theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 7 2009 9

news without borders

UN divided on response
to launch of rocket
NEW YORK: The United
Nations failed to agree on a
response to North Korea’s
rocket launch despite pres-
sure from Washington and its
allies for action, showing the
reclusive state had succeeded
in dividing the international
community. Analysts said
Sunday’s launch of the rocket,
which flew over Japan, was
effectively a test of a ballistic
missile designed to carry a
warhead as far as the US state
of Alaska.
South Korean and
Japanese financial markets
shrugged off the news yester-
day. Seoul’s main share index
was up over 1% while the
won currency was stronger
against the dollar as inves-
tors cheered Wall Street’s
gains last week. Shares in
Japan also traded higher in
the morning, with the Nikkei
index up over 1.6%.
Japan had called for the
emergency UN Security
Council meeting on Sunday.
But after a session lasting
three hours, the 15 members
agreed only to discuss the
matter further, diplomats said.
The United States, Japan and
South Korea say the launch
violated council resolutions
banning the firing of bal-
listic missiles by Pyongyang,
imposed after a nuclear test
and other missile exercises
in 2006.
Council diplomats said
China and Russia were not
convinced the launch of what
North Korea said was a satel-
lite constituted a violation of
UN rules. Three other coun-
tries supported this view.
“It’s 10 against five,” one
diplomat said.
The US military and
South Korea said nothing
from the Taepodong-2 rocket
entered orbit. North Korea
for years had tried to drive
a wedge between regional
powers that have engaged it
in security and disarmament
talks. Analysts say it thrives
on brinkmanship and uses
its military threat to wring
concessions. US analysts
expect an emboldened North
Korea to try to exact conces-
sions for showing up at any
future round of six-party
talks on ending its nuclear
programme and to seek to
water down obligations it
signed onto under previous
negotiations. – Reuters

‘Nation of slaves’
comment enrages Filipinos
HONGKONG: A magazine
columnist was defiant
yesterday after around
2,000 Filipinos marched to
protest an article in which
he referred to Philippines
as a “nation of slaves.”
Chip Tsao, who stirred
up a storm of protest
among Hongkong’s Filipino
workers with his column in
HK Magazine, said: “I have
REUTERSPIX

already done what should

be done. I have no further
comment. I am not a racist.”
Tsao’s comment yester-
day’s South China Morning
Post came a day after an
angry protest over the
column, which Tsao earlier
claimed was satirical and had
been misunderstood by some
readers.
His explanation has been
angrily denounced by groups
representing the 120,000
Filipino workers in Hongkong
who want an unequivocal
apology and say that Tsao’s
column reflected wider racism
in the wealthy city of 7 million
people.
In the column, titled The
War At Home, Tsao dismissed
the Philippines’ claims to the
Spratly Islands, which are also
claimed in whole or in part by
Filipinos protest
against writer Tsao
in Hongkong.
Chi-
na, Vietnam, Taiwan,
Brunei and Malaysia.
“As a nation of servants,
you don’t flex your muscles at
your master, from where you
earn most of your bread and
butter,” he wrote in the March
27 column.
Tsao said he gave his Fili-
pino maid a “harsh lecture” on
the issue and “sternly warned
her that if she wants her
wages increased next year,
she had better tell every one
of her compatriots... that the
entirety of the Spratly Islands
belongs to China.”
One of Sunday’s march
organisers,
Eman Villanueva, said: “For us,
it’s just an additional insult by
saying we misunderstood (the
column). We’re not that stupid.
Racial misunderstanding is
not easily misunderstood. If it
is political satire, it should be
directed at the government,
not domestic helpers.”
Tsao met Philippine con-
sular officials and union and
media representatives last
week to explain his column
and has faced calls for him to
be banned from travelling to
the Philippines.
HK Magazine has posted an
apology for Tsao’s column on
its website. – dpa

region, also reported that a small French-flagged

briefs
yacht was captured Saturday “640km off Ras
Hafun in northeast Somalia.”– AFP

Indonesia plane crashes, 24 dead

Somali pirates take five ships
NAIROBI: Somali pirates seized ships from France,
Britain, Germany, Taiwan and Yemen in the worst
spate of hijackings in months, defying the world’s
naval powers by prowling further out in the Indian
Ocean. Ransom-hunting pirates equipped with
skiffs, guns and grapnels took five ships in 48
hours, the two latest sea-jackings coming yester-
day and targeting a British cargo and a Taiwanese
fishing vessel. “There were two more hijackings
today. There is one Italian-operated British-owned
ship and a Taiwanese vessel near the Seychelles,”
an official involved in regional piracy monitoring
said. Ecoterra International, an environment NGO
closely monitoring illegal marine activities in the
JAKARTA: Twenty-four Indonesian military
personnel were killed yesterday when their
training aircraft crashed into a hangar at an air
base in West Java, a hospital source said. The
Fokker 27 plane was making a landing during
a regular training flight when it crashed and
burst into flames at 1.05pm (2.05pm in Malay-
sia) in Bandung, 110km southeast of Jakarta,
an air force spokesman said. A doctor at the
West Java hospital where the victims were
taken said all 24 people on board the plane
had died. “All the bodies found on the crashed
plane have been brought here, there are 24,”
said Drajat, a doctor at Salamun hospital in
West Java. “Some 18 bodies have been identi-
fied but others are cut into pieces.” – AFP