Guaido returns to Venezuela and calls for more street protests

Abstract: CARACAS/WASHINGTON - A defiant Juan Guaido returned home to Venezuela on Monday despite concerns the opposition leader might be detained and urged supporters at a rally to intensify their campaign to topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly showed off his passport before climbing onto scaffolding and pumping his fist during the demonstration in Caracas, delighting euphoric followers whose efforts to oust Maduro have fallen short in a nation gripped by a humanitarian crisis. There were few security forces nearby and no immediate comment from Maduro’s government, which has tried to divert the public’s attention to carnival festivities Monday and Tuesday. While thousands of Venezuelans heeded Guaido’s call for protests coinciding with his return, many wonder whether he can maintain momentum against a government that, while under extreme pressure itself, has relentlessly cracked down on opponents in the past, jailing or driving into exile top opposition leaders. “We know the risks that we face. That’s never stopped us,” Guaido said after arriving at Venezuela’s main airport and going through immigration checks. He was greeted by top diplomats from the United States, Germany, Spain and other countries who possibly hoped to head off any move to detain Guaido by bearing witness to his return. “We hope there won’t be any escalation and that parliamentary immunity is respected,” said Spanish Ambassador Jesus Silva Fernandez. The United States and some 50 other countries have recognized Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was invalid because popular opposition candidates were barred from running. At the rally, Guaido called for massive protests Saturday and said he would meet Tuesday with public employee unions controlled by the government of Maduro, who retains the support of military generals despite the desertion of hundreds of lower-ranking military personnel. “The regime must understand, the dictatorship must understand … that we’re stronger than ever. We’ll continue protesting, we’ll continue mobilizing,” said Guaido, who had ignored an official ban on foreign travel to leave Venezuela last month. Guaido visited Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Ecuador over the past week — all countries that support his claim to be Venezuela’s interim president and call on Maduro to resign so that the country can prepare for free and fair elections. The United States, which warned Monday of a “swift response” to any threats or violence against Guaido, congratulated the opposition leader on his return to Venezuela. “The international community must unite and push for the end of Maduro’s brutal regime and the peaceful restoration of democracy in Venezuela,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Colombian President Ivan Duque tweeted that Guaido’s homecoming was part of the “irreversible path that Venezuela has taken toward democracy.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for dialogue by all parties to end the political impasse. “We obviously remain very concerned about the situation in Venezuela,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “It’s important from the secretary-general’s viewpoint that all actors — all political actors in Venezuela and abroad — make all efforts to lower tensions.” Maduro has said he is the target of a U.S.-backed coup plot after the Trump administration joined dozens of other countries in backing Guaido. The United States has also imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves. Guaido’s return is a moment of reckoning not only for the opposition leader, whose presence in Venezuela was essential for his movement to regain momentum, but also for Maduro, analysts said. The fact that Guaido was not detained, at least so far, reflects the pressure Maduro faces not to intervene, said Luis Vicente Leon, head of the Caracas-based polling firm Datanalisis. “But it seems to indicate the beginning of a negotiation, local and international, whose details are not yet clear,” Leon said in a tweet. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, did not directly address a question about whether Guaido could face arrest during an interview with Russian state-owned TV channel RT. But she left open the possibility, saying Guaido had broken the law and is “a Venezuelan who conspires with foreign governments to overthrow a constitutional government.” The Maduro government has in the past jailed and driven into exile some of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders, including Leopoldo Lopez, who lives under house arrest and another lawmaker holed up at the home of Chile’s ambassador in the Venezuelan capital. For his part, Maduro has somewhat incongruously urged Venezuelans to enjoy the carnival season, even though most people don’t have the resources to travel to beaches or other holiday spots. On Sunday, he tweeted that Venezuelans nationwide were enjoying the carnival “in peace and happiness.” Among the demonstrators who waited for Guaido at the Caracas rally was Wilfredo Moya, a 55-year-old former construction worker who said Venezuelans hoping for change should be patient. “It’s a long process,” he said.

u.s .
brazil
venezuela
nicolas maduro
juan guaido


Hillary Clinton won't run for president in 2020, but also won't rule out another public role in future

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton says she won’t run for U.S. president in 2020, but vows she’s “not going anywhere.” “I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton said Monday in an interview with News 12, a local TV channel in New York. Clinton was the frontrunner in 2016 but ended up losing to Donald Trump. “I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out,” Clinton said. “I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country, the kinds of things that are happening right now, are deeply troubling to me.” Clinton has held meetings with some of the Democrats who are now vying for the party nomination or considering a run. CNN has reported that they include former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said if he is running. “I’ve told every one of them, don’t take anything for granted, even though we have a long list of real problems and broken promises from this administration that need to be highlighted,” Clinton said. Asked if she would run again for some kind of public office, she seemed to avoid ruling that out. “I don’t think so, but I love living in New York and I’m so grateful that I had the chance to be a senator for eight years and to work with people across our state,” said the former secretary of state and New York senator.

u.s .
elections
hillary clinton
democrats
donald trump
2020 u.s. presidential election


'We could have had chefs': Trump serves up fast food to visiting athletes at White House again

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump didn’t have to change the menu Monday for his second hosting of college athletes at the White House this year: it was time to pile the table with fast food again. Trump greeted the players of the North Dakota State Bison football team in the State Dining Room to celebrate their latest championship in the FCS Division I. “We could have had chefs,” Trump told the players and coaches assembled in front of a varnished table heaped in Big Macs and bags of Chick-fil-A chicken meals. Another table was laden with fries. But “I know you people very well,” Trump said. In January, Trump welcomed another champion U.S. college team, the Clemson Tigers, with what he called an “all American” feast of burgers and pizzas. The president is a noted fan of unhealthy comfort food, defying doctors’ orders to lose weight and also boasting about how little exercise he does. Despite that lifestyle, Trump, 72, passed his annual medical exam in February with flying colors and was declared to be “in very good health.” He certainly wasn’t apologizing for his latest culinary offering. “Go grab yourself something, we can eat right here,” Trump told the North Dakota State Bisons. He joked how he’d like to “have one right up here” at the podium but pointed to the assembled White House journalists and complained “they’ll say: Isn’t it horrible, isn’t it inappropriate?”


As second Canadian minister quits over handling of scandal, Trudeau says he's taking it 'seriously'

Abstract: OTTAWA - In a serious blow to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a second member of his Cabinet resigned on Monday, saying she had lost confidence in how the government had dealt with an escalating political scandal. The departure of recently appointed Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, who was in overall charge of government spending, deprives Trudeau of another powerful female Cabinet minister just months ahead of an election that polls show he could lose. Philpott expressed unhappiness about the government’s response to allegations that officials inappropriately pressured former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to help major construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a corruption trial. “Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised,” Philpott said in a statement. Trudeau told a Liberal Party rally in Toronto that he was disappointed but understood why she had left. “Concerns of this nature must be taken seriously and I can ensure you that I am,” said Trudeau, who did not specifically address Philpott’s stated reasons for leaving. He also thanked her for serving in his Cabinet- something he notably did not do when Wilson-Raybould quit. Philpott is a close friend of Wilson-Raybould, who resigned on Feb. 12 after she was unexpectedly demoted in January. Wilson-Raybould said last week she was convinced her refusal to help SNC-Lavalin was behind the demotion. Andrew Scheer, head of the official opposition Conservative Party, repeated calls for Trudeau to quit amid the “ethical rot” he said was undermining the rule of law. The departure of Philpott, who was appointed on Jan. 14, is another setback for a prime minister who came to power in November 2015 promising “sunny ways,” more accountability in politics and a greater number of women ministers. “What should be worrisome for the Trudeau Liberals is that the two Cabinet resignations have been on issues of principle and ethics,” said Nanos Research pollster Nik Nanos. “The second resignation begs the question — what did happen and could there be more resignations,” he said by email. Other members of the government, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, have said they will stay in the Cabinet. Philpott said evidence of efforts by politicians and officials to pressure Wilson-Raybould had raised serious concerns. Wilson-Raybould tweeted to Philpott that “you are a leader of vision and strength and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you.” Philpott, 58, was widely regarded as one of the best of Trudeau’s Cabinet ministers. She had previously served as minister of health and minister of indigenous services. Most Liberal members of parliament have so far backed Trudeau but there are signs of strain. Legislator Wayne Long said he was “deeply troubled” by Philpott’s departure, and called for a full public inquiry into the matter — something Trudeau has rejected. Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a parliamentarian who is not seeking re-election, tweeted that “when you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised.” Gerald Butts, who quit as Trudeau’s principal secretary last month over the SNC-Lavalin affair, will testify to the House of Commons justice committee on Wednesday. In her testimony to the committee last week, Wilson-Raybould singled out Butts as one official who tried particularly hard to change her mind. Under questioning, she said she did not consider officials had broken any laws.

canada
scandals
justin trudeau
jane philpott


Hundreds quit Islamic State's Baghouz redoubt in lull in fighting amid threat of human shield casualties

