China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters and islands near the shores of its neighbours, and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis. It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised toContinue Reading
Candidates were also required to seek nominations from three government-appointed committees, which effectively shut out all pro-democracy parties. Over 70 per cent of the candidates picked to run for the election were themselves members of the nominating committees. Police also acted swiftly to clamp down on any sign of dissentContinue Reading
The first leader in the Kim dynasty, Kim Il Sung, began to groom his son Kim Jong Il for power in the early 1970s when he was in his early 30s. He was named number two in the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) in the party in September 1973 and elected to the political bureau of the party’s central committee in February 1974.
Kim Jong Il spent the next few years consolidating his political power and in October 1980, at the 6th Congress of the KWP, he was officially designated as successor to his father.
In September 1991 Kim Jong Il was named as supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, while in 1992, Kim Il Sung publicly stated that his son was in charge of all internal affairs in the Democratic People’s Republic. Kim Jong Il made his first public speech in 1992.
So by 1994, when Kim Il Sung died at the age of 82, his son had been deliberately and carefully groomed with all three arms of the trinity: The army, the party and the people.
But the succession was not as smooth for Kim Jong Un as his father’s death in 2011 was sudden and unexpected.
Kim Jong Il began to groom his third son for the leadership in 2002, passing over two older sons. Eldest son Kim Jong Nam was disqualified because his mother was originally from South Korea and some of her family members had defected. For a time it seemed as if second son Kim Jong Chol would be named as the successor, but it is thought he was passed over because of a lack of ambition.
There were concerns about Kim Jong Un. Under North Korea’s rigid caste system, the songbun, Ko Yong Hui, mother of Kim Jong Un was from the lowest tier, being born in Japan of Korean stock. It has been reported that Kim Jong Il tried to remove official records to obscure her inappropriate origins.
Having been educated at an international school in Switzerland, Kim Jong Un attended the National War College in Pyongyang from 2002 to 2007. Reports of Kim Jong Un being groomed for the leadership began to emerge in 2008 and in 2010 he was appointed as the equivalent of a four-star general and attended the KWP’s 65th-anniversary celebration with his father.
When Kim Jong Il died in December 2011, his son’s training had not been completed and his position was vulnerable. He moved quickly to take control of both military and party.
Over the next few years, Kim Jong Un consolidated his position with a series of purges, including that of his uncle Jang Song Thaek, who had acted as regent after Kim Jong Il’s death and was reported to have been executed by firing squad as Kim Jong Un “removed the scum” from the KWP.
SAO PAULO: A fire in a camp belonging to Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement MST in the northern state of Para killed nine people and left eight injured on Saturday night, the movement said on Sunday (Dec 10).
The incident was caused by a short circuit in the electrical network during the installation of internet wiring in the rural farmers’ camp, located in the city of Parauapebas, according to MST.
Community leaders told a press conference that the short circuit happened at around 8 p.m. local time, when an antenna touched the high-voltage network, setting fire to power cables and some shacks in the camp.
Among the nine dead, six were residents of the camp and three were workers from the internet company.
Eight other people were injured and taken to a hospital, seven of them have already been discharged, and one remains hospitalized with second-degree burns but is not at risk of death.
According to the MST, the fire was later contained by the local fire brigade.
MST fights for land distribution in Brazil, sometimes occupying areas it says are not producing anything and then seeking its expropriation by the government.
The camp is close, but, according to the movement, does not occupy a 60,000-hectare (150,000-acre) farm in the region that they argue is the product of land grabbing.
Members of the camp said at Sunday’s press conference that they are already receiving government aid, such as water and food distribution and funeral help.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked his agrarian development minister, Paulo Teixeira, and head of lands rights agency Incra, Cesar Aldrighi, to travel to the city to “follow the case closely and bring all the support of the federal government to the families of the victims of this tragedy”, the government said in a statement.
KABUL: The UN refugee agency has warned that Afghans could die in harsh winter conditions if they don’t get adequate shelter once they cross the border from Pakistan.
Almost half a million Afghans have left Pakistan since early October, when the Islamabad government announced it would arrest and deport foreigners it said were in the country illegally. The overwhelming majority of them are from neighbouring Afghanistan, though Islamabad insists the policy doesn’t target a specific nationality.
The forced returns are piling pressure on Afghanistan and aid agencies, which are providing the bulk of essential services like health care. Freezing temperatures are setting in and conditions at the border remain dire.
