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jp0002791
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Move over hobbit, Philippine cave yields bones and teeth of new human cousin
|
NEW YORK - Fossil bones and teeth found in the Philippines have revealed a long-lost cousin of modern people who lived around the time our species was spreading from Africa to the rest of the world. It is yet another reminder that, although Homo sapiens is now the only member of our branch of the evolutionary tree, we have had company for most of our existence. And it makes our understanding of human evolution in Asia “messier, more complicated and whole lot more interesting,” said one expert, Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature, scientists describe a cache of seven teeth and six bones from the feet, hands and thigh of at least three individuals. They were recovered from Callao Cave on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines in 2007, 2011 and 2015. Tests on two samples show minimum ages of 50,000 years and 67,000 years. The main exodus of our species from Africa took place around 60,000 years ago. Analysis of the bones from Luzon led the study authors to conclude they belonged to a previously unknown member of our Homo branch of the family tree. One of the toe bones and the overall pattern of tooth shapes and sizes differ from what has been seen before in the Homo family, the researchers said. They dubbed the creature Homo luzonensis. It apparently used stone tools, and its small teeth suggest it might have been rather small-bodied, said one of the study authors, Florent Detroit of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. H. luzonensis lived in eastern Asia at around the same time as not only our species but other members of the Homo branch, including Neanderthals, their little-understood Siberian cousins the Denisovans, and the diminutive “hobbits” of the island of Flores in Indonesia. There is no sign that H. luzonensis encountered any other member of the Homo group, Detroit said in an email. Our species isn’t known to have reached the Philippines until thousands of years after the age of the bones, he said. But some human relative was on Luzon more than 700,000 years ago, as indicated by the presence of stone tools and a butchered rhino dating to that time, he said. It might have been the newfound species or an ancestor of it, he said in an email. Detroit said it is not clear how H. luzonensis is related to other species of Homo. He speculated that it might have descended from an earlier human relative, Homo erectus, that somehow crossed the sea to Luzon. H. erectus is generally considered the first Homo species to have expanded beyond Africa, and it plays a prominent role in the conventional wisdom about evolution outside that continent. Some scientists have suggested that the hobbits on the Indonesian island are descended from H. erectus. Tocheri, who did not participate it the new report, agreed that both H. luzonensis and the hobbits may have descended from H. erectus. But he said the Philippines discovery gives new credence to an alternate view: Maybe some unknown creature other than H. erectus also slipped out of Africa and into Europe and Asia, and later gave rise to both island species. After all, he said in an interview, remains of the hobbits and H. luzonensis show a mix of primitive and more modern traits that differ from what is seen in H. erectus. They look more like what one what might find in Africa 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, and which might have been carried out of that continent by the mystery species, he said. The discovery of a new human relative on Luzon might be “smoke from a much, much bigger fire,” he said. Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, said the Luzon find “shows we still know very little about human evolution, particularly in Asia.” More such discoveries will probably emerge with further work in the region, which is under-studied, he said in an email.
|
evolution;philippines;paleontology;neanderthals;homo sapiens;homo erectus;denisovans;homo luzonensis
|
jp0002793
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Georgia extradites fugitive British speedboat killer Jack Shepherd
|
TBILISI - Georgian authorities on Wednesday extradited a British man to serve out his six-year sentence in the U.K. over the death of his date on a speedboat, a justice ministry official said. Fugitive Jack Shepherd, 31, was convicted in his absence of manslaughter last year for the death of Charlotte Brown, a 24-year-old woman he took on a champagne-fuelled first date on his speedboat in the River Thames in 2015. Shepherd drove over the speed limit and at one point handed Brown the controls. The boat flipped and Brown died in a hospital while Shepherd was rescued. He was charged with manslaughter by negligence. “Jack Shepherd has been extradited to the U.K.,” spokeswoman Marism Tskhiladze told AFP. The Georgian Airways flight taking Shepherd to London took off from Tbilisi airport, an AFP correspondent said. Shepherd’s departure follows the decision by a Georgian court in March to extradite Shepherd. His lawyer said he is “concerned about his safety” in Britain and “wants to be placed in solitary confinement,” monitored round-the-clock, and have access to the media. Shepherd vanished before his trial in Britain last summer and the court sentenced him to six years in prison. An international warrant was issued for his arrest. Shepherd turned himself in to the police in Tbilisi in late January, and said in court that he regretted fleeing his trial and felt “suicidally depressed” about what happened. In an interview to Georgian television this year, Shepherd said he fled to avoid going to prison but still hoped that “my appeal will be granted and that everyone can move forward with their lives.”
|
murder;u.k .;georgia;police;jack shepherd
|
jp0002794
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Russia moves to release jailed U.S. investor to house arrest before fraud trial
|
MOSCOW - Russia’s Investigative Committee has requested that Baring Vostok Capital Partners founder Michael Calvey be moved to house arrest after two months in a Moscow jail in a closely watched case that’s shocked investors. Calvey’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Moscow, when the Investigative Committee’s petition will be presented, court spokeswoman Yunona Tsareva said. Three other defendants linked to the case, including two Baring Vostok executives, saw their detentions extended by three months in court Wednesday, she said. The fund welcomed investigators’ motion on Calvey’s detention and said it hoped “the court will give due consideration” to the request. It called the rulings on the other defendants “illegal and unjustified” and said they would be appealed. The arrest of Calvey, a U.S. citizen who runs one of the biggest private equity funds in Russia, has alarmed foreign investors and prompted a wave of calls from prominent officials and state-company executives for his release. He and several of his colleagues have been held since February on charges of overvaluing assets Baring Vostok contributed to Bank Vostochny, a lender the fund controls. They deny wrongdoing and blame the prosecution on a corporate conflict with the other large shareholders in Vostochny. The Investigative Committee’s action emerged a day after a Moscow court extended the detention of Philippe Delpal, a Baring Vostok partner, by three months. Later Wednesday, the court ordered another fund partner, Vagan Abgaryan, its investment director, Ivan Zyuzin, and First Collection Bureau head Maxim Vladimirov held until July 14. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a statement that he welcomed the Investigation Committee’s request to move Calvey to house arrest while reiterating that other Baring Vostok employees should also have the terms of their detention eased. The Prosecutor General’s Office said it would consider an appeal by Russia’s business ombudsman, Boris Titov, to soften Calvey’s detention, the Interfax news service reported Tuesday. While Russian and foreign business representatives have raised concerns about the case, President Vladimir Putin defended the decision to prosecute Calvey at a closed-door meeting in February when he was asked about damage to the investment climate. Putin said investigators’ suspicions that Calvey and his associates had stolen 2.5 billion rubles ($39 million) couldn’t be ignored. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later the president was simply stating facts, not his personal position.
|
u.s .;russia;fraud;michael calvey;baring vostok capital partners
|
jp0002795
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
30 jihadis reported 'neutralized' in French-Malian raids near Burkina Faso
|
PARIS - French and Malian troops killed or captured more than 30 extremists and dismantled a jihadist training camp during a major counter-terrorism operation near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, the French military told AFP on Friday. The operation is the first since French forces set up a base south of the bend of the Niger River, building an advance position outside the town of Gossi in the heart of the restive Gourma region. “Over 30 members of armed terrorist groups were neutralized,” the military said, a term meaning that they were killed or captured. A French military doctor was also killed during the operation, the military previously reported. The operation, lasting about 10 days, was launched in late March in Gourma, a crossroads region in Mali’s central belt that flanks the border with Burkina Faso. The doctor was killed when his vehicle hit a mine, bringing to 24 the number of French defense force members killed in counterterrorism operations in the region since 2013. Some 4,500 French troops are deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces try to flush out jihadi groups. The Gourma area is a haven for armed groups who hole up in dense forests along the border with Burkina Faso to the south, including a group suspected of carrying out several cross-border attacks. Around 700 French troops and 150 Malian troops took part in the air and ground operation against these bases, the military said. On the other side of the border Burkina Faso deployed troops “to prevent any attempt by the enemy to escape towards the south of the zone,” French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said. The operation first targeted the Foulsare forest in the southwest of Gao province, the military said. The French air force and commandos carried out preliminary strikes as dozens of French armored vehicles in Gossi joined a Malian base at Hombori, 80 km (50 miles) from the Burkina border, which served as a springboard for a joint ground attack. Troops found “a logistical base” containing rocket launchers and other weaponry, but no jihadis. “The enemy deserted the area when Barkhane arrived and did not seek to fight,” Steiger said. The second phase of the operation, which caused the losses on the jihadis’ side, targeted several sites including a training camp in the Serma forest, according to the military. A pick-up truck, a dozen motorbikes and arms and ammunition, including large amounts of material used to make roadside bombs were seized, the military said. Extremists linked to al-Qaida took control of Mali’s vast desert north in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation that began in January 2013. But huge areas are still in the grip of lawlessness, despite a 2015 peace agreement with some armed groups that sought to definitively stamp out the jihadi threat. Since then, jihadi attacks have shifted from the north towards the more densely-populated center of the country, where it has fanned the flames of local ethnic conflicts which date back years. Around 15,000 people have fled their homes in the central region of Mopti alone, according to aid groups. President Ibrahim Boubabar Keita, under mounting pressure to improve security, on Tuesday chaired a senior military panel focusing on the center of the country. Last Friday, at least 30,000 people marched in Bamako, the capital, to protest at the surge in the violence. Organizers estimated the turnout at 50,000.
|
conflict;france;mali;terrorism;al-qaida
|
jp0002796
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Sudan's military ousts longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir after mass protests
|
CAIRO - Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the country’s capital Thursday, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime autocrat President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power. The circumstances of al-Bashir’s apparent ouster and his current whereabouts remained unclear, however. The armed forces were to deliver an “important statement” and asked the nation to wait for it, state TV reported earlier. The two officials, in high positions in the government and the military, said the army forced al-Bashir to step down and is now in talks about forming a transitional government. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The swirling reports of a coup following nearly four months of street protests against al-Bashir’s rule raised expectations it was a sign the autocrat was relinquishing power or was being removed by the military. Pan-Arab TV networks said top ruling party officials were being arrested. They aired footage of masses they said were heading toward the presidential palace in Khartoum, waving the national flag, chanting and clapping. Al-Bashir, who is a pariah in many countries, is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Darfur. Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said the military had deployed at key sites in the city to secure several installations since the morning hours. Armored vehicles and tanks are parked in the streets and near bridges over the River Nile, they said, as well as in the vicinity of the military headquarters, where thousands were anxiously awaiting the army statement. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals. Organizers of the protests urged crowds to converge and join an ongoing sit-in under way in Khartoum since the weekend. They issued a statement vowing to remain in the streets until the “regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government.” Thousands of protesters, including women carrying their children, were making their way toward the military headquarters, many ululating and flashing “V” for victory. There were also unconfirmed reports that the airport in the Sudanese capital had been closed. Ahead of the expected army statement, Sudanese radio played military march and patriotic music. State TV ceased regular broadcasts, with only the brief announcement saying that there will be an “important statement from the armed forces after a while, wait for it.” The development followed deadly clashes between Sudanese security forces and protesters holding a large anti-government sit-in outside the military’s headquarters in Khartoum, which also include a presidential residence. There were several attempts to break up the sit-in, and 22 people have been killed since Saturday. On Tuesday, Sudanese security forces tried again to disperse the sit-in, which began over the weekend, killing at least 14 people, activists behind the demonstration said. The government said 11 died. The fatalities so far have included five soldiers who protest organizers said were defending the sit-in. The months of protests have plunged Sudan into its worst crisis in years. The demonstrations initially erupted last December with rallies against a spiraling economy, but quickly escalated into calls for an end to embattled al-Bashir’s rule. Security forces have responded to the protest movement with a fierce crackdown, killing dozens. Al-Bashir had banned unauthorized public gatherings and granted sweeping powers to the police since imposing a state of emergency last month. Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and batons against demonstrators. The protests gained momentum last week after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned in response to weeks of similar protests. On Saturday, marches in Khartoum marked the 34th anniversary of the overthrow of former President Gafaar al-Nimeiry in a bloodless coup. It was one of the largest turnouts in the current wave of unrest. The military removed al-Nimeiry after a popular uprising in 1985. It quickly handed over power to an elected government. The dysfunctional administration lasted only a few years until al-Bashir — a career army officer — allied with Islamist hard-liners and toppled it in a coup in 1989. Since the current protests began Dec. 19, the military has stated its support for the country’s “leadership” and pledged to protect the people’s “achievements” — without mentioning al-Bashir by name. Army troops have deployed to protect vital state installations but have not tried to stop protests and, in some cases, appeared to offer a measure of protection for the demonstrators. All that raised the possibility that what was playing out in Khartoum on Thursday was a military takeover and removal of al-Bashir. The protests erupted in December over a hike in bread prices and quickly escalated into nationwide demonstrations. Food price hikes had already provoked sporadic demonstrations in January 2018 but were swiftly curbed. The new protests erupted the same day as the main opposition leader — ex-Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was driven out in al-Bashir’s 1989 coup — returned from exile. In Atbara, protesters set fire to the headquarters of al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP). The protests spread to Khartoum and other cities, with demonstrators calling for “the fall of the regime.” Clashes broke out as police tried to disperse the crowds, and eight demonstrators were killed. Other NCP offices were torched. On the sixth day of protests, al-Bashir broke his silence and vowed “real reforms.” With no let-up in the near-daily demonstrations, 22 political groups issue da joint call on Jan. 1 for a “new regime.” Al-Bashir declared a nationwide yearlong state of emergency on Feb. 22, also dissolving the federal and provincial governments and appointing army and intelligence officers as provincial governors. Two days later, he swore in a new prime minister as riot police confronted hundreds calling for him to resign. The protests became less regular after the state of emergency, and Bashir on April 4 acknowledged that demonstrators had “legitimate” economic concerns, calling for dialogue. But thousands later marched again in Khartoum, gathering for the first time outside the military headquarters and chanting, “one army, one people.”
|
history;military;poverty;corruption;protests;sudan;omar al-bashir
|
jp0002797
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Trump calls to congratulate Israel's Netanyahu on re-election
|
LONDON - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump had called him to congratulate him on his re-election for a fifth term. “The two leaders agreed to continue working in the coming years in the closest way for Israel and the United States,” Netanyahu said in the statement on his Twitter account. Trump made the call from Air Force One, the statement said, after Netanyahu won a parliamentary election and looked set to be able to stay in power with the support of religious-rightist parties, despite a strong showing from his main centrist challenger.
|
u.s .;israel;benjamin netanyahu;elections;donald trump
|
jp0002798
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Peruvian judge orders arrest of ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in bribery probe
|
LIMA - A Peruvian judge ordered the arrest of former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Wednesday while also authorizing a search of several properties as part of a probe into a bribery scheme linked to scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht. Kuczynski, 80, underwent medical exams accompanied by police in the afternoon as part of official procedures prior to an arrest, local media reported. Footage provided by the prosecutors’ office showed Kuczynski speaking quietly as he sat in a waiting room. Along with his secretary and his driver, Kuczynski was ordered detained for a period of 10 days, according to a judicial resolution signed by Judge Jorge Chavez. Kuczynski called the arrest order “draconian” on Twitter. “I’ve never fled justice,” Kuczynski tweeted. “This is a very tough moment for me but I will face it with the fortitude of knowing I only longed for a better country.” A former Wall Street banker who renounced his U.S. citizenship to run for Peru’s presidency, Kuczynski narrowly won the 2016 election but resigned a year ago in the face of near-certain impeachment by the opposition-controlled Congress. Prosecutors have accused Kuczynski of helping Odebrecht win contracts for a highway and an irrigation project when he was a cabinet minister in the government of former President Alejandro Toledo, in exchange for bribes disguised as consulting fees. Kuczynski denies the charges. Odebrecht sparked Latin America’s biggest graft scandal by admitting publicly in late 2016 that it had secured lucrative contracts across the region with bribes. Since then, Peruvian judges have ordered several politicians, including Toledo, to be jailed before trial. Toledo denies wrongdoing and is fighting extradition to Peru from the United States. In Peru, suspects can be jailed without trial for up to three years if prosecutors show they have evidence that would likely lead to a conviction, and that the suspects would likely try to flee or obstruct their work. Critics of the use of so-called “preventive prison” in the Odebrecht probe say it is excessive and violates due process. According to Wednesday’s judicial resolution, Kuczynski is considered a flight risk because he faces more than four years in prison and has no job. Authorities barred Kuczynski from leaving Peru shortly after he resigned the presidency, and later froze his bank accounts. “I’ve cooperated entirely with all the investigations and have arrived punctually for all the summons,” Kuczynski said on Wednesday. Kuczynski’s former vice president, Martin Vizcarra, is now president and has made fighting graft the centerpiece of his government.
|
corruption;scandals;peru;pedro pablo kuczynski;odebrecht
|
jp0002799
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Yemen holds mass funeral for 14 children killed in Sanaa blast Houthis blame on Saudis
|
SANAA - Yemeni rebels held a mass funeral Wednesday for children killed in an explosion near two schools in the war-torn country’s capital Sanaa. The explosion in the rebel-held capital killed 14 children and wounded 16 others on Sunday, the U..N said. The cause remains unknown. Most of the casualties of the blast in the city’s Saewan district were girls under the age of 9, according to the U.N. The children were buried under the watchful eye of Houthi rebels, who have been at war with a pro-government alliance led by Saudi Arabia. Crowds of men spilled into the streets of the capital where coffins draped with Yemeni flags were lined up. Relatives of the children and schoolboys hoisted the coffins above the crowd and made their way to the cemetery, escorted by a line of ambulances. “What sin have they committed?” asked Essam al-Abed, a local Houthi official and funeral organizer. “Their only sin was carrying backpacks and pens to get an education.” The Houthi rebels have accused the Saudi-led military coalition backing the government of killing the children in an airstrike. The coalition denied conducting any air raids on the capital on Sunday. The United Nations and aid groups have called for an investigation into the explosion but have been unable to determine the cause. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since 2015, when Riyadh and its allies intervened to prevent the government’s defeat in the face of rebel advances. Human rights groups say the real death toll is several times higher. The conflict has pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of mass starvation, in what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides stand accused of actions that could amount to war crimes. The coalition has been blacklisted by the U.N. for the killing of children, while Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse the Houthis of using civilians as human shields in densely populated areas.
|
conflict;religion;yemen;saudi arabia;military;u.n .;iran
|
jp0002800
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
A century on, Mexicans divided over legacy of revolutionary Emiliano Zapata
|
CHINAMECA, MEXICO - Protests erupted Wednesday at commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, underlining how divisive the mustachioed peasant leader remains a century later. Zapata, one of the main leaders of the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, was killed in an ambush by a rival revolutionary faction, leaving his struggle for the rights of indigenous Mexicans and peasants unfinished. It remains unfinished to this day, according to many of those who see themselves as his heirs — including the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or Zapatistas, a former rebel group that staged a brief but bitter uprising against the Mexican government in the 1990s. To make their point, the Zapatistas led a noisy protest on the sidelines of the commemorations in Chinameca, the small town where Zapata was assassinated, in the central state of Morelos. Hundreds of protesters shouted anti-government slogans as Zapata-themed floats paraded by and young students marched beside them in the garb of Zapata’s guerrillas: Broad-brimmed sombreros and farmers’ shirts, with red handkerchiefs around their necks and bandoliers of bullets across their chests. The protesters then set up a stage and read out a series of diatribes against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, sees himself as a defender of Zapata’s legacy and has declared 2019 “The Year of Zapata.” But he has alienated the Zapatistas with his plans for mega-infrastructure projects they say will damage the environment and infringe on indigenous land rights, including a railroad across southern Mexico and a new gas-fired power plant in Morelos, Zapata’s home state. “We know this government, like all the country’s previous bad governments, wants to hijack the image of Emiliano Zapata Salazar so his struggle for land rights will die along with him,” said indigenous activist Marichuy Patricio, reading out a message from “Sub-commander Moises,” the current leader of the Zapatistas. If Zapata were alive today, “there would be a huge fight. He would not march alongside” Lopez Obrador, said Irving Sanchez, 30, who bore a long black mustache that he called a tribute to the late revolutionary. Lopez Obrador held a separate event in Cuernavaca, Morelos’ state capital, where he also faced hecklers in the crowd. Thousands of indigenous farmers and Zapatistas protested in the southern state of Chiapas, the ex-rebels’ bastion, blocking roads and demanding the government do more to protect their land. Zapata, who was 39 when he died, arguably ranks just behind Che Guevara on the list of iconic Latin American revolutionaries. As a young man, he worked on a ranch that belonged to the son-in-law of Mexico’s then-dictator, Porfirio Diaz, where he got an up-close look at the extreme inequality dividing the country. Politically active from an early age, Zapata emerged as a key leader of Mexico’s farmers when the anti-Diaz revolution broke out. Along with Pancho Villa, he was among the most radical of the revolutionaries, calling for the large-scale redistribution of land to the country’s poor and indigenous farmers. After Diaz was ousted, infighting broke out among rival revolutionary factions, setting the stage for Zapata’s assassination. In 1919, with rival revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza in power, Zapata was lured to a meeting with a pro-Carranza colonel, Jesus Guajardo, who supposedly wanted to defect. Instead, Guajardo’s men opened fire, killing Zapata in a hail of bullets. The fight over his legacy started almost immediately. The post-revolution government soon claimed him as a national hero, even as his followers cried foul. And the debate continues today. “The people Zapata fought for, their heirs today, are still desperately poor. In rural Mexico, peasant farmers and especially indigenous Mexicans are the most marginalized and impoverished” in the country, said historian Felipe Avila. Meanwhile, Zapata, like Che Guevara, has begun to emerge as an ironically capitalist brand. His descendants have applied to register his name as a trademark, with plans to sell merchandise stamped with his image. On Wednesday Lopez Obrador unveiled lottery tickets bearing Zapata’s picture.
|
history;mexico;anniversaries;andres manuel lopez obrador;emiliano zapata
|
jp0002801
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Thousands flee Tripoli homes as battle rages on outskirts
|
TRIPOLI - Eastern forces and troops loyal to the Tripoli government battled on the outskirts of Libya’s capital on Wednesday as thousands of residents fled from the fighting. The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar held positions in the suburbs about 11 km (7 miles) south of the center. Steel containers and pickups with mounted machine-guns blocked their way into the city. Residents reported LNA planes buzzing Tripoli as anti-aircraft guns fired at them. On the ground, Haftar’s forces were fighting Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s soldiers at the former international airport, witnesses said. A Reuters reporter in downtown Tripoli could hear the gunfire. The United Nations said at least 4,500 Tripoli residents had been displaced, most moving away from homes in conflict areas to safer districts. Many more were trapped, it said. The LNA forces moved out of their stronghold in east Libya to take the sparsely populated but oil-rich south earlier this year, before heading a week ago toward Tripoli, where the internationally recognized government sits. Libya has been divided and anarchic since the 2011 toppling of then-strongman Moammar Gadhafi. He ruled for more than four decades before falling in a Western-backed revolt. Since then, political and armed factions have vied for power and control of Libya’s oil wealth, and the country split into rival eastern and western administrations linked to shifting military alliances after a battle for Tripoli in 2014. The United Nations wants to bring both sides together to plan an election and way out of the chaos. On its Facebook page, Haftar’s forces published a video purporting to show their seizure of a government base in the Aziziya district of southern Tripoli. The images, which could not be verified, showed a vehicle on fire and soldiers firing in the air, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said it was extremely concerned about the “disproportionate and indiscriminate use” of explosive weapons in densely populated areas. Half a million children were at risk, it added. As well as the humanitarian consequences, renewed conflict in Libya threatens to disrupt oil supplies, increase migration across the Mediterranean to Europe, scupper the U.N. peace plan, and encourage Islamist militants to exploit the chaos. Islamic State killed three people in a remote desert town under LNA control two days ago. In Tripoli, nearly 50 people have died, mainly combatants but also some civilians including two doctors, according to latest U.N. casualty estimates. The toll is expected to rise. Several thousand migrants, detained after trying to use Libya as a staging point for crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, have also been caught up in the crisis. U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday it had relocated more than 150 of them— among several thousand in total — from one detention center in south Tripoli to a facility of its own in a safe zone. One official at that detention center said he flung open the doors on Wednesday and released another 150 migrants for their own safety due to the proximity of clashes. The United Nations, United States, European Union and G7 bloc have appealed for a ceasefire, a return to the U.N. peace plan, and a halt to Haftar’s push. But instead of that, he was moving men and equipment from southern and eastern Libya to a forward base at Gharyan, a town south of Tripoli, according to a foreign diplomatic source observing the deployments. Opponents cast Haftar as a would-be dictator in the mold of Gadhafi, though he projects himself as a champion against extremism striving to restore order to Libya. Haftar was among the officers who helped Gadhafi rise to power in 1969 but fell out with him during a war with Chad in the 1980s. He was taken prisoner by the Chadians, rescued by the CIA, and lived for about 20 years in Virginia before returning in 2011 to join other rebels in the uprising against Gadhafi. Despite the flare-up in conflict, normal life was just about continuing in Tripoli, a city of roughly 1.2 million people, though prices were rising and businesses closing earlier than usual, residents said. “I don’t care who wins or loses, I just want to survive with my family,” said a teacher in Tripoli who hoped to get out.
|
conflict;u.n .;libya;refugees;islamic state;tripoli;khalifa haftar
|
jp0002802
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
U.S. Navy drops criminal charges against USS Fitzgerald officers in case of 2017 fatal collision
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The U.S. Navy said Wednesday that it will drop charges against two former USS Fitzgerald officers accused of criminal negligence in the warship’s deadly 2017 collision south of Tokyo Bay. Former Fitzgerald commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson and the destroyer’s former tactical action officer Lt. Natalie Combs will instead receive secretarial letters of censure from Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the navy said in a statement. The two were previously dismissed from their jobs and received nonjudicial punishments, the navy said. Benson and Combs had been charged with dereliction in the performance of duties through negligence resulting in death and improper hazarding of a vessel. The June 17, 2017, collision with the ACX Crystal, a massive container ship, left seven sailors dead, and heavily damaged the ship, which at the time had been homeported at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. That collision was followed just over two months later by the second such incident, this one involving the Fitzgerald’s sister ship, the USS John S. McCain, and another container ship off the coast of Singapore and Malaysia. The McCain collision resulted in the deaths of 10 sailors and saw the commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet at the time, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, relieved of his position. Official post-collision reports have pointed to a culture of negligence, exhausted crews and a lack of training and communication as factors in the collisions, according to the navy. In its statement Wednesday, the navy said the “comprehensive program” to improve readiness and training to ensure that accidents like the Fitzgerald and McCain will not recur “remains on track.” “The Navy continues to strive to achieve and maintain a climate of operational excellence,” it said. But a recent media investigation into the nighttime collision of the vessel, reportedly heading toward a secret mission in the disputed South China Sea, revealed several warning signs leading up to the tragic accident. ProPublica, a nonprofit media outlet that produces investigative journalism, published a series of reports in February on the collision that revealed multiple troubling mistakes made by navy leaders — some of which were previously undisclosed — as well as courageous actions and heartbreaking choices by the ship’s crew.
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u.s .;accidents;military;uss fitzgerald;uss john s. mccain
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jp0002803
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Narendra Modi favorite as India kicks off 'biggest election in history'
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NEW DELHI - India’s gargantuan election, the biggest in history, kicked off Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a second term from the South Asian behemoth’s 900 million voters. Opinion polls put Modi, 68, as the favorite but he faces a tough challenge from not one but two scions of India’s storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty attempting to capitalize on his poor record on jobs and rural poverty. Because of the vastness of India, the election will be held in seven phases, from the tea plantations of Darjeeling to the slums of Mumbai to the tropical Andaman Islands, and everywhere in between. Security forces were on high alert due to the perennial danger of violence at election time, with five people including a local lawmaker killed in an ambush by suspected Maoist rebels this week. Thousands of parties and candidates will run for office between now and May 19 in 543 constituencies across the nation of 1.3 billion people, with results not due until May 23. Some of the 1.1 million electronic voting machines will be transported through jungles and carried up mountains, including to a hamlet near the Chinese border with just one voter. Phase one on Thursday saw some 142 million people — including 7,764 transgender voters, eligible to register as such for the first time — able to cast ballots. Polling stations in the northeast were among the first to open at 7:00 am with others elsewhere set to follow at 8:00 am. “I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise,” Modi said in a tweet just after voting began. “I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers,” he said. Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014 with their famous promise of achhe din (good days), becoming the first party to win an absolute majority in 30 years. Critics say the BJP has since sought to impose a Hindu agenda on India, emboldening attacks on Muslims and low-caste Dalits trading in beef — cows being holy for Hindus — and rewriting school textbooks. Modi has simplified the tax code and made doing business easier but some of his promises have fallen short, particularly in rural areas where thousands of indebted farmers have killed themselves in recent years. Growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy has also been too slow to provide jobs for the roughly 1 million Indians entering the labor market each month, and unemployment is reportedly at its highest since the 1970s. Rahul Gandhi, 48, hoping to become the latest prime minister from his dynasty — and aided by his sister Priyanka — has accused Modi of causing a “national disaster.” Gandhi’s Congress party has profited from voter dissatisfaction, winning in December three key state elections, chipping into Modi’s core support base in the Hindi-speaking heartland of northern India. Gandhi, the great-grandson, grandson and son of three past premiers, has grown in stature since being derided in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in 2007 as an “empty suit.” Election adverts show him hugging an emaciated peasant woman, while Congress’s manifesto pledges to end abject poverty by 2030 and give cash transfers to 50 million families. But Modi and the BJP’s formidable campaign juggernaut — backed by a savvy social media army — will be no pushover, promising a $1.4 trillion infrastructure blitz. Playing to its Hindu base, the BJP has also committed to building a grand temple in place of a Muslim mosque demolished by Hindu mobs in the northern city of Ayodhya in 1992. But most importantly, India’s latest military altercation with archrival Pakistan in February has allowed Modi to portray himself as the chowkidar (watchman) protecting mother India. “Nationalism is our inspiration and inclusion, and good governance is our mantra,” Modi, whose stern bearded face stares out from ubiquitous posters, said at the launch of his manifesto. But opinion polls are notoriously unreliable in India and much will depend on the BJP’s performance in several key states, in particular Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. “It’s difficult to predict,” said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a veteran journalist and political commentator. “It reminds me of 2004 when (Prime Minister Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and the BJP lost when everyone expected them to win,” he said.
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india;religion;elections;narendra modi;bjp
|
jp0002804
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Taxation, climate and inequality to top campaign as Australian PM Scott Morrison calls May 18 poll
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SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Australians will go to the polls in a general election on May 18 after Prime Minister Scott Morrison fired the starting gun Thursday on a campaign set to be fought over taxation, climate change and inequality. Morrison and his main opponent, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, both used the Australian phrase “a fair go” to frame their campaigns around a national sense of equality and opportunity, albeit from very different angles. Opinion polls have had center-left Labor well ahead for years and show that the coalition of Morrison’s Liberals and the rural-focused National Party is headed for a resounding defeat. “It’s an enormous mountain to climb,” said political science professor Paul Williams from Griffith University in Brisbane. “If (Morrison) were to pull this off it would be one of the greatest comebacks in political history,” he said. Morrison led his pitch to voters with his conservative coalition’s economic credentials, framing the election as a referendum on its record of managing Australia’s finances. “So the choice to be made by Australians on the 18th of May is like it always is at every election, and that is: Who do you trust to deliver that strong economy which your essential services rely on?” he asked reporters in Canberra. However, Morrison’s coalition governs in minority and must win seats to hold power. It has also had three prime ministers in six years, with leadership instability a major reason for its poor showing in opinion polls. Labor promised higher wages and an end to tax breaks that favor the wealthy under its slogan “A Fair Go for Australia.” “We can manage the economy in the interests of working- and middle-class people,” Shorten told a news conference he called in a suburban backyard in the southern city of Melbourne. “When everyday Australians are getting a fair go, this economy hums.” Asked for his response to Labor’s campaign, Morrison replied: “I believe in a fair go for those who have a go.” The campaign will run for five weeks but the major parties are set to suspend their campaigns on the Easter public holidays and Anzac Day on April 25, a war remembrance day in Australia and New Zealand. Morrison’s pitch comes just as the economy shows signs of beginning to slow. Consumer spending has weakened as home prices fall after a prolonged property boom and high debt levels weigh on sentiment. The International Monetary Fund said overnight stimulus may be needed in Australia and financial markets are fully pricing in the probability of at least one interest rate cut later this year. Markets reacted modestly, with the announcement no surprise for a poll that must be held by the end of May. Morrison’s pre-election budget last week promised tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners, while projecting the first budget surplus in more than a decade. Labor promised to match the tax cuts for middle-income earners and pledged bigger concessions for lower-paid workers. It will fund the income tax cuts by curbing capital gains tax discounts, seeking greater taxes from multinationals and banks, and scrapping a favorable tax program for property investors called negative gearing, the party said. “Labor’s higher tax and regulation agenda may be a negative for Australian assets, but this could be partly offset in the short term by more targeted fiscal stimulus,” said AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver. “The May election presents a starker choice than has been the case since the 1970s and so suggests greater uncertainty for investors than usual,” he said. It will be Morrison’s first election as leader since he replaced former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last August after a party-room revolt. That did little to improve the coalition’s weak poll numbers and the government remains divided over energy and social policies. “I think the zeitgeist is changing a little bit away from fiscal rigor to fairness,” said Mark Triffitt, a public policy lecturer at the University of Melbourne. “There are a lot of people that take that fiscal rigor and budget surplus as very, very fundamental, but I think that’s shifting back into ‘What’s the point of having a budget surplus if I feel like I’m not getting ahead?’ ” he said.
|
australia;taxes;poverty;elections;climate change;scott morrison;bill shorten
|
jp0002806
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Mike Pompeo wants China to join Russia in START nuclear treaty
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that China should join in the next START treaty on curbing nuclear warheads as Washington prepares for talks on an extension with Russia. The New START treaty, which caps the number of nuclear warheads well below Cold War limits, is set to expire in 2021 at a time of high tensions between Russia and the United States. Pompeo said that Russia and the United States have both shown “large compliance” with New START — unlike the separate INF treaty on medium-range missiles from which Washington this year said it would pull out, accusing Moscow of violations. President Donald Trump “has made very clear that if we can get a good, solid arms control agreement, we ought to get one,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when asked about extending New START. But Pompeo said that the next START — which stands for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — should include China, although he stopped short of describing Beijing’s role as a condition. “We need to make sure that we’ve got all of the parties that are relevant as a component of this as well,” Pompeo said. “It may be that we can’t get there. It may be that we just end up working with the Russians on this. But if we’re talking about a nuclear … capability that presents risks to the United States, it’s very different today in the world,” Pompeo said. Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley if he was referring to China, Pompeo replied in the affirmative and said that the rising Asian power had expanded its nuclear program. Russia denied it was in violation of the INF, or Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, treaty and has described the US withdrawal from the signature Cold War pact as boding ill for extending New START. Pompeo’s hopes for extending New START mark a shift from 2017 when the newly elected Trump denounced it as a “one-sided deal” negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
|
china;u.s .;russia;donald trump;inf;start;mike pompeo;nuclear warheads
|
jp0002807
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
South Korean court strikes down decades-old law banning abortion
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SEOUL - In a landmark ruling over a law that campaigners say puts women at risk, South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the country’s decades-old abortion ban to be lifted. South Korea remains one of the few industrialized nations that criminalizes abortion, except for instances of rape, incest and when the mother’s health is at risk. But the nine-member bench ruled by seven to two that the 1953 statute, aimed at protecting lives and traditional values, “goes against the constitution” and ordered the law to be revised by the end of next year. “The abortion ban limits women’s rights to pursue their own destinies, and violates their rights to health by limiting their access to safe and timely procedures,” the court said in a statement. “Embryos completely depend on the mother’s body for their survival and development, so it cannot be concluded that they are separate, independent living beings entitled to rights to life.” Bursting into tears of joy and celebrating, hundreds of women — including teenagers and females with disabilities — cheered wildly in front of the court in central Seoul, where the official ruling was announced. “Women deserve to be happy as much as we want to be today,” activist Bae Bok-ju said. “Today’s decision was made because countless women ceaselessly fought for their rights for so many years.” Under the ban, women who undergo the procedure can face up to a year in prison and a fine, while doctors who performed the procedure are given two years in prison. The 1953 law had been widely flouted and rarely resulted in prosecutions, but activists had claimed it left women facing being unable to pay for terminations, unsafe procedures and social ostracization. Under Thursday’s ruling, the ban will be automatically lifted on Jan. 1, 2021, unless new legislation is introduced sooner by the National Assembly to follow the court order. Calls to repeal the law had gained traction as the country’s growing feminist movement gathered momentum, but support for the ban had also been staunch in a country that remains conservative toward female sexuality and is highly influenced by evangelical Christianity. The Constitutional Court last upheld the law in 2012, saying that abortion would “end up running rampant” if not punished. An opinion poll on Wednesday showed 58 percent of the public are in favor of abolishing the law. According to campaigners, the procedure has been commonplace in South Korea and it has unfairly targeted mostly young, unwed women — who are most vulnerable to abortion-related stigma in the country. Teens who fall pregnant are often forced to discontinue their studies or transfer to remotely located educational institutions, according to youth rights groups. Women with disabilities are often forced by family members to undergo abortion — which, according to disability rights campaigners, demonstrates the country’s selective views about which lives matter. Religious belief is widespread in South Korea, and some of its evangelical mega-churches are among those defending the ban. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea expressed “deep regrets” saying, “The ruling denies the rights to life of embryos who do not have the ability to defend themselves.” But activist Kang Min-jin says the hard work begins now. “For one, we have to make sure that the procedure will be covered by the national health insurance,” Kang said. “Without it, many women’s health will continue to be in danger.” One campaigner, Lim — who had kept her abortion experience a secret for more than 25 years — said the court’s ruling will allow women to make their own decisions about their future without the fear of being shamed. “Keeping my abortion a secret has been making me feel unnecessarily guilty for all these years,” said the 50-year-old, who asked for her forename not to be used to protect her anonymity. “I want to see a different future for the next generation.”
|
pregnancy;family planning;courts;rights;abortion;women;south korea;parenthood
|
jp0002808
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/11
|
China struggles to ease concerns over 'Belt and Road' initiative as summit looms
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BEIJING/BRUSSELS - China is struggling to ease worries about President Xi Jinping’s signature plan to build a new Silk Road as it readies for a major summit in late April, especially among Western nations wary about debt, transparency and Chinese influence. While China gained a major victory by convincing Italy to become the first Group of Seven nation to formally sign on to the plan last month during Xi’s visit to Rome, others in the West have been less keen to jump onboard, though many have kept an open mind. The “Belt and Road” initiative, as it is formally called, is aimed at building a vast network of infrastructure connecting China to Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond, much like the ancient Silk Road. Following the first Belt and Road summit two years ago, in a luxuriously appointed convention centre in hills north of Beijing, the second one is scheduled for the same location in late April. China is billing it as the country’s most important diplomatic event of the year. The country’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, said on Saturday that almost 40 foreign leaders would come, and also took a swipe at “prejudiced” critics of the program who seek to besmirch it with concerns like “debt traps.” “The Belt and Road is open, inclusive and transparent. It does not play little geopolitical games,” Yang, who runs the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs committee, told the official People’s Daily. The United States, locked in a bitter trade war with China, has been a particular critic of the Belt and Road, calling it an “infrastructure vanity project” when Italy signed on. Jonathan Cohen, acting permanent representative of the United States at the United Nations, last month slammed China’s attempt to get Belt and Road language into a resolution on Afghanistan, saying it had “known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and lack of transparency.” Wu Haitao, charge d’affaires of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the rebuke was “contrary to the facts and fraught with prejudice.” In 2017, the United States sent White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matt Pottinger to the summit. This time, Washington said it will not dispatch high-level officials due to its concerns about the project. Lower-level staffers, possibly from the U.S. embassy in Beijing, might go to the summit to observe and take notes, sources familiar with the matter said, though a final decision has yet to be made. China says it always welcomes “like-minded countries” to take part in the project. It has not disclosed a full list of the leaders planning to attend the event. But some of Beijing’s closest friends have confirmed they will go, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. The European Union, China’s largest trading partner, has also been in a bind about how to respond. Last week, Europe’s top leaders told Xi they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China, signaling an openness to engage with the project if it meant more access to the Chinese market. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at the EU summit in March, grumbled about Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s decision to join the project, although she said Germany will play an active role in the Belt and Road and called for reciprocity. Conte is due to attend the summit. Rome says signing onto the Belt and Road will bring much-needed investment and boost trade, and has pointed to the fact that a dozen EU countries have already signed memoranda of understanding with China, including Hungary, Poland, Greece and Portugal. The EU last year proposed its own infrastructure scheme, but it has denied it is trying to counter China’s ambitions. “For China it is a question of power projection. China is corrupting what should be a level playing field by offering loans that send country debts soaring and create a culture of economic dependency on Beijing,” one EU official said. German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a Merkel confidant, is attending the summit, along with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, with Altmaier saying they wanted to “safeguard European interests in cooperation with China there.” Several EU officials said the European Commission was still looking at who to send as a replacement for Vice President Jyrki Katainen, who attended 2017’s Belt and Road summit and has cited a calendar clash with the EU-Japan summit for not being able to go this time. China has been on a push to show that the Belt and Road remains popular, despite cooling enthusiasm from governments including those of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Maldives, where new administrations are wary of deals struck with China by their predecessors. The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, who ranks below Yang, last month touted the success of the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a major Belt and Road scheme. Wang said after meeting Pakistan’s foreign minister that less than 20 percent of funding for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor came from Chinese loans, with the rest made up of direct Chinese investment and free grants. The corridor focuses on the interests of ordinary people, Wang said, citing as an example women truck drivers trained to work at a coal mine connected to the project, which he described as a “touching story.” Wang told reporters at March’s annual meeting of parliament that the Belt and Road was about high quality, sustainable, green development. “As President Xi has said, the Belt and Road initiative comes from China, but the achievements belong to the world,” Wang said.
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china;pakistan;eu;xi jinping;belt and road;_asia
|
jp0002809
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Can Trump keep Tokyo and Seoul united against North Korea, as Obama did?
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DINARD, FRANCE - Amid growing uncertainties caused by the breakdown of the second U.S.-North Korea summit, analysts are wondering whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration can foster a cooperative relationship with Japan and South Korea to improve regional stability. Disputes between the two U.S. allies over wartime labor compensation issues and a December incident involving the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the South Korean Navy have hampered rapport in the three-way alliance. The key to moving forward, it seems, is whether Trump will step in to mediate as his predecessor Barack Obama did in the past. “The most important alliance management effort that the United States should be taking right now is working to improve relations between Seoul and Tokyo, which may be at their lowest point since the restoration of relations in 1965,” said Kelly Magsamen, vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. “This will require consistent, high-level effort by the United States, including at the leader level,” Magsamen said. Such calls are climbing, with Trump scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday in Washington, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this month before the three gather at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. During a two-day foreign ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven in Dinard, France, through Saturday, the G-7 affirmed the international community’s unified front in pushing North Korea to denuclearize, according to Foreign Minister Taro Kono. The affirmation came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha of South Korea, which is not in the G-7, underscored their commitment to trilateral coordination in a meeting late last month in Washington. But since no three-way meeting with Abe and Moon took place on the fringes of the G-20 summit late last year in Buenos Aires, Trump appears to be putting little priority on strengthening cooperation between Japan and South Korea. Trump instead has focused on engaging North Korea, holding two rounds of talks with leader Kim Jong Un. But their second meeting, held in February in Hanoi, was cut short due to disagreements over the scope of Pyongyang’s denuclearization and the level of sanctions relief that could be provided. Trump has also been critical of America’s trade deficits with Japan and South Korea, as well as the cost of stationing U.S. troops in both countries. He has repeatedly referred to the possibility of pulling 28,500 troops out of South Korea, a move that would shift the regional power balance to North Korea and China, a strategic competitor to the United States. In comparison, Obama brokered the first face-to-face talks between Abe and Park Geun-hye, who was then South Korea’s president, by convening a trilateral meeting on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 in The Hague. At the time, Tokyo-Seoul ties were also at a low ebb over the sensitive issue of the “comfort women,” which refers to the Korean females who provided sex — including those against their will — for Japanese troops in Japan’s wartime brothels before and during World War II. The Obama administration played a role in getting the two countries to reach a historic agreement in 2015 to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the long-standing issue, as well as to sign a military intelligence-sharing pact in 2016. “Some are skeptical of whether the Trump administration can address this as skillfully as the Obama administration did,” said Mike Mochizuki, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. “But I think the need to do it this time is even greater than it was during the Obama administration,” Mochizuki said. Together with heightened tensions over compensation for Korean laborers who worked in Japanese companies during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Washington has grown concerned about deterioration in Tokyo-Seoul defense ties — a development that could undermine U.S. efforts to counter China’s military buildup and rising assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Japanese and South Korean defense authorities have accused each other of endangering each other’s personnel since Japan said in December that a South Korean warship locked its fire-control radar on an MSDF plane in the Sea of Japan. “When I look at who wins from Japan-South Korea tensions, it seems to me it’s Beijing,” said Benjamin Self, vice president of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, a Washington institution dedicated to supporting U.S.-Asia relations.
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shinzo abe;north korea;south korea;north korea nuclear crisis;south korea-japan relations;donald trump;moon jae-in
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jp0002810
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Want to control your weight? Intestinal worms could help, say Japanese researchers
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If it worked for Maria Callas, maybe it can work for others. Rumor has it that Callas, one of the most influential soprano singers of the 20th century, used tapeworms to maintain her figure, helping her lose around 50 kg in the 1950s. Although the truth about the singer’s diet has never been proven, a group of Japanese researchers has for the first time confirmed that slimy, creepy helminths may help improve metabolism and thus suppress weight gain. In the findings published Monday in the U.S. science journal Infection and Immunity, researchers from Gunma University and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo revealed that intestinal helminths have the ability to increase intestinal cells, which are responsible for the release of neurotransmitters that activate sympathetic nerves and speed up the burning of fat. The researchers put up to 200 mice on a high-fat diet and then infected some of them with a naturally occurring type of gastrointestinal roundworm. After 28 days, the researchers noticed that the worms helped suppress the increase of the infected mice’s body weight by 20 percent, compared to uninfected mice. “To be precise, the worms don’t cause weight loss but can suppress weight gain,” Chikako Shimokawa, the assistant professor at the Department of Parasitology at Gunma University’s Graduate School of Medicine who led the study, told The Japan Times on Thursday. “They help maintain health and prevent putting on excess weight.” Shimokawa laughed off rumors that the researchers were planning to infect humans with parasites and said the study focused on the effects of tapeworms on intestinal cells. “We believe they release a substance that increases intestinal cells and if we manage to determine what it is, we could use it in dietary supplements and medicines” designed to help people lose weight, Shimokawa said. “If the findings help us find a way to increase intestinal cells, we may not need tapeworms to do so.” Shimokawa, who specializes in immunology disorders, said the study was based on a common hypothesis that, due to improved hygiene, tapeworms are no longer lurking in human bodies. It’s a theory that can be closely linked to the rising prevalence of autoimmune diseases, allergies and inflammatory disorders, including obesity, Shimokawa said. “I thought that tapeworms could give us some tips on how to improve the immune system,” Shimokawa said. The Infection and Immunity journal, issued by the American Society for Microbiology, focuses on interactions between bacterial, fungal or parasitic pathogens and their hosts.
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obesity;diets;worms;chikako shimokawa;helminth;intestines;parasites
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jp0002811
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[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2019/04/11
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Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo says Osaka pharmaceutical firm short-changed him for cancer drug
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Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo said Wednesday he is involved in a dispute over license fees under a patent agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., which sells a cancer treatment drug developed based on his research. Honjo and his lawyer told reporters that he refused to accept the company’s offer of about ¥2.6 billion, and instead forwarded the funds to the Legal Affairs Bureau, because he believes the company shortchanged him by giving him an inadequate explanation about his compensation when they signed the agreement in 2006. “I would like to discuss with the company about increasing my remuneration in line with (the drug’s) sales,” he said. The discovery of the protein PD-1 by Honjo and his team in 1992 later led to the development of the drug Opdivo, which triggers the immune system to attack cancer cells. Ono Pharmaceutical started selling it in 2014 and it is usually used to treat skin and lung cancer. “We treat him with respect but (what he says) greatly deviates from the current agreement,” said a spokesman at Osaka-based Ono Pharmaceuticals, though he declined to give details. Honjo said he wished to donate money derived from patent sales to a foundation supporting young researchers set up by Kyoto University, where he is a distinguished professor. He has already done so with the money he received as part of his Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he won last year. This is not the first time that a Japanese Nobel laureate has sparred with a company selling products based on the scientist’s discoveries. Shuji Nakamura, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014, settled a suit with chemical-maker Nichia Corp. in 2005 over patent rights compensation related to his blue light-emitting diode technology.
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awards;medicine;drugs;cancer;nobel prize;tasuku honjo;opdivo;ono pharmaceutical
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jp0002812
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/11
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Abe sacks gaffe-prone Olympics minister Sakurada after 3/11 remarks and gives predecessor job back
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After effectively removing gaffe-prone Olympics minister Yoshitaka Sakurada Wednesday night, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed Shunichi Suzuki, Sakurada’s predecessor, as the next Olympics minister Thursday. “I want (Suzuki) to regain trust and bring the Olympics to a success,” Abe told reporters Thursday morning. Sakurada submitted his resignation to Abe Wednesday after coming under increasing pressure over a series of gaffes, including the most recent, which concerned the recovery effort in the quake- and tsunami-damaged Tohoku region. Sakurada quit after saying that a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker from the northeastern region, which was hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, is “more important than the (region’s) recovery,” when he gave a speech Wednesday at the lawmaker’s fundraising party. Speaking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office after meeting Abe on Wednesday night, Sakurada was contrite. “I’m really sorry for making a remark that could offend people suffering from the disasters,” he told reporters. “I felt I had to take responsibility and submitted my resignation.” Sakurada was in charge of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics to be hosted by Tokyo. The gaffe by the 69-year-old Sakurada comes less than a week after a senior vice minister at the land ministry, Ichiro Tsukada, quit following comments suggesting he had acted in the interests of Abe’s constituency over a road project. Sakurada is the eighth Cabinet minister to resign since Abe returned to power in 2012. After accepting his resignation letter on Wednesday night, Abe expressed regret over the situation. “I would like to apologize as prime minister,” Abe said. “I bear the responsibility of appointing him.” Sakurada has made other controversial remarks. In February, he said he was “very disappointed” over swimming gold medal hopeful Rikako Ikee’s diagnosis of leukemia — a comment on the potential absence of the star from the Tokyo Games that elicited a huge backlash. Sakurada, who doubled as the government’s cybersecurity strategy chief, also admitted last November that he does not use a computer.
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shinzo abe;olympics;tohoku;3.11;gaffes;yoshitaka sakurada;shunichi suzuki
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jp0002813
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/11
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Poll shows 54% oppose revision of Japan's pacifist Constitution under Abe's watch
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Just over 40 percent in Japan are supportive of efforts to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the nation’s Constitution, while over half oppose, a poll showed Wednesday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has advocated amending the top law, proposing that a paragraph of Article 9 that bans Japan from possessing a military with “war potential” is retained while stressing the need to clarify the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces. In the mail survey conducted by Kyodo News, which saw valid responses from 1,930 people aged 18 and older, 29 percent said the purpose and character of the country’s defense forces should be clarified with the deletion of the paragraph, while 27 percent said they saw no need to mention the SDF in the article. In response to a more general question of whether the U.S.-drafted Constitution should be amended for the first time ever, 54 percent said they were opposed to it under the Abe administration while 42 percent backed its amendment. Kyodo News conducted the survey ahead of Japan’s annual celebration of Constitution Day, on May 3, seeking input from 3,000 people between February and March of which 64.3 percent gave valid responses. The results show obstacles remain for Abe in securing wider public support and meeting his goal of putting a revised Constitution into effect in 2020. The first paragraph of Article 9 states that the Japanese people forever renounce the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. To accomplish that aim, the second paragraph says land, sea and air forces, as well as other capacities to wage war, will never be maintained. Opinion in the poll was split over whether Article 9 should be revised, with 47 percent believing there is no need, while 45 percent saying a change is necessary. Despite objections from some legal scholars, the government has maintained its position that the SDF is “constitutional” and has interpreted the article as not banning Japan from possessing the “minimum necessary” capability to defend itself. Still, Abe has said it is vital to clarify the legal status of the SDF in the article to put an end to arguments that Japan’s forces are “unconstitutional.” Of those in favor of amending the article in the survey, only 26 percent cited unconstitutionality of the SDF as their rationale while 56 percent highlighted the changing security environment facing Japan amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat and China’s military buildup. In the postwar era, Article 9 has served as the backbone of Japan’s defense and foreign policy. Since Abe returned to power in 2012, Japan has expanded the scope of SDF operations overseas by loosening constraints under the Constitution. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, having long identified constitutional reform as a goal, drew up draft proposals in March last year focusing on what were described as four pillars, including Article 9 and a new emergency clause. Regarding the proposed emergency clause that would allow the Cabinet to exert more power in limiting individual rights during large-scale disasters, 53 percent of those polled expressed opposition while 44 percent gave their support. Regardless of specific issues, 63 percent said that they think amending the Constitution is required or may be necessary, while 36 percent said they did not see the need for it. Amending the Constitution requires approval by two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Diet, followed by majority support in a national referendum. The existing Constitution, which designates the Emperor as the symbol of the state, came into force on May 3, 1947
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shinzo abe;constitution;self defense forces;poll
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jp0002814
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/11
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Blundering minister's downfall reignites criticism of Japan's seniority-based Cabinet decisions
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Following the dramatic resignation of blunder-prone Olympics and cybersecurity minister Yoshitaka Sakurada, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reappointed Shunichi Suzuki, his immediate predecessor, to the portfolio Thursday, a quick-fix measure experts said was meant to minimize damage ahead of a series of key elections. On Wednesday, Sakurada submitted a letter of resignation to Abe, saying a remark he made earlier in the day deeply offended the people suffering from the 2011 quake and tsunami disasters in the Tohoku region. However, it is widely believed it was Abe who effectively fired Sakurada, who has repeatedly made headlines by making gaffes that have significantly damaged the reputation of Abe’s administration. Experts said Sakurada’s numerous blunders underlined anew the shortcomings of Japan’s old-fashioned political custom that has often seen the prime minister prioritize seniority and factionalism in recruiting Cabinet members — rather than their actual capabilities. At a party hosted by fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hinako Takahashi, Sakurada, a Chiba representative, reportedly said the Diet member is “more important than reconstruction” in Tohoku. That was only a day after he repeatedly mispronounced the name of one of the tsunami-devastated districts in Tohoku as he spoke at the Diet. After submitting his letter of resignation, Sakurada told reporters he is “sorry for making remarks that hurt the feelings of (the people from) disaster-hit areas.” Abe, meanwhile, told reporters Thursday morning that “every member in my Cabinet has to sincerely accept criticism and work toward living up to public expectations by dedicating ourselves wholeheartedly” to recovery efforts. After meeting with the prime minister and accepting Sakurada’s former role, Suzuki reiterated the government’s commitment to making the 2020 Summer Games the “recovery Olympics” in hopes of shoring up Tohoku’s struggling tourism industry. Having been reinstated, “I would once again like to do my job so that people in the affected areas will feel close to the Olympics,” Suzuki said. Up until Wednesday, Abe had vouched for Sakurada, even though the minister repeatedly put his foot into his mouth and drew criticism from opposition lawmakers. Sakurada made global headlines in November when he surprised the nation by revealing to the Diet that he had never used a personal computer, even though he doubled as the nation’s cybersecurity minister. He also misspoke when giving figures and names in his Diet answers, and was clueless when asked basic questions about the Olympics. When competitive swimmer Rikako Ikee, an Olympics medalist hopeful, revealed in February she had been diagnosed with leukemia, Sakurada said, “She is a potential gold medalist, an athlete for whom we have great expectations. I’m really disappointed.” Sakurada was tapped for the Cabinet not because of his competence but the sheer length of his political career, said Kazuhisa Kawakami, a professor of political science at the International University of Health and Welfare. When Abe decided to reshuffle his Cabinet in October, Sakurada was among the LDP lawmakers who were on the “waiting list” for portfolios — typically those elected five times or more who are recommended by their faction leaders as being next in line. As such, “in Japan, as long as you’re elected a certain number of times and have the backing of your faction leader, you can be tapped for not-so-important Cabinet posts that pretty much everyone can handle — assuming, of course, you are supported by a group of capable bureaucrats,” Kawakami said. “So the sad reality is that those posts are sometimes overseen by politicians who are not necessarily talented.” But Sakurada’s latest gaffe regarding Tohoku was “on a whole different level” from his past slip-ups because it made it sound as if he was prioritizing politicians over the public, Kawakami said. “The LDP has a relatively weak support base in Tohoku so I think the Abe administration was afraid keeping the minister who publicly disregarded Tohoku could further erode the LDP’s chances of performing well in Tohoku constituencies at the summer Upper House election,” he said. That view was echoed by Katsuyuki Yakushiji, a political science professor at Toyo University. Although Abe initially gravitated toward experience and expertise in naming his Cabinet members after his return to power in 2012, he brought many first-timers onto his team in the October reshuffle. “His administration was enjoying stability at the time so I think Abe felt he can afford to take some risk by recruiting lawmakers with little expertise. In a way, that was a reflection of his arrogance, I think,” Yakushiji said. Unfortunately for Abe, Yakushiji added, the recent turn of events has grown eerily reminiscent of what is remembered as “resignation dominoes” from 2007, when a series of ministerial scandals and lapses sent approval ratings for Abe’s first Cabinet plummeting to a critical level, leading to his crushing defeat in the summer Upper House election that year. “I wouldn’t be surprised if memories of 2007 are flashing through the mind of Abe,” Yakushiji said. But the professor said he is skeptical that Sakurada’s departure will have severe political consequences going forward as the LDP braces for a series of elections, including the latter half of unified local elections and the summer Upper House poll. “It’s not like Sakurada is accused of committing serious misconduct that affects national politics. In the minds of many among the Japanese public, he’s been seen as something of a joke and everybody knew that he’d be out sooner or later,” he said. Just last week, Ichiro Tsukada, deputy land minister, stepped down amid outcries over his recent suggestion that he had influenced a major highway project to suit the interests of Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso. Tsukada’s comment ignited public criticism because exercising such influence would be tantamount to the old pork-barrel politics of the LDP. Tsukada’s comment drew particular attention because he said he employed sontaku , or the act of surmising what your boss really wants and taking actions to achieve it without receiving any clear instructions or orders from that person. Sontaku was a buzzword in a cronyism scandal involving Osaka-based school operator Moritomo Gakuen and Akie Abe, the wife of the prime minister. Abe has denied he used any influence to favor the school operator.
