Afghan treasures return to Kabul

Hundreds of ancient artefacts taken out of Afghanistan for safe-keeping – or looted – have been returned to Kabul’s National Museum.

The artefacts were moved to Switzerland almost a decade ago to protect them during the civil war in Afghanistan.

The oldest artefact dates back 3,500 years and the collection includes carpet slippers and Buddha statues.

The most famous piece is a glass phallus believed to have been touched by Alexander the Great.

Foundation stone

It is thought to be the only object in the world which is known to have been in his hands.

More than 2,000 years old, it was part of the foundation stone of the ancient Greek city of Ai-Khanum, in northern Afghanistan.

The objects were sent in a shipping container from Switzerland which was unlocked in a ceremony outside the National Museum.

Afghan Culture Minister Abdul Karim Khurram said the return of the artefacts showed that it was no longer possible to loot and steal in Afghanistan.

By Shirley Gordon
BBC News.

I feel that artefact shouldn’t have been taken,tampered with in the first place and should be protected.
Comment by Malvo

Attack on Thai school kills three

The school was burnt to the ground
At least three teenage students have been killed in an attack on an Islamic school in southern Thailand, police have said.
They said explosives had been thrown into the school in Songkhla province before the assailants opened fire on the sleeping quarters.

Seven other students were wounded in the attack late on Saturday, which the police blamed on Muslim separatists.

But villagers disputed the police account and later staged a protest.

On Sunday morning, three people were shot dead in separate incidents – although details remain sketchy.

Brutal attacks

Local police chief Thammasak Wasaksiri said he believed Muslim rebels were responsible for Saturday’s shooting.

Local Muslims accused government forces of attacking the school

“Insurgents always use this trick of attacking Muslim people to instigate villagers and get them to believe that police or soldiers were responsible for the attack,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Hundreds of angry villagers blocked the road to the school soon after the attack, blaming Thailand’s armed forces for the deaths of the students.

It is rare for Islamic schools to be targeted, and the motives behind the attack are not clear, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

He says the villagers’ suspicion is understandable, as there are now many semi-official paramilitary units operating in the south with the blessing of the military.

Muslims believe they are behind a number of disappearances and behind some of the violence that has been blamed on the insurgents, our correspondent says.

He adds that attacks in southern Thailand have become increasingly brutal over the past two years.

On Wednesday, nine people were killed in an attack on a minibus travelling from the neighbouring province of Yala to Songkhla. All the victims were Buddhist, police said.

About 2,000 people have died in Thailand’s restive south since violence flared up again in January 2004.

In contrast with the rest of Thailand, the south is predominantly Islamic, and most of the people living there have more in common with Malays, who live over the border, than with Buddhist Thais.

Maoist rebels kill 55 police in India

RAIPUR, India (AFP) – Maoist rebels in central India have killed 55 policemen in one of the worst ever attacks of their 40-year-old insurgency, officials said Thursday.

More than 500 rebels hurled grenades, petrol bombs and fired indiscriminately at a jungle security post in Rani Bodli village in Chhattisgarh state, one of several parts of the country in the grip of a left-wing rebellion.

State home minister Ram Vichar Netam told the Chhattisgarh assembly the death toll in the incident stood at 55 after returning from a visit to the site of the attack.

“About 500 to 600 Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons attacked the Rani Bodli police post,” said Netam.

“55 personnel including 16 of the Central Industrial Security Force and 39 special police officers were killed in the attack.”

The post was manned by 76 security personnel, he said, adding that 11 people were injured.

The attack is “one of the worst” carried out by the insurgents, said Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, who was appointed security advisor to Chhattisgarh state government last April. Some local media reported the toll as high as 60.

Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribes and landless farmers. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Chhattisgarh and are now living in tent shelters as Indian counter-insurgency forces operate in the countryside.

The rebels, who launched their armed campaign in 1967, also operate in another 14 of India’s 29 states. New Delhi refuses to negotiate with them.

