Daily Herald | Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:00 pm
S. Africa steps up calls for release of Zimbabwe vote results
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South Africa, which has been reluctant to criticize Zimbabwe publicly, made a strong call Thursday for the release of the African nation's presidential vote tallies.
Government spokesman Themba Maseko warned "the situation is dire," and criticized the failure of President Robert Mugabe's government to release results nearly two weeks after the March 29 elections.
"When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern," Maseko said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was widely criticized for saying last weekend that Zimbabwe was not in crisis. At a summit, Mbeki and other regional leaders issued a weak declaration that failed to criticize Zimbabwean President Mugabe.
Mbeki, appointed last year to mediate between Zimbabwe's government and opposition, has said Mugabe will not respond to a confrontational approach.
On Thursday, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called on Mbeki to step aside as mediator for Zimbabwe in favor of Zambia's president, who has taken a tougher stance toward Mugabe.
Independent tallies suggest Tsvangirai won the election, but not with enough votes to avoid a runoff. The electoral commission says it cannot yet release results because it is still verifying ballots and investigating anomalies.
China's Olympic torch defender speaks out
SHANGHAI, China -- She's been portrayed as the "smiling angel in a wheelchair," just the hero that China needed to rally national pride in the face of the embarrassment suffered over Olympic torch relay protests.
Jin Jing, a disabled, little-known fencing athlete, is now a household name here, riding a wave of sympathy and state media publicity after clinging stubbornly to the torch while a Tibet supporter tried to wrestle it away during the Olympic torch relay in Paris on April 7.
Ten days later, Jin seems overwhelmed by the publicity and said she still doesn't understand why protesters wanted to take the torch. Until the incident in Paris, she said she had never heard that some Tibetans want independence from China.
"I don't pay attention to politics," she said Thursday in her first meeting with foreign reporters, a publicity agent from torch relay sponsor Lenovo Group by her side and whispering to her at least once about the Tibet-related questions.
Jin's professed innocence is part of her appeal to Chinese, who have celebrated her ever since photos of her Paris struggle made the rounds online.
Disruptions of the torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco shocked many Chinese, dimming a hoped-for moment of Olympic glory and inciting a fierce, besieged nationalism.
China has sought to use the Aug. 8-24 Olympics as a showcase to demonstrate it is an open, modern country. Protesters say China doesn't deserve to host the Olympics because of its human rights record, its harsh rule in Tibet and its friendly ties with Sudan.
WASHINGTON -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday that he will propose setting up a high-level diplomatic channel between North Korea and South Korea, including creating the first liaison offices in the two nations' capitals.
The United States, dating back to the Clinton administration, has long urged Seoul to take this step, but this is the first time it has been officially proposed by a South Korean president.
Lee, who meet at Camp David with President Bush, said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters that North Korea was having trouble adjusting to the new tone set by his nascent administration on intra-Korean matters. Lee has said that the relationship between the two countries must take a back seat to eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, a significant shift from the more conciliatory policy of his predecessor.
North Korea has hurled a series of what Lee calls "belligerent and bellicose" statements about Lee since he took office 50 days ago.
"Both North and South Korea must change their ways," Lee said. "It is not sufficient for North Korea to resort to their old ways."
Nepalese police detain 500 Tibetan protesters
KATMANDU, Nepal -- Nepalese police detained more than 500 Tibetan exiles decrying a crackdown in their homeland in a protest near the Chinese Embassy on Thursday, police said.
Police officers in blue camouflage uniforms chased down red-robed Buddhist monks and nuns and other Tibetans, struggling with the protesters and dragging them along the ground as they resisted. They were tossed into vans and open trucks and driven to detention centers.
Police official Sarbendra Khanal said that 505 Tibetans were detained, including several women and monks, from at least three separate protests near the embassy in an upscale neighborhood.
It was so far the largest number of Tibetans detained in Nepal's capital, Katmandu, since the exiles began almost daily protests last month against a Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
In neighboring India, runners carried the Olympic flame along a heavily guarded route through central New Delhi. It was protected by about 15,000 police who kept away Tibetan exiles and other anti-China protesters -- some of the tightest security ever seen in the Indian capital.
In Katmandu, a first group of about 50 people came out in the afternoon chanting slogans against China, followed by a slightly larger group an hour later. The largest group rallied late in the afternoon. All protests were broken up by the police and participants detained.
Khanal said the Tibetans had not been charged, and that authorities were awaiting orders from top government officials on how to handle them.
Nepalese police have broken up almost all the anti-China protests of the past few weeks and detained demonstrators. Officials have said they will not allow protests against any friendly nations, including China.