Trump praises Kim over return of war dead amid summit skepticism

Yahoo – AFP, Francesco FONTEMAGGI, 27 July 2018

US President Donald Trump praised North Korea's Kim Jong Un for returning
the remains of more than 50 US servicemen killed during the Korean War

Amid skepticism over his rapprochement with Kim Jong Un, US President Donald Trump praised the North Korean leader on Friday for returning remains believed to be those of more than 50 US servicemen.

Trump pointed to the handover of 55 boxes said to hold the remains of US troops killed during the Korean War as evidence that his overtures to the North Korean strongman were bearing fruit.

"I want to thank Chairman Kim for keeping his word," Trump said during an appearance at the White House after tweeting that it was a "great moment for so many families."

Trump has hailed his June summit with Kim in Singapore as effectively ending the North Korean nuclear threat.

But it contained only a vague commitment on Pyongyang's part to work towards the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" -- a long way from the complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament demanded by Washington.

With Trump facing criticism that concrete post-summit progress was scant, he welcomed the repatriation of the remains -- which came on the 65th anniversary of the end of the war -- as evidence that the talks were a success.

"I want to thank Chairman Kim in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me," he said.

The White House said it was 'encouraged' by the return of the remains and 

the 'momentum for positive change'

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was "encouraged by North Korea's actions and the momentum for positive change."

More than 35,000 Americans were killed during the 1950-53 war and 7,700 are still listed as missing in action -- most of them in North Korea.

A US military C-17 cargo plane carrying the purported remains of the more than 50 US servicemen landed at a US air base in South Korea on Thursday.

A formal repatriation ceremony is to be held in Hawaii on August 1, attended by Vice President Mike Pence. The remains will then be analyzed there.

North Korea has previously been accused -- most notably by Japan -- of faking the remains of foreign citizens and using them as a bargaining chip.

'Step in the right direction'

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday described the repatriation as setting a "positive tone for other things, more important things in terms of international diplomacy.

"This humanitarian act, obviously, is a step in the right direction," Mattis said.

A chaplain performs a blessing aboard a US military aircraft over the 55 

cases of remains returned by North Korea to the United States

He added that the remains of French and Australian soldiers who fought alongside the Americans could be found in the boxes handed over by Pyongyang.

"You noticed that there was a UN blue flag on each of the boxes," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

"We don't know who's in those boxes."

Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said "the return of remains is important, and can be viewed as a potential confidence building measure."

But Fuchs, a former US deputy assistant secretary for East Asia, added on Twitter that North Korea may be "picking off low hanging fruit to make it seem like they are making concessions in the overall negotiations."

Fuchs noted reports that Pyongyang has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles -- a move welcomed earlier this week by Trump.

"The destruction of the nuke test site was not observed by inspectors, so the details can't be verified -- same goes for the dismantling of the engine test site," Fuchs said. "And these steps are reversible. And none touch on the core issue - NK nukes."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was grilled about North Korea's sincerity by members of the US Senate during testimony this week.

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war

He acknowledged North Korea was continuing to produce nuclear fissile material but insisted that "progress is happening" and said Trump remains "upbeat about the prospects of North Korean denuclearization."

Asked if the goal was for this to be achieved by the end of Trump's first term in office, Pompeo replied "yes," and added: "More quickly if possible."

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, was among those who remained skeptical.

"I am afraid that at this point the United States -- the Trump administration -- is being taken for a ride," Markey said.

US President Donald Trump praised North Korea's Kim Jong Un for returning the remains of more than 50 US servicemen killed during the Korean War

The White House said it was 'encouraged' by the return of the remains and the 'momentum for positive change'

A chaplain performs a blessing aboard a US military aircraft over the 55 cases of remains returned by North Korea to the United States

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean Peninsula during the war.

N. Korea, US hold talks on war dead repatriation

Yahoo – AFP, 15 July 2018

The latest US-North Korea talks began at the border truce village of Panmunjom
on Sunday, the South's Yonhap news agency said

North Korean and US military officials met Sunday to discuss repatriation of the remains of American troops killed during the Korean War, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

Returning the remains of the US soldiers who perished during the 1950-53 conflict was part of a deal signed by the North's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump during their landmark summit last month.

