but her son was not released, police said yesterday. Police investigating reports of armed men in Maluso town on the southern island of Basilan found a dazed Gefra Lunsmann wandering in village on the out skirts of the town at about 10 pm on Sunday, said Chief Inspector Dinar Hassan. "She was very happy to see us, but she looked weak,'' Hassan said, adding the woman, who is married to a German national, was taken to a police station and given food. Gefra Lunsmann and her teenage son, Kevin Eric, were on vacation at a beachfront property on Tictabon Island near the port city of Zamboanga when 14 gunmen abducted them on July 12 and took them to the jungle on Basilan Island. The US embassy in Manila confirmed and welcomed Lunsmann's release. 
Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat held news conference yesterday and presented Lunsmann, who was wearing a white baseball cap and a dark shirt, to the media. She sat for a few minutes without speaking before security men, including US law enforcement agents, took her away. "The report indicates she was freed and was made to walk to the village,'' Lobregat said. He said the gunmen had kept in communication with the woman's husband, adding that Lunsmann had not indicated if a ransom had been paid. "From the quick response and the tight hug that she gave, she was happy to be released," he added. "Her son is still in captivity." Lobregat said he had been informed that the gunmen were supposed to free the mother and son together. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but authorities believe the gunmen are from a kidnap-for-ransom gang with ties to the al-Qaida linked Abu Sayyaf militant group. In June, the US, Britain and Australia warned their citizens against going to areas in the southern Philippines, particularly resorts and dive sites on Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-tawi areas, because of the danger of abduction and bombs. 

Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and her 14-year-old son Kevin were abducted from an island resort in the Philippines. Also pictured is Gerfa's unidentified husband

Pakistani Suicide Bombers Target Top Security

ISLAMABAD- Suicide bombers attacked a senior military officer yesterday in Quetta, western Pakistan, killing 23 people including eight soldiers and the officer's wife. Police said they suspected Taliban militants were behind the attack, which comes two days after the army said it had arrested a senior al-Qaida operative in the city. The first bomber struck as the deputy chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, which operates across Balochistan province, drove away   home in a tightly guarded area of the city. A second attacker then stormed into the house, hurling grenades before blowing himself up. The force of the blasts brought down the walls of the house and nearby offices, and ripped through passing rickshaws. Police said the targeted officer, Farrukh Shehzad, had been wounded, but the extent of his injuries was not clear. The dead included eight of his guards, his wife and two of his children. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but immediate suspicions fell on al-Qaida-affiliated Taliban militants. On Monday, the army said it had arrested Younis al-Mouritani, described as a high-ranking al-Quetta. Operative, and two associates, in a Quetta suburb. Al-Qaida is still reeling from the northwestern tribal belt, which have targeted its most senior militants. As the strikes have intensified, some al-Qaida fighters have fled into nearby Balochistan, where the drones do not operate. The bitter rift between the US Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistani intelligence. But officials from both countries hailed the latest arrest as a sign that relation-ship may be on the mend. Balochistan, a vast province along the afghan border, has long been a hub for Islamist insurgents. Its northern regions are used by the Afghan Taliban as a rear base for attacks on NATO force inside Afghanistan. The Taliban's ruling council, known as the Quetta shura, is also believed to be based there, although recent reports suggest it may have effectively shifted to Karachi. Other possible suspects in the attack include Baloch nationalist rebels, with whom the FC has been engaged in a bitter war of attrition for at least six years. But the nationalists do not have a track record of using suicide bombers. 

The GUARDIAN

Man Charged With Connection In Killing, Kidnapping Tourists

LONDON-A Kenyan man has been charged in connection with the attack in which a British tourist was shot dead and his wife kidnapped. David Tebbutt, 58, and his 56-year-old wife, Judith, were staying at the remote Kiwayu Safari Village resort on the Kenyan coast near the border with Somalia when their beach hut was stormed by gunmen early Sept 11. Tebbutt, finance director at the publisher Faber & Faber, was shot and his wife was bundled into a waiting speedboat. She has not been seen or heard from since. On Monday, a former employee of the Kiwayu resort appeared in court on the nearby island of Lamu to plead not guilty to charges of kidnapping and robbery. Ali Babity Kololo, 25, told the packed courtroom that he had been forced to cooperate with the gang at gunpoint, adding that he had voluntarily gone to police the next day to report the crime. A second man, Issa Sheck Saadi, is expected to appear in court later. The Tebbutts, from Bishops Hertfordshire, England, had arrived at the Kiwayu after visiting the Masai Mara game reserve and were the resort's only guests. A team of London Metropolitan Police officers has traveled to Kenya to help local authorities with their investigations, while the Foreign Office has deployed a team to the area from the high commission in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. British Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that the government was doing everything possible to resolve the kidnapping. The British Foreign Office, which has asked the media not to speculate on Judith Tebbutt's whereabouts or the identity of her captors for fear of endangering her, is continuing to call for her release.  

The Guardian