N Korea execution by dog story came from satire

SEOUL: An international media frenzy over reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's uncle had been executed by throwing him to a pack of dogs appears to have originated as satire on a Chinese microblogging website.

The story, which spread like wildfire after it was picked up by a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has created an image that Pyongyang's young ruler is even more brutal and unpredictable than previously believed.

While North Korea has said it purged and executed Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, last month, it did not release details of how the man who was once the second most powerful figure in the isolated country was killed.

Initial speculation was that Jang had been killed by firing squad, a fate that media outlets said was the usual one reserved for "traitors". But an alternative narrative of the 67-year old's death emerged on what appears to have been a satirical post on the Chinese Tencent Weibo site that has been repeated by many media outlets worldwide.

The December 11 post on Tencent Weibo said Jang and five aides were killed by dogs.

The post records that it was viewed 290,000 times.

The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po newspaper released an article and a screenshot of the Weibo post which it used to justify its report that Jang had been torn apart.

Wen Wei Po, although independent, is viewed as being pro-Beijing. Its report was in turn picked up 12 days later by the Singapore-based Straits Times and then by a wide range of US and European media from print to television.

Kim Jong Un, believed to be around 30 years old, has been in power for two years and presided over a nuclear test and two rocket test launches that are banned under United Nations sanctions.

In 2013, Pyongyang threatened to strike South Korea, the United States and Japan in fiery rhetoric that triggered an arms buildup in East Asia.

One of the pitfalls of reporting on North Korea is that few independent media have offices there and visiting media are tightly controlled in a country which ranks among the lowest in global surveys of press freedom.

Because of the lack of first hand information, many lurid stories about the country gain credence.

Trevor Powell, a Chicago-based software engineer, who first spotted the link to the Weibo post and reported it on his own blog said that analysts and experts were "still all missing the obvious fact that the original source of the Wen Wei Po story was a tweet from a known satirist or someone posing as him/her."

Officials at Wen Wei Po declined to comment on the article.

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Six arrested for 'naked race' in Pakistan's Punjab province

LAHORE: Pakistani police have arrested six youngsters in Punjab province for organising a " naked race" with Rs. 20,000 as the prize money, officials said today.

According to officials at Gorali police check post, the youngsters - Arif, Maskeen, Arshad, Waqar, Ehsan and Abid - had decided among themselves that the winner of the race in Gujrat district, 120 km from Lahore, would bag Rs. 20,000.

As the naked youths made their way from Gorali to Nat village, local residents spotted them and informed police.

A police team reached the area and arrested them. A case was registered against them and police seized the prize money.

The local residents demanded strict action against the youths.

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Voldemort invoked in China-Japan feud over shrine

TOKYO : As if Harry Potter isn't popular enough, the evil Lord Voldemort from British author J K Rowling's best-selling children's series has been dragged into the feud between Japan and China over the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo.

China and South Korea say the shrine, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited recently, glorifies Japan's militaristic past.

Writing in The Telegraph last week, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, said: "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."

A horcrux contains part of Voldemort's soul, and all seven horcruxes must be destroyed to kill him.

In response, Japanese Ambassador Keiichi Hayashi wrote in the same newspaper that fears of rising militarism in Japan are unfounded given the country's postwar record of commitment to peace.

Instead, Hayashi said that China risks playing "the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions."

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Bombings kill 20 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A new wave of bombings hit Iraq's capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people on Sunday, officials said, the latest assault by militants who have been fighting Iraqi security forces and allied tribes in country's west.

The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad's Shia northern Shaab neighbourhood, when two parked car bombs exploded simultaneously near a restaurant and a tea house. Officials say those blasts killed 10 people and wounded 26.

Authorities said that a parked car bomb ripped through in capital's Shiite eastern district of Sadr City, killing five and wounding 10. Another bombing killed three civilians and wounded six in a commercial area in the central Bab al-Muadham neighbourhood, officials said. Two other bombings killed two civilians and wounded 13, police said.

Medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

The attacks come as Iraqi security forces are besieging two key cities country's western Anbar province after they were taken over by militants from al-Qaida's local branch, known as the Islamic state in Iraq and Levant. Clashes have been taking place since Monday in Anbar's provincial capital, Ramadi, and nearby Fallujah between al-Qaida militants and pro-government Sunni tribesmen. The Baghdad bombings could be seen as an attempt by militants to distract security forces.

Earlier on Sunday, a senior Iraqi military commander said that it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

Lt Gen Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Anbar Military Command, told the state television on Sunday that "two to three days" are needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Fleih added that pro-government Sunni tribes are leading the operations while the army only is offering aerial cover and logistics on the ground. He didn't elaborate on the operations.

"The quiet and safe life that is sought by the Anbaris will not be completely restored before few hours or two to three days, God willing," Fleih said.

Residents say it has been quiet since Saturday night in Fallujah, where militants still control the center of the city. Sporadic clashes took place Sunday in and around Ramadi. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.

Ramadi was a stronghold of Sunni insurgents during the US-led war. Al-Qaida militants largely took both cities over last week and have been fending off incursions by government forces there since.

ISIL is also one of the strongest rebel units in Syria, where it has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in territories it holds and kidnapped and killed anyone it deems critical of its rule. Also on Saturday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon.

Tensions in Anbar have run high since December 28, when Iraqi security forces arrested a Sunni lawmaker sought for terrorism charges. Two days later, the government dismantled a months-old, anti-government Sunni protest camp, sparking clashes with militants.

To ease the tension, the Shiite-led government withdrew army forces from the cities. Sunni lawmakers see the army as a tool of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to target his rivals and consolidate power.

US secretary of state John Kerry said that America would support Iraq in its combat with al-Qaida, but without sending troop on ground.

The US was "very, very concerned" by the fighting, Kerry told reporters as he left Jerusalem for Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss his effort to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. However, he said the US would not send ground troops in to support Iraqi forces.

The US recently supplied Iraq with Hellfire missiles often used against militants.

Violence in Iraq spiked in April after the government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp. Iraq's al-Qaida branch has fed on Sunni discontent and on the civil war in neighboring Syria, in which mostly Sunni rebels fight a government whose base is a Shiite offshoot sect.

Militants have targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with waves of coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.

According to the United Nations, Iraq had the highest annual death toll in 2013 since the worst of the sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007. The UN said violence killed 8,868 last year.

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Pope to travel to Mideast on May 24-26

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis announced on Sunday that he would travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan on May 24-26, his first visit to the Holy Land and one that comes amid a new US push for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Francis told people gathered in the rain for his weekly Sunday blessing that he was announcing, "in the climate of joy that is typical of the Christmas season," the three-day visit to Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. It is the only trip so far confirmed for 2014 and the second foreign trip of Francis' pontificate, following his 2013 visit to Brazil for World Youth Day.

Francis said the prime aim is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the then-spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Atengora.

Francis will be joined by the current ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew. They will celebrate Mass together at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the faithful believe Jesus was crucified and buried, Francis said.

But the visit will also underscore Francis' close ties to the Jewish community and the Vatican's longstanding call for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The announcement was made just as US secretary of state John Kerry wrapped up three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a new US bid for peace.

In his Christmas address last month, Francis singled out the Holy Land for prayers, saying "Bless the land where you chose to come into the world, and grant a favorable outcome to the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians," Francis said on December 25.

The Argentine Jesuit will be the fourth pope to visit the Holy Land: Paul visited in 1964, John Paul II in 2000, and Benedict XVI in 2009.

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Israeli claim on Jordan Valley 'manipulation': Ex-Mossad chief

JERUSALEM: A former Mossad chief on Sunday described as mere " manipulation" a claim that Israel's presence in Jordan Valley is vital for its security, a core issue in the troubled peace process with Palestinians.

