North Korea gears up for anniversary, rocket launch

With only days to go before launching a satellite to mark the centenary of its late founder Kim Il-sung’s birth, North Korea held a series of lavish events to celebrate the completion of power plants, factories and buildings, news reports said.

North Korea has said it will launch Kwangmyongsong-3 some time between April 12 and 16, in celebration of the 100th year of Kim’s birth on April 15. The launch is part of moves to declare 2012 the year when North Korea becomes a “power state.”

The North’s Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that Pyongyang held ceremonies to mark the completion of Huichon Power Plant 1 and 2, located near Chongchon River, capable of generating 300,000 kilowatts of electricity. The construction of the two power plants was a major goal for Pyongyang, and one which late leader Kim Jong-il had ordered reached by 2012.

The North also unveiled a huge rock carving on Thursday in memory of the nation’s founder.

The 37-meter inscription was hewn into a natural rock face near Bakyeon Falls in Gaeseong city, near the border with South Korea, the official news agency said.

The message ― “Our eternal leader Comrade Kim Il-sung: Dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the leader, April 15, Juche 101 (2012)” ― is “an immortal monument which will always shine along with the Seongun era,” the news agency said.

On the same day, multiple news reports from the state said the North completed a clothes factory, a water pipe linking Nampo and Pyongyang and a cement factory.

In Pyongyang, development projects are still under way in the Mansudae area for high-rise apartments and a theater.

In the eastern part of the capital, which is less developed than western Pyongyang, the North is near completion of a public bath house and an outdoor ice-skating venue, according to state media.

Along with the celebrations, the North’s rocket launch is nearly ready, analysts said.

A U.S. specialist website, the 38 North, said the North may have moved the first stage of a long-range rocket to its launch pad, ahead of its possible lift-off this or next week.

An April 4 photo of the launch site at Dongchang-ri in the country’s northwest indicated the first stage of the Unha-3 rocket, while not visible, may be placed in the gantry, the website said.

Meanwhile, foreign media reporters have arrived in Pyongyang to cover the North’s planned rocket launch, the country’s official news agency reported.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch Saturday that reporters from more than 20 media firms, including the Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, AFP, BBC, Kyodo News and NHK, had arrived in Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday.

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Relief as fire-hit cruise ship safe in Malaysia

Smiling passengers voiced relief and gratitude after safely leaving a fire-damaged luxury cruise ship that was stranded at sea for 24 hours and limped without air-conditioning into a Malaysian port Sunday.

The Azamara Quest drifted off the southern Philippines with 1,000 people aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday, injuring five crew members. It restored propulsion the next night and reached the harbor of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late Sunday.

Two ambulances came out of the port shortly after the ship docked, followed more than two hours later around midnight by a fleet of buses taking passengers to hotels. Inside the buses, several people appeared tired, but many others smiled and one man waved to reporters waiting outside the port.

Malaysian police and consular officials from countries including the U.S., Britain and Canada were also present.

"I'm glad I'm safe," ship passenger Dorothy Irvine, a retired school principal from Toronto, told reporters at a Sandakan hotel. "The Azamara crew kept us informed all the time and went beyond the call of duty. The captain was phenomenal."

Margaret Whawell, of Melbourne, Australia, said there had been "no panic, no chaos, everything was under control."

It was the latest in a series of accidents hitting luxury cruise liners since January, when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.

Port officials stopped journalists from approaching the Azamara Quest on Sunday because of what a Malaysian agent for the ship's operator said was part of the company's instructions.

"Everything is normal except that it's very hot there because there is no air conditioning," New Zealand Deputy High Commissioner Brian Smythe told reporters before the passengers disembarked. "The New Zealanders I spoke to are fine. They were well taken care of."

The fire on the Azamara Quest had been extinguished immediately, but five crew members suffered smoke inhalation, including one who was seriously injured and needed hospital care, the ship's operator has said.

A Sandakan hospital staff member said a Guatemalan man was being treated, but could not give other details.

The 11-deck vessel, which features a casino, spa and shopping boutiques, was carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew members. Over one-third, or 201, of the passengers were American, according to lists of passenger and crew nationalities provided by the ship captain to the Philippine coast guard.

The passengers from 25 countries also included 98 from Britain, 89 from Australia, 45 from Canada, 39 from Germany, 32 from Austria, 16 from Belgium, 14 from New Zealand and 14 from Switzerland.

