Remodeled versions of Toyota's popular RAV4 SUV on sale again in Japan

Abstract: NAGOYA - Toyota Motor Corp. released the fully remodeled RAV4 sport utility vehicle in Japan on Wednesday, marking the first launch of a new model of the globally popular SUV here in three years. With the fifth-generation series, Toyota revived the RAV4 in its product lineup for the domestic market after skipping the introduction of its preceding series due to sluggish demand, while selling the vehicles in other markets on the globe seamlessly. Toyota, which regards the RAV4 as one of its mainstay SUV brands, sells them in 180 countries and regions, with cumulative global sales reaching about 9 million units since its market debut in 1994. The fifth-generation RAV4 is larger than its predecessors chiefly because it shares a platform with Toyota’s flagship Camry sedan sold in the United States and other foreign markets. In particular, the new model boasts a large rear cargo space, Toyota said. Targeting activity- and family-oriented people in their 30s to 40s, Toyota offers both gasoline-only and hybrid versions with two-wheel- and four-wheel-drive power trains. All models of the new series feature as standard equipment the “Toyota Safety Sense,” a package of systems including one to prevent collisions with pedestrians and bicycles and keep the vehicle in the center of the driving lane. “The RAV4 is Toyota’s absolute core SUV model,” Moritaka Yoshida, executive vice president of the company, said. “We’ll cultivate a market again in Japan.” Toyota aims to sell 3,000 units of the new RAV4 each month. Sticker prices range from ¥2,608,200 to ¥3,348,000 for the gasoline-powered versions and from ¥3,202,200 to ¥3,817,800 for the hybrid versions.


Carlos Ghosn's wife 'responded in good faith' to questioning in Tokyo, says lawyer

Abstract: Japanese authorities investigating alleged financial misconduct by former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn questioned his wife, Carole, at a closed-door hearing on Thursday, his lawyer said. Carole Ghosn has increasingly emerged as a key figure in the case surrounding her tycoon husband, who is in detention facing multiple allegations of financial malpractice. Ghosn’s lead defense lawyer Junichiro Hironaka confirmed to reporters that Carole Ghosn had answered the authorities’ questions but would not be drawn on the detail of the ongoing investigation. “She responded in good faith as she had promised to,” he said, but declined to offer specifics of what was discussed during the nearly three-hour session. He said he believed there would be no further questions for Carole Ghosn but declined to speculate on whether she would remain in Japan. Carole Ghosn left Japan last week using an American passport after Japanese police confiscated her Lebanese passport. She returned to Japan late Wednesday to meet the authorities — “proof that she never intended to run away from anybody”, according to the couple’s lawyer Francois Zimeray. Authorities are investigating claims that Carlos Ghosn siphoned off around $5 million (¥555.5 million) of Nissan funds for his personal use. Prosecutors believe this money was taken from around $15 million transferred from Nissan to a dealership in Oman between 2015 and 2018. According to a source close to the matter, some of the $5 million was funneled to a British Virgin Islands-listed company — which has Carole Ghosn registered as the president — to purchase a luxury yacht. The boat, 37-meters (120-feet) long and weighing nearly 300 tons, is worth more than €12 million (¥1.5 billion), according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous. Carlos Ghosn denies all allegations made against him and slammed “backstabbing” executives at Nissan in a video message aired Tuesday during which he said he was a victim of a plot from those who feared he would tie Nissan closer to its French partner Renault. Prosecutors have until Sunday to question the auto legend, after which they can apply for a further 10-day period of custody. Ghosn already faces three formal charges: two of underreporting of his salary in official financial documents, and a further charge of seeking to shift investment losses to the firm. He has not been formally charged with any allegations linked to the Oman case.

