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Dozens Dead After Taliban Ambush On Afghan Government Forces Dozens have been killed after Taliban militants ambushed Afghan security forces in the western province of Farah, sparking an hourslong gunbattle. Farid Bakhtawar, head of the provincial council, said eight special forces and 10 police officers were killed in a predawn attack by the Taliban in the Bala Buluk district on Saturday. Bakhtawar said some 40 Taliban militants were also killed in the battle, which lasted about five hours. He said airstrikes were called in to support Afghan security forces. Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said only four members of the Afghan special forces had been killed and a number wounded. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujhaid claimed responsibility for the attack. At least 18 Afghan soldiers were killed after Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in Bala Buluk district on Feb. 24. On Feb. 20, Taliban attacks on police checkpoints in Farah killed eight police officers. The provincial government said 13 militants were also killed in the fighting. Farah Province, one of the poorest in the country, is situated on the border with Iran in the far west of Afghanistan. Farah has experienced months of fighting, with some people accusing the security forces of collusion with Taliban militants involved in cross-border smuggling and drug trafficking. On Jan. 24, hundreds of people took to the streets of Farah, the provincial capital, protesting about the lack of security and calling on provincial leaders to resign. Six people were reportedly injured in the protests. Some local officials have accused Iran of providing insurgents with funds, weapons, and explosives -- allegations that Iran denies. The Kabul government has deployed hundreds of additional troops to Farah to thwart the Taliban's offensive. The attack in Farah came just days after 17 Afghan soldiers were killed by Taliban militants in attacks on army checkpoints in the northern province of Takhar, on the border with Tajikistan. The Taliban and the Islamic State militant group have stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and police in recent months. Afghan soldiers have taken what the United Nations describes as "shocking" casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released. Material for this report came from Reuters and AP.
March 11, 2018 at 05:52AM
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Putin 'Couldn't Care Less' if Russians Meddled in US Election Russian President Vladimir Putin said he "couldn't care less" if Russian citizens sought to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, insisting that the Kremlin had nothing to do with the efforts. "Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?" Putin asked in an often-combative interview with NBC News aired late Friday. U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller last month indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies and charged them with running a social-media campaign to sow political divisions in the United States and help Donald Trump win the presidency. "So what if they're Russians?" Putin told NBC. "There are 146 million Russians. So what? I don't care. I couldn't care less.... They do not represent the interests of the Russian state." Putin said that the indicted individuals are "not working for the government" and suggested instead, "Perhaps some of them worked for one of the candidates." The most well-known of the Russians indicted, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has ties to Putin and the state. Prigozhin is accused of funneling money into the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, which is often described as a notorious "troll factory" and which is also named in the indictment. Despite Mueller's 37-page indictment detailing charges against the Russians, Putin said he has seen no evidence that their actions broke any law. He was emphatic that he would never extradite the suspects to the United States to face trial. "We in Russia cannot prosecute anyone as long as they have not violated Russian law," he said. Putin rejected allegations that Russia sought to interfere in the election, despite the conclusion last year by U.S. intelligence agencies that he personally directed a campaign to do so in 2016. "Could anyone really believe that Russia, thousands of miles away...influenced the outcome of the election? Doesn't that sound ridiculous, even to you?" Putin asked NBC interviewer Megyn Kelly. "It's not our goal to interfere. We do not see what goal we would accomplish by interfering," Putin said. The U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that in addition to aiding Trump, for whom they said the Kremlin had developed a clear preference, Russia's aims included undermining faith in the U.S. electoral system and denigrating Trump's main rival, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. During the campaign, Clinton signaled that she would be tough on Russia over actions such as its interference in Ukraine, and Putin's relationship with the former secretary of state has been marked by sometimes palpable tension. As he prepared to return to the presidency in 2012 after a stint as prime minister, Putin accused Clinton of fomenting anti-government protests in Russia. Last month, U.S. intelligence chiefs said Russian attempts to meddle in U.S. politics are continuing unabated and pose a threat to midterm congressional elections in November. Trump himself has repeatedly refused to condemn Russia over the alleged meddling and has said that he admires Putin as a strong leader. Putin suggested in the interview that the reason Trump has seemed deferential to him is he knew upon taking office that he needed to develop a "cooperative relationship" with Russia and thus he needed to treat his counterpart with respect. On another issue, Putin told NBC he has no plans to change the Russian Constitution to eliminate term limits on his presidency. "I have never changed the constitution. I have no such plans today," he said. Some material for this article came from AFP.