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shinzo abe;ldp;diet;scandals;cabinet;gaffes;yoshitaka sakurada;shunichi suzuki
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jp0002815
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/11
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Japan confirms MSDF leader and destroyer will participate in Chinese Navy's fleet review
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Japan will send the head of the Maritime Self-Defense Force and a destroyer to the Chinese Navy’s fleet review in late April to strengthen defense exchanges, the Japanese government confirmed Thursday. MSDF Chief of Staff Hiroshi Yamamura will make a four-day trip from April 22 to attend the naval review on April 23 in waters off the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, according to the Defense Ministry, becoming the first MSDF chief to visit the country in five years. Bilateral meetings between Yamamura and other participating countries’ naval chiefs are being arranged, the ministry and the MSDF said. Japan will send the MSDF destroyer Suzutsuki with some 250 personnel on board, the first such dispatch to China since December 2011, as part of mutual naval visits that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in October to resume. The fleet review will take place to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Navy. MSDF destroyers and Chinese warships made mutual visits from 2007 to 2011, but the exchanges came to a halt in 2012 when Tokyo brought the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, called Diaoyu in China, under state control, straining bilateral ties.
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msdf;sdf;hiroshi yamamura
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jp0002816
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[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
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Stealthy, numerous and expensive: Examining the F-35 following ASDF crash off north Japan
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The F-35A that crashed into the sea off Aomori Prefecture on Tuesday was one of a growing global fleet of advanced stealth aircraft sold to U.S. allies, and among the first to be assembled in Japan. There are already about twice as many copies of the F-35 flying as there are of its older brethren, the F-22, and many times more than non-Western competitors such as the Russian Su-57 and China’s J-31 and J-20. The plane is designed to be fast, but not the fastest; nimble, but not the most nimble. Its main advantages, according to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, are being nearly impossible to track with radar, and being packed with advanced sensors and other gear. Plagued by a lengthy development and a lifetime cost of more than $1 trillion, it has only recently begun flying operationally. Despite other problems — including ejector seats that were dangerous for small pilots, and finicky software — it has a strong safety record, with only two crashes: the Air Self-Defense Force’s plane on Tuesday and a U.S. F-35B that crashed in September. It comes in three variants: the A model, meant for use on conventional airfields; the B model, which has vertical takeoff and landing capability; and the C model, for use on aircraft carriers. The aircraft lost on Tuesday was an A model. Capabilities The F-35 is powered by the Pratt and Whitney F135, an engine developed specifically for the program; all three variants use it. With more than 40,000 pounds of thrust, according to the manufacturer, it can propel the F-35 to speeds of about Mach 1.6 (2,000 kph). Other, older aircraft are faster; both the F-16 and F-15, which Japan also flies, can both exceed Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Unlike the F-22, the F-35 does not have in-flight thrust vectoring, in which the jet nozzles can swivel and help the aircraft turn faster. But the F-35 has control surfaces — its tail’s vertical and horizontal stabilizers — that are larger than some smaller aircraft’s wings. That, and advanced flight computers, allow the plane to maneuver at speeds in which other planes would simply fall out of the air, according to Lockheed Martin. The jet’s biggest selling point is its ability to evade enemy radar. How stealthy it is, is not public; its radar cross-section — the size it “appears” on a radar scope — is a heavily guarded secret. Alongside that is a sensor system designed to vacuum up information about the airspace around the F-35 without giving up its position. Tiny cameras mounted around the plane can project a real-time 360-degree picture of the world for night operations, the manufacturer says. Operators The U.S. military, with more than 200 F-35s and thousands more on the way, is the biggest user. Other nations that have bought, or plan to buy, the F-35 include Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Turkey, Italy, the U.K. and Israel. Britain and Japan are two of the biggest foreign buyers, with plans to acquire hundreds of the fighters. Only the United States and Israel have used them in combat. Criticisms The F-35 was selected for production in 2001 after a competition against Boeing. But its first flight did not occur until 2006, and it did not enter service until 2015, when the U.S. Marine Corps declared it ready for combat. Its development was marred with issues, some of them bizarre: Because it uses fuel to cool hot parts of the aircraft, fuel in some climates must be kept cool before it is pumped onboard, a Pentagon report found in 2016. But the biggest shortfall, critics say, is that it is simply too expensive. In 2012, the Pentagon estimated the lifetime cost for the F-35 program at more than $1.5 trillion over 50 years — by far the most expensive aircraft program in U.S. history. Germany in January dropped the F-35 from the running to replace its aging fleet of Tornado jets, telling lawmakers in a classified document this week that the decision was in part the result of the high cost of operating the jet over its lifetime. Safety Crashes or unsafe operating characteristics, however, have not been among the aircraft’s problems. In the crash last year in South Carolina, the pilot ejected safely. Investigators said that crash was likely linked to faulty fuel tubes in the engine, and the global fleet was grounded until the issue was fixed.
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aviation;f-35;lockheed martin;air accidents;stealth aircraft
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jp0002817
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
|
Hokkaido Museum surveying disputed Russian-held isles in bid to save Japanese artifacts
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KUSHIRO, HOKKAIDO - The Hokkaido Museum in Sapporo has been surveying historical artifacts on the four Russian-held isles claimed by Japan through a bilateral arrangement that lets Japanese former residents make visa-free visits. Hiroshi Ushiro, the chief curator, used the program to make visits from 2005 through 2018 with Russian specialists and other experts. The group discovered 82 historical objects on Kunashiri, 15 on Etorofu and 22 on Shikotan that ranged from stone implements made in the Paleolithic Age to dwelling sites from the Jomon Period and remains of Ainu, Japan’s indigenous people, the museum said. The fourth area is the Habomai islet group. The surveys concluded that the islands’ residents conducted exchanges with eastern Hokkaido and formed virtually one cultural area with it. “Hokkaido developed unique cultures in each age and the remains of them can be seen on the four islands,” Ushiro, 59, said. The government maintains the four islands off Hokkaido were illegally seized by the former Soviet Union after Japan surrendered in World War II. Also among the artifacts are ruins of buildings used by the former residents. Some of them were demolished by Russian authorities for development or because they were too old. For example, the Shana Post Office building on Etorofu, erected in 1930, was dismantled in 2015. Older ruins were discovered at the site after demolishing the building, yielding five earthenware pieces recovered by Japanese experts. But the architectural site was nearly wiped out by a construction project there. On Etorofu, school buildings and a meteorological station are also in a state of disrepair. Since preservation efforts must be conducted according to Russian laws and regulations, this might give rise to the perception that Japan recognizes Russian sovereignty over the disputed islands, said Norio Taniuchi, a former official with the Hokkaido Prefectural Government who is involved in the surveys. “We discussed with Russian officials whether we can promote preservation by shelving the sovereignty issue, but we could not find specific solutions,” Taniuchi, 61, said. The government has requested that Japanese not visit the isles without using the visa-free framework until the territorial issue is resolved. Japan also cannot allow any economic activities, including those by a third party, that could be regarded as submitting to Russian “jurisdiction.” Nevertheless, at the grass-roots level, former Japanese islanders have cooperated with the Russian residents to repair the gravestones of deceased Japanese. This involved repeated exchanges between Japanese and Russian experts and reports from Russian residents on the discovery of the gravestones. “Japan and Russia are being called on to make efforts to hand down this heritage to future generations from a historical perspective of human activities without worrying about the question of sovereignty,” Ushiro said.
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history;archaeology;russia;disputed islands;northern territories;hokkaido;kunashiri;etorofu;russia-japan relations;shikotan
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jp0002818
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
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Seibu Railway's train etiquette posters in ukiyo-e style are a hit in Japan and overseas
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Posters that use traditional kimono-wearing characters portrayed in the style of Edo Period ukiyo-e to educate train passengers on proper etiquette have gained attention abroad, with the works featured in a British exhibition and printed in Taiwanese textbooks. First introduced in September 2016, the light-hearted yet educational posters can be found in train stations operated by Seibu Railway Co. in and around Tokyo. The ukiyo-e art form traditionally depicts scenes of the Edo Period (1603-1868). One image shows a courtesan sitting on a train as she uses a smartphone, while a man with a topknot lounges next to her with a book on his lap. The surrounding passengers are looking at them in annoyance and the poster has text reading, “Please let others sit comfortably.” The cultural reference points are used in a range of posters, including one asking commuters to be thoughtful of fellow travelers by depicting an anthropomorphic frog and monkey talking loudly as passengers cover their ears in protest. The posters were an immediate hit when they were first put up at Seibu train stations, with some passengers asking for the images to be printed on merchandise. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum began exhibiting the posters in March, noting the interesting amalgamation of tradition and modernity. “The posters illustrate the bustle and thrill of city life in modern Japan. Humor tempers the message about how to be a well-behaved commuter,” it says on its website introducing the pieces. A company running cram schools in Taiwan also included the images in their Japanese textbooks. “We wanted to attract interest from the growing number of overseas visitors,” said Seibu Railway customer service official Konomi Yamamoto, who originally proposed the idea. “We were able to depart from stereotypical posters by making (the ukiyo-e) appealing. I’m surprised by the overwhelming international response,” she said.
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art;ukiyo-e;seibu railways
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jp0002819
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[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
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F-35 stealth fighter that crashed off Japan didn't send distress signal before Pacific plunge
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An F-35A stealth fighter that crashed in the Pacific during an exercise this week did not send an emergency alert, the Air Self-Defense Force said Thursday. The single-seat jet had a system that would have emitted distress signals if the pilot ejected from the cockpit with a parachute, the ASDF said. Search operations for the pilot — a major in his 40s — by the Self-Defense Forces, the Japan Coast Guard and U.S. forces have been continuing since the airplane disappeared from radar off the coast of northeastern Japan on Tuesday night. The Defense Ministry has concluded the cutting-edge fighter crashed — citing wreckage from its tail being found in the sea — making it the first crash involving an F-35A worldwide. The jet disappeared when flying with three other aircraft at distance for an air-to-air combat exercise, about 25 minutes after taking off from Misawa Air Base in Aomori around 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to the ASDF. Shortly before it dropped off the radar, its pilot radioed the other three to say he was about to pull out of the drill, but none witnessed the plane crash, the ministry said. Co-developed by nine countries including the United States and the U.K., F-35s are produced by U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin Corp. Before the incident, Japan decided to purchase 105 F-35As from the United States, including those that have already been deployed.
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accidents;military;self defense forces;f-35;f35;defense ministry;asdf;air accidents
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jp0002820
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/11
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Japanese medical school adopts facial recognition-based attendance system
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KOBE - The Hyogo College of Medicine has introduced a facial recognition technology-based system to check student attendance. It is the first university in Japan to use such a system, according to the institution in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. The university expects the system to allow teachers to check students’ attendance swiftly and accurately and improve the work efficiency of its staff who had been using standard attendance sheets. Sixteen tablet devices with facial recognition functions were introduced on Friday last week, with four units — one for teachers and three for students — spread across four lecture rooms. The faces of a total of some 470 students had been registered on the devices beforehand. At the start of classes, students register their attendance using the tablets in turn. The devices are held up to their faces, and the images shown on the displays are checked against the preregistered images. If the facial recognition functions do not work, students enter their identification numbers on the tablets for attendance registration. Teachers can check the attendance on their tablets, which show images of students conducting the facial recognition process in real time. The college also hopes to utilize the new system to identify long-term absentees at an early stage so that appropriate physical and mental care will be provided to them. The facial recognition system frees teachers from the chore of handing out attendance cards to students and collecting them, as well as entering attendance information into the college’s educational affairs system. With the new system, the college expects to cut some 425 hours of such burdensome work in the 1,700 lectures held in a year. In the future, the school plans to use the system for security-related matters. “Previously, it had been difficult for us to watch over our students in a comprehensive manner as no homeroom activities or similar sessions are available at universities,” said Keiichiro Suzuki, deputy chief of the college. The system will help “increase trust from students and parents” in the college and “prevent the nuisance related to checking attendance” in case classes are formed according to the levels of students’ proficiency, he added.
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tech;universities;surveillance;personal information;hyogo;facial recognition;nishinomiya;hyogo college of medicine
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jp0002821
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/04/11
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Japanese police to launch probe into phone scam operated out of Thailand
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BANGKOK - Japanese police will launch an investigation into a major phone scam based out of Thailand in which hundreds of people across Japan are believed to have been swindled out of more than ¥200 million ($1.8 million) this year, investigative sources said Wednesday. Following the arrest late last month of 15 suspected Japanese scammers by Thai police, Japan has decided to dispatch investigators to Thailand next week to better grasp the whole picture, the sources said. The men, their ages ranging from their 20s to their 50s, are suspected of targeting people in Japan, particularly those retired and living alone, from a rented luxury house in the seaside resort town of Pattaya. On Wednesday, Thai investigative authorities revealed one of the likely victims was a woman in her 50s who lives in Fukui Prefecture. She purchased electronic money on March 29 in line with the scamming group’s instructions and seems to have been swindled out of several hundred thousand yen, according to the police. Japanese police plan to arrest the 15 suspects after they are expelled from Thailand. They may also build a case against the group over a separate case of alleged fraud. Other than the 15, Thai police suspect three to four more Japanese and Thais may have been involved in the scam.
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thailand;fraud;police
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jp0002822
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Amid U.S. tensions, Iran warns it could shut Hormuz Strait to all oil if it faces more 'hostility'
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TEHRAN - Iran’s top general warned Sunday Tehran could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping route if it faces more “hostility,” news agency ISNA said, as the U.S. tightens up sanctions. “We are not after closing the Strait of Hormuz but if the hostility of enemies increase, we will be able to do so,” armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri told semi-official ISNA. “Also if our oil does not go through the strait, other countries’ oil will certainly not cross the strait, too,” he added. The statement came after Washington said on Monday it would start imposing sanctions on countries such as India, China and Turkey that buy Iranian oil. Eight countries were initially given six-month reprieves after the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in November, following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear accord. Iranian officials have repeatedly warned the Islamic republic could shut down the strait, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies, should it find its national interests or security threatened. “We believe Iran will continue to sell its oil … (and) use the Strait of Hormuz. But if the United States takes the crazy measure of trying to prevent us from doing that, then it should be prepared for the consequences,” foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday. “It is in our vital national security interest to keep the Persian Gulf open, to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. We have done that in the past and we will continue to do that in the future,” he added.
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u.s .;oil;iran;sanctions;strait of hormuz;donald trump
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jp0002823
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Snap!: 'Avengers: Endgame' shatters records with $1.2 billion opening weekend
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The Avengers broke all kinds of box office records as a young, male audience lined up for days to get tickets for its opening weekend even in the era of streaming content. “Avengers: Endgame” took in $1.2 billion in its opening weekend — earning $350 million alone in the U.S. and Canada and blowing through the $258 million mark held by the superhero team’s own gloved hands with last year’s “Infinity War.” Walt Disney Co. now boasts the top four spots for domestic opening weekends, rounded out by “The Last Jedi” and “The Force Awakens” from the Star Wars franchise, according to researcher Comscore Inc. The crowds were 57 percent male, with the biggest cohort of 28 percent between the ages of 25 to 34 — essentially the people who were there for the birth of the franchise in their teenage and early adult years. Families comprised just 18 percent of the audience, a figure that may rise after the initial crush of the testosterone crowd. Teenagers made up 11 percent. “Anybody who could get tickets” is what determined the demographic breakdown over the opening weekend, Cathleen Taff, the president of distribution for Walt Disney Pictures, said in an interview. She expects more families and younger viewers to turn up to future screenings as the film plays on, adding that “it’s going to play for quite a while.” Repeat viewings The run for “Endgame” could drag on with repeat viewings, with almost three out of every 10 patrons planning to watch the movie again in a theater, according to a PostTrak survey. “This may be the most significant moment in the modern history of the theater business,” said John Fithian, chief executive officer of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “What we’re excited about is that this historic weekend is the kickoff of what’s going to be a nine-month stellar run in the movie theater business.” The success of “Endgame” was a sorely needed balm for Hollywood in a year where the box office was lagging almost 17 percent behind the same period in 2018. Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst at Comscore, estimates the film’s stellar opening accounted for 3.5 percentage points of a swing after some adjustments to square up with the timing of last year’s “Infinity War.” The box office is now just a bit more than 13 percent behind last year, Comscore estimates. The film took in $330.5 million in China, just one of the opening records set in 44 countries, Disney said Sunday. There was no shortage of superhero superlatives for “Avengers: Endgame”: First film to exceed $1 billion in its opening, a level reached in five days. A domestic record of $156.7 million on its first day, including Thursday night previews, beating the previous mark of $119 million held by “The Force Awakens” in 2015. Highest all-time box office for any Saturday or Sunday as well. Shown on 4,662 screens in the U.S. and Canada, the most ever. Highest-grossing 3D opening of all-time worldwide, with approximately 45 percent of the opening coming from the 3D format, according to RealD Inc. 22-movie storyline The picture, the latest installment from Disney’s Marvel studio, caps a 22-movie storyline that began with “Iron Man” in 2008. The Avengers superheroes, including Captain America, Hulk and Black Widow, are now battling the intergalactic villain Thanos, who was last seen wiping out half the living creatures in the universe. Disney, which also owns the Star Wars franchise and is usually cautious with forecasts, had originally suggested an opening weekend in the $300 million range. With this kind of juice, there’s every reason to believe “Endgame” will challenge the $2.07 billion worldwide gross of “The Force Awakens,” set in 2015. Only two other films in Hollywood history have taken in more: “Avatar” in 2009 and “Titanic,” released in 1997. The Marvel machine has been a huge moneymaker for Disney. Last year’s “Infinity War,” for example, earned an estimated $985 million in profit, including TV, toys and theater ticket sales, according to S&P Global. Looking forward, Disney’s Taff would not say whether it was possible to top this record. “While this is an end in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is certainly not THE end,” she said. “It’s going to open up a whole new world of possibilities.”
|
movies;marvel studios;walt disney co .;avengers : endgame;mcu
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jp0002824
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Abe and Canada's Justin Trudeau extol TPP trade pact without U.S.
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OTTAWA - Canadian and Japanese leaders on Sunday jointly trumpeted a rebooted Pacific trade pact that came into effect at the start of the year, without the United States. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (or CPTPP) removed trade barriers among 11 nations representing nearly 500 million consumers in the Asia-Pacific region in a bid to counter China’s growing economic influence. U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2017 before it was ratified. At a joint press conference in Ottawa, visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said the pact has “benefitted tremendously” citizens and businesses of member nations, including Canada and Japan. “Continuing to move forward on freer and more open trade according to the rules that we can all agree on is something that we need more in the world,” Trudeau said. The CPTPP “stands in stark contrast” to rising protectionism sparked by the United States, he said, noting that Canadian beef exports to Japan have tripled in recent months “while the Americans do not have that kind of access.” “I think that — concretely and tangibly — is a contrast that highlights the benefits of countries working together and not falling back on protectionism as a way of growing our economy,” he said. His comments were echoed by Abe, who said it “should be a model going forward.” Canada and Japan would seek to grow membership in the CPTPP, he added. In the meantime, Abe said his countrymen were enjoying more “high quality Canadian products” under the pact. “And vice-versa I have high hopes for further expansion of the export of Japanese high quality products to the Canadian market.” Canada reached a deal last year with the United States and Mexico on a new continental trade pact, while talks between Japan and the United States to carve out a trade deal continue. Abe’s visit to Canada came after he traveled to Washington to play golf with Trump, and to Europe where he urged British and EU lawmakers to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
|
shinzo abe;u.s .;tpp;trade;canada;beef;japan;donald trump;justin trudeau;cptpp
|
jp0002825
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
With China in mind, Japan eyes new infrastructure investment rules for G20
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The Abe government is considering proposing a set of rules for infrastructure investment in developing countries when Japan hosts the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June, after China has been criticized for engaging in “debt-trap” diplomacy with its aggressive project financing, according to sources. Some of Beijing’s infrastructure financing projects have been criticized for burdening recipient countries with debts they can’t repay, forcing them into concessions in exchange for debt relief. China has not openly opposed Japan’s proposal in working-level preparatory meetings, but government sources said it is too early to say whether Beijing is willing to accept the proposed rules to increase transparency of contracts and give due consideration to the debt repayment capacity of countries receiving investments. In addition to the rules for ensuring transparency and responsible financing, Japan hopes to adopt the principle of ensuring “openness” of facilities without imposing restrictions on usage and “economic efficiency” by making infrastructure durable enough for long-term use, the sources said. With Japan-China relations continuing to improve, Tokyo also expects the new rules to lay the groundwork for deeper cooperation between the two in foreign infrastructure projects. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is shifting toward conditional cooperation with Chinese President Xi Jingping’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative under which Beijing wants to expand infrastructure networks in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa to achieve its goal of connecting nations along the ancient Silk Road trade routes. China has been bolstering its economic clout with foreign investments, signing a memorandum of understanding with Italy last month to jointly advance the “Belt and Road” projects, the first time Beijing has struck a deal under the cross-border initiative with a Group of Seven industrial power. Leaders of some major countries attended the second summit of the “Belt and Road” forum held through Saturday in Beijing. Apart from trade and investment issues, the upcoming G20 summit is likely to focus on gender issues and aging, as well as climate change and reaffirming the importance of multilateralism for global problems. Among them is how to reduce plastic waste in the world’s oceans and waterways. Tokyo has said it will raise the issue with G20 leaders. Since then, local governments around Japan have begun reviewing their own policies on plastic use. Locally, the G20 gathering is seen as a chance to boost to Osaka’s tourism industry and raise its international profile. The Kansai business community is especially keen on that point.
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china;osaka;g20;investment;infrastructure;belt and road
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jp0002826
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
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Pilot strike grounds 110,000 travelers with carrier SAS
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COPENHAGEN - A further 110,000 air passengers faced being left grounded after Scandinavian carrier SAS on Sunday canceled 1,213 flights as pilot strike action spiraled. Pilots demanding better pay and conditions walked off the job in Sweden, Denmark and Norway on Friday and the disruption is now expected to hit some 280,000 travelers overall. SAS had initially predicted that 170,000 passengers would be affected by the end of Sunday, but now says a further 667 Monday flights and 546 more due Tuesday will be annulled. The stoppage by 1,409 pilots is affecting domestic, European and long-haul flights. The Swedish Air Line Pilots Association, which initiated the strike, has said that months of talks have failed to find a solution to pilots’ “deteriorating work conditions, unpredictable work schedules and job insecurity. “No discussion is currently underway between the two parties,” Rawaz Nermany, president of the association, said on Sunday. “To overcome our differences, SAS must show a real willingness to discuss and meet around the negotiating table,” he told the Swedish TT agency. But the Swedish Confederation of Transport Enterprises insists it cannot accept a demand for a 13-percent wage increase, given their “already high average wage of 93,000 kronor (€8,766, $9,769) a month. The pilots’ association say work schedules, not wages, are their main gripe as most SAS pilots have to work at variable times and days and sometimes have to work several weekends in a row. SAS has implemented repeated savings programs in recent years to improve its profitability, after almost going bankrupt in 2012. “If SAS gives in to the demands of the pilots, we can be pretty sure that in a few quarters, SAS will be in deficit and will have to fight to survive,” Jacob Pedersen, chief analyst of the Danish bank Sydbank, told the Ritzau agency. In the first quarter of 2019, the airline widened its losses, impacted by negative exchange effects and high fuel prices. It posted a net loss of 469 million kronor, compared to 249 million a year earlier. Although the carrier forecast a full-year profit Sydbank on Friday predicted the strike would cost SAS 60 to 80 million kronor ($6 million to $8 million) per day.
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airlines;sweden;sas;norway;denmark;strikes
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jp0002827
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
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Reiwa Era to open in wake of decades of tumultuous economic change in Japan
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The Heisei Era began three decades ago with Emperor Akihito ascending the throne near the zenith of one of the biggest stock market bubbles in history. It’s been punctuated by the triple hit of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, the fall of tech icons and the rise of automotive giants, and by creeping social change that’s seeing women and foreign people playing a bigger role in economic life. It takes a comparison with the U.S. stock market collapse that ushered in the Great Depression to put the magnitude of Japan’s asset-price implosion in true perspective. What’s most shocking is the failure of Japanese shares to regain their highs, even after 30 years, while the Dow surged back in the 1950s. The weakness in Japanese stocks has mirrored wider problems, which set the stage for the country’s slip to third place in the global economic pecking order. Some of Japan’s greatest corporate names have also suffered, like Sony Corp. The Tokyo-based consumer electronics champion swept all before it with products like the Walkman portable cassette player until analog gave way to digital, and the rise of Apple Inc. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Others including Sharp Corp., now controlled by Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., and Panasonic Corp. have seen their value slide from great heights. Yet through it all, investors around the world have turned to the yen for safety in times of crisis. Ultra-low interest rates encourage investors to borrow in Japan and put the money to work in other economies that are growing more. When risks rise, these same investors run for the exits, where they are forced to buy up yen to unwind their so-called carry trades. The country also remains a huge exporter and despite high government debt — which rose to a whopping 230 percent of GDP during the Heisei Era — corporate Japan continues to drive current account surpluses, which support the currency. Japan has also maintained its dominant position as the world’s top creditor nation, offsetting worries about government debt and boosting confidence in the yen. It owns more than $1 trillion of U.S. Treasuries, slightly less than China’s hoard of American debt, and its big commercial banks are among the leading lenders in Asia. The nation’s car industry has extended its reach, dueling for pole position with European giants while U.S. competitors suffered setbacks. Toyota stands head-and-shoulders above most brands in the world and has led the way with hybrid vehicles as auto manufacturers chart a course to an electric future. Its dozens of factories around the world are also testament to the international expansion of corporate Japan, which repatriates profits from abroad, even as growth ebbs in the domestic market. The struggle for gender equality was slow to arrive but has received strong impetus from the labor shortage that’s taken hold in recent years. Women have poured into work — though mostly part-time and contract positions — to the point that Japan’s female labor force participation rate is now higher than that of the U.S. With more working role models for girls, there are hopes that the Reiwa Era beginning on Wednesday will see women take the next step up the ladder. Women’s share of leadership roles in government and the private sector remains low, despite talk of the womenomics polices under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose government quietly gave up on a goal of getting women into 30 percent of management positions by 2020. The population has fallen for the last nine years and one person in three is now 60 or older. The challenge this presents to the economy is enormous as businesses lose both customers and workers, undermining the incentive to invest at home, and the government faces rising welfare costs and a declining pool of taxpayers to support the system. The problem is playing out dramatically for monetary policymakers, who have been buying up bonds and stocks and slashing borrowing costs in an effort to steer inflation higher and reinvigorate the economy. In a move that turned conventional policy on its head, the Bank of Japan cut interest rates to zero in 1999 and 20 years later the BOJ is holding its key short-term rate at minus 0.1 percent. All this monetary firepower hasn’t fixed the low-inflation, low-growth problem. Yet as the Heisei Era comes to an end, Japan’s detractors are growing quiet. It turns out that much of the developed world is also losing the battle to spur price gains. In a bout of introspection, the Federal Reserve has declared 2019 a year of strategy review, while some pundits are even taking about “Japanification” in Europe’s stuttering economy. Meanwhile, as the demographics push Japan to slowly let more overseas workers in, the U.S. is taking steps to limit the use of H-1B visas — keeping more high-skilled foreign people out.