courts
corruption
scandals
nissan
carmakers
carlos ghosn
carole ghosn


11 killed in Sudan protests, including six 'state forces': government

Abstract: KHARTOUM - Eleven people were killed in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, including six members of “state forces,” the government’s spokesman said on Wednesday, as protesters pushed for an end to President Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule. Uniformed personnel from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) twice tried to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters camped outside the Defense Ministry, the minister said, citing a report by the Khartoum state police chief. But government soldiers guarding the compound came out both times to protect the demonstrators, firing shots in the air and deploying troops around the area. The protests are the most sustained challenge Bashir has faced in his three decades in power. The Defense Ministry is in a compound that also houses Bashir’s residence and the NISS headquarters. The government spokesman and Information Minister Hassan Ismail said the Khartoum state police chief had delivered a report stating that 11 people had died in “incidents yesterday (Tuesday), including six members of the regular forces.” He gave no further details on how they died. Ismail also quoted the police chief as saying the authorities had foiled a “criminal plot” to burn down some police stations in some parts of the capital. NISS warned in a statement that it had detected “negative developments” toward vandalism, theft and terrorizing innocent people and said it was ready to act. “The service calls on honorable citizens to be careful of attempts to drag the country towards a complete security breakdown,” the statement said. It added that it was able to “rein in the unruly elements through good advice or by force within the limits of the law. The head of the main opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, said on Tuesday that around 20 people have been killed and dozens wounded in dawn attacks on the sit-in outside the Defense Ministry since it began on Saturday. Soldiers were heavily deployed around a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry on Wednesday, as several thousand protesters danced, sang and chanted slogans calling on Bashir to step down. Some watched soccer matches on giant television screens mounted on special trucks. The demonstrators have been camped outside the compound since Saturday in an escalation of protests that have shaken Sudan since December. Sudan’s Health Ministry reported that Khartoum hospitals had treated 72 cases of people suffering from tear gas and 16 minor injuries. First aid vehicles were stationed near the protest site to deal with emergency cases, it said. There were no reports of attempts to disperse the protests on Wednesday. The sit-in area had expanded slightly, with hundreds of people entering and leaving despite temperatures rising above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), a Reuters witness said. Some people blocked streets to the east of the compound with stones. Protesters chanted “Fall, that’s all!” “The people want to build a new Sudan” and “Our army protects us. Military trucks and troops were deployed around the compound, stopping cars from entering the area. Police and NISS forces appeared not to be present. “With the army’s presence, we feel safe. The army is protecting us and we will continue the sit-in until the regime falls,” said Ayman Abdullah, a 23-year-old engineering graduate taking part in the sit-in. Videos posted by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, the main protest organizer, and others on social media showed demonstrators dancing, singing and chanting slogans. A video shared by the opposition Sudanese Congress Party showed a large group of protesters marching towards the sit-in and cheering with a massive Sudanese flag draped over them. Since Dec. 19, Sudan has been rocked by persistent protests sparked by the government’s attempt to raise the price of bread, and an economic crisis including fuel and cash shortages. Opposition figures have called for the military to help negotiate an end to Bashir’s nearly three decades in power and a transition to democracy.


Hundreds in Honduras set out in new U.S.-bound migrant caravan in face of Trump border-closing threat

Abstract: SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS - Hundreds of Honduran migrants, many carrying young children, set out in a caravan for that country’s border with Guatemala on Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States. Some of those who gathered at the San Pedro Sula bus station said they can’t support their families with what they can earn in Honduras and are seeking better opportunities. Most boarded buses before dawn that would carry them to towns on the Guatemalan border. Others walked through the rain, some pushing strollers or carrying sleeping children in their arms. Guatemalan immigration authorities said that their Honduran counterparts informed them that about 1,100 migrants were headed for their common border, mostly aboard buses to two crossing points. They said some were already crossing into Guatemala. Nohemy Reyes, who waited at the bus station with one of her five children sleeping on floor beside her, said her country’s economic straits are driving her north. “The economic situation is very difficult,” she said. But if she finds the U.S. border closed, she said, she will return to Honduras. U.S. President Donald Trump this week threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border before changing course and threatening tariffs on automobiles produced in Mexico if that country does not stop the flow of Central American migrants. U.S. border facilities have been overwhelmed by the number of migrant families. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced this week that 53,000 parents and children were apprehended at the southern border in March. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned this week and was replaced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan in an acting capacity. Trump on Tuesday said he isn’t planning on reinstating his controversial family separation policy. Last summer, more than 2,500 children were separated from their families before a judge ordered them reunited. The caravans became a popular way of making the trek because the migrants find safety in numbers and save money by not hiring smugglers. In late March, Mexico’s interior secretary warned that the “mother of all caravans” was forming. That did not materialize, but Central American officials criticized the announcement, saying it could inspire migrants to merge into another caravan. Miguel Angel Reyes of San Juan Pueblo, Honduras, said his country’s violent crime was one factor in his decision to leave, but mostly he was looking for a way to provide for his wife and four children. “I’m going because the situation is really hard here in Honduras,” said the field worker. “We can’t take it anymore. There’s a lot of suffering, no work.”

u.s .
mexico
immigrants
honduras
migrants
donald trump
kirstjen nielsen
caravan
kevin mcaleenan


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested by British police at Ecuadorian Embassy

Abstract: LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was expelled from his hideout in Ecuador’s embassy in London Thursday and promptly arrested by London police as his lawyer said he faces extradition to the U.S. London police said Assange was arrested moments after Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said on Twitter that the country had withdrawn his diplomatic asylum. Video showed a handcuffed Assange being dragged out of the embassy and placed in a police van. Assange’s lawyer, Jen Robinson, said he was arrested not just for skipping bail in the U.K. but also in relation to an American extradition request. The 47-year-old has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 when he sought to escape questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case. While those charges were dropped in 2017, Assange has remained in the small London apartment as he has continued to dodge U.K. police and American prosecutors. Assange’s exit from the embassy ends a nearly seven-year standoff between the controversial transparency advocate and British authorities. While he will initially face punishment for jumping bail, Assange faces a looming extradition request from the U.S. “Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law,” U.K. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Twitter. “He has hidden from the truth for years.” WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed that Ecuador had “illegally” terminated Assange’s asylum. London police said Assange was taken to a nearby station and will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court. The police said in a statement that they were invited into the embassy. Assange’s relationship with his Ecuadorian protectors has deteriorated over the years. He has had spats over Internet access and even faced criminal charges for hacking into the embassy’s computer system. On Wednesday, WikiLeaks officials held a press conference where they accused Ecuador of spying on Assange. “The discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of his allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties’ meant the situation is ‘unsustainable and no longer viable,” Moreno said in a video message posted Thursday on Twitter. Moreno said he’d wrung a guarantee from the U.K. that Assange wouldn’t be extradited to a “country where he would face torture or the death penalty,” according to a transcript of the video message. WikiLeaks and Assange became famous in 2010 when the organization published government secrets supplied by U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning. More recently, the website put itself at the center of the 2016 American presidential race by publishing hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. While the American case is still sealed, U.S. prosecutors in court filings last year may have inadvertently revealed that Assange had been charged. In a matter unrelated to Assange, federal prosecutors in Virginia said that “no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.” If the U.S. seeks to extradite him, a London court will review the matter in a process that could last months and ultimately years. It’s still possible that Swedish prosecutors could resume their investigation, with a lawyer for the alleged victim of the assault saying last week that she will continue to fight for Assange to be extradited to Sweden. The Swedish Prosecution Authority was not immediately able to comment.

u.s .
rights
u.k .
ecuador
privacy
julian assange
wikileaks


New York county's measles outbreak spotlights use of 'religious exemption' to avoid vaccinations

