U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he is looking to build relationships with countries in Asia to address a wide variety of future challenges in the region. Ahead of Friday's opening at Asia's most prominent security conference, Gates said that Washington plans to remain a reliable partner for its allies.
Gates says he is going into the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore with the message that Washington will continue to build relationships with its Asian allies despite potential budget restrictions.
"I would say, if anything, these pressures put a premium on multilateral responses to problems. Whether it's humanitarian assistance or disaster relief, where we see opportunities with a number of countries out here, including China" said Gates.
This year China is sending to Singapore Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, who is the most senior Chinese official to attend the annual security conference. Gates and Liang are expected to hold a bilateral meeting Friday.
Speaking to reporters en route to the conference Thursday, Gates said he is very satisfied with the progress of Washington's relationship with Beijing, but he sees room for improvement between their two militaries.
He says continued dialogue is important to that relationship, especially because Beijing and Washington remain at odds about American arms sales to Taiwan.
"Under those circumstances, there is value in a continuing dialogue by the two sides of just exactly what our concerns are, what our issues are and how we might alleviate the concerns on both sides," he said.
Gates says Washington remains concerned about China's military research projects, such as anti-ship missiles and stealth fighter aircraft.
But he says he does not think China aims to use those projects to deny the United States access in the region.
"I think the Chinese have learned a powerful lesson from the Soviet experience and they do not intend to try and compete with us across the full range of military capabilities. But, I think they are intending to build capabilities that give them considerable freedom of action in Asia and the opportunity to extend their influence," Gates stated.
That influence at times has concerned China's neighbors and could be a topic of discussion here in Singapore.
Since last week, reports of Chinese vessels violating territorial claims in the South China Sea have provoked formal protests from the Philippines and Vietnam. Both countries complained that China allegedly violated their territorial waters by either erecting marker posts on small reefs and islands or chasing away their ships.
The Philippine and Vietnamese governments have sent representatives to the Shangri-La Dialogue.
South Korea's government on Thursday admitted it held secret discussions with North Korea last month. South Korea's president is facing criticism across the domestic political spectrum for the talks, which were revealed by Pyongyang.
The administration of President Lee Myung-bak finds itself on the defensive amid criticism at home of its secret contacts with North Korea.
The two Korea's have no diplomatic relations and Lee, in public, has taken a hard-line approach towards Pyongyang.
North Korea, on Wednesday, claimed three South Korean officials "begged" for a summit between leaders of the two countries and offered bribes at secret meetings in Beijing last month.
Unification Minister Hyun In-taek on Thursday confirmed to lawmakers the clandestine encounter did occur.
Hyun says there was no attempt by South Korea to arrange a leaders' summit. Rather the secret talks were intended to press North Korea to apologize for last year's military provocations, which Seoul insists is a prelude to improving the chilly relationship.
Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics and the East West Center in the United States. He says he supports President Lee's attempted dialogue.
"Really the story is not that the South Koreans were talking to the North Koreas - just like the Chinese and Americans are - but rather that the North Koreans chose to publically embarrass him just like they had done to a previous delegation of international statesmen that tried to reach out and open up some doors," he said.
Noland speculates that something is amiss in Pyongyang for it to be shutting down such contact at this time.
"I think it's likely that their internal politics are now going in a very hard-line militaristic direction," he said.
The revelation by Pyongyang of the secret talks followed pronouncements from North Korea that it was breaking all contacts with Seoul.
Some western intelligence analysts say this signals a new, dangerous phase in inter-Korean relations. The analysts say the recent statements from the North could mean it is willing to take some sort of military action in response to any perceived provocations by the South.
Noland, an economist who closely follows North Korea, agrees with that scenario.
"I think that the likelihood of provocation over the next year is significantly high," he said. "The North Koreans, they're in a difficult situation. Their economy is not doing well. I think it's most likely that they're asking for food aid now because they are going to do a provocation of some sort and they anticipate things tightening up."
A team from the U.S. Agency for International Development has been in North Korea assessing whether Washington should resume food aid to the impoverished country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in May, visited China, his country's closest significant ally, for the third time in 13 months. Analysts say there are signs the trip did not go as well as he hoped, with apparent failure to agree on the course for resumed international negotiations about North Korea's nuclear programs.