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trade;economy;women;abenomics;emperor akihito;investments;imperial family;cars;abdication;reiwa
|
jp0002828
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
HNA's $25 billion fire sale not enough to emerge from crisis
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HONG KONG - Even for a company that’s been through as many crises as HNA Group Co., it’s been a rough few months. In April, creditors of the embattled Chinese conglomerate took the extraordinary step of seizing golf courses and other assets after a unit missed a loan payment. The group’s also been embroiled in an increasingly bizarre power struggle over control of Hong Kong Airlines, while people familiar with the matter say HNA shelved the sale of a container-leasing business after failing to find anyone willing to pay the $1 billion-plus price it was seeking. For HNA, the setbacks underscore how the group is still struggling to deal with the fallout of a global acquisition spree that pushed it deep into debt. Despite agreeing to sell more than $25 billion in assets since the beginning of 2018, HNA’s travails more broadly show how China’s two-year deleveraging campaign continues to rock some of its biggest targets, many of which emerged during a period when the government was encouraging private enterprises to seek out overseas assets. ‘The situation is dire,” said Brock Silvers, managing director of Kaiyuan Capital, a multi asset advisory and investment firm focused on China. The missed loan payment by CWT International Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed investment holding company HNA controls, “reveals the depth of HNA’s current predicament. At this point there are no safe harbors for HNA investors.” Like many of China’s once high-flying conglomerates, including Waldorf Astoria-owner Anbang Insurance Group Co. and the ever-shrinking Hollywood giant Dalian Wanda Group Co., HNA has been selling off assets after the government scrutinized their debt-fueled expansions and the financial risks tied to them. None have faced harsher punishment from Beijing than Anbang: Its founder was jailed and the government has temporarily seized the business. For its part, HNA — which started out as an airline — said it’s made substantial progress bringing its focus back to its roots, cutting debt and strengthening its balance sheet in the past year. “As the company looks ahead, it will continue to take a thoughtful and disciplined approach to realigning its portfolio and rebalancing its strategy to optimize performance over the long-term,” HNA said in a statement. There’s no doubt the asset sales have helped reduce HNA’s debt. But it may not be enough. Based on the group’s latest available financials — the six months that ended on June 31 — HNA still held about $80 billion of debt, among the highest levels in China. Of that amount, $25 billion was due within a year, or more than what the company held in cash, equivalents and short-term investments combined. The company’s profits couldn’t even cover its interest payments. “While the company seeks further liquidity, it may become increasingly selective in honoring obligations,” said Silvers, who is based in Shanghai. “It’s possible that HNA might not survive 2019’s planned debt obligations in its current form.” As it faces increasing pressure on debt repayments, the company’s been forced to sell core aviation assets. Last month, HNA announced it’s selling budget carrier Hong Kong Express Airways to Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. for 2.25 billion Hong Kong dollars ($287 million) in cash. The company has sold or agreed to dispose of more than 40 assets since 2018, according to a Bloomberg tally. And, there’s likely more to come. Bloomberg reported in November that HNA was marketing more than $40 billion of domestic and international holdings, including more than 90 assets in China, the U.S. and U.K. Among the priciest assets on the list were the 245 Park Ave. skyscraper it bought for a near-record $2.21 billion, the yin-yang-shaped Pearl Island in Hainan and Shanghai’s HNA Plaza. Though Bloomberg has only been able to tally just over $25 billion in asset sales, HNA Chairman Chen Feng told Caijing in November that it had sold about $45 billion in assets in 2018. The rapid pace of sales hasn’t eased HNA’s debt repayment pressures. And investors and analysts expect it to do more. “HNA needs to continue selling assets, inviting strategic investors, and repaying debt,” said Warut Promboon, managing partner at credit research firm Bondcritic Ltd. Compounding HNA’s problems is that the company likely overpaid for many acquisitions, said Ronald Wan, chief executive at Partners Capital International Ltd. “Even if they sell all assets, they could still be in deficit,” he said. “It’s unrealistic and impossible to sell them at a profit.” HNA is also facing unusual disputes. Zhong Guosong, a former director of HNA-backed Hong Kong Airlines, has said he has taken control of the carrier, proclaimed himself chairman and accused HNA of various acts of malfeasance — accusations that HNA has denied. Hong Kong Airlines has said it doesn’t recognize Zhong’s chairmanship but acknowledged that the dispute has seriously disrupted order at their offices. Flights were operating normally, it said. Complicating matters, Zhong is chairman at Hong Kong Express, the carrier that HNA has agreed to sell to Cathay Pacific. Trouble has also brewed in HNA’s flagship unit. On March 15, Hainan Airlines Holding Co. said a Chinese court froze shareholdings in the company as a result of a contract dispute with a local aircraft leasing firm. Additionally, HNA has been behind on its aircraft lease payment. The carrier last month revised its 2018 net loss forecast to as much as 4 billion yuan ($594 million) from an earlier forecast of as much as 500 million yuan, due to asset impairment and fewer subsidies. Andrew Collier, a Hong Kong-based managing director at Orient Capital Research, sees its repayment pressures and legal challenges coming to a head. “HNA has clearly lost the battle to maintain its existence as a separate company,” he said. It’s “being taken apart piecemeal.”
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china;acquisitions;hna;hna group;hong kong airlines
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jp0002829
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Pilots demand better training if Boeing wants to rebuild trust in 737 Max
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CHICAGO - American Airlines pilots have warned that Boeing Co.’s draft training proposals for the troubled 737 Max do not go far enough to address their concerns, according to written comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and seen by Reuters. The comments were made by the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents pilots at American Airlines Group Inc., the world’s largest airline and one of the biggest 737 Max operators in the United States. Their support is important because Boeing has said pilots’ confidence in the 737 Max will play a critical role in convincing the public that the aircraft is safe to fly again. Boeing’s fast-selling 737 Max was grounded worldwide in March following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 on board just five months after a similar crash on a Lion Air flight that killed all 189 passengers and crew. Now it is readying for regulatory approval a final software update and training package to address an anti-stall system known as MCAS that played a role in both nose-down crashes. A draft report by an FAA-appointed board of pilots, engineers and other experts concluded that pilots only need additional computer-based training to understand MCAS, rather than simulator time. The public has until April 30 to make comments. Protesters are expected outside Boeing’s annual meeting in Chicago on Monday, where shareholders will also question the company over its safety record. APA is arguing that mere computer explanation “will not provide a level of confidence for pilots to feel not only comfortable flying the aircraft but also relaying that confidence to the traveling public.” It said the Max computer training, which originally involved a one-hour iPad course, should include videos of simulator sessions showing how MCAS works along with demonstrations of other cockpit emergencies such as runaway stabilizer, a loss of control that occurred on both doomed flights. APA also called for recurring training on simulators that includes scenarios like those experienced by the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines pilots, in addition to computer training. “When pilots visually experience the failure modes and then apply them, the lesson is cemented in their minds,” APA wrote. American Airlines has said it is looking at the potential for additional training opportunities in coordination with the FAA and its pilots union. Canada, Europe and South Korea are all weighing the need for simulator training, going above the recommendations in the draft FAA report, sources have said. Required simulator training could delay the Max’s return to service because it takes time to schedule hundreds or thousands of pilots on simulators. Hourly rates for simulators range between $500 and $1,000, excluding travel expenses. American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker said on Friday that even if other countries delay the ungrounding of the Max, once the FAA approves it, American will start flying its 24 aircraft. Union pilots for Southwest Airlines Co., the world’s largest operator of the Max with 34 jets and dozens more on order, have said they were satisfied with the FAA draft report but would decide on additional training once they see Boeing’s final proposals.
|
boeing;unions;ethiopian airlines;simulators;aircraft accidents;apa;737 max;lion air;mcas
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jp0002831
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
FAA mulled grounding Boeing 737 Max jets last year after learning of anti-stall system woes: source
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NEW YORK - U.S. regulators considered grounding some Boeing 737 Max planes last year after learning belatedly of a problem with a system that is now the main suspect in two deadly crashes, a source close to the matter said. Investigators in the Lion Air crash in October off the coast of Indonesia and the Ethiopia Airlines disaster in March have zeroed in on the planes’ anti-stall system, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. Last year, before the Lion crash, inspectors with the Federal Aviation Administration discovered that the manufacturer had de-activated a signal designed to advise the cockpit crew of a malfunctioning of the MCAS system, the source said. These inspectors were in charge of monitoring Southwest Airlines, the biggest user of 737 Max planes, with a fleet of 34 of them at the time, added the source. The inspectors came up with this hypothesis — the signal alert being switched off — as they tried to determine whether pilots flying these planes needed additional training, said the source. After some debate, they gave up on this hypothesis but it was never passed on to higher-ranking officials in the FAA, the source said, confirming a story in The Wall Street Journal. The inspectors learned that Boeing had opted to make the malfunction signal optional and an extra that would cost more money. This came after Southwest asked Boeing to reactivate the signal after the Lion Air crash, which killed all 189 people on board. Boeing had deactivated the signal on all 737 Max delivered to Southwest without telling the carrier. Neither the airline nor its pilots were aware of these changes when they started flying the planes in 2017, a spokeswoman for Southwest told AFP. Just like the inspectors, they only found out only after the Lion Air crash. “Prior to the Lion Air event, the (signals) were depicted as operable by Boeing on all Max aircraft” regardless of whether the cockpit crew thought they had them turned on or off, said the Southwest spokeswoman. “After the Lion Air event, Boeing notified Southwest” that the signals were turned off unless they were specifically designated as being turned on, she said. It was at this point that Southwest chose this option for all its aircraft, the spokeswoman said. Boeing has not yet answered an AFP’s request for comment. The FAA would not comment on the planes coming close to being grounded last year. But a spokesman for the agency said the signal “is an option for carriers.” The Ethiopia Airlines crash left all 157 people on the plane dead and led to all Boeing 737 Max planes all over the world being grounded. In this case too the MCAS is being looked at as a possible cause of the crash. In times of midair distress, this system is supposed to activate on its own and push the nose of the plane down to keep it from stalling. Boeing is working on changing the MCAS so it can get the planes back in the air. The grounding has already cost the carrier a billion dollars, Boeing said last week. But the bill will probably climb because Boeing is expected to pay money to airlines, which have been forced to cancel thousands of flights and hire more reservations and services staff. Boeing has suspended deliveries of Boeing 737 Max planes and cut production of them by 20 percent. Neither of the Boeing 737 Max planes in the Lion crash in Indonesia or the Ethiopian crash were equipped with the signal that is supposed to show a malfunctioning of the MCAS, an industry source told AFP in March. Called “disagree lights” in Boeing parlance, these lights turn on when faulty information is sent from so-called angle of attack sensors to the MCAS. Those sensors monitor whether the wings have enough lift to keep the plane flying. In the case of the Lion Air crash, investigators think one of the angle of attack sensors may have failed and sent incorrect data to the MCAS, causing its nose to go down as pilots fought to bring it back up. The MCAS overrides the pilots manual efforts to point the plane up or down. With the angle of attack sensor not working properly, the thing to do would have been to turn off the MCAS. But the Lion Air cockpit crew did not know this.
|
u.s .;accidents;airlines;boeing;faa;ethiopian airlines;737 max;lion air
|
jp0002832
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Revamped Russian animation sector takes aim at global audience
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MOSCOW - In a slick Moscow loft, dozens of graphic designers peer at computers, compiling the latest scenes of “Fantasy Patrol,” a cartoon produced by Russia’s Parovoz animation studio. With its Netflix contracts, state-owned Parovoz — which means locomotive in Russian — is at the forefront of a resurgence of the country’s animation industry. But, for some observers, the revival comes at the expense of a tradition for innovation dating back to the Soviet-era heyday. Russian authorities have invested heavily in the animation sector in recent years, after it, like others, was left in ruins following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Parovoz is part of a state media holding and has grown from around 20 to 300 employees. Its animated series are shown in 55 countries. Chief executive Anton Smetankin, who co-launched the studio in 2014, said it had “a product for every market.” Last year, two Parovoz productions were bought by the U.S.-based streaming service Netflix — one of them, “Leo and Tig,” is about the adventures of a tiger and leopard in Siberia. “We have taken the best from the Russian school (of animation),” said artistic director Yevgeny Golovin. “All of our films are full of kindness and can be watched by children of all ages.” The studio also signed two contracts with China and had several of its projects dubbed and adapted for the Chinese market. Today they are shown on four of China’s top streaming channels whose total users are estimated to number 1.5 billion a month. Soviet animators won global repute for their creativity but the sector has seen mixed fortunes since then. Soyuzmultfilm, a studio launched in the 1930s which made many of the Soviet Union’s animated greats, faced funding problems in the 1990s and lost control of its back catalogue. In 2011, Vladimir Putin, then the prime minister, stepped in to try to restore the Russian animation industry to its former glory. By the early 2000s, Soyuzmultfilm had been reorganized and was again a state company. The government returned the distribution rights for its classics back to the studio and invested about $14 million over five years. But it is a cartoon series produced by a private Russian studio, Animaccord, that has proven a big international commercial hit. Since 2009, “Masha and the Bear” about a mischievous little girl and an amicable, retired circus bear has been viewed dozens of billions of times on YouTube alone, as well as been broadcast in 100 countries, and has inspired several spin-offs. “Our theme, which revolves around the relationship of a child and an adult, is universal,” said Animaccord CEO Vladimir Gorbulya. “There is a good amount of humor and things to reflect upon for viewers of both age categories.” Encouraged by the global success of the computer-animated duo, the Russian government has continued to boost support for the industry, announcing massive subsidies and, in 2017, tax reductions. “There is a desire to make sure our children look at animated films with our national cultural codes, our mentality, our language and culture,” said Irina Mastusova, who heads the Russian animation association. She noted that the Russian animation sector was still relatively up-and-coming, with around 3,000 employees. The government attention is in line with Moscow’s increasing efforts to inject conservative, patriotic values avowed by the Kremlin into the cultural sphere. Smetankin, of the Parovoz studio, conceded that animation was part of Russia’s drive for “soft power” abroad, a form of cultural diplomacy to explain Moscow’s view of the world, especially at a time of tensions with the West. In November, Britain’s The Times newspaper cited experts in a report who called “Masha and the Bear” a form of “propaganda,” saying that “feisty but plucky” Masha “punches above her weight” while the bear’s sanguine character painted Russia in a positive light. The studio rejected the depiction, pointing out that the cartoon was made without government funding. Larisa Malyukova, a culture reporter for the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said that government support prioritized commercial success, rather than innovative and poetic projects of the kind that made Soviet animators famous. “The culture ministry pays less and less attention to original animation,” she said. “This worries artists, since this is what, at least in Russia, is a laboratory that creates new talent.” Joel Chapron, a Russian film expert for the Cannes Festival for two decades, agreed that Russia’s animation was changing. “Before, the legacy of animation in Russia was associated with prodigies and big names. Today, nobody knows who the authors are.”
|
russia;animation
|
jp0002833
|
[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
U.S. measles outbreak raises questions about immunity in adults vaccinated decades ago
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CHICAGO/NEW YORK - Adults in the United States who were vaccinated against measles decades ago may need a new dose depending on when they received the shot and their exposure risk, according to public health experts battling the nation’s largest outbreak since the virus was deemed eliminated in 2000. Up to 10 percent of the 695 confirmed measles cases in the current outbreak occurred in people who received one or two doses of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figure illustrates what can happen when a large number of individuals, even those who have been vaccinated, are exposed to the measles. CDC recommends that people who are living in or traveling to outbreak areas should check their vaccination status and consider getting a new dose. Dr. Allison Bartlett, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, said the “continued vulnerability to infection” is why high-risk adults such as health care workers are routinely advised to get a second dose of the measles vaccine if they have not had one. But knowing your vaccination status can be tricky, experts said. “It’s complicated and often futile because it’s very difficult to resurrect those old records,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. People vaccinated in the United States since 1989 would most likely have received two doses of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot under federal guidelines, and that is still considered the standard for protection. Anyone vaccinated between 1963 and 1989 would likely have received only one dose, with many people immunized in the earlier years receiving an inactivated version of the virus. Americans born before 1957 are considered immune as they would have been exposed to the virus directly in an outbreak. Merck & Co. Inc. is the sole U.S. provider of the MMR vaccine. The company said in a statement that it has “taken steps to increase U.S. supply” of the vaccine due to the current outbreak. The measles virus is highly contagious and can cause blindness, deafness, brain damage or death. It is currently spreading in outbreaks in many parts of the world. According to the World Health Organization, 95 percent of a population needs to be vaccinated to provide “herd immunity,” a form of indirect protection that prevents infection in people too young or sick to be vaccinated. U.S. public health officials have blamed the current outbreak in part on rising rates of vaccine skepticism that have reduced measles immunity in certain communities. For travelers to outbreak areas abroad, the CDC recommends adults consider getting another dose of MMR unless they have proof of receiving two prior doses, take a blood test showing immunity, or were born before 1957. In general, the CDC says two doses of the measles vaccine should provide 97 percent protection; one dose should offer 93 percent protection. However, immunity can wane over time. This has occurred even in adults with two documented doses of the vaccine, said Dr. Michael Phillips, chief epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health, which serves parts of New York City, a hot spot in the U.S. outbreak. He said in kids, “the vaccine is really effective,” but in some adults, memory T-cells, which recognize and attack germs, do not fight the virus as effectively as they once did. Rapid blood tests are available that can detect whether a person is immune based on the level of measles antibodies, but the tests are not 100 percent reliable. Adults who have any doubt about their immunity should get another dose, Schaffner said: “It’s safe. There’s no downside risk. Just roll up your sleeve.”
|
u.s .;vaccinations;measles;epidemic;cdc;mmr
|
jp0002834
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
'We are losing everything!': 160,000 at risk in Mozambique after second cyclone in six weeks hits
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PEMBA, MOZAMBIQUE - A second disaster unfolded on Sunday in northern Mozambique in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth as raging flood waters killed one person and began to cut off the region’s main city from the outside world. Some 160,000 people were at risk, with more torrential rain forecast for the days ahead. “Help us, we are losing everything!” residents in the city of Pemba shouted at passing cars as the rushing waters poured into doorways. Women and girls with buckets and pots tried to scoop away the torrent, in vain. Some houses collapsed, the United Nations said. “It’s an awful sense of deja vu,” said Nicholas Finney, response team leader with the aid group Save the Children. Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai ripped into central Mozambique and killed more than 600 people with flooding. This was the first time in recorded history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season, again raising concerns about climate change. The new storm’s remnants could dump twice as much rain as Idai, the U.N. World Program has said. Up to 100 mm (nearly 4 inches) were forecast in the next 24 hours for some parts of the region, according to Mozambique’s meteorological institute. “I have never seen such rains in my life,” said one Pemba resident, 35-year-old Michael Fernando. Residents mourned one death in the Nitate neighborhood after a brick wall fell on a woman and the waters swept her against another building, said community leader Estenacio Pilale. Other residents tried to pile up tires and sand bags as barricades. Cars began to slip under the waters. “We will keep moving until we get somewhere safe,” one man said, as people fled carrying belongings in plastic bags. Others showed flashes of impatience. “Will this water ever give us a break?” Abdul Carimo asked. “The moment we try to do anything with our lives, it starts again.” Authorities earlier said at least five people died after Kenneth roared in Thursday evening with the force of a Category 4 hurricane, stunning residents of a region where such a storm had not been recorded in the modern era. The government said more than 160,000 people have been affected in the largely rural region, many now exposed and hungry. More than 35,000 homes in parts of Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado were partially or fully destroyed by the storm. More than 23,000 people were in shelters, the government said. Aid workers trying to reach hard-hit communities outside Pemba on Sunday were forced to turn back by rivers that burst their banks, with flood waters reaching the roofs of nearby houses. It was not clear when aid to scores of thousands of people outside the city could be delivered. “Helicopters cannot fly, a number of flights were canceled, so humanitarian workers cannot arrive and additional cargo cannot arrive by air,” Finney with Save the Children said. He was concerned that the main road to Nampula, an important trucking route, would soon be blocked. He described “total devastation” affecting a 60-km (37-mile) stretch of coastline and nearby islands. On Saturday, aerial photos showed several coastal communities flattened by the cyclone. “Not a single house is standing anymore,” Saviano Abreu, a spokesman with the U.N. humanitarian agency, told reporters. Livelihoods have been lost and people are wondering how they will cope in a country struggling with one of the world’s highest poverty rates. With notebook and pen in hand, elderly Luis Momade walked near the beach in Pemba on Saturday, taking advantage of a rare lull in the rains to record the damage from the cyclone. The president of the local Paquite Residents Association, his notebook was almost full with names and figures of boats damaged or destroyed. With unemployment rife and many in coastal areas surviving with fishing and related activities, not going to sea could mean going hungry for days. Men, women and children foraged in the waters off the littered shore, looking for seashells to sell.
|
disaster;floods;mozambique;cyclone idai;cyclone kenneth
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jp0002835
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
If Trump was not president, he would be indicted for obstruction: ex-Justice Department No. 2
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WASHINGTON - Former top Justice Department official Sally Yates said on Sunday that if Donald Trump were not president, he would have been indicted on obstruction charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Yates, a career federal prosecutor who rose to acting attorney general before Trump fired her in 2017 less than two weeks into his presidency, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the Republican president was shielded by department guidelines that a sitting president should not be indicted. “I’ve personally prosecuted obstruction cases on far, far less evidence than this,” Yates said. “And yes, I believe, if he were not the president of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction.” Mueller’s report, redacted for classified and other sensitive information, detailed a series of actions by Trump to impede the investigation. It did not make a conclusion on whether those actions constituted the crime of obstruction said the findings did not exonerate him. The report cited attempts by Trump to thwart the Mueller investigation, as well as the president telling Russian officials he had faced “great pressure” from the probe but that it had been eased after he fired FBI Director James Comey. Mueller also said Congress has the power to address whether Trump violated the law and Congress is conducting its own investigations into whether he obstructed justice. Yates told NBC there was a larger question raised by the report, which she said painted a “devastating portrait” of a campaign that welcomed Russian intervention, lied about it and then tried to cover it up. “Is this the kind of conduct that we should expect from the president of the United States?” she said. “I mean, when the Russians came knocking at their door, you would expect that a man who likes to make a show of hugging the flag would’ve done the patriotic thing and would’ve notified law enforcement.” Yates was fired by Trump after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations.
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u.s .;fbi;james comey;robert mueller;donald trump;sally yates;russia probe
|
jp0002837
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Son of French hostage abducted in Mali in 2016 denounces Paris government inaction
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PARIS - The son of an elderly French woman abducted in Mali has accused Paris of refusing to talk to her abductors, in comments published Sunday that were disputed by French authorities. Armed jihadis abducted Sophie Petronin on Dec. 24, 2016, in Gao, northern Mali, where she ran a charity helping orphans. Her son, Sebastien Chadaud-Petronin, told the Sunday newspaper Journal Du Dimanche that French officials had rejected an offer from the abductors, which he had received when he visited Mali in December. He said the French foreign ministry had sidelined him and taken the decision in his place: “The decision to sacrifice my mother.” Responding to the criticism, a source close to the foreign ministry told AFP that France would continue to do everything to get Petronin freed — but her son’s comments were not helping. “The son of Madame Petronin has received unprecedented support from the French authorities” who had paid for his eight trips to the Sahel region, the source added. But having made contact with an intermediary of the abductors, Chadaud-Petronin had refused to reveal his identity to the French services — and that meant they had been unable to check his credibility. “We don’t doubt his sincerity, but he is being manipulated by the abductors and their numerous intermediaries,” said the source. In June last year, Petronin’s abductors sent a video of her in which she appeared weak and emaciated, appealing to French President Emmanuel Macron to help her. In another video in November, which only showed a photo of her, they said her health had deteriorated. Speaking to AFP on Sunday, Chadaud-Petronin said that he remained hopeful that his mother was still alive, even if he had no definite information. No group claimed responsibility for her abduction until July 2017, when al-Qaida’s Mali branch released a video showing her. Mali has been struggling to return to stability after Islamist extremists took control of the north in early 2012, prompting a military intervention by France.
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france;mali;jihadis;emmanuel macron;sophie petronin;sebastien chadaud-petronin;kidnappng
|
jp0002838
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Trump Senate ally urges more sanctions on Russia before polls, criticizes Jared Kushner's dismissive stance
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WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, called for more sanctions on Russia and criticized presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s statements downplaying the significance of that country’s interference in the 2016 election. “I like Jared a lot, but he’s leaving out a big detail,” Graham said on the CBS show “Face the Nation,” noting that Russia hacked into the emails of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “Can you imagine what we would be saying if the Russians or the Iranians hacked into the presidential team of the Republican Party?” Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, characterized the Russians’ actions at an April 23 event as trying to “buy some Facebook ads to sow discontent.” He said that the investigations that followed had “had a much harsher impact” on U.S democracy. “No, this is a big deal. It’s not just a few Facebook ads,” Graham said on CBS. “An attack on one party should be an attack on all.” Trump previously has questioned the extent of Russia’s role in election interference, and Graham said he has told Trump that “everything we’ve done with the Russians is not working” because “the Russians are up to it again.” “We need more sanctions, not less,” Graham said. “Because clearly they don’t have the message.” Graham defended Trump’s actions in the Russia investigation. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, released in redacted form this month, described 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by the president but didn’t provide a conclusion. “What President Trump did here was completely cooperate in an investigation,” Graham said. “I believe the president did nothing wrong. Whether you like him or not, I’ll leave up to you.” Graham also disagreed with Trump’s suggestion in comments to reporters on April 26 that former Vice President Joe Biden, who announced his candidacy for president a day earlier, might be too old at 76 to win. “If you travel with Joe Biden, you won’t think he’s too old,” Graham said, adding that he doesn’t know whether Biden fits the preferences of the current Democratic Party. Still, Graham said of his former Senate colleague, “He’s a good man and he would be a strong candidate.”
|
congress;russia;hillary clinton;lindsey graham;donald trump;jared kushner;2020 elections
|
jp0002839
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Venezuela's Juan Guaido cancels rally after 'dictatorship' blocks route
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CARACAS - The leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly, Juan Guaido, canceled a rally scheduled to be held in the country’s fourth-largest city on Sunday and said the “dictatorship” had prevented him from entering. Guaido has traveled outside the capital, Caracas, more and more in recent weeks to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to step down. In January, he invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. While he has previously reported delays in arriving to cities in the country’s interior due to roadblocks by the armed forces and Maduro supporters, Sunday’s cancellation of the event in the western city of Barquisimeto was unprecedented. Protests are planned for Wednesday, May 1, including what Guaido has said will be “the largest march in Venezuela’s history,” part of what he calls the “definitive phase” of his effort to take office in order to call fresh elections. “Today we had a meeting planned, were going to embrace the streets of Lara that filled from end to end,” Guaido said in a voice recording sent by his press team, referring to Lara state, home to Barquisimeto. He said he would reschedule the event for next weekend, and called on supporters to rally on Wednesday. “Today the dictatorship blocked the path, the dictatorship did not allow us to arrive in Barquisimeto, but it will not prevent us from seeing each other.” Guaido did not provide further details on who blocked him or where the incident occurred. Venezuela’s information ministry, which handles media inquiries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maduro calls Guaido a U.S-backed puppet who seeks to oust him in a coup. The government has arrested his top aide, stripped Guaido of his parliamentary immunity and opened multiple probes. It has also barred him from leaving the country, a ban Guaido openly violated earlier this year. Last week, Guaido said his congressional ally — opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro — had been detained, and that 11 members of his team had been summoned to appear before the Sebin intelligence agency.
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conflict;venezuela;nicolas maduro;juan guaido
|
jp0002840
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Trump trots out economic boast, slams 'Radical Left Democratic Party' at Wisconsin rally
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President Donald Trump boasted of a strong economy and criticized his Democratic presidential opponents Saturday night as he rallied supporters with familiar themes. Trump pointed to the economy’s 3.2 percent growth in the first quarter before drawing even more applause by citing gains in employment and reductions in family poverty in Wisconsin. The state helped propel Trump’s 2016 victory, and Democrats are focused on reclaiming its electoral votes in 2020. Turning to presidential politics, the president had a suggestion for members of the Democratic Party. “They should change that to the Radical Left Democrat Party,” he told a crowd that nearly filled the 10,500-seat Risch Center in Green Bay. “It’s crazy what’s going on with them. Oh, do I look forward to running against them.” It was a signal that what the president and Republicans have been saying about Democrats for months could be a lasting part of his reelection campaign story. Trump, who loves branding opponents, pointed to the Green New Deal, abortion rights policy and the self-described socialism of prominent Democrats to paint the whole party as radical. In contrast, he said, “The Republican Party is the party of all Americans. And common sense,” he said, eliciting cheers and chants of “USA!” Trump also referenced his nicknames for two of the leading Democratic presidential contenders — “Sleepy Joe” Biden and “Crazy Bernie” Sanders — and predicted that Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy was already over. Turning to his nickname for Warren, a critic of Trump and a frequent target of the president, Trump said: “I think Pocahontas, she’s finished, she’s out.” Trump warned his supporters that Democrats would take away their guns, promised anew to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and pledged to come up with a plan for health care after the next election. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had shared their love of golf with a quick round on the president’s course in Northern Virginia earlier in the day. No announcement of concrete advances in U.S.-Japan trade relations followed the meeting, though Trump told his rally audience that Japan was investing $40 billion in the American auto industry. Trump scheduled the midevening rally at the same time members of the White House Correspondents’ Association gathered for their annual dinner. He refused the association’s invitation for the third straight time, a break from past practice by the president. “Is there any place that’s more fun than a Trump rally?” he asked, having assured them there was no one he’d rather be with. In Washington, Olivier Knox, the association’s president, voiced concerns about Trump’s attacks on the press. He said he’s received death threats, including one this week, and that he’s had to warn his family not to touch packages on the stoop. “It shouldn’t need to be said in a room full of people who understand the power of words that ‘fake news’ and ‘enemies of the people’ are not pet names, punchlines or presidential,” Knox said. Historian Ron Chernow, the dinner’s featured speaker, said the Founding Fathers had severe differences with the press and came under vicious criticism on occasion. He said President George Washington felt maligned and misunderstood by the press but never generalized that into a vendetta. “Relations between presidents and the press are inevitably tough, almost always adversarial, but they don’t need to be steeped in venom,” Chernow said. Also skipping the correspondents’ dinner to attend the rally was press secretary Sarah Sanders. In rare public praise for his chief spokeswoman, Trump called Sanders to the stage to say a few words. “I’m so proud to work for the president,” Sanders said, and noted that she received a very different reception during the event she attended last year — the correspondents’ dinner in which the evening’s comedian lampooned her. Trump joked that Sanders “is becoming too popular,” then riffed on his signature reality TV line. “I’m telling you, Sarah, you’re fired!” The crowd chuckled. The president opened the rally on a somber note, offering his condolences for the victims of a synagogue shooting near San Diego. He said America stands with the victims, denounced anti-Semitism and praised the law enforcement response. “Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded and stands in (solidarity) with the Jewish community,” he said. Trump singled out an off-duty Border Patrol agent who fired back at the suspected shooter. The agent, who was not identified, was working as a security guard at the synagogue. He fired as the suspect fled but only hit his car. The agent “helped disrupt the attack and saved so many lives,” Trump said.