Abstract: HAVERSTRAW, NEW YORK - Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the health commissioner of an outlying New York suburban county, is feeling “overwhelmed.” Since October she has been fighting an uphill battle to quell one of the worst U.S. measles outbreaks in 20 years. Among her daily struggles: having to constantly repeat that the vaccine does not cause other diseases, that it does not lead to autism and that the practice of using fetal tissue to produce the vaccine ended decades ago. Pushing back against such “junk science” absorbs a good deal of her energy as she works to educate and persuade the 300,000 residents of Rockland County to cooperate with health authorities and alert them to any new cases of disease. In 27 years of practicing medicine, Ruppert said, this is “one of the most challenging health crises I have had to deal with.” As of Friday, measles — officially eliminated from the United States in 2000 — had struck 167 people in this county along the Hudson River, including nine new cases this week. Among the six regional outbreaks of measles reported by the Centers for Disease Control, the leading public health institute in the U.S., Rockland County’s is the most concentrated. And yet the county has not skimped in throwing resources at the problem. Since October, each case has been systematically investigated to determine how many people have been exposed to the ultracontagious virus. Those exposed are then contacted to ensure they have been immunized, and if they haven’t been, they are then vaccinated. Dozens of free vaccination clinics have been organized around the county — including one Friday in the town of Haverstraw — with 17,654 doses of vaccine administered to date. The objective is to raise the vaccination rate from the current 72 percent, Ruppert said. A 95 percent vaccination rate is considered necessary to prevent epidemics. On Monday, county executives will meet with legal and health professionals to identify more possible new strategies to tackle the outbreak. It comes after the county took the unprecedented measure on March 26 of banning unvaccinated minors from schools and public places for 30 days. Several public health specialists saluted the county’s decision. But a dozen parents of public school students sued the county, arguing that the measure was disproportionate to the danger, particularly as there have been no deaths to date. On Friday they obtained a partial victory: A judge issued an injunction requiring county officials to drop the ban against any child with a “religious exemption,” at least until April 19. “Religious exemption”: For many county residents, the words have become central to the debate over the resurgence of measles and the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. Like most U.S. states — all but three, including California — New York requires a series of vaccinations for school-age children but grants exemptions on both medical and religious grounds. In Rockland County, the local Jewish community represents about one-third of county inhabitants, including a large number of Orthodox Jews. That fact places this community at the heart of the vaccination debate, raising the risk of fueling anti-Semitism, said Gary Siepser, president of the Jewish Foundation of Rockland County. He emphasizes that there are anti-vaccine proponents both in the Jewish community and elsewhere who invoke religion to justify themselves — but are motivated simply by their anti-vaccine convictions. “You will not find rabbis citing Jewish law to say people should not be vaccinated,” he said, stressing that his federation, like other Jewish organizations, encourages vaccination. “It’s shocking that these things that I didn’t worry about with my kids because they could be vaccinated — all of a sudden parents have to worry about their children getting life-threatening diseases,” Siepser said. “It’s like the clock has been turned back — it’s crazy!” Several Orthodox mothers questioned this week lashed out at the anti-vaccine parents. One of them was Cindy Scher, mother of four children age 7 to 17, all of whom have been vaccinated. “It’s really scary out there,” she said. “We all share the same roads, we share the same stores, we all have to interact with each other. We can’t just be concerned about my religious beliefs, your religious beliefs,” she said, as she walked out of a kosher supermarket in Monsey, the epicenter of the county’s Orthodox community. Against this background, some New York state lawmakers this week proposed a law to end vaccination exemptions. “I think it’s a great idea,” said Ruppert, the health commissioner. But the judge’s decision on Friday in favor of the anti-vaccine forces complicates an already difficult debate. “This is a country that has an interesting relationship with religion — the country was founded by people seeking some kind of religious liberties,” Siepser said. “The question becomes at what point one person’s freedom ends and another person’s rights begin.”

u.s .
new york
health
vaccinations
measles


Canada opioid deaths since 2016 top 10,000, keep rising

Abstract: OTTAWA - More than 10,000 Canadians have died of opioid-related overdoses since a public health crisis erupted in 2016, according to new data released Wednesday. The latest figures — 3,200 deaths in the first nine months of 2018 — show that the powerful painkiller fentanyl remains “a major driver of this crisis,” the public health agency said in a statement. “Today’s newly released data are a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining and increasing our efforts to end the epidemic of opioid overdoses in Canada,” Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said. Historically, opioid overdose deaths — mainly from fentanyl — were concentrated among drug addicts. But the crisis is now also striking people who became addicted to prescribed painkillers before turning to street drugs and others experimenting with recreational drugs for the first time. The provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario continue to be the hardest hit but the opioid epidemic has affected every part of the country. Fentanyl is considered 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Three-quarters of the most recent victims were male, and the vast majority of deaths were among young and middle-aged adults. Authorities have stepped up efforts to try to curb the number of opioid deaths, such as widely distributing naloxone kits to treat overdoses. Ottawa proposed an additional 30 million Canadian dollars ($22 million) in funding to fight the epidemic in its latest budget, which is before parliament. But the annual death toll has continued to rise.