Abstract: BAGHOUZ, SYRIA - Hundreds of people, including fighters from the Islamic State group, evacuated their last foothold in eastern Syria Monday hours after U.S.-backed Syrian fighters said they were forced to slow their advance because the extremists are using civilians as human shields. But despite this hindrance, the spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mustafa Bali, tweeted that the battle to retake Baghouz, the last territory in Syria held by the Islamic State group, was “going to be over soon.” Later Monday, an SDF official said some 500 people, including fighters, have surrendered and evacuated the village of Baghouz and its surrounding areas. Ciyager, the nom de guerre of an official with the Kurdish-led SDF, added that 200 more people are expected to evacuate the village of Baghouz later Monday. Dozens of men, women and children climbed hills on foot and were later seen getting into small trucks after they were searched by SDF fighters manning the evacuation corridor. Shortly before sunset, more than 20 cars came out of the area carrying men, women and children some of whom appeared to be foreigners. Some of the men were of fighting age and appeared able while others carried crutches. One woman covered in black flashed a victory sign as she left. An SDF official who goes by Mervan The Brave said many IS gunmen are still inside and prepared to fight. “This is not the end. We may be on the threshold of a new battle,” he said. He said those who left the IS-held area on Monday include people from Bosnia, Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Syria and a man who claims he’s French. An airstrike followed but it was not exactly clear what it targeted. An SDF spokeswoman said the offensive has slowed down but pressure is being kept up away from the corridor to prevent fighters from infiltrating or sabotaging the area. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the press. The U.S.-backed forces resumed their offensive on Baghouz last Friday, after a two-week pause to allow for the evacuation of civilians. Retaking the sliver of land would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to end Islamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” that once straddled a vast territory across both Syria and Iraq. The extremist group continues to be a threat, however, with sleeper cells in scattered desert pockets along the porous border between the two countries. “We’re slowing down the offensive” due to a small number of civilians held as human shields, Bali said. The previous night, an SDF statement said the Kurdish-led forces would continue their military campaign “to take control of the last ISIS-held pocket in Baghouz and to liberate the remaining civilians who are being used as human shields.” ISIS is an alternative acronym for the extremist group. “In order not to harm them, we are advancing slowly but we assert that the battle of Baghouz will end in a short period of time,” it said. IS militants are desperately fighting to hang on to the last tiny piece of land in eastern Syria, deploying snipers and guided missiles and using dug-out tunnels for surprise attacks. On Sunday, black smoke billowed over the besieged speck of land in the village after airstrikes hit several targets. SDF fighters had tightened the noose on the militants the day before, advancing from two fronts and cutting off their access to the river in Baghouz.

conflict
u.s .
terrorism
syria
islamic state
syrian democratic forces
baghouz


Hopes dim for finding missing Italian and British climbers on Pakistan's 'killer' peak

Abstract: ISLAMABAD - Hopes dimmed for two climbers, from Britain and Italy, who went missing in northern Pakistan on a peak known as “killer mountain” as helicopters failed to spot signs of the mountaineers Monday, an army aviation official said. Climbers Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi were last heard from on Feb. 24 as they climbed the Nanga Parbat, which at 8,125 meters (26,660 feet) is the world’s ninth-highest peak. They were attempting a route that has never before been successfully completed. Two helicopters flew a Spanish climbing team from the base of K2 — the world’s second-highest mountain and also in northern Pakistan — to Nanga Parbat Monday afternoon to look for the missing climbers, according to a top army aviation official. He said the helicopters carried out an aerial search with the help of Pakistani mountaineer Rehmatullah Baig — who was climbing with the missing men before turning back — but could not find anything. “The helicopters flew for more than 30 minutes in the targeted area but there was no sign of life,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Baig told AFP the Spanish team would begin a search with drones on Tuesday. Ballard is the son of British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to conquer Mount Everest solo and without bottled oxygen. She died descending K2 in 1995. The search was delayed because rescue teams were forced to wait for permission to send up a helicopter after Pakistan closed its airspace on Wednesday in response to escalating tensions with India.

pakistan
italy
u.k .
mountaineering
climbers
mountains


North Korea's Kim arrives home after 'successfully' wrapping up Trump summit, state media says

Abstract: SEOUL - North Korea’s Kim Jong Un arrived home early Tuesday, state media said, completing his marathon journey through China after his Hanoi summit with U.S. President Donald Trump ended without a nuclear deal. Kim’s return to Pyongyang marked the end of an epic 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey — onboard his olive green armored train — from Vietnam, where his much-hyped second summit with Trump came to an abrupt halt last week. His talks with the U.S. leader were followed by an official visit to Vietnam, with Kim paying tribute to the country’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. “Kim Jong Un … arrived at home on Tuesday after successfully wrapping up his official goodwill visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. “At 3 o’clock in the early morning, his train entered the railway station yard” in Pyongyang, KCNA said, adding that senior officials “greeted him with their ardent congratulations.” A smiling Kim boarded his train at the Dong Dang border station in Vietnam on Saturday, waving to crowds at the station. His route through China was not known, nor was it clear whether he would stop to meet President Xi Jinping along the journey — although it now appears that he did not. Earlier Saturday, Kim made a highly unusual stop at the stark concrete monument where the body of Vietnam’s independence hero Ho Chi Minh is on display. On historic North Korean anniversaries, Kim regularly pays tribute to his predecessors, his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, at the sprawling memorial palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang where their preserved remains lie in state. But he is not known to have previously done anything similar for a foreign leader. Kim’s trip to Vietnam was the first by a North Korean leader since 1964, when Kim Il Sung also travelled by rail for his journey to the southeast Asian nation. Talks between Kim and Trump in Hanoi finished abruptly, with a signing ceremony scrapped after the pair failed to reach an agreement on walking back North Korea’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. In the aftermath, each sought to blame the other’s intransigence for the deadlock. Trump insisted Pyongyang wanted all sanctions imposed on it over its banned weapons programs lifted, and that this was a bridge too far. But in a rare late-night press briefing, the North Korean foreign minister said Pyongyang had only wanted some of the measures eased, and that its proposal to close “all the nuclear production facilities” at its Yongbyon complex was its best and final offer. Despite the stalemate, both sides said they were open to further talks, though a third summit has not been scheduled.

china
u.s .
north korea
vietnam
kim jong un
xi jinping
hanoi
donald trump


'Human security' in focus at U.N. symposium cosponsored by Japan

Abstract: NEW YORK - A recent high-level symposium at the United Nations hosted by Japan and other member states emphasized “human security,” tracing the framework’s evolution through decades of U.N. efforts to cope with humanitarian and environmental crises around the world. The event, which took place on Feb. 28 at the U.N. headquarters, coincided with the 25th anniversary since human security as a paradigm for state decision-making first appeared in a landmark United Nations Development Program report. It also marked the 20th anniversary of the Japan-led effort to establish a trust fund supporting a “people-centered approach” when providing for those in need. Since that time, the concept has grown and been defined in greater detail, including in a 2012 General Assembly resolution describing it as “the right of people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair.” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, one of the event’s two keynote speakers, outlined the influence of human security in shaping the international body’s 2030 agenda and the 17 objectives that make up its Sustainable Development Goals. “There is no question the power of human security remains so acute and relevant today because it is an integrated tool,” Steiner said, calling it “identical” to the SDGs in tackling complex, interrelated issues that stand in the way of development. The goals, meant to be achieved by 2030, were crafted to prompt simultaneous efforts to help lift millions out of poverty, improve health and education, protect the environment and more. Yukio Sato, the event’s other keynote speaker, served as Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations from the late 1990s. He was instrumental in bringing forward the human security concept while working with other diplomats and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Sato spoke of a paper on human security that he prepared for Non-Aligned Movement members in the lead-up to the international body’s widely touted Millennium Summit. The principles laid out by the ambassador gained influence through that September 2000 meeting of world leaders, whose group declaration paved the way for the later adoption of the Millennium Development Goals. These eight goals included halving poverty and stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS within 15 years. Recalling a 2004 visit by Annan to the Diet, Sato said the U.N. chief credited Japan’s technology and its “focus on human security” as instrumental in establishing the MDGs. “Human security was meant to ensure the safety and survival of individuals and protection of their dignity,” he explained. “We also pointed out that the threats to human security varied broadly — from poverty to conflicts, from environmental degradation to displacement of people, from land mines, small arms, terrorism, organized crimes to infectious diseases and drugs and so forth. Natural disasters would also pose serious threats to security in our view.” Nearly two decades after that summit, Sato noted the world is still “rife” with a range of threats and said that efforts “to enhance human security should remain the central focus to achieve the SDGs.” Japan’s Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Toshiya Hoshino also made remarks stressing the importance of human security in addressing today’s global challenges. “With our collaborative efforts through the application of human security, we can greatly contribute to realize the future where people everywhere can thrive and prosper,” he said. The 90-minute program, which also included a panel discussion, was sponsored by the missions of Japan, Norway, Thailand and South Africa, as well as the U.N.’s Human Security Unit and UNDP.


