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jp0002676
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Thailand's marijuana festival has visitors on a high
|
BURIRAM, THAILAND - A Buddhist monk fishes out a vial of cannabis oil from his robe and puts a drop under his tongue — one of many flocking to a weed festival in northeastern Thailand, where excitement is building over a medical marijuana boom. Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes last year, joining a growing list of governments including Canada, Australia, Israel and more than half the U.S. states. The global market is forecast to reach tens of billions of dollars in under a decade, but slow-moving implementation of the Thai law has lagged behind a wave of local enthusiasm. A political party has endorsed the plant’s benefits while marijuana-themed conferences and panels have sprung up across Thailand, with the three-day festival in Buriram town being the latest showcase for the drug’s uses. The “Pan Buriram” (Buriram Strain) festival, ending Sunday, is a first for the sleepy town located about five hours northeast of Bangkok and known mainly for its football and motor sports competitions. Chaivisit Visitvekin, 67, a monk, was one of thousands who showed up and stood in line to file documents with the Ministry of Health as part of an amnesty for those already using cannabis for pain relief. He said he was taking it for shoulder pain among other ailments. “I used it before and had no side effects,” he said. The atmosphere on the festival’s opening day reflected the mix of caution and excitement over the legislation of medical marijuana in junta-run Thailand. Armed police lingered as Bob Marley songs pumped out over stereos, vendors sold rolling papers and pipes, and the pungent whiff of marijuana filled the outer fringes of the grounds. Lecturers addressed attendees on everything from “the four cannabis varieties” to “quality control” in air-conditioned tents that displayed large marijuana plants. Vendors also showed off fertilizers as well as lighting and greenhouse equipment for those seeking to grow the plant themselves. Recent graduate Surrerat Ruangnoy said she used marijuana to help treat migraines, adding that she hopes the traditional stigma surrounding the drug will ease as a result of such events. “At the festival I saw old people and I took pictures and will show them to my parents,” the 26-year-old said. Buriram is the northeastern stronghold of the Bhumjaithai Party, which ran in last month’s election on a platform of legalizing marijuana and allowing households to grow six plants each. The mega-wealthy Newin Chidchob, a founding member of Bhumjaithai who remains influential in the party and runs the town’s sporting empire, presided over the festival. He said Saturday that the purpose of the event is to help Thais “understand and get access to the benefits of cannabis.” Bhumjaithai is seen as a key coalition partner in the next government after the March 24 vote in which both the junta-backed party and its main rival claimed victory. Full election results are expected by May 9, but Bhumjaithai has said it will not join any government that does not support its policies. Though Thai authorities plan to tightly regulate the marijuana sector for the first five years, Newin predicted the next government will speed up the process. He also pointed to the long-standing use of marijuana in traditional medicine amid ongoing disputes over the plant’s actual health benefits. The secretary-general of The Union of Thai Traditional Medicine Society attended the festival and said he joined Bhumjaithai about a year ago because of its pro-marijuana stance. “It (cannabis-infused medicine) has been used since Buddha’s era,” Sukasom Amratisha said Saturday, standing by a table of sample recipes with plastic marijuana leaves as props. Under the law 16 types of traditional formulas are allowed. Some participants see the festival as part of a shift in conservative mind-sets in Thailand. “The stigma of cannabis is changing,” said Ryan Doran, an American marijuana expert advising Thai farmers. “I’ve never thought I could be around so many (Thai) police and so much marijuana and not be in handcuffs.”
|
u.s .;drugs;thailand;festival;cannabis
|
jp0002677
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Senior North Korean negotiator calls U.S. national security adviser John Bolton 'dim-sighted'
|
One of North Korea’s top nuclear negotiators with the United States has served up mild criticism of remarks by White House national security adviser John Bolton, calling him “dim-sighted” — the second condemnation of a top U.S. official in days. On Saturday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency cited First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as criticizing Bolton over a recent interview with Bloomberg News. In the interview, Bolton said the U.S. would need “a real indication” that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to give up his nuclear weapons before Trump will meet with him for a third summit. “The president is fully prepared to have a third summit if he can get a real deal,” Bolton said in the interview. Choe characterized Bolton’s remarks as “nonsense” and said the North had never expected that the top White House official, long a target of Pyongyang, “would ever make a reasonable remark.” “Bolton’s remarks make me wonder whether they sprang out of incomprehension of the intentions of the top leaders of the DPRK and the U.S. or whether he was just trying to talk with a certain sense of humor for his part,” she said. “All things considered, his word has no charm in it and he looks dim-sighted to me.” DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name. The remarks were relatively mild for a figure whom the North has in the past described as “human scum” and a “bloodsucker,” and appeared to highlight Pyongyang’s frustration with deadlocked nuclear negotiations. Earlier in the week, the North tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the negotiations. In a statement released Thursday by the North Korean Foreign Ministry and carried by the KCNA news agency, a top official blasted Pompeo, who it said had “spouted reckless remarks hurting the dignity of our supreme leadership,” a reference to Kim. Still, as evidenced by the mild tone, it shows the North is still reining in any harsh rhetoric toward the U.S. and directly criticizing President Donald Trump as it seeks to keep the talks alive. Kim and Trump have held two summits, the first in Singapore last June and the second in Vietnam in February, in part over Kim’s demands for immediate sanctions relief.
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump;john bolton;kim-trump summit
|
jp0002678
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Indian poll watchdog pulls plug on web series featuring Narendra Modi
|
NEW DELHI - Weeks after it banned a Bollywood film and clamped down on a TV channel devoted to the right-wing leader, India’s poll watchdog on Saturday ordered producers to stop streaming a web series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Election Commission of India — an autonomous body tasked with overseeing the world’s biggest democratic exercise — said the online web series was in violation of its rules. Under Indian election regulations, the publication of any content which is deemed as campaign material or propaganda is not allowed during the voting period. Any political advertising must also be approved by the election authorities so that all spending is accounted for. India’s mammoth six-week-long vote began on April 11 and will run until May 19, with results due on May 23. When it ordered a halt to the streaming of the online series, the commission said any biopic material which has the “potential to disturb the level playing field” should not be displayed until after the polls have closed. The series, titled “Modi: Journey of a Common Man” is produced by Eros Now and traces Modi’s journey from childhood to becoming the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy. Earlier this month, the commission banned the release of a flattering movie about Modi until after voting finishes. Days later it ordered a clampdown on NaMo TV, a channel showing 24-hour programs on Modi rallies, speeches, and even rap songs and dance routines devoted to the leader. The Election Commission said NaMo TV had to submit all of its content for approval. The Hindu nationalist Modi, 68, is seeking a tough re-election after storming to power in 2014. He often uses his humble upbringing as a tea-seller’s son to strike a chord with millions of poor voters. The commission — often accused of being ineffective — has been flooded with complaints since campaigning started in March. Last week, the Supreme Court told it to act tough on complaints of poll violations by political leaders.
|
india;election;politics;narendra modi
|
jp0002680
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
U.S. and allies to have 200 F-35s in Asia-Pacific region by 2025
|
HONOLULU - The United States and its allies will have over 200 F-35 stealth fighter jets deployed in the Asia-Pacific region by around 2025, according to Gen. Charles Brown, commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces. Brown presented the outlook during a recent interview at the headquarters of the Pacific Air Forces in the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu. He said China, which has been expanding its military power rapidly, is posing an “existential” threat to the United States. Noting that the Pacific Air Forces will have F-35A jets within a year, Brown expressed hope for enhancing their capabilities through joint exercises with the F-35s owned by Japan, South Korea and Australia. China has been strengthening its capabilities to strike at U.S. military bases in the Asia-Pacific region by fully deploying the Dongfeng-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Guam, for example. To counter the move, the Pacific Air Forces plan to adopt tactics that rely on the rapid movements of relatively small units, instead of intensively deploying troops at large bases. Brown said the “real key part” of the F-35 is not only its strike platform but also its sensor. With its sensor, the F-35 can provide helpful information for the U.S. forces’ decision-making and mission execution in times of contingencies, he said. Noting that Singapore is also interested in purchasing F-35s, Brown said the promotion of F-35 deployment by its allies and partner countries would give the United States “flexibility” in its tactics of keeping small units on the move. An Air Self-Defense Force F-35A fighter jet crashed during an exercise over the Pacific Ocean on April 9. A search is still underway for the pilot and the aircraft body. The crash came after the Japanese government unveiled in December last year a plan to procure more F-35 fighters to replace outdated F-15 jets. In fiscal 2019-2023, the country will purchase 45 F-35s.
|
china;u.s .;military;weapons;f-35
|
jp0002681
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Probe begins after large sums of cash are found at former Sudanese president's home
|
KHARTOUM - Sudan’s public prosecutor has begun investigating ousted President Omar al-Bashir on charges of money laundering and possession of large sums of foreign currency without legal grounds, a judicial source said Saturday. The source said that military intelligence had searched al-Bashir’s home and found suitcases loaded with more than $351,000 and €6 million, as well as 5 million Sudanese pounds. “The chief public prosecutor . . . ordered the (former) president detained and quickly questioned in preparation to put him on trial,” a judicial source said. “The public prosecution will question the former president in Kobar Prison,” the source added. Relatives could not be immediately reached Saturday for comment about the investigation. Al-Bashir, who is also being sought by the International Criminal Court over allegations of genocide in the country’s western Darfur region, was ousted on April 11 by the military following months of protests against his rule and had been held at a presidential residence. Al-Bashir’s family said earlier in the week that the former president had been moved to the high-security Kobar Prison in Khartoum. As president Bashir often played up his humble beginnings as the child of a poor farming family in Hosh Bannaga, a small village consisting mainly of mud houses on the eastern bank of the Nile some 150 km (93 miles) north of Khartoum. The Sudanese Professionals’ Association, leading the protests, has called for holding al-Bashir and members of his administration to account, a purge of corruption and cronyism and easing an economic crisis that worsened during al-Bashir’s last years in power. On Wednesday, Sudan’s transitional military council ordered the central bank to review financial transfers since April 1 and to seize “suspect” funds, according to state news agency SUNA. The council also ordered the “suspension of the transfer of ownership of any shares until further notice and for any large or suspect transfers of shares or companies to be reported” to authorities.
|
sudan;omar al-bashir;khartoum
|
jp0002682
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
China to show off new nuclear subs, destroyers for first time at fleet review marking navy's 70th anniversary
|
China will show off some of its new warships — including nuclear submarines and destroyers — for the first time during a massive maritime parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Navy on Tuesday. A total of 32 Chinese vessels and 39 aircraft will take part in the parade near the eastern port city of Qingdao, the state-run Global Times quoted Vice Adm. Qiu Yanpeng, deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, as saying at a news conference Saturday. “The PLA Navy ship and aircraft to be revealed are the Liaoning aircraft carrier, new types of nuclear submarines, new types of destroyers, as well as fighter aircraft,” Qiu said without elaborating. “Some vessels will make their public debut.” The fleet review is the latest example of military muscle-flexing by China, which has made building up its navy a top priority as it seeks to punch further into the Western Pacific and bolster its presence in the South and East China seas and near Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has overseen a massive military buildup, is expected to preside over the fleet review, which comes on the heels of a similar maritime parade last year in the disputed South China Sea that featured a total of 48 vessels and 76 planes, including the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, as well as nuclear submarines, guided-missile destroyers and fighter jets. It was not immediately clear if the country’s second carrier — its first domestically constructed — would also take part, though state media has played up stories about recent sea trials. The Global Times, citing an unidentified expert, said the new nuclear-powered submarine could be the Type 095 attack submarine, a new model of the Type 094 ballistic missile submarine or a new model of the Type 093 attack submarine. The expert said the new destroyer was “very likely” China’s first 10,000 ton-class destroyer, the Type 055. Qiu said more than 10 countries, including Japan, will take part in the fleet review. China has said the parade would also include ships from Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Vietnam — which has sparred with Beijing over their claims in the South China Sea. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwakya said last month that the Maritime Self-Defense Force would send a destroyer to visit from April 21 to 26, the first visit to the country by an MSDF vessel in seven years — amid thawing Sino-Japanese ties. While Qiu has also said that while more than 60 countries will send naval delegations, with more than 30 of them featuring major naval leaders, the U.S. is not sending any vessels or top officials. Instead, the Pentagon has said the U.S. Embassy’s defense attache office in Beijing will represent the United States at the events to be held between Monday and Thursday. The Chinese Navy, which has faced growing international scrutiny over its moves in contested waters and elsewhere in recent years, is using this year’s anniversary to reach out to its counterparts across the globe to present a friendlier image. On Saturday, Qiu reiterated Beijing’s stance that its armed forces are not a threat to anyone and that it will never “pursue hegemony.” Still, he said, China’s past history of invasions pointed to its need for a strong defense at sea. “A strong navy is essential for building a strong maritime country,” Qiu said. But the U.S. snub, apparently made out of concerns that China could have used the presence of American warships to bolster its international standing, could put something of a damper on any propaganda victory by Beijing. The U.S. decision comes amid a ramped-up pace of so-called freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) by American warships and aircraft in and over the disputed South China Sea. It also comes less than a year after the Pentagon announced last May that it was disinviting the Chinese Navy from taking part in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) drills — the world’s largest naval exercise. That announcement specifically pointed to China’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea as a reason for the cancelation. A month earlier, China deployed the first advanced anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles to some of its fortified islets in the waterway’s Spratly chain. Beijing has built up a series of military outposts in the South China Sea, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. Washington and Beijing have frequently jousted over the militarization of the South China Sea, where China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines all have competing claims. The U.S. does not maintain any claims there, but says its FONOPs are conducted globally with the aim of promoting freedom of navigation. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Philip Davidson said last month that the United States has observed a rise in Chinese military activity in the South China Sea area over the last year. Davidson declined to quantify the increased activity — nor would he say whether the number of FONOPs will increase or remain stable. “It’s building, it’s not reducing in any sense of the word,” Davidson was quoted as saying in Singapore on March 7 when asked about China’s military activities in the waterway. “There has been more activity with ships, fighters and bombers over the last year than in previous years, absolutely.”
|
china;u.s .;vietnam;philippines;military;disputed islands;south china sea;south china sea ruling
|
jp0002683
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Leica draws China backlash with video invoking Tiananmen crackdown
|
SHANGHAI - Leica Camera AG of Germany is the latest foreign company to spark a backlash in China over marketing material seen as offending local sensibilities, this time for a video that re-creates scenes seemingly from China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The reaction was swift: After appearing on various websites Thursday, by Friday morning China time the word Leica in English or Mandarin had been banned from the microblogging platform Weibo for “violating laws, regulations or the Weibo community guidelines.” Some Weibo commenters lambasted the company, while others left candle emojis — a common symbol of remembrance of victims of Tiananmen Square, an incident Beijing has scrubbed from the country’s official history. The five-minute video, titled “The Hunt,” celebrates Western photographers documenting conflicts in foreign countries with their Leica cameras, even as they’re threatened with personal harm. While the commercial jumps between different scenarios, its main thread follows a photographer who captured the iconic image, known as “Tank Man,” of a lone Chinese protester standing in front of a line of army tanks. Leica joins a growing list of foreign consumer brands that have found themselves on the wrong side of political or cultural sensitivities in China, as the world’s biggest group of consumers flex their might. Companies from Marriott International Inc. to Delta Air Lines Inc. have had to apologize for listing Tibet and Taiwan as nations on their websites, while Italian luxury house Dolce & Gabbana is still blocked from local e-commerce sites after an ad deemed to mock Chinese shoppers went viral last November. The camera-maker — unlike Dolce & Gabbana — did not release the video on Chinese social media channels. Still, the film could have costly implications for the German company as the Chinese government is intensifying its campaign to scrub the domestic internet ahead of the 30th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown this year. Like many western brands, Leica is counting on the growing disposable income of the Chinese middle class to drive sales. Its cameras are sold officially in 13 locations across China, according to its website, and it has a tie-up with Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. for its camera technology to be used in Huawei smartphones. Leica has reportedly distanced itself from the video, which was produced by agency F/Nazca Saatchi Saatchi. Although the video ends with a flash of the Leica logo, company spokeswoman Emily Anderson told the South China Morning Post that it was not an officially sanctioned marketing film commissioned by the company. Leica “must therefore distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn,” Anderson said, according to SCMP. Anderson did not immediately respond to emails or calls Friday. The agency said in a statement on Saturday that it has worked for the representative for Leica in Brazil since 2012, adding that it has “immense pride” over the commercial that was developed together with its client. F/Nazca “would never harmed it’s huge reputation by creating, producing and airing a work without the proper approval of it’s client,” it said, declining to comment on Anderson’s comment as its work with the brand is restricted to the Brazilian market.
|
china;rights;tiananmen square;anniversaries
|
jp0002684
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/20
|
U.S. arrests former marine connected to North Korea Embassy raid in Spain
|
WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities on Thursday arrested a former U.S. Marine who is a member of a group that allegedly raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid in February and stole electronics, according to two sources familiar with the arrest. Christopher Ahn was arrested and had been expected to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Los Angles, according to a law enforcement official and a source close to the group. Separately, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, the leader of the group, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement issue. In a statement to The Post, Hong’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, said he was “dismayed that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against U.S. persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime.” Ahn, who was to appear in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, was involved in the group’s 2017 evacuation of the nephew of Kim Jong Un from Macau when potential threats to his life surfaced, according to Wolosky. The nephew was the son of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader’s exiled half brother who was assassinated in a nerve-gas attack in a Malaysian airport that same year. Kim Jong Nam was widely believed to have been killed by the regime, making his son a likely target. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment. In April, investigators said the intruders, self-professed members of a group seeking the overthrow of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, removed computers and hard drives from the embassy before fleeing to the United States, where they handed the material to the FBI. Sources said the material had been returned by Spanish authorities to Pyongyang’s mission. A group of at least 10 people stormed into the embassy in February, restrained and physically beat some personnel and held them hostage for hours before fleeing, the Spanish court said earlier. The anti-Kim group, which calls itself Cheolima Civil Defense, said the raid was not an attack and that it had been invited into the embassy. Three of the intruders took an embassy official into the basement during the raid and encouraged him to defect from North Korea, according to a detailed document made public on March 26 by the Spanish court. The document included the names of the leaders of the group, some of whom are believed to be in the United States, while others could have left for other countries. The court is seeking their extradition.
|
u.s .;north korea;espionage;spain;police
|
jp0002685
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
World's smallest baby boy, now a healthy 3.37 kilograms, discharged from Nagano hospital
|
NAGANO - A Japanese baby, who weighed just 258 grams (9.1 ounces) when he was born in October and is believed to be the smallest boy to have survived in the world, left hospital in good health Saturday. “After going home, I want the baby’s brothers and sister to hold him in their arms,” the mother, Toshiko Sekino, said. As of Friday, the baby, Ryusuke, weighed 3.37 kilograms (7 pounds 6 ounces) and is believed to have set a new record as the world’s smallest boy to survive, according to the Nagano Children’s Hospital. His father, Kohei Sekino, expressed his happiness, saying, “I was not expecting to be able to see him outside the hospital this quickly.” According to the University of Iowa’s Tiniest Babies Registry, the previous record holder was a baby boy born last year at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo weighing just 268 grams (9.4 ounces). That baby was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 20.
|
nagano;children
|
jp0002686
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
New operations center eyed for U.S. Air Force's Yokota base in western Tokyo
|
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force is considering building an Air and Space Operations Center (AOC) tasked with drawing up and implementing military operations at Yokota base in western Tokyo, U.S. military sources said. The new AOC will support decision-making by the commander of the 5th Air Force headquartered at Yokota when the force is granted the right to command and control military operations under certain conditions in times of conflict, according to the sources. If realized, the new AOC is expected to strengthen the 5th Air Force’s abilities to carry out operations and enable closer cooperation with the Self-Defense Force. Currently, the 5th Air Force, under the wing of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, does not have the right to control operations. It depends on the 613th AOC at the command of the PACAF in Hawaii for the planning and implementation of operations. If, for example, a military conflict occurs between the United States and China, however, there is the possibility of communications between the 613th AOC and the 5th Air Force being blocked due to cyberattacks and electromagnetic attacks. With possible military clashes with China and Russia in mind, the U.S. military has been scattering operational controls and increasing flexibility in the operations of its units. The planned establishment of the Yokota base AOC is believed to be part of the move. One U.S. military source said that it is important for the 5th Air Force to maintain its abilities to fulfill goals of its missions without losing its functions even under emergency situations, such as disruption of contact with the PACAF command. Under consideration is a plan to set up a small AOC at the Yokota base to help the 5th Air Force commander make decisions in collecting information and selecting attack targets, and grant control rights to enable timely operations of units in case of any emergencies, the source said. Another military source said the AOC may be given the right to make decisions on responses to small-scale conflicts, without needing to wait for orders from Hawaii. If an AOC is created at the Yokota base, cooperation with the SDF in real time would become easier, the source also said. An AOC is especially critical in enhancing air defense and missile defense capabilities that require prompt decision-making, the source said. In any case, the AOC at the Yokota base is expected to operate under the 613th AOC, informed sources said. The United States has been promoting an integrated air and missile defense, or IAMD, initiative, which is designed to comprehensively operate ground, maritime and air defense systems of its military and allied countries in order to counter missile and other threats efficiently. In its new defense guidelines released last December, the Japanese government also showed its plan to establish an IAMD system. The envisaged AOC at the Yokota base may be aimed at helping the two countries build IAMD capabilities, pundits said.
|
defense;security;u.s. military;yokota base;u.s.-japan relations
|
jp0002687
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
'I'm the happiest person on earth': Blind Japanese sailor completes nonstop Pacific crossing
|
FUKUSHIMA - A blind Japanese sailor on Saturday successfully completed a near two-month, nonstop voyage from San Diego to Fukushima Prefecture, making him the first person to make a blind sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Joined by a sighted navigator, it was 52-year-old Mitsuhiro Iwamoto’s second two-person attempt at the 14,000-kilometer journey — his first ended when his boat hit a whale and sank. “I didn’t give up and I made a dream come true. I’m the happiest person on earth,” Iwamoto said. According to the Japan Blind Sailing Association, Iwamoto is the first person in blind sailing, in which a sailor with a visual impairment steers a boat while a sighted navigator informs the person of the surrounding situation, to make a nonstop voyage across the Pacific. Iwamoto, a native of Kumamoto Prefecture currently living in San Diego, left the western U.S. city on Feb. 24 aboard his 12-meter boat Dream Weaver with navigator Doug Smith. Since his first attempt, Iwamoto has taken part in triathlon races to familiarize himself with swimming in open water and to help him overcome the traumatic 2013 sinking of his boat in the middle of the Pacific. He was traveling in the opposite direction on his failed attempt, starting off Fukushima Prefecture and aiming to finish in San Diego, with a Japanese navigator. His boat sank five days after leaving port and the two were rescued by the Self-Defense Forces. “We undertake this voyage not only for personal accomplishment, but to send a message that anything is possible when people come together,” Iwamoto wrote on his website. Iwamoto lost his sight at the age of 16. He and Smith made the voyage to raise money for charity and for efforts to prevent diseases that cause blindness.
|
fukushima;disability;san diego;sailing;mitsuhiro iwamoto;doug smith
|
jp0002688
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/20
|
U.S. to send deep-sea recovery ship to aid in finding crashed ASDF F-35A
|
WASHINGTON - Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya and U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan agreed Friday to step up cooperation both in the search for an F-35A fighter that crashed off Aomori Prefecture and in the investigation into the cause of the accident. Iwaya and Shanahan reached the agreement in a meeting at the Pentagon. Both countries are concerned about the implications of the next-generation aircraft being recovered by a rival like China or Russia as it could constitute a major military intelligence security breach. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Iwaya said Shanahan told him that the United States will dispatch a deep-sea search ship to the crash site in a joint effort with the Maritime Self-Defense Force to recover the bulk of the wreckage of the Lockheed Martin-designed aircraft. The plane went down on April 9 in the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern prefecture during an Air Self-Defense Force exercise. The pilot of the single-seat stealth jet remains missing and is presumed dead. Asked by a reporter about the possibility of China retrieving the crashed aircraft, Iwaya played down the odds of that happening. “We are continuing search activities under strict surveillance,” he said. “I don’t see such a possibility.” Despite the crash, Iwaya said Japan will proceed with planned F-35A fighter purchases from the United States. “At this point, we have no specific information that would lead to a change in our procurement plan,” he said. “We have no plan to alter the acquisition and deployment plan.” The defense chief also said he demanded the United States take measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents like the recent death of a U.S. serviceman and a Japanese woman in Okinawa Prefecture. Iwaya said it is “extremely regrettable” that such an incident occurred when the two governments are promoting the realignment of American troops in Japan, including a planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the country. The serviceman and the woman were found dead April 13 at an apartment in the town of Chatan. U.S. military sources have said the man may have killed the woman and then taken his own life. Shanahan apologized for the incident, saying it was a painful and regrettable case. Iwaya and Shanahan reaffirmed that relocating Futenma from a crowded residential area in Ginowan to the less-populated coastal district of Henoko in Nago is the “only solution” to avoid the safety and noise concerns that have plagued the base.
|
military;weapons;f-35;u.s.-japan relations;takeshi iwaya;patrick shanahan
|
jp0002689
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/20
|
U.S. to defend Japan from cyberattack under security pact
|
WASHINGTON - The foreign and defense chiefs of Japan and the United States confirmed on Friday for the first time that Article 5 of the two countries’ security treaty, which sets out Washington’s obligations to defend territories under Tokyo’s jurisdiction, could apply to cyberattacks against Japan. This was clarified in a joint statement adopted at so-called two-plus-two security talks held among the ministers in Washington the same day. The officials affirmed that “a cyberattack could, in certain circumstances, constitute an armed attack for the purpose of Article 5” of the security treaty, the statement said, adding that a decision as to whether a cyberattack would be covered by the article will be made “on a case-by-case basis, and through close consultations” between the two countries. While refraining from citing specific countries, the statement implicitly expressed concerns over rapid technological progress made by China and Russia in the new fields. “Malicious cyber activity presents an increasing threat to the security and prosperity of both the United States and Japan,” it said. Japan-U.S. collaboration in cross-domain operations involving the conventional air, ground and maritime defense fields, and the new domains, is one of the “core objectives” to advance the two nations’ defense relationship, the statement added. It also said the officials highlighted space, cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum as priority areas to better prepare the alliance for cross-domain operations. Friday’s two-plus-two meeting was the first since August 2017. Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya took part, while the U.S. side was made up of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. At a joint news conference after the meeting, Pompeo criticized China, which has been boosting activities in cyberspace and other fields. Pompeo said that he and Shanahan shared their concerns with Japan that “geopolitical competition and coercive attempts to undermine international rules, norms and institutions — especially from China — present challenges to the alliance and to continued peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.” Kono said that Japan and the United States will further strengthen their alliance by enhancing bilateral cooperation, including in the new fields. The defense cooperation guidelines that were revised in April 2015 only said that “the United States will provide appropriate support to Japan” in dealing with cyberattacks against the Asian ally. This time, the two countries more clearly showed their intention to work together by saying that Article 5 of the security treaty could apply to cyberattacks against Japan. Beyond the cyber domain, the two-plus-two joint statement also expressed the ministers’ “serious concern” over “unilateral coercive attempts to alter the status quo” in the East China Sea and the South China Sea — a not-so-oblique reference to China. Tokyo and Washington also reconfirmed that the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea are covered by Article 5 of the security treaty. The islands are claimed by China and Taiwan. The joint statement stressed a policy of supporting Southeast Asian countries in a bid to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region. “The Japan-U.S. alliance is now the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity of the entire Indo-Pacific region,” Kono said. “Both Japan and the United States will conduct joint trainings and capability buildings and others with partner countries in order to jointly expand their presence in the region.” Speaking at the same joint news conference after the meeting, Iwaya requested cooperation from the United States in investigating the crash of an F-35A fighter in the Pacific during an Air Self-Defense Force exercise earlier this month. Despite the accident, Shanahan expressed appreciation for Japan’s continued procurement of F-35s and other U.S. assets as part of efforts to promote interoperability. The top officials welcomed diplomatic efforts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump “to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” They stressed the need to realize at an early time the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the densely populated city of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to the Henoko coastal district of Nago within the prefecture. The plan is “the only solution” that avoids the continued use of the Futenma base, they said in the statement. In an apparent reference to a case in which a U.S. Navy sailor allegedly stabbed a Japanese woman to death in the Okinawa town of Chatan earlier this month, Kono said it is necessary to reduce the burden on local residents by moving step by step to prevent accidents and other incidents involving U.S. servicemen in Okinawa and deal with issues related to the bilateral status of forces agreement.