Relations between the two Korea's have been in a chill for more than a year since the sinking of a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea. Seoul blamed the explosion aboard the Cheonan on a North Korean torpedo. Pyongyang has repeatedly denied any involvement. Seoul has insisted that relations can not improve until North Korea apologizes for the attack.
Last November, North Korea shelled a South Korean frontier island, killing four people. Pyongyang said it was responding to provocative South Korean military exercises near disputed waters.
Large explosions rocked Yemen's capital Sana'a on Wednesday as members of the nation's most powerful tribal federation kept up their fight to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh. At least 41 people are reported killed and dozens of others wounded in the past day. As the situation worsens, some are looking beyond the current crisis to envision a post-Saleh Yemen.
Government and tribal fighters are battling for control of key ministry buildings in the capital, while the home of Hashid tribal chief Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar continued to come under attack.
Gunfire echoed across Sana'a as ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals. Some residents continue to leave the city to seek relative safety in outlying villages, while those remaining are stockpiling basic supplies, including food and gasoline.
Even in the chaos, political protesters continue their vigil in the capital, pressing their demand that President Saleh step down.
In the southwestern city Taiz, anti-government demonstrators are still reeling from a brutal crackdown that began Sunday and left dozens dead. Also in the southwest, militants are consolidating their hold on the city of Zinjibar. Reports indicate the fighters want to form an Islamic emirate in the region, but there are conflicting accounts of their exact aims beyond ousting President Saleh.
The focus on pushing Saleh from power is a possible unifying force among the various opposition groups. But Nasser Arrabiyee, a Yemeni writer and political analyst in Sana'a, says a larger vision is needed.
"Saudi Arabia and the United States are almost the key players in the Yemeni crisis in terms of thinking what is the next step after Saleh," said Arrabiyee. "The people, unfortunately, internally, the opposition here only think on how to remove Saleh, how to oust Saleh. This is the problem of the Yemeni opposition." <!--IMAGE-->
Saudi Arabia plays a key role in the Gulf Cooperation Council plan, backed by the United States, to see a transition away from Saleh to a more representative government. The president has rejected the plan three times, further infuriating opposition groups.
Yet the opposition's different ideologies as well as tactics - street battles in Sana'a, the militant takeover of Zinjibar, and peaceful protests in key cities - has meant there is no obvious alternative to Saleh.
Political analyst Arrabiyee believes that if there were, Saudi Arabia and the United States would try to replace the president "overnight."
"I do not mean there is no one who would replace Saleh," added Arrabiyee. "No. But Yemen was [nominally] democratic, but it was almost a totalitarian regime. So, it's difficult to find that one in a short time. But if they could pave the way for good elections, then this one will come and the good leadership will be there and the stability will be there."
With battles flaring up across the country, the idea of elections and stability seem remote. But some long-time observers of Yemen think those who have dealt with instability before may prove useful yet again.
A former U.S. military officer once stationed in Yemen points to General Mohamed Qasimi, who is among a group of high-ranking military defectors from the government, as an example.
The former U.S. officer, who preferred not to be identified, notes Qasimi played a key role in ending a civil war in the 1990s as well as suppressing - albeit temporarily - a rebellion in the north.
There are also a number of tribal leaders who could potentially lead a post-Saleh government. Not least among them are members of the Hashid federation, currently battling with Saleh's troops in the capital.
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NATO members and five partner states have agreed to extend their military campaign in Libya for another 90 days in a bid to protect civilians from pro-government forces.
NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the decision by the Brussels-based alliance and its partners -- four Arab states and Sweden -- to extend the military campaign in Libya sends a clear message to the Gadhafi regime.
"We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of Libya. We will sustain our efforts to fulfill the United Nations mandate. We will keep up the pressure to see it through," stated Rasmussen.
The pressure against Moammar Gadhafi was also seen at the G8 summit last week in France, where Russia joined other world powers in calling for the Libyan leader's departure. U.S. President Barack Obama said the NATO campaign has a clear goal.
"We agreed that we have made progress in our Libya campaign but that meeting the U.N. mandate of civilian protection cannot be accomplished when Gadhafi remains in Libya directing his forces in acts of aggression against the Libyan people. And we are joined in resolve to finish the job," said Obama.
