SEOUL: The United States will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Wednesday, saying its atomic and missile programmes pose a "lethal and destabilising" threat. "There should be no mistaking that we do not today, nor will we ever, accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons," Gates told US and South Korean soldiers as he began a visit to Seoul. "The peril posed by the North Korean regime remains, and in many ways has become even more lethal and destabilising," he said in a speech.Gates said Washington would work with international partners to ensure the North abandons its nuclear weapons programme, and would bolster its regional allies against the threat from Pyongyang.
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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