RTC Director

Iran, Western Powers Hail Latest Nuclear Talks

Talks in Istanbul between world powers and Iran over Tehran's controversial nuclear program ended Saturday with a commitment to meet again in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, May 23.

After nearly 10 hours of talks, both sides said the meeting was held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described the discussions as “constructive” and “useful,” adding the meeting in Baghdad would be part of a “step-by-step” approach. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, Ben Rhodes, called the talks a “positive first step.” He said the agreement for the meeting in May is an additional positive sign.

Iran's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said Saturday's talks “saw important common ground being developed.” He said that “various issues for cooperation and issues for talks were agreed upon for the next meeting.”

But apart from both sides recognizing the importance of abiding by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and acknowledging Tehran's right to develop nuclear energy, there were no other details of what common ground was achieved.

Saturday's talks between diplomats from Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany were the first since a previous round of talks collapsed 15 months ago, also in Istanbul, amid mutual recriminations.

A VOA correspondent in Turkey said Iran also held bilateral talks with China, Russia and Turkey, but turned down a meeting with the United States. He added that, despite that snub, some Western powers believe Iran has shown more of a willingness to discuss nuclear issues than it did at last year's talks.

“They are saying that Iranians are sort of engaging with them and this is what we didn't have back in 2011 when they first met in Istanbul.”

Saturday's meetings came at a time of increased international pressure on Tehran. New U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Iran are due to go into effect July 1, while Israel has warned it may take military action. U.S. President Barack Obama has also warned the latest diplomatic efforts are the last chance for diplomacy to work.

Observers say next month's meeting in Baghdad will be a key test of those efforts, as the talks are expected to start focusing on concrete measures to allay international concern over Iran's nuclear program.

by RTC Director

Egypt Disqualifies 10 Presidential Hopefuls

The Egyptian election commission has barred 10 candidates from running for president, including Omar Suleiman,former spy chief under autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat al-Shater, and Salafi politician Hazem Abu Ismail.

The head of the Supreme Presidential Election Commission, Farouk Sultan, declined to give details on the reasons for their disqualification, but said the 10 have 48 hours to appeal. Thirteen others had their candidacy approved, including former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

The final list of approved candidates will be announced before the end of the month.

If upheld, the decision would redraw the electoral landscape and threaten to create a new political crisis less than six weeks before the presidential elections scheduled for May 23 and 24. Suleiman, Shater and Ismail are considered among the front-runners in the race.

The elections in May will be the first presidential polls since the ouster of Mr. Mubarak in a popular uprising 14 months ago.

If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off election will take place June 16 and 17.

Final election results will be announced June 21. Egypt's military rulers who took over from Mr. Mubarak had promised to hand over power to a civilian leader by the end of June.

Presidential candidates will be allowed to begin campaigning April 30.

by RTC Director

Axl Rose declines Hall of Fame honour

Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has declined his entry into the New York Rock and Roll Hall of Fame saying he does not feel wanted or respected.

In an open letter, Rose, the only original member still in the band, said: "I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia."

In a statement, the Hall said: "We are sorry he will not be able to accept his induction in person."

Guns N' Roses are due to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday.

'Honoured and excited'

Former members include Slash, Steven Adler, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum.

Although Rose has since replaced all the band members, it had been hoped the induction would bring together the original line-up.

Speaking in an interview with news agency The Associated Press, Slash said: "I have no idea what's going to happen on that day. It's more like going into it with blinders on and just see what happens."

But Rose rebuffed any hope of reuniting, writing in his letter: "There's a seemingly endless amount of revisionism and fantasies out there for the sake of self-promotion and business opportunities masking the actual realities.

"So let sleeping dogs lie or lying dogs sleep or whatever. Time to move on. People get divorced. Life doesn't owe you your own personal happy ending especially at another's, or in this case several others', expense.

"I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia and please know that no one is authorised nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf."

Rose admitted when it was first announced the band would be inducted, he had mixed feelings.