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u.s. economy;democrats;elizabeth warren;donald trump;2020 u.s. presidential election
|
jp0002841
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Sri Lanka raids headquarters of hard-line Islamist group suspected in Easter bombings
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COLOMBO/KATTANKUDY, SRI LANKA - Sri Lankan police raided the headquarters of a hard-line Islamist group founded by the suspected ringleader behind the Easter suicide bombings of churches and hotels, a Reuters witness said, as Sunday mass was canceled due to fears of further attacks. Armed police in the town of Kattankudy searched the headquarters of the National Thawheedh Jamaath (NTJ) and detained one man at the premises, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. Police did not comment. On Saturday the government banned the NTJ under new emergency laws. The authorities believe Zahran Hashim, the founder of NTJ, masterminded and was one of the nine suicide bombers in the attacks on Easter Sunday that killed 253 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police suspect the bombings were carried out by two local Islamist groups, including the one established by Zahran. Around 10,000 soldiers have been deployed around the island as the authorities hunt for more suspects. Police sources told Reuters on Sunday that Zahran’s father and two brothers had been killed two days earlier in a gun battle with security forces. A relative identified the three men in a video circulating on social media calling for war against non-Muslims. Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Ranjith, who had asked churches to suspend Sunday Mass due to security fears, delivered a televised special sermon from a chapel at his home. The service was attended by President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The archbishop said last week that he had seen an internal security document warning of further attacks on churches. “We cannot kill someone in the name of God. … It is a great tragedy that happened,” the archbishop said in his sermon. “We extend our hand of friendship and fraternity to all our brothers and sisters of whatever class, society or religion that differentiates us.” The archbishop and political leaders then lit candles to commemorate the victims. Most of those killed in the Easter Sunday attacks were Sri Lankans. The dead also included 40 foreigners, including British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals. Police believe that radical Muslim preacher Zahran led the NTJ — or a splinter faction — to mount the attacks in Colombo as well as on a church in Batticaloa in the east. The authorities have named the other group suspected of involvement as Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim. Neither group were well known before the attacks but the government has come under heavy criticism for not heeding intelligence warnings of the bombings, including one from India’s spy service hours before the attacks. On Friday, Sirisena said the government led by Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him. More than 100 people, including foreigners from Syria and Egypt, have been detained for questioning for questioning over the Easter attacks. The Sri Lankan military said at least 15 people were killed during a fierce gun battle with Islamist militants on the east coast on Friday, including six children. In an apparent reference to the three men, Islamic State said on Sunday that three of its members had clashed with Sri Lankan police for several hours on Friday before detonating their explosive vests. It did not name them. The group’s news agency Aamaq said 17 policemen were killed or injured in that battle. It did not give any evidence. Sri Lanka’s 22 million population is majority Buddhist and includes minority Christians, Muslims and Hindus. At the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo where one of the bombs went off last Sunday, Buddhist monks, some as young as 10 and senior clergy, performed rituals in a tribute to the victims.
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religion;terrorism;sri lanka;islamic state;sri lanka attacks
|
jp0002842
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
U.S. military spending up for first time in seven years: report
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STOCKHOLM - U.S. military spending has risen for the first time in seven years, reflecting Trump administration policy, according to a new report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Worldwide military spending also rose by 2.6 percent to $1.8 trillion overall last year, SIPRI calculated. It was the second year running the global figure has risen, bringing military spending to its highest level since 1988. “The increase in U.S. spending was driven by the implementation from 2017 of new arms procurement programmes under the Trump administration,” said Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) program. The U.S. figure alone of $649 billion was as much as the next eight highest military budgets. But Chinese as well as U.S. spending helped push the overall spending figures for the year higher, said the report. China’s spending has risen 83 percent since 2009, bringing it up to second place, ahead of Saudi Arabia, India — which is modernizing its armed forces — and France. China has spent 1.9 percent of its gross domestic output (GDP) on military spending since 2013. Russia, meanwhile, dropped out of the top five spenders, with its military budget declining since 2016, said the report. Western countries’ economic sanctions against Russia, in place since 2014 because of its conflict with Ukraine, have hit the country’s military budget. In Ukraine itself, meanwhile, military spending rose 21 percent on the previous year to $4.8 billion, SIPRI calculated.
|
china;u.s .;russia;military;weapons;budgets;donald trump
|
jp0002843
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Tripoli regime seen holding line in house-to-house battles with invading force from east
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TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, LIBYA - Forces backing Libya’s internationally recognized government fought house-to-house battles with troops loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar in southern parts of the capital Tripoli on Sunday and appeared to be gaining ground. Government soldiers, some in jeans and t-shirts, took cover by abandoned buildings as they fired on Haftar’s positions. Some carried anti-aircraft guns they had had to remove from their trucks to get through the narrow streets. Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is allied to a rival administration in eastern Libya, mounted an offensive on Tripoli three weeks ago but despite heavy fighting has failed to breach the city’s southern defenses. The battle for the capital has all but wrecked U.N.-backed efforts for a peace deal between the rival factions and threatened to further disrupt Libya’s oil industry. Two eastern operations of state oil firm NOC — which have in the past made broad statements backing Haftar — on Sunday for the first time specifically said they supported his offensive. The NOC as a whole has tried to stay out of the conflict. A Reuters team visiting the southern suburb of Ain Zara on Sunday estimated the Tripoli forces had gained up to 1,500 meters compared to a visit a few days earlier. Other parts of the front line appeared unchanged and the situation remains fluid. Both sides have gained and lost territory within days or even hours during the fighting. “We are progressing. We are now in the phase of expelling the enemy from the capital,” Salah Badi, a commander from the western city of Misrata allied to Tripoli, told Reuters. The North African country has been in a state of chaos since Moammar Gadhafi was toppled in 2011 with Western intervention. The latest flare-up threatens to leave a power vacuum that Islamist militants could exploit. Forces loyal to Haftar, a former Gadhafi general, have said the internationally recognized government is controlled by terrorist militias and that they are fighting to expel the militants. Supporters of the Tripoli government have accused him of making a power grab with the backing of foreign countries. Two NOC units based in areas under Haftar’s control issued statements supporting the offensive on Sunday, a day after their Tripoli headquarters had condemned all military use of its facilities. Benghazi-based AGOCO congratulated Haftar’s forces “on the success and progress in its striving against extremist terrorist militias and militias which steal public funds.” A separate NOC unit in the east, Sirte Oil Co, also issued a statement backing the Tripoli advance. Haftar’s forces said on Saturday they had sent a warship to the eastern Ras Lanuf oil port for “training purposes.” A port engineer said the ship’s arrival had not affected oil exports, which were as normal.
|
conflict;u.n .;oil;libya;khalifa haftar
|
jp0002844
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
India's rich and famous go to the polls as marathon election comes to Mumbai
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MUMBAI - Billionaires and Bollywood stars took their turn with Mumbai’s slum dwellers Monday to vote in India’s marathon election as Prime Minister Narendra Modi steps up his nationalist campaign to sway the 900 million electorate. India’s film and finance capital took center stage in the fourth of seven rounds of voting with 72 constituencies across the nation taking part. Final results are to be released on May 23. At least 40,000 police and security personnel were deployed across the city of 20 million people while workers were given a holiday so they could vote for Mumbai’s six lawmakers. Long queues were waiting when the 10,000 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. Media scrums were set up at the stations where India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, Bollywood superstars including Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, as well as Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar were due to vote. Former MP Priya Dutt, a member of one of India’s most famous acting families, is trying to make a comeback for the opposition Congress party in Mumbai after sitting in the Lok Sabha assembly — the country’s lower house of parliament — from 2005 to 2009. Award-winning actress Urmila Matondkar is running for Congress in the north of the city. The concerns of the rich and famous were far from the ordinary voters in line however. “The most pressing issue for Mumbaikars is unemployment and rising costs of living,” shop trader Jignesh Shah said as he lined up in the suburb of Chembur. “As a middle class family it gets really difficult when real estate costs are so high and transportation is a mess,” the 56-year-old added. About 60 percent of Mumbai’s population live in slums. At the other end of the wealth spectrum, Ambani has raised eyebrows by backing the opposition Congress candidate in his Mumbai constituency, which Modi’s conservative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left to an allied right wing party. He has regularly spoken in support of Modi’s BJP government and the Reliance Industries tycoon’s son, Anant Ambani, attended a recent Modi rally. Monday’s voting in nine states will be particularly crucial for Modi’s chances of securing a second term after his landslide win in 2014. More than three dozen seats are at stake in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan states, all traditional BJP Hindu strongholds. Defeats suffered by the ruling party in three recent state elections has raised Congress hopes that it can eat into the government’s majority. Modi’s party won 282 of the 543 seats contested last time but analysts say this election will be closer. Congress has hit out at Modi’s handling of the economy, the failure to produce promised jobs and massive debts in rural India which has seen thousands of farmers commit suicide in the past four years. The 68-year-old prime minister, still seen as the frontrunner, has increasingly relied on his tough security stance and his nationalist credentials. At a rally in Mumbai on Friday, Modi said only his BJP government can guarantee safety for the city, still recovering major militant attacks 10 years ago. “Modi is confident those who strike with terror on this city will be hunted down. That is how a city and that is how a country is run,” said the prime minister who has given himself the nickname of “the watchman.” Heavy security has been deployed across the country for the election and police baton-charged rival BJP and followers of the regional Trinamool Congress party in West Bengal state, officials said. Fighting broke out in the Asansol constituency over security at polling booths, said Amit Jyoti Bhattacharya, a spokesman for the state election commission. Trinamool Congress activists surrounded the car of local BJP candidate Babul Supriya and smashed its windows. “Police used batons to control the situation,” the spokesman added.
|
india;bharatiya janata party;elections;bollywood;mumbai;narendra modi
|
jp0002845
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Indonesia detains Vietnamese fishermen after high-seas clash
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JAKARTA - Indonesia’s navy said that the Vietnamese coast guard rammed one of its vessels off the coast of Borneo as it moved to intercept a boat suspected of fishing illegally in its waters. The navy subsequently arrested a dozen Vietnamese fishermen after the high-seas clash in the southernmost reaches of the South China Sea on Saturday, it added in a statement late Sunday. Jakarta claims the area as its exclusive economic zone — waters where a state has the right to exploit resources. The navy said two Vietnamese coast guard ships tried to prevent the apprehension by ramming its vessel, causing damage to the hull. The fishing boat sank, possibly due to an accidental collision, Indonesian authorities said without elaborating. Two fishermen escaped detention by jumping into the water. They were picked by the Vietnamese coast guard, which then fled, the navy said. “The arrest happened in Indonesian waters,” Yudo Margono, commander of Indonesia’s Western Fleet, said in a statement. “The Indonesian vessel acted appropriately,” he added. Video circulating on social media purported to show a Vietnamese patrol boat ramming the left side of the Indonesian vessel as the armed navy crew shouted expletives. Two years ago, Indonesia changed the name of the southern part of the South China Sea to the North Natuna Sea in a bid to show its sovereignty in the waters. More recently, it inaugurated a new military base in the chain of several hundred small islands to beef up its border defenses. The moves have prompted criticism from Beijing, whose claims in the sea overlap Indonesia’s around the remote Natuna Islands. Indonesia, the world’s biggest archipelago nation, has been trying to stop foreign vessels fishing illegally in its territory, claiming it costs the economy billions of dollars annually.
|
china;vietnam;indonesia;military;south china sea
|
jp0002846
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
At least 17 dead, thousands displaced after severe Sumatra floods
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JAKARTA - At least 17 people are dead and nine missing after days of heavy rain-triggered floods and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, authorities said Sunday. Some 12,000 people have been evacuated while hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads have been damaged by the severe weather, which affected nine districts or towns across Bengkulu province, officials said. The waters have receded in some places but officials warned the full extent of the damage was not yet known and some areas were still cut off. “The impact of this disaster may increase,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that several people were also injured in the flooding. “Landslides and floods could happen again if rainfall is high,” he said. A “secondary disaster” in the form of skin diseases and acute respiratory infection due to poor hygiene and a lack of clean water was possible, he added. Aerial images showed swollen rivers that had burst their banks and inundated settlements in some parts of the province. Public kitchens and evacuation shelters have been set up to cater to about 13,000 people affected by the flooding, while search and rescue teams try to reach hard-hit areas with rubber boats. “The distribution of aid has been hampered because road access has been cut off by the floods and landslides,” Nugroho said, adding excavators were being used to clear debris from roads. Landslides and floods are common in Indonesia, especially during the monsoon season between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian archipelago. Flooding in parts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta during the week killed at least two people and forced more than 2,000 to evacuate their homes. Residents of Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta, had to contend with about 14 pythons that were set loose from a private property due to the high waters. Six of the snakes — which were as long as 4 meters (13 feet) — have been found, but the remaining eight remain on the loose, officials said.
|
indonesia;storms;disasters;rain;floods
|
jp0002847
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
U.S. signed North Korea document to pay for Otto Warmbier's care but didn't fork over $2 million: top official
|
WASHINGTON - The United States signed a document agreeing to pay North Korea for the care of American Otto Warmbier but never paid the $2 million Pyongyang demanded, White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. Bolton, who said he was not part of the administration at the time, confirmed newspaper reports that North Korea demanded the money before Warmbier was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017. Asked whether U.S. envoy Joseph Yun signed the document when he went to retrieve Warmbier, Bolton told “Fox News Sunday” in an interview: “That is what I am told, yes.” He said no payment was made. “It is very clear to me from my looking into it in the past few days that nobody was paid. That is clear,” Bolton said. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student visiting North Korea, was imprisoned in January 2016. North Korea state media said he was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel. Bolton said Trump was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a third summit to reach a deal for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. The second summit in Vietnam collapsed without an agreement after Trump and Kim failed to agree on the extent of economic sanctions relief for North Korea in exchange for giving up its nuclear program. During the meeting, Trump demanded full denuclearization, including the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States. “He still looks for the possibility of a third summit with Kim. He feels pretty strongly about it,” Bolton said, rejecting a return to six-party talks to persuade Pyongyang to shut its nuclear program. The six-party format, which included Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the United States and North Korea, has been sidelined by unilateral U.S. efforts to broker a deal. “The six-party approach failed in the past. That doesn’t mean we don’t consult” with other countries, Bolton added. “Kim Jong Un has wanted the one on one contact with the United States, which is what he has gotten.” Kim met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for their first face-to-face talks on Thursday. “I think both Russia and China could tighten up their enforcement of the sanctions,” said Bolton, “I think they have been pretty good about it in recent months, but I think they could always tighten up.”
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;donald trump;otto warmbier;john bolton
|
jp0002848
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
U.S. sends two warships through Taiwan Strait just days after China marks 70th anniversary of navy
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The U.S. Navy sailed warships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday and Monday, a move that angered China just days after it marked the 70th anniversary of its navy. The guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem and USS William P. Lawrence “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on April 28-29,” U.S. 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Clay Doss told The Japan Times, adding that the sailing has been done “in accordance with international law.” “The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Doss said. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.” In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had paid close attention to the sailing and had expressed concern to the United States. “The Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. relations,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry confirmed the sailing, saying in a statement Monday that the U.S. ships were free to sail through the strait as part of their “strategic Indo-Pacific tasks.” The U.S. has ramped up its transits of the strait over the past year, sailing through the 180-km waterway that separates Taiwan from China at least seven times in about eight months. Prior to that, such operations were considered relatively rare, occurring at a pace of about once a year. Although the strait is regarded as an international waterway, China has long been sensitive about the presence of U.S. military forces there. This week’s transit also comes just days after China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy with a massive parade and international fleet review overseen by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday. Last week’s celebrations wrapped up under a cloud after it was revealed last week that a French Navy warship also passed through the Taiwan Strait on April 6. That rare move by a European country, which the Chinese Defense Ministry reportedly blasted as “illegal,” was believed to have cost France its invitation to the fleet review. The U.S. did not send warships or senior military officers to the celebrations, an apparent snub by Washington even as U.S. allies Japan and South Korea sent their own vessels and officials. This year also saw an extremely rare flight by two Chinese fighter jets across the so-called median line of the strait, prompting Taiwan to protest the move as “reckless” and “provocative.” The Taiwan Strait separates mainland China from self-governed and democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold — by force if necessary. The U.S. has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010. China has grown suspicious of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, along with any push for the island’s formal independence. Xi said in January that Beijing reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, but would strive to achieve peaceful “reunification.” Beijing has called Taiwan “the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations” and has bolstered its military presence near the island, sailing its sole operating aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait in January and March of last year and holding large-scale “encirclement” exercises and bomber training throughout last year and into this year. In an editorial published late Sunday, ahead of the U.S. warships’ passage through the strait, the state-run Global Times even urged a build-up of China’s nuclear arsenal as a means of deterring the United States from conducting operations near Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. 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. “Chinese people should be clear that US’ arrogant strategy toward China mainly lies in the difference of magnitude between US’ and China’s strategic nuclear force,” the nationalist tabloid wrote in the editorial. “If China’s nuclear warheads were in the thousands, the US will never conduct such frivolous ‘free navigation’ in the South China Sea and its moves in the Taiwan Straits would be more restrained. “We believe China should boost its scale and quality of its strategic nuclear force,” it went on. “The more urgent security situation of China allows of no delay of such a mission and other considerations should give way.” Experts say that while the tabloid is not an authoritative mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, it is often seen as a testing ground for possible future debates.
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china;u.s .;taiwan;military
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jp0002849
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Bangladesh jails three Rohingya extremists busted with bomb-making materials for 10 years
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DHAKA - A Bangladesh court Sunday sentenced three Rohingya extremists of a now defunct militant group to 10 years in jail for possessing bomb-making materials, a prosecutor said. The trio were arrested in 2014 in Dhaka with materials to be used for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs), said Salahuddin Howlader, a prosecutor at the Metropolitan Special Tribunal in the capital. They were found guilty and sentenced immediately under the country’s explosives laws, the prosecutor said, adding one of them was sentenced in absentia as he was on the run. “They were involved with several international militant outfits including the RSO,” he told AFP, referring to the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, a small militant group that was active in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in the 1980s and 1990s. Local media, citing the police charge-sheet on the case, said the three men were suspects in the 2014 Burdwan blast in the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal that killed at least two people and wounded several while they were allegedly making IEDs. “The charge-sheet read the accused admitted planning sabotage in Bangladesh with the assistance of international Islamist extremist outfits,” the online edition of the mass circulation Bengali daily Prothom Alo said. In recent years, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army has emerged as the main Rohingya militant group operating in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state that borders Bangladesh’s southeast. In August 2017, ARSA attacked several police posts in Rakhine prompting a massive military crackdown that forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, where they are housed in squalid refugee camps. The refugees joined some 300,000 Rohingya who have been living in the camps for years and even decades. Bangladeshi security officials say no extremist groups such as ARSA or RSO operate in the camps, but this week the International Crisis Group said militants were increasing their grip on the settlements and were responsible for the murder of at least one Rohingya camp leader. The conflict research group has urged Bangladesh to step up its police presence in the camps, saying gangs and extremist groups were now operating openly in the settlements. Threats from extremists had left Rohingya leaders fearful for their lives and frequent murders were rarely investigated, the group said. Bangladesh police said the creation of seven new police posts, the deployment of armed officers and better intelligence had improved security.
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conflict;courts;terrorism;myanmar;prison;refugees;bangladesh;ethnicity;rohingya
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jp0002850
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Singapore activist fined for Facebook post critical of courts
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SINGAPORE - A Singaporean activist on Monday was fined for questioning the independence of the judiciary on Facebook, the latest case to highlight what critics say is the country’s heavy-handed approach toward dissent. While it is wealthy and modern in many ways, tightly controlled Singapore is regularly criticized by rights groups for restricting freedom of expression with tough laws. In the latest case, activist Jolovan Wham was found guilty in October of contempt of court for posting on Facebook that Singapore’s judiciary lacked integrity and independence in cases involving the government or politicians. On Monday, High Court Judge Woo Bih Li sentenced him to a fine of 5,000 Singaporean dollars ($3,674) or a one-week jail term if he fails to pay. He was also ordered to pay more than SG$7,000 in legal and other costs. State prosecutors had asked for a fine up to three times higher, with a maximum three weeks in jail if he failed to pay. Wham, who is also an advocate for migrant workers’ rights, said he will appeal the conviction and sentence. “It’s not over yet,” the 39-year-old said. The judge said Wham “did not show any remorse” even after conviction, but did not agree to a request from prosecutors for the court to order him to apologize and remove the post. It was Wham’s latest run-in with the authorities. In February, he was fined SG$3,200 for organizing an illegal public discussion that featured prominent Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong speaking via Skype. He is also appealing that ruling. His cases are among several that have alarmed rights groups. In December, the editor of a Singaporean website was charged with defamation for publishing a letter alleging corruption among the country’s leaders. The same month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sued a blogger for defamation after he shared an article on Facebook linking the leader to a corruption scandal in neighboring Malaysia. Lee said the article was false and without basis.
|
censorship;courts;singapore;rights
|
jp0002852
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Abe and Canada's Justin Trudeau look to rule of law in resolving dispute over Huawei
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OTTAWA - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau to seek the rule of law in resolving international issues, including China’s arrest of two Canadian citizens. Beijing has detained the pair since December on allegations of harming national security. Their detention followed Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou — chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. — at the request of the United States, which has accused her of helping the company evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. During a meeting Sunday in the Canadian capital, Trudeau voiced his concern to Abe. The two agreed to request that China play a constructive role in the international community, Japanese officials said. Japan is hosting the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June, where Trudeau is likely to join other leaders — including Chinese President Xi Jinping — to discuss issues ranging from free trade for economic growth to empowering women and tackling marine plastic debris. Huawei, a leader in next-generation 5G mobile communications networks, this year filed a lawsuit with a federal district court in Texas against the U.S. government. The arrest of Meng, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, came as Washington was pressing allies, including Japan, to exclude the company from government contracts due to fears its products may facilitate spying and disrupt communications networks. The two leaders also touted the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that U.S. President Donald Trump walked away from and said the pact should serve as a model for future agreements. The landmark 11-country deal, now formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), is a revamped version of the TPP. The deal, which took force last December, does not include the United States, which pulled out of talks on the initial TPP in 2017. Trudeau said exports of some beef products from Canada to Japan have increased nearly threefold under the CPTPP. “(This deal) has benefited tremendously Canadian citizens, Japanese citizens and businesses and indeed people throughout the region,” he told a news conference after meeting with Abe. “(That) stands in stark contrast with the United States withdrawal … continuing to move forward on freer more open trade, according to the rules we can all agree on, is something we need more in the world,” he said. Trump, whose administration is working on a bilateral trade deal with Japan, said Friday after meeting Abe that an agreement could be reached next month. Both men, however, made clear they differed in some areas, with Trump citing Japanese tariffs on American agricultural products and Abe bringing up U.S. tariffs on Japanese autos. Abe said the CPTPP “should be a model going forward,” describing it as a meaningful way “to disseminate a 21st century type of free and fair rules-based (trade).” Abe told the news conference that Canada and Japan will work to expand the number of nations covered by the CPTPP. On global trade, Abe said that “it is essential to reform (the World Trade Organization) to ensure it works to settle disputes.” On Friday, Japan denounced a recent WTO ruling that supported a South Korean ban on imports of some Japanese fishery products in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Tokyo said the ruling was not based on scientific evidence. Other WTO members, Abe said, have also raised questions about the ruling. Abe and Trudeau agreed to maintain U.N. sanctions against North Korea to achieve Pyongyang’s denuclearization, the Japanese officials said. Trudeau expressed support for Abe’s efforts to address the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
|
shinzo abe;osaka;trade;g20;canada-japan relations;justin trudeau;huawai
|
jp0002853
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Thai students learn art of wooden architecture in Japanese village
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TONDABAYASHI, OSAKA PREF. - A community in Nara Prefecture has taken five Thai college students under its wing, training them in wooden architecture as the Southeast Asian country hopes to put such structures back on the map. The village of Mitsue aims to revive its aging forestry industry through a plan to export model homes using local timber to Thailand, where wooden architecture is disappearing. About 90 percent of Mitsue is forested land and it once had a thriving timber industry. But due to a prolonged slump in timber prices and depopulation, the village was forced into seeking alternative ways to make use of its abundant natural resources. The idea was hatched when the village reached out to professor Shin Murakami of Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Aichi Prefecture to help come up with a town renewal project. Murakami had been conducting joint research with Bangkok’s Sripatum University on environmentally friendly wooden architecture. The decline of timber as a building material in Thailand is mostly due to a lack of good quality teak wood and an overabundance of coarse timber, which is easily infested by termites that thrive in the country’s tropical climate. Most buildings in Thailand are now made of reinforced concrete, and the culture of wooden architecture has not been properly handed down through generations due to a lack of technology to support the industry, according to the project website. Based on Murakami’s suggestion to export model homes using Matsue timber, the three parties signed an agreement to collaborate on the project focusing on popularizing wooden architecture in Thailand. The five Thai students study architecture at Sripatum University. Their three months of training that started in March includes learning about the designs of stilt houses for Thailand, as well as gaining an understanding about construction processes through observation. Oros Loasantisuk, 26, one of the five students in the program and an aspiring architect, touted the advantages of the village’s hands-on practical approach. “The designs of wooden architecture may differ from country to country, but wood is environmentally friendly,” Oros said. “We hope they learn about the brilliance of wooden architecture, Japan’s high technology and the high quality of housing here,” said Takefumi Nakako, who works in Matsue’s community development department. “We’d be happy if (the experience) leads to the spread of wooden architecture in Thailand.”
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osaka;thailand;architecture;environment;students
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jp0002854
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/29
|
In pictures: The Imperial Couple
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Emperor Akihito, who will abdicate Tuesday, has reigned for three decades from 1989 through the Heisei Era as a “symbol of the state and of the unity of the people” with Empress Michiko at his side. The Imperial Couple have made it their mission to stand beside the Japanese people, visiting disaster shelters and evacuation centers to comfort victims. They have also worked to heal past wounds — a top priority of the couple — visiting World War II battlegrounds at home and abroad to mourn those who died in the conflict Japan fought in the name of the Emperor’s father. The Emperor was born on Dec. 23, 1933, the eldest son of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako, who are known posthumously as Emperor Showa and Empress Kojun, respectively. In April 1959, the Emperor married Michiko Shoda, the first commoner ever to wed an heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The Emperor nurtured the image of a new Imperial family to which the public, still recovering from the war, could better relate. At 85 years old, he will now pass the torch to his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, who is expected to carry on his father’s mission after he ascends the throne on Wednesday, kicking off the Reiwa Era. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visit an evacuation shelter for victims of the March 2011 earthquake-triggered tsunami in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, in May 2011. | KYODO Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko offer prayers to victims of the 1944 Battle of Saipan at ‘Banzai Cliff’ at the northern end of Saipan on June 28, 2005. The cliff was named after the cry ‘Tenno Heika, banzai’ (‘Long live the Emperor’) that the Japanese shouted before throwing themselves over the edge. | POOL / VIA KYODO U.S. President Barack Obama and Emperor Akihito toast during a banquet at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on April 24, 2014. | POOL / VIA KYODO Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are surrounded by their children and grandchildren in a family photo at the Imperial Palace on Dec. 3. | IMPERIAL HOUSEHOLD AGENCY / VIA KYODO Emperor Akihito pledges to observe the Constitution during the ceremonies marking his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne on Nov. 12, 1990. | REUTERS Chinese President Yang Shangkun leads Emperor Akihito as they review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony outside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Oct. 23, 1992. The Japanese government saw the Emperor’s visit to China as an opportunity to heal wounds left by Japan’s wartime aggression. | AP Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko parade through Tokyo on April 10, 1959, after they were married. | KYODO Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, reads a newspaper next to Empress Kojun and Crown Prince Akihito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in this photo taken in the 1950s. | AFP-JIJI Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko dance during a charity event at a Tokyo hotel on April 12, 2013. It was the first time in 20 years that the couple had danced in public. | POOL / VIA KYODO
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royalty;emperor akihito;imperial family;empress michiko;abdication;heisei;imperial change;emperor naruhito
|
jp0002855
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Imperial swindle: Scammers reportedly handing out Japanese flags and then asking for money
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Reports of scammers across Japan taking advantage of the celebratory mood ahead of this week’s Imperial succession have caused a stir on social media. The nation is now in the middle of an unprecedented 10-day Golden Week holiday period, made longer this year after the government designated Wednesday a national holiday to put Japan in a festive mood for the Imperial changeover. After Emperor Akihito abdicates Tuesday, his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, will ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne the following day. But the occasion has apparently become a golden opportunity for con artists trying to make a profit by selling tiny Japanese flags on the streets of major cities, according to reports from social media users who either fell victim to the scam or managed to escape it. It is customary for Hinomaru flags to be displayed during national holidays, and well-wishers wave them when greeting the Emperor at the Imperial Palace. On Thursday, a Twitter user with the handle @makibikeisi warned of an encounter with a foreign man who was trying to hand over a Japanese flag and then showed a card with a message asking for ¥500 in payment. The user, who said the incident occurred in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, refused to pay and managed to get away. “Everyone watch out,” @makibikeisi wrote in a post last Thursday. 【注意】 秋葉から御茶ノ水の間で いきなり日本の国旗を 白人の方に手渡されました 「何ですか？」 と聞いたら小さい紙を見せられ 500円を払って欲しい旨と オリンピック のマークを見せられました 「ノーセンキュー」 と言って返したら捕まれそうになりましたが すり抜けました 皆さん気をつけてね pic.twitter.com/w6y4S4UhpD — まきびけいし🌸スイッピと仲間たち (@makibikeisi) April 25, 2019 In response to the message, which was shared almost 33,000 times, others reported similar experiences. They said the scammers claimed to be hearing-impaired. Some users said they had seen scammers, including women, working in pairs and that they had spotted them in numerous locations around Tokyo and Osaka. In most cases, the individuals tried to trade the flags for money while showing cards with similar messages saying they came to “learn about your culture.” For example, one of them said: “If you pay me ¥500 for the flag I will be able to learn about Japan’s richness.” Some people said they fell victim to the scam. Twitter user @JzglGv wrote: “I bought a flag from that person … It’s the guy who shows you a small card, right?”