canada epidemic opioids fentanyl oversoses


Move over hobbit, Philippine cave yields bones and teeth of new human cousin

Abstract: NEW YORK - Fossil bones and teeth found in the Philippines have revealed a long-lost cousin of modern people who lived around the time our species was spreading from Africa to the rest of the world. It is yet another reminder that, although Homo sapiens is now the only member of our branch of the evolutionary tree, we have had company for most of our existence. And it makes our understanding of human evolution in Asia “messier, more complicated and whole lot more interesting,” said one expert, Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature, scientists describe a cache of seven teeth and six bones from the feet, hands and thigh of at least three individuals. They were recovered from Callao Cave on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines in 2007, 2011 and 2015. Tests on two samples show minimum ages of 50,000 years and 67,000 years. The main exodus of our species from Africa took place around 60,000 years ago. Analysis of the bones from Luzon led the study authors to conclude they belonged to a previously unknown member of our Homo branch of the family tree. One of the toe bones and the overall pattern of tooth shapes and sizes differ from what has been seen before in the Homo family, the researchers said. They dubbed the creature Homo luzonensis. It apparently used stone tools, and its small teeth suggest it might have been rather small-bodied, said one of the study authors, Florent Detroit of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. H. luzonensis lived in eastern Asia at around the same time as not only our species but other members of the Homo branch, including Neanderthals, their little-understood Siberian cousins the Denisovans, and the diminutive “hobbits” of the island of Flores in Indonesia. There is no sign that H. luzonensis encountered any other member of the Homo group, Detroit said in an email. Our species isn’t known to have reached the Philippines until thousands of years after the age of the bones, he said. But some human relative was on Luzon more than 700,000 years ago, as indicated by the presence of stone tools and a butchered rhino dating to that time, he said. It might have been the newfound species or an ancestor of it, he said in an email. Detroit said it is not clear how H. luzonensis is related to other species of Homo. He speculated that it might have descended from an earlier human relative, Homo erectus, that somehow crossed the sea to Luzon. H. erectus is generally considered the first Homo species to have expanded beyond Africa, and it plays a prominent role in the conventional wisdom about evolution outside that continent. Some scientists have suggested that the hobbits on the Indonesian island are descended from H. erectus. Tocheri, who did not participate it the new report, agreed that both H. luzonensis and the hobbits may have descended from H. erectus. But he said the Philippines discovery gives new credence to an alternate view: Maybe some unknown creature other than H. erectus also slipped out of Africa and into Europe and Asia, and later gave rise to both island species. After all, he said in an interview, remains of the hobbits and H. luzonensis show a mix of primitive and more modern traits that differ from what is seen in H. erectus. They look more like what one what might find in Africa 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, and which might have been carried out of that continent by the mystery species, he said. The discovery of a new human relative on Luzon might be “smoke from a much, much bigger fire,” he said. Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, said the Luzon find “shows we still know very little about human evolution, particularly in Asia.” More such discoveries will probably emerge with further work in the region, which is under-studied, he said in an email.

evolution
philippines
paleontology
neanderthals
homo sapiens
homo erectus
denisovans
homo luzonensis


Georgia extradites fugitive British speedboat killer Jack Shepherd

Abstract: TBILISI - Georgian authorities on Wednesday extradited a British man to serve out his six-year sentence in the U.K. over the death of his date on a speedboat, a justice ministry official said. Fugitive Jack Shepherd, 31, was convicted in his absence of manslaughter last year for the death of Charlotte Brown, a 24-year-old woman he took on a champagne-fuelled first date on his speedboat in the River Thames in 2015. Shepherd drove over the speed limit and at one point handed Brown the controls. The boat flipped and Brown died in a hospital while Shepherd was rescued. He was charged with manslaughter by negligence. “Jack Shepherd has been extradited to the U.K.,” spokeswoman Marism Tskhiladze told AFP. The Georgian Airways flight taking Shepherd to London took off from Tbilisi airport, an AFP correspondent said. Shepherd’s departure follows the decision by a Georgian court in March to extradite Shepherd. His lawyer said he is “concerned about his safety” in Britain and “wants to be placed in solitary confinement,” monitored round-the-clock, and have access to the media. Shepherd vanished before his trial in Britain last summer and the court sentenced him to six years in prison. An international warrant was issued for his arrest. Shepherd turned himself in to the police in Tbilisi in late January, and said in court that he regretted fleeing his trial and felt “suicidally depressed” about what happened. In an interview to Georgian television this year, Shepherd said he fled to avoid going to prison but still hoped that “my appeal will be granted and that everyone can move forward with their lives.”