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china;military;senkakus;cyberattacks;u.s.-japan relations;taro kono;mike pompeo;takeshi iwaya;patrick shanahan
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jp0002690
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Reiwa topped Japan's new era name candidates after final push by Abe
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at the end of a meeting of all Cabinet ministers on April 1 that he wanted Reiwa to be the name of the next era, and his preference was approved by other participants, according to a summary of the meeting released Friday. Abe’s final push for Reiwa came despite one minister’s argument that the name sounds similar to Showa, the era that preceded Heisei, which will end on April 30, the summary showed. At a separate Cabinet meeting later on April 1, it was formally decided that Reiwa would be the name of the era to start on May 1. On Friday, the government also released summaries of other era-related meetings held on April 1. None of the summaries identified who proposed Reiwa. Earlier on April 1, the government held a meeting with nine experts — including Nobel Prize-winning scientist Shinya Yamanaka — and met with the heads and deputy heads of both chambers of the Diet to hear their opinions about era name candidates. At the meeting with the experts, the government explained the sources of the candidates. All nine experts were in favor of proposals cited from Japanese classical literature, with eight of the nine supporting Reiwa, according to the summaries. The Diet heads and deputy heads generally noted that all six candidates were appropriate. One said it was fine to leave the decision to the Cabinet. But another was negative about an era name that indicates a specific season, apparently referring to Reiwa, which is derived from a poem about plum blossoms in early spring. The poem is included in “Manyoshu,” the oldest existing collection of Japanese poems, according to the summaries. It had already come to be known that the remark was made by Upper House Vice President Akira Gunji, who is not a member of the ruling camp led by Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. At the meeting of all ministers, the government explained the candidate names and opinions heard from the experts and the Diet leaders. Four of 10 ministers who made comments at the meeting supported Reiwa, with one of them indicating that it is good for an era name to come from “Manyoshu,” the summaries showed. Nine ministers favored Japanese literature as sources, while one minister pushed for a Chinese literature reference. In winding up the discussions at the meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga proposed leaving the final decision to Abe. “Based on the opinions from the experts and Cabinet members, I want Reiwa, which is derived from ‘Manyoshu,’ a Japanese literature classic, to be the new era name,” Abe said. The government is set to compile detailed minutes from the series of meetings that will include the five candidates other than Reiwa and identify the speakers, but the records will be kept secret for 30 years in principal. It does not plan to reveal the proposers of Reiwa and other candidates even when the minutes are released.
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shinzo abe;cabinet;reiwa era
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jp0002691
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Former Japanese Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka dies at 79
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Former Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka has died of cancer, people close to him said Saturday. He was 79. A native of Kagoshima, Yasuoka served as justice minister in 2000 and again in 2008. He died at a Tokyo hospital Friday afternoon. Yasuoka was a lawyer before being elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1972. He served 13 terms in the Lower House before he retired from politics in 2017 to be treated for pancreatic cancer. The lawyer-turned-politician also served as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s constitutional revision panel, becoming a key figure in pushing forward Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to revise the Constitution. He also held other senior positions within the ruling LDP and the Lower House relating to the revision of the country’s Constitution. He also strived to introduce a lay judge system in Japan. The first court session attended by lay judges took place a decade ago in 2009.
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ldp;obituary;okiharu yasuoka
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jp0002693
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Exploring rural Japan from the comfort of your living room with 'The Inaka Project'
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Video games usually have some level of conflict or pressure — solve this puzzle, blow up this machine, defeat this monster and so forth. That’s not the case with Inasa Fujio ’s “The Inaka Project,” a first-person narrative game that leisurely takes players through Japan’s idyllic countryside. Fujio’s game amassed nearly 60,000 upvotes in Reddit’s largest gaming forum , as well as hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter , when snippets of gameplay footage from “The Inaka Project” made its way onto social media and users realized the game’s potential could be used as another way of “visiting” rural Japan. The discussion on Reddit included users such as Eruptflail who were hoping to use the game as a way to venture back on past memories. “It reminds me so much of where I used to live in Japan,” Eruptflail wrote. “Lots of these scenes felt so much like I was back there in my tiny little machi (town).” Another user, VRisNOTdead, asked whether it would ever be possible to play the game in virtual reality. Fujio admits being a little surprised by the reaction to date. “My Twitter account was there just for logging my progress and it had around 100 dedicated followers for a year,” Fujio says. “Next thing I know, thousands of people are seeing my work and giving positive feedback.” #gamedev #unrealengine #indiegame #indiedev #gameart pic.twitter.com/7j3rKq06uO — Inasa🌻 (@Inasa_Fujio) March 19, 2019 Fujio works under a pseudonym and the creator’s background remains something of a mystery, but he reveals that he was inspired by a summer spent at his grandmother’s house in Osaka where he spent time away from the hustle and bustle of city life. “Popular tourist locations are flashy and exciting,” he says. “Those places have an appeal of their own but I just loved walking around residential districts and farms. I then decided to make a game to replicate that experience.” Gamers in Japan may recognize the game’s similarity to Japan-based developer Millennium Kitchen’s “Boku no Natsuyasumi” series, with “The Inaka Project” placing a special emphasis on exploration. “‘ Boku no Natsuyasumi ’ was the biggest inspiration for me,” Fujio says. “It’s a pretty popular game in Japan but, sadly, it was never localized outside of Japan, and so people who know about this game in the West are rare. The premise is similar: walking around the countryside talking to people until the day ends.” Fujio’s game lets players walk past Japan’s rice paddy fields or ride a quiet train past traditional homes with tiled roofs. The game aims to be a relaxing and immersive adventure, with the bulk of the experience revolving around the player partaking in postman duties — delivering mail from house to house, chatting with locals and discovering forest shrines. Inaka Project, explore the Japanese countryside as a part-time postman while delivering letters and interacting with the local residents, spirits, and yokai. Show @Inasa_Fujio some love ❤️ https://t.co/zR5lrnf9QY #indiegame #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday pic.twitter.com/0560qxzLQC — Octocurio 🐙 (@octocurio) March 1, 2019 Repose and tranquility seem to be a common component of games within the so-called walking simulator genre. Similar to previous titles like “Gone Home,” “Firewatch” and “The Stanley Parable,” walking simulators are known as a cost-effective way of making indie games, offering a chance for new developers to try creating a world without having to fill it with enemies or complex mechanics. “Most of my game development knowledge comes from YouTube tutorials and pre-existing templates,” Fujio says. “One thing many people don’t realize is that I am not a game developer nor studying game design at school. I’m studying illustration currently and am studying 3D modeling in my free time.” Fujio plans on avoiding stress-related anxieties that often arise in game development as a result of outside pressures. Like the protagonist in “The Inaka Project,” Fujio hopes to maintain a peaceful approach to development and take in the scenery, despite the newfound demands from eager users on Reddit and Twitter. “My work schedule hasn’t changed at all after everything, though,” he says. “I’m sticking true to my intention of keeping it as a relaxing hobby and something I work on whenever I feel like it.”
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japan pulse;the inaka life
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jp0002694
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
NHK docudrama reveals telephone scam tactics
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Thai police last month raided a residence in Pattaya where an alleged telephone swindling operation was taking place. They discovered 15 Japanese nationals suspected of calling retired people in Japan and fooling them into purchasing electronic money. Japanese police say they will arrest the suspects after they are deported. The sketchy quality of the reports deepened the general confusion about these kinds of telephone scams, which have been in the news for years and continue to be an ongoing problem . It wasn’t just a lack of information on why the men were making calls from Thailand, but the whole nature of these kinds of swindles, which prey on older people who believe stories that, on the surface, sound ridiculous. Even when media outlets go into detail on a case, readers and viewers will likely scratch their heads. The basic idea is to get a targeted person on the phone and pretend to be a close relative in serious trouble — traffic accident, work-related disaster — whose resolution requires an immediate infusion of cash. Don’t these victims recognize the voice of their own flesh and blood? How could they be so gullible? Obviously, there was a crucial element in these kinds of reports that can’t be conveyed through conventional journalism. It required something more and, until NHK aired a docudrama on March 23 called “ Sagi no Ko ” (“Young Swindlers”), that extra something was missing. One of the characters in “Sagi no Ko” is a junior high school boy who becomes a “receiver” for a cell of swindlers. It is the lowest position in the cell hierarchy. His job is to collect the cash in person after the victim agrees to resolve the fabricated problem. This task is the only face-to-face encounter in the transaction, so if the receiver is caught it is easier for him if he is a minor, since he can’t be prosecuted as an adult. Also, teenagers are more susceptible to threats from senior members of the cell. At first, the nonlinear narrative made for perplexing viewing. It starts at the end of the story, when the receiver, Kazuto, is caught by the police while picking up an envelope of money from an elderly woman. From there, the drama ricochets back-and-forth through time, interrupted occasionally by interviews with actual former cell members who elaborate on certain points. However, this structure soon becomes useful in describing not only how such swindles are carried out, but the socioeconomic circumstances that make them successful. After Kazuto and his 23-year-old monitor, Toyama, are arrested, the narrative proceeds through their court trials and recollections of how they became involved. Cells are set up by crime bosses and installed in rental spaces completely isolated from the outside world. The cells work independently, with the top earners cold calling numbers from lists of names purchased from legally dodgy data supply companies. The callers’ success depends on their ability to improvise, to adapt instantly to something in the interlocutor’s voice and then lead the victim into the trap they’re setting. Once the victim is hooked, the receiver goes to the person’s house to collect the cash as the caller keeps reassuring the victim over the phone. A monitor watches from a distance, on the lookout for police. The cell is self-contained and only contacts the boss when the scam is complete. The cell chief gives all their proceeds to the boss, who then removes a large portion and gives it back to the cell. The chief decides how much each member is paid. Although there are still questions NHK did not answer (for instance, what is to prevent the cell from shorting the boss?), it’s clear from the amount of money these operations take in that the structure is very effective, especially in terms of thwarting police. Cells are nimble and move all the time, leaving no trace of their previous existence to provide the authorities with clues. Most cell members are youths disillusioned with or left off the education track, a cliche that NHK exploits, but it does provide a plausible rationale. When the crime boss recruits, he says he is redistributing wealth being hoarded by retired seniors, a claim that isn’t far off the mark. For years the government has been unsuccessfully trying to get the savings “sleeping” in older people’s possession into circulation. This explanation alleviates some of the self-reproach incurred when cheating people of their life savings, but the main appeal is the group dynamic of the cell. Kazuto doesn’t care so much about the money he’s making. As he tells an official at his detention center, he liked scamming because it was fun to do things with people he called his friends. Callers can go through hundreds of names before finding someone who doesn’t automatically hang up when they pretend to be a relative, and usually it’s because the relationship with that person is fraught with remorse. An effective caller takes advantage of that remorse and, in the drama, the couple who falls for the scam is estranged from their son, so when “he” calls for help, they see a means of reconciliation. After the scam is revealed, however, they are the targets of public derision. The husband commits suicide. The wife survives in a fog of incomprehension, still believing she talked to her son on the phone. NHK’s dramatic license in this case is not only justified but necessary, as it points up the emotional manipulation at the heart of the swindle. Also justified was the melodramatic climax, when the chief of the cell, Daisuke, wracked with guilt, attempts to return the money to the widow and then turns himself in. In court, the prosecution accuses him of cynically blaming society for his transgression because he was raised in poverty by a single mother. So many people in the same situation “properly” work hard to overcome their situation. People like me can’t get ahead like you, Daisuke tells the court, no matter what we do. For that reason, he says, this kind of crime will always be around.
|
poverty;nhk;wealth;ore ore sagi;it 's me scam;young swindlers;petty crime
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jp0002695
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Fukushima soccer facility, repurposed after 3/11 disaster, fully reopens
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FUKUSHIMA - The J-Village national soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture resumed full operation Saturday, eight years after it was converted into an operational base to cope with the nuclear disaster that hit the prefecture in 2011. The facility, established in 1997, has already been selected as the starting point for the Japan leg of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic torch relay, a move aimed at highlighting the country’s efforts to recover from the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, that triggered the meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The torch relay will start at the facility in March 2020. Until March 2017, the training center was used as a logistics hub and a lodging facility for workers involved in the cleanup and other disaster response operations at the crippled facility located some 20 kilometers to the north. The operational base function has been moved to the power plant. The training complex has been renovated, and an indoor practice field and hotel with conference rooms have been added. A large part of the complex had already resumed operations by July 2018, with the exception of two playing fields. Also on Saturday, East Japan Railway Co. opened a new station near the J-Village. “I hope (the full reopening) will contribute to Fukushima’s revival,” said a 42-year-old woman arriving at the station on Saturday morning. The woman, who lives in the prefecture, was planning to visit the J-Village site.
|
fukushima;3.11;j-village
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jp0002696
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Japan's Imperial couple return to Tokyo after last trip outside capital before Emperor's abdication
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Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko returned to Tokyo on Friday after a three-day trip to Mie Prefecture for ceremonies at the Grand Shrines of Ise, where the Emperor reported his abdication set for April 30. About 60,000 people gathered along roads and railway tracks and at train stations to see the couple on their last trip outside of Tokyo as Emperor and Empress. On Wednesday, they arrived at Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Ujiyamada Station in the city of Ise, which hosts the shrine complex, to a welcome from a crowd of about 3,500. Despite light rain, some 1,500 people welcomed the arrival of the couple by taking part in a lantern procession near the main area of the inner shrine on Wednesday night. The couple visited the shrine complex on Thursday. As part of ceremonies related to the abdication, the Emperor brought along the Imperial sword and jewel, two of the family’s three sacred treasures. The last treasure, a mirror, is kept at the shrine. The couple’s only daughter, Sayako Kuroda, was present at the ceremonies as a priest of the shrine. After the key ceremonies, the Imperial Couple looked “deeply moved” and “relieved,” a close aide to them said. Later on Thursday, the couple traveled to Kashikojima, an island in the prefecture. During the train ride, they waved at people along the way, asking their aides to inform them if there were people outside. On Thursday night, Kuroda, who was marking her 50th birthday, had dinner with her parents at the hotel in Kashikojima where the Imperial Couple were staying. When they left Kashikojima Station on Friday, the couple smiled at people who had gathered to express their gratitude. During the Emperor’s 30 years on throne, the couple have made numerous trips around Japan, including trips to encourage people affected by natural disasters and pay tribute to war victims. Emperor Akihito assumed the throne on Jan. 7, 1989, and the country’s current Heisei Era started the following day. Heisei is set to end on April 30 and is to be followed by the start of the Reiwa Era on May 1.
|
emperor akihito;imperial family;empress michiko;abdication
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jp0002698
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/20
|
Body from March 2011 disaster identified from decade-old stamp
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SENDAI - The Miyagi Prefectural Police have said that a corpse discovered in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been identified as that of a 60-year-old woman from the Miyagi town of Onagawa. The identification was made with DNA samples from a postage stamp she mailed a decade ago, the police said Friday. According to the police, the skeletonized body was found on the sea surface near the seawall in Ishinomaki on April 9, 2011. The coastal city was hit by a massive tsunami the previous month following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the coast. The woman had sent the letter to a relative in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. The authorities gained access to the letter in March this year and found that the DNA found in the saliva on the stamp matched that of the corpse. The discovery brought the number of unidentified corpses from the disaster in Miyagi down to nine. Authorities are calling on citizens to provide whatever materials they have with links to missing people, noting that even items from a decade ago can lead to identifications.
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tsunami;tohoku;earthquakes;3.11;police
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jp0002699
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
India's debt-stricken Jet Airways halts all operations; 20,000 jobs in limbo
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MUMBAI - India’s debt-stricken Jet Airways halted all of its operations Wednesday after failing to secure emergency funding from lenders, leaving it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. “Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate today,” it said in statement. Jet had asked a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India to urgently provide 4 billion rupees ($57.5 million) but said that this had not been forthcoming. “This has been a very difficult decision but without interim funding, the airline is simply unable to conduct flight operations in a manner that delivers to the very reasonable expectations of its guests, employees, partners and service providers,” it added. The airline was once India’s second-biggest by market share but is on the brink of collapse with debts of more than $1 billion. Jet was operating just five planes on Wednesday because it could not pay its bills, down from a fleet of more than 120 at its peak. The carrier has canceled hundreds of flights in recent weeks, stranding thousands of passengers. It has repeatedly defaulted on loans and failed to pay staff in recent months. The consortium took control of Jet in March, pledging to give $218 million in “immediate funding support” as part of a debt resolution plan. But they have failed to release most of the money and the banks also failed to agree how to proceed after a meeting of several hours on Monday. The SBI-led consortium is looking for a buyer for Jet and a deadline passed on Friday for prospective bidders to express an interest in acquiring a 75 percent stake in the carrier. The SBI is yet to announce a shortlist of prospective bidders but Indian media said four were in the running including Etihad Airways, which already owns a 24 percent stake. “Jet Airways will now await the bid finalization process by SBI and the consortium of Indian Lenders,” the airline said, adding that it hoped to resume services “as soon as possible. A collapse of Jet, and the loss of more than 20,000 jobs, would deal a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-business reputation as he seeks a second term in ongoing national elections. Jet CEO Vinay Dube paid tribute to staff in an email to employees and said the airline “must be given another chance” to fly. But analysts said buyers would be reluctant to buy a grounded airline that had lost most of its airport slots. “Is someone willing to take the risk to give this comatose body an electric jolt? I don’t see it happening. At best it might come back in a smaller role,” said Devesh Agarwal, editor of Bangalore Aviation. Bad investments, competition from several low-cost carriers, high oil prices and a weak rupee have led to Jet’s current financial predicament, experts say. Mismanagement has also plagued the airline. Analysts trace the start of Jet’s financial problems to its 2006 purchase of Air Sahara for $500 million in cash. Founder Naresh Goyal reportedly ignored the advice of associates who said the cost was too much. Goyal, 69, launched Jet in 1993 after the Indian government passed a series of reforms designed to make the economy more market-driven. The Mumbai-based carrier quickly gained a reputation for introducing new initiatives — Jet was the first Indian airline to offer a frequent flyer programme and in-flight entertainment. But it began to take a battering from new, well-run budget airlines including IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet, which were founded between 2005 and 2006. Alarm bells about Jet’s financial predicament started to ring loudly in August when it failed to report its quarterly earnings or pay staff, including pilots. It later reported a loss of $85 million.
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india;airlines;narendra modi;etihad;jet airways
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jp0002700
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
'This has been a nightmare': Carole Ghosn, wife of ousted Nissan chief, fears Japan trial may be unfair
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Carole Ghosn, the wife of former Nissan and Renault chief Carlos Ghosn, said in an interview that she is worried whether her husband, detained in Japan on financial misconduct allegations, will receive a fair trial, and expressed outrage over a justice system that dragged him back into custody. “This has been a nightmare. We’re devastated, our lives turned upside down. And we see no end in sight. For him to be rearrested, and he is on bail, that’s something unheard of. I’m shocked,” Carole Ghosn said Wednesday in a telephone interview from New York. Carlos Ghosn, who led Nissan Motor Co. for 20 years, rescuing it from the brink of bankruptcy, was arrested in November and released on bail last month, but was arrested again on April 4. His wife recalled the scene of his rearrest earlier this month, saying 20 prosecutors came into their Tokyo apartment at 5:50 a.m., when she was still in her pajamas, and seized her cellphone, passport and documents that defense lawyers had been preparing for the trial. Although such seizures might lead to a mistrial in the U.S., prosecutors are allowed such actions in Japan, legal experts say. Early morning arrests and raids are routine. “We are concerned about a fair trial,” she said. “They now know what we were planning as a defense, what evidence we have.” He has been charged with falsifying financial documents in underreporting his retirement compensation and with breach of trust in dubious payments. He says he’s innocent, noting the compensation was never decided and saying the payments were legitimate. In a video prepared before his latest arrest, he accused some executives at Nissan of plotting against him over what he called selfish fears they had about his leadership and Nissan merging with French alliance partner Renault SA. Nissan has said an internal investigation found wrongdoing, ousted Ghosn from its board and promised to fix faulty governance. Ghosn’s detention has been approved through April 22, but that can be extended further. Prosecutors say the latest breach of trust allegations are new, and there is risk evidence may be destroyed. Carole Ghosn said she will return to Japan when her husband is released on bail. She said the conditions of her husband’s detention are harsh, using a term that refers to long detentions without convictions in Japan, “hostage justice.” Like others who undergo detention in Japan, Ghosn is in solitary confinement, and is interrogated by prosecutors all day. He gets fresh air a half hour each day, but is not allowed outdoors over the weekend. Carole Ghosn said she was worried about his health because he has been weakened by the long detention and is not getting enough sunlight. She was also recently questioned in a Japanese court. She declined to give details, but said there was little substance to the questioning. She is not a suspect but agreed to be questioned voluntarily. She stressed that her husband is ready for a fight, and said she was proud of him. “When you’re put in a situation that is so unfair, it eats you up and you want to fight every moment that you can because he knows how unjust it is, and he knows he’s been stabbed in the back,” she said. “Anyone who is put in an unfair situation, you want to fight for your rights. You want to fight for your innocence. You want to fight to clear your name.”
|
corruption;scandals;nissan;carmakers;renault;carlos ghosn;carole ghosn
|
jp0002701
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
77% of Japanese firms say they don't discriminate against foreign workers in terms of pay
|
Nearly 80 percent of companies pay their foreign employees equal or higher wages compared with their Japanese staff, a think tank survey showed Wednesday. The Japan Research Institute said corporate managers generally welcome the new visa system to accept more foreigners staff — mostly for blue-collar work — that began in April, but wage gaps are still seen at small and midsize companies, and many firms still have no plans to hire foreigners. The institute found that 77.1 percent paid the same or similar wages to non-Japanese, while 1.8 percent paid them higher wages than their Japanese counterparts. But it also found 6.0 percent paid foreign workers less than their Japanese employees, and 11.8 percent paid them the minimum wage or just above. The government released ordinances in March requiring employers to pay non-Japanese similar or higher wages than Japanese nationals to ease concerns about labor exploitation. The institute’s findings are based on responses between Jan. 26 and Feb. 22 from 1,039 companies across the nation, of which 41.0 percent currently employ foreigners. Some 41.4 percent of the companies said they have never hired foreigners, and 12.7 percent said they once had foreign staff members but no longer do. Among the companies that have never hired foreigners, 26.0 percent said they would offer jobs to Japanese people first, and 24.6 percent decided not to because of the more complicated procedures required in personnel affairs management, the survey showed. Small and midsize companies facing revenue difficulties have a backward attitude toward wage increases for their foreign workers, the institute said. “If companies become reluctant to raise wages, they would not only risk losing the global race to attract foreign workers but face challenges in sustaining their operations in the future,” it said. Regarding training for foreign workers, 55.5 percent said they are not doing anything, and 29.4 percent offer some form of training programs.
|
jobs;wages;expats;foreign workers;small businesses
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jp0002702
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
'White-coated drug dealers': 60 people charged in illegal prescription opioid crackdown
|
CINCINNATI - Federal authorities said Wednesday they have charged 60 people, including 31 doctors, for their roles in illegally prescribing and distributing millions of pills containing opioids and other dangerous drugs. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman of Cincinnati described the action as the biggest known takedown yet of drug prescribers. Robert Duncan, U.S. attorney for eastern Kentucky, called the doctors involved “white-coated drug dealers.” Authorities said the 60 includes 53 medical professionals tied to some 350,000 prescriptions and 32 million pills. The operation was conducted by the federal Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched last year by the Trump administration. Authorities said arrests were being made and search warrants carried out as they announced the charges at a news conference. They didn’t immediately name those being charged. U.S. health authorities have reported there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017, for a rate of 21.7 per 100,000 people. West Virginia and Ohio have regularly been among the states with the highest overdose death rates as the opioid crisis has swelled in recent years. Among those charged was a Tennessee doctor who dubbed himself the “Rock Doc” and is accused of prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs such as fentanyl and oxycodone, sometimes in exchange for sex, authorities said Others include a Kentucky doctor who is accused of writing prescriptions to Facebook friends who came to his home to pick them up, another who allegedly left signed blank prescriptions for staff to fill out and give to patients he hadn’t seen, and a Kentucky dentist accused of removing teeth unnecessarily and scheduling unneeded follow-up appointments. A Dayton, Ohio, doctor was accused of running a “pill mill” responsible that that allegedly dispensed 1.75 million pills in a two-year period. Authorities said an Alabama doctor recruited prostitutes and other women he had sexual relations with to his clinic and allowed them to abuse drugs in his home. Most of those charged came from the five strike force states of Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. One person each was also arrested in Pennsylvania and Louisiana. “The opioid crisis is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region,” U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement in Washington.