Hitachi told to improve or else after its firms are caught again deploying foreign trainees illegally

Abstract: Hitachi Ltd. and its 10 group firms have been slapped with improvement orders for using foreign trainees illegally, including paying them less than the minimum wage, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. It is the second time in eight months that Hitachi has come under scrutiny for the way it employs and deploys trainees. The Organization for Technical Intern Training carried out inspections at 12 plants between April and September last year. It found technical interns engaged in work outside the remit of their training programs, in violation of a law on the government-sponsored program, the sources said. If the OTIT finds Hitachi firms have not taken sufficient steps to improve the situation, it will report the cases to the justice and labor ministries, and their training programs could be withdrawn. The technical internship, introduced in 1993 to transfer skills to people from developing countries in Japan, has faced criticism at home and abroad over perceptions it is used as a cover for companies to import cheap labor. Many companies depend on the trainees amid a severe labor crunch in the rapidly graying country, but long working hours and harsh conditions have been reported by recruits. Hitachi denied having paid the trainees below the minimum wage but did admit receiving an advisory for improvement and instruction from the OTIT. “We have already implemented improvement measures and reported them to the OTIT,” Hitachi’s public relations and investor relations office said, while declining to elaborate on the instructions its firms have received. In July last year, the Justice Ministry and OTIT conducted a joint investigation at Hitachi’s Kasado train factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture over allegations it assigned interns to tasks other than those prescribed in their training programs. Authorities including the Justice Ministry, which supervises the technical intern training program, are considering taking disciplinary action against Hitachi over the Kasado plant case. At that factory, 99 Philippine trainees were fired last fall after their training programs failed to obtain approval from the government, preventing the renewal of their visas as technical interns. In December, the OTIT approved training programs for 26 of them, allowing their reemployment as trainees performing welding work. For the remaining 73, originally accepted as electric equipment assembly trainees, a decision was not made at that point, and 46 of them returned to the Philippines.

labor laws
jobs
justice ministry
hitachi
foreign trainees
otit


Japan plans drone ban over U.S. military and SDF facilities, but media fear restrictions on reporting

Abstract: The government on Tuesday approved a bill to revise the drone regulation law to prohibit the flying of drones over U.S. military bases and Self-Defense Forces’ facilities as part of its measures to prevent terrorist attacks using drones. The government plans to submit the bill to the current Diet session, but news organizations are protesting the move on the grounds it could potentially disrupt newsgathering. Under the bill, the government would also ban drones from flying over venues for this year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. During those sporting events, only drones controlled by the media providing coverage would be allowed to fly over the venues. Under the existing law, Japan already prohibits drone flights over key facilities such as the Prime Minister’s Office and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The bill on the law revision stipulates a drone flight ban over and within a 300-meter radius of U.S. military and SDF facilities as designated by the defense minister. Police officers and SDF personnel will be allowed to destroy drones operating in restricted zones without permission. Violators face imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to ¥500,000. Last month, the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association — funded and operated by daily newspapers, news agencies and broadcasters — submitted a written statement to the government arguing the revised law could “substantially restrict news coverage activities and infringe on the people’s right to know.”

media
censorship
terrorism
drones
u.s. bases
self defense forces


Japan relaxes rules on iPS cell research, potentially paving way for growth of human organs in animals

Abstract: The green light has been given to a controversial research process that involves implanting human stem cells inside animals and could eventually lead to growing human organs for transplant inside animal hosts. The decision by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on Friday to revise its guidelines means researchers in Japan can now apply for permits to carry out studies employing the technique, a ministry official said. The process involves implanting embryonic animals — probably pigs first — with human “induced pluripotent stem” cells, which can transform into the building blocks of any part of the body. The idea is for the iPS cells to grow into transplantable human organs inside the animal embryos. Japan had previously required researchers to terminate animal embryos implanted with human cells after 14 days “due to ethical concerns over the vague line between human beings and animals,” the official said. The old regulations also prevented researchers from placing the embryos into animal wombs to allow them to develop. But the ministry has dropped both restrictions “as we have concluded that there is technically zero risk of producing a new organism mixing human and animal elements under the research,” the official added. Researchers will now, for instance, be allowed to create a pig embryo with a human pancreas and transplant it into the womb of an adult pig, which could in theory result in the birth of a baby pig with a human pancreas. In practice, where similar research has been carried out elsewhere, the embryos have been terminated before delivery, avoiding the thorny moral issues raised by creating creatures that contain both human and animal cells. Research involving the hybrids — sometimes called “chimeras” after the monster in Greek mythology with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a dragon’s tail — has been controversial elsewhere too. Ethical questions have been raised about the status of animals containing human cells, and whether human iPS cells implanted into animals could develop into brain matter or reproductive organs. But a shortage of transplantable human organs means researchers around the world are racing to create mixed human-animal embryos nonetheless.

medicine animals ips transplants pigs mext


South Korea taps new ambassador for Japan

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea has named a former National Security Office official as its next ambassador to Japan as part of its regular spring reshuffle of senior diplomats, according to local media reports. Yonhap News Agency and other media reported that the government has tapped Nam Gwan-pyo, who recently stepped down as deputy chief of the NSO, to replace Ambassador Lee Su-hoon. Nam, 62, was first secretary of the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo between 1992 and 1995 and also served as ambassador to Hungary and Sweden. He handled treaty issues while working at the Foreign Ministry, thereby gaining experience that could be helpful in addressing current legal issues with Japan arising from its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. One focal point in the recent downturn in bilateral relations has been Supreme Court rulings in South Korea ordering Japanese firms to compensate for wartime forced labor, which Japan sees as a breach of a 1965 pact that settled the issue of compensation “finally and completely.” The two governments have also verbally clashed over an incident in which a South Korean warship allegedly locked its fire-control radar on a Japanese patrol plane, as well as Seoul’s accusations of extremely low flights over its ships by the Self-Defense Forces. Another recent flash point was comments made by South Korea’s National Assembly speaker seeking an Imperial apology to resolve a dispute over women who provided sex — including those against their will — for Japanese troops before and during World War II. But in a speech last Friday marking the 100th anniversary of the launch of a popular uprising against Japanese colonial rule, President Moon Jae-in refrained from direct criticism of Japan in an apparent effort not to aggravate tensions further. He pledged to beef up cooperation with Japan to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula “We cannot change the past but can transform the future,” he said. “When Korea and Japan firmly join hands while reflecting on history, the era of peace will approach our side with large strides. When the pain of victims is substantively healed through concerted efforts, Korea and Japan will become genuine friends with heart-to-heart understanding.”

comfort women
wartime labor
south korea-japan relations
nam gwan pyo


Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike grilled for abandoning plan for 'food theme park' at Tsukiji fish market site

Abstract: Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike came under fire at a committee meeting of the metropolitan assembly on Monday over the metropolitan government’s plan to redevelop the former Tsukiji market site. Assembly members from the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party argued that a recently published draft of the redevelopment plan, featuring the establishment of an international convention center, is inconsistent with Koike’s earlier proposal to keep some market functions at the Tsukiji site. “We haven’t necessarily changed our policy,” Koike told the assembly meeting, suggesting that the proposal is aimed at utilizing the food culture associated with the Tsukiji brand. The redevelopment plan is set to be adopted later this month and implemented in stages after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The plan is likely to attract attention in the next Tokyo gubernatorial election, expected to take place shortly before the 2020 Games. In August 2016, soon after she took office, Koike announced a postponement of the market relocation — then scheduled for November that year — from the Tsukiji area in Chuo Ward to the Toyosu district in neighboring Koto Ward, citing concerns about soil contamination in Toyosu and other reasons. In June 2017, Koike declared that the metropolitan government would carry out the market relocation in October 2018, after taking additional measures against the pollution. At the same time, the governor revealed a basic policy of using the Tsukiji site as a “food theme park” where existing businesses would be allowed to continue to operate. In the following month, the Koike-backed Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) performed strongly in a Tokyo assembly election, while the LDP’s share of assembly seats sank to a record low. The new Toyosu market was opened last October, and the metropolitan government released the draft Tsukiji redevelopment plan in January. But the LDP and others criticized Koike for a “breach of faith” in relation to the plan, as well as an abrupt policy change, during the assembly meeting on Monday. “We’ll develop a new face of Tokyo with innovative and international features, making full use of the capacities of the private sector,” Koike said. “We’ll create a new Tokyo brand,” the governor added, while not mentioning any commitment to maintaining the established Tsukiji brand.

tokyo
tsukiji
yuriko koike
toyosu
tokyo assembly


Head of Japan's ground forces discusses defense cooperation with Philippine counterpart

Abstract: MANILA - The chief of staff of the Ground Self-Defense Force met with his Philippine counterpart on Monday and discussed defense cooperation and regional security. Gen. Koji Yamazaki held talks with Maj. Gen. Macairog Alberto at the Philippine Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, one of two military forts in Manila. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said they discussed regional security, including the situation in the South China Sea, and other issues of mutual concern. “It encompasses all, not just disputes, but also terrorism,” Zagala said. He said they also discussed such matters as humanitarian and disaster response, joint logistical training plans and plans for the Philippines to acquire defense equipment from Japan essential to logistics and logistics support. Yamazaki’s visit highlights the continuing good relationship between the two countries, both of which are facing mounting security concerns in their surrounding seas, officials said. His four-day visit will include a trip to the Philippine Army’s largest military installation, Fort Magsaysay in the northern province of Nueva Ecija.

philippines
gsdf
ground self-defense force


Evidence suggests Tokyo Medical University rigged scores for donors' relatives, panel says