murder
u.k .
georgia
police
jack shepherd


Russia moves to release jailed U.S. investor to house arrest before fraud trial

Abstract: MOSCOW - Russia’s Investigative Committee has requested that Baring Vostok Capital Partners founder Michael Calvey be moved to house arrest after two months in a Moscow jail in a closely watched case that’s shocked investors. Calvey’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Moscow, when the Investigative Committee’s petition will be presented, court spokeswoman Yunona Tsareva said. Three other defendants linked to the case, including two Baring Vostok executives, saw their detentions extended by three months in court Wednesday, she said. The fund welcomed investigators’ motion on Calvey’s detention and said it hoped “the court will give due consideration” to the request. It called the rulings on the other defendants “illegal and unjustified” and said they would be appealed. The arrest of Calvey, a U.S. citizen who runs one of the biggest private equity funds in Russia, has alarmed foreign investors and prompted a wave of calls from prominent officials and state-company executives for his release. He and several of his colleagues have been held since February on charges of overvaluing assets Baring Vostok contributed to Bank Vostochny, a lender the fund controls. They deny wrongdoing and blame the prosecution on a corporate conflict with the other large shareholders in Vostochny. The Investigative Committee’s action emerged a day after a Moscow court extended the detention of Philippe Delpal, a Baring Vostok partner, by three months. Later Wednesday, the court ordered another fund partner, Vagan Abgaryan, its investment director, Ivan Zyuzin, and First Collection Bureau head Maxim Vladimirov held until July 14. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a statement that he welcomed the Investigation Committee’s request to move Calvey to house arrest while reiterating that other Baring Vostok employees should also have the terms of their detention eased. The Prosecutor General’s Office said it would consider an appeal by Russia’s business ombudsman, Boris Titov, to soften Calvey’s detention, the Interfax news service reported Tuesday. While Russian and foreign business representatives have raised concerns about the case, President Vladimir Putin defended the decision to prosecute Calvey at a closed-door meeting in February when he was asked about damage to the investment climate. Putin said investigators’ suspicions that Calvey and his associates had stolen 2.5 billion rubles ($39 million) couldn’t be ignored. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later the president was simply stating facts, not his personal position.

u.s .
russia
fraud
michael calvey
baring vostok capital partners


30 jihadis reported 'neutralized' in French-Malian raids near Burkina Faso

Abstract: PARIS - French and Malian troops killed or captured more than 30 extremists and dismantled a jihadist training camp during a major counter-terrorism operation near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, the French military told AFP on Friday. The operation is the first since French forces set up a base south of the bend of the Niger River, building an advance position outside the town of Gossi in the heart of the restive Gourma region. “Over 30 members of armed terrorist groups were neutralized,” the military said, a term meaning that they were killed or captured. A French military doctor was also killed during the operation, the military previously reported. The operation, lasting about 10 days, was launched in late March in Gourma, a crossroads region in Mali’s central belt that flanks the border with Burkina Faso. The doctor was killed when his vehicle hit a mine, bringing to 24 the number of French defense force members killed in counterterrorism operations in the region since 2013. Some 4,500 French troops are deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces try to flush out jihadi groups. The Gourma area is a haven for armed groups who hole up in dense forests along the border with Burkina Faso to the south, including a group suspected of carrying out several cross-border attacks. Around 700 French troops and 150 Malian troops took part in the air and ground operation against these bases, the military said. On the other side of the border Burkina Faso deployed troops “to prevent any attempt by the enemy to escape towards the south of the zone,” French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said. The operation first targeted the Foulsare forest in the southwest of Gao province, the military said. The French air force and commandos carried out preliminary strikes as dozens of French armored vehicles in Gossi joined a Malian base at Hombori, 80 km (50 miles) from the Burkina border, which served as a springboard for a joint ground attack. Troops found “a logistical base” containing rocket launchers and other weaponry, but no jihadis. “The enemy deserted the area when Barkhane arrived and did not seek to fight,” Steiger said. The second phase of the operation, which caused the losses on the jihadis’ side, targeted several sites including a training camp in the Serma forest, according to the military. A pick-up truck, a dozen motorbikes and arms and ammunition, including large amounts of material used to make roadside bombs were seized, the military said. Extremists linked to al-Qaida took control of Mali’s vast desert north in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation that began in January 2013. But huge areas are still in the grip of lawlessness, despite a 2015 peace agreement with some armed groups that sought to definitively stamp out the jihadi threat. Since then, jihadi attacks have shifted from the north towards the more densely-populated center of the country, where it has fanned the flames of local ethnic conflicts which date back years. Around 15,000 people have fled their homes in the central region of Mopti alone, according to aid groups. President Ibrahim Boubabar Keita, under mounting pressure to improve security, on Tuesday chaired a senior military panel focusing on the center of the country. Last Friday, at least 30,000 people marched in Bamako, the capital, to protest at the surge in the violence. Organizers estimated the turnout at 50,000.