The latest talks began at the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border, according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

In a statement, Pompeo said the meeting was "productive and co-operative and resulted in firm commitments." He added that further talks would start on Monday to arrange details including the transfer of remains already held in North Korea.

"Additionally, both sides agreed to re-commence field operations in the DPRK to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who never returned home," he said, using the initials of North Korea's official name.

TV news footage earlier on Sunday showed vehicles with US army plates and believed to be carrying American officials heading to the heavily fortified border.

Pompeo, who visited Pyongyang earlier this month to flesh out details of the denuclearisation deal signed by Kim and Trump, had previously said that the meeting would take place on or around last Thursday.

The North did not show up at the border on Thursday but contacted the United States on the same day to offer to meet on Sunday, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said last week.

"We will be ready," she said.

Dozens of wooden coffins to carry the American remains have reportedly been brought to the southern side of the border in recent weeks.

The White House has hailed the summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore as a major breakthrough toward disarming the isolated, nuclear-armed North in exchange for easing of sanctions and other help with economic development.

Pompeo met with Kim's key aide during his latest trip to Pyongyang but as soon as he left, the North's foreign ministry berated him over his "unilateral and gangster-like" demands.

Trump on Thursday signaled optimism however, unveiling a letter from Kim in which the young leader hailed the "start of a meaningful journey" and tweeting "Great progress being made!"

Two Koreas to form joint table tennis team for Korea Open

Yahoo - AFP,15 July 2018

Table tennis players from the two Koreas also formed a joint team at this year's
championships in Sweden

The two Koreas will form joint table tennis teams for the 2018 Korea Open next week, a report said Sunday, the latest sign of thawing ties between the neighbours.

North and South Korea will field joint teams in the men's and women's doubles as well as the mixed doubles in the tournament to be held in the South's city of Daejeon from Tuesday to Sunday, Yonhap news agency said.

It cited an unnamed official at the Korea Table Tennis Association.

South Korean TV footage showed North Korean athletes and delegates arriving at Seoul's Incheon International Airport Sunday via a flight through Beijing.

Eight female and eight male athletes from North Korea -- including Kim Song I, a bronze medalist at women's singles at the 2016 Rio Summer Games -- will form the joint teams with the South's players, Yonhap said.

It will be the third time that table tennis players from the two Koreas form a joint team following the 1991 world championships in Japan and this year's championships in Sweden.

The joint team in 1991 shocked the world by defeating defending champion China to win gold in the women's team event. This year's joint team won bronze in the women's team event in Sweden.

The Korea Table Tennis Association could not be immediately reached for comment.

The two countries are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, but sporting cooperation helped spark an ongoing diplomatic thaw after the North agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics held in February in the South.

The diplomatic detente triggered a rapid improvement in relations between Pyongyang and both Seoul and Washington, culminating in last month's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore.

A group of South Korean basketball players visited the North earlier this month to hold friendly basketball matches with its athletes.

The two Koreas also recently announced they would field joint teams in three sports -- canoeing, rowing and women's basketball -- at next month's Asian Games to be held in Indonesia.

India's top court reviews homosexuality ban

Yahoo – AFP, July 10, 2018

Section 377 of India's penal code, a relic from 1860s British legislation, bans gay
acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and allows for jail terms of
up to life, although prosecutions are rare (AFP Photo/DIBYANGSHU SARKAR)

India's top court began reviewing Tuesday petitions against a colonial-era ban on homosexuality, in the latest chapter of a legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and more liberal Indians.

Section 377 of the penal code, a relic from 1860s British legislation, bans gay acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and allows for jail terms of up to life, although prosecutions are rare.

In 2009 the Delhi High Court effectively decriminalised gay sex, saying a ban violated fundamental rights, but the Supreme Court reinstated it in 2013 after religious groups successfully appealed.

The Supreme Court said the High Court had overstepped its authority and that the responsibility for changing the law rested with lawmakers not the courts. Efforts to introduce legislation however came to nothing.

In January this year however, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge by a clutch of high-profile Indians who said the law created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the world's largest democracy.

A ruling was not expected imminently, with Tripti Tandon, a lawyer for one of the petitioners in the case, saying the hearing would last "two weeks if not more".

Her client, Aris Jafer, was arrested and sent to prison for 50 days in 2001.