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tokyo;osaka;fraud;hinomaru;abdication;police
|
jp0002856
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2019/04/29
|
Japan trade ministry official arrested over alleged attempt to smuggle stimulant
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A 28-year-old trade official has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle a stimulant from the United States, police said Monday. According to the police, Tetsuya Nishida, deputy director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s automobile division, received a dummy package he allegedly believed contained the substance on Saturday at his home in Tokyo. The original package had been intercepted and replaced by investigators, the police said. The career-track bureaucrat denied the allegation, saying he was not aware of the contents of the parcel, according to the police. They claim that the original package arrived in Japan on April 15 and that it contained 22 grams of a stimulant, worth about ¥1.3 million, in a plastic bag stuffed between the pages of a magazine. The package was addressed to another location, but Nishida instructed the postal service to deliver it to his home instead, the police said. “It’s truly regrettable. We will cooperate fully in the investigation,” METI said in a statement after Nishida’s arrest was announced.
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drugs;smuggling;meti;police
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jp0002857
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/29
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Incoming Imperial monarchs offer Japan something new
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Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, represent a lot of firsts for the nation’s next Imperial monarchs: university-educated, multilingual and with years of experience living overseas, during which the monarch-to-be even did his own laundry. As they prepare to carve out identities as emperor and empress, hopes are high they will make the role both more international and more in touch with the lives of ordinary Japanese. “I think there’s opportunities for this newest generation of Imperial family members to embrace causes that push the envelope a little,” said Shihoko Goto, an analyst at the Wilson Center, citing the 55-year-old Crown Princess’ experience as a diplomat. “They have a unique background and they have the interest, I believe, and they should have the skill sets to be more engaged,” she added, noting how far the family has come from World War II, when Emperor Hirohito (posthumously called Emperor Showa), was considered a god. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko reached out to ordinary people, especially to comfort them after disasters. The impending abdication of the Emperor, the first in nearly 200 years, sparked discussion about whether that was the correct way to approach the role. “There were clearly two views. One, that, like Akihito, the emperor must be active and interact with people, and the other, that all he needs to do is pray,” said a former official of the Imperial Household Agency. “But considering the future, I don’t think we have both options. An emperor who simply exists would not gain the trust and empathy of the people.” Though the Crown Prince, 59, intends to carry on his parents’ work, he also says the monarchy needs to adapt. Observers said that could mean speaking up and reaching out more, leveraging the family’s value as part of Japan’s identity. “Given these times, the Imperial family should use things like social networking to express their opinions to a certain degree,” said Rika Kayama, a psychiatrist and author of a book on the Imperial women. “If not words, then photos on Instagram,” she added, noting that the Crown Prince has posed for selfies with bystanders overseas and that the Crown Princess in particular may have things she wants to express. The Crown Princess’ long struggle with what palace officials term an “adjustment disorder” is on everybody’s mind, especially because it kept her out of the public eye for roughly a decade. By contrast, the Empress is often termed “flawless” in her dedication. “When Masako visits disaster victims, they’ll feel she’s gone through hard times, like them,” said Hideya Kawanishi, assistant history professor at Nagoya University. “More than the sense of gratitude they have with Empress Michiko, it’ll be a sense of empathy. She’ll seem closer.” The Crown Princess’ frequent expressions in birthday messages of concern for impoverished or troubled children suggest those are likely to be causes she will pursue. The Crown Prince, who studied medieval river transport, is interested in water issues and conservation, and has hinted he may take up climate change as well. “It plays to his interests, also the national interest, and a cross-border interest too. There are many issues like that … they have a unique platform they could really use,” Goto said. “Things like the environment, or reaching across borders for greater understanding and dialogue at a time when the world is becoming myopic and insular.” Patience will be needed in change-averse Japan, however. “Even the current Emperor and Empress came in for lots of criticism at the start — for example, when Michiko got on her knees to console people and took their hands, she was criticized for ‘damaging the authority of the Emperor,'” Kawanishi said. “So they’ll move gradually to put their imprint on things. They’ll change something, wait, then change again.”
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royalty;emperor akihito;imperial family;empress michiko;abdication;emperor naruhito;empress masako
|
jp0002859
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
U.S. waiver concern sees Iranian oil buyers put imports on hold
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SINGAPORE/BEIJING - The biggest buyers of Iranian oil are reportedly putting their purchases on hold as they wait to see whether the White House will extend waivers allowing them to keep buying the crude. Most Asian buyers are avoiding imports for next month as it’s unclear what will happen to the exemptions that are set to expire in the first week of May, according to sources with knowledge of that matter. Even if the waivers are extended, it would be too late to order and receive cargoes for the month, they said. Washington’s surprise decision last year to allow eight nations to keep buying Iranian oil was a big contributor to the plunge in crude prices in the fourth quarter. While the White House appears keen to keep the pressure on the Persian Gulf nation, analysts have speculated that preventing further gains in oil prices is a bigger priority for U.S. President Donald Trump. Given that crude has recovered strongly this year, this suggests that at least some of the waivers may be extended. At least five refiners in South Korea, Japan and China are not planning to import Iranian crude and condensate loading in May, the sources said. Some Korean and Japanese processors have already bought alternative cargoes for the period, while Iran is being flexible with its customers on timing, they said. Iranian shipments take over 20 days to reach East Asia, meaning there won’t be enough time for the cargoes to load and arrive during the same month. India, on the other hand, may take some shipments next month if the waivers are extended because shipping time from Iran is only about a week, the sources said. The South Asian nation was already in discussions for an extension of the waiver and the country’s processors are allowed to import 9 million barrels of Iranian oil every month under the 180-day exemption.
|
china;u.s .;oil;iran;south korea;donald trump
|
jp0002860
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Carlos Ghosn improperly charged Renault for €3,000 scooter, sources allege
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PARIS - Carlos Ghosn improperly charged Renault SA for a €3,000 (¥380,000) scooter, according to sources familiar with the matter, in the latest allegation by the carmaker against its jailed former chairman. The two-wheeler was retrieved by Renault from its headquarters near Paris after company auditors questioned whether Ghosn was entitled to the benefit as part of his compensation, said one of the sources, who declined to be named because the details aren’t public. The scooter was purchased in 2018, the source said. A spokesman for Renault declined comment, as did Ghosn’s lawyer in Paris, Jean-Yves Le Borgne. A spokeswoman for the Ghosn family couldn’t be reached for immediate comment. Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo in November on allegations of financial misconduct at Nissan Motor Co. He has denied the charges. Ghosn’s legal woes have cast a spotlight on his lavish lifestyle that included use of luxury homes in four countries, a corporate jet and a Marie Antoinette-themed wedding party at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris. The scooter is a relatively small expense for Renault compared with Ghosn’s €7.4 million pay package in 2017 and other details revealed by the carmaker from its investigation. Earlier this month, Renault said Ghosn made questionable payments to a distributor in the Middle East and an outside lawyer, and it raised concerns about expenses of several million euros by RNBV, a holding company also headed by Ghosn.
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nissan;renault;carlos ghosn;scooter
|
jp0002861
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
U.S. slaps sanctions on alleged new Islamic State financiers
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WASHINGTON - The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on financiers with bases in Belgium, Kenya and Turkey on charges they funneled money internationally for the Islamic State extremist group. The Treasury Department said it had pinpointed successors to Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, who was killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike in Syria in 2017 after allegedly sending millions of dollars earmarked for the jihadis. The United States imposed sanctions on seven people, including Mushtaq Talib Zughayr al-Rawi, who as of late 2018 was living with his family in Belgium, according to the Treasury Department. Forces seized evidence during a raid on the Islamic State group last year that showed Mushtaq was helping fund them by exploiting the Iraqi government’s electronic payment machines designed to distribute payments to public employees and retirees, the Treasury Department said. “Treasury is dedicated to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS by cutting off all remaining sources of their terror funding around the globe,” said Sigal Mandelker, the department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Rawi’s network dates from the 1990s in Iraq, when it used the region’s hawala system, the informal network of money transfers conducted through face-to-face guarantees, to evade biting international sanctions on the country then ruled by Saddam Hussein. The Treasury Department also sanctioned a money exchange company, Al-Ard Al-Jadidah, said to connect Iraq’s hawalas with the northern Turkish city of Samsun. An Islamic State member in Iraq allegedly received $1 million through the exchange last year, it said. Also targeted in the latest sanctions was Kenya-based Halima Adan Ali, who the Treasury Department said was part of a network that moved more than $150,000 through the hawala system to Islamic State fighters in Syria, Libya and central Africa. She has been arrested twice by Kenyan authorities and also served as a recruiter for Somalia’s al-Shabab militants, according to the Treasury Department. With the announcement, the United States will seize any assets it finds that belong to the sanctioned individuals and bar any Americans from financial dealings with them.
|
u.s .;sanctions;islamic state;fawaz muhammad jubayr al-rawi
|
jp0002862
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Boeing under pressure amid scrubbed flights and Trump tweets to rebrand
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NEW YORK - Boeing faces a wave of flight cancellations by U.S. airlines and pressure from President Donald Trump to rebrand its top-selling 737 Max aircraft, a month after the plane was grounded worldwide in the wake of deadly crashes. American and Southwest Airlines say the grounding will disrupt scheduled flights through the summer, during the peak travel season which helps generate corporate profits. American is canceling all 737 Max flights through August 19 while Southwest, which owns the largest 737 Max fleet, with 34 planes, is canceling them until August 5. United Airlines, which also ordered the 737 Max 9, did not respond to an AFP query. In all, an average of 275 flights a day will be canceled, which are likely to put a dent in airline profits and could cause the companies to raise airfares. American already cut a key industry revenue metric — Total Revenue per Available Seat-Mile, or TRASM — saying it will rise one percent in 2019, down from a prior estimate of 2 percent. Southwest is allowing affected passengers to reschedule flights at no additional cost. “Neither Airbus nor Boeing like cancellations and there are stiff contracts which make this very difficult,” said Scott Hamilton, managing editor of the aviation news site Leeham News and Analysis. “The companies will swap airplane types, however, if it comes to this.” All 737 Max aircraft have been banned from the world’s skies since mid-March after suffering two fatal crashes less than five months apart: a Lion Air flight crashed in the Java Sea in October, leaving 189 dead, and the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10, which killed 157 people. Crash investigators have zeroed in on the planes’ anti-stall system, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. And Boeing, which has already ceased 737 Max deliveries and slowed the pace of production, a buildup of delays could increase the penalties it must pay client airlines, Hamilton said. Trump tweeted early Monday that Boeing had to give its scandal-stricken aircraft a new image. “What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name,” he said. But Hamilton said Trump was right to doubt his own expertise. “Trump is a boob. Boeing isn’t going to rebrand the 737,” Hamilton said, pointing to Boeing’s log of more than 4,600 back orders, a key sales revenue driver, and adding that the order cancellations so far were “inconsequential.” Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group agreed. “Pretty much all of President Trump’s pronouncements on aviation are safely and best ignored,” he said. Boeing is finalizing software upgrades for the MCAS, which it has pledged to submit to regulators in the coming weeks so that the 737 Max grounding order can be lifted. “We’re focused on testing and implementing the software update and rebuilding the trust of our airline customers, pilots and the traveling public,” a spokesperson told AFP. “We know we have a deep responsibility to everyone who flies on our airplanes to ensure that the Max is one of the safest aircraft ever to fly.” Rebranding the aircraft would impose additional costs on the airlines which would be required to fully retrain pilots, while an updated model involves less intense additional training. Flight cancellations show the airlines, that had hoped to have the planes back in the air by May, now expect it will be longer before the aircraft can return to service. Aviation analysts largely agree and expect the grounding to be lifted by the end of August. In the meantime, the industry is working to regain the trust of the flying public. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which must certify the 737 Max’s airworthiness, released a video last week in which its interim chief Daniel Elwell said the agency was working to keep pilots informed. The FAA also said the agency would not rush to get the 737 Max flying again.
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airlines;boeing;american airlines;ethiopian airlines;southwest airlines;donald trump;737 max;lion air;air accidents
|
jp0002863
|
[
"business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan and U.S. kick off first day of trade talks with focus on cutting tariffs on goods
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WASHINGTON - Japan and the United States agreed Monday to focus mainly on tariffs on goods such as agricultural and industrial products as they started negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement, according to economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi. Speaking to reporters after the first day of a two-day meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington, Motegi signaled his opposition to the potential inclusion of a currency provision in any trade deal. He said currency matters should be handled by the respective finance ministers. Motegi said he and Lighthizer affirmed they will conduct negotiations in line with an agreement struck between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Donald Trump last September. The agreement said the two governments “will enter into negotiations … for a Japan-United States trade agreement on goods, as well as on other key areas including services, that can produce early achievements.” During three hours of talks Monday, Motegi said he mainly discussed goods trade with Lighthizer, and that he also discussed how negotiations could progress. “I think we have come to see some priority areas for discussions going forward through our talks today,” Motegi said, without elaborating. A statement issued by Abe and Trump last Sept. 26 indicated Washington would not demand deeper farm tariff cuts than levels Japan has agreed in other trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership — the regional free trade agreement from which Trump withdrew the United States in 2017 — and its FTA with the European Union. The first round of Japan-U.S. trade negotiations came as American agriculture lobbies have stepped up calls on the Trump administration to take swift measures to increase access to the Japanese market. A revised TPP — an 11-member FTA including Japan and farming nations such as Australia and Canada — as well as a Japan-EU FTA have put American farmers and ranchers at a disadvantage. While Japan has said the two governments aim for a trade agreement on goods only, the United States has called for a comprehensive pact that would cover a range of areas such as goods, services, investment and currency. Motegi and Lighthizer will continue talks Tuesday in an effort to determine the scope of their future negotiations. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday that any agreement with Japan would include a requirement to refrain from manipulating currencies to gain an advantage in international trade. In a summary of negotiating objectives for bilateral talks with Japan, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in December that the Trump administration would push for reducing or eliminating tariffs on U.S. agricultural imports, and to address nontariff barriers in the automobile sector. The U.S. will also seek to include trade in services such as telecommunications and financial services in a trade deal. Trump regards automobiles as a symbol of the trade imbalance with Tokyo, because automobiles and auto parts accounted for about 75 percent of the U.S. deficit with Japan as of 2017.
|
tpp;trade;toshimitsu motegi;u.s.-japan relations;robert lighthizer
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jp0002864
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Foreign Minister Taro Kono asks U.K. counterpart Jeremy Hunt to ensure a smooth Brexit
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In a meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed a “strong hope” that Britain will make a smooth exit from the European Union and avoid a “no deal” Brexit. Because the recent impasse over Brexit has led to the postponement of bilateral ministerial security talks that were originally slated for April, Kono and Hunt agreed to set a new schedule for the “two-plus-two” meeting at an early date, the Foreign Ministry said. In their second face-to-face meeting in a month, Kono welcomed that a no-deal Brexit has been avoided “for the time being,” after the U.K. and the other 27 EU members agreed last week to extend the exit deadline from April 12 to Oct. 31. But Kono also asked Hunt to minimize the negative impact of Brexit on Japanese companies and the world economy. Hunt was quoted by the ministry as telling Kono that the U.K. is determined to avoid leaving the EU without an agreement, which could disrupt business activities. On Monday, Hunt reassured Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that a no-deal departure would be unlikely, and asked Toyota Motor Corp. Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa to continue production in the U.K. even after Brexit, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The Japanese automaker is reportedly considering the possibility of withdrawing from production in Britain to prepare for a possible no-deal Brexit. Toyota, Nissan Motor Co., and Honda Motor Co. are among the Japanese manufacturers that have production plants in the U.K. Honda has announced it will close its Swindon factory in England in 2021, in the latest example of Japanese firms reviewing their business strategies to cope with uncertainty over Brexit. During a meeting in Tokyo on Monday, Hayakawa reportedly called on Hunt to avoid an exit by the U.K. without an agreement. According to sources, Hayakawa is believed to have expressed concern that if a no-deal Brexit becomes reality, the introduction of high tariffs between the U.K. and the EU would make it difficult for Toyota to continue operations in the country. Hayakawa is also believed to have asked the U.K. to pay due consideration to Toyota’s management. According to Toyota, the meeting was held at the request of the U.K. government. Toyota produces engines and finished vehicles at a British plant with parts and components procured from the EU and other places, and exports them to the EU and other destinations.
|
eu;u.k .;toyota;taro kono;brexit;jeremy hunt
|
jp0002865
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Asian Development Bank chief says Japan-backed lender will continue loans to China
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The Asian Development Bank will keep lending billions of dollars to China, taking a different stance from the World Bank and its plans to reduce loans to the world’s second-biggest economy, the ADB chief said. “We don’t intend to significantly cut the amount of lending to China,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said during an interview with media outlets in Tokyo on Monday. “We will keep the current level (to finance projects) related to climate change and those that will positively affect neighboring countries.” Last year China borrowed about $2.6 billion from the Japan-backed ADB, the Manila-based development bank, making it the second-biggest borrower after India. Yet China is now a major economy and has also been reportedly lending billions of dollars to other developing countries for its “Belt and Road” initiative. Whether China should continue to depend on loans from the World Bank, which focuses on middle- and low-income nations, has been a hot topic at the bank where the U.S. boasts the most voting power. Last year, its shareholders agreed to slash the amount in coming years. Moreover, starting this month, the World Bank has a new chief backed by U.S. President Donald Trump: David Malpass, a former senior U.S. Treasury official and advocate of cutting loans to China. The World Bank lent about $2.4 billion to China in 2017 and $1.8 billion in 2018. Nakao said the ADB’s stance is a bit different from the World Bank, saying income from Chinese loans helps poorer nations borrow at lower interest rates while it diversifies the bank’s portfolio. “In that sense, the lending to China benefits the bank and other countries,” he said, adding it also contributes to maintaining ties with China. Regarding U.S.-China relations, the world has been keenly watching how their trade friction will affect other communities. The ADB estimated last year that if tariffs were imposed on all traded goods between the two nations, Chinese gross domestic product would fall 1 percentage point while U.S. GDP would decline 0.2 percentage point. For now the impact seems limited, but Nakao said further damage to consumer and investor sentiment might more seriously hamper growth in other regions. As for Asia’s growth outlook, the ADB projects that it will slow down to 5.7 percent from 5.9 percent in 2018 and 6.2 percent in 2017. However, Nakao is optimistic about the region’s economy, saying it is still “solid” with developing territories, excluding Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, expected to stay above 6 percent this year and next year. Nakao also stressed the bank’s plan to boost commitment to climate change-related projects, saying the ADB wants at least 75 percent of its three-year rolling financing projects to help such initiatives by 2030, from 52 percent between 2016 and 2018.
|
china;india;singapore;asian development bank;world bank
|
jp0002866
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Dollar almost flat around ¥111.90 in Tokyo
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The dollar was almost flat around ¥111.90 in Tokyo trading Tuesday as investors retreated to the sidelines to see the outcome of trade talks between Japan and the United States. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.89-89, slightly down from ¥111.91-91 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1310-1310, down from $1.1316-1316, and at ¥126.55-55, down from ¥126.63-68. The dollar topped ¥112 in the wake of the Nikkei 225 stock average’s upturn after a weak start. But a wait-and-see mood spread later, forcing the dollar to move in a tight range between ¥111.90 and ¥112. In late hours, the greenback eased below ¥111.90 on selling induced by a drop in U.S. long-term interest rates in off-hours trading, traders said. “Anxious about the trade talks, players held active transactions in check,” an asset management firm official said. After the first day of talks with his U.S. counterpart on Monday, economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi told a news conference that he will brief reporters on results of discussions on specific matters, such as vehicle trade and currency, on Tuesday.
|
forex;currencies
|
jp0002867
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Nikkei extends gains, lifted by heavyweight components
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The Nikkei 225 average extended its winning streak to a fourth session Tuesday, boosted by brisk purchases of only a few heavily weighted component issues. The benchmark index added 52.55 points, or 0.24 percent, to end at 22,221.66, after surging 298.55 points Monday. But the Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, finished 1.47 points, or 0.09 percent, lower at 1,626.46. It jumped 22.53 points Monday. The market got off to a weak start following an overnight drop in U.S. equities. Stocks also met with selling to lock in profits, brokers said. But after the initial wave of selling subsided, both indexes returned to the sunny side, with the Nikkei remaining higher for the rest of the session. Meanwhile the Topix bowed to selling later in the morning and failed to gather steam until the day’s closing. The Nikkei’s buoyancy owed thanks to the popularity of closing store chain Fast Retailing, technology investor SoftBank Group and mobile phone carrier KDDI, all heavily weighted Nikkei components. The three issues pushed the Nikkei higher by over 90 points, brokers said. Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co., said the market’s upside was limited as investors were “sitting on the fences” to wait for the outcome of Japan-U.S. trade talks in Washington through Tuesday. A major brokerage house official forecast that a solid market would continue, pointing to a pickup in market sentiment due partly to a rosier outlook for the Chinese economy. “The Nikkei will likely consolidate at levels above 22,000 for the time being,” the official said. Despite the continued rise in the key market gauge, losers outnumbered winners 1,346 to 698 in the first section, while 97 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.050 billion shares from 1.225 billion Monday. KDDI shot up 5.85 percent and SoftBank Group 3.5 percent. The other major mobile phone carrier, NTT Docomo, jumped 3.56 percent. Investors actively bought them back cheering Docomo’s announcement Monday of cuts in mobile communications service fees by up to 40 percent. Fast Retailing went up 2.32 percent to extend its winning streak to an eighth session. Among other winners were technology giant Sony and pharmaceutical firm Shionogi. By contrast, oils, including Idemitsu, Cosmo energy and JXTG, met with selling. Cybermall operator Rakuten, which is set to enter into mobile phone business, was downbeat following Docomo’s markdown announcement. Also on the shady side were factory automation equipment maker Keyence and optical equipment producer Olympus.
|
stocks;nikkei;tse;topix
|
jp0002868
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Mitsubishi Fuso recalls 40,000 vehicles due to engine trouble
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Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. informed the transport ministry Tuesday it will recall 40,316 vehicles due to fears over potential engine trouble. The recall affects five models, including the Super Great truck, produced between March 2010 and August 2017. According to the ministry, Mitsubishi Fuso outlined faulty recommendations for engine oil change intervals that could lead to oil deterioration. As a result, the oil filter could clog with soot, causing the engine rotation speed to rise and leading to damage. A total of 240 cases of defects have been reported, including a June 2017 incident in which a Super Great caught fire while traveling in Okayama. An incident involving a vehicle catching fire occurred in Toyama Prefecture in February. No injuries were reported in connection with either incident. In addition to the Super Great, the models covered by the recall are the Aero Ace and Aero Queen buses, as well as the Space Arrow A and Space Wing A buses manufactured on behalf of UD Trucks Corp. The three in-house models were targets of a recall involving 12,125 vehicles in March.
|
automakers;recalls;mitsubishi fuso
|
jp0002869
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Toyota unveils first electric SUVs at Shanghai motor show
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SHANGHAI - Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday unveiled the first two electric SUV models it plans to mass market in China as a major auto show got underway in Shanghai showcasing the newest vehicles by the world’s automakers. China is the largest auto market on Earth, but vehicle demand has grown sluggish due to a slowdown in the Chinese economy, intensifying the race among carmakers to develop models attractive to Chinese drivers. Toyota will begin selling the electrified C-HR and IZOA models in 2020. Executive Vice President Moritaka Yoshida said they represent the first in the Japanese automaker’s plan to roll out more than 10 EV models globally by the first half of the 2020s. At Auto Shanghai 2019, which was open to the media Tuesday, rival Nissan Motor Co. debuted a new model of the Sylphy compact sedan. China saw roughly 28.08 million new cars sold in 2018, the first drop in 28 years. The Chinese government has been promoting electric and other environmentally friendly vehicles, spurring intense competition among automakers to develop models that can beat out gasoline-powered vehicles in the vast market. The auto show will be open to the public from Saturday to April 25. Meanwhile, Toyota plans to sell electric vehicle technology to Chinese EV startup Singulato Motors, sources close to the matter said Monday. Shanghai-based Singulato, set up in 2014, is considered promising in the crowded Chinese EV industry. The deal is expected to be announced at the Shanghai auto show. Toyota said last week it has allowed royalty-free access to nearly 24,000 patents related to electrification technology, seeking to become a “supplier” of low-emission technology as the industry adopts stricter emissions regulations. It hopes that opening up its technology to other companies will enlarge the global market for electric vehicles, in particular gasoline-electric hybrids, a field the Japanese auto giant leads with its Prius vehicles that were first released in 1997.
|
shanghai;toyota motor;motor show;suv;ev
|
jp0002870
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Nissan sales chief latest to quit after arrest of ex-boss Carlos Ghosn
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Nissan Motor Co.’s global sales chief is expected to resign soon, the latest executive to quit following the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, a source close to the matter said Tuesday. The resignation of Executive Vice President Daniele Schillaci, also in charge of electric vehicles strategy, could deal a blow to the automaker as it seeks to rebuild after the November arrest and ouster of Ghosn as chairman over alleged financial misconduct. Schillaci, who is believed to have already told his bosses about his intention to resign, is expected to leave after taking part in the Shanghai motor show running through April 25 and before Nissan’s ordinary general shareholders meeting in June, the source said. Nissan declined to comment. Schillaci was recruited by Ghosn to join Nissan as executive vice president from Toyota Motor Corp. in 2015. In 2017, he also became the chief official overseeing operations in Asia and Oceania. Although the reason of his resignation remains unclear, he may have wanted to avoid being involved in the turmoil following the arrest of Ghosn, the once-feted auto tycoon who led Nissan for nearly two decades after saving it from the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s. Jose Munoz, Nissan’s former executive in charge of the key Chinese market, resigned in January. He was regarded as being close to Ghosn. Arun Bajaj, former senior vice president in charge of human resources who was targeted in Nissan’s in-house investigation of Ghosn’s alleged financial misdeeds, stepped down in March. Board member Toshiyuki Shiga, former chief operating officer who was seen as Ghosn’s right-hand man, has said he will resign at the June shareholders meeting.
|
corruption;scandals;nissan;carmakers;carlos ghosn
|
jp0002871
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan's NTT looks to set up new firm in London despite Brexit risks
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LONDON - NTT Corp. is planning to set up a new company in London to manage the group’s overseas operations, according to a source close to the matter, despite risks posed by the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union. The telecommunications giant will integrate its affiliate Dimension Data Holdings PLC and the overseas business of NTT Communications Corp. to establish the new firm in July, judging that the city will remain a hub of talent and information, the source said Monday. Jason Goodall, group CEO at Dimension Data, is expected to take the helm of the new company, the source said. NTT is looking to strengthen its overseas business amid its shrinking domestic market. Uncertainty over Brexit has already led some major Japanese firms to reduce investment in Britain or transfer their European bases to other EU countries due to fears they could face higher trade barriers for access to the bloc’s market. Nissan Motor Co. said in February it was canceling a plan to produce the new model of the X-Trail sport utility vehicle in Britain, while Honda Motor Co. followed with an announcement that it was closing its British plant in 2021. Toyota Motor Corp. has also hinted that it could end production in the country around 2023 if the U.K. leaves the European Union without a trade deal.
