Thursday, March 07, 2013

DTN News - MALAYSIA DEFENSE NEWS: Malaysian Security Forces Kill 31 Filipinos Muslim Clan And Reject Talks

DTN News - MALAYSIA DEFENSE NEWS: Malaysian Security Forces Kill 31 Filipinos Muslim Clan And Reject Talks
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 7, 2013: Malaysian police said they have fatally shot 31 Filipino intruders who sparked a security crisis in Borneo.

It is the highest number of casualties in a day since nearly 200 members of a Philippine Muslim clan took over an entire Malaysian village last month to lay claim to a sprawling Borneo state they insist is theirs by royal birthright.

National police chief Ismail Omar says Malaysian security forces tracking the armed clansmen gunned them down in a remote coastal district Thursday. He says no Malaysians were wounded.

At least 60 people, including eight Malaysian police officers, have been killed in the nearly month-long conflict over an attempt by followers of a Philippine-based sultan to assert a historic claim over parts of Borneo Island.

“The secretary-general is closely following the situation in Sabah, Malaysia,” said a statement from the United Nations released on Wednesday. “He urges an end to the violence and encourages dialogue among all the parties for a peaceful resolution of the situation.”

A spokesman for the Jamalul Kiram III, the leader of the group fighting in the Malaysian state of Sabah, said the sultanate was declaring a unilateral cease-fire in reaction to the call by the United Nations. He said an order was given for the group to take a “defensive position” and not to engage Malaysian troops.

“Malaysia, reciprocate the call for the cease-fire,” the spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, appealed at a Thursday afternoon news briefing.

The Malaysian defense minister, Ahmad Zahid, rejected the calls by the United Nations and the sultanate.

“A unilateral cease-fire is not accepted by Malaysia unless the militants surrender unconditionally,” he said in a statement, adding later: “Don’t believe the cease-fire offer by Jamalul Kiram. In the interest of Sabahans and all Malaysians, wipe out all the militants first.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters on Thursday afternoon that Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III had telephoned him after the United Nations statement to get his reaction.

“I informed President Aquino that they need to surrender unconditionally and their weapons have to be handed over to us,” he said during a visit to Lahad Datu, the area where much of the fighting has taken place.

Malaysian officials have called for the extradition to Malaysia of the group’s leader in Manila.

Mr. Aquino said Thursday that criminal charges are being prepared against the sultan by the country’s National Bureau of Investigation and he rejected calls for an immediate extradition. The Philippines and Malaysia do not have an extradition treaty but they have a mutual legal assistance agreement that facilitates the capture and repatriation of fugitives.

“Let our citizens here in the country face the charges that we will be proffering,” Mr. Aquino said. “Then we will talk about other developments after they have satisfied the requirements of our laws.”

The situation began in mid-February when about 200 people from the southern Philippines arrived in a remote coastal area of eastern Malaysia and announced that they were members of a royal army in service of the Sultanate of Sulu, which ruled the southern Philppines and parts of the Malaysian state of Sabah for centuries.

The group was initially received peacefully but after multiple requests that they return to the Philippines violence soon broke out. The Malaysian authorities launched several assaults against the group, using fighter jets, mortars and several battalions of ground troops.

Militant leaders in the Philippines have said that fighters from the restive southern part of the country would try to make their way to Sabah to act as reinforcements for the outnumbered Filipino fighters. Malaysian and Philippine navy ships are patrolling the waters between the two countries to stop further incursions.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith DTN News
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez As 'Insensitive'

DTN News - HUGO CHAVEZ NEWS: Venezuela Protests Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Statement On Hugo Chavez  As 'Insensitive'
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 7, 2013: Venezuela has sent a formal protest to the Canadian government for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "insensitive" remarks on the death of President Hugo Chavez.

Harper issued a statement that offered "condolences to the people of Venezuela," but not the family of the flamboyant 58-year-old leftist leader, who died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

A statement from a senior Venezuelan government official says a "card of protest" was sent to Ottawa after Harper expressed what he called insensitivity at a time when their country is grieving.

A wordy note from the vice-minister for North America, Claudia Salerno, said Caracas was protesting "in a blunt and categorical way, the statements issued the 5 of March 2013 by the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, as they constitute insensitive and impertinent sentiments at a time when the Venezuelan people are grieving and crying over the irreparable physical loss of the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

Harper said in his short statement on Tuesday that he hopes the death of Chavez brings a more promising future for the Venezuelan people.

"At this key juncture, I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights," Harper said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Harper also said that he looked forward "to working with (Chavez's) successor and other leaders in the region to build a hemisphere that is more prosperous, secure and democratic."

'Cold War socialism'
Harper has in the past pointedly challenged the world view of the influential Venezuelan leader, notably in a lengthy one-on-one interview with the Postmedia news service nearly four years ago before he was about to meet Chavez at the Summit of the Americas.

Harper had said Chavez was emblematic of the leftist leaders in the Western Hemisphere who were "opposed to basically sound economic policies, want to go back to Cold War socialism ... want to turn back the clock on the democratic progress that's been made in the hemisphere."

The Venezuelan government fired back on Wednesday saying that it "has freely and democratically chosen its Socialist destiny, is obliged to remind the representative of the Canadian government, that it has been thanks to this Bolivarian Revolution that our future as an independent and sovereign country appears more radiant and promising than ever, by virtue of the legacy of our historic leader, the Commander President Hugo Chavez Frias."

The statement from Caracas affirmed a commitment to "direct itself freely and with sovereignty towards Bolivarian Socialism and recognizes it as the way toward a future of well-being, that will secure the greatest amount of happiness for everyone."

Chavez was a vocal opponent of the free market economics of Canada and the United States.

He led a leftist revival across Latin America that posed a direct challenge to U.S. influence in the region.

While Chavez introduced social programs that helped feed and house his people during his 14 years in power, his economy has sputtered.

Though Venezuela is an oil rich country, it lacks the capital to maximize its oil output and has been wracked by inflation.

Farewell to 'commander'
Hundreds of thousands of tearful supporters carried their dead president's coffin through streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an epic farewell to their iconic president known simply as "our commander."

One of Chavez's closest socialist allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales, choked back tears and declared: "Chavez is more alive than ever."

Harper's remarks echoed those of the Obama administration in Washington.

The White House said in a statement that Washington supported the "Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government."

"As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights," the statement read.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources CBC News
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike Against US

DTN News - KOREAN PENINSULA NEWS: North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike Against US
*Threatening rhetoric comes before vote by UN on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Associated Press in Seoul - guardian.co.uk,
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 7, 2013: North Korea has vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours before a vote by UN security council on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's foreign ministry said the North will exercise its right for "pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the headquarters of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against it.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the US. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for a handful of cruder devices.

Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, but it has been coming regularly in recent days. The Pyongyang regime is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming US-South Korean military drills.

The UN security council is set to impose a fourth round of sanctions against North Korea in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, the current security council president, said the council will vote on the draft sanctions resolution on Thursday morning.

The resolution was drafted by the US and China, North Korea's closest ally. The council's agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signalled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.

The statement by North Korea's foreign ministry spokesman was carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused the US of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfil previous vows of taking "powerful second and third countermeasures" against its enemies. Those measures haven't been specifically elaborated on.

"We gravely warn that at a time when we cannot avoid a second Korean war, the UN security council, which served as the US puppet in 1950 and made Korean people harbour eternal grudges against it, must not commit the same crime again," it said.

North Korea in the statement demanded the security council immediately dismantle the American-led UN command that is based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.



*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Associated Press in Seoul - guardian.co.uk,
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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