“I will be visiting the area this evening for an on-the-spot assessment,” said Gill, who is credited with tackling India’s Sikh rebellion in Punjab state in the early 1990s.

“Obviously, the lessons we draw from this attack will have to be incorporated into any strategy we draw up for the future.”

Analyst P.V. Ramana said the attack “once again shows the meticulous planning and fine execution skills” of the Maoist rebels.

“The strategies employed by the police were inadequate,” said Ramana of the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi.

Officials have said the Maoist insurgency threatens huge swathes of India’s centre, east and south.

“Such attacks would not succeed in weakening the resolve of the government to deal with the Naxal (Maoist) problem,” Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in a statement.

New Delhi will continue “all possible assistance to the Chhattisgarh government to deal with the menace,” the statement said, adding additional paramilitary forces had been deployed.

Nihar Nayak, security analyst with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said federal and state governments needed to “strengthen the capabilities of the local police in intelligence collection.”

Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the Maoists as the single biggest threat to the nation’s internal security.

On March 4, rebels shot dead high-profile federal member of parliament Sunil Mahto in neighbouring Jharkhand state in their first assassination of a national-level politician.

Some 669 people died in 2005 in violence linked to more than 9,000 armed rebels who have spread over 15 states, according to government estimates.

At least 372 people, including 154 civilians and 75 security force personnel were killed in Maoist-related violence in 2006, according to a security portal run by security advisor Gill.

Human rights limited in North Korea

The human rights record of North Korea is extremely difficult to fully assess due to the secretive and closed nature of the country. The North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do. Even aid workers are subject to considerable scrutiny and excluded from places and regions the government does not wish them to enter. Since citizens cannot freely leave the country, it is mainly from stories of refugees and defectors that the nation’s human rights record has been constructed. The government’s position, expressed through the Korean Central News Agency, is that North Korea has no human rights issue, because its socialist system was chosen by the people and serves them faithfully.

While it is difficult to piece together a clear picture of the situation within the country, it is overwhelmingly clear that the government of North Korea controls virtually all activities within the nation. Citizens are not allowed to freely speak their minds and the government detains those who criticize the regime. The only legal radio, television, and news organizations are operated by the government. The media universally praise the administration of Kim Jong-Il, who remains the unelected leader of the country. The use of political prison camps and torture to control the population is common and documented by many sources.

The country’s political and economic system is much better known. Although two minor parties exist, the ruling Korean Worker’s Party holds almost all power in the government. North Korea’s government runs a planned economy and markets are officially illegal. Since the mid-1990s the country has experienced a severe lack of food, which is widely believed to have been caused by a famine which claimed the lives of up to 2 million North Koreans. By nearly all reports the economy is unable to meet the needs of its people; in 2005 the World Food Program reported that the average 7-year old boy in North Korea weighs 9 kg (20 lbs) less and is 20 cm (8″) shorter than a boy the same age from South Korea. Malnutrition is estimated at 24 percent minimum. The inability of the government to adequately feed the people has given rise to a large black market.

A number of human rights organizations and governments have condemned North Korea’s human rights record, including Amnesty International and the United Nations. In its 2006 country report on North Korea, Freedom House stated that, “North Korea is a totalitarian dictatorship and one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Every aspect of social, political, and economic life is tightly controlled by the state. The regime denies North Koreans all basic rights, subjects tens of thousands of political prisoners to brutal conditions, and maintains a largely isolationist foreign policy.” North Korea received Freedom House’s lowest ratings in both civil liberties and political rights, categorizing it as “Not Free”. In 2004, the United States passed the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which censured North Korea and outlined steps the United States should take to promote democracy and freedom in North Korea. With the exception of the international abductions issue, which it says has been resolved fully, North Korea strongly denies all reports of human rights violations and accuses the defectors of lying and promoting a pro-US agenda.