March 11, 2018 at 05:40AM
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Bolivians stretch vast flag in demand for sea outlet A narrow strip of blue has stretched for more than 150 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) across the nation of Bolivia as part of a demonstration of the country's demand for an outlet to the sea.
March 11, 2018 at 05:35AM
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Joaquin Avila (voting rights advocate)
JohnPomeranz: Created
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Jane Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1798–1844)
Deb: start article
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Henrietta Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Deb: start article
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Henrietta Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Deb: start article
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Putin on alleged US election interference: I don't care Vladimir Putin says he doesn't care about alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election because the actions weren't connected to his government.
March 10, 2018 at 09:24PM
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Publius Vigellius Saturninus
Llywrch: creating an article on a Roman Imperial senator; dedicated to my daughter Akasha
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Time's really flying this weekend across most of the US Time's really flying this weekend across most of the United States.
March 10, 2018 at 02:04PM
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Muskan Kirar
Sunilbutolia: ←Created page with 'Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)'''Muskan Kirar''' (Age, 17) is a Archery player...'
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Karate instructor accused of sexually assaulting 6-year-old may have other victims, police say A New York Karate instructor that was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 6-year-old in the studio's bathroom for hours, could have victimized more children, police said on Friday.
March 10, 2018 at 12:08PM
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#10: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
(119)
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Tsao Erh-chung
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Special Jury Prize (Karlovy Vary IFF)
Hoverfish: /* Special Jury Prize Winners */ dab 1
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US Forest Service Interim Chief Confronts Misconduct Scandal After a career spent battling wildland fires across the West, U.S. Forest Service interim Chief Vicki Christiansen must now confront another sort of crisis: the harassment and bullying of women that's persisted in the agency's male-dominated culture despite numerous efforts at reform. Christiansen's ascension to the top of the 35,000-employee agency follows the ignominious downfall this week of its former chief, Tony Tooke, amid allegations of relationships with subordinates. Such misconduct appears to run deep in the agency's ranks, according to employee accounts, media reports and testimony during past congressional hearings. That's a reality Christiansen appeared to acknowledge when she told employees in a Friday email that they've had to face "some hard truths" about alleged harassment and retaliation. 'Determined to confront it' With her decades working in fire suppression, a traditionally masculine arena, Christiansen knows firsthand about the barriers women face in the Forest Service, said Oklahoma state forester George Geissler, who met with Christiansen in Washington, D.C., just days before her appointment. During that meeting, Christiansen openly discussed the challenges women face in the agency and made clear that harassment was not to be tolerated, Geissler said. "She's willing to confront it and determined to confront it," he said. "She understands it's not just a Forest Service issue but an overarching issue that we as wildland firefighters, we as professionals in forestry, need to recognize." The institutional problem the Forest Service faces is far from unique among government agencies. Sexual misconduct has long been a problem in the U.S. military and over the past several years emerged as a major issue at the Interior Department. The Forest Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency's struggles date to at least the 1970s, when a class-action lawsuit was filed alleging discrimination against women in hiring and promotions. The matter has gained renewed attention as female Forest Service employees recently stepped forward with tales of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and rape. Lawmakers in Congress responded this week with calls for greater scrutiny of the agency. Just over a third of the Forest Service's permanent employees are women, a figure that drops during the summer with additional seasonal hires, agency employment data show. The balance is even more skewed among firefighters: Last summer, just 13 percent of the agency's 19,500 firefighters were women, according to the data. Women's stories Gail Kimbell, the first woman to be chief of the Forest Service, from 2007 to 2009, told The Associated Press she'd was heartbroken by accounts from female Forest Service firefighters who appeared on PBS NewsHour saying they had been raped and groped by co-workers or supervisors and had suffered retaliation if they reported it. Kimbell said she experienced discrimination but wasn't assaulted during her 32-year career as a full-time Forest Service employee. In 1970s, women were a novelty in the workforce, especially in field work, she said. Unlike Christiansen, she did not work as a firefighter. She said the Forest Service has spent decades trying to improve the workplace for women. By the time Kimbell became chief, training and other programs were well-established, she said, and she supported them. "The Forest Service continues to put effort into it. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than it was in the 1970s," she said. In announcing Christiansen's appointment, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tasked her with two goals: improving the agency's response to sexual misconduct while effectively managing more than 300,000 square miles (777,000 square kilometers) of forests and grasslands in 43 states and Puerto Rico. Tooke's case and other reports of harassment have underscored that there's more work to do. During a 2016 congressional hearing, agency officials said 67 employees had been cited for sexual misconduct over the prior three years, including 21 who were fired and 28 who were suspended. The agency did not respond to requests for more recent figures. Reporting center In November, the Forest Service opened a "Harassment Reporting Center" with a toll-free number to make it easier for victims to report mistreatment. And on March 1, it started a one-year trial program in which only outside investigators will be used to look into sexual harassment and misconduct complaints originating in its Pacific Southwest region. The move came in response to an audit from the inspector general at the Department of Agriculture that said almost half of service employees interviewed in the region had expressed distrust in the reporting of complaints. The Forest Service and Agriculture Department have refused to say if an investigation into Tooke's actions was being handled by an outside entity or if it would continue upon his retirement. In her Friday email to Forest Service employees, Christiansen pledged to stick by workers who "stand up for their colleagues and themselves." "We've had to face some hard truths about allegations of harassment and retaliation in our agency, even as we stare down some of the biggest land-management challenges in our nation's history," she wrote. "I know we are up to the task."
March 10, 2018 at 09:46AM
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Trump pardons former Navy sailor imprisoned for taking photos on nuclear submarine, White House says Kristian Saucier, the former sailor who served one year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine, has been pardoned, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.
March 10, 2018 at 09:30AM
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White House: Trump Will Attend Summit of the Americas White House officials say U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the Summit of the Americas in Peru this April. Officials in the United States and Peru on Friday told media outlets in both countries that Trump has confirmed his intention to attend the summit. The regional summit, which began in 1994, is seen as the leading forum for the United States to influence events across the region. The decision ends speculation that tense relations between the United States and some of its southern neighbors could cause Trump to skip the summit. Trump has been critical of Latin American policies over drugs and trade and has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration from the region to the United States. This year's Summit of the Americas will be held in Lima, Peru, from April 13-14. The gathering has generated controversy surrounding Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Peruvian leaders have repeatedly said Maduro is not invited to the summit because of his increasingly autocratic government, but Maduro said recently he is determined to attend. The last Summit of the Americas took place in Panama in 2015, when then-President Barack Obama used the opportunity to meet Cuban leader Raul Castro for the first time.
March 10, 2018 at 08:16AM
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Despite arrest, police beating shows technology shortcomings A white police officer whose body-camera video recorded him beating a black pedestrian he accused of jaywalking has been arrested on assault charges in North Carolina.
March 10, 2018 at 07:31AM
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Cynthia Rubino
Impactraw: ←Created page with ''''Cynthia Rubino''' is the president and CEO of YMCA of Central & Northern Westchester.<ref>http://ift.tt/2DffSGx'
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Robert Carstairs Reid
Stephencdickson: article created--~~~~
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Vertigo Canal 13
March 09, 2018 at 11:00PM
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Central DeWitt Sabers Wrestling
Mrohnemus: Created this page
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Trump pardons former Navy sailor imprisoned for taking photos on nuclear submarine, White House says Kristian Saucier, the former sailor who served one year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine, has been pardoned, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.