Azamara Club Cruises, the ship's Miami, Florida-based operator, said in a statement earlier Sunday that the ship was sailing at a top speed of only 6 knots (11 kilometers or 6.9 miles per hour) to reach Sandakan.

Company president Larry Pimentel is expected to meet with the passengers and crew in Sandakan by Monday.

Engineers on Saturday morning restored electricity in the ship to re-establish essentials including running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food preparation, the company said.

The company said the rest of the cruise would be canceled. It said it would fully refund the passengers and provide each guest with a future cruise certificate for the amount paid for the aborted voyage. Azamara Club Cruises is part of Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Passengers have been given several options for what to do in the next few days, such as fly home through Singapore, said Smythe, the New Zealand diplomat.

The crew includes 119 Filipinos, 58 Indians and 50 Indonesians. The vessel left Hong Kong on Monday for what was supposed to be a 17-day Southeast Asian cruise. It made a port call in Manila and left for Sandakan on Thursday. It had been scheduled to make several stops in Indonesia before arriving in Singapore on April 12.

Instead, the Philippine coast guard said it drifted Saturday in the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometers (70 nautical miles) south of the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef. The area lies between the Philippines and the island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia.

A month after 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy in January, a fire on the Costa Allegra left that ship without power and adrift in waters known to be prowled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days.

Both Costa ships are part of Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., te world's largest cruise operator.

Source: www.jakartapost.com

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Timbuktu, ancient Islamic city, under attack

Booms from rocket launchers and automatic gunfire crackled around Mali's fabled town of Timbuktu, known as an ancient seat of Islamic learning, for its 700-year-old mud mosque and, more recently, as host of the musical Festival in the Desert that attracted Bono in January.

On Sunday, nomadic Tuaregs who descended from the people who first created Timbuktu in the 11th century and seized it from invaders in 1434, attacked the city in their fight to create a homeland for the Sahara's blue-turbanned nomads. Their assault deepens a political crisis sparked March 21 when mutinous soldiers sized power in the capital. The Tuaregs have rebelled before, but never have they succeeded in taking Timbuktu or the major northern centers of Kidal and Gao, which fell Friday and Saturday as demoralized government troops retreated.

The expression "from here to Timbuktu" conjures up the end-of-the-earth remoteness of the sun-baked frontier town. It does not express the town's dynamic role as a major crossroads for the caravan trade between the Arab north and black West Africa, bringing together black Africans, Berbers, Arabs and, above all, the Tuaregs.

The Tuareg set up their camel-skin and palm-mat tents in the dry season, attracted by Timbuktu's location where the Niger River flows toward the southern brink of the Sahara Desert, prompting some to call it the point where "the camel meets the canoe."

The tents soon gave way to sun-dried terracotta-colored mud brick buildings built in the Moorish style as traders, medical doctors, clerics, artists, poets and others settled.

From the sizzling desert sand and burning sun, one enters walled enclosures with a central courtyard and archways leading to the welcome cool of shadowy rooms where men chat over copious cups of strong, mint-flavored tea brewed thrice in a time-honored tradition. Women bake bread in the sand and cook spice-perfumed dishes of goat, cow and camel meat flavored with dried wild hibiscus flowers or the powdered leaves of the okra plant fried in shea butter.

Arab traders brought salt and other goods that reached North Africa's Mediterranean shores and traded it in Timbuktu for gold and, above all, the books that make the town a center for intellectuals.

"According to the inhabitants of Timbuktu, gold came from the south, the salt from the north and divine knowledge from Timbuktu," the Timbuktu Foundation says on its website.

Before the Americas were discovered by Europeans, Timbuktu had a population of some 30,000.

The city has been honored as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its architecture and as a spiritual and intellectual capital for the propagation of Islam on the continent during a golden age that began as early as the 13th century and ended around the 16th century. It remains home to the prestigious Koranic Sankore University and other Islamic schools.

The town has been attacked and conquered in the past, most recently in 1591 by Moroccan troops who sacked Timbuktu and burned libraries.

Timbuktu is home to a library of ancient, camel-skin bound manuscripts covering science, astrology, medicine, history, theology, grammar and geography.

When France colonized West Africa starting in 1893, Timbuktu came under French rule until Mali became independent in 1960.