Libya appears to be feeling the heat. The flow of Libyan defectors is stepping up, with the official TAP news agency in neighboring Tunisia reporting five more Libyan officers crossing the border over the weekend. From Rome, several senior Libyan military figures announced on Monday they had defected and called on others to follow suit.
But Gadhafi remains defiant. Following a meeting between the Libyan leader and South African President Jacob Zuma, Pretoria said Tuesday the Libyan leader would not leave his country. Zuma also criticized intensified NATO bombing raids in Libya as undermining African mediation efforts.
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Syrian opposition leaders meeting in Turkey have rejected their government's offer of a general amnesty and say they will continue to push for a regime change.
More than 300 dissidents are attending a conference in the Turkish town of Antalya on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government freed hundreds of political prisoners on Wednesday, a day after President Bashar al-Assad announced the amnesty. The releases are an apparent bid by Mr. Assad to appease opposition activists who have been calling for his resignation.
However, a U.S. State Department spokesman ((Mark Toner)) said the president's effort fell short and that all political prisoners need to be freed.
Also Wednesday, President Assad announced the formation of a committee that will set the framework for holding a national dialogue. State-run media quote him as saying the national talks will address issues related to Syria's social, economic and political future.
In another development, Human Rights Watch said it has reports of recent killings and torture by Syrian troops that may qualify as crimes against humanity.
The New York-based group released a report Wednesday based on more than 50 interviews with victims and witnesses of the violence.
The report centers on the southern city of Daraa, where Syrian forces allegedly carried out some of the worst violence against civilians since anti-government protests began in March.
The rights group says witnesses told of beatings, torture using electroshock devices, and detention of people seeking medical care. It called on the Syrian government to take steps immediately to halt the use of excessive force.
Witness reports in Syria, as well as official accounts, are difficult to verify independently because the government barred most international journalists from the country soon after the unrest began.
Syrian opposition activists have been protesting almost daily since March for democratic reforms and an end to President Assad's 11-year autocratic rule. Rights groups say Mr. Assad's security forces have killed more than 1,000 people and arrested 10,000 in a campaign to crush the uprising.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Police in northwestern Pakistan say about 200 militants have crossed the border from Afghanistan and attacked a security checkpoint, killing at least five police officers.
Authorities said the attack happened Wednesday in the town of Shaltalo, in the Dir tribal area along the border with Afghanistan's Kunar province. Police say fighting is ongoing.
Militants have launched a number of attacks against Pakistani security forces following the May 2 killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Despite the attacks, a top Pakistani army commander, Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik, says the military has no plans to launch an offensive in the North Waziristan region. Pakistani media reported earlier this week that the military was planning such an operation at the request of the United States.
Also Wednesday, military officials said a helicopter carrying the head of a paramilitary force crashed into the Indus River in eastern Pakistan, with all five people onboard feared dead.
The helicopter was transporting Major General Mohammed Nawaz, who commands the force known as the Punjab Rangers, and four other people when it went down in Punjab province.
Officials said at least one body has been recovered, adding that there are no reports of survivors. Police say the cause of the crash is not clear, but that bad weather may be to blame.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
The United States is calling for immediate talks between the leaders of northern and southern Sudan to resolve a territorial dispute that threatens the peaceful secession of the south on July 9th. Two senior U.S. envoys visited Khartoum Wednesday to underscore U.S. concern.
The State Department's chief Africa diplomat is calling for emergency north-south Sudanese talks to settle a crisis over the disputed Abyei region that threatens the country's six-year peace process.
Southern Sudan is due to become an independent state July 9th to climax fulfillment of the country's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord, the CPA.
A relatively-smooth implementation process was jolted in last month when northern troops seized most of the Abyei region, an oil-rich area in the central part of the country that remains in dispute.
At a press event here, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson reiterated U.S. condemnation of the northern military move.
He called on Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir to hold immediate talks on ways to restore calm, uphold the CPA, and recommit to a peaceful resolution of the Abyei issue.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Abyei, and in southern Sudan," said Carson. "We want to do as much as we possibly can between now and July 9th to assure that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is fully complied with. We want to see a withdrawal of Sudanese troops from the areas of Abyei. And we are looking for both senior leaders to meet together to discuss how to defuse tensions between the two parties, and to fully implement the remaining items that have to be complied with to complete the CPA."
