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Sunday, August 23, 2009 SEOUL: North Korean envoys delivered a message from their leader Kim Jong-Il when they met South Korea's president Sunday, raising hopes of an end to high tensions that had sparked fears of military clashes.Details of the verbal message were not disclosed.But both sides at the first high-level North-South meeting since President Lee Myung-Bak took office 18 months ago expressed hopes for warmer ties after more than a year of deep hostility from Pyongyang."I'm leaving with good feelings," Kim Ki-Nam, a close aide to Kim Jong-Il, told reporters as he left for the airport after the talks.Relations have been icy since the conservative Seoul leader scrapped a "sunshine" aid and engagement policy towards the hardline communist state and linked economic assistance to nuclear disarmament.Military forces along the heavily-fortified border have been put on alert at various times.Tensions rose further after Pyongyang's nuclear and missile te...

Sunday, August 02, 2009 ::HAVANA: Cuba’s president, Raul Castro, has offered to discuss the future of Cuba with the US. In making the offer, he said dialogue was possible as long as the US did not try to change the island's communist government. Castro, speaking to the island's National Assembly, said he wanted to respond to recent overtures by Washington but the Cuban socialist system of government would remain non-negotiable. Castro said he had been pleased with the less aggressive, more respectful approaches to himself and his brother, former leader Fidel Castro, by the Obama administration. In his address he said he had not been elected President to return capitalism to Cuba or to surrender the revolution.