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u.s .;disease;doctors;ohio;opioids
|
jp0002703
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
U.S. and China working to sign new trade agreement in May, says report
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WASHINGTON - U.S. and Chinese officials are tentatively working to finalize a new trade agreement, with a signing ceremony expected as soon as late May, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper also said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was expected in Beijing for a new round of face-to-face talks that could begin the week of April 29. Lighthizer’s office did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. During shuttle diplomacy in recent months, U.S. and Chinese officials have alternated between projecting optimism and warning that success in their fraught talks is not guaranteed. But a key U.S. demand — a binding enforcement mechanism to prevent Beijing from backsliding on its commitments — has been virtually agreed, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this month. The two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade since last year, weighing on both countries’ manufacturing sectors and unnerving global stock markets. To help reduce Beijing’s soaring U.S. trade surplus, Chinese officials have offered to increase purchases of American farm goods and energy exports. But analysts say it remains unclear how far China will go in meeting U.S. demands for fundamental changes in industrial policy that could weaken the communist party’s hold on power.
|
china;u.s .;trade;tariffs;donald trump;robert lighthizer;steve mnuchin;trade war
|
jp0002704
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Japan's consumption tax hike could be delayed again if June data looks 'risky,' Abe aide says
|
A close aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday hinted at the possibility that the planned consumption tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent in October could be delayed, depending on a key economic indicator to be released for June. If the Bank of Japan’s tankan survey of business sentiment for June “shows a risky outlook,” Koichi Hagiuda, executive acting secretary-general of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, said during an online TV program. “We would not take the people toward a cliff. There could be a different development.” Abe has twice pushed back a plan to raise the consumption tax to 10 percent after the previous hike to 8 percent from 5 percent in 2014. The government has maintained that it will raise the tax unless Japan’s economy faces a shock on the scale of the global financial crisis triggered by the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. From time to time, there has been speculation that Abe could put off the planned hike again amid the weak tone of the Japanese economy due partly to a slowdown in exports to China, its largest trading partner. On the TV program, Hagiuda admitted that the world’s third-largest economy is “slightly deteriorating.” Although the government maintains that Japan is in the longest economic expansion period since the end of World War II, a key government indicator of economic trends showed in March that the economy may have peaked last fall and already entered a recessionary phase. Also in the month, the government downgraded its headline assessment of Japan’s economy for the first time in three years in its monthly economic report. The Japanese central bank will release the quarterly business confidence survey on July 1. Hagiuda, a House of Representatives member, said it is still possible for the government to delay the tax hike, but he added that the it would have to seek a response from voters in that case. However, he brushed aside the possibility of the Lower House being dissolved to coincide with the upcoming Upper House election in July, citing tight scheduling due to a Group of 20 summit in late June in Osaka.
|
shinzo abe;taxes;consumption tax
|
jp0002706
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Ruling LDP calls for law to prevent tech giants strong-arming vendors in Japan
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The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday urged the government to consider a new law obliging technology giants such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google LLC to disclose contract terms with vendors using their sites. The set of proposals compiled by the LDP urged the government to require the tech giants, also including Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., to clarify the rules of transactions and to notify the vendors in advance when they intend to change them. The panel of the party’s Research Commission on Market Competitiveness Policy also requested that they respond appropriately to any complaints from vendors. Concerns have been raised that the tech groups are abusing their dominant position with regards to smaller companies using their platforms, and that they are collecting customers’ personal data without gaining sufficient consent or disclosing how the information will be used. The latest move comes a day after antitrust watchdog Japan Fair Trade Commission said its survey showed that some 50 percent to 90 percent of vendors using sites run by Amazon, Apple, Google, Rakuten Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. said their contracts have been changed without prior negotiations. The poll showed that 93.2 percent of suppliers on the e-commerce site run by Rakuten said they have experienced unilateral contract changes. Similar responses were collected from 81.4 percent of vendors for Apple, 73.8 percent for Google and 72.8 percent for Amazon. Among venders whose items failed product screenings, 64.0 percent of those on Amazon.com, 70.0 percent of those on Rakuten and 85.7 percent of those on Yahoo Japan said that they had received no explanations on the reasons for the rejections. Nearly 70 percent of Amazon and Rakuten vendors expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of explanations. The internet survey was conducted between Feb. 27 and March 26, collecting 867 responses. The JFTC said it will continue its probe, holding interviews with the large tech firms. The commission has already raided the Japan offices of some platforms such as Amazon, which allegedly violated antitrust laws by having vendors shoulder part of the costs to cover discounts it applied to goods. The commission also said in a separate survey that of some 2,000 consumers polled, 75.8 percent “have concerns” about the way the tech companies collect and manage personal information and data. The government is expected to soon compile new rules to ensure more transparent transactions between platform providers and vendors.
|
trade;google;apple;yahoo;amazon;facebook;e-commerce;rakuten
|
jp0002708
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Light rail system involving Mitsubishi unveiled in Australian capital
|
CANBERRA - A new light rail system built in part by an international consortium that includes Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp. was unveiled in Australia’s capital Canberra on Thursday, with 300 locals making the first “preview” trip. The 12-km-long network, consisting of 13 stops in the city’s north, will officially open to the public on Saturday with free travel over the weekend. Mitsubishi is part of the eight-company consortium, Canberra Metro, which was selected to work with the Australian Capital Territory government in a public-private partnership in 2016. MUFJ Bank Ltd. also participated in the consortium as financial adviser. Speaking at a news conference following the plaque unveiling, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the new public transport system marks the moment Canberra “grows up” to develop into a city with a “real public transport system.” “This is the largest public transport infrastructure project ever undertaken by the ACT government and it’s been an important project for our city,” Barr said. The light rail will run at a top speed of 70 kph with trains arriving every six minutes during peak periods. Construction of the 707 million Australian dollar (¥56.7 billion) project began in July 2016, with the original date of completion listed as December 2018. However, construction delays forced the operational date to be pushed back. Canberra Metro CEO Glenn Stockton said delivering a complex piece of infrastructure to a regional city proved to be particularly challenging. “There was no rail knowledge and experience here in the ACT so we had to bring specialists in and build up that knowledge locally,” he said. Given its lack of large-scale public transport systems, Canberra has a strong car culture, and it remains to be seen how locals will adapt. The Canberra Metro consortium consists of companies from Australia, Britain, Germany, Japan and Spain.
|
australia;rail;mitsubishi;mufg;mufj;canberra
|
jp0002709
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Tokyo stocks turn broadly lower on apparent profit-taking
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Stocks surrendered to selling to lock in profits almost across the broad on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, brokers said, forcing the benchmark Nikkei average to snap its five-session winning streak. The 225-issue Nikkei average dived 187.85 points, or 0.84 percent, to end at 22,090.12, after rising 56.31 points on Wednesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 15.71 points, or 0.96 percent, at 1,614.97. The index added 4.22 points the previous day. Getting off to a mixed start following a modest pullback on Wall Street on Wednesday, the Tokyo market went south as investors apparently moved to cash in gains from the recent rally. Both indexes kept sinking in the afternoon, pressured by persistent profit-taking activities and the yen’s strengthening against the dollar, brokers said. In addition, “selling to square positions hit the market” ahead of the Easter weekend overseas including Good Friday, said Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Toyo Securities Co. As the Nikkei gained some 590 points in the past five sessions, investors’ shift to the sell side was a “natural move,” a brokerage official said. Given a pause in the advance of U.S. equities, investors found it inadvisable to buy Tokyo stocks amid the dearth of trading incentives, Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division at Akatsuki Securities Inc., said. Falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,907 to 192 in the TSE’s first section, while 42 issues were unchanged. Volume fell to 1,188 million shares from Wednesday’s 1,270 million shares. Pharmaceuticals met with selling after U.S. drug maker Pfizer fared poorly overnight along with other health care names. Major losers in the sector included Takeda, Shionogi and Daiichi Sankyo. Japan Tobacco was downbeat after announcing weak domestic cigarette sales in March. Technology investor SoftBank Group continued to slide, electronics and entertainment giant Sony lost further ground, and paper manufacturer Oji Holdings fell back. On the other hand, automakers including Toyota, Honda and Suzuki kept attracting buying after the first round of Japan-U.S. trade talks ended in Washington on Wednesday without any negative news about the Japanese auto industry. Clothing store chain Fast Retailing extended its winning streak to a 10th session. Cosmetics maker Shiseido and construction machinery maker Kubota rose on selective buying. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average fell 160 points to end at 22,110.
|
stocks;nikkei;tse;topix
|
jp0002710
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Dollar eases below ¥111.90 in Tokyo trading
|
The dollar weakened below ¥111.90 in Tokyo trading Thursday, hurt by a downturn in Tokyo stocks. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.84-84, down from ¥112.01-01 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1271-1271, down from $1.1317-1317, and at ¥126.03-04, down from ¥126.72-73. After moving above ¥112 in the early morning, the dollar fell below ¥111.90 in the wake of the benchmark Nikkei stock average’s dismal start, snapping its five-session rally. Although the greenback showed some resilience as the dip prompted repurchases, it was pressured by a drop in U.S. long-term interest rates in off-hours trading in the afternoon. “Investors stepped up moves to square positions ahead of the special 10-day holiday in Japan from April 27,” said an official at major Japanese bank. An official at a major securities firm noted a continued “risk-on” mood. But a foreign exchange report by the U.S. Treasury Department “looms ahead,” a currency broker pointed out.
|
forex;currencies
|
jp0002711
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Amazon to close domestic marketplace business in China, say sources
|
SAN FRANCISCO/SHANGHAI - Amazon.com Inc. plans to close its domestic marketplace in China by mid-July, people familiar with the matter said, focusing efforts on more lucrative businesses selling overseas goods and cloud services in the world’s most populous nation. Amazon shoppers in China will no longer be able to buy goods from third-party merchants in the country, but they still will be able to order from the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan via the firm’s global store. Amazon expects to close fulfillment centers and wind down support for domestic-selling merchants in China in the next 90 days, one of the people said. The move underscores how entrenched, homegrown e-commerce rivals have made it difficult for Amazon’s marketplace to gain a foothold. Consumer insights firm iResearch Global said Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Tmall marketplace and JD.com Inc. controlled 81.9 percent of the Chinese market last year. “They’re pulling out because it’s not profitable and not growing,” said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities. Ker Zheng, marketing specialist at Shenzhen-based e-commerce consultancy Azoya, said Amazon had no major competitive advantage in China over its domestic rivals. Unless someone is searching for a very specific imported good that can’t be found elsewhere, “there’s no reason for a consumer to pick Amazon because they’re not going to be able to ship things as fast as Tmall or JD,” he said. Amazon’s customers in China will still be able to purchase the firm’s Kindle e-readers and online content, and the company’s local website, amazon.cn , will continue to exist, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing unit that sells data storage and computing power to enterprises, will remain as well. The withdrawal of the world’s largest online retailer — founded by Jeff Bezos, who later became the world’s richest person — comes amid a broader e-commerce slowdown in China. Alibaba in January reported its lowest quarterly earnings growth since 2016, while JD.com is responding to the changing business environment with staff cuts. It also follows the Chinese e-commerce retreat of other big-name Western retailers. Walmart Inc. sold its Chinese online shopping platform to JD.com in 2016, in return for a stake in JD.com, to focus on its bricks-and-mortar stores. Similarly, the country appears to factor less in the global aspirations of fellow U.S. tech giants Netflix Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Wedbush Securities’ Pachter said. Amazon bought Chinese online shopping website Joyo.com in 2004 for $75 million, re-branding the business in 2011 as Amazon China. But in a sign of Tmall’s dominance, Amazon opened an online store on the Alibaba site in 2015. Amazon is still expanding aggressively in other countries, notably India, where it is contending with local rival Flipkart.
|
amazon;e-commerce;alibaba;jd.com
|
jp0002712
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Japan's Aisin Seiki forms auto parts joint venture in China
|
NAGOYA - Japanese auto parts maker Aisin Seiki Co. said Wednesday that it has established a joint venture to produce automatic transmission system parts in Anqing, eastern China, with local firm Anhui Ring New Group Co. Aisin is set to invest a total of ¥10 billion in the new firm, Aisin (Anqing) Auto Parts Co., which will produce aluminum die-cast parts, such as transmission cases, from August 2020. The move reflects growing demand for automatic transmission systems for passenger cars in China. In China, Aisin currently manufactures aluminum die-cast parts at three plants. The new company, with an annual output capacity of 700,000 units, will supply the parts to Aisin’s automatic transmission factories in eastern China. Aisin (Anqing) Auto Parts is capitalized at 237 million yuan (¥4 billion), with 85 percent from Aisin. The joint venture will have some 150 employees when it starts production.
|
china;carmakers;aisin seiki;anhui ring new group
|
jp0002713
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Japanese and other automakers tout SUVs at New York auto show
|
NEW YORK - Automakers on Wednesday gathered at this year’s New York International Auto Show where Japanese carmakers unveiled all-new sport utility vehicles amid growing demand for light trucks over passenger vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. introduced its 2020 Highlander, a midsize family-friendly SUV that ushers in the model’s fourth generation, while Subaru Corp. came out with a redesigned version of the Outback, its top seller in the United States last year. “The Outback is our largest selling vehicle, so we have high plans for this vehicle over time (and) are very confident that this new model is going to continue where the older model left off,” Tom Doll, CEO of Subaru of America Inc., told reporters. Other automakers like Hyundai Motor Co., Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG joined the SUV segment. Hyundai introduced the Venue, its most affordable SUV meant for younger consumers keen on design and add-on technologies. “This vehicle is aimed at an entirely new segment for Hyundai, entry SUV shoppers who live in urban centers,” said Sangyup Lee, Hyundai’s vice president of design. Ford’s Lincoln rolled out its new crossover, the Corsair, for the luxury SUV segment. Mercedes-Benz unveiled its seventh model for the same segment with the 2020 GLS, the German brand’s largest SUV. In the United States, “light trucks” including SUVs and pickup trucks accounted for 69 percent of auto sales in 2018, up 4 percentage points from the year prior. Passenger cars have been losing market share for the past seven years, capturing only 31 percent in 2018, according to Cox Automotive. “Light trucks will continue to be popular in the U.S., though the relative health of the economy can impact their sales rate during an economic cycle,” Karl Brauer, analyst at Cox Automotive, said. Light trucks have shown increased popularity over the years due to relatively low fuel prices and open space design. However, an influx of new models could threaten the market with over-saturation, leading to price cuts and falling profits. The market also faces trade uncertainties that cloud the long-term sales outlook. “Competitive pressures are strong and will force automakers to look at all options of SUV-like vehicles with different intended purposes like on-road and off-road,” said Jeff Schuster, analyst at LMC Automotive. “The market is getting to the point of near saturation but there is space to fill still with SUV types.” The two-day media preview at the New York International Auto Show started on Wednesday. The auto show will be open to the public from Friday through April 28.
|
toyota;carmakers;ford;subaru;suv;hyundai;daimler
|
jp0002714
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Philip Morris says it doesn't want you to buy its cigarettes, but will IQOS help it survive?
|
NEW YORK - How can a company that tells people explicitly not to buy its products survive? That’s a question for Philip Morris International Inc., which recently unveiled a campaign to “unsmoke” the world. The Marlboro maker reports first-quarter earnings on Thursday, giving investors the latest data on just how fast cigarette volumes are falling. With its public push to discourage smoking, Philip Morris isn’t fighting that trend. Instead, it’s ramping up focus on its IQOS heat-not-burn device, already sold in about 44 countries. “It makes financial sense because the new business is more sustainable, a better product for consumers. I’ve never seen where there is a better product for consumers and the company ended up in a worse situation financially,” said Chief Operating Officer Jacek Olczak. “IQOS and combustible (cigarette) volumes, they are 100 percent correlated. We’re not afraid of cannibalization.” Philip Morris, which hasn’t sold in the U.S. since a 2008 split from sister Altria Group Inc., has been leaning into anti-smoking at a time when the drop in cigarette volumes is accelerating. Globally, volumes are falling at about 3 percent to 4 percent annually, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Shea said. The “Unsmoke” campaign sums its mission up thus: “If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, quit. If you don’t quit, change.” Still, anti-smoking advocates say the company’s new marketing is a far cry from it giving up on cigarette sales altogether. “Their actions tell a different story than their words,” said Caroline Renzulli from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Her group photographed a billboard in Indonesia showing a new brand, and says ads there feature the word baru , which means new — a sign that Philip Morris is still putting some resources into traditional tobacco. Around 214,000 Indonesians die from tobacco-related disease annually, and Philip Morris controls about 34 percent of the cigarette market there, according to the group’s website. Philip Morris Bold was registered in Indonesia in January, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. When asked about the registration, Olczak said the company sometimes needs to change labeling on its cigarettes, such as to accommodate new health warnings, and that in general it has reduced new brand launches. The company doesn’t yet sell IQOS in Indonesia, though plans to test it in the future, he said. “In all markets where we have IQOS we have put product introductions to zero,” Olczak said. When asked if the company would ever separate IQOS from the cigarette business, Olczak said: “I don’t have to think about this today,” adding that “it’s a nice problem to have for the future.” It might make sense. Declining businesses with liabilities are sometimes managed through spinoffs, and Philip Morris faces lawsuits in Israel, Canada and Nigeria that claim “billions” of dollars in damages related to tobacco use and exposure, according to its filings. Altria took steps last year to hedge against Big Tobacco’s troubles — taking stakes in Juul Labs Inc. and Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group Inc. For Philip Morris, it’s banking its future on IQOS. Though sales are going well in some countries, it’s still trying to court the World Health Organization to embrace its push to help adult smokers switch. It’s also seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell IQOS in the U.S. If it succeeds, Altria has an agreement to market it. A separate application from Philip Morris also seeks to market it in the U.S. as a reduced-risk product. Olczak himself says he couldn’t quit smoking until six or seven years ago. He had a child and his wife was very unhappy with his cigarette use, so he tried an IQOS prototype, which he says finally helped him kick the habit. The company is ready to put a “human touch” on the issue, telling anecdotes about how relieved some children were to see their parents quit cigarettes thanks to IQOS, he said. The decline in cigarette volumes in many countries hasn’t spooked Philip Morris investors — shares have jumped about 30 percent this year. And cigarette sales are growing in places such as Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Turkey, the company’s most recent annual report shows. In Indonesia, they were flat. In some countries, Olczak said, a reduction in illegal trade has resulted in volume increases. Roberto Pozzi, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, questions what Philip Morris will do if alternative products aren’t as profitable as expected. Unlike Altria, the company doesn’t have investments in wine and cannabis. “They say the margins are similar to traditional cigarettes for IQOS, but they don’t publish the data,” Pozzi said. IQOS does have better margins, because of taxes, Olczak said. It’s taxed favorably compared with cigarettes in many countries, such as Japan. But margins could be hurt if regulators decide to do otherwise, the company has said in regulatory risk statements. Philip Morris is also working on other devices, such as IQOS 2, which has a carbon heat source at the tip that generates heat without an electric system. It has been launched as a test in the Dominican Republic. Further commercialization plans are under way, but have yet to be announced. Another possible path, Olczak said, is using the product as a medical device, or for nicotine replacement therapy.
|
indonesia;health;smoking;philip morris;iqos;marlboro
|
jp0002716
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Notre Dame to get temporary wooden cathedral during rebuilding
|
PARIS - Catholic worshippers feeling orphaned by the fire that ravaged part of Notre Dame will be welcomed in an “ephemeral cathedral” of wood in front of the Paris monument until it reopens, Notre Dame’s chief priest said Thursday. Speaking to France’s CNews television channel Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said, “We mustn’t say ‘the cathedral is closed for five years and that’s it.'” To give the faithful somewhere to congregate next to Notre Dame, he suggested: “Can I not build an ephemeral cathedral on the esplanade (in front of Notre Dame)?” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had backed the idea and agreed to give over part of the esplanade to the church for a wooden structure, he said. Chauvet said the wooden “cathedral” would host priests who could address some of the millions of tourists who throng the original 850-year-old Gothic cathedral each year. On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron said he aimed to rebuild Notre Dame within five years. The government said it would launch an international architecture contest to replace the burning steeple which came crashing down during Monday’s inferno, along with a large part of the roof. Chauvet said the surrogate “cathedral” would be erected quickly, as soon as the esplanade reopens after work to secure the cathedral is completed. The fire is believed to have been accidentally triggered by restoration work which was being carried out on the steeple.
|
religion;history;fires;paris;architecture;notre dame
|
jp0002717
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Scientists spur some activity in brains of slaughtered pigs
|
NEW YORK - Scientists have restored some activity within the brains of pigs that were slaughtered hours before, raising hopes for some medical advances — and questions about the definition of death. The brains could not think or sense anything, researchers stressed. By medical standards “this is not a living brain,” said Nenad Sestan of the Yale School of Medicine, one of the researchers reporting the results Wednesday in the journal Nature. But the work revealed a surprising degree of resilience among cells within a brain that has lost its supply of blood and oxygen, he said. “Cell death in the brain occurs across a longer time window than we previously thought,” Sestan said. Such research might lead to new therapies for stroke and other conditions, as well as provide a new way to study the brain and how drugs work in it, researchers said. They said they had no current plans to try their technique on human brains. The study was financed mostly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The 32 brains came from pigs killed for food at a local slaughterhouse. Scientists put the brains into an apparatus in their lab. Four hours after the animals died, scientists began pumping a specially designed blood substitute through the organs. The brains showed no large-scale electrical activity that would indicate awareness. Restoring consciousness was not a goal of the study, which was aimed instead at exploring whether particular functions might be restored long after death. After six hours of pumping, scientists found that individual brain cells in one area of the brain had maintained key details of their structure, while cells from untreated brains had severely degraded. When scientists removed these neurons from treated brains and stimulated them electrically, the cells responded in a way that indicated viability. And by studying the artificial blood before it entered the treated brains and after it emerged, researchers found evidence that brain cells were absorbing blood sugar and oxygen and producing carbon dioxide, a signal that they were functioning. They also found that blood vessels in treated brains responded to a drug that makes vessels widen. Sestan said researchers don’t know whether they could restore normal whole brain function if they chose that goal. If such consciousness had appeared in the reported experiments, scientists would have used anesthesia and low temperatures to quash it and stop the experiment, said study co-author Stephen Latham of Yale. There is no good ethical consensus about doing such research if the brain is conscious, he said. Researchers are now seeing if they can keep the brain functions they observed going for longer than six hours of treatment, which Latham said would be necessary to use the technology as a research tool. Christof Koch, president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, who didn’t participate in the study, said he was surprised by the results, especially since they were achieved in a large animal. “This sort of technology could help increase our knowledge to bring people back to the land of the living” after a drug overdose or other catastrophic event that deprived the brain of oxygen for an hour or two, he said. Unlike the pig experiments, any such treatment would not involve removing the brain from the body. The pig work also enters an ethical minefield, he said. For one thing, it touches on the widely used definition of death as the irreversible loss of brain function because irreversibility “depends on the state of the technology and, as this study shows, this is constantly advancing,” he said. And somebody might well try this with a human brain someday, he said. If future experiments restored the large-scale electrical activity, would that indicate consciousness? Would the brain “experience confusion, delusion, pain or agony?” he asked. That would be unacceptable even in an animal brain, he said. In a Nature commentary, bioethicists Stuart Youngner and Insoo Hyun of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland said if such work leads to better methods for resuscitating the brain in people, it could complicate decisions about when to remove organs for transplant.
|
stroke;cells;blood;slaughter;pig brains
|
jp0002718
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Elusive molecule, first in the universe, detected in space
|
PARIS - In the beginning, more than 13 billion years ago, the universe was an undifferentiated soup of three simple, single-atom elements. Stars would not form for another 100 million years. But within 100,000 years of the Big Bang, the very first molecule emerged, an improbable marriage of helium and hydrogen known as a helium hydride ion (HeH+). “It was the beginning of chemistry,” said David Neufeld, a professor at John Hopkins University and co-author of a study published Wednesday detailing how — after a multidecade search — scientists finally detected the elusive molecule in space. “The formation of HeH+ was the first step on a path of increasing complexity in the universe,” as momentous a shift as the one from single-cell to multicellular life on Earth, he said. Theoretical models had long since convinced astrophysicists that HeH+ came first, followed — in a precise order — by a parade of other increasingly complex and heavy molecules. HeH+ had also been studied in the laboratory, as early as 1925. But detected HeH+ in its natural habitat had remained beyond their grasp. “The lack of definitive evidence of its very existence in interstellar space has been a dilemma for astronomy for a long time,” said lead author Rolf Gusten, at the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn. Researchers knew where to look. Already in the 1970s, models suggested that HeH+ should exist in significant quantities in the glowing gases ejected by dying sun-like stars, which created conditions similar to those found in the early universe. The problem was that the electromagnetic waves given off by the molecule were in a range — far-infrared — that is canceled out by Earth’s atmosphere, and thus undetectable from the ground. So NASA and the German Aerospace Center joined forces to create an airborne observatory with three main components: a massive 2.7-meter telescope, an infrared spectrometer and a Boeing 747 — with a window-like square cut away from its fuselage — big enough to carry them. From a cruising altitude of nearly 14,000 meters (45,000 feet), the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, avoided 85 percent of the atmospheric “noise” of ground-based telescopes. Data from a series of three flights in May 2016 contained the molecular evidence scientists had long sought, interlaced in the planetary nebula NGC 7027 some 3,000 light-years away. “The discovery of HeH+ is a dramatic and beautiful demonstration of nature’s tendency to form molecules,” said Neufeld. In this case, it did so despite inauspicious circumstances. Even though temperatures in the young universe fell rapidly after the Big Bang, they were still in the neighborhood of 4,000 degrees Celsius, a hostile environment for molecular bonding. Helium — a noble gas — also “has a very low proclivity for form molecules,” Neufeld explained. Its union with ionized hydrogen was fragile, and did not persist for very long, replaced by progressively more robust and complex molecular bonds. Heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen — and the many molecules they gave rise to — were formed later still by the nuclear reactions that power stars.