|
u.k .;ntt
|
jp0002872
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2019/04/16
|
South Korea conglomerate to sell Asiana Airlines
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SEOUL - A major South Korean conglomerate has decided to sell its controlling stake in Asiana Airlines Inc., the country’s second-largest carrier. Kumho Industrial Co.’s decision to effectively put the carrier up for sale came after Kumho Asiana Group’s former chairman, Park Sam Koo of the founding family, stepped down in March over accounting issues at the heavily indebted group. The conglomerate holds a 33.47 percent stake in the airline. The buyer has not yet been identified, but media reports say multiple South Korean conglomerates could be among the potential candidates to purchase the stake. “We’ve come to a conclusion that selling Asiana Airlines would be the best way to recover trust from the market,” the group said in a statement Monday. Trading in Asiana Airlines shares was suspended between March 22 and 25 after an auditing company failed to sign off on financial statements submitted by the carrier March 22, according to local media.
|
acquisitions;asiana airlines;kumho industrial co .
|
jp0002873
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Extinction Rebellion at forefront of shift toward nonviolent civil disobedience to fight climate change
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PARIS - Playing the role of a riot cop dispersing a peaceful but illegal sit-in on the steps of France’s National Assembly, Axel struggled to dislodge a woman whose arms and legs were enmeshed in a Gordian knot of activists. It was like trying to pull a limpet off a rock — he couldn’t get a grip. Welcome to Non-Violent Civil Disobedience 101, a one-day basic training for people who have decided they may need to break the law to further a good cause. For most of the 55 people attending a course in Paris on Saturday, the driving concern was climate change and the gathering pace at which Earth’s species are disappearing. Since October, the world has seen a crescendo of grassroots protests around these issues, especially in Western Europe and North America. High school students in a dozen countries have poured into the streets every Friday to raise the alarm about their climate-blighted futures, a movement inspired by 16-year-old Swedish wunderkind Greta Thunberg. On Monday, a loosely knit but well-organized group called Extinction Rebellion, born in Britain, launched a week-long campaign in major cities worldwide, vowing to “bring London to a standstill” by blocking traffic at Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and other iconic locations. XR, as the group is known, looked to historic examples of civil disobedience — the U.S. civil rights movement, the push for Indian independence — for inspiration. What triggered the sudden uptick in climate activism is unclear, but several participants in the course mentioned a landmark U.N. science report last fall warning that only a deep change in the way humanity produces and consumes energy can minimize global warming devastation. “I’ve been teaching several sessions a month for the last six or seven months,” said Remi Filliau, the instructor in Paris and founding member of a small NGO called Les Desobeissants (The Disobedient Ones). “Before, it was a lot less.” Back in class, Filliau gave Axel a tip on how to pry loose his quarry. Reaching from behind, Axel placed an index finger under the young woman’s nose and pulled up sharply. Her arms instantly flew open and he yanked her free within seconds, dragging her across the floor into mock detention. “Police are allowed to use that technique,” Filliau told the class. “But they are not allowed to tickle — that is considered sexual harassment,” he added. Seated in a large circle, the class began with an exercise designed to force participants to think about how far they are willing to go, and the risks they are willing to take. Filliau presented a scenario: friends propose slipping into a farmer’s field at night while wearing masks to destroy a experimental crop of genetically modified corn. Commercial production of genetically modified crops has been effectively banned in France, and most people in the room were clearly anti-GMO. That was not the issue. What they didn’t agree on was tactics. Everyone situated themselves in relation to four signs he had posted at compass points in the room, depending on how they answered two questions: Are you willing to do this? Do you consider this to be a violent act? Two thirds of the group clustered in the two “nonviolent” quadrants, but were evenly divided on whether to carry out the raid. As for those who considered it to be an act of violence, some balked at ransacking the crops while a few said they would do it anyhow. In the ensuing discussion, people moved around the room as their positions changed. Some said damaging property did not rise to the level of a violent act. Others countered that a struggling farmer might not see it that way. Still others pointed out that farmers have insurance. The group was at loggerheads. In a second scenario, the same action was to be done in broad daylight without masks. The media was to be alerted beforehand and the activists stayed to face the music, including arrest. This, it became clear, was the “correct” approach, and Filliau explained why. “We have to legitimize our actions in the eyes of the public,” he told the group. “And we have to take responsibility for what we do.” Successful campaigns in France over the last decade — pressuring a bank into divesting from fossil fuel projects, getting the state ban a particular GMO crop — were all done openly and non-violently, he said. “But if you’re not ready to be arrested by the police, then you probably shouldn’t come,” he added, referring to a climate change action planned for the end of the week. Julie, a university student, said she was deeply worried about the threat of climate change. “Just marching in the streets is not enough anymore,” she said. “But I’m not sure if I’m ready to go to jail.”
|
europe;rights;protests;climate change;environment;extinction rebellion
|
jp0002874
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Destitute Venezuelan migrants who fled to Brazil border live in abandoned bus going nowhere
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PACARAIMA, BRAZIL - Ten destitute Venezuelan migrants who fled their country’s crisis did not get far when they crossed into Brazil: they have been living for three months on an abandoned bus just across the border. They sleep on cardboard, except for the lucky one who gets the hammock. They cook on a wood fire just outside the door of the motor-less 1983 Mercedes Benz bus. Two children go to the local school every morning. The penniless migrants work at odd jobs for spare change, loading the cars and pickups of Venezuelans who cross over to buy food and goods in short supply back home. “We’ve been living in this bus for three months,” says Hildemaro Ortiz, 24, from Punta de Mata in eastern Venezuela, who hopes to move to a bigger Brazilian city once his son makes it across the border. Ortiz and his bus-mates are part of a flood of Venezuelans pouring into the rest of Latin America, often driven by hunger and desperate to escape an economy in free-fall as food shortages and blackouts rattle their oil-rich nation. Tens of thousands of migrants have fled the political and economic upheaval in Venezuela through Pacaraima, the only road crossing to Brazil, creating tension at the border. About 3.7 million people have left Venezuela in recent years, mostly via its western neighbor Colombia, according to the World Bank. Ixora Sanguino, 27, sweeps the floor of the bus and folds the blankets. “I never thought I would ever live in a bus, and least of all in another country like this,” said the mother of three who had to leave her children behind in Ciudad Bolivar. “There is nothing in Venezuela right now,” she said. When she first crossed the border, Sanguino slept in the street. The bus is an improvement, sheltered from tropical rain. Now she is trying to gather enough money for a bus ticket to Boa Vista, the nearest Brazilian state capital, to find work and send cash to her hungry family back home. The occupants of the rusty metal structure, once an express bus, dream of returning to their homeland one day when things improve there, but for now survival is a daily struggle. Rice cooks in a pot held over the fire on an improvised grill. Usually they eat rice and bones, or rice and chicken when there is enough money between them to buy meat, she said. A Spanish priest provides a coffee and bread roll breakfast for 350 Venezuelans daily at his mission house, but migrants must arrive before 6 a.m. to get a place, she said. The bus offers some protection from mosquitoes and the cold of night, Ortiz said. When the bugs get bad, he starts a cardboard fire to smoke them out. He is impatient to move to bustling cities to the south. “If only this bus had an engine, we would have been on our way to Manaus by now,” he said.
|
immigration;brazil;venezuela;poverty;refugees;nicolas maduro
|
jp0002875
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Boko Haram fighters plunder Nigeria village near Chibok on kidnapping anniversary
|
KANO, NIGERIA - Boko Haram militants raided a village near the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok just as locals marked the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls five years earlier, vigilantes and residents said Monday. The militants late Sunday stormed into Kwarangulum village, 16 km (10 miles) from Chibok Town, looting food and destroying property. The gunmen, who arrived aboard four trucks, were “shooting indiscriminately and setting homes on fire,” local vigilante David Bitrus told AFP. The militants, believed to be from a Boko Haram faction loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, “burned the whole village after taking what the trucks could carry” in terms of food, he said. A Chibok community leader, Ayuba Alamson, said village residents had fled hours before the jihadis’ arrival after receiving tip-offs from local people who had seen the gunmen heading in their direction. The attack came just hours after hundreds of Chibok residents rallied at the girls boarding school in the nearby town to commemorate the April 14, 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls. Their disappearance sparked outrage and calls for their release from around the world. Fifty-seven girls escaped shortly after the kidnap, 107 were released after negotiations and 112 remain in captivity. Recently re-elected President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday promised to rescue the remaining girls. “We will not rest until all the remaining girls are back and reunited with their families,” he said in a statement released on his Twitter account. He also promised to secure the rescue of Leah Sharibu, the last remaining captive of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Dapchi Town, Yobe State, last February. Boko Haram’s decade-long conflict has killed 27,000 people and displaced around 2 million from their homes in northeast Nigeria. The violence has spread to nearby Niger, Chad and Cameroon, with the affected counties forming a regional military coalition to fight the group.
|
conflict;terrorism;abduction;boko haram;nigeria;chibok girls
|
jp0002876
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
|
A day after Notre Dame blaze, Parisians and tourists still in shock
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PARIS - Early morning runners stopped in their tracks, dumb-founded. Across the river, still smouldering, loomed the burnt-out form of Notre Dame Cathedral, its spire collapsed, its bell towers and buttresses standing silent in the dawn light. “Blessee, mais vivante,” tweeted Henrik Enderlein, the director of the Jacques Delors Institute, alongside pictures of the shattered shell of the gothic masterpiece that sits at the heart of Paris. “Wounded, but alive.” After a night during which more than 400 firefighters toiled for 15 hours to quell a blaze that tore through the 12th century cathedral, Parisians and visitors were struggling to absorb the enormity of the disaster. Days before the commemoration of Easter, a church that has stood as a monument to the Catholic faith and a symbol of France for nearly nine centuries had been eviscerated by an inferno that police believe may have started by accident. Lech Kurek, a 38-year-old visiting with his wife from Poland, said they had been left shell-shocked. “I am praying and my wife is singing,” he said. “It is just crazy and surreal. … For Christians, it is terrible ahead of Easter.” President Emmanuel Macron visited the site on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the River Seine, on Monday night and pledged that Notre Dame would be rebuilt, no matter what it takes. The rival owners of France’s two biggest luxury and fashion empires, Francois-Henri Pinault of Kering and Bernard Arnault of LVMH, said they were donating €100 million and €200 million to the restoration, respectively. Oil company Total pledged €100 million. The city of Paris said it would provide €50 million. For Olivier Lebib, an artisan who has lived in Paris for 40 years, it is essential the cathedral is restored to its glory. “Notre Dame is our sister, it is so sad, we are all mourning — Parisians, French people, tourists, the Chinese, the whole planet,” he said. “Thank God that the stone structure has withstood the fire.” The cathedral is one of Paris’s most popular landmarks, welcoming more than 13 million visitors a year, and no doubt features in the photo albums of just about anyone who has taken snapshots in the French capital. Gone, now, is the 91-meter spire that has stood atop it since the mid-1800s. “It’s an emotional strain for the whole nation,” said Pierre-Herve Grosjean, 41, a priest from Versailles, who noted the cathedral’s role as a national rallying place in 2015 after Islamist gunmen and bombers killed 130 people in a rampage in Paris. “No one is left indifferent. After the terror attacks, everyone gathered at Notre Dame.” On Tuesday morning, there were still groups standing vigil on the banks of the Seine looking toward the cathedral, some singing, some in silent prayer in the week that Christians mark the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. “This fire is a prophetic message, it is a call for repentance,” said Josiane, a retired shop assistant and devout Christian. “During the holy week, the virgin has covered herself with ashes, it is a call for repentance. Only God can save us.”
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france;fires;paris;notre dame
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jp0002877
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[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
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YouTube flags Notre Dame fire as 9/11 conspiracy, then says system made 'wrong call'
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SAN FRANCISCO - Soon after a fire engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, news outlets began streaming live broadcasts on YouTube. Below several of the clips was an odd box of text: A snippet from Encyclopedia Britannica about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. YouTube, a division of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, introduced this text box feature last year to combat the spread of conspiracy theories, including those that question the 9/11 attacks. On Monday, YouTube’s software mistakenly labeled the plumes of smoke in Paris as footage from 2001, triggering the panel below the video. “We are deeply saddened by the ongoing fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral,” said a YouTube spokesman. “These panels are triggered algorithmically and our systems sometimes make the wrong call. We are disabling these panels for live streams related to the fire.” YouTube has been battered with criticism over extreme and misleading videos, especially around breaking news topics. While the service has become the world’s largest video site, it has struggled to use software and human reviewers to understand and police the millions of hours of footage that gets uploaded daily. Last month, video of an attack on mosques in New Zealand was streamed on YouTube and other social-media services. Videos questioning important facts, such as the moon landing and the efficacy of vaccines, have also run rampant on YouTube, prompting inquiries from U.S. lawmakers. Last year, YouTube Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki unveiled the information boxes as a solution that she hoped would help quell conspiracy theories. The text is pulled from websites including Wikipedia to counteract misleading videos with well-established facts. The company has said it shows “tens of millions” of the text panels below videos each week.
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france;internet;terrorism;fires;youtube;paris;notre dame;conspiracy theories
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jp0002878
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[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Global measles cases surge 300% year-on-year, as anti-vaccination concerns grow: WHO
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GENEVA - Measles cases rose 300 percent worldwide through the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period last year, the U.N. said Monday, as concern grows over the impact of the anti-vaccination movement. Measles, which is highly contagious, can be entirely prevented through a two-dose vaccine, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has in recent months sounded the alarm over slipping vaccination rates. “Preliminary global data shows that reported cases rose by 300 percent in the first three months of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018. This follows consecutive increases over the past two years,” it said in a statement. “While this data is provisional and not yet complete, it indicates a clear trend. Many countries are in the midst of sizeable measles outbreaks, with all regions of the world experiencing sustained rises in cases,” it added. The agency noted that only about one in 10 actual measles cases are reported, meaning that the early trends for 2019 likely underestimate the severity of the outbreaks. So far this year, 170 countries have reported 112,163 measles cases to the WHO. At this time last year, 163 countries had reported 28,124 cases. Measles — an airborne infection causing fever, coughing and rashes that can be deadly in rare cases — had been officially eliminated in many countries with advanced health care systems. But the so-called anti-vax movement — driven by fraudulent claims linking the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella with a risk of autism in children — has gained traction. Repeated studies — the most recent involving more than 650,000 children monitored for more than a decade — have shown that there is no such link. But according to the WHO, global coverage for the first vaccine dose has been “stalled” at 85 percent, while 67 percent of people have received the second dose. The provisional 2019 data shows that cases have spiked “in countries with high overall vaccination coverage, including the United States,” WHO warned. “The disease has spread fast among clusters of unvaccinated people,” it added. New York’s mayor declared a public health emergency in parts of Brooklyn last week after a measles outbreak emerged in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where some had resisted vaccination on religious grounds. Calls have mounted in several countries to make measles vaccinations mandatory, including in Germany. Australia earlier this month launched a major education campaign to encourage residents to get vaccinated. Turning the tide against measles will require “effective public-facing communication and engagement on the critical importance of vaccination, and the dangers of the diseases they prevent,” WHO said. While WHO has identified the junk science behind anti-vax propaganda as a public health threat, the data highlighted that measles still hits hardest in unstable countries with weak health systems. The most dramatic rise in cases through the early part of the year was reported in Africa, which has weaker vaccination coverage than other regions. The continent saw a 700 percent increase in cases compared to last year. At least 800 children have died from measles since September in Madagascar, where rampant malnutrition and a historically poor vaccine rate are driving the world’s worse current outbreak. In conflict-scarred Yemen cases shot up more than 300 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. Venezuela, where the disease was once contained, has also seen tens of thousands of cases as the country’s economic and political crises continue to push the health care system to the brink of collapse.
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medicine;children;health;u.n .;who;vaccinations;measles
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jp0002879
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[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Remote mountain areas no refuge from airborne microplastic pollution, with levels similar to big cities
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PARIS - A secluded mountain region that was thought to be free of plastic pollution is in fact blanketed by airborne microplastics on a scale comparable to a major city, such as Paris, alarmed researchers reported Monday. Over a five-month period in 2017-2018, an average of 365 tiny pieces of plastic settled every day on each square meter of an uninhabited, high-altitude area in the Pyrenees straddling France and Spain, according to a report in the journal Nature Geoscience. “It is astounding and worrying that so many particles were found in the Pyrenees field site,” said lead author Steve Allen, a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. The study focused on microplastics mostly between 10 and 150 micrometers across, including fragments, fibers and sheet-like pieces of film. By comparison, a human hair is, on average, about 70 micrometers in width. “We would never have anticipated that this study would reveal such high levels of microplastic deposits,” added co-author Gael Le Roux, a researcher at EcoLab in Toulouse, in southwestern France. Plastic litter has emerged in the last few years as a major environmental problem. Up to 12 million tons of plastics are thought to enter the world’s oceans every year, and millions more clog inland waterways and landfills. Plastic takes decades to break down, and even then continues to persist in the environment. Scientists are only now beginning to measure the damage to wildlife and potential impacts on human health. A study earlier this year uncovered plastic fragments in the guts of animals living more than 10 kilometers below the ocean surface. Two whales found beached since the start of the year — one in the Philippines, the other in Sardinia, Italy — had 40 and 20 kilos, respectively, of plastic in their stomachs. Microplastics have also been found in tap water around the world, and even the furthest reaches of Antarctica. “Our most significant finding is that microplastics are transported through the atmosphere and deposited in a remote, high-altitude mountain location far from any major city,” co-author Deonie Allen, also from EcoLab, told AFP. “This means that microplastics are an atmospheric pollutant.” Researchers used two monitoring devices to independently measure particle concentration in an area long considered to be among the most pristine in western Europe. The nearest village is seven kilometers (more than four miles) away, and the nearest city, Toulouse, is more than 100 kilometers. While the scientists were able to identify the types of plastic, they could not say with certainty where they came from or how far they had drifted. Analyzing the pattern of air flows, they surmised that some particles had traveled at least 100 kilometers. “But due to the lack of significant local plastic pollution sources, they probably traveled farther,” Deonie Allen said. Samples — transported by wind, snow and rain — were also collected at the meteorological station of Bernadouze at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters. The researchers were stunned to find that the concentrations of microplastic pollution were on a par with those found in major cities, including Paris and the southern Chinese industrial city of Dongguan. “Our findings are within the range of those reported for greater Paris, and can thus be considered comparable,” said Deonie Allen. “We did not expect the number of particles to be so high.”
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pollution;france;mountains;plastic;nature geoscience;plastic waste;pyrenees
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jp0002880
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[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Aegean farmers replaced hunter-gatherers of ancient Britain 6,000 years ago: study
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BERLIN - A wave of migrants from what is now Greece and Turkey arrived in Britain some 6,000 years ago and virtually replaced the existing hunter-gatherer population, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature. Scientists examining samples of ancient remains dating as far back as 8500 BC found the dark-skinned foragers who had inhabited the British Isles since the last Ice Age left comparatively little trace in the genetic record after the transition to farming, suggesting there wasn’t much interbreeding with the newcomers who arrived around 4000 BC. By contrast, the same Aegean migrants had mixed extensively with local populations when they introduced farming to continental Europe about 1,000 years earlier, according to previous DNA studies. “It is difficult to say why this is, but it may be that those last British hunter-gatherers were relatively few in number,” said Mark G. Thomas, a professor of evolutionary genetics at University College London who co-wrote the study. “Even if these two populations had mixed completely, the ability of adept continental farmers and their descendants to maintain larger population sizes would produce a significant diminishing of hunter-gatherer ancestry over time.” The researchers from the U.K. and the United States found that the remains of Britain’s early farmers were genetically similar to those discovered in what is now Spain and Portugal, indicating that this population traveled east to west through the Mediterranean, and then up to Britain. Strikingly, the newcomers appear to have arrived first on the western coast before spreading to other parts of Britain, suggesting they didn’t cross the English Channel using the shortest possible course but instead braved the wilder Atlantic route. “This route is a continuation of the Mediterranean coastal dispersal route but of course in much more complicated maritime circumstances,” said Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain. Lalueza-Fox, who wasn’t involved with the study, said the findings match what is known about the spread of megalithic structures along Europe’s Atlantic coast. Perhaps the best-known of these structures is Stonehenge in Britain. “This work highlights the complex population turnovers affecting a rather marginal area of Northwestern Europe and points out the need to investigate all regions with ancient data to understand the shaping of modern human genetic diversity,” said Laluelza-Fox. In their paper, Thomas and his colleagues also note the “considerable variation in pigmentation levels in Europe” during the Stone Age as shown from the genetic samples they examined. Whereas Britain’s outgoing hunter-gatherers — including the oldest known Briton, “Cheddar Man” — likely had blue or green eyes and dark or even black skin, the farming populations migrating across Europe are believed to have had brown eyes and dark to intermediate skin.
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greece;britain;turkey;migration;aegean;ice age;cheddar man
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jp0002881
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[
"world",
"science-health-world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Israeli scientists debut 'first' 3D print of heart with human tissue, and vessels
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TEL AVIV - Scientists in Israel unveiled a 3D print of a heart with human tissue and vessels on Monday, calling it a first and a “major medical breakthrough” that advances possibilities for transplants. While it remains a far way off, scientists hope one day to be able to produce hearts suitable for transplant into humans as well as patches to regenerate defective hearts. The heart produced by researchers at Tel Aviv University is about the size of a rabbit’s. It marked “the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Tal Dvir, who led the project. “People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels,” he said. But the scientists said many challenges remain before fully working 3D printed hearts would be available for transplant into patients. Journalists were shown a 3D print of a heart about the size of a cherry, immersed in liquid, at Tel Aviv University on Monday as the researchers announced their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Science. Researchers must now teach the printed hearts “to behave” like real ones. The cells are currently able to contract, but do not yet have the ability to pump. Then they plan to transplant them into animal models, hopefully in about a year, said Dvir. “Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and these procedures will be conducted routinely,” he said. But he said hospitals would likely start with simpler organs than hearts. In its statement announcing the research, Tel Aviv University called it a “major medical breakthrough. Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death, according to the World Health Organization, and transplants are currently the only option available for patients in the worst cases. But the number of donors is limited and many die while waiting. When they do benefit, they can fall victim to their bodies rejecting the transplant — a problem the researchers are seeking to overcome. Their research involved taking a biopsy of fatty tissue from patients that was used in the development of the “ink” for the 3D print. First, patient-specific cardiac patches were created followed by the entire heart, the statement said. Using the patient’s own tissue was important to eliminate the risk of an implant provoking an immune response and being rejected, Dvir said. “The biocompatibility of engineered materials is crucial to eliminating the risk of implant rejection, which jeopardizes the success of such treatments,” said Dvir. Challenges that remain include how to expand the cells to have enough tissue to recreate a human-sized heart, he said. Current 3D printers are also limited by the size of their resolution and another challenge will be figuring out how to print all small blood vessels. But while the current 3D print was a primitive one and only the size of a rabbit’s heart, “larger human hearts require the same technology,” said Dvir. 3D printing has opened up possibilities in numerous fields, provoking both promise and controversy. The technology has developed to include 3D prints of everything from homes to guns.
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israel;heart;3d laser printing;tel aviv university
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jp0002882
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[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Redacted Mueller report expected to be released on Thursday
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WASHINGTON - The president isn’t waiting. As Washington counts down the final hours until publication of the redacted special counsel report — now expected Thursday — Donald Trump stepped up his attacks in an effort to undermine potential disclosures on Russia, his 2016 campaign and the aftermath. He unleashed a series of tweets Monday focusing on the previously released summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions — including a crucial one on obstruction of justice that Trump again misrepresented — produced by Attorney General William Barr. “Mueller, and the A.G. based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled No Collusion, No Obstruction,” Trump tweeted. “These were crimes committed by Crooked Hillary, the DNC, Dirty Cops and others! INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!” Press secretary Sarah Sanders repeatedly tried to make the same case on TV talk shows on Sunday. But the political battle is far from finished over the special counsel’s investigation of Russian efforts to help Trump in 2016 and whether there was cooperation with his campaign. Democrats are calling for Mueller himself to testify before Congress and have expressed concern that Barr will order unnecessary censoring of the report to protect the president. The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, is poised to try to compel Barr to turn over an unredacted copy as well as the report’s underlying investigative files. The Justice Department announced Monday that it expects to release the redacted version Thursday morning, sending the findings of the nearly two-year probe to Congress and making them available to the public. Mueller officially concluded his investigation late last month and submitted the confidential report to Barr. Two days later, the attorney general sent Congress a four-page letter that detailed Mueller’s “principal conclusions.” In his letter, Barr said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates during the campaign. However, contrary to Trump’s false claim, Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Instead, Mueller presented evidence on both sides of that question. Barr said he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to prove that Trump had obstructed justice, but he noted that Mueller’s team did not exonerate the president. Portions of the report being released by the Justice Department will be redacted to protect grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations and damage to the privacy rights of third parties, the attorney general has said. The scores of outstanding questions about the investigation have not stopped the president and his allies from declaring victory. They have painted House Democrats’ investigations as partisan overreach and have targeted news outlets and individual reporters they say have promoted the collusion story. The president himself seethed at a political rally that the whole thing was an attempt “to tear up the fabric of our great democracy.” He has told confidants in recent days that he was certain the full report would back up his claims of vindication but was also convinced the media would manipulate the findings in an effort to damage him, according to two Republicans close to the White House not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. In the waiting game’s final days, the White House continued to try to shape the narrative. “There was no obstruction, which I don’t how you can interpret that any other way than total exoneration,” press secretary Sanders said on “Fox News Sunday.” While the president unleashed his personal grievances, his team seized on any exculpatory information in Barr’s letter, hoping to define the conversation in advance, according to White House officials and outside advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss private deliberations. The victory lap was deliberately premature, they said. But Trump’s inner circle knows there will likely be further releases of embarrassing or politically damaging information. Barr’s letter, for instance, hinted that there would be at least one unknown action by the president that Mueller examined as a possible act of obstruction. A number of White House aides have privately said they are eager for all Russia stories, good or bad, to fade from the headlines. And there is fear among some presidential confidants that the rush to spike the football in celebration could backfire if bombshell new information emerges. Trump and his allies also continue to attack the origins of the Russia investigation, portraying it as an effort by Democrats and career officials in the Justice Department to bring him down. “The Mueller Report, which was written by 18 Angry Democrats who also happen to be Trump Haters (and Clinton Supporters), should have focused on the people who SPIED on my 2016 Campaign, and others who fabricated the whole Russia Hoax. That is, never forget, the crime.” Trump tweeted Monday. His long-asserted accusation — though not supported by evidence — that his campaign was spied upon was given new life last week when Barr, testifying before Congress, said he thinks “spying did occur” in 2016. Barr may have been referring to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained in the fall of 2016 to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing. The warrant was obtained after Page had left the campaign and was renewed several times. Critics of the Russia investigation have seized on the fact that the warrant application cited Democratic-funded opposition research, done by a former British spy, into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Barr later softened his tone to “I am not saying improper surveillance occurred.” The attorney general’s comments have frustrated Democrats, already anxious for the release of the full, uncensored report and concerned that Barr may withhold pertinent information. The report could provide new information that could prompt further investigations or even consideration of impeachment proceedings, a tricky political calculation since Mueller did not conclude there was collusion or obstruction. The Russia probe began on July 31, 2016, when the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the presidential campaign and whether anyone on the Trump campaign was involved. That probe was prompted by former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos’ contacts with Russian intermediaries, including a Maltese professor who told the young aide that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of emails.
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robert mueller;donald trump;russia probe;william barr
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jp0002883
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[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning had reason to believe leaks would hurt U.S., prosecutors say
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WASHINGTON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning had reason to believe that leaking U.S. military reports “would cause injury” to the country, federal prosecutors alleged in a newly unsealed court filing on Monday. In the affidavit submitted to federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, prosecutors said U.S. military reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq included information about the “identity and significance of local supporters of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.” When U.S. forces raided the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was hiding out, for example, they found a letter that showed the Al Qaeda leader was interested in copies of Pentagon documents that were published on WikiLeaks, the prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, leaked reports on the Afghan war included information on militants’ attacks and designs for improvised explosive devices, as well as details of U.S. and coalition countermeasures against such home-made explosive devices and their limitations. The prosecution’s affidavit is dated Dec. 21, 2017, but was made public on Monday. It follows the unsealing last week of a U.S. indictment charging Assange with conspiring with Manning to gain access to a government computer as part of one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. Lawyers for Assange could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday. They have previously said Assange may be at risk for torture and that his life would be in danger if he were to be extradited to the United States to face charges. U.K. police arrested Assange at Washington’s request after Ecuador revoked his seven-year asylum on Thursday. He was dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and is being held in prison while he faces extradition to the United States. The U.S. indictment, originally issued in secret by an Alexandria, Virginia-based grand jury in March 2018, said that in March 2010 Assange had engaged in a conspiracy to help Manning crack a password for a classified U.S. government network. In the unsealed affidavit, prosecutors said Manning also had access to other U.S. government databases, including one relating to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a State Department database containing military cables.