Manvendra Singh Gohil, an openly gay Indian prince who is an ambassador for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation charity, said on Tuesday he hoped the "draconian" law would be changed.

In January this year the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the ban on homosexuality by
 a clutch of high-profile Indians who said the law created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation
in the world's largest democracy (AFP Photo/SAJJAD HUSSAIN )

"The law doesn't affect only the gay community," he told AFP. "In fact it violates the fundamental right of every Indian."

"(If) this law continues it would mean we are still slaves of the British."

The gay community was emboldened last year when the Supreme Court referred explicitly to the issue in a landmark ruling upholding the right to privacy.

Gay sex has long been taboo in conservative India, particularly in rural areas where nearly 70 percent of people live, with homophobia widespread. Some still regard homosexuality as a mental illness.

Hindu right-wing groups supportive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been especially vocal, calling gay relationships a disease and a Western cultural import.

Last month, a lesbian couple committed suicide by jumping into a river in the western state of Gujarat, in just the latest tragedy as gay men and women struggle to conform to societal norms.

According to official data, 2,187 cases under Section 377 were registered in 2016 under unnatural offences. Seven people were convicted and 16 acquitted.

Globally 72 countries criminalise same-sex relationships, according to a 2017 report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Eight rescued from Thai cave, but five remain trapped

Yahoo – AFP, Thanaporn PROMYAMYAI, Richard SARGENT, July 9, 2018

Thai soldiers walk out from the Tham Luang cave area as operations continue
for the 8 boys and their coach trapped inside (AFP Photo/YE AUNG THU)

Elite divers hauled four more young footballers out of a flooded Thai cave on Monday, authorities said, bringing to eight the number saved in a stunning rescue mission but still leaving five others trapped.

"Hooyah," the Thai Navy SEALs, who have played a crucial role in the against-the-odds operation, said in a Facebook post as they announced that a total of eight members of the "Wild Boars" football team had been rescued on Sunday and Monday.

Thais have been fixated on the crisis, hoping desperately for the safe return of the 12 boys and their 25-year-old football coach, after they ventured into the Tham Luang cave complex after practice and became trapped by rising waters more than a fortnight ago.

The extraction of the four on Monday followed a similar pattern to the previous day, with the youngsters emerging in quick succession just before nightfall after navigating a treacherous escape route of more than four kilometres (2.5 miles) that included extremely narrow and flooded tunnels.

Although the rescued eight were all presumed to be the boys, aged between 11 and 16, authorities did not reveal their identities nor confirm whether the coach remained inside the cave.

Asked if the remaining five would be shuttled out together, rescue operations chief Narongsak Osottanakorn said it was up to the divers whose meticulous plans, including stashing extra oxygen tanks along the route, are "set for four people, if we bring five we have to change the plan".

In a late-night press conference he also delivered a message from Thai premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a gruff former general:

"The Prime Minister wants this to be a lesson, this should not happen again in Thailand," Narongsak said.

The saga has dominated global headlines, with the team spending nine days unaccounted for inside the cave, before British divers found them -- emaciated and dishevelled -- huddling on a muddy bank above the flooding.

Diagram of the Tham Luang cave and facts on the operation to free a trapped 

football team. (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

Authorities then struggled to determine the best way to save the "Wild Boars", with the group stuck on a shelf above the floodwaters in pitch darkness.

Among the ideas were drilling an escape route through the mountain, or leaving them for months until the monsoon season ended and the flooding subsided.

But with oxygen levels inside dropping to dangerous lows and the prospect of heavy rains flooding the area completely, authorities decided they had to move quickly and take the group out through the water-filled tunnels.

Deadly dangers

Narongsak described Sunday's initial rescue bid as "D-Day" when it was launched, and there were fears that any one of many potential pitfalls could prove deadly.

Among these were that none of the boys had scuba diving experience, and that they could easily panic while swimming underwater across twisted passageways in darkness.

Dozens of foreign divers and other experts from around the world were brought in to help the rescue effort, working alongside the Thai Navy SEALs.

But the death of a former Thai Navy SEAL diver who ran out of oxygen in the cave on Friday underscored the danger of the journey.

The first successes on Sunday offered hope of a fairytale ending to the ordeal.

Rescue chief Narongsak on Sunday described their journey out, escorted by the elite divers, as "smooth".