Abstract: A third-party panel probing admission irregularities at Tokyo Medical University strongly suspects there was a relation between donations and some score adjustments. According to an additional report released by the university on Monday, the names of 11 successful entrance exam takers were included in a memo created by Masahiko Usui, former chairman of the university’s board of regents. Also on the memo were numbers written alongside 10 of the 11 names, with some of those corresponding to donations made by the applicants’ relatives. The 10 exam takers were admitted to the university while people related to them made donations to the institution. The donation amounts matched the numbers on the memo for five of the 10 applicants. The remaining applicant, for whom no figure was on the memo, was also admitted to the university although no donations were made. For two of the 11 applicants, for whom the memo cited the figures of “10 million,” it is “strongly suspected” that talks related to donations took place before the announcement of successful exam takers, the report said. The amount of donations made by the relatives of the 10 applicants totaled ¥141 million, with each paying between ¥3 million and ¥30 million. Score-rigging may have been carried out for seven of the 11 applicants, according to the report. The possibility cannot be ruled out that alumni of the university were aware of “unwritten rules” that massive donations should be made to the university if some consideration is sought from the applicant’s side, as well as if they actually pass the tests and are enrolled in the university, the report noted. The report revealed that email exchanges between Usui and a parent of an applicant showed a promise of donations. In one of the emails, Usui replied to the parent to “prepare 3 million (before the exam), and make another big one after being enrolled.” The parent is believed to be an alumni of the university and had sounded out Usui about donations in an e-mail. A subsequent email showed that the parent actually made the donation of ¥3 million. The report also said that members of the panel tried to conduct a hearing with a then-lawmaker who is suspected of asking for a favor from Usui and then helping an applicant be accepted as an additional successful test taker in the fiscal 2013 entrance exam for the university’s school of nursing. But the then-lawmaker rejected the hearing, noting that a criminal case involving people including Usui is ongoing, according to the report. Tokyo Medical University late last year released a final report on the investigation of the admission scandal. But the education ministry urged the university to conduct an additional probe. The university has been under fire since revelations emerged last year that it has been altering entrance exam results to exclude some women.

corruption
universities
scandals
medical schools
tokyo medical university


Japan getting more Muslim prayer rooms, but some are seeing only limited use

Abstract: HIROSHIMA - With an increase in Muslim visitors to Japan, more prayer rooms are being installed in commercial facilities across the country, but the number of users remains limited due to reasons such as lack of awareness and difficulty of access. The prayer rooms are often equipped with a washing area for cleaning hands and feet before prayers, and a sign indicating the direction of prayer. According to the operator of a website providing information for Muslims, there are about 170 prayer rooms in Japan, and the number is increasing as more tourists visit Japan from Southeast Asia. Travelers from Malaysia and Indonesia, which both have large Muslim populations, totaled around 700,000 in 2017, a sevenfold increase from a decade earlier, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. As more prayer rooms open up, making the most of them remains a challenge, however. A prayer room installed recently in a shopping mall in Hiroshima Prefecture has been used only two or three times a month. Some customers misunderstood the purpose of the room and tried to use it as a place to rest. “It is difficult to promote the room,” an official of the facility said. At LaLaport Expocity, a major shopping mall in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, a prayer room has been used not only by travelers but also people working in the area since the mall opened in 2015. It gets about 30 uses a month. “The news has spread through word of mouth and the number of users has been rising,” said Sachiko Kato, who manages the room. But there is room for improvement. People who want to use the room have to ask staff at the service counter to unlock it, and this instruction is written in English and Japanese only. “It is hard to leave the room open because it is located where many people come and go,” Kato said. Ken Miichi, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies of Waseda University, pointed out that just increasing the number of prayer rooms is not enough. “First we need to understand why (the rooms) are necessary by learning (Muslim) customs and culture, and then develop an environment where people can use them easily,” Miichi said.


Moomins are settling in Saitama: Cuddly characters' first theme park in Japan to open March 16

Abstract: SAITAMA - An amusement park themed on the world of Finland’s Moomin fairy-tale characters will open March 16 in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, its operator said Tuesday. The 7.3-hectare Moominvalley Park — the first Moomin-themed amusement park in Japan — is located within Metsa Village, a Nordic-centric attraction in the city of Hanno, according to the operator Moomin Monogatari Ltd. Visitors will be able to watch shows that feature the characters from the stories and visit an exhibition that provides insight into the series’ creator, Tove Jansson. The Moomin characters, created by the Finnish author-illustrator, boomed in popularity in Japan when an animated television series starring the white hippopotamus-like creatures debuted in 1969. Tickets cost ¥1,500 ($13) for those of junior high school age and above, and ¥1,000 for those at elementary school or age 4 and above.

children
saitama
theme parks
moomin
tove jansson
moomins
hanno
moominvalley park
metsa village


In first, liquid baby formula released in Japan

Abstract: OSAKA - Japanese food-maker Ezaki Glico Co. on Tuesday released a liquid baby formula product, the first of its kind in the country. Liquid baby formula is useful in the event of disasters as it can be stored at room temperature for a long time and does not require hot water, unlike powdered baby milk. But it was only in August last year that the health ministry lifted a ban on the manufacturing and sales of liquid baby formula in the country. The ban had been in place since long before sanitary problems were solved. As the ready-to-drink products are good for use outside the home, they are expected to help reduce the burden on families raising children. Ezaki Glico obtained the permission needed for the sale of such products from the Consumer Affairs Agency on Tuesday. The company released a 125-milliliter pack of liquid baby formula, priced at ¥216, on its online shopping site. The product can be stored for six months at room temperature. Ezaki Glico will sell the item at drugstores and baby products stores across the nation in stages, starting Monday. Rival Meiji Co., a unit of Meiji Holdings Co., which also received permission on Tuesday, will launch its own baby formula product in the near future.


Former Takata employees accused of insider trading

Abstract: The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has accused nine former employees of Takata Corp. of insider stock trading in connection with the firm’s bankruptcy. The commission recommended Friday that the Financial Services Agency impose a total of ¥7.73 million in fines on the former Takata employees for violating the financial instruments and exchange law. The former employees sold Takata shares after they learned that the company would announce its bankruptcy plan on June 26, 2017, and evaded losses totaling ¥7.39 million as a result, the SESC said. Takata, which had controlled 20 percent of the global air bag market, fell into financial difficulty due to recalls mainly in the United States of its rupture-prone products. It left debts of over ¥1 trillion.


Seven-Eleven Japan to test shorter operating hours at 10 corporate-run stores

Abstract: Seven-Eleven Japan Co. will test shorter operating hours at 10 of its corporate-run convenience stores across the country from mid-March. The chain said Friday it will conduct such a test for the first time, as frustration builds among some franchisees over its policy of keeping stores open around the clock. The 10 Seven-Eleven stores, spread nationwide, including in Tokyo and Miyagi, Tochigi, Chiba, Aichi, Hyogo, Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures, will operate between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily in the coming months. The Seven & I Holdings Co. unit will consider whether to permanently introduce shorter hours after analyzing the results, including on sales, visitor numbers and logistics. Currently, 96 percent of all Seven-Eleven stores operate 24 hours a day, with those located inside train stations, office buildings and other facilities being the primary exceptions. The company has stuck to its around-the-clock policy, fearing that some stores with shorter opening hours could affect the overall efficiency of its production and distribution system. But there are growing calls to allow shorter hours, due mainly to difficulties in securing the necessary number of workers for the night shift. Among other major convenience store operators, Lawson Inc. and FamilyMart Co., a unit of FamilyMart Uny Holdings Co., currently allow some stores to have shorter opening hours. Many smaller chains, including Secoma Co. and Poplar Co., allow stores to close overnight.

seven & i holdings
convenience stores
seven-eleven japan


Trump asks China to immediately remove agricultural tariffs

Abstract: WASHINGTON/DENVER - President Donald Trump said he has asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on U.S. agriculture, including beef and pork, citing progress in trade talks between the two nations. In making the demand, Trump noted in a tweet Friday that he refrained from increasing U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent on March 1, as he said he would in the absence of progress toward an agreement. Faxes and phone calls to China’s ministries of commerce and foreign affairs, and the office in charge of trade talks, went unanswered Saturday outside office hours. China imposed retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural products last year. But Trump did not indicate that his demand was limited to those penalties. It’s unclear what effect Trump’s demand could have on ongoing talks, which the president signaled earlier this week were moving toward an agreement. American officials are preparing a final trade deal that Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping could sign within weeks, people familiar with the matter have said, even as a debate continues in Washington over whether to push the Beijing government for more concessions. Trump, speaking to reporters in Hanoi Thursday after a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, said: “Speaking of China we’re very well on our way to doing something special. But we’ll see.” “I am always prepared to walk,” he said. “I’m never afraid to walk from a deal, and I would do that with China, too, if it didn’t work out.” If China were to remove the tariffs, it would likely be a huge boon to U.S. crop markets that have been caught in the trade war crossfire. Soybean, pork and ethanol shipments have all languished amid the duties. China is a key destination for most of the world’s biggest agriculture markets. Farmers and lawmakers have long decried the tariffs, and the U.S. agriculture economy has suffered under the weight of falling crop prices. China has already made some good-faith purchases of American soybeans after declaring a trade truce with the U.S. in December. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said more soybean purchases were coming. Ending the tariffs would dovetail with a proposal by Beijing to buy an additional $30 billion a year of American agricultural products including corn, soybeans and wheat as part of a possible agreement. “The markets are a little tired of some of the ups and downs and the eight or 12-hour news cycle of tweets,” said Greg Grow, the director of agribusiness at Archer Financial Services in Chicago. “The market needs to see some confirmation of a deal getting done. If this is a confirmation, and we start to see agreements that are signed, we’ll see a positive reaction for prices. But we need to see confirmation of the news,” Grow said in a telephone interview on Friday. The preparations for a Trump-Xi summit come amid conflicting signals from the Trump administration over the prospect of a deal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday the two nations are working on a 150-page document that would turn into a “very detailed agreement,” though he cautioned that “we still have more work to do.” Speaking shortly before Mnuchin, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the countries are on the verge of an “historic” pact that would commit Beijing to cut subsidies on state-owned companies and disclose when its central bank intervenes in currency markets. His optimism came just a day after Trump’s top trade negotiator struck a more cautious tone. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that more work needs to be done and said the administration won’t accept a deal that doesn’t include significant “structural” changes to China’s state-driven economy. He also stressed the need for a enforcement mechanism, allowing the U.S. to take unilateral action if China breaks the rules.


