N.Korea leader's son promoted in landmark meeting (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) â€" North Korea launched its biggest political meeting for 30 years on Tuesday after promoting the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-Il in apparent preparation for another dynastic succession.

Kim has appointed Jong-Un as a four-star general, official media reported in its first ever mention of the third son's name.

Analysts said the promotion makes it virtually certain the Swiss-educated Jong-Un, believed aged about 27, will one day step into his father's shoes as ruler of the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation.

But there was no mention of Jong-Un after the ruling communist party conference got under way in the showpiece capital Pyongyang, with reports focused on his 68-year-old father.

Kim Jong-Il was re-elected general secretary of the Workers' Party "amid a storm of applause", according to state television.

"His re-election is an expression of absolute support and trust of all the party members, the service persons and the people," the Korean Central News Agency said.

The conference took place "at a historic time when a signal turn is being effected in... the cause of building a thriving socialist nation", it said without elaborating.

Also appointed four-star generals were the leader's sister Kim Kyong-Hui and Choe Ryong-Hae, a longtime aide to the Kim dynasty which has ruled with an iron fist since the country was founded in 1948.

"Long live the revolutionary ideology of the great leader, comrade Kim Il-Sung!" read one banner in the city, in reference to the founding leader who died in 1994 but has been declared president for eternity.

At the last major Workers' Party meeting in 1980, Kim Jong-Il was confirmed as eventual successor to his father Kim Il-Sung, so Tuesday's gathering was closely watched.

Kim reportedly has kidney problems and had a stroke two years ago, making a succession process more urgent.

Japan said Tuesday the appointment of Jong-Un as four-star general signalled that a generational change was coming. "There is no doubt that giving four-star general status shows a clear assertion of intentions," said Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.

Kim Kyong-Hui, 64, is married to Jang Song-Thaek, who is widely seen as the nation's second most powerful man. They are thought likely to act as guardians for the young and inexperienced son if the leader dies.

"Kim Jong-Un's promotion (to general) means he is definitely going to be the successor," Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

The party conference will serve as a stage to announce his official status as successor, Yang said, adding the son is likely to be take top party posts.

"There could be some strife within the ruling elite but a military coup or any other major upheaval is hardly likely because the elite think they and the Kim's are in the same boat," Yang said.

Paik Hak-Soon of South Korea's Sejong Institute think-tank said the speed of the succession process "apparently signals that Kim Jong-Il's health is failing fast.

"Otherwise he would have never promoted the son so quickly, worrying he himself would become a lame duck."

Daily NK, a Seoul-based web newspaper, said the conference would last just one day due to Kim's shaky health.

"Chairman Kim will take part in the morning session only," it quoted a source as saying.

"Instead of putting the son on wide public view, Chairman Kim has apparently decided to give him more time to prepare himself while granting him considerable power within the party."

The head of an anti-Pyongyang group which broadcasts into the North said Jong-Un's appointment as general affirms his status as next leader not only within the country but internationally.

But Ha Tae-Kyung, president of Open Radio for North Korea, said the young protege's rise to power will face "considerable resistance" from senior officials who fear they will soon be replaced by younger Jong-Un loyalists.

Powered By iWebRSS.com
sonos review

Captains issue Twitter ban for Ryder Cup players (AP)

CARDIFF, Wales â€" U.S. and European players have been banned from using Twitter and other social networking sites during the Ryder Cup.

U.S. captain Corey Pavin and European counterpart Colin Montgomerie say there will be a blanket ban in place this week to keep players focused on the three-day competition, which begins on Friday at Celtic Manor.

Pavin says the U.S. team agreed not to use Twitter because "it can be a little bit distracting sometimes."

Montgomerie says "we feel that tweeting and Facebook and all of these social sites ... can get one's self into trouble."

Powered By iWebRSS.com
xbox 360s reviews

Nuclear-armed Pakistan chairs board of U.N. atom body (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) â€" Pakistan became the new chair of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's governing body on Monday, although it is outside a global anti-atomic arms pact and home to a smuggler who supplied nuclear secrets to Iran and North Korea.