Throughout the invasions, the Tuareg considered Timbuktu their city. As France was negotiating Mali's independence, Tuareg leaders wrote to Gen. Charles de Gaulle in the 1950s, appealing for an independent homeland for the nomadic people made up of several tribes united by their common culture and Tamashek language.

Sporadic rebellions failed to wrest Timbuktu from government hands. When the 1990-1995 uprising to win autonomy for Tuaregs in Mali and Niger ended in peaceful negotiations, Timbuktu was the chosen site for the symbolic burning of weapons signaling an end to the conflict.

Recently, the town's tourism industry has been threatened by the rise of a thriving African branch of al-Qaida, whose fighters in November kidnapped a Dutch, a Swedish and a South African citizen from a restaurant in Timbuktu. A German man who refused to be taken hostage was executed.

Despite fears of insecurity, the Festival in the Desert was held in January, attracting people from 50 countries, according to its website, including a special appearance by U2 frontman Bono.

Source: www.jakartapost.com

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Secret Service agent escorted 25, Princess Obama Vacation to Mexico

Malia Obama (Wikipedia)

Mexico City, the oldest daughter of U.S. President Barack Obamawent on vacation to the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, along with 12 of her friends. A total of 25 U.S. Secret Service agents guarding ObamaMalia Ann (13) and his friends.The young tourists were staying at a hotel in the historic city center.This was conveyed by a Mexican police official, as quoted by AFP news agency on Monday (3/19/2012)."We are here to block the access of others to the hotel and escortvehicles transports guests to the tourist sites," said a police officialwho declined to be named.The official said, Malia Obama and his friends were escorted by 25U.S. Secret Service agents and Mexican police.Malia entourage arrived in Oaxaca on Saturday, March 17 local time. Obama's eldest daughter had been to the location andarchitecture of Mitla see El Tule tree is believed to be a thousand years old.Malia and the group also plans to visit Monte Alban is known for itsarchaeological research sites. Malia arrival to Oaxaca in order tospring a short vacation. Oaxaca is known for its colonial architectureand Native American traditions are well preserved.

Source: www.detik.com

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Founder of the Drug Cartels in Mexico Sentenced to 35 Years Bui

 

Mexico City One of the founders of Los Zetas, a ruthless drug dealer cartel in Mexico, who was arrested some time ago has been sentenced. Jaime Gonzalez Duran was named man was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

This was conveyed by the local prosecutor was quoted as saying by CNN on Friday (03/16/2012). Gonzalez is the biggest arrests made ​​arrests on drug gangs that officials.

The judge in the state of Tamaulipas punish Gonzalez for organized crime and kidnapping that has been done. Penalty of 35 years had to bear. This is the third sentence of Gonzales because in 2010, two other courts disconnect 21 years and 16 years in prison.

Mexican federal police arrested Gonzalez in November 2008 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. When arrested, Gonzales pocketed $ 150,000 cash and military grade weapons.

Previously, Gonzales was a bodyguard and hit man for the Gulf cartel leader. But then the Zetas who co-founded Gonzales broke away from the Gulf cartel and operates as its own cartel.

In court on Thursday (15/3) and then, three other people also undergo formal sentencing. Benito Gutierrez Pena and Anselmo Alonso Rivera, both of which are former police officers in the town of Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon state, was sentenced to 25 years for the kidnapping of four federal agents in 2007.

While a member of the cartel have been arrested, Javier Paez Arredondo, was sentenced to 10 years because it proved to participate in organized crime.

www.detik.com

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Osama bin Laden Ever Tell kill Obama

 

Washington, the late leader of Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden had ordered the murder of the President of the United States (U.S.), Barack Obama. Osama had ordered the terrorist cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to shoot down the plane carrying Obama.
Similarly, according to documents obtained from hiding places in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed in an attack on U.S. forces last May 2011. In the document, Osama also told deputies Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to focus its attacks on the U.S. rather than in Muslim countries.
Osama is said to Rahman as reported by the Washington Post, Saturday (17/03/2012), without Obama, the U.S. will experience a "crisis" because Vice President Joe Biden is not ready to lead.
"The reason for focusing on them is that Obama is an infidel's head and killing him would automatically take over the presidency to Biden ... Biden was totally unprepared for the position, which would encourage the U.S. to the crisis," wrote Osama in the document as thick as 48 page.
The document revealed that Osama ordered Rahman to use Pakistan Ilyas Kashmiri terrorists to conduct attacks. Kashmiri killed in U.S. drone attack in South Waziristan last on June 2, 2011.
In the document, Osama stressed that all efforts must be made in planning and executing attacks on American soil. Osama ordered Rahman to ask the brothers in all areas if they have a brother who can operate in the U.S.. "He should be able to stay there or easy for him to go there," wrote Osama.
Osama also mentioned a number of problems in the Al-Qaeda's media strategy. Osama is said, the Obama administration has stopped using the phrase 'war on terror' to the context did not want to provoke Muslims. Instead, the Obama administration more often use the phrase of war against Al-Qaeda appears to have damaged the reputation of the group among the Muslims.