German carmakers will invest €60 billion in electric cars, automation over next three years: auto executive

Abstract: FRANKFURT, GERMANY - Germany’s car industry is to invest nearly €60 billion ($68 billion) over the next three years on electric cars and automated driving, the head of the VDA car industry association said ahead of the Geneva motor show. “We will invest over €40 billion in electric mobility during the next three years, and another €18 billion will be invested in digitization and connected and automated driving,” VDA President Bernhard Mattes said in a statement Saturday. The range of electric car models from German manufacturers will treble to around 100 in that period, he said. The Geneva International Motor Show, where manufacturers showcase their latest models and concepts, runs from Thursday until March 17. “The ramp-up of electric mobility is coming in Europe,” Mattes said. “Without it, the EU’s CO2 targets cannot be achieved by 2030,” he added, calling for what he labeled appropriate regulatory conditions across Europe. Germany, together with a few other major European economies, is set to have a much higher share of electric vehicles among its new registrations than the EU average, he said. Charging infrastructure for electric cars must be expanded and incentives offered to buyers of e-cars, he said.


Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani set to be big winner in Lyft's impending initial public offering

Abstract: NEW YORK/LONDON - A Japanese retail billionaire, rather than a Silicon Valley wunderkind, is the biggest beneficiary of Lyft Inc.’s impending initial public offering. Hiroshi ‘Mickey’ Mikitani’s e-commerce group Rakuten Inc. owns 13.1 percent of the ride-hailing company, offering documents show. That would be worth more than $2.9 billion if Lyft goes public with a valuation in the middle of its anticipated range of $20 billion to $25 billion. Rakuten, Japan’s largest online retailer, owns an eclectic assortment of side businesses including a professional baseball team and a bus service. It first invested in Lyft in 2015, acquiring an 11.9 percent stake for $300 million. ‘We have seen the future and this is it,’ Mikitani, now 53, said at the time. Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a Lyft investor since 2013, is the second-largest owner with a 6.3 percent holding that would be worth about $1.4 billion. The stake held by Lyft’s actual wunderkinds, co-founders John Zimmer, 34, a former Lehman Brothers analyst, and Logan Green, 35, is relatively small after multiple dilutive funding rounds. Green, Lyft’s chief executive officer, and Zimmer, its president, each hold shares worth about $113 million at the middle valuation. By contrast, Travis Kalanick, who helped launch rival Uber Technologies Inc., owns 7 percent of that business even after selling almost a third of his stake last year. He and fellow co-founder Garrett Camp are both billionaires, given Uber’s $72 billion private-market valuation. It has already been a lucrative year for Rakuten founder Mikitani, Japan’s sixth-richest person with a $4.9 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has climbed by $680 million in 2019, fueled by a 20 percent surge in Rakuten shares. Rakuten also owns a stake in Middle East ride-hailing firm Careem, which is in advanced talks to be acquired by Uber in a potential $3 billion deal, people familiar with the matter said earlier this week.

stocks
hiroshi mikitani
rakuten
ipos
lyft


Russian physics Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alferov dies aged 88

Abstract: MOSCOW - Zhores Alferov, the 2000 Noble Prize winner in physics and a member of the Russian parliament, has died aged 88 in St. Petersburg, the Russian Communist Party said Saturday. Alferov shared the nearly $1 million award, which recognized his research work in the 1970s in information technology — which paved the way for computers, CD players and mobile telephones — with two U.S. scientists, Herbert Kroemer and Jack Kilby. A staunch believer in communism, Alferov was born in 1930 in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. He was a member of the party faction in the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. His work won him many scientific awards and he was an honorary member of research institutions including the American National Academy of Sciences. He was the first Russian to win a Nobel Prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev won the peace prize in 1990. Alferov was named after a French socialist, Jean Jaures, while his older brother was named Marx after Karl Marx, a German philosopher and socialist revolutionary. Marx was killed during World War II. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Alferov noted that physics had brought both benefits and disasters to mankind in the 20th century and warned that the mass media could be abused in the wrong hands. “Knowledge is power, but power must be based on knowledge,” he said. Alferov recalled his years of research into lasers in St Petersburg on a light-hearted note in verse: “Our purpose was both great and bright no more the dark! Let there be light! So to release eternal light we did the work all day and night. And when we could neither work nor think we had the Russian vodka drink . . .”

science
mikhail gorbachev
nobel prize
karl marx
zhores alferov


Easter Islanders seek outside help for iconic statues' 'leprosy'

Abstract: EASTER, ISLAND CHILE - In just 100 years, the emblematic stone sculptures that guard the coastline of Easter Island could be little more than simple rectangular blocks, conservation experts are warning. Carved centuries ago, the heads represent the ancestors of Easter Island’s Polynesian people, the Rapa Nui, and have brought it UNESCO World Heritage site status. Dozens of giant Moai statues dominate the hillsides surrounding the island’s Rano Raraku wetland, but they are facing the threat of what locals describe as a kind of leprosy: white spots that are appearing on their iconic facades. Caused by lichens, a marriage of fungi and algae, the patches eat away at the sculptures, softening them to a clay-like consistency and deforming their features. The statues must also contend with coastal erosion, rising sea levels, high winds and damage from freely roaming livestock. “I imagine that in a century more, these Moai will basically be rectangular figures,” said Tahira Edmunds, adviser to Chile’s National Forestry Corp., who has worked on cleaning the sculptures to remove the lichen. Archaeologist Sonia Haoa, an Easter Island native, is compiling an inventory of its heritage, including the Moai. She estimates that about 70 percent of the more than 1,000 statues are affected by lichens. Although the deterioration can appear shocking to visitors who flock to the volcanic island 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) from mainland Chile, Haoa said it is still possible to save them through laborious cleaning and coating with sealant chemicals to curb moisture and prevent the porous volcanic rock from collapsing. The most famous Moai groupings — such as the Ahu Tongariki, 15 statues arranged along a platform by the sea, and those scattered around the source of the stone, the Ranu Raraku quarry — are already being cared for by heritage experts and the indigenous community’s administrators of the Easter Island tourism park. But the island has at least 30,000 archaeological sites spread across its 166 square kilometers (64 square miles), most of which are exposed to the environment. Protecting all the statues could cost as much as $500 million, and international help will be needed, according to local authorities and experts. “You will never be able to entirely prevent the impact of time or the weather, but you can hold it back so that more people can see them first,” Haoa said. With no government fund specifically dedicated to preserving the island’s heritage, the community allocates a large part of its income from tourism to repair and protection. They say resources are scarce. The mayor of Easter Island has come up with an innovative solution: seeking royalty payments from nations whose explorers took some of Easter Island’s statues into their possession centuries ago. Among them is the Hoa Hakananai’a, a 7-foot-tall (2.1-meter) basalt statue that has become one of the British Museum’s most popular exhibits since it was removed from the island by British sailors more than 150 years ago. The Easter Island authorities and the Chilean government sent a delegation to London in November to request the return of the 4-ton statue. The museum responded that it was happy to consider a long-term loan of the Moai. Mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa instead suggested the Hoa Hakananai’a could act as an “ambassador” for Easter Island, and Britain could keep it in return for regular payments to ensure the upkeep of its Easter Island counterparts. “We would win much more,” he said. Although Easter Island’s heritage is more than just statues, their celebrity could be the key to sustaining it all. “What do you leave to a 10-year-old boy, what will there be in Easter Island for the European or Chilean tourist to come see if we don’t save them?” Paoa asked. “It’s the only oil well we have.”

archaeology
sculptures
world heritage
easter island


In dress rehearsal for manned space flights, SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully separates from rocket

Abstract: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon astronaut capsule was on its way to the International Space Station on Saturday after it successfully launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket. With only a dummy named Ripley on board, the launch was a dress rehearsal for the first manned test flight — scheduled for later this year with two NASA astronauts. The rocket blasted off without incident at 2:49 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, lighting up Florida’s coastline. Eleven minutes later, the confirmation came from SpaceX mission control: “Dragon separation confirmed.” That triggered cheers at the firm’s headquarters and at the Kennedy Space Center. The capsule is scheduled to reach the ISS by Sunday at around 1100 GMT, with a return to Earth next Friday. It will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, from where it will be brought back to Cape Canaveral. In another success, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on a platform 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) off the Florida coast in the Atlantic. It marks the 35th such recovery by SpaceX. After its shuttle program was shuttered in July 2011 following a 30-year run, NASA’s manned flights came to an end. Since then, it has been buying seats in Russian Soyuz rockets — the only ones capable of transporting humans there. Keeping its options open, the U.S. space agency in 2014 awarded contracts to both SpaceX and Boeing for them to take over this task. Boeing’s Starliner capsule will be tested in April at the earliest.