Some Western diplomats have privately suggested they do not see the choice as ideal because -- like India, North Korea and Israel -- Pakistan has shunned the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that is at the heart of the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Some analysts say Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and stockpile of weapons-grade material pose a risk in the region because of internal security threats from the Taliban and al Qaeda.

But no country opposed Pakistan's nomination by a group of Middle Eastern and south Asian member states at a meeting of the IAEA governors, which approved the new chairman by acclamation, one diplomat who attended the closed-door session said.

The one-year position rotates between regions and entails chairing debates of the IAEA's decision-making board of governors and helping it reach to consensus decisions.

It does not give Pakistan, which takes over from Malaysia, individual powers to decide U.N. nuclear policy.

"The United States of America looks forward very much to working with the Pakistani governor as chairman of the board of governors," U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies told reporters.

Pakistan is a long-standing and "very law-abiding" member of the IAEA, said Islamabad's envoy Ansar Parvez said. "We got no opposition from any side at all," he said after the meeting.

NUCLEAR SMUGGLING RING

Nuclear expert Mark Hibbs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said NPT members "may be unhappy that Pakistan ... will be steering the IAEA's prime decision-making body" during the coming year.

But the U.N. body is not the secretariat of the anti-nuclear arms pact and "under the IAEA's statute Pakistan has the same privileges and rights as all other IAEA members," Hibbs said.

Pakistan becomes IAEA board chair at a time of international tension over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs and Tehran says is for peaceful power generation purposes.

Parvez suggested he may try to mediate on various IAEA issues and "establish some communication between different groups and different interests" as chairman.

Iran and North Korea, seen as major proliferation risks by the West, are believed to have benefited from a nuclear smuggling ring run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb and a national hero.

He confessed on television in 2004 to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Pakistani authorities denied any connection to Khan's smuggling ring but have never let foreign investigators question him.

As an IAEA member state, Pakistan has the right to be board chairman. Board chairs are traditionally approved unanimously after the nomination by a regional group and any opposition to Pakistan could have upset this informal rule, diplomats say.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says Pakistan has about 60 warheads while rival India has 60-70.

Pakistan chaired the IAEA board also in 1962-63 and in 1986-87, while India had the post in 1970-71 and 1994-95 -- before both conducted nuclear tests in 1998.

(Editing by David Stamp)

Powered By iWebRSS.com
multi room audio system

Owen rescues United in draw with Bolton (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) â€" Michael Owen scored his 200th goal in club football as Manchester United twice came from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw against Bolton in the English Premier League on Sunday.

Former Liverpool and England star Owen glanced in a 74th-minute header to give United a share of the points at the Reebok Stadium after Bolton had twice taken the lead through Zat Knight and Martin Petrov.

The draw saw United leapfrog Arsenal into second place in the table, three points behind league leaders Chelsea.

However United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will be disappointed that his side missed an opportunity to reduce Chelsea's lead to only point after the champions were beaten 1-0 by Manchester City on Saturday.

Bolton had taken a shock lead after six minutes when Knight punished some slack marking from United centre-half Jonny Evans to flick home a Petrov corner with the outside of his right boot.

The goal stunned a sluggish United into action, Darren Fletcher producing a fine low save from Jussi Jaaskelainen on 14 minutes after a surging run.

Yet Bolton had alarm bells ringing in the United defence shortly afterwards, when Johan Elmander just failed to get a touch on to a Kevin Davies flick which exposed the visitors's back four once again.

By this stage Ferguson had seen enough, rising from the bench to berate his defence, which was missing the fit-again Rio Ferdinand.

United finally got back on level terms though midway through the half with a scintillating individual effort from Nani.

After gathering the ball on halfway, the Portuguese international set off on a weaving run that took him to the edge of the Bolton area, and as the home defence backed off, the winger unleashed a hard low shot past Jaaskelainen.