Source: www.detik.com

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Tibetan Monk Burn Yourself

 

Beijing, Again, the action of self-immolation performed Tibetans. A young Tibetan monk burning himself before being beaten and taken away by Chinese security officials.

Monk named Lobsang Tsultrim fuels such action on Friday, March 16 local time. This was conveyed by human rights groups such as Free Tibet in a statement quoted by AFP news agency on Saturday (03/17/2012).

The incident occurred at Kirti monastery in Aba region, Sichuan Province, where many Tibetans live in the region. The security forces hit a 20-year-old monk when he was on fire. They then put out the flames and bring the monk to go to an unknown place. His condition was still alive.

In the past year, around 30 Tibetans have committed self-immolation as a protest action over the leadership of China. They are mostly Buddhist monks.

Many Tibetans protesting religious repression carried the authority of Beijing. They are also protesting the erosion of Tibetan culture slowly.

But the Chinese government denied this. Beijing insists that Tibetans now have a better life than before. This is thanks to massive investment in infrastructure, schools and housing.

www.detik.com

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A Stingray Giant Found in the waters of the South Atlantic

 

Nigeria, a giant stingray found in the waters of the South Altantik. 9 meter long stingray was accidentally exposed to anchor the ship and die.

When about to anchor anchor on Bonny Island, Nigeria, a number of the crew belonging to an oil refinery struck by the giant creature. It seems that the fish is being 'rested' on the sea floor before being hit by boat anchors.

Similarly, as reported by the Daily Mail, Sunday (18/03/2012).

After finding a stingray weighing 1 ton of this, the crew photographed with the fish. But unfortunately, they then sell to the local fishermen at a price of 5000 Naira, or about USD 288 830.

Though known to giant stingrays are very useful for the study.

Giants such as stingrays can be found in temperate waters. This giant fish eat plankton toxic and does not have a tail like a smaller type.

 

Source: www.detik.com

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North Korea to launch satellite into Space

 

 Pyongyang, North Korea (Korea) announced it will launch a long-range rocket next month to commemorate the 100th birthday of North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung. This rocket would slide off into space and bring a satellite that will orbit the earth.
Satellite launch named Kwangmyongsong-3 will be carried out on 12 and 16 April. The launch will be conducted from Launch Station Sohae in Cholsan District, North Pyongan Province.
Satellite which aims to observe the earth will be brought about by a long-range rocket called Unha-3. Similarly, as stated by a spokesman for the Korean Committee of Space Technology in the statement and reported by AFP on Friday (16/03/2012).
North Korea's satellite launch is reaping the suspicion of its neighbors, South Korea (ROK) as well as Western countries. They suspect that the satellite launch rocket and long distance is a test missile test in disguise.
Please note that on 5 April 2009, the North also launched a long-range rocket that was mentioned to bring the satellite into space. However, this launch condemnation and sanctions from the UN Security Council.
For this time, North Korea remains adamant as before, namely that the satellite is indispensable for the economic development of North Korea and also to take advantage of the peaceful use of outer space. In addition, North Korea also pledged to abide by international rules in this release.
"This launch will give an enormous boost to the nation and the people ... in the development of these countries. A safe passage to the orbit has been designed, so that the booster rocket debris will not give any impact to neighboring countries," a statement from the Committee Space Technology Korea North Korea told the national media.
Announcement of the launch of the rocket is stated later 16 days after the leader of North Korea agreed to suspend missile tests. Termination of the missile test as agreed with the U.S. government, which in return offered to help as many as 240 thousand tons of food.
The late Kim Il-Sung is the founder of which is the father of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un's grandfather, the leader of North Korea today.

Source: www.detik.com

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