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Wednesday September 27, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump has “declared a war” on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the country’s top diplomat said in New York on Monday.

“Last weekend, Trump claimed that our leadership wouldn’t be around much longer. He declared a war on our country,” Ri Yong Ho, the DPRK foreign minister, told reporters.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to take countermeasures, including the right to shoot down U.S. strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country,” Ri said.

On Saturday, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers and F-15C Eagle fi ghter escorts fl ew in international airspace over waters east of the DPRK, the Pentagon said.

“This is the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) any U.S. fi ghter or bomber air-craft have fl own” off the DPRK’s coast in the 21st century, said the Pentagon, adding that the move underscored “the serious-ness with which we take DPRK’s reckless behavior.”

However, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sand-ers on Monday reassured Ameri-cans that Trump did not actually declare war on North Korea via

tweet. Trump said in a tweet Sat-urday that North Korea “won’t be around much longer” if it keeps intimidating America.

“We’ve not declared war on North Korea,” Sanders said. “And frankly the suggestion of that is absurd.”

In his fi rst speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19, Trump threatened that the United States “will have no choice than to totally destroy” the country unless Pyongyang refrains from its nuclear tests and missile launches.

Trump also signed a new order to ramp up sanctions on the DPRK on Sept. 21.

In response, DPRK’s top

leader Kim Jong Un vowed to retaliate, saying Trump “will face results beyond his expec-tation.”

“I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue,” Kim was quoted by the offi cial Korean Central News Agency as saying in a statement released Friday.

Kim also accused Trump of uttering “unprecedented rude nonsense that one has never heard from any of his predeces-sors,” saying the threat to “totally destroy” a sovereign state has gone beyond the limit.

(Xinhua)

DPRK FM: Trump declares warONE of Russia’s top generals in Syria has been killed in an attack by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, with Moscow blaming the U.S. for his death as it battles to defeat the jihad-ist cult in its last stronghold in the country.

The Russian Defense Min-istry said late Sunday that Lt. Gen. Valery Asapov “was at a command post of Syrian troops, assisting the Syrian commanders in the operation for the liberation of the city of Deir Ez-Zor.” Russian state news agency Tass reported that Asapov was killed “as a result of a mortar shelling by IS.” Russia and Syrian government forces are waging an offensive against IS in Deir Ez-Zor province.

Russian offi cials blamed Washington’s policies in Syria for Asapov’s death. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said “the death of the Russian commander is the price paid with blood for the hypocrisy of American policy in Syria,” according to Kremlin news agency RIA.

The U.S.-led coalition is bombing IS positions in Syria in support of a Kurdish-Arab force, while the Russian air force and Iranian forces are backing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against moder-ate rebels and jihadists in a bid to wrestle back large swathes of territory across the war-ravaged country.

(SD-Agencies)

Top Russiangeneral in Syria killed

PAKISTAN’S former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday appeared in an anti-corruption court in Islamabad as the court formally started hearing of cases against him, lawyers said.

The Accountability Court is expected to formally indict the former prime minister on Oct. 2 in three corruption cases.

The Supreme Court disquali-fi ed Nawaz Sharif in July for holding any public offi ce and mandated the anti-corruption courts to initiate cases against him and his children.

The apex court had stated that the ousted prime minister had been dishonest in concealing his earnings from a UAE-based company in his nomination papers during the 2013 parlia-mentary elections.

The Accountability Court allowed Nawaz Sharif to go after his brief appearance, his lawyer Khawaja Hasris said. His sons Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz and daughter Maryam Nawaz could not appear before the judge and their lawyers said they are in London to look after their ailing mother.

The court also issued bailable arrest warrants for Sharif’s chil-dren, lawyers said.

The ousted prime minister’s lawyer sought exemption from personal appearance of his client; however, the court opposed the plea.

Sharif’s political adviser Asif Kirmani said the former prime minister showed respect for the courts and personally appeared before the court.

Sharif has denied involve-ment in corruption and said he will face courts to prove his innocence. (Xinhua)

Nawaz Sharif appears in anti-graft court

Nawaz Sharif

THE Iraqi Government ruled out talks on possible secession for Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq yesterday after a referen-dum on independence showed strong support for a split, Erbil-based Rudaw TV said.

The electoral commission supervising the independence referendum said yesterday that initial results have shown that 93 percent of Iraqi Kurds sup-port Kurdistan independence from Iraq.

The Iraqi Kurds on Monday ended their vote in the refer-endum that will determine the independence of the Kurdish region and the disputed areas amid threats and rejection from Baghdad and neighboring countries.

About 5.2 million eligible voters were entitled to cast bal-lots in 12,000 polling boxes in 2,000 polling centers.

Queues were formed since early morning at many polling stations, and the regional Presi-dent Masoud Barzani was one of the fi rst to vote. The voters were asked to answer one question in the referendum; either “Yes” to independent Kurdish state or “No” to remain as autonomous

region part of the Iraqi state.Speaking at a press conference

Monday, Kirkuk Governor Najm al-Din Kareem called on the resi-dents of Kirkuk to return to their homes after voting and avoid cel-ebrations in the city.

The referendum was held despite intense international pressure on Barzani to halt the voting, amid fears that it would spark new confl icts with Bagh-dad and with neighboring Iran and Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Ankara would close its border with the Kurdish region in northern Iraq because of the independence referendum and threatened the Iraqi Kurds with blocking their key oil exports.

Iran reiterated its opposition to the Kurdish referendum in Iraq, underlining the need for maintaining Iraq’s sovereignty at a time that Baghdad is making great successes in its fi ght against IS terrorist group.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi Parliament issued a package measures against the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over its referendum.

The parliament demanded

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, redeploy the Iraqi security forces in the dis-puted areas outside the Kurdish region.

The parliament demanded the federal government to regain control of oil fi elds in the disputed areas to be under the control of the federal Oil Ministry.

The Iraqi Government has repeatedly rejected the referen-dum and its results, describing it as “unconstitutional.”

The independence of Kurdis-tan is opposed by many coun-tries because they said it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and it could undermine fi ght against IS militants.

Neighboring countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria see that such a step would threaten their territorial integrity, as larger populations of Kurds live in those countries.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about “the potentially desta-bilizing effects” of Monday’s referendum, Guterres’ spokes-man Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. (Xinhua)

Iraq refuses to discuss Kurdish independence PHUKET beaches in southern Thailand might no longer have any life guards on duty due to budget constraints, a provincial offi cial said yesterday.

The provincial council of Phuket, one of Thailand’s world-renowned tourist resorts in the Andaman Sea, has decided to curtail funding to cover wages for nearly 100 life guards who may have been hired on beach duty throughout fi scal 2018, begin-ning next month, according to the offi cial who only spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Such budget constraints prompted Phuket Life Guard Co. to give up the business and terminate the hiring of those life guards, said the offi cial attached to the provincial council.

The provincial council had only provided 19.8 million baht (US$582,300) in annual funding for the life guard fi rm which had demanded an increase of 2.4 mil-lion baht, he said.

Since last October, the life guards had helped and rescued more than 300 swimmers on the Phuket beaches, mostly being foreign tourists, who might oth-erwise have drowned, the offi cial said. (Xinhua)

Phuket beaches might no longer have life guards

Aircraft crash kills 2A police offi cer inspects the wreckage of a light aircraft that crashed at Allenview, south of Brisbane in Australia, yesterday. The crash killed two people. SD-Agencies