Carson said the same message was conveyed by Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and U.S. Sudan Special Envoy Princeton Lyman in talks with senior officials in Khartoum Wednesday.
Brennan will go on to the Gulf region for talks while Lyman will remain in the region to work with the Sudanese parties, the African Union and the United Nations to address the Abyei crisis.
The Obama administration has held out the removal of the Khartoum government from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism - the SST - and normalization of relations with Sudan, as incentives for allowing the peaceful independence of the south.
Carson indicated strongly that the north's seizure of Abiyei jeopardizes the terrorism list issue and the promised U.S. roadmap to normalized ties.
"The review and the basis for taking them off the list are defined legislatively, and that will be the most important guidepost," he said. "They have to meet the legislative requirements for being taken off the SST. But there is no doubt that the events of the last several weeks do undermine people's confidence in the commitment to follow through on the road map that was laid out some months ago."
To remove Sudan from the terrorism list, and lift associated sanctions, the Obama administration would have to certify to Congress that the Khartoum government has not been involved in any recent acts of terrorism.
The United States has not had an ambassador in Khartoum since 1998, though it has a diplomatic mission there. It has recently opened a mission in the southern capital, Juba, and has promised to recognize an independent South Sudan in July.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday NATO allies are committed to reducing civilian casualties in the Afghan conflict, where she said most civilian deaths are the work of Taliban insurgents. She spoke after a warning by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he might curb NATO operations because of non-combatant deaths.
Clinton is reaffirming NATO's commitment to limiting civilian casualties in Afghan combat operations, while saying the Taliban is responsible for the "vast majority" of non-combatant deaths and injuries.
The secretary spoke at a joint press event with Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota after a warning by Karzai that NATO would be considered an "occupying force" in his country if it doesn't halt airstrikes on Afghan homes.
The issue has long been a major irritant in relations between Karzai and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF.
Tensions flared again this week after airstrikes, responding to an attack on an ISAF ground patrol, killed at least nine people, including children in the southern province of Helmand.
Clinton said it is a "tragic fact" that some civilian casualties are unavoidable in a conflict like the one in Afghanistan. She said every such incident is thoroughly investigated, however, and that allied commander General David Petraeus has pledged to work to reduce the casualty toll.
"We're going to continue to do everything we can to express our deep regret when a terrible incident occurs, and civilians are injured or killed," said Clinton. "And I would only underscore that that stands in stark contrast to the indiscriminate killing, the suicide bombing, the IED's - the improvised explosive devices - that are used by the insurgents without regard for any human life."
Brazil has been an emerging force in global affairs and Clinton's talks with her Brazilian counterpart, in addition to bilateral and Hemisphere issues, also covered political upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa.
Clinton sounded a cautious note about plans by Egypt's interim authorities to put ousted former president Hosni Mubarak on trial for the deaths of political protesters. She said such a trial would be emotionally charged and that it must be conducted with the highest legal standards. At the same time, she expressed concern about recent moves by the Egyptian military against critics.
"We are keeping very close watch on events in Egypt," she said. "We're disturbed by the reports of efforts to crack down on journalists and bloggers and judges and others, which we don't think is in keeping with the direction that the Egyptian people were heading when they started out in Tahrir Square."
On the widening political strife in Yemen, Clinton said the conflict cannot be expected to end unless President Ali Abdullah Saleh and close associates heed international calls to "move out of the way" and allow a transition to political and economic reform.
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Saleem Shahzad, a prominent Pakistani journalist whose tortured body was discovered this week, was buried in Karachi on Wednesday.
The 40-year old father of three worked for the Hong-Kong based Asia Times Online and other publications and had recently written an article in which he alleged links between al-Qaida and the Pakistani Navy.
Human Rights Watch researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said Shahzad had told him that he feared Pakistani intelligence agents were after him.
But an unnamed official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency says allegations the spy agency had threatened Shahzad or was somehow involved in his murder were "baseless" and" unfounded."
Pakistani journalists Qamar Yousafzai (L) and Saleem Shahzad (R) upon their arrival at the Pakistan-Afghan border post of Chaman, 2006.
The ISI official told the Associated Press of Pakistan that the journalist met with ISI officials in October of last year to discuss a story Shahzad had written and that the meeting was "friendly."