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space;astronomy
|
jp0002719
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Doctors use HIV in gene therapy to fix babies' 'bubble boy' disease
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NEW YORK - They were born without a working germ-fighting system, every infection a threat to their lives. Now eight babies with “bubble boy disease” have had it fixed by a gene therapy made from one of the immune system’s worst enemies — HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. A study out Wednesday details how scientists turned this enemy virus into a savior, altering it so it couldn’t cause disease and then using it to deliver a gene the boys lacked. “This therapy has cured the patients,” although it will take more time to see if it’s a permanent fix, said Dr. Ewelina Mamcarz, one of the study leaders at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Omarion Jordan, who turns 1 later this month, had the therapy in December to treat severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome, or SCID. “For a long time we didn’t know what was wrong with him. He just kept getting these infections,” said his mother, Kristin Simpson. Learning that he had SCID “was just heartbreaking … I didn’t know what was going to happen to him.” Omarion now has a normal immune system. “He’s like a normal, healthy baby,” Simpson said. “I think it’s amazing.” Study results were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The treatment was pioneered by a St. Jude doctor who recently died, Brian Sorrentino. SCID is caused by a genetic flaw that keeps the bone marrow from making effective versions of blood cells that comprise the immune system. It affects 1 in 200,000 newborns, almost exclusively males. Without treatment, it often kills in the first year or two of life. “A simple infection like the common cold could be fatal,” Mamcarz said. The nickname “bubble boy disease” comes from a famous case in the 1970s — a Texas boy who lived for 12 years in a protective plastic bubble to isolate him from germs. A bone marrow transplant from a genetically matched sibling can cure SCID, but most people lack a suitable donor. Transplants also are medically risky — the Texas boy died after one. Doctors think gene therapy could be a solution. It involves removing some of a patient’s blood cells, using the modified HIV to insert the missing gene, and returning the cells through an IV. Before getting their cells back, patients are given a drug to destroy some of their marrow so the modified cells have more room to grow. When doctors first tried it 20 years ago, the treatment had unintended effects on other genes, and some patients later developed leukemia. The new therapy has safeguards to lower that risk. A small study of older children suggested it was safe. The new study tried it in infants, and doctors are reporting on the first eight who were treated at St. Jude and at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco. Within a few months, normal levels of healthy immune system cells developed in seven boys. The eighth needed a second dose of gene therapy but now is well, too. Six to 24 months after treatment, all eight are making all the cell types needed to fight infections, and some have successfully received vaccines to further boost their immunity to disease. No serious or lasting side effects occurred. Omarion is the 10th boy treated in the study, which is ongoing. It’s sponsored by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Assisi Foundation of Memphis and the federal government. “So far it really looks good,” but patients will have to be studied to see if the results last, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped develop the treatment. “To me, this looks promising.” Rights to it have been licensed by St. Jude to Mustang Bio. Doctors say they have no estimate on what it might cost if it does become an approved treatment. They say they also hope to try it for more common problems such as sickle cell disease.
|
u.s .;genetics;disease;hiv;gene therapy;bubble boy disease;st. jude;scid
|
jp0002720
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Firefighters saved Notre Dame from 'chain-reaction collapse' in blaze, says official
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PARIS - Notre Dame Cathedral would have burned to the ground in a “chain-reaction collapse” had firefighters not moved as rapidly as they did to battle the blaze racing through the beloved landmark building, a French government official said Wednesday. The firefighters acted aggressively to protect wooden supports in the twin medieval bell towers from the flames, averting a bigger catastrophe, said Jose Vaz de Matos, a fire expert with France’s Culture Ministry. “If the fire reached this wooden structure, the bell tower would have been lost,” de Matos said at a news conference. “From the moment we lose the war of the bell towers, we lose the cathedral, because it’s a chain-reaction collapse.” Monday’s fire destroyed most of the lead roof of the 950-year-old architectural treasure and caused its spire, which was added in the 19th century, to collapse. An initial fire alert was sounded at 6:20 p.m., as a Mass was underway in the cathedral, but no fire was found. The second alert was sounded at 6:43 p.m., and the blaze was discovered on the roof. No one was killed in the fire, after firefighters and church officials speedily evacuated those inside. Firefighters acted bravely and as fast as they could to save the cathedral, said senior fire official Philippe Demay, denying that there was any delay in their response. Despite extensive damage, many of the cathedral’s treasures were saved, including Notre Dame’s famous rose windows, although they are not out of danger. Paris Firefighters’ spokesman Lt.-Col. Gabriel Plus said that even though they are “in good condition … there is a risk for the gables that are no longer supported by the frame.” Firefighters removed statues inside the gables, or support walls, above the rose windows to protect them, and took care not to spray water too hard on the delicate stained glass, Plus said. Scaffolding erected for a renovation of the spire and roof that was already underway must be properly removed because of its weight and because it is now “crucially deformed,” he added. The cathedral is still being monitored closely by firefighters and experts to determine how much damage the structure suffered and what needs to be dismantled to avoid collapse. “The experts are scrutinizing the whole of the cathedral, part by part, to identify what is weakened, what will need to be dismantled or consolidated,” Plus said. Nearly $1 billion has pledged for the restoration, while a vow by French President Emmanuel Macron to finish it in five years has been challenged as being wildly off track. He said the renovations would be completed in time for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. “We will rebuild the cathedral to be even more beautiful, and I want it to be finished within five years,” Macron said. Experts have said, however, that Macron’s ambitious goal appears insufficient for such a massive operation. Even Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, while supporting the government timeline, acknowledged Wednesday that it would be difficult. “This is obviously an immense challenge, a historic responsibility,” Philippe said in an address. Prominent French conservation architect Pierluigi Pericolo told Inrocks magazine it could take triple that time. “No less than 15 years … it’s a colossal task,” said Pericolo, who worked on the restoration of the 19th century St.-Donatien Basilica, which was badly damaged in a 2015 blaze in the French city of Nantes. He said it could take between two to five years just to check the stability of the cathedral that dominates the Paris skyline. “It’s a fundamental step, and very complex, because it’s difficult to send workers into a monument whose vaulted ceilings are swollen with water,” Pericolo told France-Info. “The end of the fire doesn’t mean the edifice is totally saved. The stone can deteriorate when it is exposed to high temperatures and change its mineral composition and fracture inside.” Notre Dame’s rector said he would close the cathedral for up to “five to six years,” acknowledging that “a segment” of the structure may be gravely weakened. Pledges of nearly $1 billion have been made by ordinary worshippers and wealthy magnates, including those who own L’Oreal, Chanel and Dior. Presidential cultural heritage envoy Stephane Bern told broadcaster France-Info that 880 million euros ($995 million) has been raised since the fire. The government was gathering donations and setting up a special office to deal with big-ticket offers. Criticism already has surfaced in France from those who say the money could be better spent elsewhere, on smaller, struggling churches or on workers. Philippe also said an international competition will be held to see if the spire should be rebuilt. “Should we rebuild the spire envisaged and built by Viollet-le-Duc under the same conditions … (or) give Notre Dame a new spire adapted to the technologies and the challenges of our times?” he said. Teams brought in a huge crane and delivered planks of wood to the site Wednesday morning. Firefighters were still examining the damage and shoring up the structure. Macron called a special Cabinet meeting Wednesday on the fire, which investigators believe was an accident possibly linked to renovation that was already underway on the cathedral. The Paris prosecutor’s office said investigators have still not been able to look inside the cathedral, because it remains dangerous. About 30 people have already been questioned in the investigation. Among them are workers at the five construction companies who were involved in renovating the church spire and roof. Neighborhood merchants who depend on tourism to Notre Dame expressed worry about their future. Since the fire, the island that houses the cathedral has been closed to the public and its residents evacuated. “No one is talking about us,” said Patrick Lejeune, president of an association that represents about 150 employees. Bustling streets are now “totally closed. I don’t have access to my office,” he said. The island is considered the heart of Paris, with all distances in France measured from the esplanade in front of Notre Dame. Later Wednesday evening, bells will toll at cathedrals around France in honor of Notre Dame.
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france;fires;paris;notre dame;emmanuel macron
|
jp0002721
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
White House and Justice officials discussed Robert Mueller report, say media
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Justice Department officials had numerous conversations in recent days with White House lawyers about the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the New York Times and ABC News reported on Wednesday. Mueller on March 22 submitted his report to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on his investigation into whether the campaign of Republican Donald Trump worked with Moscow to sway the election in his favor, and whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice with actions to impede the inquiry. The New York Times, which cited people with knowledge of the discussions between the department and Trump’s lawyers, said the talks had assisted the president’s legal team as it prepared a rebuttal to a redacted version of the full report scheduled to be released on Thursday morning. The Justice Department declined comment. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow also declined comment. Barr so far has sent a letter to Congress describing what he called a summary of the main conclusions of the investigation. In his letter to lawmakers, Barr said Mueller did not find that members of Trump’s campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia. Barr said he determined there was not enough evidence to establish that Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice, though Mueller did not exonerate Trump on obstruction. Barr said he would hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on Thursday to discuss the Mueller report, along with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017.
|
u.s .;robert mueller;democrats;donald trump;rod rosenstein;russia probe;william barr
|
jp0002722
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Canada wants simulator training for Boeing 737 Max fix, not just tablet tutorials
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MONTREAL, QUEBEC - Canada’s transport minister on Wednesday called for pilots to get flight simulator training to learn how to use new software on the troubled Boeing 737 Max, saying U.S.-suggested computer tutorials are not enough. The 737 Max has been grounded worldwide since mid-March, when one of the jets crashed in Ethiopia — the second such deadly incident in a matter of months. The U.S. aerospace giant has since proposed a fix to the plane’s MCAS anti-stall system, which has been implicated in both the Ethiopia crash and one in Indonesia last October. “We have made it clear that safety will be the guiding factor in the resumption of these flights,” the Canadian minister, Marc Garneau, told a press conference in Montreal. “Simulators are the very best way from a training point of view to go over exactly what could happen in a real way and to react properly to it,” he said. Garneau went farther than a group of experts appointed by U.S. aviation regulators, who have suggested that computer and classroom instruction are enough. “From our point of view, it’s not going to be a question of pulling out an iPad and spending an hour on it,” Garneau said. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a draft report that Boeing’s proposed fix to the 737 Max was “operationally suitable.” But the actual software fix has not yet been formally submitted to the FAA. Because the 737 Max is substantially similar to prior versions of the aircraft, pilots are not currently required to undergo extensive additional training. But the report added the MCAS to the list of items that require “aided instruction,” such as videos or computer-based tutorials.
|
u.s .;boeing;faa;canada;ethiopian airlines;737 max;air accidents;mcas
|
jp0002724
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Life of Alan Garcia, former Peru president once touted as the country's JFK, cut short by his own gun
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LIMA - Alan Garcia was the charismatic chameleon of Peruvian politics, once popular enough to be elected president twice. But his terms were filled with ups and downs and he eventually became caught up in the Odebrecht bribery scandal that rocked Latin America. Garcia, 69, fatally shot himself in the head on Wednesday at his home in Lima as police waited in another room to arrest him in the Odebrecht case, which has ensnared three other former Peruvian presidents. Garcia had denied the corruption allegations that had long dogged him until the end, saying he was victim of political persecution. “Others might sell out, not me,” he told journalists in some of his last public comments on Tuesday, repeating a phrase he used often as his foes became ensnared in the bribery investigation into Brazilian builder Odebrecht in recent years. The son of an accountant and a schoolteacher, Garcia became one of Latin America’s greatest orators and governed Peru as a firebrand leftist from 1985-1990. He remade himself as a champion of foreign investment and free trade to win another five-year term in 2006. Garcia benefited from his family’s connections with Victor Raul Haya de La Torre, the founder of Apra, which was once Peru’s largest and most powerful political party. After earning a law degree in Lima and studying political science in Madrid, he won a seat in Congress and in 1985 became Apra’s first president at age 36. He had promised to bring historically excluded Peruvians into the political fold and extend the country’s vast minerals wealth to the millions who lived in desperate poverty. He once enjoyed tremendous support — near 90 percent at his height — and was touted as Peru’s John F. Kennedy. But the popularity soon began to crack. In June 1986, security forces killed hundreds of rioting guerrilla inmates in Lima jails, putting in doubt Garcia’s reputation as a defender of human rights. His approval sank further when he tried to nationalize banks in 1987 and refused to pay foreign debt, alienating the business class and sparking a deep recession. The end of his term was marred by an escalating war with Shining Path guerrillas, hyperinflation surpassing 2,000,000 percent and accusations of widespread corruption. In July 1990, he left office in disgrace. Garcia was down but not out. After spending nine years abroad to avoid corruption probes, he eventually returned to Peru and charmed his way back into politics by convincing voters he had returned older and wiser. He ran and lost the 2001 presidency but succeeded in re-creating his image. This time, Garcia promised, he would avoid the mistakes of his first presidency and would control spending, attract investment and handle insurgent rebels with a heavy hand. In 2006, Garcia again ran for the presidency and eked out a win, defeating Ollanta Humala, who had spooked investors and was closely connected in many voters’ minds with the socialist politics of Venezuela’s late former president, Hugo Chavez. In his second term, a visibly pudgier Garcia oversaw explosive economic growth. He brought billions of dollars of mining and energy investment to Peru and is credited with opening its economy to the world. The country became a darling of global investors under his watch but his popularity continued to sink after he left office in 2011, in part due to thousands of pardons his government granted to drug traffickers in his second term. Garcia, who had six adult children, ran for president again in 2016 but came in a distant fifth in a race of 10. He resigned as president of Apra and urged members to revamp the party without him. Garcia was one of nine people whom a judge had ordered arrested in connection with the bribery investigation into Odebrecht on Wednesday. But he shot himself after police arrived to arrest him and died at a hospital hours later. President Martin Vizcarra, who Garcia had accused of trying to silence him, ordered Peru’s flags to be flown at half staff.
|
suicide;corruption;scandals;peru;odebrecht;alan garcia
|
jp0002725
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Trump security adviser unveils new U.S. sanctions to pressure Cuba, Maduro regime, targeting remittances
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MIAMI - U.S. national security adviser John Bolton announced a series of new sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela on Wednesday as the Trump administration sought to boost pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and the countries that support him. Bolton, in a speech to an association of veterans of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, said the United States was adding five names linked to Cuba’s military and intelligence services to its sanctions blacklist, including the military-owned airline Aerogaviota. Bolton said Washington planned new limits on remittances to Cuba and changes to end the use of transactions that allow Havana to circumvent sanctions and obtain access to hard currency. He also announced new sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank to prohibit its access to dollars. “Under this administration, we don’t throw dictators lifelines. We take them away,” Bolton said. Bolton’s announcement of the new sanctions came just hours after the Trump administration said it was lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cuba’s Communist government since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. The major policy shift, announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, could draw hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billion of dollars. It is intended to intensify pressure on Havana at a time Washington is demanding an end to Cuban support for Venezuela’s Maduro.
|
venezuela;cuba;nicolas maduro;bay of pigs;donald trump;remittances;john bolton;aerogaviota
|
jp0002728
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Emperor Akihito visits Grand Shrines of Ise to report his April 30 abdication to ancestral deities
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ISE, MIE PREF. - Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited the Grand Shrines of Ise in Mie Prefecture on Thursday to report his upcoming abdication to the ancestral deities of the Imperial family enshrined there. The couple have been on a three-day trip to Mie Prefecture since Wednesday. It will be their last trip to a region outside of Tokyo during the Emperor’s reign. The Emperor, clad in a morning suit, and the Empress, wearing a long dress, offered prayers at the shrine during the Shinetsu no Gi ritual, one of a series of rituals held for the Imperial succession. For the occasion, the Emperor brought with him the Imperial sword and jewel, two of the family’s three sacred treasures, which play a key role in the succession. The last treasure, a mirror, is kept at the shrine. The regalia, called Sanshu no Jingi, will be passed on to 59-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito after he ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, a day after Emperor Akihito abdicates. The Imperial Couple last visited the shrine in March 2014, and this is their fifth visit since the Emperor was enthroned in January 1989 upon the death of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa. The couple are scheduled to visit the Musashino Imperial mausoleum on the outskirts of Tokyo, where the late Emperor is buried, on Tuesday and take part in various official events until the end of the month. Emperor Akihito will deliver his last speech as Emperor on April 30. In 2016, the Emperor indicated his wish to step down in a rare video message, citing his concern that he might not be able to fulfill his official duties due to his advanced age. The following year, the Diet enacted one-off legislation to enable him to abdicate and become the first Japanese monarch to do so in about 200 years.
|
emperor akihito;shinto;imperial family;abdication;mie;grand shrines of ise
|
jp0002730
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Growth in number of foreign visitors to Japan slowed, but topped 30 million for first time in fiscal 2018
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The estimated number of foreign visitors in the fiscal year through March hit 31.62 million, up 6.2 percent from the previous year, government data showed Wednesday. Visitors from Asian neighbors helped lift the number but growth slowed from the 19.9 percent rise seen in the previous fiscal year due to a number of natural disasters, including earthquakes and torrential rains that hit the country last summer, an official at the Japan Tourism Agency said. The figure for March alone was estimated at 2.76 million, up 5.8 percent from the year before, marking a record high for the month, according to the agency. The government has set a target of attracting 40 million foreign visitors annually by next year, when Japan hosts the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. To meet that goal, the government has eased visa rules, expanded airports for budget airlines and promoted private lodging services to address an accommodation shortage. The agency also said spending by foreign tourists in the January-March period rose 0.5 percent from the previous year to ¥1.12 trillion ($10 billion), still far from the government target of ¥8 trillion for all of 2020. Chinese travelers spent the most at ¥402.1 billion, followed by Taiwanese at ¥150.1 billion, South Koreans at ¥147.9 billion and those from Hong Kong at ¥80.7 billion. Spending per visitor in the three-month period fell 5.9 percent to ¥143,206, the data showed. By country, Australians ranked first in average spending per visitor at ¥234,972, followed by Chinese at ¥207,235 and Vietnamese at ¥194,310. Hiroshi Tabata, commissioner of the agency, said at a news conference that the tepid spending could be attributed to slowing growth in the number of foreign visitors. In particular, there was a drop in the number of tourists from South Korea after the natural disasters, the agency official said. “It’s important for us to find new potential tourists, promote visits by them to rural areas and get them to stay longer in Japan. We’re planning more efforts with all that in mind,” Tabata said.
|
tourism;foreign tourists;japan tourism agency
|
jp0002731
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Patients doing well after landmark 2017 retina transplants via donor iPS cells in Japan
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OSAKA - A Japanese team reported Thursday that five patients with a severe eye disease were doing well after they received in 2017 the world’s first transplant surgeries using induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, from donors. As part of a clinical research program, the patients received the transplants of artificially grown retinal cells made from donor iPS cells as a treatment for wet-type age-related macular degeneration, which can often lead to blindness. The first transplant was performed in March 2017. In the surgeries, a fluid containing retinal cells was injected into the patients’ eyes. The transplanted retinal cells became firmly fixed, and one patient whose body rejected the transplant to a mild extent was able to overcome it by taking medications, according to project leader Masayo Takahashi, a researcher at the government-backed Riken institute. Of the five, four have maintained their level of visual acuity after the operations, while one experienced an improvement in their vision. “We think we were able to ensure the safety (of the treatment). We’d like to begin new clinical trials to find out for what type of symptoms the treatment would be highly effective,” Takahashi said in the first detailed report on the patients’ post-surgery recovery. The first patient, a man living in Hyogo Prefecture, experienced increased levels of fluid in his retina due to the rejection, but the administration of steroids contained it, according to the team, which involved Riken and the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital. The trials used iPS cells stocked at Kyoto University designed to lower the risk of rejection. Shinya Yamanaka, one of two people awarded a 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery that cells could be reprogrammed into iPS cells, heads iPS research at the university and is working to adapt the treatment for many types of illnesses and injuries. Compared with using iPS cells taken from patients themselves, using stocked donor cells can cut down the cost and time to culture cells for transplants, according to the team. Of the five, the second patient suffered a swollen retina after undergoing the transplant, the team said in January last year. But the group concluded it was part of surgical complications rather than a rejection of transplanted iPS cells. In 2014, Takahashi and others succeeded for the first time in the world in transplanting into a woman retinal cells grown from her own iPS cells.
|
ips;shinya yamanaka;disease;riken;masayo takahashi
|
jp0002732
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Database of Japanese buried in Australia during WWII completed
|
CANBERRA - A comprehensive, bilingual database of Japanese nationals who died in Australia during World War II and were buried in a war cemetery in the country’s east has been completed, researchers announced Thursday. The Cowra Japanese War Cemetery Database project will be open to the public from early May, and includes the names, causes of death and in many cases, intimate details, of almost all of the approximately 524 people buried at the cemetery in the small town of Cowra in the state of New South Wales. Located roughly 300 kilometers west of Sydney, Cowra is considered the spiritual home of Japanese in Australia, due to its wartime past and modern-day efforts to promote peaceful relations between the two countries. Project leader Keiko Tamura of Australian National University described the database as a “labor of love” as it involved Tamura and her team going through thousands of digitized internment documents and records held by the Australian National Archive. “Going through individual records was as if we were accompanying each of their journeys through time and space to the last resting place in Cowra,” the research associate said at a news briefing held at the Japanese Embassy in Canberra. “We never met those people and we don’t know how they look, but their lives started to take more concrete shape in front of us. It was as if we were opening a book and going through pages of this book,” she said. Tamura said one of the original goals of the database was to highlight the war cemetery as the final resting place of 292 civilian Japanese who were living in Australia and the Pacific prior to the outbreak of war, and not just prisoners of war. “The Cowra cemetery has been strongly associated with the breakout,” she said, referring to a 1944 incident in which 1,104 captured Japanese soldiers attempted to escape from a prisoner of war camp in Cowra. About 230 soldiers who died in the breakout are also buried in the cemetery. “When (contemporary) visitors see graves which belong to elderly or young children they are puzzled and wonder how they could be involved in the breakout,” Tamura said. Japanese civilians living in Australia and the Pacific region during World War II were held as “enemy aliens” in internment camps across the country for the duration of the war and sent back to Japan in 1946. Tamura said the civilians buried at the cemetery generally died from illness and there was “no so-called ill-treatment” in the camps. Over half of the graves at the Cowra Japanese War Cemetery belong to Japanese soldiers, and include POWs and airmen who died or were captured across Australia and the Pacific. Bodies of soldiers who died outside of Cowra were reinterred in 1964 when the war cemetery was officially opened. The researcher said many families of Japanese soldiers who died as POWs do not know where their loved ones were buried and hopes the database will provide people with the opportunity to find their relatives. “Until now, nobody knew anything about their lives and their final years. Now we can glimpse their journeys through this database,” she said. Bill West, mayor of Cowra Shire Council, also said he hoped the database would help families in Japan locate their loved ones and show the remains of Japanese soldiers are being well cared for in Australia. “To see the final resting place is being looked after, is being cared for with the respect and dignity that they deserve, is very important (to the families),” he said. West, who was involved in the 2015 return of the remains of Imperial Japanese Army soldier Michiaki Wakaomi to Japan, described the moment when the soldier’s family found his grave in Cowra as “overwhelming.” The Cowra Japanese War Cemetery Database will be open to the public beginning May 10 at www.cowrajapanesecemetery.org
|
wwii;world war ii;war dead;keiko tamura
|
jp0002733
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Abe has abandoned June timeline for Japan-Russia peace treaty, says source
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has given up on reaching a broad agreement on a Japan-Russia peace treaty when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June amid persisting differences over how to settle a long-standing territorial dispute, a government source said Thursday. Instead, the two leaders may agree on visa-free travel between the Russian-held region where the four disputed islands are located and Hokkaido when they meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, the source said. Abe had been hoping to secure a promise from Putin to hand over two of the islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils. But with the chances of an immediate breakthrough looking slim, Abe has opted to revert to his earlier strategy of conducting joint economic activities with Russia on the islands while the countries continue negotiations, the source said. The islands off eastern Hokkaido were seized by the Soviet Union after Japan’s 1945 surrender brought an end to World War II. Japan has opposed Russia’s position that it legitimately acquired the islands as a result of the war. Putin has voiced concern that returning the two smaller islands — Shikotan and the Habomai islet group — would clear the way for the United States, Japan’s top security ally, to deploy troops to the region. Japan, meanwhile, has rebuffed Russia’s demand for recognition of its sovereignty of the four islands as a condition for signing a peace treaty. With such a wide rift in the negotiations, a senior Japanese official said, “It’s unlikely that we’ll have some kind of agreement at the G20 summit.” The countries are instead considering the establishment of a system of visa-free travel between Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East and Hokkaido, a move Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed in January in a meeting with Foreign Minister Taro Kono. Kono is planning to visit Moscow in mid-May to continue talks with Lavrov, with the two slated to meet again later in that month. Japan hopes that by holding the meetings in quick succession, the countries can keep the momentum in the negotiations going. Abe has been widely seen as eager to secure a political legacy by resolving the territorial dispute and signing a peace treaty with Russia during his final term in office through September 2021. He agreed with Putin in November to accelerate the talks based on the 1956 joint declaration that mentions the return of Shikotan and Habomai once a peace treaty is concluded. The islands cover about 5,000 square kilometers and adjacent waters contain rich fishing grounds. Nearly 17,000 Russians reside on the islands of Kunashiri, Etorofu and Shikotan, while the Habomai islet group is uninhabited. Shikotan and the Habomai group account for only 7 percent of the total landmass of the disputed islands.
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shinzo abe;vladimir putin;russia;disputed islands;northern territories;hokkaido;russia-japan relations
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jp0002734
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/18
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Foreign Minister Taro Kono to visit Moscow in mid-May for Japan-Russia peace treaty talks
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Foreign Minister Taro Kono plans to visit Moscow in mid-May for a meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to advance postwar peace treaty talks that have stalled over a territorial dispute, a Japanese government source said Wednesday. The two-day visit from May 11 has been scheduled in the hopes of making progress in the negotiations ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. The two foreign ministers last met in February in Munich. Japan and Russia have been unable to sign a peace treaty more than 70 years after the end of World War II, as they remain at odds over the sovereignty of Russian-controlled islands off the coast of Hokkaido, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia. Japan maintains the Soviet Union seized the islands illegally following Japan’s surrender in 1945, while Russia argues it legitimately acquired them as the outcome of the war. The foreign ministers are also expected to hold another meeting less than a month later to coincide with security talks involving the countries’ defense ministers to be held over two days from May 30. By holding meetings in quick succession, the government hopes to push the negotiations forward so that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can reach some kind of agreement with Putin at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Separately, another source said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in the final stages of arranging the first of a series of regular exchanges with the United Russia party for mid-May in Tokyo. The LDP aims to build trust with the Russian ruling party in order to assist Abe’s efforts in the negotiations on the territorial dispute. A United Russia delegation for the exchange events, possibly including close aides to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, also head of the party, is expected to visit Japan on May 14 to 18, the source said. Members of the mission are expected to meet with LDP heavyweights, including Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, and may also take a trip to Kyoto. At their meeting in Moscow in April last year, Nikai and Medvedev signed a pact on LDP-United Russia exchanges, under which the two parties would discuss Japan-Russia relations and pressing international issues and conduct mutual visits by their members. Abe and Putin agreed last November to accelerate their talks based on a 1956 joint declaration that mentions the return of the smaller two of the four islands — Shikotan and the Habomai islet group — once a peace treaty is concluded, but so far there has been little progress.
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shinzo abe;vladimir putin;russia;ldp;disputed islands;northern territories;russia-japan relations;sergey lavrov;taro kono
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jp0002735
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
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Gold coins marking Japan's era name change from Heisei to Reiwa go on sale for ¥1.3 million
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A Tokyo department store on Thursday began selling pairs of commemorative gold coins marking Japan’s upcoming change from the Heisei Era to the Reiwa Era. One set of the solid gold koban coins is priced at ¥1,296,000 and is being sold at the Nihonbashi branch of the Takashimaya department store chain. “It looks good with two era names lining up side by side. I will not buy them today, though, because of the price,” said Tomoe Shida, 70, from Tokyo’s Ota Ward, as she looked inside a case containing the coins. Koban coins were widely used in the Edo Period (1603-1868). The newly minted versions are oval-shaped, about 8 cm long, some 4.4 cm wide and weigh around 60 grams. “I hope people will enjoy seeing the two era names lining up in the last phase of Heisei,” a department store official said. The Takashimaya Co. outlet is also selling 100-gram gold bars, each engraved with either Reiwa or Heisei, at ¥864,000 each. Era names are used for the length of an emperor’s reign. Japan will welcome the Reiwa Era upon Crown Prince Naruhito’s ascension to the throne one day after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicates on April 30.