"I was honoured, excited and hoped that somehow this would be a good thing. Of course, if Guns N' Roses were to be inducted it'd be somewhat of a complicated or awkward situation."

A representative for Slash said he would still attend Saturday's ceremony but had no further comment to make.

The current line-up of the group last performed in the UK in 2010, but they were bottled off stage at a concert in Dublin after they arrived on stage nearly an hour late.

Other new inductees due to be included in the Hall of Fame are the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, and The Small Faces/The Faces.

According to the Hall, the Sex Pistols are the only band who have previously declined to be inducted.

--BBC

by RTC Director

Syria Cease-Fire Deadline Arrives

Syrians are waking up Thursday to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, wondering whether a deal to end 13 months of violence and bloodshed will hold.

The cease-fire went into effect at 6 a.m. local time without any reports of fresh violence.

Syria's government had promised to comply with the truce set by U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan. But in a statement Wednesday, Damascus warned its armed forces will remain on standby to retaliate against any attacks by armed terrorist groups against civilians or troops.

In the same statement, Syria said the army had successfully fought off “armed terrorist groups” and has “reasserted the state's rule across the country.”

Kofi Annan brokered a six-part peace plan last month that called for Syria's government to withdraw its forces from major urban areas by April 10 and stop combat operations by Thursday.

The Syrian government agreed to the plan, which also called for opposition forces to stop fighting, and said it began a phased withdrawal Tuesday. But opponents say government shelling continued in many areas and that at least 11 people were killed Wednesday in flashpoint opposition areas, including the central Homs region and Damascus suburbs.

The Obama administration says Damascus needs to match its words with deeds.

At a meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations in Washington Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed alarm at the ongoing violence in Syria, and concern about the problems facing special envoy Kofi Annan in his efforts to bring about a cease-fire and an end to the violence.

White House spokesman Jay Carney cautioned that President Bashar al-Assad's regime has reneged on promises to stop the violence in the past.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Syria's promise to halt hostilities by Thursday cannot be construed as complying with Annan's six-point peace plan. She said nothing casts more doubt on the credibility of the commitments than the fact that, in her words, “commitments have been made and made, and broken and broken and broken.”

Secretary Clinton said she will again try to convince Syrian ally Russia that the situation in Syria is “deteriorating” and that the chances of a regional or civil war are increasing. She is due to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later Wednesday in Washington.

The United States and its Western partners have pressed for stronger action against Syria for months but have been hindered by Russian and Chinese opposition to what those two nations call outside interference in Syria.

Russia said Wednesday that since the Syrian government had pledged to halt its offensive on Thursday, it is now the armed opposition's turn to do the same.

Syrian Network for Human Rights chairman Mousab Azzawi told VOA Wednesday that the Syrian government continued efforts to punish dissenters, in spite of its promises to the international community, and that Annan should admit that his peace initiative has failed.

“Everything he has been promised by the regime, the regime just tries to find a loophole in the initiative and tries to empty the initiative.”

U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began 13 months ago.

by RTC Director

Regional Forces Stand By as North Korean Launch Window Opens

Military forces in South Korea and Japan are standing by Thursday on the first day of a five-day window for a North Korean rocket launch that Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into space.

No notice had been given to a group of international journalists gathered in Pyongyang several hours after the opening of the launch window Thursday morning. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported cloudy weather over the North Korean capital, possibly accounting for the delay.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda repeated his nation's appeal for Pyongyang to cancel the launch but said Japanese forces are ready to shoot the rocket down if it strays over Japanese territory.

“In case it happens, we are on full alert. Up to the last minute, we urge North Korea to refrain from launching.”

South Korea has also put its forces on heightened alert and threatened to shoot down the rocket if it appears likely to crash into South Korean territory. The Philippines, located near the planned splashdown site of the rocket's first stage, has diverted airline flights and ordered fishermen to avoid the area.

Paek Chang Ho, chief of North Korea's launch command center, told reporters Wednesday that fuel was being loaded into the rocket in one of the final steps before launch. The journalists, including a reporter with VOA's Korean service, were able to view the activity by video, which was fed live to the remote command center.