Shahzad's killing has once again thrust Pakisan into the spotlight, reminding the world that it is among the most dangerous places on the earth to be a journalist -- and a place where many such murders go unsolved, says Bob Dietz, Asia Program Coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Dietz spoke with Rahman Bunairee, a broadcaster with Deewa Radio, VOA's Pashto language service to Pakistan. What are we to make of this brutal killing of Mr. Shahzad?
"This is just more of the same and, frankly, Pakistan is geting a terrible reputation for the deaths of these journalists. Last year, more journalists were killed in Pakistan than anywhere else in [2010] and the country is well on track to set that record again. Saleem Shahzad was a well-known, well-respected journalist, and for him to have been gunned down like this is unconscionable."
How much impact do you think the international community can have to press for the prosecution and punishment for those involved in the murder of journalists?
"We met with President Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik earlier this month, and they promised that they were going to push forward on this, on investigations of this sort and try to get to the bottom of the killings of some of these journalists. The problem in Pakistan is that there is an incredibly high level of impunity. And that is, people who kill journalists are not brought to justice. The government does not fully pursue the cases and does not bring trials and prosecutions.
Listen to the interview with CPJ's Bob Dietz here
We've seen that in the case of several journalists killed this year. And over the years, since 1992, we found the case of 15 journalists who were killed, directly targeted, whose cases were not investigated. I'm afraid we're going to have to add this case to that list unless the government acts decisively."
Pakistan is becoming increasingly becoming a hostile country for media. Can organizations like yours help create a media-friendly environment by introducing a system where the government is held directly responsible for the protection of journalists?
"Frankly, we're not sure of the political will within the government of President Zardari to confront this problem. This is not a new problem in Pakistan. Under [the former government of] Mr. Musharraf, the government was in denial, and they said, 'No we don't have a problem.' Under President Zardari, they're saying 'yes, we admit that we have a problem.' But we haven't see any positive steps towards solving it."
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he plans to use his final international trip in office to let American allies in Asia know that Washington remains committed to the region. Gates spoke to reporters in Hawaii, late Tuesday, a day before as he heads to a major security conference with Asian countries in Singapore.
Gates says he wants governments in Asia to know that, although he leaves office on June 30 and the U.S. military is expected to cut billions of dollars from its budget, Washington's commitment to the region will not waver.
"Even as we look at potential budget reductions, there is no slackening of the U.S. commitment to our presence in Asia. We are a Pacific nation. We will remain a Pacific nation. We will remain engaged," he said.
Gates made his comments late Tuesday at the site of the Battleship Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
The brief stop in Hawaii comes a day before the secretary travels to Singapore for a security conference with his Asian counterparts.
A senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters that Gates is aware of the region's concerns about upcoming cuts in U.S. military spending and plans to address them at the Singapore dialogue, later this week.
The agenda for the conference also is expected to include discussions on China's military buildup and the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier Tuesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave what he called his last warning to the international coalition that he will not tolerate air strikes that target civilian homes.
President Karzai warned NATO not to become an "occupying force" in Afghanistan after the latest round of civilian casualties resulted from coalition air strikes.
Gates says he understands Karzai's frustration.
"The Afghan people have put up with 30 years of war. And, I think President Karzai is reflecting the pain and suffering that the Afghan people have had to endure," he said.
Gates says it is important for both sides to jointly investigate civilian casualties and that Karzai and the Afghan people recognize that the U.S.-led NATO coalition is an ally trying to help Afghanistan see an end to the conflict.
Following the security meeting in Singapore, Gates is scheduled to head to the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels next week, where the situation in Afghanistan is again expected to be part of the agenda.
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Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic will face judges at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for the first time on Friday, when he will be formally charged with genocide and 10 other counts of war crimes concerning the Bosnian conflict of the early 1990s. He is being held in the custody of the tribunal.
Chief prosecutor for the United Nations war crimes tribunal, Serge Brammertz, will himself be in court Friday when Mladic will be asked to enter a plea to charges of genocide, murder and persecution.
"He was the most powerful military figure in Bosnia during the war," said Brammertz. "He's charged with crimes that shock the conscience of the international community. These crimes symbolize the brutality of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
They include the three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Tribunal registrar John Hocking met Mladic at Rotterdam's airport Tuesday night, accompanied by a doctor and an interpreter. Hocking said the former Bosnian Serb military leader listened carefully and understood the documents he was presented with, as well as the rules of the court.