March 10, 2018 at 04:34AM
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Humanitarian Aid from Convoy Arrives in Eastern Ghouta The International Committee of the Red Cross said humanitarian aid from a convoy of 13 trucks was delivered Friday to the Syrian town of Douma, northeast of Damascus, during a pause in fighting. The ICRC said food and other supplies for 12,000 people were unloaded in Douma, the largest and most populous town in rebel-controlled eastern Ghouta. The convoy began rolling into the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta earlier Friday, but was unable to offload desperately needed supplies due to a resumption of airstrikes in the area. Ali al-Za'tari, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said the renewed shelling was in breach of "assurances of safety from parties, including the Russian Federation." The attack started as the convoy approached Douma to deliver aid that could not be offloaded Monday because of deteriorating security. Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, has called for perpetrators of crimes in eastern Ghouta to be held accountable and for an independent investigation into recent events. Earlier this month, Zeid spoke about incidents that have taken place in eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege for half a decade, at a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council. He spoke about the denial of food, medicine and other relief to the 400,000 residents of this besieged area. He described the trauma experienced by tens of thousands of severely malnourished children, forced to live in basements to survive the relentless airstrikes by Syrian forces. Zeid recounted the bombing of hospitals, schools and markets and the release of toxic agents that reportedly have killed two children. He said the actions in eastern Ghouta and elsewhere in Syria are likely war crimes, and potentially crimes against humanity. The high commissioner said Syria must be referred to the International Criminal Court so that justice can be done. In response, the Syrian ambassador accused Zeid of being selective and biased in his positions and blamed terrorist factions for the situation in eastern Ghouta. The Syrian army has recaptured nearly all the farmland in eastern Ghouta in less than two weeks, leaving about half the area still under insurgent control.
March 10, 2018 at 02:29AM
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Yerko PuchentoVertigo, Vertigo Canal 13
March 09, 2018 at 11:00PM
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Officer charged with assaulting black jaywalking suspect A white police officer whose body-camera video recorded him beating a black pedestrian he accused of jaywalking has been arrested on assault charges in North Carolina.
March 09, 2018 at 10:46PM
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Summit of US, North Korea Leaders Met With Cautious Optimism U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise acceptance of an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang "by May" to discuss ending the North's threatening nuclear program was met with a mixture of cautious optimism and skepticism. Chung Eui-yong, the head of South Korea's National Security Office, announced the agreement late Thursday. He was in Washington to brief Trump and White House officials, including National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, on diplomatic progress made during his visit to Pyongyang earlier this week. He also conveyed the verbal invitation from the North Korean leader to the U.S. president. "President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization," Chung said. Shuttle diplomacy Chung led a South Korean diplomatic delegation that met with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang on Monday. Afterward, he communicated Kim's willingness to engage with the U.S. in denuclearization negotiations, and his promise to suspend nuclear and missile tests while talks are underway. Pyongyang's position, as stated by Chung, is that "it would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons should the safety of its regime be guaranteed and military threats against North Korea be removed." A senior North Korean diplomat at the United Nations in New York, Pak Song Il, appeared to confirm the summit plans, telling The Washington Post in an email that the invitation was the result of Kim's "broad minded and resolute decision'' to contribute to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula, the newspaper reported. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking Friday to reporters during a visit to the African nation of Djibouti, said Trump made the decision to meet with Kim. "President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right," Tillerson said. "And I think in the president's judgment that time has arrived now." Cautious optimism The prospect of denuclearization talks could significantly de-escalate heightened tensions over North Korea's accelerated nuclear and ballistic missile tests over the past two years, and efforts to develop operational capability to target U.S. mainland cities with a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile. "After numerous discussions with President Trump, I firmly believe his strong stand against North Korea and its nuclear aggression gives us the best hope in decades to resolve this threat peacefully," said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. "I am not naive. I understand that if the past is an indication of the future, North Korea will be all talk and no action." Graham warned North Korea, however, that the "worst possible thing" it could do when meeting with Trump is to "try to play him." The senator said, "If you do that, it will be the end of you and your regime." Robert Gallucci, chief U.S. negotiator during the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis, said North Korea's invitation is a "surprising and welcome development. He added, "If representatives of both governments can meet, and a summit ultimately is held, it would represent substantial progress in reducing tension and the risk of war. "What is new isn't the proposal, it's the response," said Daniel Russell, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and The Pacific." He said North Korea "has for many years proposed that the president of the United States personally engage with