N Korean heroin ship sunk by jet

A North Korean cargo ship that was used to smuggle heroin into Australia has been sunk by an Australian fighter jet. An F-111 aircraft bombed the Pong Su during target practice on Thursday at a secret location offshore. Australian troops seized the ship in 2003 after spotting it unloading part of a huge heroin shipment at a beach. The Australian government said the bombing was a warning to North Korea to halt its involvement in drug smuggling - an allegation Pyongyang rejects. "It is appropriate that we publicly demonstrate our outrage at what has happened by sinking this ship," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. "We are concerned about possible links between the North Korean ship and the North Korean government." The Pong Su's cargo of heroin, worth about US$115 million, would have provided four million hits of the drug on Australian streets.

Earlier this month, an Australian jury cleared the captain of the Pong Su and three officers of involvement in an international drug ring. But four crew members who were involved in transporting the heroin from ship to shore pleaded guilty to drug charges. Two have been sentenced to 22 and 23 years in prison and the other two are awaiting sentence.

The 3,500-tonne Pong Su was used to smuggle in more than 125 kilograms of heroin. It had anchored off the town of Lome in Victoria state while the cargo was carried ashore by dinghy. The fighter jet then dropped the bomb that sank the ship. It was seized in April 2003 after a four-day chase by the Australian navy.

Although North Korea has denied any link to the smuggling operation, Mr Downer said it was hard to imagine a shipping company acting on its own in Pyongyang's Stalinist-style economy. "I mean this isn't, after all, a private sector economy where private companies are doing things on their own accord," Mr Downer said. Australia and the United States have said the case of the Pong Su strengthens their suspicions that Pyongyang deals in drugs to help support its failing economy.

THE EXPRESS, 10.02.06.

Islam-West divide "grows deeper'

Malaysia's prime minister says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy. As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Their publication in Europe has led to demonstrations across the Muslim world.

Friday's demonstration was the biggest in Malaysia's capital for years. "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America," protesters shouted as they marched to the Danish embassy in the rain from a nearby mosque. The satirical cartoons include an image portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet. The cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in September, but have since been reprinted in several other European publications. Abdullah Badawi described their publication as "insensitive and irresponsible". Some papers had apologised for what it called an editorial oversight. The prime minister had also declared possession of the cartoons illegal.

Around 10,000 Muslims stage a silent protest rally in Bhopal, India, carrying banners reading: "Stop all anti-Islamic activities... Do not invite disaster." Around 3,000 Muslims march in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and more than 4,000 in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in demonstrations organised by hardline Islamists. Nato defence ministers seek to soothe the dispute in scheduled talks with counterparts from six Arab nations in Sicily.

Addressing an international conference intended to promote dialogue between Western and Islamic thinkers, Mr Abdullah said Islam and the West should stop demonising each other, and try to curb extremism and promote moderation. He said mere talk and being nice to one another were not enough, and mutual respect should replace hegemony. "The demonisation of Islam and the vilification of Muslims, there is no denying, is widespread within mainstream Western society." But Muslims for their part had to avoid "sweeping denunciation of Christians, Jews and the West", he added. "The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West and vice versa. They should accept one another as equals," he said.

THE NEWSDAY, 16.03.06.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1205