“Many Afghan returnees are vulnerable, including women and children, who could lose their lives in a harsh winter if left without adequate shelter,” the UN refugee agency said in a report published Friday (Dec 8). “People arriving at the border are exhausted and require urgent assistance as well as psychosocial support.”
Families told the agency they were worried that colder winter temperatures in certain areas, particularly mountainous regions, may prevent them from returning home right away.
“Many are arriving with illness, for example bronchitis, as a result of the cold weather and the difficult journey from Pakistan,” the agency said in a message to The Associated Press on Sunday (Dec 10). “They may not have all their belongings, including clothing, and therefore be unable to protect themselves from the elements.”
It said that among those returning to Afghanistan are families who have never lived in the country. They have been living in Pakistan for one or more generations and may not have homes or extended family to return to.
Cash to pay rent is needed, while families with some existing social networks could stay with family or friends. Others may return to homes needing repair. The agency said it will provide tents to such households.
“For those who have nowhere to go, with limited means, they may stay in camps, established near the border,” the refugee agency said.
A Taliban committee said it is distributing food, water, SIM cards, clothing and cash at two key border crossings: Torkham and Spin Boldak. Families are also learning about Afghanistan, the Islamic system, temporary living arrangements, registration and relocation, the committee said Sunday.
But extreme temperatures and limited access to clean water and sanitation have led to a surge in infectious diseases and malnutrition.
UN Women said there are additional challenges for Afghan women and girls leaving Pakistan as they have to deal with Taliban restrictions that could affect their mobility and access to information and services if they don’t have a male relative. It expressed similar concerns after October’s deadly earthquakes in Afghanistan’s west.
The agency said around 80 per cent of Afghans returning through Torkham and Spin Boldak are women and children.
In its latest report, also published Friday, it said many women have lived through “distressing experiences” in Pakistan including being the victims of illegal detention, witnessing their spouse or family members be arrested, or being separated from relatives and returning to Afghanistan alone.
Women told UN agencies they were “compelled” to hand their possessions over in exchange for transportation, leave all their belongings behind or saw their income taken by Pakistani authorities.
The crackdown is hugely controversial and has drawn condemnation from rights groups, the Taliban, aid agencies and the UN
TOKYO: Under-fire Japanese industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said he would continue in his cabinet duties and will fully disclose his finances at an appropriate time, local media reported on Sunday (Dec 10), amid allegations of undeclared funding that has embroiled several top lawmakers. “I have not been told anything toContinue Reading
TOKYO: Under-fire Japanese industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said he would continue in his cabinet duties and will fully disclose his finances at an appropriate time, local media reported on Sunday (Dec 10), amid allegations of undeclared funding that has embroiled several top lawmakers. “I have not been told anything toContinue Reading
BEIJING: Saudi Arabia’s investment minister met with China’s commerce and industry chiefs in Beijing on Sunday (Dec 10) and discussed expanding cooperation in trade, investment and technology, the Chinese ministries said. China is willing to work with Saudi Arabia to jointly promote China’s Belt and Road infrastructure investment program andContinue Reading
It was news his father Chumporn Jirachart, who was himself once a migrant worker in Israel a decade ago, had been hoping for since his son was taken.
Mr Chumporn said: “That morning, a friend in Israel called me and said: ‘They are releasing the hostages, and your son is one of them.’ I didn’t believe him, so I said: ‘Send me proof’. So, he sent me a screenshot from the news – and there was my son! I felt really glad.”
At the time of his abduction, Mr Manee was in the final few months of his five-year contract in Israel, where he was working on a farm near Gaza.
He returned with the first batch of released hostages to Thailand earlier this month, and has since reunited with his family in his rural hometown of Ban Dung, in the northeastern Udon Thani province.
Udon Thani is about 7,000km away from Israel but it is very connected to the Middle Eastern nation, with over 4,000 locals working there as migrant workers.
Nationwide, about 30,000 workers were in Israel before the war broke out, working mostly in agriculture. Thai nationals make up Israel’s largest migrant worker groups.
JAKARTA: Dilapidated boats carrying an estimated 400 ethnic Rohingya arrived in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Sunday (Dec 10), chief of a provincial fishing community has confirmed, adding to a recent surge of Myanmar’s Muslim minority arriving in the country. Prior to Sunday’s arrivals, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) saidContinue Reading