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conflict;u.s .;military;afghanistan;iraq;espionage;julian assange;wikileaks;chelsea manning
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jp0002884
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[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Exotic, dangerous cassowary bird kills owner in Florida
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WASHINGTON - A large, flightless and highly dangerous bird called a cassowary killed its owner in Florida, news reports said. The man was raising it and other exotic animals on his property in Alachua county in the north central part of the state, the local TV station WCLB said. The breeder, 75-year-old Marvin Hajos, fell to the ground by accident Friday and the bird attacked him, the report said. Cassowaries have a four-inch dagger-like claw on each foot, and are the world’s most dangerous bird, according to the San Diego Zoo website. “The cassowary can slice open any predator or potential threat with a single swift kick,” the website says. Hajos was rushed to the hospital but died. These birds are similar to emus, can be nearly 6 feet tall (1.8 m) and weigh up to 170 pounds (75 kg) in the case of females and somewhat less for males, according to the website. With powerful legs, they can jump seven feet straight up in the air. Only ostriches are heavier in the world of birds. Cassowaries can run up to 31 mph. The birds are native to Australia and New Guinea.
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australia;pets;florida;emu;cassowary
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jp0002885
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[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
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Notre Dame's age and design fueled blaze and foiled firefighters, experts say
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NEW YORK - Is there anything firefighters could have done to control the blaze that tore through Paris’ historic Notre Dame Cathedral sooner? Experts say the combination of a structure that’s more than 850 years old, built with heavy timber construction and soaring open spaces, and lacking sophisticated fire-protection systems led to the quick rise of flames Monday, which jeopardized the entire cathedral before firefighters brought the blaze under control. “Very often when you’re confronted with something like this, there’s not much you can do,” said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College. Fire hoses looked overmatched as flames raged across the cathedral’s wooden roof and burned bright orange for hours. The fire toppled a 300-foot (91-meter) spire and launched baseball-sized embers into the air. While the cause remains under investigation, authorities said that the cathedral’s structure — including its landmark rectangular towers — has been saved. Some of the factors that made Notre Dame a must-see for visitors to Paris — its age, sweeping size and French Gothic design featuring masonry walls and tree trunk-sized wooden beams — also made it a tinderbox and a difficult place to fight a fire, said U.S. Fire Administrator G. Keith Bryant. With a building like that, it’s nearly impossible for firefighters to attack a fire from within. Instead, they have to be more defensive “and try to control the fire from the exterior,” said Bryant, a former fire chief in Oklahoma and past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. “When a fire gets that well-involved it’s very difficult to put enough water on it to cool it to bring it under control,” Bryant said. And while there’s a lot of water right next door at the Seine River, getting it to the right place is the problem, he said: “There are just not enough resources in terms of fire apparatus, hoses to get that much water on a fire that’s that large.” Because of narrower streets, which make it difficult to maneuver large ladder fire trucks, European fire departments don’t tend to have as large of ladders as they do in the United States, Bryant said. And what about U.S. President Donald Trump’s armchair-firefighter suggestion that tanker jets be used to dump water from above on Notre Dame? French authorities tweeted that doing so would’ve done more harm than good. The crush of water on the fire-ravaged landmark could’ve caused the entire structure to collapse, according to the tweet. Other landmark houses of worship have taken steps in recent years to reduce the risk of a fire. St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, built in 1878, installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and coated its wooden roof with fire retardant. The cathedral also goes through at least four fire inspections a year. Washington National Cathedral, built in 1912 with steel, brick and limestone construction that put it at less risk of a fast-moving fire, is installing sprinklers as part of a renovation spurred by damage from a 2011 earthquake. That cathedral faces fire inspections every two years, but D.C. firefighters stop by more often to learn about the church’s unique architecture and lingo — so they’ll know where to go if there’s a fire in the nave, or main area of the church — for instance. “It’s really important for us to make sure that those local firefighters are aware of our building and our kooky medieval names that we use for all the different spaces and that they know where to go,” said Jim Shepherd, the cathedral’s director of preservation and facilities. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York Archbishop who often visited the Notre Dame Cathedral while studying in Europe, saw significance in the fact that the fire broke out at the beginning of Holy Week, when Christians there and around the world prepare to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Just as the cross didn’t have the last word, neither — for people of faith in France — will this fire have the last word,” Dolan said.
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france;religion;history;fires;notre dame
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jp0002886
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
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As legal sources of cannabis fall short, Canada's black market remains strong six months after law change
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QUEBEC CITY - High prices, short supplies and lineups at stores: six months after Canada legalized recreational cannabis, consumers are still buying a lot of pot on the black market as legal sources fail to meet demand. But authorities say the legal market will eventually put street dealers and criminal gangs out of work, once the fledgling industry finds its footing. “There are clearly still issues in the supply chain,” said Minister Bill Blair, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s point man on cannabis legalization. In October, Canada became only the second country in the world to legalize recreational cannabis, five years after Uruguay. But six months on people queue in long lines outside outlets, and supplies of many popular strains have dried up. A patchwork of public and private online portals and bricks and mortar stores have popped up across the country, as each province rolled out their own marijuana retailing framework. Ontario — the nation’s biggest pot market — was late to the game, opening only 10 stores out of 25 licensed in the province on April 1, having relied until now on a government online portal. “They’re working through it and they’re making progress,” Blair said. “And what we see every month is continued progress in displacing the illicit market and creating a normalized supply chain.” Getting rid of the black market was a key objective in Trudeau’s legalization plan. Many feared a surge in drug-impaired driving and pot-related emergency room visits, but authorities said that has not materialized. In the last three months of 2018, the lion’s share of sales — 79 percent, valued at 1.2 billion Canadian dollars ($900 million) — were by illicit dealers. According to Statistics Canada, legal sales — including medical marijuana, which has been allowed in Canada since 2001 but accounts for only a fraction of total consumption — amounted to only CA$307 million. Canada has one of the world’s highest rates of cannabis use — with almost 15 percent of the population or more than 5 million people having consumed pot. Its supply shortage can be explained in part by the heavy licensing process imposed by the federal government. Another reason put forward is the relatively short amount of time growers have had to ramp up — about four months from the time the cannabis legalization law was passed by parliament to its entry into force. As a result, the average price of dried cannabis in Canada has increased by more than 17 percent since legalization, to CA$8.04 per gram, according to the government statistical agency. Buyers of legal pot are paying on average 57 percent more than for cannabis purchased on the black market, which actually saw prices fall. “I’ve continued buying from my (illicit) dealer because the price of legal cannabis is outrageous,” said John, who lives around the corner from downtown Ottawa’s first legal pot store. “I’ve been paying the same price for pot from this guy for the past 10 years so why would I go to a flashy new store and pay huge mark-ups,” he said. “It just wouldn’t make sense.” The store near him, Fire and Flower, raked in a whopping CA$50,000 in sales on its April 1 opening day. In Montreal, Anna Kagadaeva, in her 20s, is more sanguine about the legal market. “It took me a while before I came to the store because I was told there were lineups and there wasn’t much selection,” she said. But she now shops for weed regularly at Quebec’s government-run stores because she finds them convenient and it’s a safer, healthier and socially responsible choice. “The supply situation is improving week by week” and “it will pick up significantly towards the end of spring,” said Fabrice Giguere of the Quebec Cannabis Society (SQDC), after contracting six new suppliers. His outlook was echoed by several cannabis company executives, who also predicted a drop in prices as supplies rise. In Quebec, “our goal is to take 30 percent of the market by the end of October,” Giguere said, adding that the SQDC is betting it can grow that figure to 70 percent in five years, displacing the black market.
|
drugs;marijuana;canada;police
|
jp0002887
|
[
"world"
] |
2019/04/16
|
World stunned as massive fire rips through iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
|
PARIS - A massive fire engulfed the upper reaches of Paris’ soaring Notre Dame Cathedral as it was undergoing renovations Monday, threatening one of the greatest architectural treasures of the Western world as tourists and Parisians looked on aghast from the streets below. The blaze collapsed the cathedral’s spire and spread to one of its landmark rectangular towers, but Paris fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet said the church’s structure had been saved after firefighters managed to stop the fire spreading to the northern belfry. The 12th-century cathedral is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions, immortalized by Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” The exact cause of the blaze was not known, but French media quoted the Paris fire brigade as saying the fire is “potentially linked” to a €6 million ($6.8 million) renovation project on the church’s spire and its 250 tons of lead. The Paris prosecutors’ office ruled out arson and possible terror-related motives, and said it was treating it as an accident. A hole left by the fallen spire was still burning and sparks rained down from the cathedral’s vaulted ceilings more than five hours after the fire broke out. Gallet said fire crews would keep working overnight to cool down the structure. As the spire fell, the sky lit up orange and flames shot out of the roof behind the nave of the cathedral, among the most visited landmarks in the world. Hundreds of people lined up on bridges around the island that houses the church, watching in shock as acrid smoke rose in plumes. Speaking alongside junior Interior Minister Laurent Nunez late Monday, Gallet noted that “two thirds of the roofing has been ravaged.” He said firefighters would keep working overnight to cool down the building. Late Monday, signs pointed to the fire nearing an end as lights could be seen through the windows moving around the front of the cathedral, apparently investigators inspecting the scene. The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, most of the significant collection of art work and holy objects inside the church had been recovered. Remarkably, only one of the about 400 firefighters who battled the blaze was injured, officials said. The fire came less than a week before Easter amid Holy Week commemorations. As the cathedral burned, Parisians gathered to pray and sing hymns outside the church of Saint Julien Les Pauvres across the river from Notre Dame while the flames lit the sky behind them. Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit invited priests across France to ring church bells in a call for prayers. French President Emmanuel Macron was treating the fire as a national emergency, rushing to the scene and straight into meetings at the Paris police headquarters nearby. He pledged to rebuild the church and said he would seek international help to do so. “The worst has been avoided although the battle is not yet totally won,” the president said, adding that he would launch a national funding campaign on Tuesday and call on the world’s “greatest talents” to help rebuild the monument. Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Notre Dame is the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages as well as one of the most beloved structures in the world. Situated on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine River, its architecture is famous for, among other things, its many gargoyles and its iconic flying buttresses. Among the most celebrated artworks inside are its three stained-glass rose windows, placed high up on the west, north and south faces of the cathedral. Its priceless treasures also include a Catholic relic, the crown of thorns, which is only occasionally displayed, including on Fridays during Lent. French historian Camille Pascal told BFM broadcast channel the blaze marked “the destruction of invaluable heritage.” “It’s been 800 years that the Cathedral watches over Paris,” Pascal said. “Happy and unfortunate events for centuries have been marked by the bells of Notre Dame.” He added: “We can be only horrified by what we see.” Reactions from around the world came swiftly including from the Vatican, which released a statement expressing shock and sadness for the “terrible fire that has devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame, symbol of Christianity in France and in the world.” In Washington, Trump tweeted: “So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris” and suggested first responders use “flying water tankers” to put it out. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he was praying “to ask the intercession of Notre Dame, our Lady, for the Cathedral at the heart of Paris, and of civilization, now in flames! God preserve this splendid house of prayer, and protect those battling the blaze.”
|
france;religion;history;fires;paris;notre dame;emmanuel macron
|
jp0002889
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/16
|
U.S. commitment to Taiwan security 'rock-solid,' says ex-Speaker Paul Ryan
|
TAIPEI - The United States commitment to Taiwan’s security remains “rock-solid,” a former top-ranking U.S. official said Monday, as the two sides commemorated the 40th anniversary of legislation guaranteeing U.S. support for the island. The laws passed by the U.S. Congress in 1979 required Washington to provide Taiwan with means of self-defence even as the United States switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan led the delegation to the island this week, which included congressmen and senior officials, to mark the anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act alongside Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Since the legislation was passed, Washington has remained Taipei’s most powerful unofficial ally and its leading arms supplier. It manages its relations through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). “Ours is a friendship grounded in history, shared values, and our common embrace of democracy, free markets, the rule of law, religious freedom and human rights,” Ryan said at a ceremony at AIT’s new office complex in Taipei. “And our commitment to Taiwan’s security remains rock solid.” He hailed the 40th anniversary of the legislation as a “tremendous milestone” in U.S.-Taiwan relations. Ryan, 49, was the most powerful Republican in Congress when he served as speaker from October 2015 to January 2019. He currently holds no government position. “Our security cooperation contributes to regional peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region,” added U.S. de facto ambassador to Taiwan Brent Christensen. Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, flew over the waters off southern Taiwan earlier Monday in the latest of a recent string of military drills around the island. In response, President Tsai accused China of “challenging stability in the Taiwan Strait. Donald Trump’s administration has sought to strengthen ties with Taiwan. It announced plans last year to sell it $330 million spare parts for several aircraft, including the F-16 fighter and the C-130 cargo plane. Trump also signed legislation paving the way for mutual visits by top officials and the U.S. government approved a license required to sell submarine technology to Taiwan. U.S. warships periodically conduct “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Taiwan Strait, the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, which prompt anger in Beijing. China has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan amid worsening ties since Tsai came to power in May 2016, as she has refused to acknowledge Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is part of “one China.”
|
china;u.s .;taiwan;donald trump;tsai ing-wen;paul ryan;ait
|
jp0002890
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Foxconn's Terry Gou eyes run for Taiwan presidency after stepping back from daily business
|
TAIPEI - Foxconn’s Chairman Terry Gou said Tuesday he is considering whether to run for Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election, a day after Reuters reported the tycoon planned to step down from the world’s largest contract manufacturer. Speaking on the sidelines of an event to mark the 40th anniversary of Taiwan-U.S. ties, Gou declined to say which party he could represent, at a time of heightened tensions between the self-ruled island and Beijing. If it was the opposition, China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT), he would “go” with the standard procedures of the party, Gou said, adding he would make that decision “as soon as possible.” “I didn’t sleep last night … 2020 is key for Taiwan. The reason for the tense situation (with China) is because it’s a turning point for Taiwan’s direction for politics, economy, defense for the next 20 years,” Gou said. “So I asked myself the whole night … I need to ask myself what I can do. What I can do for the youth? … The next 20 years will decide their fate,” he said, his eyes welling up with tears at times. The KMT said in a statement Gou had been a party member for more than 50 years and had given it an interest-free loan of 45 million New Taiwan dollars ($1.5 million) in 2016 under the name of his mother, a move that signaled his “loyalty” to the party. The KMT did not immediately respond to a media inquiry on whether Gou was eligible to participate in the party’s already highly competitive primary election. Gou, Taiwan’s richest person with a net worth of $7.6 billion according to Forbes, told Reuters on Monday he planned to step down in the coming months to pave the way for younger talent to move up the company’s ranks. The company later said Gou will remain chairman of Foxconn, though he plans to withdraw from daily operations. Taiwan is gearing up for presidential elections in January at a time of heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, with Chinese bombers and warships conducting drills around the self-ruled island on Monday. A senior U.S. official denounced the military maneuvers as “coercion” and a threat to stability in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and has vowed to bring the island, which it regards as a sacred territory, under Chinese control, by force if necessary. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms. “We need peace. We don’t need to buy too many weapons. Peace is the biggest weapon,” Gou said, adding that Taiwan only needs adequate self-defense. “If we spend the money for weapons on economic development, on artificial intelligence, on investment in the United States, this would be the biggest assurance on peace.” “Whose children are willing to sit in those fighter jets?” A source with direct knowledge of the situation said Gou was likely to announce his decision on the presidential bid later on Tuesday at the earliest and was due to travel to Foxconn’s factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Wednesday. Shares of Foxconn, which is formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. and has a market value of around $40 billion, closed 0.7 percent higher on Tuesday. An official at Taiwan’s stock exchange told Reuters there were no regulations related to a company executive running for the island’s presidency. Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party is expected to announce a presidential candidate in May, with contenders including President Tsai Ing-wen and her former premier, William Lai. Asked by Reuters on Monday if he would quit as chairman, Gou said, at 69 years old, he was moving in that direction, though any decision needed to be discussed with Foxconn’s board. “I don’t know where you got the information from. But I have to say, basically, I’m working towards that direction — to walk back to the second line, or retire,” Gou said. He also signaled a major management reshuffle. “In the board meeting in April-May we will give the new list of board members to the board,” Gou said without elaborating. Founded in 1974, the Foxconn group is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer with NT$5.2 trillion ($168.52 billion) in annual revenue. It assembles goods for a miscellany of global tech firms but relies on Apple Inc for over half of annual revenue, analysts said.
|
china;taiwan;elections;foxconn;terry gou
|
jp0002891
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Australian grandmother has emotional reunion with orphans of notorious Islamic State fighter
|
SYDNEY - An Australian grandmother to children of a notorious Islamic State group fighter has tracked down the orphans in a Syrian refugee camp, in an emotional reunion she hopes will lead to their return home. The three surviving children of jihadi Khaled Sharrouf and his wife Tara Nettleton are in the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria and wish to return to Australia after being taken to the Middle East by their parents in 2013. After two failed attempts to find the children over five years, Karen Nettleton was finally able to locate them following a phone call in March from 16-year-old granddaughter Hoda Sharrouf, national broadcaster ABC reported. Nettleton then searched for the orphans in the muddy alleyways of the camp, which is home to up to 100,000 people displaced in the fight against IS, before finding them in a reunion broadcast late Monday. “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you,” Hoda Sharrouf told Nettleton as she emerged from a tent, her hands trembling. “Please don’t leave.” The pair embraced, and Nettleton told her granddaughter, “Hoda I’m here … I missed you so much too.” Nettleton has long fought for the children to be brought home but had previously been rebuffed by authorities, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying he did not want to put Australian lives at risk. She is still uncertain about how she will get the children — heavily pregnant 17-year-old Zaynab, Hoda, their 8-year-old brother Hamzeh, and Zaynab’s two young children Ayesha, 3, and Fatima, 2 — out of the camp, saying she was frustrated by negotiations with Canberra. “We don’t get a yes or no answer … all they’ve said is that once we get to Turkey, they’ll give us all the help that they can,” Nettleton told the ABC. Zaynab Sharrouf said they had wanted to return home “for a very long time” but had been fearful of rumors in the camp of those attempting to leave being caught, raped and tortured. “We weren’t the ones that chose to come here in the first place… And now that our parents are gone, we want to… live a normal life,” she said. Khaled Sharrouf — the first Australian to have his citizenship stripped under anti-terrorism laws — made international headlines in 2014 when he posted an image on Twitter of one of his sons holding a severed head. He is believed to have died in a 2017 American airstrike alongside two sons, while Tara Nettleton reportedly died in 2015. Morrison said Tuesday his government was “working quietly behind the scenes with the International Red Cross” over the fate of the children. A foreign affairs department spokeswoman said it was in “close contact” with Karen Nettleton but would not comment further due to the “complex and fluid situation,” and for security reasons. The fate of foreign fighters and their families has become a significant problem for governments as the conflict against IS draws to a close.
|
children;australia;terrorism;syria;conflcit;islamic state
|
jp0002892
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2019/04/16
|
One lucky dog: Pooch rescued while swimming 220 kilometers off Thailand
|
BANGKOK - A dog found swimming more than 220 kilometers (135 miles) from shore by workers on an oil rig crew in the Gulf of Thailand has been returned safely to land. A worker on the rig belonging to Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Vitisak Payalaw, said on his Facebook page that they saw the dog last Friday swimming toward the platform. He said they were lucky to spot it because if there had been waves it probably would not have been visible. The dog made it to the platform, clinging to the support structure below deck without barking or whimpering, Vitisak wrote. The crew managed to lower a rope and secure it around the dog’s neck and haul it up. Vitisak said they speculated the dog might have fallen off a fishing trawler, and dubbed it “Boon Rod,” or “Survivor.” The dog landed Monday at the southern port of Songkhla and was declared in good shape after being delivered to the animal protection group Watchdog Thailand. Vitisak said if the dog was unclaimed, he would like to take it to his home in northeast Thailand.
|
thailand;dogs;rescues
|
jp0002893
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan's Lower House OKs ban on flying drones over military sites and Olympic venues
|
A bill to prohibit the flying of drones over Self-Defence Forces and U.S. military facilities in Japan, as well as venues for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, cleared the Lower House on Tuesday. The bill, aimed at guarding against terrorism, has sparked protests from the media over its potential disruption of newsgathering activities. Taking these into account, a House of Representatives panel added a supplementary provision to the legislation, requesting the government ensure press freedom and people’s right to know. The ruling parties aim to enact the bill, an amendment to the existing law on drones, during the current Diet session through June. The legislation also bans drones from flying over venues for this year’s Rugby World Cup. Only drones providing coverage for, and controlled by, media organizations would be allowed to fly over venues during sports events.
|
military;drones;diet;u.s. bases;2020 tokyo olympics
|
jp0002894
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan Atomic Power considers launching unit that specializes in scrapping nuclear plants
|
Japan Atomic Power Co. is considering setting up a subsidiary specializing in the scrapping of retired nuclear reactors at domestic power plants, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. Japan Atomic Power, a wholesaler of electricity generated at its nuclear plants, is planning to have U.S. nuclear waste firm EnergySolutions Inc. invest in the reactor decommissioning service unit, which would be the first of its kind in Japan, the sources said. The Tokyo-based electricity wholesaler, whose shareholders are major domestic power companies, will make a final decision by the end of this year, they said. The plan is to support power companies’ scrapping of retired reactors using Japan Atomic Power’s expertise in decontaminating and dismantling work, in which it has been engaged in since before the 2011 nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 complex, according to the sources. The plan comes as a series of nuclear reactor decommissioning is expected at power companies in the country. Since stringent safety rules were introduced after the Fukushima disaster, 11 reactors, excluding those at the two Fukushima plants of Tepco, are slated to be scrapped. Nuclear reactors are allowed to run for 40 years in Japan. Their operation can be extended for 20 years, but operators will need costly safety enhancement measures to clear the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s screening. Decommissioning a reactor with an output capacity of 1 million kilowatts is said to take about 30 years and cost around ¥50 billion. Typically, some 500,000 tons of waste result from scrapping such a reactor, and 2 percent of the waste is radioactive. Japan Atomic Power first engaged in decommissioning a commercial reactor in 2001 at its Tokai plant in eastern Japan. It has been conducting decommissioning work at its Tsuruga nuclear power plant in western Japan since 2017. It is also providing support to Tepco for the decommissioning of reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. EnergySolutions, founded in 2006, has engaged in scrapping five reactors in the United States. Japan Atomic Energy and EnergySolutions have had previous business ties, and the Japanese company has sent some employees to the Zion nuclear station in Illinois, where the U.S. partner has been conducting decommissioning work since 2010.
|
nuclear energy;japan atomic power;energysolutions
|
jp0002895
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Abe eyes diplomatic win with Xi Jinping visit but faces balancing act between China and U.S.
|
BEIJING - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will likely be eager to take advantage of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Japan to flaunt his diplomatic clout, especially in an election year. But Abe will need to play a careful balancing act between cozying up to China and maintaining the relationship with Japan’s closest ally, the United States. On his three-day visit to Beijing from Saturday, Foreign Minister Taro Kono was on a mission to further a recent improvement in Sino-Japanese ties following years of animosity over a territorial dispute and differing views on wartime history. “Japan-China relations have normalized,” Kono told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in a meeting Monday. “There are many difficult issues that we have yet to resolve, but we should stand shoulder to shoulder to work on issues on a global scale.” Kono appears to have been successful: He wrapped up the trip by telling reporters that Xi, who has not come to Japan since coming to power in 2013, will be among the leaders from the Group of 20 major economies gathering in Osaka in late June. That will give Abe, who is seeking to solidify his power heading into his last years in office, the opportunity to play the magnanimous host to Xi. Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan, said he expects Abe and Xi to set aside their differences and make nice for the cameras. “Summits are all about the optics so both leaders will try to project positive interactions,” he said. “It took a long time for these two leaders to meet, and when they did so the takeaway image was Xi’s sour face as he leaned away from a handshake with Abe. But now is a time for resurrecting smile diplomacy and avoiding the contentious issues.” With U.S. President Donald Trump also scheduled to make a visit in May, an Abe aide said it was a “chance to score” for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ahead of an election in the summer for half the seats in the House of Councilors. Abe could use the boost, given he has made little progress in efforts to recover Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, or to negotiate the return of Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that were seized by the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. He has also been left out of the loop in talks between the United States and North Korea on a denuclearization deal. “Japan has little leverage and has been marginalized in (Korean) Peninsula diplomacy,” Kingston said. “Abe has been a spectator.” But a shift toward China carries its own problems. Many in the international community criticize the Chinese government for failing to enforce rules protecting intellectual property rights or crack down on the forced transfer of technology from foreign firms. Kono said he raised the issue in a high-level economic dialogue with Chinese officials during his stay in Beijing, though he declined to say what response he got. The U.S., which Japan heavily relies on for national defense, is increasingly focused on countering Chinese efforts to assert its military presence, including in the realms of space and cybersecurity. The subject will be the main focus of ministerial-level security talks between Japan and the U.S. later this week in Washington, according to an official at the Japanese Defense Ministry. “The Abe administration sees diplomacy as a tool to boost its popularity. It appears there is little consideration for security or what the rest of the world is thinking,” said Kazuo Yukawa, a China expert at Asia University in Tokyo. “Of course, improving the relationship with China is important, but I have doubts about how well thought out a strategy this is,” he added.
|
china;shinzo abe;u.s .;china-japan relations;xi jinping;u.s.-japan relations;taro kono
|
jp0002897
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan and U.S. struggling to find wreckage of crashed F-35A despite around-the-clock search
|
One week after an F-35A stealth fighter jet crashed off the northeastern coast of Japan, U.S. and Japanese military vessels are struggling to find the wreckage and protect its valuable secrets. The Japanese jet vanished from radar on April 9 over the Pacific as it was conducting a training mission with three other aircraft some 135 kilometers (85 miles) east of Misawa, Aomori Prefecture. A Defense Ministry spokesman said that the remains of the jet’s tail had been found but they were still hunting in vain for the rest of the fuselage, as well as the pilot. “On average two aircraft, including a helicopter, and two patrol vessels are constantly deployed in the around-the-clock search operations,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. The Maritime Self-Defense Force has also dispatched an unmanned submersible vessel. Separately, the U.S. military has dispatched one military aircraft and one vessel to join the mission, said the official, adding that the search has not yet been scaled back. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said the crash would be discussed at a meeting with his U.S. counterpart in Washington on Friday, which will also involve the two allies’ foreign ministers. “The F-35A is an airplane that contains a significant amount of secrets that need to be protected,” Iwaya told reporters. “With the help of the United States, we will continue to take the leading role in investigating the cause of the accident,” he said. Akira Kato, a professor of international politics and regional security at Tokyo’s J.F. Oberlin University, said rivals China and Russia would have “a strong interest in collecting even a single screw of the state-of-the-art plane.” And Hideshi Takesada, a defense expert and professor at Takushoku University in Tokyo, said it would not be a surprise if Moscow and Beijing were engaged in undercover activities to find some of the debris. “Even if Japan and the U.S. find it, they may not disclose details, including its exact location, due to concerns that China and Russia might try to collect it,” Takesada said. Japan’s Defense Ministry confirmed it had not spotted any suspicious vessels or aircraft from a third country near the site. The air force announced a commission last week to study the cause of the accident but it remains unclear exactly what happened to the plane. U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin touts the high-tech fighter as “virtually undetectable” and says it allows the U.S. and its allies to dominate the skies with its “unmatched capability and unprecedented situational awareness.” Japan is deploying F-35As, each of which costs more than ¥10 billion ($90 million), to replace its aging F-4 fighters. The jet was one of 13 F-35As deployed at Misawa Air Base, according to the defense ministry. The remaining 12 fighters have been grounded for the time being, the ministry said. The F-35A jets are a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to upgrade the nation’s military capability to meet changing power dynamics in East Asia, with China rapidly modernizing its armed forces. Over the next decade, Japan plans to purchase as many as 105 F-35As and 42 units of other high-capacity jets, most likely the F-35B variant. The upcoming “two-plus-two” meeting in Washington will be attended by Iwaya and Foreign Minister Taro Kono, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. They plan to release a joint document that will likely highlight the countries’ defense cooperation in areas including space and cyberspace, according to Japanese officials. The previous two-plus-two talks were held in August 2017.
|
china;russia;military;weapons;self defense forces;f-35;two plus two;takeshi iwaya
|
jp0002898
|
[
"national"
] |
2019/04/16
|
Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.2% in fiscal 2017 as use of renewables increased
|
Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.2 percent in fiscal 2017 — a fourth straight year of decline — as the use of renewable energy increased, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday. Emissions totaled the equivalent of 1.292 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the fiscal year ended March 2018, it said. However, the country urgently needs to tackle hydrofluorocarbons — a substitute for ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons but with a strong greenhouse gas effect — as usage continues to increase, the ministry said. Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, Japan is targeting a 26 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from fiscal 2013 levels by fiscal 2030. The reduction stood at 8.4 percent at the end of fiscal 2017. Emissions from hydrofluorocarbons — commonly used in air conditioners as a coolant — increased 5.4 percent from a year ago as manufacturers’ process for the collection and environmentally responsible disposal of old units has not gone smoothly, according to the ministry. The amount of renewable energy grew by about 10 percent from the previous year, while the resumption of nuclear reactors also helped reduce emissions associated with power generators, it said. Japan’s emissions rose after a massive earthquake and tsunami in the northeast of the country in 2011 triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis and subsequently forced the country to resort to thermal power generation. It turned to a decline in fiscal 2014 with the help of renewable energy production and the introduction of energy-efficient devices.
|
emissions;climate change;renewables;environment;co2;hfcs
|
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