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takashimaya;currencies;heisei;reiwa
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jp0002736
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[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
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Tepco says foreign workers on new visas can work at crisis-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant
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The operator of the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant plans to allow foreign nationals to work at the complex through a new visa program that started earlier this month, company officials said Thursday. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. has told dozens of its subcontractors that foreign workers coming under the recently adopted program, which is intended to address Japan’s acute labor shortage, may engage in the work of decommissioning the plant. They may also take up work cleaning buildings and providing food services, the company said. To prevent unsafe levels of radiation exposure, Tepco said foreign workers must have Japanese-language abilities that allow them to accurately understand the risks and follow procedures and instructions communicated to them in Japanese. In controlled radiation areas, workers need to carry dosimeters. On average, approximately 4,000 people work for Tepco subcontractors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant each day. Tepco is also considering accepting workers from overseas at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, the officials said. The company aims to reboot reactors at the complex, which have been suspended following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and have been undergoing renovations to improve safety. “The decision to hire foreign workers under the new visa system is up to our subcontractors and we have not set a target figure” for such employees, said a Tepco official. “We will manage the situation as a company that places orders” for laborers. The new system was implemented on April 1 to bring in mainly blue-collar foreign workers to 14 labor-hungry sectors including construction, farming and nursing care. Tepco has confirmed with the Justice Ministry that holders of visas under the latest plan are eligible to work at the Fukushima plant. To address exploitation fears under the new visa system, the Justice Ministry issued an ordinance requiring employers to pay wages equivalent to or higher than those of Japanese nationals. Every person working at the plant has a limit on how much radiation they may be exposed to, but due to the complex nature of secondary employment arrangements, oversight is proving to be a challenge. In May last year, six people in the government’s foreign trainee program were found to have engaged in construction work at the Fukushima plant despite Tepco’s ban on program participants working at the complex. The six were hired by one of the utility’s subcontractors. The Justice Ministry does not allow foreign trainees working under the program, which is aimed at transferring skills to developing countries, to engage in decommissioning work as the skills acquired would have no application in their home country. The internship program is often criticized as a cover for companies to import cheap labor.
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fukushima;fukushima no . 1;immigration;radiation;tepco;nuclear energy;foreign workers
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jp0002737
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Abe and Trump to talk on April 26 in Washington, followed by golf and Melania's birthday celebrations
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WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump plan to hold talks on April 26 in Washington, sources familiar with bilateral relations said Wednesday. Abe is expected to celebrate U.S. first lady Melania Trump’s birthday on that day and play golf with the president outside the capital on April 27, the sources said. Abe and Trump are likely to reaffirm the need for the international community to fully enforce U.N. sanctions on North Korea to compel it to denuclearize. They are also expected to discuss trade following the launch this week of new negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement. The leaders are likely to coordinate a planned trip by Trump to Japan from May 26 to 28 as well. If the trip is realized, Trump would likely become the first foreign state guest to meet with Crown Prince Naruhito after he accedes to the throne on May 1 following the abdication of his father Emperor Akihito the previous day. Besides the May visit, Trump plans to make another trip to Japan in late June for the Group of 20 summit to be held in Osaka.
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shinzo abe;u.s .;trade;donald trump
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jp0002738
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[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/04/18
|
Chilean suspect quizzed over Japanese ex-girlfriend's disappearance in France
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SANTIAGO - Chilean authorities on Wednesday questioned a man suspected of involvement in the 2016 disappearance of his Japanese ex-girlfriend in France. Nicolas Zepeda was interviewed by the public prosecutor in Santiago on Wednesday morning before leaving the Justice Center just after midday without speaking to reporters. He is the only suspect in the disappearance of Japanese student Narumi Kurosaki, then 21, in eastern France. Chilean prosecutors met with French investigators on Tuesday ahead of Zepeda’s questioning. Attorney General Tania Sanchez said only that proceedings had been carried out at the request of French authorities. French authorities suspect that Zepeda murdered Kurosaki, a student from the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture who was studying in France at the time of her disappearance. She went missing after dining and returning with Zepeda to the dorm of her university in Besancon, eastern France, on Dec. 4, 2016. Kurosaki’s body has not been found and Zepeda has denied the allegation in a statement submitted to Chilean authorities. France is hoping to provide sufficient evidence to see Zepeda arrested and extradited to face a murder charge. A Chilean judge had previously denied a request to arrest and extradite Zepeda, citing insufficient evidence. Investigators in France believe the 28-year-old Zepeda suffocated her in a jealous rage. He returned to Chile before French police issued an arrest warrant. Kurosaki was last seen hours before her disappearance having dinner with Zepeda in a restaurant in Ornans, near Besancon. Fellow students in her dormitory reported hearing terrified cries and banging noises later that same night, Besancon public prosecutor Etienne Manteuax said in November. No trace of blood was ever found in Kurosaki’s room and Zepeda denies any involvement in her disappearance.
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france;murder;chile;tsukuba university;narumi kurosaki;nicolas zepeda contreras
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jp0002739
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/27
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Amazonian tribe in Ecuador fends off Big Oil in court
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PUYO, ECUADOR - Ecuador’s indigenous Waorani tribe won its first victory Friday against Big Oil in a ruling that blocks the companies from entering ancestral Amazonian lands for oil-exploration activities. After two weeks of deliberations, a criminal court in Puyo accepted a Waorani bid for court protection in Pastaza province to stop an oil-bidding process after the government moved to open up around 180,000 hectares for exploration. The lands are protected under the Ecuador Constitution, which establishes the “inalienable, unseizable and indivisible” rights of indigenous people “to maintain possession of their ancestral lands and obtain their free adjudication.” Crucially, however, the wealth in the subsoil is owned by the state. The constitution also enshrines the need for prior consultation on any plans to exploit the underground resources, given the probable environmental and cultural impacts on tribal communities. The state reached an agreement with the Waorani over oil exploration in 2012, but the tribe’s leaders say they were duped. The judges ordered the government to conduct a new consultation, applying standards set by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose. The ruling “has created a significant precedent for the Amazon,” said Lina Maria Espinosa, an attorney for the plaintiffs, outside court. “It has been demonstrated that there was no consultation and that the state violated the rights of this people, and therefore of other peoples.” The Waorani, who number around 4,800, also inhabit other Amazonian provinces.
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courts;rights;oil;ecuador;amazon;ethnicity
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jp0002740
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Japan denounces WTO ruling in favor of South Korean ban on some Japanese seafood
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GENEVA - Tokyo on Friday denounced a recent World Trade Organization ruling that supported a South Korean ban on imports of some Japanese fishery products introduced in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Japan is deeply concerned that the appellate body report dismissed the panel’s findings founded on solid scientific evidence,” Junichi Ihara, Japan’s representative in Geneva, said at a meeting of the global trade watchdog’s dispute settlement body. The WTO’s appellate body for dispute settlement on April 11 ruled in favor of South Korea’s import ban on fishery products from Fukushima and seven other prefectures, reversing an earlier decision. It said the initial decision “erred in its interpretation and application” of WTO rules on food safety, but did not look at details related to the amount of radioactive contaminants in Japanese food products or the level of protection South Korean consumers should have. Calling the appellate body’s judgment “extremely regrettable,” Ihara argued that it “could have a negative impact on perceptions of the safety of Japanese foods and on those seeking to export their products to countries such as Korea.” The ruling is final, as the appellate body is the highest authority in the WTO’s dispute-settlement mechanism.
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fukushima no . 1;food;radiation;trade;3.11;south korea-japan relations
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jp0002742
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Weak South Korean economy and cooling North Korea ties threatening Moon Jae-in's political future
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SEOUL - South Korea’s Moon Jae-in has staked his presidency on tackling two big challenges: North Korea and the economy. Both are proving to be stubborn foes. The country’s gross domestic product contracted 0.3 percent in the first quarter — the biggest decline in a decade — the Bank of Korea said Thursday. The blow came just two days before the president was expected to mark the first anniversary of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — with an event snubbed by the North Koreans. “Not only the data today but also latest data showed that the economy is performing worse than expected. It won’t get any easier,” said Park Sangin, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration. “It is a very burdensome situation for the Moon Jae-in administration.” Moon’s policy double-whammy comes as he prepares to enter the third year of his single five-year term. The setbacks threaten to accelerate his shift to lame-duck status ahead of legislative elections next year — a fate that has befallen every democratically elected leader of Asia’s fourth-largest economy and made it more difficult to advance their agendas. The economic structural problems, including a slowdown in nearby China and weakening global demand for semiconductors, were going to present any South Korean leader with problems. So, besides pledging to make himself the “jobs president,” he threw himself into convincing Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump to stop threatening each other with war and come to the negotiating table. The peace push helped for a time offset a series of economic setbacks, pushing Moon’s approval rating to 83 percent in the wake of his historic April 27, 2018, meeting with Kim on their militarized border. But his support has slipped as talks between the U.S. and North Korea faltered. On Friday, his approval rating slipped to 44 percent from 48 percent a week earlier, according to Gallup Korea. His disapproval rating rose to 47 percent from 42 percent, outpacing the approval rating for the first time in four weeks. More than a third of those who were unhappy with Moon’s performance cited the lack of ability to resolve the issues related to the economy and people’s livelihood, while 16 percent cited his “excessive” focus on improving relations with North Korea, according to the weekly survey. Trump’s decision to walk away from his Feb. 28 meeting with Kim without a deal left Moon exposed to new criticism. The conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party has grown more emboldened as its own support rate inches up, opposing Moon’s appointments in parliament and mounting a protest against his North Korea policies last week that organizers say drew 20,000 people. Meanwhile, Kim has turned up his criticism of Moon, calling on him to stop acting like an “officious mediator” as North Korean state-media escalates complaints over U.S.-South Korean military exchanges. The North Koreans won’t be attending a series of artistic performances being held Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of Moon and Kim’s agreement to achieve a “comprehensive and epochal improvement” in ties between the former foes. There have been some bright spots for Moon, including his government’s much-lauded handling of a wild fire earlier this month that killed only one person despite consuming 1,760 hectares (4,340 acres) of occupied land. Such successes have helped make Moon’s support more resilient than his predecessors. But South Korea’s economy will continue to vex the president. The contraction comes even as Moon’s administration ramps up fiscal support, with an extra budget announced this week that came on top of a record budget already in place for 2019. Exports, which account for about half of South Korea’s GDP, are on course for a fifth-straight monthly decline amid weak demand from China, the nation’s biggest market. And public displeasure has mounted over Moon’s support for sharp minimum-wage hikes, which have been blamed for helping hold the jobless rate at its highest level in about nine years. Some supporters of Moon’s North Korean policies are urging the president to prioritize economic reforms. “It’s good to continue to play a facilitator’s role, but now he really has to accomplish something,” said Park Won-suk, a former lawmaker at the progressive Justice Party. “For the citizens, accomplishment is about the economy, the issues related to their livelihood. The presidential office and the president should focus on those issues.”
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;jobs;south korea;gdp;moon jae-in
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jp0002743
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Russian agent Maria Butina sentenced to 18 months in U.S.
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WASHINGTON - Maria Butina, the only Russian arrested and convicted in the three-year investigation of Moscow’s interference in U.S. politics, was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison. The leader of a small Russian gun rights group, the 30-year-old Siberian native used her ties to the National Rifle Association to build a network of powerful Republican contacts. She had admitted one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without registering — an “espionage-lite” charge the U.S. has used before against alleged Russian spies. Prosecutors said that although she worked openly and was not tied to any Russian intelligence agency, she was sending back reports to a high-level Russian government official and posed a threat to the United States. “I humbly request forgiveness. I’m not this evil person depicted in the media,” she told the court in Washington before her sentence was announced. Dressed in a dark blue pajama-like prison uniform, her long red hair pulled behind her shoulders, Butina’s voice broke as she addressed the court in fluent, Russian-accented English. She told the court she had only wanted to work toward better U.S.-Russian relations and would have registered as a foreign agent if she had known it was required by law. Moscow expressed outrage over the treatment of Butina, who was given credit for nine months already served and will be deported when she is released. “The accusations brought against her, intended to influence the internal political process in the United States, are totally invented and fabricated,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Our compatriot was condemned just because she is a Russian citizen,” it added. Butina’s case played out against a backdrop of tension between Moscow and Washington over what U.S. intelligence says was a concerted effort by Russian spies to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, using hacking and social media manipulation to help President Donald Trump to victory. Special counsel Robert Mueller charged 25 Russians with conspiracy for those activities, but, with all of them believed to be in Russia, none have been arrested. U.S. prosecutors acknowledged that Butina had nothing to do with those cases but alleged that she was part of a “spot-and-assess” operation to identify potential recruits. A gun rights campaigner who attended NRA events and invited top gun lobby officials to Russia, she lived as a graduate student in Washington with her boyfriend, a Republican and NRA activist. Her activities brought her in contact with top Republicans, including Trump at a rally in 2015, where she was chosen to ask the then-candidate about U.S.-Russian relations. Butina sent regular updates to her handler Alexander Torshin, at the time a senior Kremlin politician and central bank deputy governor who had accompanied her to NRA conventions. “There is no doubt that she was not simply a graduate student,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson told the court. “She was simultaneously trying to make contacts … for the benefit of the Russian Federation.” Steven Hall, the CIA’s former chief of Russian operations, said her operating in the open was simply an innovative tactic in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “broader hybrid-warfare influence operation.” “She’s part of the Kremlin’s plan to try to weaken the United States and the West,” he said. Butina’s lawyer Robert Driscoll, a prominent Republican attorney, said she had broken no law besides the registration statute, and would not have been pursued had she been of a different nationality. It remained to be seen whether Butina’s sentencing would impact the case of Paul Whelan, an American corporate security expert arrested while in Moscow for a wedding late last year and accused of espionage. Some Russian experts said his arrest was retaliation for that of Butina, although Whelan’s brother, David, has said he doesn’t believe the cases are related. But before Butina’s sentencing Hall, who is no longer with the CIA, said Washington “has to take into account that they do have an American over there, and we have a Russian here.” “So is there not a deal to be had?” he said.
|
russia;corruption;espionage;2016 u.s. presidential election;russia probe;marina butina
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jp0002744
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Oldest human footprint found in the Americas confirmed in Chile, researchers say
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SANTIAGO - A 15,600-year-old footprint discovered in southern Chile is believed to be the oldest ever found in the Americas, according to researchers. The footprint was first discovered in 2010 by a student at the Universidad Austral of Chile. Scientists then worked for years to rule out the possibility that the print may have belonged to some other species of animal, and to determine the fossil’s estimated age. Karen Moreno, a paleontologist with the Universidad Austral who has overseen the studies, said researchers had also found bones of animals near the site, including those of primitive elephants, but determined that the footprint was evidence of human presence. Moreno said this was the first evidence of humans in the Americas older than 12,000 years. “Little by little in South America we’re starting to find sites with evidence of human presence, but this is this oldest in the Americas,” she said.
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archaeology;chile
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jp0002745
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[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Egyptologist in Canada presents theory of two-queen rule before Tutankhamun
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MONTREAL - Tutankhamun, the boy king of ancient Egypt, came to power only after two of his sisters jointly held the throne, according to an Egyptologist at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). Researchers have known for more than half a century that a queen had reigned before Tutankhamun, whose intact tomb was discovered in 1922, sparking global interest in Egyptology. Some thought she was Nefertiti, the sister and wife of Akhenaten, who proclaimed herself “king” following his death. Others believed it to be the eldest daughter Princess Meritaten. UQAM’s Valerie Angenot says she has now conducted an analysis based on the study of symbols that revealed two daughters of Akhenaten seized power at his death, when their brother Tutankhamun, age 4 or 5 at the time, was too young to rule. Akhenaten had six daughters before having his son later on, who had a frail constitution and was plagued by illness throughout his life. Akhenaten married Meritaten to prepare her to one day rule, but some inscriptions also indicate he was grooming another daughter, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, for rule. They jointly ascended to the thrown under a common name, according to Angenot. Her work was presented at American Research Center in Egypt annual conference in Alexandria, Virginia, where she said it was well received. “Egyptology is a very conservative discipline, but my idea was surprisingly well received, except for two colleagues who fiercely opposed it,” she said, adding she hoped it could advance knowledge on succession issues in Ancient Egypt and of the Amarna Period. Earlier in the week, Egypt said archaeologists had uncovered an ancient tomb with mummies believed to date back about 2,000 years in the southern city of Aswan. The Antiquities Ministry said the tomb is from the Greco-Roman period, which began with Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. It is located near one of Aswan’s landmarks, the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, who lobbied for Muslim rights in India and who was buried there after his death in 1957. The statement said archaeologists found artifacts, including decorated masks, statuettes, vases, coffin fragments and cartonnages — chunks of linen or papyrus glued together.
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history;archaeology;egypt;king tut
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jp0002746
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
China police smash $30 million fake Lego ring
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BEIJING - Chinese police have dismantled a ring accused of manufacturing some $30 million worth of counterfeit Lego sold across the country, authorities said. Police earlier this week raided the premises of Lepin — a Chinese toymaker manufacturing Lego knockoffs in the southern city of Shenzhen — arresting four people, Shanghai police said on Friday. “In October 2018, the Shanghai police found that Lepin building blocks available on the market were extremely similar to that of Lego,” the statement said. The toys were copied from Lego blueprints and sent to a factory in Shenzhen to be manufactured before they were sold all over China. “Across more than 10 assembly lines, over 90 molds had been produced … (police seized) some 630,000 completed pieces worth more than 200 million yuan ($30 million),” the statement said. Images from the Tuesday raid — posted on official law enforcement social media accounts — showed molds and boxes that looked remarkably similar to lines produced by the Danish toy giant. A “Star Wars” knockoff is called “Star Plan,” while sets released in conjunction with the new “Lego Movie 2” have also been copied and sold under the name “The Lepin Bricks 2.” The counterfeit products could be a safety concern for consumers, said Lego’s China and Asia Pacific Vice President Robin Smith, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Foreign companies have long complained about lax intellectual property enforcement in China where counterfeiting is rampant. In an attempt to end its trade war with Washington, Beijing has pledged to clamp down on intellectual property infringements. The knockoffs are popular in a price-conscious market: a small city-themed Lepin set retails for $3 a box, whereas similar Lego sets start at $15. A check by AFP showed that the imitation sets were still available on e-commerce platform Taobao on Saturday afternoon. The Danish toy giant in February opened its first flagship store in Beijing — which features replicas of the Forbidden City made of plastic bricks — and has two other shops in Shanghai. Lego has in recent years seen renewed popularity thanks to premium collectors’ editions and a movie tie-up.
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china;lego;counterfeit;shenzhen
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jp0002747
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
White House consents to congressional interview of ex-staffer
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WASHINGTON - The White House said on Friday it has consented to a former staffer appearing before a congressional panel for an “on the record interview,” accompanied by his lawyers, regarding security clearance policies and procedures. The “reasonable accommodation offer” of a voluntary appearance by former White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform was disclosed in a letter to the panel’s ranking Republican, Jim Jordan. It came after Jordan, a leader of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus better known for stoking than soothing partisan frictions, sought to defuse tensions between House Democrats and the Trump administration with a letter urging the White House to agree to a voluntary committee interview on April 30 or May 1, according to two sources who saw Jordan’s letter. The House Oversight Committee is probing allegations that the administration inappropriately granted security clearances to some Trump advisers during Kline’s tenure as personnel security director for the White House. Kline served in that post for the first two years of Trump’s presidency and now works for the Defense Department. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone responded to Jordan, saying on Friday that Kline “is available to appear for an interview on Wednesday, May 1,” with the committee, according to a copy of the Cipollone letter obtained by Reuters. “We understand the scope of the interview will be limited to White House personnel security policies and practices, consistent with our prior offers for Mr. Kline’s voluntary cooperation with the Committee,” Cipollone said in the letter. The committee, chaired by Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, has issued a subpoena to compel Kline to testify before the panel under oath. While acceding to an “on the record interview,” the Cipollone letter makes no mention of sworn testimony. He calls the subpoena “unnecessary” in light of the “additional accommodation offer made over three weeks ago” for Kline’s voluntary appearance. No immediate comment was available from Cummings or other Democrats on the committee, and it was not clear whether they would accept the terms laid out by Cipollone. Still, the approach by Jordan was the first sign since the release last week of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections that House Republicans might be willing to cooperate with Democrats on probes into national security issues. Among recipients of the security clearances at issue, said congressional sources who asked not to be named, were Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. Both allegedly obtained high-level clearances, despite recommendations from career security officials against it. In a dispute over the terms of Kline’s appearance before the committee, the White House had advised him to ignore the subpoena. The committee responded by moving to hold Kline in contempt of Congress, possibly followed by legal action. Two congressional sources told Reuters that Jordan’s letter to Cipollone on Friday had urged the White House “to avoid unnecessary conflict between Congress and the executive branch and to de-escalate Chairman Cummings’s orchestrated interbranch confrontation.” Jordan warned that Cummings might proceed with contempt of Congress proceedings against Kline as early as the coming week. Cummings launched the investigation after Tricia Newbold, a career security official at the White House, disclosed that the administration overruled experts to give questionable security clearances to more than two dozen people.
|
congress;white house;donald trump;elijah cummings;carl kline
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jp0002748
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/27
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Biden spars with Trump over age as he faces questions on women
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WASHINGTON - Newly announced 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden faced scrutiny on multiple fronts Friday, as President Donald Trump knocked him for his age and an all-female panel questioned his past treatment of women. It was unlikely the rollout that the former vice president had expected on the first full day of his White House campaign, but the attention from Trump himself served to signal Biden’s status as the leading challenger in a crowded field seeking to oust the current president. Biden’s day in the public eye began with the 72-year-old Trump opening a fresh line of attack on his rival’s age, saying Biden made him “look very young” by comparison. “I’m the youngest person. I am a young, vibrant man,” a smiling Trump told reporters at the White House. “I look at Joe, I don’t know about him,” he said of Biden, who is 76 and would be the oldest person ever to serve as president. “I would never say anyone is too old, but I know they’re all making me look very young both in terms of age and I think in terms of energy.” Biden, speaking Friday on ABC’s popular talk show “The View,” acknowledged politics is a “show-me business” where voters assess not just a candidate’s political platform, but his physical fitness for office. “If he looks young and vibrant compared to me I should probably go home,” Biden said of the president. Trump is technically obese, has a penchant for fast food and avoids strenuous exercise. His doctor declared him healthy in February. Keen to paint Biden as unfit for the job, he has nicknamed his potential rival “Sleepy Joe.” Biden presented himself as a vigorous candidate, insisting he was more like “hyper Joe.” When he was asked Friday how he would beat Biden, whose working class appeal could help win back states Trump snatched in 2016 — such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the president was succinct: “I think we beat him easily.” But Trump is watching Biden’s rollout carefully. The former VP is angling to win back lower-income white voters who propelled Trump to the White House in 2016. Biden’s opening campaign message Thursday featured a direct challenge to Trump’s fitness for office, as he blasted his response to deadly white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. On Friday it was Biden on the back foot, as he faced awkward questions about his past actions — and stopped short of making outright apologies for them. Multiple women have accused Biden this year of touching them inappropriately in the past, and while they have not said the elder statesman sexually harassed them, his tactile style and invasion of personal space has come under increasing scrutiny in the #MeToo era. “So I invaded your space. I’m sorry this happened,” Biden said, referring to his efforts to console or thank or inspire women he has met over the course of his half-century political career. “I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.” Biden was also pressed on his handling of an infamous 1991 Senate hearing that involved testimony by Anita Hill, who was aggressively questioned by an all-male committee about her claims of sexual harassment. He said he recently called Hill to express regret over his handling of the hearings, but when asked by “The View” hosts to apologize directly to her, he stopped short. “I don’t think I treated her badly,” Biden said, adding that he believed her claims of harassment “from the beginning.” “There were a lot of mistakes made across the board. For that I apologize,” he said. Biden’s team was quick to refocus attention on the positive, announcing he raked in $6.3 million in the first 24 hours of the campaign, outpacing all other Democratic contenders on their opening days. In a news release Friday, Biden’s campaign says he raised the money from nearly 97,000 individuals across all 50 states, including 65,000 who weren’t solicited by email. Biden edged former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s first-day total of $6.1 million and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ sum of slightly less than $6 million. Biden attended a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Thursday evening aimed at raising $500,000. Hosts said Friday raised substantially more. The former vice president under Barack Obama entered the race Thursday, declaring the “soul of this nation” at stake under the Trump administration. He’s already scheduled a May 8 fundraiser in Los Angeles at the home of James Costos, Obama’s ambassador to Spain. Co-hosts include Richard Blum, the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg; and other top Obama and Hillary Clinton donors.
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u.s .;women;elections;joe biden;donald trump
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jp0002749
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Not so fast: Trump's Alaska drilling study slammed by U.S. wildlife regulator
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WASHINGTON - The Trump administration failed to adequately consider oil spills, climate change and the welfare of polar bears in its expedited study of proposed drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to comments published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The unusually harsh criticism from federal wildlife regulators could deal a blow to one of the most high-profile items in President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, and reflects the pitfalls of the administration’s drive to speed up big projects with quicker, shorter environmental studies. The Interior Department wants to hold its first lease sale of at least 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) in ANWR, America’s largest wildlife sanctuary, later this year, but could face lawsuits if its permitting process is flawed. The Fish & Wildlife Service said the ANWR Coastal Plain draft environmental impact study (EIS) failed to include oil spill response plans, analyze the effects of climate change on the Arctic, or ensure that surveys of polar bear denning habitats are required. The Interior subagency also listed dozens of other information gaps in its 59 pages of comments and implied that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management wrote the study without properly consulting wildlife regulators. “The Service has managed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its resources for several decades and has information and expertise that is valuable in formulating a final EIS that can withstand the scrutiny of legal sufficiency,” wrote the agency’s Alaska director, Gregory Sikanie. The Fish & Wildlife Service declined to provide further comment. The Interior Department said its Bureau of Land Management had received thousands of comments on the draft study, all of which would be considered. “BLM has an obligation to consider all of these comments-including those from its sister agency (Fish & Wildlife) — and anticipates they will inform the Final EIS in multiple ways,” spokeswoman Molly Block said in an email. BLM completed the draft environmental impact study at the end of December, after Trump expressed an interest in opening the zone to drilling. The comment period ended on March 13. The study was among the first of its kind since Trump’s Interior Department in 2017 issued an order that assessments under the National Environmental Policy Act be completed within one year and be no longer than 150 pages. NEPA studies under past administrations have taken years and filled out thousands of pages, a major source of frustration for drillers, miners and other industries that argue the process creates unnecessary delays. Experts said the effort to streamline environmental permitting, however, could also cause problems. “Imposing the timelines and page limits will mean significant impacts go unanalyzed. Tribal consultation and coordination will likely get shortchanged, important scientific data will not be considered, and the public’s ability to provide meaningful input on alternative courses of action will be compromised,” said Geoff Haskett, former Fish & Wildlife Service director for Alaska and president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. ANWR covers some 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) of Alaska’s North Slope, home to bears, caribou, lynx and musk ox, and overlying around 16 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, according to federal officials. It has been a lightning rod of contention between energy companies that want to develop it and conservationists that want to protect it since the 1970s.
