South East Asia
Thursday, 23 August 2012 09:59
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SEOUL: North Korea has agreed to meet South Korean private groups for talks about aid following deadly floods, officials said Thursday, despite icy relations between the two governments.
The North's Council for National Reconciliation sent a message last week to the South's non-governmental organisations accepting their offer of discussions, the South's unification ministry said.
An official of South's Korea NGO Council for Cooperation (KNCC) with North Korea told AFP they plan to visit Kaesong city just across the border for the meeting on Friday.
The ministry, which must by law authorise all cross-border contacts, said it was still considering whether to allow the visit.
KNCC said it wants to reach agreement as soon as possible so it can ship aid before the Chuseok holidays from September 29-October 1.
Cross-border relations have been frosty for years and worsened sharply in recent months. The North threatens "sacred war" against the South's conservative government for alleged insults to, ...
TOKYO: Japan Tobacco said Wednesday it was being probed by the European Union after a report it broke sanctions by shipping cigarettes to a firm linked to the Syrian regime, but denied any wrongdoing.
Japan Tobacco (JT), which is 50 percent owned by the government, insisted its Geneva-based subsidiary JT International (JTI) had done nothing wrong amid claims it supplied a firm with family links to President Bashar al-Assad.
A probe has been opened by the European ...
NAIROBI: At least 48 Kenyans were hacked or burnt to death in ethnic clashes between two rival groups, the worst single attack since deadly post-election violence four years ago, police said Wednesday.
"It is a very bad incident.... They include 31 women, 11 children and six men," regional deputy police chief Joseph Kitur said of the attack, which took place late Tuesday between the Pokomo and Orma peoples in the rural Tana River district.
Kitur said "34 ...
SYDNEY: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was unlikely to be extradited from Sweden to the United States if there was a risk of the death penalty or a military court, Australia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
British authorities won their case to extradite Assange to Sweden to face sex assault allegations, but because he sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London they have so far been unable to send him there.
Supporters of the 41-year-old Australian believe that ...
NEW DELHI: For India to grow rich, must its citizens become more honest? It's a question that preoccupied Kaushik Basu, the government's chief economic advisor, during his term in office.
"We talk of good moral values as useful in themselves, but the fact that economic development and economic functioning can depend on these values is usually pushed aside," said Basu, who left his post last month.
Better behaviour such as respecting meeting times and public spaces, as ...
SYDNEY: A damning inquiry into the treatment of women in Australia's military on Wednesday recommended quotas to increase female representation and the establishment of a unit to probe sexual misconduct.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said her year-long review of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) uncovered "systemic, cultural and practical impediments to cultural change" regarding the status of women.
"Our overarching finding is that, despite progress over the last two decades, I am not confident that, in ...
TAIPEI: Taiwan seized 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of heroin in its biggest bust of the drug in the past 10 years, arresting seven people involved in smuggling it from Cambodia, officials said on Wednesday.
Agents uncovered the drugs early Monday after they boarded the Hung Chi Yu No 7, a fishing boat, in the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, according to a spokesman from the Bureau of Investigation.
"With the help of US-based high-tech satellite ...
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