Syria buries victims of contested bombing

SANA/Reuters

Via www.reuters.com

By Alistair Lyon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Crowds waving Syrian flags and pictures ofPresident Bashar al-Assad gathered on Saturday to bury 26 people who the authorities said were killed by a suicide bomber at a busy Damascus crossroads.

The opposition Syrian National Council has accused the government of staging Friday's explosion to try to bolster its contention that it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists", not a popular pro-democracy movement.

A cortege of ambulances, lights flashing, bore the flag-draped coffins of victims to a Damascus mosque after driving through streets lined with mourners, state television showed.

Crowds chanted "The people want Bashar al-Assad!" and "One, one, one, the Syrian people are one!".

The blast, which also wounded 63 people, occurred before an Arab League committee meets in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the future of an Arab monitoring mission that has spent two weeks checking whether Syria is keeping its pledge to halt a 10-month crackdown on opponents of four decades of Assad family rule.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the committee, told Al Jazeera TV the monitors should not stay to "waste time" since Syria was not implementing the deal.

He said the Syrian army had not left cities as required and the killing had not stopped since the observers began work on December 26. "With great regret, the news is not good," he added.

Security forces trying to crush anti-Assad protests around Syria killed four civilians in Homs on Saturday, and three people died in Harasta from wounds inflicted on Friday, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

It also said security forces had killed 20 civilians and three army defectors on Friday.

Scores of people have been reported killed since the observers arrived, adding to a death toll that the United Nations says has already topped 5,000 since the uprising erupted in March, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.

ARAB MONITORS TO STAY?

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South Korea says 'new era' possible for Koreas

News article from ap.org

By: OSTER KLUG and HYUNG-JIN KIM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president urged North Korea on Monday to embrace a "new era" by using its recent leadership hand-over as an opportunity to transform Korean ties, but warned that Seoul would respond sternly to any provocations.

Lee Myung-bak's comments in a nationally televised speech come as the young son of Kim Jong Il takes power in North Korea as supreme commander of the military and ruling party leader after Kim's death last month. The North said Sunday that its citizens should turn themselves into "human shields" to defend the son, Kim Jong Un, "unto death."

Lee said Kim Jong Il's death is "portending a sea change" for theKorean peninsula. "If North Korea comes forward with a sincere attitude, it will be possible for us to work together to open a new era," he added.

North Korea said last week that it would never deal with Lee, but Kim Jong Un's rise could offer a chance to improve ties that have suffered since Lee took office in 2008 and ended a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North.

The young Kim had a brief meeting in Pyongyang late last month with a former South Korean first lady and a business leader who were leading private mourning delegations to pay respects to Kim Jong Il.

Lee said the Korean peninsula is at a turning point and "new opportunities always emerge amid such changes."

However, he also warned that South Korea would sternly respond to any North Korean provocation. In 2010, 50 South Koreans died in attacks blamed on the North, though the Koreas have met in recent months for preliminary nuclear discussions.

North Korea, which has tested two atomic devices since 2006, has said it wants to return to long-stalled six-nation talks on halting its nuclear weapons program in return for aid. Washington and Seoul, however, have insisted that the North first show progress on past disarmament commitments.

If North Korea halts its nuclear activities, Lee said in his speech, negotiations could resume.

"We are ready to resolve security concerns on the Korean peninsula and provide assistance to revive North Korea's economy through agreements in the six-nation talks," Lee said.

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China holds back on blaming NKorea in ship attack

SEOGWIPO, South Korea – China held back from joining the chorus of nations condemning North Korea over the sinking of a South Korean warship, making quick international sanctions unlikely but perhaps buying time while China quietly leans on its unpredictable, nuclear-armed neighbor.

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with his South Korean andJapanese counterparts Sunday, tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in their capital, clapping their hands, pumping their fists and and shouting slogans against South Korea and America, according to video footage from APTN in Pyongyang.

South Korea has taken punitive measures against the North since a team of international investigators said this month that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank the warship Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors. North Korea vehemently denies attacking the ship and has warned that the South is risking war by attempting to punish it.

Read more at news.yahoo.com

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UN Command to launch armistice violation probe

By SANGWON YOON, Associated Press Writer 

SEOUL, South Korea – The top U.S. diplomat said Friday that North Korea should face international consequences over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, while the South said the U.N. would investigate whether the attack violated the Korean War truce.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the sinking a "military provocation" and said it violated the U.N. Charter as well as the truce that ended the fighting in the 1950-53 conflict. But he called for a cautious response to this "serious and grave" issue.

Arriving in Tokyo ahead of a visit to Beijing and Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that U.S., Japan, South Koreaand China are consulting on an appropriate reaction to an international investigation that blamed North Korea for the incident.

She said the report announced Thursday proves a North Korean sub fired a torpedo that sank the ship, the Cheonan on March 26 and that it could no longer be "business as usual" in dealing with the matter and that there must be "an international response."

While it was "premature" to discuss exact options or actions that will be taken in response, Clinton said it was "important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences.

"The evidence is overwhelming and condemning. The torpedo that sunk the Cheonan ... was fired by a North Korean submarine," she told reporters.

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