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pollution;nature;gas;oil;endangered;arctic
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jp0002751
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Sri Lankan ex-defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he will run for president, tackle radical Islam
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COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s former wartime defense chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said on Friday he would run for president in elections this year and would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and surveilling citizens. Gotabaya, as he is popularly known, is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two led the country to a crushing defeat of separatist Tamil rebels a decade ago after a 26-year civil war. More than 250 people were killed in bomb attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that the government has blamed on Islamist militants and that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for. Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island’s current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on. “Because the government was not prepared, that’s why you see a panic situation,” he said in an interview with Reuters. Gotabaya said he would be a candidate “100 percent,” firming up months of speculation that he plans to run in the elections, which are due by December. He was critical of the government’s response to the bombings. Since the attacks, the government has struggled to provide clear information about how they were staged, who was behind them and how serious the threat is from Islamic State to the country. On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena said the government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him. Wickremesinghe said earlier he was not advised about warnings that came from India’s spy service either, presenting a picture of a government still in disarray since the two leaders fell out last October. Gotabaya is facing lawsuits in the United States, where he is a dual citizen, over his role in the war and afterward. The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld, filed a civil case in California this month against Gotabaya on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor. In a separate case, Ahimsa Wickrematunga, the daughter of murdered investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, filed a complaint for damages in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father. Gotabaya said the cases were baseless and only a “little distraction” as he prepared for the election campaign. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to renounce his citizenship and that process was nearly done, clearing the way for his candidacy. He said that if he won, his immediate focus would to be tackle the threat from radical Islam and to rebuild the security setup. “It’s a serious problem, you have to go deep into the groups, dismantle the networks,” he said, adding he would give the military a mandate to collect intelligence from the ground and to mount surveillance of groups turning to extremism. Gotabaya said that a military intelligence cell he had set up in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the bent toward extremist ideology some of the Islamist groups were taking in eastern Sri Lanka was disbanded by the current government. “They did not give priority to national security, there was a mix-up. They were talking about ethnic reconciliation, then they were talking about human rights issues, they were talking about individual freedoms,” he said. President Sirisena’s government sought to forge reconciliation with minority Tamils and close the wounds of the war and launched investigations into allegations of rights abuse and torture against military officers. Officials said many of these secret intelligence cells were disbanded because they faced allegations of abuse, including torture and extrajudicial killings. Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist.
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religion;terrorism;sri lanka;ethnicity;mahinda rajapaksa;mass murder;maithripala sirisena;gotobaya rajapaksa;sri lanka attacks
|
jp0002752
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
North Korea turns to diplomats after Kim sidelines point man in nuclear talks
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SEOUL - The demotion of Kim Yong Chol, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s point man for nuclear talks with the United States, signals that long-time diplomats who had been sidelined from the process will return to center-stage, diplomatic sources in Seoul and regional experts said. The hawkish former general and spymaster was recently removed from a key party post, taking the fall for the failed Hanoi summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim Yong Chol remains a formidable force in Pyongyang but there is no word whether he has been given a new role in the ultrasecretive North Korean power structure. He did not accompany Kim Jong Un to Russia this week for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, the North Korean leader’s first international foray since his Hanoi meeting with Trump in February ended in disarray. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and his deputy, Choe Son Hui, flanked the North Korean leader at the meeting in Vladivostok, including riding in his car, a highly unusual display of proximity. “The Hanoi summit damaged the North’s long-held principle that its leader never makes an error, so they have to shift the blame,” said Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul, referring to Kim Yong Chol’s demotion. “This may not mean an immediate shift in their U.S. strategy, but the diplomats will likely take the initiative to contain the fallout from Hanoi and promote diplomacy with various countries.” Kim Yong Chol was beside Kim through the last 12 months, including for his three meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, two with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the two Trump summits, in Singapore and Hanoi. But for those who have known him as a hard-line military general, Kim Yong Chol never seemed comfortable with the art of negotiating the roll back of his country’s nuclear program in exchange for concessions from the United States. Kim avoided getting into details at negotiating sessions, instead leaving it to diplomats to build strategy, two diplomatic sources in Seoul familiar with the North’s diplomatic engagements said. Even then, he refused to yield control, one of the sources said. “Whether or not he understood the issues, he kept a tight grip on the negotiations. It seemed like: ‘Over my dead body I’m going to let Ri Yong Ho take over,'” the source said, referring to the North’s foreign minister. The collapse of the Hanoi summit was a major setback for Kim Jong Un, who, several sources said, was led to believe by hawkish aides like Kim Yong Chol that he was about to win sought-after sanctions relief in return for a promise to partially scrap nuclear facilities. Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said the demands Kim made of Trump in Hanoi had the hallmarks of the “best scenario” strategy advocated by hawks like Kim Yong Chol. “But it turned out to be a scenario that the United States could never accept,” Cheong said. “Kim Jong Un cutting his reliance on Kim Yong Chol is a positive sign for the negotiations.” While Ri has gradually been promoted under Kim, the influence of Vice Foreign Minister Choe has surged since the Hanoi summit, officials and North Korea experts said. She was a junior player on the North’s U.S. diplomacy team in the 1990s and became the first vice foreign minister and a member of the powerful State Affairs Commission this month. She held several news conferences after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, playing the rare role of conveying Kim Jong Un’s thinking. Thae Yong Ho, former North Korean deputy ambassador in London who defected to the South in 2016, said Choe has joined an inner circle of women close to Kim Jong Un, including his sister and his wife. “Now she’s the real spokeswoman for Kim Jong Un,” Thae told a forum hosted by the Asan Institute of Policy Studies on Wednesday in Seoul. “How can Choe read his mind? Because she has access.” A diplomatic source also said Choe appears to have built rapport with Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister who is also a senior party official, which contributed to her recent promotion. “We have to remember that (Foreign Minister) Ri and Choe are not only North Korea’s best people for the job of dealing with the U.S.,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center. “But they both have known the leader since he was a small boy so there is a dynamic of their wanting to see Kim Jong Un thrive and succeed.”
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;south korea;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump;moon jae-in;kim-trump summit
|
jp0002753
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Trump says U.S. paid no money to North Korea in Otto Warmbier release
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WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of Otto Warmbier, a day after a report said Trump had approved a $2 million bill from Pyongyang for the American student’s care. “No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump wrote in a tweet. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from Pyongyang to cover its care of the comatose college student, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio visiting North Korea as a tourist, was imprisoned in January 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korean state media said. Warmbier died six days after his release from North Korea. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a lack of oxygen and blood to his brain. North Korea, which has dismissed claims that it tortured the student, blamed food poisoning and a sleeping pill. The Treasury Department received the bill from North Korea and it remained unpaid through 2017, the Post reported. It was not clear whether the administration paid the invoice later. Trump’s tweet did not address whether any agreement had been made and representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Asked whether it was accurate to say that no money was paid to North Korea in the Warmbier case, a State Department spokeswoman said by email: “We decline to comment.” The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment. The Post said an invoice was handed to then State Department envoy Joseph Yun hours before Warmbier was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017. The U.S. envoy, who was sent to retrieve Warmbier, signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from Trump, the Post reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the situation. Yun, who has since retired from the State Department, told CNN on Thursday the United States did not pay any ransom for American prisoners held by Pyongyang while he was the special representative for North Korea. He left the post in March 2018. Last December, a U.S. court ordered North Korea to pay $501 million in damages for the torture and death of Warmbier. In his tweet on Friday morning, Trump defended his handling of hostage negotiations and slammed efforts by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. Speaking to reporters later on Friday, Trump said “that was a fake news report that money was paid.” “I haven’t paid money for any hostage,” he said. “We don’t pay money for hostages.” In his tweet Trump noted that the Obama administration had swapped five Taliban prisoners to secure the release of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. Army sergeant who has since been dishonorably discharged. He accused Obama officials of paying ransom money in exchange for the return of four detained Americans in 2016, a charge the Obama administration has denied. The Obama administration had said the payment of $400 million to Iran settled a long-standing Iranian claim at the Hague that coincided with four detained Americans’ return but was not a ransom. Obama had also defended the deal that led to Bergdahl’s release and later changed the way the U.S. government handles cases in which Americans are detained by militant groups following a six-month review. A spokeswoman for Obama’s office had no immediate comment on Trump’s tweet.
|
u.s .;north korea;donald trump;otto warmbier
|
jp0002754
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Hong Kong museum documenting Tiananmen Square massacre reopens ahead of anniversary
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HONG KONG - A museum documenting the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has reopened in Hong Kong after a three-year hiatus, marking the 30th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on a pro-democracy protest. “The reopening of this June 4th Museum on the 30th anniversary is a clear demonstration of our commitment to uphold memory, pursue justice and hope for the future of our country,” Albert Ho, head of a group that operates the museum, said Friday, referring to the date the military crackdown is remembered by. The museum showcases relics from the incident, including a helmet worn by Chinese student Wang Nan when he was shot in the head by troops, and a bullet fragment removed from another student, Zhang Jian, who recently died. Other items on display include photographs, newspaper clippings and declassified government documents related to the incident. The museum first opened in 2014 in a commercial building but was forced to close two years later amid legal disputes with the site’s owner. Its new location, also in a commercial building in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon, could face similar challenges from the building’s owner. The museum is operated by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which holds annual memorials for the hundreds of mainly student protesters who died after soldiers began the crackdown on the night of June 3, 1989, and later opened fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square. “We cannot lose sight of the past and close eyes to injustice in the past, because if we did not remember the past, we would lose sight of the future,” Ho said. “We will continue … to call for vindication of the student movement and … to bring those responsible to justice.” Cheung Wing-fai, a 60-year-old former teacher who was visiting the museum, called it “meaningful,” because Hong Kong is the only place in China to host such a site. “I hope (the museum) will continue (operate) so that people who want to know history can come, no matter how differently people think of the crackdown,” he said. Before the museum reopened, about 20 people had staged protests at the new site for days, calling for its expulsion on the grounds that it would draw too many visitors and become a disturbance to other proprietors in the building. Ho said police are investigating after the museum was vandalized about two weeks before the reopening. He believes the attack was politically motivated.
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china;hong kong;history;rights;protests;tiananmen square
|
jp0002755
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Hong Kong bookseller flees to Taiwan fearing extradition
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TAIPEI - A Hong Kong bookseller who disappeared into Chinese custody for half a year said Friday he has fled to Taiwan after the financial hub announced plans to approve extraditions to the mainland. Lam Wing-kee was one of five publishers selling gossip-filled tomes on China’s leaders who vanished at the end of 2015, resurfacing in Chinese custody and making televised confessions. He was allowed back to Hong Kong in June 2016 on condition that he pick up a hard drive listing the bookstore’s customers and return to the mainland. Instead he skipped bail and went public with explosive testimony detailing how he was blindfolded by mainland police after crossing the border at Shenzhen and spent months being interrogated. Following his ordeal, 64-year-old Lam had previously said he wanted to move to Taiwan, which does not have an extradition agreement with China. But he said his plans were sped up after Hong Kong’s government this year announced the controversial move to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland. “Right now Hong Kong is not safe for me anymore,” he said in Taipei, saying he had flown to the Taiwanese capital the day before. Lam said he was “enjoying the air of freedom and reading some free books,” adding that he hopes to work for a friend and is currently in talks to open a bookstore on the self-ruling democratic island. Because Lam skipped bail he is still technically wanted on the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong currently has no extradition agreement with China. The city has a separate legal system through the “one country, two systems” deal struck between Britain and China. Historically the city has balked at mainland extraditions because of the opacity of China’s criminal justice system and its liberal use of the death penalty. But earlier this year, Hong Kong’s government announced plans to overhaul its extradition rules, allowing the transfer of fugitives with mainland China on a “case-basis” for the first time. The legislation has been winding its way through the city’s parliament. Lam said he felt he could not take the risk of staying. “You don’t know what kind of excuses or charges they will use to put you on the wanted list,” he said, adding the law “puts every Hong Konger in a very dangerous position.” He said he felt Taiwan was a safer bet because it “really has rule of law.” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told local media Lam had been granted a one month business stay and that if he wanted to stay longer he would need to submit the relevant applications. The planed extradition changes in Hong Kong have sparked large protests and mounting alarm within the city’s business and legal communities who fear it will hammer the financial hub’s international appeal and tangle people up in China’s opaque courts. A new protest is planned for Sunday.
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china;hong kong;taiwan;rights;extradition
|
jp0002756
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Sri Lankan forces raid Islamist hideout; 15 dead after three cornered bombers blow selves up
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COLOMBO - Fifteen people including six children have died during a Sri Lankan security forces operation in the aftermath of the Easter attacks, as three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up and others were shot dead, police said Saturday. The three men set off explosives, also killing three women and six children inside what was believed to a jihadi safe house near the eastern town of Kalmunai on Friday night. “Three other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found dead outside the house,” police said in a statement, adding that they had been shot. Police backed by troops exchanged fire with those inside the house for over an hour, a military official said, adding that the bodies were recovered early Saturday following a search operation. Security forces have stepped up their searches for extremists after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, which killed least 253 people and wounded hundreds more. The joint operation between the police and the army was carried out following a tip-off that those responsible were holed up in a built-up area of Kalmunai, 370 kilometers (230 miles) east of the capital. There were no casualties among the security forces, the police said. The government has admitted major intelligence lapses, although Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was unaware of any warnings ahead of the attacks, in a sign of the rift between him and President Maithripala Sirisena. “If we had any inkling, and we had not taken action, I would have handed in my resignation immediately,” he told the BBC. “But what do you do when you are out of the loop?” Sirisena tried to sack Wickremesinghe last year, and experts believe the feud could have played a part in Sri Lanka’s failure to act on intelligence warnings given weeks before the attacks. Friday’s clashes came hours after the security forces raided a nearby location where they believe Islamist radicals recorded a video pledge to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before carrying out the Easter bombings. Police said they found an IS flag and uniforms similar to those worn by the eight fighters for the video before they launched the attacks. IS released the video two days after the attacks. The head of a local extremist group, Zahran Hashim, who appeared in the video, was killed at one of the Colombo hotels targeted, the Shangri-La. He was accompanied by a second bomber identified as Ilham Ibrahim. Authorities had been desperately searching for Hashim after naming his group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), as the perpetrators of the attack, but announced Friday he had been killed in the hotel bombing. DNA tests are being done on a severed head to conclusively establish that it is Hashim’s, officials said. The government is on the defensive over its failure to heed a foreign intelligence warning that NTJ was planning suicide bombings on churches. Police chief Pujith Jayasundara became the second top official to resign over the blunders Friday, after top defence ministry official Hemasiri Fernando also stepped down. Sri Lanka’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, has said he felt “betrayed” by the government’s failure to act on the warnings. Wickremesinghe apologized on Friday. “We take collective responsibility and apologize to our fellow citizens for our failure to protect victims of these tragic events,” the PM wrote on Twitter. The military have poured troops onto the streets to back up police as they search for suspects using newly granted powers under a state of emergency. At least 94 people are in custody, including a man believed to be the father of two of the bombers. “We now have info that there are about 140 people in Sri Lanka linked to the Islamic State. We can and we will eradicate all of them very soon,” Sirisena said Friday, announcing new legislation to ban extremist groups. Dozens of foreigners died in the attacks and the government has said it expects the number of overseas tourists to fall by 30 percent this year, at a cost of $1.5 billion in revenues. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the island — which depends on tourism as a cornerstone of its economy — could take up to two years to fully recover. The U.S. State Department on Friday escalated its travel warning for Sri Lanka and ordered the departure of all school-age family members of U.S. government employees. Terrorists “may attack with little or no warning,” it said in a statement that advised citizens to reconsider traveling to the island. Several nations including Israel, Australia and Britain have already warned their citizens against visiting Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.
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religion;terrorism;sri lanka;mass murder;sri lanka attacks
|
jp0002757
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Japan begins 10-day Golden Week holiday ahead of Imperial succession
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An unprecedented 10-day Golden Week holiday started Saturday ahead of the Imperial succession, with bullet train stations, airports and expressways crowded with travelers heading to their hometowns, major cities and overseas destinations. From the morning, there were long lines at check-in and luggage drop counters at Tokyo’s Haneda airport as the rush of travelers leaving the capital during the holiday peaked, while the occupancy rate of nonreserved cars of many bullet trains topped 100 percent. With Emperor Akihito’s abdication set on April 30 and the ascent of Crown Prince Naruhito the following day, areas around the Imperial Palace, where related ceremonies will be held — and other popular spots in Japan — attracted a wave of tourists. “This will be a good memory as I wanted to come here before the Imperial era changes (from Heisei to Reiwa),” said Junko Suzuki, 48, a housewife from Akita Prefecture. Iichi Shimada, 61, a company employee who was on a one-day bus tour from Yokohama said, “I hope Reiwa will be an era without wars or natural disasters, as the Heisei Era saw many disasters.” Visitors crowded other tourist spots as well. At the iconic Tokyo Skytree, Taishin Kanno, a physiotherapist from the city of Fukushima, said, “Since I started working, I didn’t think I can rest for so long like this.” “It is the first day of the 10-day vacation, and speaking of Tokyo, I thought a visit to Skytree would be a start,” said the 23-year-old, who was visiting the 634-meter tower with a friend. The number of vacationers from Japan traveling domestically and overseas is expected to reach a record high during the extended Golden Week vacation, according to a major travel agency. Golden Week — running through May 6 — has been lengthened to 10 days this year for the first time to celebrate the Imperial succession. Travel agency JTB Corp. said 24.67 million people are set to travel between April 25 and May 5, up 1.2 percent from the same period last year, with 24.01 million on domestic trips and 662,000 going overseas, both record highs. While many people will use the break to take longer vacations than usual, travel packages celebrating the Crown Prince’s ascension and the start of the new era next Wednesday — after Emperor Akihito’s abdication the previous day — are popular. Nippon Travel Agency Co. said it has sold out a three-day tour from Osaka to Izumo Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Shimane Prefecture historically associated with the royal family, to celebrate the end of the Heisei Era and beginning of Reiwa. The agency has also received many inquiries for its May 4 day trip from travelers who want to join other well-wishers when they will be allowed entry into the Imperial Palace to congratulate the new Emperor. “There is a huge momentum for both domestic and overseas trips,” a spokesman for the agency said. Internationally, trips to nearby destinations such as South Korea and Taiwan, and relatively distant ones such as Hawaii and Europe are popular. Myanmar has become an attractive destination for Japanese tourists after it began granting them visa-free entry for a year from last October. Among domestic trips, the operator of the Hokkaido Shinkansen saw the first year-on-year rise in its seat reservation for the Golden Week holiday since the opening of the service in 2016. Travelers can get from Tokyo Station to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station in Hokkaido — where cherry blossom blooms latest in Japan — in less than four hours, after a timetable revision in March. “We expect an increase in passengers as (the holidays) overlap with the cherry blossom season” in Hokkaido, an official at Hokkaido Railway Co. said.
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holidays;golden week;heisei
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jp0002758
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Japanese police hunt for man after knives found near Prince Hisahito's desk at junior high school
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Two knives were found near the desk of Prince Hisahito, the 12-year-old grandson of Emperor Akihito, at his junior high school, with security camera footage showing a man wanted in connection with the incident trespassing on school grounds, police said Saturday. The footage shows a helmeted middle-aged man dressed in blue entering Ochanomizu University Junior High School on Friday around noon, according to the police. Prince Hisahito, who began classes this month, was not in the classroom, which was empty at the time when the knives are believed to have been left there. The Metropolitan Police Department is searching for the man, who is suspected of disguising himself as a construction worker to get in to leave the knives — thought to be fruit knives. The incident came just ahead of next week’s Imperial succession, which will make the young prince second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Prince Akishino, father of Prince Hisahito, will be first in the line after the succession. There was a seating chart in the classroom and the Metropolitan Police Department suspects that someone who saw it identified where the prince sits, according to investigative sources. The hilts of the knives were attached by adhesive tape to a stick, the sources said, and the combination was placed across the prince’s desk and the one next to it. The blades of the knives were painted pink, they added. Whenever Prince Hisahito leaves his residence, he is guarded by police officers but at school they stand by on campus and do not accompany him inside buildings or his classrooms, according to an Imperial Household Agency official. Students of the women’s university, which is on the same campus, were surprised that the incident occurred despite tight security. Guards at the premise’s two main gates have always checked the identities of visitors and asked students to show their cards, according to a student attending its graduate school. “I have never worried about safety. I can’t believe such an incident happened,” said the 23-year-old student. “It is difficult for an outsider to freely enter the campus,” a senior student at the university also said.
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royalty;emperor akihito;prince hisahito;imperial family;police;emperor naruhito
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jp0002759
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[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
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Immigration Services Agency to toughen Japanese-language school standards
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The Immigration Services Agency plans to strengthen its eligibility standards for Japanese-language schools, it was learned Saturday. The move comes as Japanese-language schools have been under fire for accepting many foreign students whose purpose is to work in Japan. The number of Japanese-language schools recognized by the government grew 1.6 times over the past five years to 749 as of April 2. The government late last year outlined plans to improve the quality of Japanese-language schools as part of efforts to bring in more foreign workers to the country. Under the agency’s plan, the requirement for the average student attendance rate would be revised from the current 50 percent or more in a month to 70 percent or more in a period of seven months. Schools failing to meet the requirement would not be allowed to accept foreign students. In addition, 70 percent or more of students who complete courses would have to proceed to universities or to certify through outside tests that their Japanese-language ability is above daily conversation levels. Schools failing to meet the threshold for three consecutive years would not be able to accept foreign students. Japanese-language schools currently undergo eligibility checks only when they accept foreign students for the first time. Under the agency’s plan, they would be required to undergo checks every year and report outcomes regularly. The agency would require schools to be aware where their foreign students work part time. Schools would be obligated to report to the agency about the part-time jobs of foreign students whose monthly attendance rate falls below 50 percent.
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foreign workers;japanese language schools
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jp0002761
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/04/27
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Japan's internet took on a life of its own during the Heisei Era
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The story of a recent online phenomenon offers a great snapshot of internet culture in Japan during the Heisei Era (1989-2019). Twitter user @Ninjamaaaaaan posted a blurry photo of a pooch in motion, with its tail swooping in front of its face. It looked vaguely like the canine in the image was throwing a haymaker with a particularly jacked-up arm. More than 48,000 retweets later, right-hook dog has taken on a whole new existence. Users across the internet created fan art , latte designs and 3D printed models . Soon enough other famous dog characters were getting the proteined-up treatment, while others drew comics . A buff fox was soon uncovered . Naturally the two squared off . Given the pace of internet culture in 2019, right-hook dog isn’t going to be the final meme to spread before the Reiwa Era officially starts (who knows what animal is enjoying its time in the digital spotlight as you read this?). However, it does serve as a nice note to go out on when talking about online life in Japan over the past few decades. What started as a seemingly innocuous photo mutated into a multi-layered thing netizens riffed on and mashed up with other pop-culture staples. The only difference now is just how widespread this stuff can get. As was the case with the early origins of the internet everywhere, the Japanese web started as a series of small sites and message boards that were viewed as some kind of weird alternative space by the mainstream media. The bulletin board system 2channel (often referred to 2chan) launched in 1999. It exemplifies this well. Featuring a cluster of subforums devoted to all kinds of niches, it allowed multiple communities to form and a number of trends to emerge. The use of ASCII to create characters in the shape of cats (nicknamed Giko Cat ), for example, became an early mascot for the platform, which has gone on to appear in all kinds of other digital environments . Mainstream media treated these online communities in much the same way as they covered the world of otaku (geek) culture a decade earlier — as degenerates who were up to no good, with incidents such as a 17-year-old boy posting on 2chan that he planned to hijack a bus and then doing just that , with one person murdered in the process. There’s also the whole nationalism thing, with plenty of anger routinely leveled at other Asian countries and liberals in Japan. “The most typical communication style on 2chan is trading snarky commentary on specific kinds of source material,” Tokyo University professor Akihiro Kitada wrote in an essay titled “Japan’s Cynical Nationalism,” adding that this was aided by a shared knowledge of pop culture and the media. The attitude extended beyond just that board, too. One of the earliest large-scale internet trends (what would be a “meme” today) was Senkousha. What started as a legitimate robotics breakthrough for China in 2000 became the subject of ridicule after the site Samurai Damashi posted a sarcastic article about it in 2001 , mocking its “crotch cannon” and comparing it to Japanese robots. The post went viral, eventually becoming a real-life model , inspiring a fan-made video and multiple online games. The internet’s leaning toward nationalism comes through clearly in the joy taken in mocking China (though, to be fair, it isn’t a cosmetically pleasing robot). It’s also a shared joke for netizens, something traditional media would never touch. This shared culture defined early online communities. All this changed with “ Densha Otoko ,” the 2004 story told on 2chan’s “single man” forum about an awkward otaku-type falling for a woman he met on the train. Both an earnest love story and a reference-heavy thread loaded with self-deprecating jabs aimed at 2chan men, it crossed over into the mainstream, resulting in a book, movie and a theater production, among other things. It remains one of the most celebrated productions out of Japan in the 21st century, with plans for a Hollywood version ongoing . While online culture mostly remained within these zones over the next decade, more and more trends slipped over to the real world. Hatsune Miku started as a Nico Nico Douga superstar before turning into a mainstream force, for example. And then the internet just became part of regular culture in Japan. Today, it feels like almost everyone is on Twitter or Instagram or some other social media platform. Even message boards have just become another part of the ecosystem. Memes are now widespread and even pop up on morning TV shows. However, the way these memes mutate — as seen with right-hook dog — is still very much in line with how they played out early in the Heisei Era. Users are drawn to something strange, and then put their own spin on it or bounce it off other pop culture to create something new. This is now the norm for online discussion in Japan.