North Korean Leadership

North Korea was led by Kim Il-sung from 1948 until his death on July 8, 1994. Toward the end of his life, Kim Il-sung delegated most domestic matters to his son, Kim Jong-il. Three years after his father’s death, on October 8, 1997, Kim Jong-il was named General Secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party. In 1998, the legislature reconfirmed him as Chairman of the National Defence Commission and declared that position as the “highest office of state”.
Taking a God like position toward he’s people with a stronghold of control, to do successfully would take one motivation to instill fear into the masses.A Million man army and hatred towards the US, one can only guess what is in store for Kim Il-sung and his communist regime.
Comment by Malvo.

Why there is a North and South Korea

The aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Korea, which ended with Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945, Korea was divided in two along the 38th parallel. The Soviet Union controlled the area to the north of this line and the United States controlled the area to the south. The Korean people were not consulted by either power prior to this division. While virtually all Koreans welcomed liberation from Japanese imperial rule, they objected to the re-imposition of foreign rule over the peninsula. The Soviets and Americans were unable to agree on the implementation of Joint Trusteeship over Korea, with each imposing its own system on the area under its jurisdiction. This led to the 1948 establishment of ideologically opposed governments in the north and the south.Growing tensions and border skirmishes between the north and south eventually led to a civil war called the Korean War. On June 25, 1950 the (North) Korean People’s Army attacked across the 38th Parallel in a move to reunify the peninsula under their political system. The war continued until July 27, 1953, when the United Nations Command, the Korean People’s Army, and the Chinese People’s Volunteers signed the Korean War Armistice Agreement. Since that time the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has separated the North and South.

As for this reason North Korea has always blamed the US for causing this seperation between North and South Korea
Comment above by Malvo.

Europe and Southeast Asia look for common ground

NUREMBERG, Germany (AFP) – The European Union and 10 Southeast Asian nations were set to hold talks here on Thursday on deepening relations strained by European concerns over human rights abuses.

Foreign ministers from the 27-country EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were also expected to discuss moves to create a free trade deal between the blocs.

However, the European Union will stress its opposition to the military junta in ASEAN member Myanmar, which it and the United States accuse of massive human rights abuses and suppression of political dissent.

The gathering in the southern German city marks a milestone as the partners are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their relations.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said the EU and ASEAN should look at ways of pooling their resources to tackle pressing issues such as climate change.

“The list of future tasks is long, but one thing is clear — we will only be able to face them if we work together,” Steinmeier said in a speech to open the meeting on Wednesday.

“The era of nation states is over, at least to the extent that none of our countries can solve these problems on its own,” he said.

“Together however we have a huge pool of resources at our disposal. Some 500 million people live in the EU today, 560 million in the ASEAN countries. That is over one billion citizens or one sixth of the world’s population.”

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said ahead of the meeting that relations between the two regions were “ready to shift up a gear.”

Participants are expected to support a statement calling for closer political ties and combined efforts in areas such as energy, security and protecting the environment.

Although a free trade deal between the EU and ASEAN is not officially on the agenda in Nuremberg, the issue is likely to be raised.

The EU executive, the European Commission, expects to receive a negotiating mandate from member states for a free trade agreement with ASEAN in the next few months.

EU efforts to broker a deal were given fresh impetus when ASEAN nations agreed at a summit in the Philippines in January to create a single market of their members by 2015.

Yet it remains unclear how the EU can achieve the delicate balancing act of establishing freer trade links while maintaining its strong stance on Myanmar.

Steinmeier will personally express the European concerns to Myanmar’s foreign minister U Nyan Win, diplomats said.

But his message is likely to fall on deaf ears as Myanmar has repeatedly refused to implement reforms demanded by its bigger ASEAN neighbours and continues to keep pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

Thailand meanwhile is expected to use the meeting to inform the EU how it has emerged from a military coup last September.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Would the involvement of Free trade between Europe and Southeast Asia heal human rights issue in that region ?
Comment by Malvo.