8 theSun | THURSDAY AUGUST 6 2009

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Freed journalists return to US with Clinton

LOS ANGELES: Two US journalists
tearfully reunited yesterday with their
families after Bill Clinton won their
freedom on a historic trip to North
Korea that opens up new possibilities
for dialogue with the hermit state.
Laura Ling, 32, threw her arms
in the air as she descended the steps
from Clinton’s chartered plane in
Burbank, California and Euna Lee,
36, broke down in tears as she hugged
her four-year old daughter Hana.
Ling praised Clinton and his
“supercool team” for securing their
release and bringing to an end an
ordeal which began back in March
with their arrest while reporting near
North Korea’s border with China.
Clinton’s landmark meeting
on Tuesday with reclusive North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Il raised
hopes of renewed US engagement
with Pyongyang over its nuclear
programme although the first noises
from President Barack Obama’s ad-
ministration were full of caution.
“Thirty hours ago, Euna and I were
prisoners in North Korea. We feared
that at any moment we could be
sent to a hard labour camp and then
suddenly we were told that we were
going to a meeting. We were taken to a
location and when we walked through
the doors, we saw standing before us
president Bill Clinton,” Ling said.
Obama hailed 62-year-old Clinton
for his “extraordinary” work, while
the White House said the former
president and his staff would be de-
briefed by national security advisers.
AFPPIX
of the Current TV network which
employed the two journalists - who
had worked tirelessly for their release
and was in Burbank to greet them.
While North Korea’s official news
agency described Clinton’s visit in
a markedly positive tone, Obama’s
administration sought to play down
expectations following the mission.
“The future of our relationships
with the North Koreans are really
up to them,” US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, wife of the former
leader, said on a trip to Africa.
“They have a choice if they con-
tinue to follow the path that is filled
with provocative action, which fur-
ther isolates them from the interna-
tional community or they can decide
to renew their discussions with the
partners in the six-party talks.”
Despite months of high tensions
sparked by the North’s nuclear and
missile tests and United Nations
sanctions, Clinton received a warm
and well publicised welcome in the
North Korean capital.
“Leading papers carry a photo-
accompanied report that leader Kim
Jong-Il met with former US President
Bill Clinton on a visit to the DPRK
(North Korea),” the official Korean
Central News Agency reported.
The agency said Clinton’s meet-
ings “reached a consensus of views
on seeking a negotiated settlement”
of issues dividing the two countries”.
Ling and Lee faced 12 years’ hard
labour before they were pardoned
by Kim following Clinton’s surprise
mission – the highest-level US trip to
North Korea in almost a decade.
“Euna and I would just like to
express our deepest gratitude to
president Clinton and his wonderful,
amazing, not to mention super-cool
team ... and the US Secret Service
who traveled half way around the
world, and then some, to secure our
release,” an emotional Ling said.
She also thanked Obama and
Swedish diplomats, admitting: “I
know that I am forgetting a bunch of
instrumental people right now, but
forgive me if I’m a little incoherent.”
Anxious relatives, who had been
counting the hours until their return,
erupted with joy as the pair descend-
ed the plane steps at a private aircraft
hangar in Burbank.
Lee rushed down the steps to
hug her little daughter and started
sobbing as she was overcome by the
moment. Behind her Ling raised her

Obama added thanks for former arms triumphantly before embracing

vice-president Al Gore – a part owner husband Iain Clayton. – AFP

Ling speaks

Ahmadinejad sworn in as
in front of
“He did not say anything. He walked
Clinton,

briefs
into the room as if he knew where he
Gore and
was going and pulled out the guns and
Lee after the

