SINGAPORE: The United States and China need to cooperate on security matters and maintain transparent military ties, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said here Saturday. "It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible," Gates told a high-level security forum in Singapore."This includes maintaining a defence relationship marked by consistent and open channels of communication and contact," he said. "Likewise, it is essential that we are transparent -- both to each other and the rest of the world -- about our strategic goals, political intentions, and military development." China's support is widely seen as crucial to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis because it is one of the few states with an influence on the isolated Stalinist regime in Pyongyang. The United States, China and other UN Security Council members have been studying possible sanctions against North Korea over its second nuclear test staged Monday, which was followed by short-range missile exercises.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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