"He was extremely cooperative," said Hocking. "We explained to the detainees the privileges they have, for example in relation to communications, telephone calls, visitor rights, their rights to see consular representatives. And this procedure went very smoothly. It was a very cooperative and very smooth induction process."
Citing the right to privacy, Hocking did not give specifics about Mladic's health. But he said the general's health is good enough for now - both mentally and physically - to proceed to court on Friday.
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Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons will face trial in August on charges of fraud and orchestrating the killing of anti-government protesters who drove him from power.
Egypt state media on Wednesday announced the trial will begin on August 3. Mubarak and his sons, Alaa and Gamal, will face trial in a Cairo criminal court.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration wants due process in what she predicted will be "a highly-charged trial."
Egyptian prosecutors have been interrogating the former president at a hospital in Sharm el Sheikh, and his sons while in custody in a Cairo prison.
They are investigating Mubarak's alleged role in crimes going back decades. The charges against Mubarak and his sons include abuse of power and wasting public funds.
A Mubarak trial - a distraction from Egypt's real problems? Steven Cook, Council of Foreign Relations, speaks to VOA's Susan Yackee:
The setting of the trial date follows widespread calls for members of the former government to face justice. Human rights activists believe at least 800 people were killed during the protests, which ended nearly 30 years of Mubarak's rule.
Gamal Mubarak held no formal government position, but had a key post in the former ruling National Democratic Party and was seen as being groomed to succeed his father. His brother Alaa was a prominent businessman, also without an official post.
The former president's wife, Suzanne Mubarak, has also been questioned about alleged illegal gains. Last month, she agreed to hand over several million dollars worth of property and other assets.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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The Philippine government says it has conveyed "serious concerns" to the Chinese embassy about reports that Chinese ships unloaded building materials and put up military posts on reefs claimed by Manila in the South China Sea. Officials say they are still trying to confirm if the ships were from China.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs is asking the top ranking official at the Chinese Embassy in Manila whether Chinese boats were in the area around Amy Douglas Bank.
The department says the Philippine defense and military agencies received reports that a surveillance ship and two marine vessels put up steel posts, building materials and buoys on the island that it says is well within the country's economic zone.
Military spokesman Commodore Mike Rodriguez says Philippine fishermen spotted the buoys last week and turned them over to the Philippine navy.
"We have not confirmed the source of the markers but they have Chinese markings," said Rodriguez. "But considering everything is made in China nowadays, they could belong to anybody now."
This is the second time the Philippine government has asked China for clarification on an incident in the South China Sea. In March, the country filed a complaint that a survey ship was harassed by Chinese patrol vessels in Reed Bank, which is in Philippine waters.
The South China Sea includes a group of islands called the Spratlys, which are claimed in whole or part by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan. These islands are believed to hold oil and natural gas deposits, and they are about 170 kilometers northwest from where the Philippine incidents took place.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a non-binding code in 2002 stating they would settle South China Sea disputes peacefully. But China has yet to agree to its implementation.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Ed Malaya says this latest incident calls for clear guidelines.
"What we would like to see is concrete progress towards a more binding agreement on the conduct of parties in this part of our region," said Malaya.
The Chinese Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Last week, China's defense minister met with the Philippine national defense secretary. Both agreed that a peaceful approach to the South China Sea would be best.
This is the second diplomatic flare-up within a week concerning overlapping claims to reefs and islands in the South China Sea. Last week, Vietnam complained that Chinese naval vessels had cut a cable trailing from an oil exploration ship and forced the ship out of waters off Vietnam's southeastern coast.
Vietnam says that incident occurred about 600 kilometers south of China's Hainan Island and 120 kilometers off its coast, well within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone.
At a Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing Tuesday, spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the Vietnamese survey ship had been operating illegally in Chinese-administered waters, and that the action against it was "completely justified."
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The United Nations says that plans to end the East Timor peacekeeping mission in 2012 are on track. The U.N. took over the functions of the national police in 2006 after riots and factional fighting brought the country to the brink of civil war.
The United Nations has been closely involved in East Timor's development since it gained independence in 2002. The U.N. sent in security forces to restore order in 2006 when unrest and factional fighting forced 155,000 people - or 15 percent of the population - to flee their homes.
