The US' Asian allies yesterday warmly welcomed US President George W. Bush's second term, while some in the region expressed concern that his inauguration speech pointed to a more aggressive foreign policy that could worsen global tensions.
Communist North Korea lambasted the US in comments carried by its official KCNA news agency hours before the inauguration ceremony, saying it was a "wrecker of democracy as it ruthlessly infringes upon the sovereignty of other countries."
South Korean experts said Bush's speech hinted at a tougher stance against the isolated, totalitarian North, which is locked in an international standoff over its nuclear ambitions.
In his speech Thursday night in Washington, which was early Friday in Asia, the US president vowed not to shrink from "the great objective of ending tyranny" around the globe. Although Bush didn't cite North Korea by name, his secretary of state-designate, Condoleezza Rice, earlier this week said Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea were "outposts of tyranny."
"The hidden message is that if North Korea doesn't resolve its nuclear problem, the United States is willing to attempt a toppling and changing leaderships in North Korea," said Park June-young, a political scientist at Seoul's Ewha Woman's University.
US allies in the region greeted Bush's inauguration with enthusiasm.
Japan had high hopes for Bush's second term as the leader of "the world's largest and most influential nation in the world," said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda on Friday.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf sent the US leader a congratulatory message and pledged continued support for Washington's anti-terror campaign, said the government's chief spokesman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
Pakistan's military president made the Islamic nation a key ally of the US in its war on terror after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in America.
Ahmed added that he hoped Bush would help resolve Pakistan's territorial dispute with India over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS