Month: July 2009

Seoul, July 07:South Korea wants to discuss the possibility of developing more powerful ballistic missiles with the US as a deterrent against North Korea, the national news agency Yonhap reported on Tuesday.

“I believe the issue can be discussed by working-level officials of the United States and South Korea,” South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told the media in Seoul.

South Korea previously agreed not to build missiles with a range of over 300 kilometres capable of carrying warheads of more than 500 kilograms.

Paris, July 07: The international police agency Interpol said Tuesday it has refused a request by Honduran authorities to issue an international arrest warrant for ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The Lyon-based agency said its Office of Legal Affairs concluded that the request was in contravention of Interpol’s constitution, which bans it from undertaking “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”

Washington, July 07: The United States wants a G8 summit this week to commit $15 billion over a multi-year period for agricultural development in poor countries to fight food insecurity, according to a draft declaration seen by Reuters.

The declaration said Washington was ready to mobilise $3-4 billion over a multi-year period and wanted other partners to match that commitment to reach the $15 billion target.

Cairo, July 07: Egyptian intelligence chiefs in Damascus to push Palestinian talksDamascus – Top-level Egyptian intelligence officers arrived in Damascus on Tuesday in a bid to advance Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at reconciling rival Palestinian factions.

The move comes ahead of the resumption of talks at the end of this month aimed at enabling Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which rules the West Bank, to form a unity government or agree an Egyptian compromise.

Berlin, July 07: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on the fringe of the Group of Eight summit in the Italian town of L’Aquila, German officials said Tuesday.

The clashes between security forces and ethnic minority Uighurs in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, which claimed more than 150 lives, are expected to be a topic of the talks, the officials said.

Merkel is expected to tell Hu of the need to allow ethnic minorities to maintain their cultural identities and traditions within the scope of a “one-China” policy.

Washington, July 07: NATO members need to reach consensus on which threats tie them together as they look toward the future, said outgoing Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Tuesday.

“NATO cannot thrive as an organization which is trying to take care of too many individual threats at the same time, becoming a sort of jack of all trades, but master of none,” he said.

London, July 07: Former US Defence Secretary Robert S McNamara, who has died in Washington aged 93, wanted America to attack China with nuclear weapons if it invaded India for a second time.

Although he became a hated figure among the world’s Left for his role as an architect of America’s war on Vietnam, one of his chief aims when he became the head of the World Bank in 1968 was to leverage the Bank’s aid to persuade India to tackle poverty more effectively.