Israel on Sunday rejected any security concessions for the valley under a "framework agreement" that US secretary of state John Kerry is trying to secure for a Israel-Palestinian deal on core issues, including security and borders.

"The Jordan Valley is not essential to Israel's security because the country is not facing a threat from the east," former spy agency chief Meir Dagan was quoted as saying by Ma'ariv newspaper days after a ministerial panel supported legislation to annex Israeli settlements in the valley bordering Jordan.

"I have no problem with the political demand that the valley should be part of the state of Israel," he reportedly said in a lecture at a cafe last week.

"Such a position is permissible. What bothers me is that it's being depicted as some kind of security problem. There is no Iraqi army, there is no eastern front. There's peace with Jordan. I don't like the talk that the valley is essential to Israel's security."

The decorated spy emphasised that citing security reasons for retaining the Jordan Valley amounted to "manipulation".

The valley's fate is one of the major issues during intensive talks between Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of ongoing peace process.

Kerry, whose shuttle diplomacy broke a three-year hiatus in direct talks in July, is on his tenth visit to the region to finalise the "framework agreement" to guide negotiations towards a lasting peace deal by April, when a nine-month deadline would end.

The guidelines for the agreement are expected to contain formulae for core issues like Palestinian refugees, border, security and Jerusalem, which is claimed by both sides as their capital.

According to reports, a new US-proposed security plan calls for Israel to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley for 10 years as part of a future peace deal.

But the Palestinians have vehemently opposed such plans as an encroachment on their sovereignty and demanded an international force be stationed in the valley to guarantee security.

"Security must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or technological means...does not understand the Middle East," Israel's intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz told public radio.

The Israeli premier earlier this week warned his party's ministers against voting for a bill to annex Jordan Valley settlements, saying such a move could be perceived as provocative and might harm Israel's interests.

Paying no heed to his pleas, all Likud ministers in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation supported such a bill hours after his appeal.

Israeli ministers and Knesset members also attended dedication ceremony of a new neighbourhood in the valley sending the message that "our presence here in the Jordan Valley is not a temporary one," said interior minister Gideon Sa'ar, considered number 2 in Netanyahu's government.

"The Jordan Valley is Israeli and the Jordan Valley will stay Israeli. Our eastern border must be the Jordan River," Sa'ar said adding, that if Israel didn't keep control of the area, the Jewish state will lack 'strategic depth' necessary for its survival.

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Stop the wars, pope in New Year appeal

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis made an impassioned New Year's peace address on Wednesday, saying the heart of humanity seemed to have gone astray and too many people were still indifferent to war, violence and injustice.

The pontiff, who took his papal name from St Francis of Assisi, the saint most associated with peace, urged the world to listen to the "cry for peace" from suffering peoples.

"What on earth is happening in the hearts of men? What on earth is happening in the heart of humanity?" he said to tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square on the day the Roman Catholic Church celebrates its World Day of Peace.

"It's time to stop!" he said, departing from his prepared text.

Francis was speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square that popes traditionally use for their addresses.

Unlike his predecessors, Francis has not used the spacious apartment behind the window since his election in March, shunning pomp and preferring instead to live in small quarters in a Vatican guest house.

"Everyone must be committed to building a society that is truly just and caring," he told the crowd on Wednesday, acknowledging the many peace banners and blue balloons held aloft.

In a message for the World Day of Peace sent to world leaders last month, Francis said that huge salaries and bonuses were symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality

In that letter, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina again urged nations to narrow the gap between rich and poor, more and more of whom were getting only "crumbs".

Francis, named Person of the Year by Time magazine and a number of other publications, has urged his own Church to set an example by being more fair and frugal and less pompous, and to get closer to the poor and afflicted.

The new year is expected to bring concrete changes to the Vatican, plagued by a series of mishaps and scandals under Pope Benedict XVI, who in February became the first pontiff to resign in 600 years.