Yet though United controlled possession thereafter they struggled to seriously threaten, with an out-of-sorts Wayne Rooney eventually being substituted after an hour with what looked like an ankle knock.

United were then rocked by Bolton's second goal on 67 minutes, Petrov rounding off a superb counter-attack which he had started by scoring with a rasping effort that took a big deflection off Fletcher.

Bolton should have made it 3-1 shortly afterwards, when Elmander cleverly eluded Nemanja Vidic to go clear on goal only to blaze his shot over the bar.

Wanderers were left to rue their profligacy moments later when Owen, who had replaced Fletcher, glanced in his landmark goal in club football.

Powered By iWebRSS.com
new xbox 360

N.Korea meeting likely to set stage for dynastic succession (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) â€" North Korea will this week launch its biggest political meeting for 30 years, apparently paving the way for another dynastic succession in the impoverished hardline communist nation.

The Workers' Party conference, scheduled to begin Tuesday, was delayed from early September for reasons which -- like much else in the reclusive country -- remain a mystery to the outside world.

It will be the first major ruling party gathering since 1980, when current leader Kim Jong-Il was publicly confirmed as eventual successor to his own father and the North's founding president Kim Il-Sung, who died in 1994.

The 68-year-old Kim, who suffered a stroke two years ago and also reportedly has kidney problems, is widely expected to build support this week for an eventual takeover by his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un.

Delegates arrived in Pyongyang Sunday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in apparent confirmation the meeting will open on the rescheduled date.

State media in one of the world's most secretive countries has given no hint of any succession moves. But it has suggested that this could be a watershed moment in the nuclear-armed nation.

The conference to elect the party's "supreme leadership body" will be a "historic" meeting, KCNA said last week.

After 62 years of uninterrupted rule by the Kim dynasty, the output of the North's command economy is a fraction of its capitalist southern neighbour.

Missile and nuclear programmes have brought international sanctions and isolation. Severe food shortages have persisted since a famine in the 1990s, leaving a generation stunted by malnutrition.

Given the problems which the regime is grappling, analysts say this may not be a good time for the Swiss-educated Jong-Un, believed aged around 27, to step into the limelight by taking a top party post.

Cheong Seong-Chang, of South Korea's Sejong Institute think-tank, said the son is unlikely to join the presidium -- the top echelon of the party's politburo -- until 2012.

Leader Kim has set that year, the 100th anniversary of his late father's birth, as the time for the North to become a "great, powerful and prosperous" nation.

However, Paik Hak-Soon also of Sejong said Jong-Un will likely join the party's central committee or even the presidium this week.

Paik told AFP that Kim Jong-Il took over these powerful positions step by step until 1980, when he became de facto successor. The process for Jong-Un would be "greatly expedited" due to Kim Jong-Il's failing health, Paik said.

"This week's event will likely be a repetition of the party meeting in 1980, to declare Jong-Un as the next leader," he told AFP.

Other analysts believe there will be no public announcement.

The regime is "now ready to go ahead with its move to designate Kim Jong-Un as successor", said Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

"The son is expected to take a key party post but that will not be made public for a while," Yang said.

Kim Yong-Hyun of Seoul's Dongguk University said Jong-Un would probably become formal heir-apparent or take a post overseeing the party, although the move may not be disclosed until Pyongyang deems it appropriate.

The conference is also expected to give top party posts to supporters of a dynastic succession, such as the senior Kim's powerful brother-in-law Jang Song-Thaek.

It could also suggest some new policy directions.

But Paik said potentially controversial issues like economic reforms would take a back seat this time, since a smooth power transfer is top priority now.

"Jong-Un can later take over the task (of reforming the economy) and use it as his own achievement as the leader," Paik said.

China, the North's economic lifeline and sole major ally, has pressed it to follow its example in freeing up the economy. But Kim's regime appears so far to be fearful of relaxing its grip.