u.s .
nasa
space
russia
international space station
cape canaveral
space-x


Wounded and alone, children emerge from last Islamic State enclave

Abstract: DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, SYRIA - Hareth Najem fled Islamic State’s last enclave in eastern Syria wounded and alone. The Iraqi orphan’s family had died two years earlier in airstrikes across the border in al-Qaim region. “I had two brothers and a sister. They all died, and then I was by myself,” Hareth said, tears filling his eyes. “My little sister, I loved her a lot. I used to take her with me to the market.” Lying in a cattle truck beside another injured boy at a desert transit point for U.S.-backed forces, he huddled under a blanket. His face was covered in dirt and the side of his head wrapped with bandages covering wounds incurred days earlier. Hareth was 11 years old when Islamic State (IS) carved out its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, killing thousands of civilians and attracting an array of enemies that have fought from the air and on the ground to uproot the jihadis. Now 16, he was among the children swept up this past week in the civilian evacuation of Baghouz, the last shred of land under the jihadis’ control where they are on the brink of defeat at the hands of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Some of the children are foreigners whose parents brought them to be raised under IS rule, or child fighters conscripted into what the group dubbed “cubs of the caliphate.” Others, including members of the Yazidi minority, were enslaved by the jihadis. Many have seen their parents die in the fighting or be detained by rival forces. As the IS faces territorial defeat, their fate remains uncertain. The SDF investigates all men and teenage boys arriving from Baghouz to determine possible IS links. Around 20 children crossed the frontline on their own over the last few days, including Iraqis, Syrians, Turks and Indonesians, said Adnan Afrin, an SDF commander. The fathers of some were identified as IS fighters and arrested immediately. “These kids have nobody. They need somebody to take care of them, to provide mental health support,” said Afrin, adding that some had gone hungry for a long time. The SDF plans to hand over the children to aid groups, he said. Hareth said his family had been running a market stall when IS overran their town and they had no links to the group. After his family was killed in an aerial bombardment, he crossed into Syria with other Iraqis who feared Shiite Muslim militias advancing against IS forces would take revenge on Sunnis — a fear that other Iraqis have cited as their reason for entering IS-held Syria. Hareth said he tried to avoid the jihadis and denies attending their schools or receiving military training. Their morality police would sometimes arrest and whip him. “They gave speeches at the mosques, jihad and whatnot,” he said. “I was scared of them. My whole family died because of them.” When he reached Baghouz, he worked in a field in return for a room to sleep in. He tried saving enough money to go home, but said the militants stopped him. Hareth was wounded recently when a shell fell near where he was standing along the Euphrates River, injuring his ear, hand and stomach. He wants to get medical care and return to relatives still in Iraq. “I want to go look for them. . . . When I get better and my body recovers, when I can walk,” he said. “I want to go back, to become a young man again, to build a future again.”


Mountain lion strangled by Colorado man was orphaned cougar cub

Abstract: DENVER - The mountain lion strangled by a Colorado man after it attacked him on a jogging trail last month was a young cub, weighing no more than 40 pounds (18 kg) and likely orphaned but not starving, state wildlife officials said on Friday. The encounter between the young predator and Travis Kauffman garnered international headlines when authorities revealed that the 31-year-old man had not only survived a rare mountain lion attack but had suffocated the cat by stepping on its throat. A necropsy — the animal equivalent of an autopsy — showed the cougar was 4 to 5 months old, based on the condition of its teeth, and the results confirmed Kauffman’s account of the struggle, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a statement. “The cause of death was determined to be … blunt trauma and strangulation,” the agency said. Kauffman recounted his harrowing tale at a news conference on Feb. 14. He said on Feb. 4, he was jogging on the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of Denver, when he heard pine needles rustling and turned to see a cougar staring him down. “I was bummed out to see a mountain lion,” he told reporters. The environmental consultant said he raised his arms and yelled, but the cougar pounced, clamping its jaws on his right wrist, and slashing his face and neck with its claws. During the three-minute struggle, Kauffman said he unsuccessfully tried to dislodge the cat by hitting it with a rock and stabbing it with sticks. Ultimately he was able to get on top of the cat and place his foot on its throat until it stopped thrashing. Kauffman suffered multiple lacerations but no permanent injuries. He could not be reached for comment on Friday. Veterinarians who performed the necropsy could not determine the gender or precise size of the dead cat because other animals had fed on the carcass by the time rangers reached it. But the examiners surmised the cougar was likely a male that weighed between 35 pounds and 40 pounds (16 and 18 kg), authorities said. Parks and Wildlife spokesman Jason Clay told Reuters that mountain lions normally stay with their mothers for 12 to 18 months before striking out on their own, and two other cubs believed to be from the same litter were later trapped. The cats were taken to an animal rehabilitation facility to give them a better chance for survival when they are released back into the wild at some point, Clay said.


Brazil to launch corruption probe into Vale dam disaster

Abstract: BRASILIA - Brazil’s authorities will investigate miner Vale SA over possible corruption in misleading officials about the safety of its dam that burst and killed hundreds, a spokeswoman for the Mines and Energy Ministry said on Friday. If found to have violated Brazil’s 2013 anti-corruption law, Vale could face a fine of up to 20 percent of its 2018 gross revenue. In 2017, the company reported 109 billion reals ($28.79 billion) in revenue and net income of 17.6 billion reals. Vale is due to report fourth-quarter 2018 earnings on March 27. Bloomberg first reported that the ministry’s mining secretary Alexandre Vidigal de Oliveira said in an interview that he had requested an investigation be opened into whether Vale had colluded with auditors to misrepresent the safety of the dam. Vale shares fell as much as 5.4 percent after that report was published, before partly recovering to be down 0.4 percent in early afternoon trading. Vale said in a securities filing on Friday that it had not been informed of the investigation and denied that any of its actions could fall under the scope of the anti-corruption law. The company said it has always acted within the law and denied any interference in the government’s oversight of dams. A tailings dam at Vale’s Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais burst on Jan. 25, releasing a torrent of mining waste that buried its workers and local residents. The disaster in the town of Bruamdinho has left at least 182 confirmed dead and more than 100 missing and presumed dead. The National Mining Agency (ANM) will initiate the investigation, the spokeswoman said. ANM has focused its initial efforts in the aftermath of the disaster on verifying that similar dams are not at risk of imminent collapse. Last month the agency banned upstream tailings dams similar to the one that burst, setting the deadline for decommissioning them by 2021. The government has yet to determine a cause of the collapse in Brumadinho. Earlier in the week, Brazil’s Senate approved a bill that would impose a slew of measures to tighten dam safety, including a ban on upstream tailings dams as well as requiring new monitoring technology and detailed emergency plans.


Chlorine was used in 2018 attack on rebel Syrian town of Douma, OPCW watchdog says

Abstract: THE HAGUE - The world’s chemical weapons watchdog said Friday that chlorine was used against the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma in 2018, in a long-awaited final report on the deadly attack. The report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was based on a visit by inspectors to the site of the attack which witnesses said killed 43 people. Western powers led by the United States blamed the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad for the incident and unleashed airstrikes on military installations in response. The Hague-based watchdog said two cylinders likely containing chlorine smashed into a housing block in the town. The OPCW report said that there were “reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine.” It said however that it found no evidence of the use of nerve agents in Douma, which had been previously alleged by some parties in the conflict. The findings confirmed an interim OPCW report released last July saying that traces of chlorine were found. The report does not place blame because it was not in the OPCW’s remit at the time, although the watchdog has since been given powers to investigate responsibility for all chemical attacks in Syria back to 2014. Russia, which backs Assad, rejected the report and said the attack was “staged” by Syrian rescue volunteers known as the White Helmets. “In spite of all the evidence presented by Russia, Syria, and even British journalists that the Douma incident is no more than ‘White helmets’ staged provocation, Technical Secretariat of OPCW states in today’s report that chlorine was used in Douma as a chemical weapon,” the Russian Embassy in The Hague tweeted. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt however said Syria should now honor its 2013 vow to destroy all its chemical weapons, made after 1,400 people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in what the U.N. said was an attack using the nerve agent sarin. “Confirmed today by @OPCW — chemical weapons WERE used in Douma, Syria in April 2018. The Assad regime must cease, declare and destroy its chemical weapon program. We remain committed to seeking justice for the victims,” Hunt tweeted. France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian echoed the comments, calling for “the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime to end and for the perpetrators of such acts to be punished.” A team of OPCW inspectors took more than 100 samples from seven sites in Douma when they gained access to the town after being denied access for several weeks. The OPCW said it reached its conclusions based on “witnesses’ testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts.” The report said “two yellow industrial cylinders dedicated for pressurised gas” were found, one of which had landed on top of the housing block and crashed through it. It said it was “possible that the cylinders were the source of the substances containing reactive chlorine.” The OPCW said witnesses told the team there were “43 decedents related to the alleged chemical incident, most of whom were seen in videos and photos strewn on the floor of multiple levels of an apartment building and in front of the same building.” The videos “indicate exposure to an inhalational irritant or toxic substance” and show burns to the eyes and foaming from the mouth, although it could not directly link those to any specific substance. The watchdog also rejected claims by the Syrian regime that the gas came from an alleged rebel chemical weapons facility and storehouse in the area. “From the analysis of the information gathered during the on-site visits to the warehouse and facility suspected of producing chemical weapons, there was no indication of either facility being involved in their manufacture,” it said. The report will now go to the U.N. Security Council. The OPCW has been at the forefront of investigating chemical attacks during the eight-year Syrian civil war, with investigators previously confirming the use of “chlorine, sulphur mustard, and sarin as chemical weapons” in other incidents. But the watchdog is now riven by political divisions between Russia and the West, particularly over its new powers to attribute blame. A nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, which the West blamed on Moscow, has further poisoned relations.