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social media;japan pulse;heisei era;memes
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jp0002762
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Trains, planes and automobiles to celebrate Golden Week
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If you’re looking for some mundane distractions to get you through the holiday period, Shukan Taishu (May 6-13) has got just the thing. Its “Reiwa Commemorative Edition” introduces unusual rides. Okinawa, for example, sports an “Ostrich Land,” where you can hop a ride on the back of one of its giant birds. Not to be outdone, a park in Tochigi has camels for the same purpose, as does another in Chiba offering elephant rides. At Hakkeijima Sea Paradise in Yokohama, visitors from age 10 (who can prove they can swim for a distance of 25 meters) may emulate the “boy on a dolphin” theme and ride atop a friendly beluga whale. Two-wheeled Segway personal transporters are available for inexpensive rental at Showa Memorial Park in the city of Tachikawa. And, starting from 7 a.m., the first 100 visitors on a first-come, first-served basis are able to go aloft aboard a hot-air balloon at the Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park in Saitama Prefecture. Asahi Geino (April 25) rates the 31 most significant railroad developments of the Heisei Era (1989-2019). In first place was Japan Railways’ 1992 introduction of the Shinkansen’s 300 Nozomi limited express series, which shaved 19 minutes off the journey between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, to just two hours and 30 minutes. After a decade of service, the model was phased out in 2012. In 2003, Okinawa Urban Monorail, Inc. finally brought rail service to the last of Japan’s 47 prefectures. While an extension is in the works, the two-car trains currently run between Naha Airport to Shuri, making 13 stops along its route. Readers are invited to watch a 27-minute “mid-air stroll” video in southern Okinawa by going to www.yui-rail.co.jp/navi/en . Meanwhile, travel agencies and airlines are reportedly milking this year’s extended holiday for all it is worth. Shukan Post (May 3-10) noted that a round-trip economy ticket between Tokyo’s Haneda airport and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, departing from Japan on April 27, was priced at ¥446,060 — nearly four times the price of the same journey departing on May 11. For travelers hoping to visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the disappointment is palpable. “It offers a great view of the city from the tower and will be hard to replace,” sighed one tour operator. Travel agencies have been scrambling to divert visitors to alternate destinations. One strategy is to bus groups to another Notre-Dame — the 12th-century gothic cathedral at Chartres, 80 kilometers southwest of Paris, and impressive in its own right. Even staying at home and conducting a thorough spring cleaning might be worth your while. So says Shukan Gendai (April 27-May 4). After all, who knows — perhaps buried deep in the recesses of your desk or chest of drawers might be something for which eager collectors are willing to pay a princely sum. Specially minted coins are one item that has appreciated in value. Minoru Terada, a stamp and coin dealer in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district, tells the magazine that items with an original face value of ¥10,000 or higher, which were only sold in limited editions or by lottery, may have appreciated considerably. A set of gold, silver and bronze medals commemorating the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, for example, may bring in between ¥40,000 and ¥50,000 via net auction. Quarter-ounce South African gold Krugerrands, which were in high demand during the economic bubble period in the early 1990s, can also bring a high return. Other popular items include baseball cards bearing Giants superstar Shigeo Nagashima; first-generation Licca-chan dolls; and a complete first edition set of the 15-volume Doraemon comic series. A good-quality copy of the Dec. 15, 1976, issue of Weekly Myojo, sporting a cover photo of model-actress Chiaki Matsubara, is said to bring a whopping ¥67,000. Friday (May 3) profiles a 53-year-old Chiba resident who became annoyed when, on the morning of April 13, a railway crossing gate on the Keisei Line in the city of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, got stuck in the lowered position. “I was in a hurry to get to work. I couldn’t cross the tracks and lost my temper,” Katsunori Nakano, a metal worker, told the police. Nakano was captured by a security camera using a saw to hack through the gate so he could drive across the tracks. The gate was replaced within two hours, but the train schedule was considerably disrupted in the interim. Nakano at the very least faces charges for destruction of private property, which carries a sentence of six to 12 months imprisonment, likely to be suspended for three years. The railway is also entitled to seek damages to recover its losses. A compensation of ¥300 to each of the estimated 10,000 passengers affected would exceed a not inconsiderable ¥3 million. We can be grateful at least, Friday remarks, that a serious tragedy was averted. Over the 30 years and four months of the Heisei Era, Weekly Playboy published 1,453 issues. Its issue of May 13 ran glossy thumbnails of every one of those issues, from Jan. 18, 1989, to the current one. It also took a head count of its most popular cover girls. In first place, with 57 appearances, was the much imitated and still active AKB48 female entertainment troupe. The most popular single female models were (in descending order, with number of cover appearances in parentheses) Yuko Ogura (21); Kasumi Nakane (20); Misako Yasuda (17); Yoko Kumada (16); and Yumiko Takahashi and Aya Ueto (both with 15). For its final issue of the Heisei Era, Weekly Playboy also offered a tongue-in-cheek glimpse of things to come in the form of a “Future Chronological Table of Sex” — which the writer promises will be “bright indeed!” Some highlights include the year 2025, when 3D printers will have the capability to precisely reproduce the physical attributes of one’s lover, and also feature “touch feedback.” By 2034, a boom in commercial sex will have begun harnessing virtual reality. A year later, robots will go on the market that combine house cleaning functions with sexual services. The table stops at 2050, when the writer predicts that marriage between humans and robots will have been legalized.
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golden week;heisei era
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jp0002763
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2019/04/27
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Keeping up appearances in the workplace in Japan
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Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc., which employs about 17,000 people, announced earlier this month it would allow office workers to come to work in jeans and sneakers. Factory workers in the company will still be required to wear uniforms and sales staff will still be expected to don business suits as per regulations in the existing dress code but, for everyone else (about 3,700 workers), the choice of clothing is optional — or, optional up to a point. Polo shirts are OK and women are able to wear sleeveless tops, but the new regulations prohibit shorts, T-shirts, sandals or ripped jeans. In fact, the company released photographic examples of what it calls sawayaka (refreshing) style, a play on the beverage maker’s advertising catch copy, which still incorporates suit jackets. The purpose, according to an article that was published in the Asahi Shimbun , is to encourage individuality, which will in turn increase communication among employees and boost productivity. In other words, there’s sound business logic behind the relaxation of rules, which, if you think about it, isn’t much of a change. There are still rules, they’re just different from the previous ones. Work clothing, meaning apparel considered suitable for specific kinds of jobs, divides between social consensus and practicality. Jobs that require interaction with the public or persons outside one’s immediate workplace often require semi-formal attire that reflects an employee’s seriousness and respect for others. For certain blue-collar labor, the clothing should provide comfort and safety, but practicality can also mean alleviating the need for workers to come up with something appropriate every day. Business suits and uniforms take the uncertainty out of preparing for work. This way of thinking was canonized by Steve Jobs, whose preference for blue jeans and black turtlenecks was not a sartorial preference, but rather a time-saving strategy. The Asahi Shimbun article about the new dress guidelines at Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan carries a sardonic aftertaste, especially in light of how much coverage the newspaper has given to the matter of socially acceptable appearance this year. The newspaper’s obsession seemed to start with a verdict handed down by the Osaka District Court on Jan. 16 that found in favor of two Osaka Municipal Subway drivers who sued the city for giving them a negative evaluation because of their facial hair, which has been forbidden under rules enforced since Toru Hashimoto was mayor, the idea being that the transportation bureau was a public organization and thus personnel who were the face of the city must be presentable. One of the drivers had a goatee before the new rules went into effect and refused to shave it off. The court deemed the rule unconstitutional. Then-Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura, insisting the Osaka Municipal Subway is not a “private club,” vowed to appeal. Individuals are guaranteed certain rights by the Constitution, but how far can one take those rights? This case addressed men whose transgression was tame. It’s not as if they showed up to work in cargo shorts and whiskers down to their chest. Facial hair is the exception rather than the rule at workplaces in Japan and so what’s problematic is not forbidden modes of appearance, but rather mandated ones. A March 29 Asahi Shimbun article examined the issue of high heels. A woman named Yumi Ishikawa bristled when the funeral services company she worked for sent her to a firm that said she had to wear pumps with 5-centimeter heels, which she finds painful. In response she referenced the Twitter hashtag #KuToo, a pun on kutsu , which can mean “shoes” and “pain” (depending on whether a longer vowel sound is used at the end), that also suggests the anti-sexual harassment #MeToo movement. Her post on Twitter was retweeted more than 30,000 times. It’s easy to understand why a woman would not want to spend a whole work day in high heels. What was strange about the article is that the reporter felt it necessary to include a detailed history of high heels that framed the issue as one of gender discrimination and, while there is certainly an element of that, the more immediate problem is discomfort, meaning social consensus and practicality are at odds with each other. A similar issue that more clearly reveals sexism is whether women must wear makeup on the job. A March 6 Asahi Shimbun article examined Virgin Atlantic’s decision to no longer oblige female cabin attendants to wear makeup, though, as with the Coca-Cola dress code, it was discussed as a business decision: Flight attendants could save time. Nothing was said about the freedom to not wear makeup. The Asahi Shimbun’s fascination with the topic springs from the tension between self-expression and the desire to belong, so the tone of an April 11 article about the entrance ceremony for new Meiji University students was one of concern. Almost all the 4,000 or so freshmen who attended the April 7 ceremony at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo were wearing black or dark blue suits, even though there were no dress guidelines. One 19-year-old woman said, “I don’t like to stand out.” Professor Daisuke Tano of Konan University traced this phenomenon to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when post-university job searches were difficult. In order to boost their chances, students bought conservatively dark “recruit suits.” Freshmen, who assume they’ll need such suits when they look for a job down the line, buy them early for the entrance ceremony. Some universities seem as alarmed with this trend as the Asahi Shimbun is. International Christian University sent out a notice specifically saying that freshmen did not have to wear suits. However, it was apparel retailers who came up with the recruit suit concept, not to mention other sales campaigns that take advantage of a target demographic’s desire to blend in. A separate Asahi Shimbun article described how girls now demand expensive hakama outfits for their elementary school graduation ceremonies. The message here isn’t the loss of individuality, but the power of marketing. If businesses can influence consumers before adolescence, they’ve got them for life.
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fashion;employment;dress codes
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jp0002764
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Japan's hospitals scramble to secure doctors during 10-day Golden Week
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Hospitals have been scrambling to secure enough doctors during the unprecedented Golden Week holiday period that began Saturday, which was extended to 10 days to accommodate the Imperial succession. By hiring doctors to work temporarily, many medical institutions have sought to give their regular physicians days off as the medical sector, along with other industries, aims to change the notorious culture of long work hours. However, some hospitals in rural areas have given up plans for temporary recruitment and are asking their own doctors to work longer instead. M. Stage Co., a medical personnel resource service company based in Tokyo, said that as of April 22 it had received 4,538 requests to dispatch doctors between April 27 and May 6, about 800 more than what it received during last year’s Golden Week period. While medical institutions usually seek doctors who can attend to inpatients during the holiday period, there is more demand this year for those who can see outpatients, according to the company. “Many medical institutions have secured personnel well ahead of the holidays, but those that are still short have decided to offer higher pay,” said an M. Stage official. Japan enacted a law to have one-off public holidays that will stretch the length of Golden Week this year. The government hopes that the added holidays will help the nation celebrate the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito on May 1, following the abdication of his father, Emperor Akihito, the previous day, and serve as a way to address the country’s long work hours. The move has not been entirely welcomed though, because many businesses including banks and nursery schools will be closed during the period, and the longer holiday season can mean longer work hours and a disruption of work-life balance for those working in service industries. “I wonder if the government thoroughly considered the impact on the medical front,” said an official at a hospital in Hokkaido. Hospitals in rural areas are chronically short of staff and have struggled to find replacements. The Hokkaido hospital itself began looking for substitute doctors to fill night shifts during Golden Week but the effort was in vain. Consequently, it decided to have its staff physicians work longer to fill overnight shifts, according to the official. In Tokyo, Hamadayama Hospital in Suginami Ward, which conducts well over 1,000 orthopedic surgeries a year, has hired two doctors to work temporarily during the holidays. They will lend support to the hospital’s seven full-time doctors so that it can open some of its departments for four days during the vacation period and see patients who must come in for treatment at least once a week. “We wanted staff physicians to take days off as much as possible, as we are urged to reform the way they work,” said an official at the hospital. Japan has introduced a labor reform law in a bid to change long-held working behaviors, setting a legal cap on overtime work and implementing an equal pay for equal work principle. Starting this month, major firms will be punished if they violate the overtime work cap of 100 hours per month and up to 720 hours per year.
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doctors;hospitals;golden week
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jp0002765
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
METI hatches plan to build Japanese-style 'Broadway' in Tokyo
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The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has started discussing with private companies the idea of developing a theater district in Tokyo like Broadway in New York to attract more tourists to the capital. On Broadway and in London’s West End, high-quality musicals and plays are performed in many theaters clustered near each other. This has turned the areas into major tourism hubs, keeping nearby dining establishments busy well into the night. The theaters in Tokyo, on the other hand, are fewer in number and scattered around the capital. Tokyo also lacks the high-quality entertainment found on stages in New York and London. Tourists also have difficulty getting information about theatrical performances and thus cannot purchase tickets smoothly. “No show-business model has been established in Tokyo,” a person familiar with the matter said. Under the initiative, ways to develop facilities and sell tickets more easily will be considered with the parties involved, including travel agencies, informed sources said. There are also proposals to highlight performances of traditional Japanese arts, such as kabuki and wadaiko , a type of drumming, they added.
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tourism;theaters;tokyo broadway
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jp0002766
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/27
|
732 problematic child-on-child sex cases logged at Japanese care facilities in fiscal 2017: survey
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There were 732 cases of problematic sex-related conduct between children involving 1,371 disadvantaged individuals at care facilities in fiscal 2017, a welfare ministry survey said Friday. In the government’s first fact-finding survey on the matter, the ministry will analyze the background of the cases to draft preventive measures. The sexual conduct included both specific acts, such as sexual intercourse, and ambiguous acts, namely sexual activity devoid of physical contact, such as the taking of nude pictures. Experts on the issue are concerned about the potential for sexual violence at such facilities, given the residents’ difficult backgrounds, which may include parental abuse. Although the child welfare law stipulates acts of violence committed by staffers at such facilities must be reported to their municipal governments, the reporting of child-on-child violence is not mandatory. So the reality of sexual violence at care homes is not well understood. At the end of March 2018, there were some 600 homes nationwide housing 25,000 orphans and other children in need of protection. For the survey, conducted between January and February this year, four types of facilities were checked: homes for children in danger, temporary custody facilities at child consultation centers, foster parents’ homes, and “family home” group foster facilities. In the first category, which included orphanages and similar facilities, there were 687 problematic child-on-child sex-related incidents involving 1,280 residents. For the other three, the numbers came to 34 cases and 74 children at temporary custody facilities, seven cases and 10 children at foster parents’ homes, and four cases and seven children at group foster facilities, the survey said. The ministry set up a panel in October last year to consider questions for the survey and analyze the results. In a report based on the outcome, the panel called for increasing the number of smaller facilities and foster parents to ensure residents will receive an appropriate upbringing. “We also need to prepare a support system and improve expertise for this,” the panel added.
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children;sex;child abuse;orphans
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jp0002767
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/04/27
|
Carlos Ghosn's release on bail is part of a wider trend in Japan's criminal justice system
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As Japan’s legal system faces international scrutiny over its treatment of defendants amid the Carlos Ghosn saga, there is a silver lining to be found for critics: the rising number of suspects being granted bail. The 65-year-old former Nissan Motor Co. chairman was released late Thursday night after posting bail of ¥500 million. Ghosn’s prolonged detention — 108 days between Nov. 19 and March 6, when he was released on bail for the first time — and treatment, including interrogation without his lawyers present, have unleashed international criticism toward the country’s legal system, with some critics labeling it “hostage justice.” Historically, if a suspect didn’t plead guilty courts were unlikely to grant bail, usually siding with claims by prosecutors, including those in the Ghosn case, that the individual was likely to tamper with evidence. Critics have slammed such a practice, saying it creates an environment that leads to false confessions. But if anything, Ghosn’s conditional release follows a larger trend, with courts increasingly likely to approve bail. The rate of bail approval in Japan has increased from roughly 15 percent in 2007 to about 32 percent in 2017, according to the Japan Bail Support Association, an organization that helps those who have difficulty securing bail payments. Mikio Miyoshi, a law professor at Sophia University in Tokyo and a former judge at the Tokyo High Court, attributed the increase in the rate of bail approval to the legal system overhaul that started in 1999. The country was experiencing a shortage of criminal defense attorneys at the time, Miyoshi said, but because of the reform, the number of defense lawyers dramatically increased, and there are now more cases of them presenting clear, detailed bail conditions to the court. Such a trend has made it easier for the court to grant bail, Miyoshi explained. The number of lawyers swelled to more than 40,000 in 2018 from about 25,000 in 2008, according to the Supreme Court. “Back in those days, not many lawyers wanted to take criminal cases because they were hard and not profitable,” he said. But as the number of lawyers has gone up, it has prompted younger and efficient lawyers to take on such cases due to a more competitive environment, he said. “So for instance in a criminal case, more lawyers are willing to work hard to secure one’s freedom by applying for bail,” he said. Yasuyuki Takai, an attorney and a former prosecutor, told The Japan Times when Ghosn was released for the first time in March that him being granted bail is a reflection of the country’s changing legal system. Japan, like many advanced democracies, used to release a suspect on bail shortly after arrest, he said. But protracted detention became an issue in the late 1970s amid a major political scandal, establishing the questionable practice, he said. However, in recent years, judges have been more prone to grant bail because they specifically focus on determining whether there is a significant risk that the accused will destroy evidence, instead of whether the suspect is admitting guilt or not, he said. Nobuo Gohara, a lawyer and a former prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, explained that in a 2014 lawsuit, the Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to reject a request for bail merely based on the possibility that a suspect may tamper with evidence. After that decision, the rate of bail being granted has gone up, he said. Gohara says the country’s justice system is slowly but finally catching up to the international norm. “The country has no choice,” Gohara said. “The system has been abnormal up until now.” Still, bail conditions can be strict. In addition to the conditions of his release in March, which restricted phone and computer use, Ghosn is now not allowed to see his wife, Carole, without court permission. Domestic media reports have suggested her involvement in the latest accusation against him, an allegation that Ghosn’s defense team denies. Carole Ghosn has not been subjected to any charges, and Ghosn described the restriction as “cruel and unnecessary.” “We love each other very much, she answered all of the prosecutors’ questions in court, and she has done nothing wrong,” Ghosn said in a statement shortly after his release.
|
courts;bail;carlos ghosn
|
jp0002768
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Japan's famed convenience stores look to cut opening hours amid labor shortage
|
Apart from culture, food and a superefficient rail system, one of the things that most impresses travelers to Japan is its convenience stores, bursting with sushi, alcohol, underwear and ready-made food available at all hours. Well, maybe not for much longer. The 24-hour konbini experience is starting to show cracks as a labor shortage in the world’s third-biggest economy forces operators to consider cutting store hours On Wednesday, FamilyMart UNY Holdings Co. joined Lawson Inc. and Seven & I Holdings Co. in saying that they are contemplating changes and testing reduced hours in order to cope. With unemployment at 2.3 percent, near 1992 lows, the nation’s labor shortage is being felt acutely across all industries from construction demands ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to caring for a rapidly aging population. Convenience-store operators are feeling the pain. In a survey by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry last year, 61 percent of convenience-store franchisers said they didn’t have enough workers — almost triple the ratio from 2014. “A lot of franchise-store owners are having to work themselves, sometimes 16 to 18 hours a day just to keep operations going,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Thomas Jastrzab. “It’s really exhausting for them.” Many store owners are required to keep their doors open all hours of the day because it’s written into franchise contracts that can last up to 15 years. In the past, franchisers such as 7-Eleven owner Seven & I Holdings have rigidly enforced store hours even as the labor crunch worsened. Operators argued that they needed to generate profits by selling to nocturnal consumers in cities and stay open for residents in rural areas. Now, that seems to be changing. FamilyMart, which has more than 16,000 stores throughout Japan, said Wednesday it will experiment with reduced-hour operations. It is offering 270 stores the option to join the project, which begins in June and will last up to six months. Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd., the largest convenience store operator in Japan, tested a non-24 hour program in 10 directly managed 7-Eleven stores in March, and will allow franchisees to test the operating model starting this month. “We need to be flexible in thinking about dealing with the customer and the location’s needs as well as the franchiser’s,” Seven & I Holdings Chief Executive Officer Ryuichi Isaka said last week. Restaurant chains Royal Host and McDonald’s have also cut back on 24-hour operations in recent years. Retailers are not the only ones feeling the crunch. Last year, 153 companies in Japan went bankrupt due to labor shortages, up 44 percent from the prior year, according to Teikoku Databank Ltd. “We recognize, as a government ministry, that this is a serious problem,” said Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko at a meeting with executives from eight convenience store operators on April 5. He noted the tighter labor market and the burden on store owners, adding that convenience stores are “necessary infrastructure” for Japan’s population of 126 million people.
|
labor;convenience stores
|
jp0002770
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Loaded with Saudi satellite, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket poised for first commercial launch
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DENVER - SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is poised for its first commercial space launch Wednesday, carrying a Saudi satellite operated by Arabsat, a year after sending founder Elon Musk’s red Tesla roadster into orbit as a test. The Falcon Heavy is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space center in Florida at 6:36 p.m. (2236 GMT) and place the 6-ton Arabsat-6A satellite into geostationary orbit some 22,500 miles (36,000 km) above the Earth. SpaceX has two operational rockets: the Falcon 9, which with 21 launches in 2018 dominates the U.S. market, and the Falcon Heavy, which as its name suggests is designed to lift much heavier payloads into more distant orbits. It consists of the equivalent of three Falcon 9 rockets combined, tripling its thrust. SpaceX will attempt to re-land the rocket’s three boosters. In its first launch, in February 2018, a dummy dubbed Starman was placed behind the wheel of Musk’s roadster, which is currently orbiting the Sun somewhere between Earth and Mars. Since then, the U.S. military and private clients have signed contracts for Falcon Heavy launches, and NASA has raised the possibility it may use the rocket for its planned missions to the moon.
|
nasa;elon musk;spacex;saudis;falcon heavy;arabsat
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jp0002771
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Hong Kong's equity market surpasses Japan as world's third largest in value
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HONG KONG - Bragging rights to Hong Kong, for now. The city’s equity market overtook Japan earlier this week to be the world’s third largest in value, behind only the U.S. and mainland China, courtesy of a rebound in Hong Kong stocks after their worst year since 2011. Hong Kong’s market cap was $5.78 trillion as of Tuesday, compared with $5.76 trillion for Japan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on where primary securities are listed. The Asian city’s Hang Seng Index climbed 17 percent this year through Tuesday, when it closed at its highest since June 15. Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has been the main driver, with a 22 percent gain. Japan’s Topix Index advanced 8.3 percent in that period. Both markets declined Wednesday, as an economic outlook from the International Monetary Fund renewed concern about a slowdown in global growth and after the U.S. threatened tariffs on the European Union.
|
hong kong;stocks;japan
|
jp0002772
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Japan government to monitor markets after Brexit delayed, Abe says
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Japan will continue to urge the U.K. to avoid leaving the European Union without any deal, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday, following news that an arrangement had been reached to delay Brexit by six months. On Wednesday, European Union and U.K. leaders agreed at an extraordinary summit in Brussels to extend the Brexit deadline to the end of October, saving all sides from a chaotic no-deal divorce at the end of the week. “In order to minimize negative effects on Japanese companies’ economic activity, we’ll maintain calls for avoiding a no-deal Brexit,” Suga told a news conference. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also commented on the development at a meeting of Cabinet ministers convened to discuss the issue on Thursday. “Mindful of the risks to the global economy, financial and foreign exchange markets, the government is ready to ensure stability in the markets while coordinating closely with other nations concerned,” he said, adding that he would “ask (the ministers) to respond flexibly, looking carefully at how the situation will unfold.” The prime minister instructed Finance Minister Taro Aso to continue cooperating with Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda to closely watch for further developments and take appropriate measures. Uncertainty over Brexit, originally due to happen on March 29, has unnerved financial markets due to its potential disruption to businesses, including Japanese automakers that have production plants in the U.K. The Brussels summit was more tense than expected, with France’s President Emmanuel Macron opposing a long extension, and most others, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in favor. Ultimately the plan for a longer extension won out. Aso will visit the United States from Thursday to take part in a two-day meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank heads in Washington, where U.S. President Donald Trump lamented what he described as the toughness with which the EU has handled the Brexit delay. “Too bad that the European Union is being so tough on the United Kingdom and Brexit,” he tweeted. He then turned his attention to the ongoing U.S. trade spat with Europe, saying: “The EU is likewise a brutal trading partner with the United States, which will change. “Sometimes in life you have to let people breathe before it all comes back to bite you!” Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose $11 billion in tariffs on European imports in retaliation over subsidies to aviation giant Airbus, suddenly escalating a transatlantic skirmish that is more than a decade old
|
shinzo abe;u.s .;trade;eu;u.k .;japan;brexit;u.s. president donald trump
|
jp0002774
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Chinese employees stole corporate secrets from Dutch semiconductor maker, newspaper reports
|
AMSTERDAM - Chinese employees stole corporate secrets from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD) reported on Thursday. The paper said, citing its own investigation, technology had been stolen by high-level Chinese employees in the research and development department of ASML’s U.S. subsidiary and ultimately leaked to a company linked to the Chinese government. But ASML itself “found no hard proof of involvement of the Chinese government,” the FD reported. An ASML spokeswoman told Reuters the company was aware of the FD report and was preparing a response. ASML is the dominant maker of lithography systems, used to trace out the circuitry of semiconductor chips. The newspaper based its report partly on company sources and partly on a November 2018 ruling by a California court in a suit between ASML’s U.S. subsidiary and a subsidiary of a Chinese company, XTAL Inc. The documents from the Santa Clara, California Superior Court show six former ASML employees, all with Chinese names, breached their employment contract by sharing information on ASML software processes with XTAL, the FD showed. “The FD’s investigation found XTAL’s Chinese parent company Dongfang Jingyuan has ties with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology,” the paper said. The court awarded ASML $223 million in damages and XTAL filed for bankruptcy a month later. The Dutch intelligence agency has included warnings in its annual threat assesments for the past several years, saying that China is targeting tech companies in the Netherlands, as it does in other countries, for intellectual property theft. In 2015, ASML disclosed a breach of its computer systems, but said at the time damage from the hack was limited and released few further details. ASML’s sales to China doubled to €1.8 billion ($2 billion) in 2018 from €919 million in 2017 as Beijing makes growth of its semiconductor industry a priority. ASML CEO Peter Wennink told Reuters in January he saw no let up in demand from China, despite an economic slowdown.
|
china;computers;netherlands;espionage;theft;intellectual property
|
jp0002775
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
U.S. House passes 'net neutrality' bill unlikely to become law
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WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved “net neutrality” legislation to require internet service providers to treat all online traffic equally, but the measure is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate and faces White House opposition. The largely symbolic 232-190 vote on the “Save the Internet” bill aims to restore regulations approved in 2015 and then rolled back in 2017 in the latest back-and-forth over the contentious internet issue that has been debated for over a decade. Net neutrality backers argue that clear rules are needed to prevent dominant internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from blocking or throttling services or websites for competitive reasons. Some activists fear these providers will seek to extract higher fees from heavy data users, like Netflix or other streaming services, and steer consumers to their own offerings or those of paying partners. Critics of net neutrality counter that the rules could stifle investment and innovation, and claim the internet is not designed for utility-style regulation from the 1930s. Both sides in the debate say they are defending the “free and open” internet. Phillip Berenbroick of the consumer group Public Knowledge said the House vote “reflects the overwhelming public consensus that strong net neutrality consumer protections are vital for the internet ecosystem and the digital economy.” Ed Black of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which includes tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook, welcomed the move, saying, “Restoring these rules helps thousands of smaller businesses, as well as the next generation of startups, offer their products and services without fear of arbitrary and unnecessary charges” from internet gatekeepers. But Jonathan Spalter of US Telecom, which represents broadband firms like AT&T and Verizon, said the neutrality effort is a move in the wrong direction when online providers are trying to innovate. “Instead of embracing the power of markets, transparency, and surgical rules, we continue to fight this last war and debate a regulatory regime well past its prime, while important technology policy around data privacy and cybersecurity awaits,” Spalter said in a statement. Senate Republican leaders oppose the bill and the White House has pledged to veto the measure if it makes it to the president’s desk. Some analysts have argued for a compromise that would bar internet firms from noncompetitive practices without using utility-style regulation.
