London/Seoul: North Korea has asked embassies to consider moving staff out and warned it cannot guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10, Britain said, amid high tension and a war of words on the Korean peninsula. The requests come on the heels of declarations by the government of the secretive communist state that real conflict is inevitable, because of what it terms "hostile" US troop exercises with South Korea and UN sanctions imposed over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing.
"The current question was not whether, but when a war would break out on the peninsula," because of the "increasing threat from the United States", China's state news agency Xinhua quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying. It added that diplomatic missions should consider evacuation.
North Korea would provide safe locations for diplomats in accordance with international conventions, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a notification to embassies. Britain said its embassy in Pyongyang had been told by the North Korean government it "would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict from April 10th".
"We believe they have taken this step as part of their continuing rhetoric that the US poses a threat to them," Britain's Foreign Office said. It said it had "no immediate plans" to evacuate its embassy and accused the North Korean government of raising tensions "through a series of public statements and other provocations"....
10:32 PM, Apr 05, 2013
The government on Friday blocked two Pakistani diplomats from travelling to Jaipur for the ongoing Literature Festival in the city. Sources said that the decision was taken after consulting the Centre. The two officials had applied for permission to travel to Jaipur and Ajmer but will now have to miss it. ...
08:51 AM, Jan 25, 2013
Cairo: Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa is calling for attacks on US diplomats and an escalation of protests against an anti-Islam video that triggered a wave of demonstrations in Muslim countries. In a statement released on Tuesday, Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb praised the killing of Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. The group...
04:26 PM, Sep 18, 2012
New Delhi: Investigations seem to suggest that the nature of explosives used in attacks in Thailand and India, where an Israeli diplomat's wife was targeted, are different. According to Home Ministry sources, while C4, which is a military explosive, was used in Thailand, nitrate and potassium based bomb was used in Delhi. While there is no headway in the investigations in Georgia, there are few clues in India and Thailand....
05:52 PM, Feb 16, 2012
Tel Aviv: The terror attack in India, a botched attempt in Georgia and three blasts in Thailand have prompted Israeli diplomats across the world to be extra vigilant, and a former security official advised them to "sleep with a gun" under their pillow. Being alert is the first order of business, said former Shin Bet official Nimrod Firstenberg. Shin Bet is Israel's internal security agency. Firstenberg, who has been on...
12:08 PM, Feb 15, 2012
Paris: France is temporarily downsizing its embassy in Iran and will bring some employees and their families home, a French official said on Saturday. The move is the latest fallout from protesters' storming of the British embassy in Tehran and adds to the international pressure on the Iranian government. The French diplomatic official described the decision as a preventative security measure, and acknowledged it was a response to the attack...
02:11 AM, Dec 04, 2011
Tehran: Iran called on the West to avoid a deepening diplomatic crisis following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying it was an issue between Tehran and London alone, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Britain closed its embassy after Tuesday's incursion by hardline youths and expelled all Iranian diplomats from London. The fallout for Tehran spread when several other countries recalled their envoys, including France, Germany, Italy and...
12:47 AM, Dec 04, 2011
Tehran: Iran prepared a high-profile welcome for its diplomats expelled on Friday from London in retaliation for attacks on British compounds in Tehran that Western leaders claim were sanctioned by Tehran's ruling elite. The official reception planned for the roughly two dozen diplomats and their families - including a rare invitation to foreign media to cover the airport event - apparently was designed to send a message that Iran will...
02:22 AM, Dec 03, 2011
London: Britain has expelled five Libyan diplomats to protest at the Libyan government's actions and because they could pose a threat to national security, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday. "To underline our grave concern at the regime's behaviour, we have today taken steps to expel five diplomats at the Libyan embassy in London, including the military attache," Hague told parliament. "The government also judged that, were those individuals...
08:08 PM, Mar 30, 2011
Washington: Amid controversy generated by the release of secret cables by WikiLeaks, including those from US embassy in New Delhi, the Obama Administration has said that American diplomats in India are doing their job just like their counterparts here. "Our diplomats do what diplomats do, and what we do in a country like India is no different than what Indian diplomats do in our country," State Department spokesman P J...
11:51 AM, Dec 18, 2010
New Delhi: Days after a senior Indian diplomat was asked by security staff at a US airport if they could check his turban, US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer Wednesday met representatives of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in New Delhi and assured them that the US will strike a balance between religious sensitivities and security needs of travelers. The US envoy met some representatives of the Akali Dal at his...
06:28 PM, Dec 15, 2010
Washington: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described India as a "self-appointed front-runner" for a permanent UNSC seat and directed US envoys to seek minute details about Indian diplomats stationed at the United Nations headquarters, according to classified documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday. In a potentially damaging disclosure, the whistle-blower website released a "secret" cable issued by Clinton on July 31, 2009, as part of its massive leak of a...
07:11 PM, Nov 29, 2010
In addition to the numerous controversies surrounding the Games, African diplomats have now complained that Australia and New Zealand have been provided with better accommodation arrangements. ...
12:11 PM, Sep 26, 2010
Abdul Khaliq Farahi was to take over as his country's ambassador in Oct. ...
09:17 PM, Sep 22, 2008
The plan to expel the diplomats came after Russia's refusal to extradite the main suspect. ...
11:41 PM, Jul 16, 2007
An airliner burst into flames upon landing in Indonesia. A number of Australian govt officials, media persons were on-board. ...
07:46 AM, Mar 07, 2007
Pakistan has barred them from traveling out of Islamabad without prior permission. ...
09:07 AM, Jan 02, 2007
Dina Khan slammed the claims made by Musharraf in his recently-published memoirs
In the Line of Fire. ...
05:17 PM, Oct 03, 2006
Indian diplomats have rubbished Musharraf's claim that India's N-programme has roots in AQ Khan's network. ...
09:29 PM, Sep 26, 2006