syria
chemical weapons
bashar assad
opcw


Pro-Shinawatra parties rally across Thailand as crucial court ruling looms

Abstract: BANGKOK - Parties aligned with Thailand’s powerful Shinawatra clan are staging major rallies this weekend ahead of a court ruling that could deal a gut punch to their prospects in national elections later this month. Public gatherings were held across the country Saturday — including in the Chiang Mai hometown of divisive billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin, who lives in self-exile to avoid jail in Thailand, is adored by rice farmers and large sections of urban working-class voters for his pro-poor policies and steering of the economy. But he is despised by the royalist elite, whose allies have failed to beat him at the polls since 2001 and instead have relied on coups and court rulings to topple Shinawatra-backed governments. Thousands of people massed in Bangkok’s historic center late Friday for a defiant campaign by Thai Raksa Chart, one of several parties linked to the Shinawatra clan. But Thai Raksa Chart could be dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Thursday, after its bid to run a princess as candidate for prime minister spectacularly unraveled. Supporters say the court has the future of Thai democracy in its hands — with the junta determined to return as a civilian government. “If it is dissolved it will damage our hopes for democracy badly,” said Chailerm Phothijad, 55, at Friday night’s rally in Bangkok. Thailand, which has been stuck on a carousel of coups, violent protests and short-lived civilian governments since 2006 when the army booted Thaksin from office, remains deeply polarized. Nerves are mounting inside Thai Raksa Chart as the crucial ruling nears. But the party “will continue to campaign as we have been . . . and leave the issue of judiciary to the court,” said Umesh Pandey, a Thai Raksa Chart party list candidate. Thailand’s contentious junta-drafted constitution allows the junta to appoint the 250-member senate, whose votes will count toward choosing the next prime minister. There are 500 Lower House seats up for grabs, 350 through constituencies and the remainder through the party list — a system of proportional representation meant to give smaller parties a foothold. Junta leader Prayut Chan-ocha, who took power in a 2014 coup, wants to return as prime minister. With Thai Raksa Chart’s political fate in the balance, another anti-junta party led by a billionaire is emerging as an untested — but significant — force. Future Forward, led by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the 40-year-old scion of Thailand’s biggest auto-parts maker, has won favor among the kingdom’s millennials. More than 7 million people aged between 18 and 25 are eligible to vote this month for the first time, according to the Interior Ministry. Analysts say if Thai Raksa Chart is disbanded its supporters may cast votes for Future Forward.

election
thailand
politics
thaksin shinawatra
chan-ocha


Australian defense chief Christopher Pyne latest to quit as election looms

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a new Cabinet member on Saturday after a wave of high-profile ministerial resignations added to opinion polls that suggest the center-right government faces heavy defeat at elections due in May. Morrison will need to retain all the parliamentary seats held by his coalition government, but his chances are at risk from a wave of incumbent lawmakers in marginal seats set to retire. Australia’s Defence Minister Christopher Pyne and Defence Industry Minister Steven Ciobo both announced on Saturday morning that they would not stand in elections due in May. Sen. Linda Reynolds, Australia’s first female brigadier in the Army Reserve, was appointed the new Minister for Defence Industry. Morrison said Reynolds would become Defence Minister should his coalition government be returned to power at the next election. “We have two members of the Cabinet who have decided not to re-contest the next election. That’s true,” Morrison said in a televised press conference from Canberra. “What has also changed today is we have elevated Sen. Reynolds into the Cabinet, which means there will now be seven women in Cabinet.” Morrison said it was important for Defence Minister Pyne, who was responsible for a $200 billion ($141.60 billion) build-up of Australia’s military capability, to retain his portfolio until the election. “In Christopher Pyne’s portfolio, we are dealing with some quite sensitive issues,” he said, adding that for “the sake of continuity” it was “very wise and responsible” for Pyne to continue in that role through the election period. The prime minister said he intended to fill any other vacancies after the next election if his coalition party was successful. Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion announced his retirement last week after Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said he was stepping down. Minister for Jobs Kelly O’Dwyer also resigned, and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last month she would not stand for re-election. A Newspoll for The Australian newspaper showed the opposition Labor party retained a lead of 53 percent to 47 percent over the Liberal-National government last month, unchanged from the poll in December.


Pakistan and India step back from the brink, but unease continues

Abstract: MUZAFFARABAD, PAKISTAN/SRINAGAR INDIA - A flare-up between archfoes India and Pakistan appeared to be easing on Saturday after Islamabad handed back a captured Indian pilot amid efforts by global powers to prevent a war between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who became the face and symbol of the biggest clash between India and Pakistan in many years, walked across the border just before 9 p.m. on Friday in a high-profile handover shown on live television. Shelling on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), which acts as a de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region, continued for a few hours after his release, resulting in four deaths, but then stopped overnight, officials said. Pakistan touted Abhinandan’s return as “a goodwill gesture aimed at de-escalating rising tensions with India” after weeks of unease that threatened to spiral into war after both countries used jets for bombing missions earlier in the week. The flare-up has unnerved global powers, including China and the United States, which urged restraint to prevent another conflict between neighbors, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. Tensions escalated rapidly following a suicide car bombing on Feb. 14 that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India accused Pakistan of harboring the Jaish-e-Mohammad group behind the attack — which Islamabad denied — and Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised a strong response. Indian warplanes on Tuesday carried out airstrikes inside Pakistan on what New Delhi called militant camps. Islamabad denied any such camps existed — as did villagers in the area. Pakistan on Wednesday retaliated with its own aerial mission, which led to both sides claiming to have shot down jets. The standoff came at a critical time for Modi, who faces a general election that must be held by May and who had been expected to benefit from nationalist pride unleashed by the standoff. Pakistani leaders say the ball is now in India’s court to de-escalate the tensions, although Pakistan’s army chief on Friday told top military leaders of the United States, Britain and Australia that his country would “surely respond to any aggression in self-defense.” The Indian pilot’s ordeal since being shot down on Wednesday had made him the focal point of the crisis. He returned to his homeland to a hero’s welcome, with crowds thronging the Wagah border crossing and waving Indian flags. Before his release, Pakistani television stations broadcast video of Abhinandan in which he thanked the Pakistani Army for saving him from an angry crowd who chased him after seeing him parachute to safety. “The Pakistani Army is a very professional service,” he said. “I have spent time with the Pakistan Army. I am very impressed.” On Friday, four Indian troops and one civilian were killed in a clash with militants in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, where a further three people were killed and one was wounded from Pakistani shelling. One person was killed and three were wounded on Pakistan’s side of Kashmir from a barrage of India shelling. Pakistani officials say the shelling stopped around midnight, but residents said they were afraid another conflagration is likely. “The way situation is developing along the LoC makes me feel that both sides may collide head-on anytime now,” said Chaudhry Jahangir, a Pakistani resident of the Samahni sector in Kashmir.

conflict
india
pakistan
military
nuclear weapons


Pakistan to lodge 'eco-terrorism' complaint against India over damage to trees from airstrikes

Abstract: ISLAMABAD - Pakistan plans to lodge a complaint of “eco-terrorism” against India after airstrikes in Pakistani territory damaged dozens of trees, its climate change minister said on Friday. “Eco-terrorism is exactly what happened,” Malik Amin Aslam said, adding that environmental assessments were underway. “We will explore all appropriate international bodies including U.N. to raise the issue and lodge the protest,” he said, adding that it was “not a joke.” Aslam spoke after India claimed to have killed “a very large number” of militants in an airstrike carried out near Balakot in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday. Pakistan rejected the claim as “self-serving, reckless and fictitious.” Residents of the area reported hearing explosions in the night, but said only one person was injured and no infrastructure had been destroyed. An AFP reporter visited the site where residents and the military said the strike hit, and saw a crater, two trees snapped in half and three mud houses, one of which had a collapsed wall. Aslam said the only damage was done to the Billion Tree Tsunami, a massive reforestation project launched in 2014. He said “dozens” of trees had been killed, including mature ones and newly regenerated ones.