Paek said a weather satellite has been installed on the rocket, which is set for launch sometime between Thursday and Monday, depending on weather conditions. The video showed a tarpaulin draped over the top of the rocket, making that claim impossible to confirm.

Paek also stressed that North Korea opened the launch command center to journalists to correct any claims it is testing a long range ballistic missile. He pledged to share imagery sent back from the North Korean satellite with other countries.

The scheduled launch has angered many of North Korea's neighbors, which see the action as a ploy to test a ballistic missile that could later be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

Ryu Gum Chol, deputy director of North Korea's space program, told VOA the only purpose of the launch is space exploration.

“It seems to me that your worries are unfounded. I reckon that the timing is important now, and you will know everything once you attend the April 15 centenary) of the birth of former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung). The rocket we have developed is only for the purpose of space exploration, so to claim it is for ballistic missile development is illogical.”

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the launch has raised doubts about North Korea's claims that it wants to improve ties with its neighbors and the United States.

U.S. officials fear that Pyongyang may be planning to follow the launch with what would be its third underground nuclear weapons test. Satellite intelligence photographs made available to VOA and other news organizations this week show evidence of preparations for such a test.

North Korea's launch plan has derailed a recent agreement with the United States, under which Pyongyang agreed to suspend its nuclear weapons and missile programs. The United States was to have delivered 240,000 tons of badly needed food aid to the North.

Clinton said Tuesday that by launching the rocket, Pyongyang was breaking that agreement as well as violating a U.N. Security Council ban on any North Korean ballistic missile testing.

But Ryu said there was no clause in the deal with the United States banning a peaceful satellite launch.

by RTC Director

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Assumes Top Party Post

Kim Jong Un has been named first secretary of North Korea's ruling party, solidifying his position as heir to the political dynasty established by his father and grandfather.

The move late Wednesday comes shortly before the expected launch of what Pyongyang says is a weather satellite but has been denounced by other countries as a disguised ballistic missile test.

North Korea's official news agency says the youthful Kim, aged less than 30, was confirmed to the leadership post at a special conference of the Workers' Party of Korea. That marks a slight shift from the title held by his late father, Kim Jong Il, who had been declared the “eternal” general secretary of the party before his death in December.

The party conference and promised rocket launch are timed to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country's founding leader and father of Kim Jong Il.

Since his father's death, Kim Jong Un has moved quickly into a number of posts controlling the key levers of power in the secretive and authoritarian government.

A year before his father's death, he was made a four-star general, in spite of a lack of any military experience. In late December, he was named supreme commander of the military forces.

He has undertaken a number of guidance visits to military facilities and schools, usually accompanied by a group of men in their 70s and 80s.

It is believed he is being mentored by Kim Kyong Hui, an aunt who was close to Kim Jong Il, and her powerful husband, Jang Song Taek.

by RTC Director

Zimmerman Charged with Murder in Florida Shooting of Black Teen

The attorney representing Florida shooting suspect George Zimmerman says his client will plead not guilty to charges of second-degree murder.

Zimmerman is expected to appear before a judge Thursday for a bond hearing.

Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey Wednesday charged Zimmerman, a white, Hispanic man, in the shooting death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin.

She gave no details of the evidence that led to the charges in the February 26 shooting, but said there was a thorough investigation. Corey said Florida courts do not prosecute people by public pressure but on the facts and the law.

Second-degree murder is defined as an intentional killing that was not pre-meditated. It could also be defined as a killing caused by a suspect's dangerous conduct and disregard for human life. The maximum penalty is life in prison.

Police did not arrest Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman said he was attacked by Martin and shot the teen in self-defense.

Martin's family says Trayvon was unarmed and confronted because of his race — a young black man walking alone at night. They demanded Zimmerman be charged.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will take action if it finds evidence of a federal civil rights crime.

The case has ignited a national debate about racial tensions in the United States. Martin's supporters say the shooting shows how young black men are constantly threatened with violence, while Zimmerman supporters say race had nothing to do with the killing.

by RTC Director