North Korea's leaders as an equal — one nuclear power to another." Tough sanctions coupled with diplomacy Trump's "maximum pressure" approach led international efforts to impose tough sanctions in 2017 that banned billions of dollars' worth of North Korean coal, iron ore, clothing products and seafood exports. The Trump administration has also emphasized a willingness to use military force, if needed, to eliminate the nuclear threat. As the U.S. intensified pressure, South Korean President Moon Jae-in tried to create diplomatic space by facilitating North Korea's participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics. Also, North Korea has not conducted any provocative tests since November 2017. Seoul also announced this week that Moon and Kim will hold an inter-Korean summit in April, at the truce village of Panmunjom, on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone border region. This will be the third summit between the leaders of North and South Korea and the first since 2007. "I think the U.S. will wait to see how the North-South talks in April turn out before making a final decision on whether to meet and I see three possible scenarios," said Takashi Kawakami, president of the Institute of World Studies, Takushoku University in Tokyo. "The first is that North Korea will agree to denuclearization, second that North Korea will agree to a nuclear freeze with the U.S. and third that it withdraws its approach and returns to missile launches. Of those I see the second as the most likely, with Japan calling for continued pressure sidelined." Military exercises On Thursday, Chung said the North Korean leader will not object to the resumption of U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises expected to start in April. "He understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue," Chung said. Earlier, North Korean state media warned that Pyongyang would respond to the resumption of the joint drills, possibly by resuming provocative nuclear and missile tests, even if it means triggering further sanctions. The annual exercises were postponed to maintain a peaceful atmosphere during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics being held in South Korea, but are expected to begin at the end of March or early April. More than 20,000 American troops, 300,000 South Korean forces, and an array of bomber aircrafts, fighter jets and warships have participated in past exercises. North Korea has denounced these military exercises that have included "decapitation drills" to attack the leadership and key installations in North Korea in the event of war, as "rehearsals for invasion." The U.S. maintains the joint exercises are defense-oriented and legal under international law, as opposed to North Korea's nuclear program, which Washington says threatens its neighbors and the world, and has been repeatedly sanctioned by the Untied Nations. Tense rhetoric The prospect of constructive engagement between Trump and Kim follows a tense period in which the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea exchanged not only threats of military retribution, but also derisive personal insults. Trump called the North Korean leader "little rocket man" and Kim called the U.S. president a "dotard," an archaic English word meaning old and senile. North Korea's openness to talks has been received with a mix of cautious optimism and skepticism. Pyongyang has broken past agreements to end its nuclear program, in exchange for economic assistance and security guarantees. North Korea may try to seek immediate sanctions relief for freezing its current nuclear arsenal — estimated to be between 13 and 30 nuclear weapons, and hundreds of medium- and long-range missiles — while putting off any significant measures to dismantle its nuclear capacities. "Kim Jong Un's desire to talk shows sanctions the administration has implemented are starting to work," said Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The United States and South Korea must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in applying the sustained pressure needed to peacefully end this threat. And Beijing must do its part." Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been suspicious of North Korea's motives, spoke with Trump on Thursday and praised his hard-line leadership for forcing Pyongyang to change. Abe said he plans to visit Trump in Washington next month to discuss the summit with North Korea. It is also unclear that the U.S. and North Korea can even agree what the goal of the denuclearization talks should be. Washington wants to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear program. But North Korea's long-standing requirement for denuclearization includes the removal of all U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula, and the withdrawal of the American commitment to use its nuclear arsenal to defend its allies in the region. Regarding what the U.S. might be willing to concede to get a nuclear deal, North Korea analyst Victor Cha with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington asked on Twitter, "What are we putting on table: Sanctions? Normalization? Peace treaty?" President Trump has been critical of efforts by the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama to resolve the North Korean nuclear threat through negotiations. These past deals slowed the North's nuclear progress, but Pyongyang covertly continued its development efforts and eventually reneged on pledges to dismantle its nuclear facilities. Regional skepticism Liu Hailon, a 39-year-old Beijing resident, said a meeting between the United States and North Korean leaders would be a "rare opportunity." Linda Lin, another Beijing resident, said she did not think Kim Jong Un would give up his nuclear weapons since he has acted "against the peaceful situation that the world has been pursuing..." Yasuko Sugio, a 79-year-old Tokyo resident, said he doubted the summit would actually take place, but if it does he hopes Trump and Kim would be able to have a "proper dialogue." Takahiro Oda, also of Tokyo, said he "can't believe" either Trump or Kim Jong Un. "I don't know what is in Trump's head and am doubtful if he has serious thoughts" about meeting the North Korean leader, he said. VOA Correspondent Brian Padden and reporter Lee Yoon-jee in Seoul and Nike Ching in Djibouti contributed to this report.
March 09, 2018 at 07:40PM