india pakistan nature forests conservation


Melting missiles: Just one problem with F-35s stopping North Korean weapons

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Looking for a quick way to stop North Korean missiles immediately after liftoff, the Pentagon is studying as a near-term option whether a group of F-35 fighter jets hovering around North Korean airspace could pick off freshly launched rockets. In its current form, the idea defies physics, missile defense experts say. It calls for interceptor missiles that fly so fast they could melt, one expert said, and the only surefire way for U.S. military aircraft to defeat a missile with current technology would be to fly in hostile airspace, according to three experts. The idea, part of a six-month study launched in January, shows how the Pentagon is seeking ways to neutralize the threat posed by Pyongyang even as President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this past week in Vietnam in his effort to stop Kim’s nuclear program. Concern over U.S. missile defenses has grown with the escalating threat from North Korea. Two years ago North Korea conducted about a dozen missile tests, some with multiple rockets, including the launch of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. They also tested a purported hydrogen bomb. The F-35 plan under study would likely involve continuously flying a group of the stealthy jets within range of known North Korean missile sites. Once a missile is launched toward U.S. territory, the F-35’s advanced sensors would detect and then fire a special air-to-air missile before the Pyongyang projectile exits the atmosphere, the latest missile defense strategy and Pentagon leadership have said. Military officials say the F-35 option is the one they want to test first because it could use existing military hardware and potentially be operational sooner than other strategies, and at a relatively low cost. At the same time, Pentagon leaders say the tests may reveal a new interceptor is needed, or that the F-35 may only have a role in detecting the just-launched missile and not necessarily also shoot it down. Speaking about that option after January’s release of the defense strategy review, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin said, “We do think it could be both cost effective and … within the bounds of math and physics.” Among other proposals included in the review was one involving lasers mounted on drones — proposed to stop missiles just after takeoff in what is called the boost phase. During this portion of the flight, the missile is most vulnerable, flying at its slowest speed, easily detected by the heat from its engines and incapable of evading interceptors as it accelerates to break out of the earth’s atmosphere. Geography complicates the F-35 plan. Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington noted that jets lying in wait for a North Korean missile would in theory need to respect North Korean airspace. But remaining at such a distance could leave the jets too far from the missile launch to be effective. Theodore Postol, a missile defense expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said even a modified air-to-air missile would be too slow to take out an intercontinental ballistic missile before it exited the atmosphere. Air-to-air missiles like those made by Raytheon Co. would only have an estimated 200 seconds to hit a ballistic missile before reaching an altitude where the air is too thin to maneuver. Given that it would take an F-35 approximately 50 to 60 seconds to detect, lock onto and launch an air-to-air missile, Postol said, the jet would need to be very close to the ballistic missile to take it out. “If you are on top of it you can shoot it down,” the retired rocket scientist said. “But the odds are going to be very low that you can be on top of it.” Even if a much faster and lighter version air-to-air missile was mounted in an F-35 jet, depending on the distance the weapon would have to fly so fast it would begin to melt, Postol added. Despite the obstacles, the very fact that Pentagon was weighing such an option was significant, Karako said. “This shows a broader cultural shift.” Rather than some giant program, Karako said, the Pentagon is considering “a mission that is integrated into a broader mesh of tactical programs the Department of Defense can call on.” Making it work will be a challenge, though. “You would need to be very close to the launch site, within North Korea itself, said physicist Laura Grego, who studies missile defense at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Grego said that even if the air-to-air missile traveled at five times the speed of sound, the F-35 would need to be within about 50 miles (80 km) of the missile, “probably closer, to be realistic.” That gives a huge advantage to the stealthy F-35 which could get much closer to a possible launch area than a non-stealth aircraft. “This is one of the advantages of the F-35,” said retired U.S. Gen. David Deptula. He added that the radar-evading jets “can get in much closer to an adversary launch area than … a nonstealthy aircraft.” That suggests that by using the F-35 made by Lockheed Martin, the U.S. could secretly monitor for ballistic missile launches with jets flying inside North Korean airspace.

u.s .
north korea
kim jong un
weapons
nuclear weapons
f-35
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
kim-trump summit
_analysis


We have your back in South China Sea, U.S. assures Philippines

Abstract: MANILA/WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has assured the Philippines that a defense treaty would apply if its vessels or planes are attacked in the South China Sea, sparking a debate within the Southeast Asian nation over whether it should drop plans to review the 1951 agreement. “China’s island-building and military activities in the South China Sea threaten your sovereignty, security and therefore economic livelihood, as well as that of the U.S.,” Pompeo said at briefing Friday with Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin in Manila. “As the South China Sea is part of the Pacific, any armed attack on Philippine forces, aircraft or public vessels will trigger mutual defense obligations” under the treaty. In response, Locsin said there was no need to review the U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, adding Pompeo and President Donald Trump assured that “We have your back.” Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the statements showed the U.S. was backing Philippine claims to disputed parts of the South China Sea, and said American troops could be deployed in a shooting war. “This is the first time that U.S. made a policy statement that any attack on any Philippine vessel is tantamount to attacking the U.S.,” President Rodrigo Duterte’s office said in a statement. But Filipino Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who had called initially for the defense treaty to be re-examined, wasn’t convinced and said the review would continue. “If we find that there’s no need, then we will tell them to drop the review, but our people are still doing it,” Lorenzana told reporters Friday. He noted that ambiguities in the treaty remained unclear, such as if China occupies an island claimed by the Philippines. “Where will that fall under?” he said. The conflicting statements out of Manila come while ties are improving between the U.S. and the Philippines, which shifted toward China after Duterte took power in 2016. Duterte has previously questioned whether the U.S. would defend the Philippines if China seizes disputed shoals and reefs in the South China Sea — skepticism that has persisted in Manila for decades. The treaty says it covers armed attacks “on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the Island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.” But a U.S. diplomatic cable from 1976, since declassified, states that the treaty does not cover disputed areas such as the Spratly Islands. Pompeo fell short of acknowledging Philippine sovereignty over the reefs and atolls it occupies in the disputed South China Sea, and didn’t explicitly say they were covered by the treaty. “The U.S. has left itself some ambiguity,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Pompeo’s comment goes some way towards assuaging Philippine concerns over whether the U.S. would come to its assistance if its armed forces came under attack from China in the South China Sea.” Beijing has built seven artificial structures in the Spratly Islands where Manila also has claims. Philippine fishermen and vessels resupplying Philippine-occupied features in the waters have also been harassed by Chinese vessels. “What is important about this is that they are saying it in public and under the spotlight,” said Richard Heydarian, a Manila-based academic and author of “Asia’s New Battlefield: U.S., China and the Struggle for Western Pacific.” The Obama administration “was diffident about giving assurances to the Philippines in a way that could slight China,” Heydarian said. “This administration doesn’t have any problems with that.” Pompeo also warned the Philippines against using Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to build up its 5G network, saying its infrastructure backbone must be free and transparent. While the Southeast Asian nation will make its own decision on how to proceed, Pompeo said the Philippines runs the risk that the U.S. “may not be able to operate in certain environments if there is Huawei technology adjacent to that.”

china
u.s .
vietnam
philippines
military
disputed islands
south china sea
huawei
south china sea ruling
mike pompeo


Indians angry over 'forced' Pakistan video of downed pilot amid new Kashmir deaths

Abstract: NEW DELHI - A furious backlash erupted in India on Saturday over a video of an Indian pilot shot down by Pakistan praising his captors, as deadly tensions simmered between the neighbors with fierce shelling across their Kashmir frontier. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, whose MiG fighter was shot down Wednesday as he chased Pakistani jets over disputed Kashmir, crossed over at the Wagah frontier late Friday, several hours after the scheduled time. His capture had become the centerpiece of hostilities between the archrivals after a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitary officers. Abhinandan, who ejected to safety but was set upon by a crowd on the Pakistani side of the Kashmir cease-fire line, had a noticeable black eye and was immediately taken for a medical checkup before a debriefing by military and intelligence agencies. Media reports said Abhinandan’s return to India had been held up because the pilot was forced to make the video before getting his freedom. In the heavily edited video distributed by the Pakistani military just before his release, he praised the professionalism of the Pakistan Army and criticized Indian media for creating war hysteria. “The army personnel saved me from the mob. The Pakistani Army is very professional and I am impressed by it,” he said. Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, said the video tainted Pakistan’s gesture to return the pilot so quickly. “Sadly the image you paint for us is marred terribly by the video he’s forced to record just before you sent him back,” Abdullah said on Twitter. “That high moral ground you had bequeathed to yourselves slipped at the end.” Indian media slammed the video as “distasteful” and said it breached international norms for prisoners of war. “There is no peace without dignity and Pakistan just forgot that basic lesson in violation of Geneva convention,” wrote Rajdeep Sardesai, a top editor with the India Today group. India’s feverish social media also slammed the video, which was tweeted by the Pakistan government but later taken off its official account. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the country had acted with prudence in releasing the pilot. “There was no pressure on Pakistan to release him nor any compulsion,” he told BBC Urdu. “We wanted to convey to them that we do not want to increase your sorrow, we do not want to mistreat your citizens, we just want peace.” Pakistan media praised the government for releasing the pilot, with lawyer Shahzaib Khan writing in the Express Tribune that Prime Minister Imran Khan had “done Pakistan proud by not engaging in chest thumping or war-mongering for political gain.” Some social media users, though, criticized the military video, calling it “cheap” and “unnecessary.” “Not a good idea. This will backfire,” said Gul Bukhari, a prominent critic of the government and the powerful military. Abhinandan was captured a day after Indian planes bombed what New Delhi said was a militant camp in Pakistan, in retaliation for the Kashmir suicide bombing claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group. The end of the air raids did not stop more violence raging in Kashmir, with both sides firing mortars and artillery over the frontier Saturday. Two Pakistan Army soldiers were killed in Nakiyal sector in one cross-border exchange of fire, the Pakistan military said. “Pakistan Army troops gave a befitting response by targeting Indian posts,” said a statement that accused the Indian Army of deliberately targeting civilians. At least 12 civilians have been killed on either side of the frontier since earlier this week, including a mother and her two children whose house was pulverized by a mortar shell on the Indian side on Friday. Two civilians on the Pakistan side have also been killed since Friday afternoon. Five Indian security personnel were killed Friday in a gunfight after troops laid siege to a house where militants were hiding in Handwara district.

india
kashmir
imran khan
palistan
abhinandan varthaman