riot police break up protests journalists

TEHERAN: Mahmoud Ah-
madinejad was sworn in as
Iranian president yesterday
as riot police broke up an
opposition protest over an
election that triggered the
worst turmoil in the Islamic
republic’s history.
The 52-year-old hard-
liner took the oath of office
for another four-year term
at a ceremony in parliament,
defiantly vowing to resist “op-
pressive powers” and saying
his June election marked a
major change in Iran.
But prominent opposition
leaders were absent from the
ceremony, and outside riot
police and Basij volunteer
Islamic militiamen used pep-
per gas against demonstrators
who claim his landslide vic-
tory was fraudulent, witnesses
said.
“The protesters were
chanting anti-Ahmadinejad
slogans. The police and the
Basijis dispersed them. All
the nearby shops are closed,”
a witness said.
Yesterday’s ceremony was
attended by about 240 of Iran’s
290 MPs as well as clerics, but
prominent opposition lead-
ers including Ahmadinejad’s
main defeated challenger
Mir Hossein Mousavi were
absent, as was powerful cleric
and former president Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani.
After taking the oath,
Ahmadinejad has a two-
week deadline to form a new
government that is likely to
remain on a collision course
with the West, particularly
over Iran’s controversial nu-
clear drive.
“We will resist oppressors
and try to correct the global
discriminatory mechanisms in
order to benefit all the nations
of the world,” Ahmadinejad
said in his address to parlia-
ment.
“The June 12 epic is the
start of major change in Iran
and in the world.”
His re-election on June 12
had set off massive street pro-
tests, deadly violence, a raft
of political trials, increasing
divisions among the ruling
elite and further isolated Iran
on the world stage.
About 30 people were
killed in the violence, hun-
dreds wounded and around
2,000 initially arrested, while
around 110 have been put on
trial.
Ahmadinejad’s presidency
was formally endorsed on
Monday by supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who
described him as “courageous,
astute and hardworking.”
Iran’s judiciary chief
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi
Shahrudi had on Tuesday
urged rival political groups to
unite, saying: “I hope they do
what is best for the revolution,
the regime, and Islam and
disappoint the enemies.”
White House spokesman
Robert Gibbs on Tuesday
acknowledged Ahmadinejad
as the “elected” president
of Iran, but stopped short of
declaring him the “legitimate”
president.
“He’s the elected leader,”
Gibbs said, adding however
that Washington had no plans
to congratulate the firebrand
leader on his inauguration.
arrive at
Hangar 25
Paula Abdul quits
in Burbank,
Under President Barack
California ‘American Idol’
Obama, the United States has
yesterday. LOS ANGELES: US singer Paula Abdul
made overtures for dialogue
with Iran after three decades has announced she will not be return-
of severed ties, but Teheran ing for a ninth season as a judge on the
has failed to respond and hugely popular television reality show
vowed to press on with its American Idol.
nuclear work. Abdul dropped her bombshell via a
Amnesty International’s Tuesday night “tweet” – a message on
secretary general Irene Khan the microblogging service Twitter.
said Iran, a country of 71 mil- “With sadness in my heart, I’ve
lion people, was caught in a decided not to return to #IDOL,” she
spiralling cycle of repression. wrote. “I’ll miss nurturing all the new
– AFP talent, but most of all ... being a part of
a show that I helped from day
1 become an international
phenomenon.”
She did not give a reason
for her departure, but read-
Pricetag to raise a child ing the tea leaves about her
future on the show had been
in US – RM1,049,652 a popular pastime in US en-
tertainment circles. – AFP
WASHINGTON: A middle-income family can expect to Four shot dead
spend US$$291,570 (RM1,049,652 million) including
inflation to raise a child born in 2008 to adulthood, the at Pennsylvania
government estimated on Tuesday, up slightly from the gym
estimate made a year ago. BRIDGEVILLE: A man
The estimate covers food, shelter and other neces- walked into a suburban
sities for a child to age 18, said the annual report by the Pittsburgh gym on Tuesday
Agriculture Department. The figure does not include the evening and opened fire in
cost of childbirth or college. a Latin dance class, killing
Housing accounts for one-third of expenditures on three women before turn-
children. Food accounts for 16%, the same as child care ing his weapon on himself
and education, said the Expenditures on Children by and taking his own life,
Families report. police said.
Last year, the USDA estimated it would cost Allegheny County
US$269,040 (RM968,544) to raise a child born in 2007 Police Superintendent
to age 18, including inflation. The USDA has made the Charles Moffatt told
estimates since 1960, when the estimated cost was reporters outside the L.A.
US$25,300 (RM91,080). The department said it planned Fitness Centre gym in
to have an updated “Cost of Raising a Child Calculator” Collier Township, about 16
on the Internet soon. km south of Pittsburgh,
Annual spending for child-rearing ranges from that the gunman entered
US$11,610 (RM41,796) to US$13,480 (RM48,528) for the gym and opened fire
a middle-income, two-parent family, the USDA said. in a rampage that left at
– Reuters least 10 people wounded.
began shooting,” Moffatt said, adding
that police found two guns at the
scene. Moffatt said the three victims
were all women and that there were
between 60 and 70 people at the facil-
ity at the time of the shooting. Early
media reports said there were five
dead. – Reuters
Placenta trade thrives
in China despite ban
BEIJING: Hospitals in China are engag-
ing in a thriving trade in fresh human
placentas, seen as a source of nutri-
tion, despite a government ban, state
media reported yesterday. A recent
investigation showed that placentas
sell for up to 250 yuan (RM130) each,
even though the health ministry pro-
hibited the business more than four
years ago, the Global Times said.
“(They) are rich in nutrition and
good for human health,” said a doctor
surnamed Kong who retired in 2006
from the department of gynaecology
at a hospital in northeast China’s Hei-
longjiang province. “I have eaten them
several times,” she said according to
the paper. Some Chinese believe that
placentas increase the body’s resist-
ance to disease and are especially
good for those with frail health, ac-
cording to the paper. – AFP
Sarkozy sent bullet
in threat letter
PARIS: French authorities have inter-
cepted a threatening letter containing
a large calibre hunting bullet addressed
to President Nicolas Sarkozy, officials
said yesterday. French anti-terror police
have opened an investigation after the
letter was discovered on Tuesday in a
mail sorting station in the southern city
of Montpellier. The threat appears to be
the latest in a series of such warnings
sent to right-wing personalities in recent
years. The author warns the “old guard”
in Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party that an
“accident” might befall them. – AFP