Francis has appointed a committee of eight cardinals from around the world to advise him on how to reform the central Vatican administration.

He has also named commissions to advise him on what to do with the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, on transparency in other parts of Vatican finance and on how to deal with the Church's many sexual abuse scandals.

Vatican officials expect changes to start taking shape in late February, when his council of advisors has a pivotal meeting in the Vatican.

On February 22, Francis will name his first batch of cardinals to join the exclusive group that will one day choose his successor.

The names of the new cardinals are expected to be disclosed sometime in late January, and will offer another indication of the type of humbler Church that Francis wants.

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Palestinian diplomat injured in Prague flat blast

PRAGUE: A Palestinian diplomat was injured in a blast in his Prague residence on Wednesday, police told AFP, but declined to give further details.

Czech media identified the diplomat as the Palestinian ambassador, Jamal Al Jamal, and said the blast occurred as he was opening a safe.

"I can only confirm there was a detonation in the residence of a Palestinian diplomat," police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova said.

"The diplomat suffered a serious injury and was taken to hospital. We are investigating the causes," she added.

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Opposition enforces countrywide blockade in Bangladesh

DHAKA: One person was killed on the first day of opposition parties' countrywide nonstop blockade in Bangladesh to foil the January 5 general election.

An activist of Jubo Dal - a front organisation of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) - was killed when security personnel opened fire on protesters in retaliation for their attack in east-central Chandpur district, police said.

Blockade campaigners attacked a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) vehicle on its way to Hajiganj area in the district, they said.

The opposition members started pelting stones at the BGB vehicle. The troopers tried to chase them away leading to the clash.

Besides this incident, no other major untoward incident was reported from any corner of the country. Security personnel are maintaining a tight vigil across the country.

The BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance is boycotting the polls and political violence during nationwide strikes and blockades enforced by the opposition have left over 120 people dead and crippled the economy since November. It was demanding election under non-party caretaker government to oversee the polls.

Besides the opposition, a key ally of Hasina's Awami League party has also boycotted the polls. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, however, insists the vote will go ahead as planned.

Since declaration of the election schedule in November, the opposition had observed nationwide blockade for 22 days in five phases.

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Israel to free 26 Palestinians on Monday: Source

JERUSALEM: The 26 Palestinian prisoners Israel has agreed to free as part of ongoing peace talks will be released on Monday, a source in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Netanyahu had agreed to the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners in line with commitments to the US-backed peace talks, which resumed in July, and groups have been freed on August 13 and October 30.

"Their release should come on Monday night after the 48-hour delay given for appeals from victims' families to the supreme court," the official in Netanyahu's office told AFP on condition of anonymity.

In the past, Israel's supreme court has turned down all appeals against the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu's government gave the green light on Saturday for the latest tranche of prisoners to be freed.

"All the freed prisoners committed their crimes before the (1993) Oslo accords and have served between 19 and 28 years in prison," the government said.

"Anyone who resumes hostile activities" will be arrested and serve out their full sentence, it said in a statement.

The planned release of the latest group of detainees comes as US secretary of state John Kerry prepares for a fresh tour of the region on New Year's Day to try to push talks forward.

It will be his 10th trip to Israel and the West Bank since March, with his most recent visit in early December.

Kerry has been piling on the pressure in a bid to nudge the Palestinians and Israelis to reach an interim framework ahead of a full accord ahead of a deadline set to expire in late April.

Meanwhile, Israel is set to announce plans for new settlement construction to coincide with the prisoners' release, an official said on Thursday.

Media reports say the plans are for 1,400 settler homes.

Kerry and the European Union earlier this month urged Netanyahu to delay plans to announce new settlement construction on land Palestinians want for their future state.

But Netanyahu was bullish in the face of international pressure over settlement construction.

"We will not stop, even for a moment, building our country and becoming stronger, and developing... the settlement enterprise," he told members of his right-wing Likud party last week.

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