|
u.s. congress;verizon;senate;net neutrality;donald trump
|
jp0002776
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
30 firms in Japan have made Reiwa part of their corporate names since April 1 announcement
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The number of companies in Japan that have adopted Reiwa — the name announced for the country’s forthcoming new era — as part of their corporate names has reached 30, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said. There were no such firms before the name of the new era was announced April 1. Of the total, 12 firms were newly established, while 18 companies had changed their corporate names, the credit research firm said on Wednesday. Of them, 21 adopted new names including Reiwa on the day of the era announcement. Of the firms that changed their names, Reiwa Kensetsu, a general contractor based in Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture, is the largest company in terms of sales. It was established in 1963 and was formerly known as Matsumaru Industries Co. A publisher in Tokyo, set up in April last year as Heisei Shoseki, changed its name to Reiwa Shoseki. By prefecture, Fukuoka, home to a historical site believed to be the place where the ancient poem that provided the basis for the new era name was written, saw the largest number of firms using Reiwa in their names, at five. Reiwa is set to replace the current Heisei Era on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito accedes the throne after the abdication of Emperor Akihito the day before.
|
emperor akihito;imperial family;small businesses;reiwa
|
jp0002777
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Nikkei ends directionless session tad higher
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The benchmark Nikkei average closed moderately higher after moving aimlessly amid a dearth of fresh major incentives on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday. The 225-issue average gained 23.81 points, or 0.11 percent, to end at 21,711.38, after retreating 115.02 points Wednesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 1.14 points, or 0.07 percent, at 1,606.52, following its 11.10-point fall the previous day. After opening marginally lower, the Nikkei fluctuated narrowly around the previous day’s closing level before firming slightly in late afternoon trading. The Topix remained in negative territory for most of the day’s trading, dragged down by sluggish performances of financial issues, market sources said. The Nikkei’s firmness in the afternoon “is believed to have been backed by speculation about the Bank of Japan’s buying of exchange-traded funds,” said Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. Meanwhile, Mitsuo Shimizu, chief strategist at Aizawa Securities Co., pointed out that “active trading was held in check” ahead of Friday’s special quotation fixing to settle April options contracts. Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd., noted that players retreated to the sidelines to watch how Wall Street will respond to earnings reports to be released by major U.S. firms next week. Investors are also paying attention to Japanese firms’ scorecards to be shown later this month, brokers said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,222 to 814 in the TSE’s first section, while 104 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.111 billion shares from Wednesday’s 1.122 billion shares. Convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny Holdings Co. went up 3.25 percent, as investors took heart from the company’s brisk earnings for the year that ended in February and decision to change its name to FamilyMart on Sept. 1, brokers said. Among other major winners were auto parts supplier Denso Corp., cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. and air conditioner manufacturer Daikin Industries. Monotaro Co. plunged 4.56 percent, hit by selling following the tool shopping website operator’s announcement of slower sales growth in March. Also sold were automaker Toyota Motor Corp., technology investor Softbank Group Corp. and industrial robot producer Fanuc Corp. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average shed 30 points to end at 21,670.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0002778
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Greenback dips below ¥111.10 in Tokyo trading, penned in by Chinese stocks and euro's advance
|
The dollar weakened below ¥111.10 in Tokyo trading Thursday, pressured by a retreat in Chinese stocks retreat and an advance in the euro. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.08-09, down from ¥111.18-18 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1281-1281, up from $1.1265-1266, and at ¥125.32-33, up from ¥125.25-26. After trading at ¥111.90-10, the dollar moved up on buying by Japanese importers in midmorning trading, later easing to around ¥111.05. A currency broker said the dollar “moved on a relatively firm note, supported by the Nikkei stock average’s rebound, real-demand backed dollar purchases and a halt to a drop in U.S. long-term interest rates.” But the U.S. currency failed to go higher due to selling induced by Chinese stocks’ sluggishness and the euro’s appreciation, traders said. “It’s difficult for investors to tilt positions prior to the start of Japan-U.S. trade negotiations and the 10-day holiday in Japan,” an asset management firm official said, referring to this year’s extra long Golden Week.
|
exchange rates;foreign exchange;forex;currencies;fx
|
jp0002779
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Nissan pledges ¥23.9 billion South Africa investment for production of latest Navara pickup
|
JOHANNESBURG - Nissan Motor Co. plans to invest a further 3 billion rand (¥23.9 billion) in its South African plant to prepare for production of the latest version of the Navara pickup. The decision by the Japanese carmaker may add 30,000 units to the plant’s current annual volume of 35,000, said Mike Whitfield, managing director of Nissan Africa, at the factory north of Pretoria on Wednesday. The manufacture of the Navara from 2020 will also create about 400 direct jobs in a country with an unemployment rate of 27 percent. “Automotive is already the largest part of South Africa’s manufacturing sector, contributing around 7 percent of gross domestic product annually and accounting for a third of manufacturing output,” said South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at Nissan’s facility in Rosslyn. Nissan’s investment is the first significant commitment by an automaker since international firms agreed with the government late last year to extend a manufacturing incentive program through 2035. The plan has also seen the likes of Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and BMW AG operate plants in the country, in return for generous tax breaks. The majority of vehicles are produced for export. Nissan plans to more than double its industrial reach in the Middle East, Africa and India by 2022 by adding more factories, according to Peyman Kargar, chairman of the carmaker’s operations in those three territories, who spoke in an interview last month. “By 2022 we want to double our presence in Africa, and South Africa is the most important base for this growth,” Kargar said on Wednesday. “We export to more than 45 countries from South Africa and with the new Navara this will be even more.”
|
south africa;nissan;carmakers
|
jp0002780
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Nomura shares sink as investors flee amid skepticism about revival plans
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Nomura Holdings Inc.’s latest attempt to revamp its international business is falling flat with investors, who have never been so downbeat on the stock relative to global peers. Japan’s largest brokerage has dropped almost 3 percent in Tokyo trading since Chief Executive Officer Koji Nagai unveiled a sweeping overhaul plan on April 4, bringing its six-month slide to 23 percent. That’s the second-biggest decline among major securities firms worldwide after Societe Generale SA, outpacing even notoriously poor performers like Deutsche Bank AG. Nomura’s valuation discount versus global financial companies deepened to 58 percent this week, the widest gap since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 1999. The figures underscore entrenched skepticism over Nagai’s plans to revive a business buffeted by years of stop-start international expansions and an increasingly competitive battle for retail traders in Japan. While valuations this low have foreshadowed past rallies for Nomura, some investors are losing patience after watching the stock tumble more than 70 percent since the ill-fated takeover of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European and Asian operations in 2008. “The market seems to be saying ‘If the recovery process takes longer, we do not need to rush back into this name,’ ” said Hideyasu Ban, senior research analyst at CLSA Ltd. in Tokyo. The stock closed 0.7 percent higher in Tokyo on Thursday, after earlier falling as much as 1.2 percent. Nomura watchers have cited several reasons for continued skepticism, including uncertainty about revenue growth and the pace of cost cuts. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Wataru Otsuka points to questions surrounding Nagai’s pledge to slash $1 billion off costs, such as how quickly the cuts are likely to take effect and what they’ll mean for long-term profitability. “If the effort is successful and profits recover to a sustainable level we would reconsider our investment opinion, but the details on changes to the business structure are unclear and we expect earnings to remain sluggish,” wrote Otsuka, who has an underweight rating on the stock, in an April 5 report. Shares may see a clear rebound only after Nomura’s managers unveil more details about their restructuring plan and convince the market they can execute, wrote SMBC Nikko Securities analysts Shinichiro Nakamura and Takayuki Hara in a report last week. A Nomura spokesman declined to comment on the firm’s stock price. Bulls can take some solace from history. At 0.5 times net assets, Nomura is now trading at a level that preceded rebounds in 2009, 2012 and 2016. The stock’s average price-to-book ratio over the past two decades is 1.4. Yet given market conditions that Nomura’s CEO described as “increasingly uncertain” on April 4, many investors are likely to think twice before buying. “Their structural overhaul is more about improving profit through cost cuts rather than through raising the top line,” said Kengo Sakaguchi, an analyst at Japan Credit Rating Agency. “Reducing costs may help its earnings improve temporarily, but unless its top line grows afterward, the outlook will remain murky.”
|
stocks;nomura;brokerages;nomura securities
|
jp0002781
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Amazon Japan to withdraw controversial reward point plan after FTC launched probe
|
Amazon Japan G.K. will withdraw its plan to provide customers with reward points worth at least 1 percent of purchase amounts for all items on its shopping site, company sources said. According to an announcement by the unit of U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. in February, the costs for the reward points would have been shouldered by sellers using the company’s Marketplace platform, starting next month. The Japanese firm’s decision to withdraw the plan came after the Fair Trade Commission opened an investigation into whether the new reward policy amounts to the firm’s abuse of its superior bargaining position over sellers using Marketplace. Amazon Japan’s plan has been under fire from Marketplace sellers, which describe it as a unilateral decision by the company to impose excessive burdens on them. In February, industry minister Hiroshige Seko said a unilateral contract change forcing Marketplace sellers to defray excessive costs would be a serious problem that hurts competition. As well as withdrawing the plan, Amazon Japan will allow each Marketplace seller to decide a reward point policy by themselves, the sources said.
|
internet;ftc;retailers;amazon.com
|
jp0002782
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance won't hire graduates who smoke from next year
|
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Himawari Life Insurance Inc. said it will refuse to employ graduates who smoke when it recruits new hires in April next year. It is unusual for a company to refuse to hire smokers. The move is described as part of corporate efforts to care for employees’ health, an official at the insurer said Wednesday, stressing that the hiring policy does not amount to employment discrimination. The company said it will hire smokers if they quit the habit before starting to work at the company. No penalties will be imposed on employees whose smoking habits are discovered after they have entered the company. The insurer has a goal of lowering its employee smoking rate to 12 percent or less by fiscal 2020, which starts next April 1, from around the current 20 percent.
|
health;smoking;insurers;sompo japan nipponkoa himawari life insurance
|
jp0002783
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Bridgestone to join Toyota and JAXA in rover mission to moon
|
WASHINGTON - Bridgestone Corp. said Wednesday it would tie up with Toyota Motor Corp. and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on a joint mission to send a rover to the moon. The world’s leading tire maker announced its participation at the Space Symposium in Colorado. JAXA is planning to launch the five-year mission in 2029. Bridgestone said it will design an elastic wheel that can support the rover’s weight, acceleration and braking, minimize its shock absorbance and improve maneuverability — necessary to navigate the moon’s crater-covered, gravelly surface. Toyota and JAXA said in March they would use an American rocket to launch the rover, amid growing international competition in lunar exploration. The rover will be 6 meters in length, 5.2 meters wide and 3.8 meters in height, with a living space of 13 square meters, they said.
|
space;jaxa;toyota;moon;bridgestone
|
jp0002784
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Remodeled versions of Toyota's popular RAV4 SUV on sale again in Japan
|
NAGOYA - Toyota Motor Corp. released the fully remodeled RAV4 sport utility vehicle in Japan on Wednesday, marking the first launch of a new model of the globally popular SUV here in three years. With the fifth-generation series, Toyota revived the RAV4 in its product lineup for the domestic market after skipping the introduction of its preceding series due to sluggish demand, while selling the vehicles in other markets on the globe seamlessly. Toyota, which regards the RAV4 as one of its mainstay SUV brands, sells them in 180 countries and regions, with cumulative global sales reaching about 9 million units since its market debut in 1994. The fifth-generation RAV4 is larger than its predecessors chiefly because it shares a platform with Toyota’s flagship Camry sedan sold in the United States and other foreign markets. In particular, the new model boasts a large rear cargo space, Toyota said. Targeting activity- and family-oriented people in their 30s to 40s, Toyota offers both gasoline-only and hybrid versions with two-wheel- and four-wheel-drive power trains. All models of the new series feature as standard equipment the “Toyota Safety Sense,” a package of systems including one to prevent collisions with pedestrians and bicycles and keep the vehicle in the center of the driving lane. “The RAV4 is Toyota’s absolute core SUV model,” Moritaka Yoshida, executive vice president of the company, said. “We’ll cultivate a market again in Japan.” Toyota aims to sell 3,000 units of the new RAV4 each month. Sticker prices range from ¥2,608,200 to ¥3,348,000 for the gasoline-powered versions and from ¥3,202,200 to ¥3,817,800 for the hybrid versions.
|
toyota;carmakers;suv;rav4
|
jp0002785
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Carlos Ghosn's wife 'responded in good faith' to questioning in Tokyo, says lawyer
|
Japanese authorities investigating alleged financial misconduct by former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn questioned his wife, Carole, at a closed-door hearing on Thursday, his lawyer said. Carole Ghosn has increasingly emerged as a key figure in the case surrounding her tycoon husband, who is in detention facing multiple allegations of financial malpractice. Ghosn’s lead defense lawyer Junichiro Hironaka confirmed to reporters that Carole Ghosn had answered the authorities’ questions but would not be drawn on the detail of the ongoing investigation. “She responded in good faith as she had promised to,” he said, but declined to offer specifics of what was discussed during the nearly three-hour session. He said he believed there would be no further questions for Carole Ghosn but declined to speculate on whether she would remain in Japan. Carole Ghosn left Japan last week using an American passport after Japanese police confiscated her Lebanese passport. She returned to Japan late Wednesday to meet the authorities — “proof that she never intended to run away from anybody”, according to the couple’s lawyer Francois Zimeray. Authorities are investigating claims that Carlos Ghosn siphoned off around $5 million (¥555.5 million) of Nissan funds for his personal use. Prosecutors believe this money was taken from around $15 million transferred from Nissan to a dealership in Oman between 2015 and 2018. According to a source close to the matter, some of the $5 million was funneled to a British Virgin Islands-listed company — which has Carole Ghosn registered as the president — to purchase a luxury yacht. The boat, 37-meters (120-feet) long and weighing nearly 300 tons, is worth more than €12 million (¥1.5 billion), according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous. Carlos Ghosn denies all allegations made against him and slammed “backstabbing” executives at Nissan in a video message aired Tuesday during which he said he was a victim of a plot from those who feared he would tie Nissan closer to its French partner Renault. Prosecutors have until Sunday to question the auto legend, after which they can apply for a further 10-day period of custody. Ghosn already faces three formal charges: two of underreporting of his salary in official financial documents, and a further charge of seeking to shift investment losses to the firm. He has not been formally charged with any allegations linked to the Oman case.
|
courts;corruption;scandals;nissan;carmakers;carlos ghosn;carole ghosn
|
jp0002786
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
11 killed in Sudan protests, including six 'state forces': government
|
KHARTOUM - Eleven people were killed in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, including six members of “state forces,” the government’s spokesman said on Wednesday, as protesters pushed for an end to President Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule. Uniformed personnel from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) twice tried to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters camped outside the Defense Ministry, the minister said, citing a report by the Khartoum state police chief. But government soldiers guarding the compound came out both times to protect the demonstrators, firing shots in the air and deploying troops around the area. The protests are the most sustained challenge Bashir has faced in his three decades in power. The Defense Ministry is in a compound that also houses Bashir’s residence and the NISS headquarters. The government spokesman and Information Minister Hassan Ismail said the Khartoum state police chief had delivered a report stating that 11 people had died in “incidents yesterday (Tuesday), including six members of the regular forces.” He gave no further details on how they died. Ismail also quoted the police chief as saying the authorities had foiled a “criminal plot” to burn down some police stations in some parts of the capital. NISS warned in a statement that it had detected “negative developments” toward vandalism, theft and terrorizing innocent people and said it was ready to act. “The service calls on honorable citizens to be careful of attempts to drag the country towards a complete security breakdown,” the statement said. It added that it was able to “rein in the unruly elements through good advice or by force within the limits of the law. The head of the main opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, said on Tuesday that around 20 people have been killed and dozens wounded in dawn attacks on the sit-in outside the Defense Ministry since it began on Saturday. Soldiers were heavily deployed around a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry on Wednesday, as several thousand protesters danced, sang and chanted slogans calling on Bashir to step down. Some watched soccer matches on giant television screens mounted on special trucks. The demonstrators have been camped outside the compound since Saturday in an escalation of protests that have shaken Sudan since December. Sudan’s Health Ministry reported that Khartoum hospitals had treated 72 cases of people suffering from tear gas and 16 minor injuries. First aid vehicles were stationed near the protest site to deal with emergency cases, it said. There were no reports of attempts to disperse the protests on Wednesday. The sit-in area had expanded slightly, with hundreds of people entering and leaving despite temperatures rising above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), a Reuters witness said. Some people blocked streets to the east of the compound with stones. Protesters chanted “Fall, that’s all!” “The people want to build a new Sudan” and “Our army protects us. Military trucks and troops were deployed around the compound, stopping cars from entering the area. Police and NISS forces appeared not to be present. “With the army’s presence, we feel safe. The army is protecting us and we will continue the sit-in until the regime falls,” said Ayman Abdullah, a 23-year-old engineering graduate taking part in the sit-in. Videos posted by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, the main protest organizer, and others on social media showed demonstrators dancing, singing and chanting slogans. A video shared by the opposition Sudanese Congress Party showed a large group of protesters marching towards the sit-in and cheering with a massive Sudanese flag draped over them. Since Dec. 19, Sudan has been rocked by persistent protests sparked by the government’s attempt to raise the price of bread, and an economic crisis including fuel and cash shortages. Opposition figures have called for the military to help negotiate an end to Bashir’s nearly three decades in power and a transition to democracy.
|
conflict;sudan;omar al-bashir;khartoum
|
jp0002787
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Hundreds in Honduras set out in new U.S.-bound migrant caravan in face of Trump border-closing threat
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SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS - Hundreds of Honduran migrants, many carrying young children, set out in a caravan for that country’s border with Guatemala on Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States. Some of those who gathered at the San Pedro Sula bus station said they can’t support their families with what they can earn in Honduras and are seeking better opportunities. Most boarded buses before dawn that would carry them to towns on the Guatemalan border. Others walked through the rain, some pushing strollers or carrying sleeping children in their arms. Guatemalan immigration authorities said that their Honduran counterparts informed them that about 1,100 migrants were headed for their common border, mostly aboard buses to two crossing points. They said some were already crossing into Guatemala. Nohemy Reyes, who waited at the bus station with one of her five children sleeping on floor beside her, said her country’s economic straits are driving her north. “The economic situation is very difficult,” she said. But if she finds the U.S. border closed, she said, she will return to Honduras. U.S. President Donald Trump this week threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border before changing course and threatening tariffs on automobiles produced in Mexico if that country does not stop the flow of Central American migrants. U.S. border facilities have been overwhelmed by the number of migrant families. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced this week that 53,000 parents and children were apprehended at the southern border in March. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned this week and was replaced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan in an acting capacity. Trump on Tuesday said he isn’t planning on reinstating his controversial family separation policy. Last summer, more than 2,500 children were separated from their families before a judge ordered them reunited. The caravans became a popular way of making the trek because the migrants find safety in numbers and save money by not hiring smugglers. In late March, Mexico’s interior secretary warned that the “mother of all caravans” was forming. That did not materialize, but Central American officials criticized the announcement, saying it could inspire migrants to merge into another caravan. Miguel Angel Reyes of San Juan Pueblo, Honduras, said his country’s violent crime was one factor in his decision to leave, but mostly he was looking for a way to provide for his wife and four children. “I’m going because the situation is really hard here in Honduras,” said the field worker. “We can’t take it anymore. There’s a lot of suffering, no work.”
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u.s .;mexico;immigrants;honduras;migrants;donald trump;kirstjen nielsen;caravan;kevin mcaleenan
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jp0002788
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested by British police at Ecuadorian Embassy
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LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was expelled from his hideout in Ecuador’s embassy in London Thursday and promptly arrested by London police as his lawyer said he faces extradition to the U.S. London police said Assange was arrested moments after Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said on Twitter that the country had withdrawn his diplomatic asylum. Video showed a handcuffed Assange being dragged out of the embassy and placed in a police van. Assange’s lawyer, Jen Robinson, said he was arrested not just for skipping bail in the U.K. but also in relation to an American extradition request. The 47-year-old has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 when he sought to escape questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case. While those charges were dropped in 2017, Assange has remained in the small London apartment as he has continued to dodge U.K. police and American prosecutors. Assange’s exit from the embassy ends a nearly seven-year standoff between the controversial transparency advocate and British authorities. While he will initially face punishment for jumping bail, Assange faces a looming extradition request from the U.S. “Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law,” U.K. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter. “He has hidden from the truth for years.” WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed that Ecuador had “illegally” terminated Assange’s asylum. London police said Assange was taken to a nearby station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court. The police said in a statement that they were invited into the embassy. Assange’s relationship with his Ecuadorian protectors has deteriorated over the years. He has had spats over Internet access and even faced criminal charges for hacking into the embassy’s computer system. On Wednesday, WikiLeaks officials held a press conference where they accused Ecuador of spying on Assange. “The discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of his allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties’ meant the situation is ‘unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said in a video message posted Thursday on Twitter. Moreno said he’d wrung a guarantee from the U.K. that Assange wouldn’t be extradited to a “country where he would face torture or the death penalty,” according to a transcript of the video message. WikiLeaks and Assange became famous in 2010 when the organization published government secrets supplied by U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning. More recently, the website put itself at the center of the 2016 American presidential race by publishing hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. While the American case is still sealed, U.S. prosecutors in court filings last year may have inadvertently revealed that Assange had been charged. In a matter unrelated to Assange, federal prosecutors in Virginia said that “no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.” If the U.S. seeks to extradite him, a London court will review the matter in a process that could last months and ultimately years. It’s still possible that Swedish prosecutors could resume their investigation, with a lawyer for the alleged victim of the assault saying last week that she will continue to fight for Assange to be extradited to Sweden. The Swedish Prosecution Authority was not immediately able to comment.
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u.s .;rights;u.k .;ecuador;privacy;julian assange;wikileaks
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jp0002789
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
New York county's measles outbreak spotlights use of 'religious exemption' to avoid vaccinations
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HAVERSTRAW, NEW YORK - Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the health commissioner of an outlying New York suburban county, is feeling “overwhelmed.” Since October she has been fighting an uphill battle to quell one of the worst U.S. measles outbreaks in 20 years. Among her daily struggles: having to constantly repeat that the vaccine does not cause other diseases, that it does not lead to autism and that the practice of using fetal tissue to produce the vaccine ended decades ago. Pushing back against such “junk science” absorbs a good deal of her energy as she works to educate and persuade the 300,000 residents of Rockland County to cooperate with health authorities and alert them to any new cases of disease. In 27 years of practicing medicine, Ruppert said, this is “one of the most challenging health crises I have had to deal with.” As of Friday, measles — officially eliminated from the United States in 2000 — had struck 167 people in this county along the Hudson River, including nine new cases this week. Among the six regional outbreaks of measles reported by the Centers for Disease Control, the leading public health institute in the U.S., Rockland County’s is the most concentrated. And yet the county has not skimped in throwing resources at the problem. Since October, each case has been systematically investigated to determine how many people have been exposed to the ultracontagious virus. Those exposed are then contacted to ensure they have been immunized, and if they haven’t been, they are then vaccinated. Dozens of free vaccination clinics have been organized around the county — including one Friday in the town of Haverstraw — with 17,654 doses of vaccine administered to date. The objective is to raise the vaccination rate from the current 72 percent, Ruppert said. A 95 percent vaccination rate is considered necessary to prevent epidemics. On Monday, county executives will meet with legal and health professionals to identify more possible new strategies to tackle the outbreak. It comes after the county took the unprecedented measure on March 26 of banning unvaccinated minors from schools and public places for 30 days. Several public health specialists saluted the county’s decision. But a dozen parents of public school students sued the county, arguing that the measure was disproportionate to the danger, particularly as there have been no deaths to date. On Friday they obtained a partial victory: A judge issued an injunction requiring county officials to drop the ban against any child with a “religious exemption,” at least until April 19. “Religious exemption”: For many county residents, the words have become central to the debate over the resurgence of measles and the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. Like most U.S. states — all but three, including California — New York requires a series of vaccinations for school-age children but grants exemptions on both medical and religious grounds. In Rockland County, the local Jewish community represents about one-third of county inhabitants, including a large number of Orthodox Jews. That fact places this community at the heart of the vaccination debate, raising the risk of fueling anti-Semitism, said Gary Siepser, president of the Jewish Foundation of Rockland County. He emphasizes that there are anti-vaccine proponents both in the Jewish community and elsewhere who invoke religion to justify themselves — but are motivated simply by their anti-vaccine convictions. “You will not find rabbis citing Jewish law to say people should not be vaccinated,” he said, stressing that his federation, like other Jewish organizations, encourages vaccination. “It’s shocking that these things that I didn’t worry about with my kids because they could be vaccinated — all of a sudden parents have to worry about their children getting life-threatening diseases,” Siepser said. “It’s like the clock has been turned back — it’s crazy!” Several Orthodox mothers questioned this week lashed out at the anti-vaccine parents. One of them was Cindy Scher, mother of four children age 7 to 17, all of whom have been vaccinated. “It’s really scary out there,” she said. “We all share the same roads, we share the same stores, we all have to interact with each other. We can’t just be concerned about my religious beliefs, your religious beliefs,” she said, as she walked out of a kosher supermarket in Monsey, the epicenter of the county’s Orthodox community. Against this background, some New York state lawmakers this week proposed a law to end vaccination exemptions. “I think it’s a great idea,” said Ruppert, the health commissioner. But the judge’s decision on Friday in favor of the anti-vaccine forces complicates an already difficult debate. “This is a country that has an interesting relationship with religion — the country was founded by people seeking some kind of religious liberties,” Siepser said. “The question becomes at what point one person’s freedom ends and another person’s rights begin.”
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u.s .;new york;health;vaccinations;measles
|
jp0002790
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Canada opioid deaths since 2016 top 10,000, keep rising
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OTTAWA - More than 10,000 Canadians have died of opioid-related overdoses since a public health crisis erupted in 2016, according to new data released Wednesday. The latest figures — 3,200 deaths in the first nine months of 2018 — show that the powerful painkiller fentanyl remains “a major driver of this crisis,” the public health agency said in a statement. “Today’s newly released data are a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining and increasing our efforts to end the epidemic of opioid overdoses in Canada,” Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said. Historically, opioid overdose deaths — mainly from fentanyl — were concentrated among drug addicts. But the crisis is now also striking people who became addicted to prescribed painkillers before turning to street drugs and others experimenting with recreational drugs for the first time. The provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario continue to be the hardest hit but the opioid epidemic has affected every part of the country. Fentanyl is considered 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Three-quarters of the most recent victims were male, and the vast majority of deaths were among young and middle-aged adults. Authorities have stepped up efforts to try to curb the number of opioid deaths, such as widely distributing naloxone kits to treat overdoses. Ottawa proposed an additional 30 million Canadian dollars ($22 million) in funding to fight the epidemic in its latest budget, which is before parliament. But the annual death toll has continued to rise.
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canada;epidemic;opioids;fentanyl;oversoses
|
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