A man offers food to Buddhist monks near the hospital where the boys rescued 

after being trapped in a nearby cave for nearly two weeks have been brought 

for observation (AFP Photo/TANG CHHIN Sothy)

Crucially, round-the-clock pumping to ease some of the flooding paid off and threatened heavy rains did not arrive.

That led an upbeat Narongsak to promise more "good news" on Monday afternoon that materialised a few hours later with the emergence of the other four.

But although the eight were rescued, there were concerns they may have contracted an illness while in the cave.

Narongsak said after the first four boys were rescued that they would be quarantined "for a while because we are concerned about infections".

And rain could still re-emerge as a threat for the remaining five, particularly if there are complications that could delay the extraction further.

Authorities have repeatedly said the rain could re-flood crucial parts of the cave complex that have been drained and make the escape route much harder or even impossible to navigate.

Weather forecasters warned heavy rain could hit the area through the week.

Premier Prayut visited the rescue base on Monday night to deliver his congratulations to all those involved, but also to offer a note of caution.

"Everyone should be proud. (But) the mission is not over yet," Prayut said.

Related Article:

All 12 boys and coach rescued from Thai cave

Sudden shift in Iran as hardliners back Rouhani

Yahoo – AFP, Marc Jourdier, July 5, 2018

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a joint press conference with Austria's
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on July 4, 2018 in Vienna (AFP Photo/ALEX HALADA)

Tehran (AFP) - Frequently a target of attack by hardliners, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is benefiting from a sudden surge in support from his former critics, a week after he called for national unity.

The apparent sea-change in conservative rhetoric follows hawkish comments by the president himself following Washington's unilateral May withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Visiting Europe to seek economic guarantees, Rouhani lashed out at Israel in the Swiss capital Bern on Tuesday, saying Iran "sees the Zionist regime as an illegitimate regime".

And he has questioned the American government's ability to make good on threats to prevent other countries buying Tehran's oil.

The latest evidence of the domestic shift came on Wednesday, in a letter by prominent General Qassem Soleimani to the moderately conservative president.

Soleimani -- head of the elite Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations -- thanks the president for his "wise and appropriate" words on Israel and the US, in the letter published by Fars news agency.

Rouhani's remarks were "a source of pride", wrote the general.

'Meeting in the Strait'

Rouhani is the main Iranian architect of the July 2015 nuclear accord with world powers, under which his country agreed to rein in its nuclear programme in exchange for easing multilateral sanctions which had strangled the economy.

Some Iranians have interpreted Rouhani's recent hawkish comments as meaning he could be open to blocking the Strait of Hormuz -- a threat Tehran has brandished during past bouts of regional tension.

Some 30 percent of all the world's sea-borne oil exports pass through the strait, which runs from the Gulf into the Indian Ocean.

Conservative Iranian media outlets have thrown their weight behind Rouhani.

"Meeting in the Strait" read a headline in Javan -- a daily close to the Revolutionary Guards -- along with a picture of the president and General Soleimani shaking hands in front of a map of the Strait of Hormuz.

A photo of Soleimani was splashed across the front page of Sazandegi newspaper with the headline "Unity Sepah-Government" (Sepah is the Farsi acronym for the Revolutionary Guards).

Rouhani, who has sought to open up various economic sectors to private enterprise, has repeatedly criticised the Revolutionary Guards for exerting too tight a grip on Iran's economy.

Since he first took office in 2013, Rouhani has regularly been attacked by ultra-conservatives.

He was elected for a second four-year term in May 2017, with the support of reformers.

After protests around the New Year in many Iranian cities against economic hardship, they accused Rouhani of abandoning the country's weakest citizens.

Some have held up America's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement as proof of the president's naivety in trusting the West.

'Survival of the nation'

As Iran's rial plunged in value and protests re-ignited, some legislators called in late June for Rouhani to be impeached.

But things changed abruptly after June 27 when he appealed to his opponents for help.

Kayhan is another ultra-conservative newspaper now backing the president.

"We must put to one side our differences because, at present, the national interest and the survival of the nation are at stake," said an editorial.

But Javan signalled the truce may only be temporary.

"Resisting the enemy and preserving the nation's independence require us to be together and put our differences to one side until a later date", wrote editor-in-chief Abdollah Ganji.