Gary Gray, the Political Director for the United Nations Mission in East Timor, says peacekeeping operations are scheduled to end there after the 2012 presidential election.
"Things have stabilized basically since the 2006 problems and we're pretty confident that, you know, that's going to continue and we are going to get through the key event being the elections beginning early next year," he said.
In March the U.N. handed-off operational control of the police force to the East Timor authorities but more than 1,200 U.N. police officers still patrol the streets.
East Timor's government has benefited from double digit economic growth based mostly on the development of a huge offshore oil and nature gas reserve. The project has added more than one billion dollars to East Timor's government budget. Government officials say there has also been a nine percent decrease in poverty as economic conditions improve and new government programs offering education for all children and expanded health care take effect.
Restoring good relations with Indonesia has removed a potential external source of friction. Indonesia is East Timor's top trading partner. Both countries continue to work to resolve grievances and investigate claims of atrocities and crimes that occurred during the years of struggle for independence through a joint truth and friendship commission.
Gray says progress on victim compensation has been slow in part because of disagreements within the East Timor parliament.
"So there is this feeling that before we start compensating people who were victims, we need to compensate the people who were actively involved in the struggle and those sort of arguments are delaying things," he said.
While he remains optimistic, Gray says the large number of unemployed and tensions that still linger below the surface could still shatter East Timor's fragile peace.
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While European investigators probe the origin of a deadly E. Coli outbreak, Spanish farmers are angry that their produce has been identified as a possible source - with devastating effects to their livelihood.
Turn on the television in Spain this week and you are likely to see politicians chomping on cucumbers and smiling. They are trying to convince the public - and the rest of Europe - that Spain's agriculture is safe.
But 15 people have died in Germany and one in Sweden from an E. coli outbreak that German officials initially linked to imported Spanish cucumbers. Hundreds of others are sick, in what has become one of the largest E. Coli outbreaks in the world.
Germany, Belgium and Russia have all banned Spanish vegetable imports, pending an investigation. But Spain's agriculture minister accused them of jumping to conclusions too early, without proof of the deadly bacteria's origin. Now, even German officials say they are not so sure.
Spanish farmers fear the damage to their livelihoods is already done, with millions of euros in losses that threaten to destabilize the whole country's already-ailing economy. Vanessa Rossi, an economist at London's Chatham House think tank, says Spain is one of the largest cucumber exporters in the world and, by far, the biggest in Europe.
"Potentially they have something like five percent of GDP (gross domestic product) at risk over these exports, and that's a considerable problem when you're looking at an economy trying to recover," said Rossi.
José María Pozancos is the director-general of the Spanish Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters. He told a local Madrid radio station that his industry's losses could reach 200 million euros a week, if hysteria about Spanish cucumbers continues to spread across Europe.
He says he is very worried and angry and that all the information that has been confirmed, so far, points to a contamination problem in Hamburg, Germany - not with Spanish fruit and vegetables inside Spain.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is still investigating whether that is the case. But, as diplomatic tensions rise, the ECDC refuses to comment on its investigation.
Nevertheless, there is a long chain of growers, packagers, exporters and importers that all work to put foreign produce on local supermarket shelves. Investigators are likely probing each and every link between cucumber farms in Spain's southern Andalusia region and supermarkets in northern Germany.
Outbreaks of disease in food have the potential to wreak havoc on economies worldwide. Thailand lost billions of dollars in chicken exports when avian flu spread through the country in 2004. British beef has also been banned from the rest of Europe, at various times, during outbreaks of mad cow disease there. Spanish leaders want to avoid that same fate, and some are calling for compensation.
Rossi says the idea of compensating farmers for lost revenue is something European leaders in Brussels might have to scramble to address.
"In these circumstances, I don't know that there is any particularly policy from the agricultural fund in Brussels to be able to make compensation. I don't think there's a normal expectation that these kinds of issues arise, so I'm not sure what they have for a crisis mechanism," she said. " Possibly there could be some aid given. Or the Spanish government would have to promise aid, but, of course, that would be extremely costly, if they have to put that on their fiscal deficit when they're already struggling with high debt."
Governments are still waiting for definitive word on the E. Coli outbreak's source. Meanwhile, the first suspected domestic case of the disease has now surfaced northern Spain - a 40-year-old man who had recently traveled to Germany.
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