Powered By iWebRSS.com
wireless home music

Tevez strikes as City beat Chelsea (AFP)

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom (AFP) â€" A Carlos Tevez goal handed champions Chelsea their first defeat of the Premier League season here on Saturday as Manchester City scored a 1-0 victory at Eastlands.

Just one day after City manager Roberto Mancini decreed that Carlo Ancelotti?s team would repeat as champions, he saw his own club halt the progress of the London club, comfortable winners of their opening five games.

Mancini?s pre-match assertion, whether intended as an exercise in "mind games" or not, certainly created a stir with the City manager claiming that the visitors would defend their Premier League title "easily."

The cautious attitude also extended to Mancini?s team selection, with Tevez as the solitary striker, and it came as no surprise that the few first half chances that were created predominantly fell to the visitors.

After 20 minutes, Yaya Toure lost the ball in midfield and presented Michael Essien with the chance for the game?s first shot which he sent skidding well wide of the City goal.

Only the woodwork, and Joe Hart's customary excellence in goal, rescued City after 27 minutes when Florent Malouda?s cross was headed back across goal by Alex and Branislav Ivanovic saw his own header striker the bar.

The Chelsea full-back responded well and followed up, only to be denied by the England goalkeeper.

Chelsea enjoyed a glut of possession thereafter but failed to seriously test Hart again, the best chance falling to Essien just before the interval but, at the end of a promising attack, his shot was woeful and wide.

The second half, however, opened with the promise of more attacking play from both sides and, before the hour was reached, City were in front.

The goal came from a counter-attack and was sprung from a short pass from Yaya Toure which found Tevez on the halfway line.

The Argentinian sped through Chelsea territory -- Chelsea defender Ashley Cole backing away furiously -- before beating Peter Cech with a superb 18-yard strike that flew in off the inside of the left-hand post.

Ancelotti was clearly stunned by the Tevez goal coming, as it had, largely against the run of play but if he was expecting a committed response from his champions, there was none forthcoming.

In fact, Yaya Toure might have doubled the lead as he weaved his way into the Chelsea area, just losing his balance before he could get off a close-range shot, and the visitors were limited by dogged defending to long-range shots.

Essien tried his hand with a couple of pitiful efforts from distance while defender Alex rose well to meet a Malouda corner but his strong header flashed harmlessly across the face of the City goal.

Chelsea substitute Daniel Sturridge, booed by City fans for having left their club for a better contract with the London club, appeared as a substitute and might have slid in to claim a late equaliser but it would have been more than the reigning champions deserved.

Powered By iWebRSS.com
xbox 360 deals

Three N.Koreans rescued at sea granted asylum in S.Korea (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) â€" Three North Koreans who were rescued off South Korea last week will be granted asylum in the South, the unification ministry said Saturday.

They were plucked from their small boat which was found adrift off the east coast near Ulleung-do island on Monday last week, it said.

But a fourth person rescued alongside them has asked to return home.

"This morning, we notified the North of the repatriation (of the fourth person)," the ministry said in a statement.

The other three will be dealt with in accordance with "humanitarian principles", it said, indicating that they will be allowed to stay.

Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo said details about the four North Koreans, including their occupations, names and addresses, were confidential.

It also remains unclear whether they had planned to defect all along or they decided to settle in the South only after they were rescued.

The incident comes as the nuclear-armed communist state has made peace gestures toward the South, which remains angry over the North's alleged torpedoing of one of its warships in March, which killed 46 sailors.

Pyongyang returned the crew of a South Korean boat accused of poaching on its fishing grounds and proposed the resumption of a reunion programme for families separated since the 1950-1953 war.

There has been a spate of seaborne defections by North Koreans to South Korea this year, possibly because of tighter security by China along its border with North Korea.

JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing government sources, said there had been five such cases in the first half of the year.

Almost all civilians fleeing the North go first to China, and travel onto a third country before winning resettlement in the South. Almost 18,000 have arrived in the South since the 1950-1953 war.

Powered By iWebRSS.com
sonos zonebridge