Sudan's military ousts longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir after mass protests

Abstract: CAIRO - Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the country’s capital Thursday, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime autocrat President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power. The circumstances of al-Bashir’s apparent ouster and his current whereabouts remained unclear, however. The armed forces were to deliver an “important statement” and asked the nation to wait for it, state TV reported earlier. The two officials, in high positions in the government and the military, said the army forced al-Bashir to step down and is now in talks about forming a transitional government. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The swirling reports of a coup following nearly four months of street protests against al-Bashir’s rule raised expectations it was a sign the autocrat was relinquishing power or was being removed by the military. Pan-Arab TV networks said top ruling party officials were being arrested. They aired footage of masses they said were heading toward the presidential palace in Khartoum, waving the national flag, chanting and clapping. Al-Bashir, who is a pariah in many countries, is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Darfur. Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said the military had deployed at key sites in the city to secure several installations since the morning hours. Armored vehicles and tanks are parked in the streets and near bridges over the River Nile, they said, as well as in the vicinity of the military headquarters, where thousands were anxiously awaiting the army statement. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals. Organizers of the protests urged crowds to converge and join an ongoing sit-in under way in Khartoum since the weekend. They issued a statement vowing to remain in the streets until the “regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government.” Thousands of protesters, including women carrying their children, were making their way toward the military headquarters, many ululating and flashing “V” for victory. There were also unconfirmed reports that the airport in the Sudanese capital had been closed. Ahead of the expected army statement, Sudanese radio played military march and patriotic music. State TV ceased regular broadcasts, with only the brief announcement saying that there will be an “important statement from the armed forces after a while, wait for it.” The development followed deadly clashes between Sudanese security forces and protesters holding a large anti-government sit-in outside the military’s headquarters in Khartoum, which also include a presidential residence. There were several attempts to break up the sit-in, and 22 people have been killed since Saturday. On Tuesday, Sudanese security forces tried again to disperse the sit-in, which began over the weekend, killing at least 14 people, activists behind the demonstration said. The government said 11 died. The fatalities so far have included five soldiers who protest organizers said were defending the sit-in. The months of protests have plunged Sudan into its worst crisis in years. The demonstrations initially erupted last December with rallies against a spiraling economy, but quickly escalated into calls for an end to embattled al-Bashir’s rule. Security forces have responded to the protest movement with a fierce crackdown, killing dozens. Al-Bashir had banned unauthorized public gatherings and granted sweeping powers to the police since imposing a state of emergency last month. Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and batons against demonstrators. The protests gained momentum last week after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned in response to weeks of similar protests. On Saturday, marches in Khartoum marked the 34th anniversary of the overthrow of former President Gafaar al-Nimeiry in a bloodless coup. It was one of the largest turnouts in the current wave of unrest. The military removed al-Nimeiry after a popular uprising in 1985. It quickly handed over power to an elected government. The dysfunctional administration lasted only a few years until al-Bashir — a career army officer — allied with Islamist hard-liners and toppled it in a coup in 1989. Since the current protests began Dec. 19, the military has stated its support for the country’s “leadership” and pledged to protect the people’s “achievements” — without mentioning al-Bashir by name. Army troops have deployed to protect vital state installations but have not tried to stop protests and, in some cases, appeared to offer a measure of protection for the demonstrators. All that raised the possibility that what was playing out in Khartoum on Thursday was a military takeover and removal of al-Bashir. The protests erupted in December over a hike in bread prices and quickly escalated into nationwide demonstrations. Food price hikes had already provoked sporadic demonstrations in January 2018 but were swiftly curbed. The new protests erupted the same day as the main opposition leader — ex-Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was driven out in al-Bashir’s 1989 coup — returned from exile. In Atbara, protesters set fire to the headquarters of al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP). The protests spread to Khartoum and other cities, with demonstrators calling for “the fall of the regime.” Clashes broke out as police tried to disperse the crowds, and eight demonstrators were killed. Other NCP offices were torched. On the sixth day of protests, al-Bashir broke his silence and vowed “real reforms.” With no let-up in the near-daily demonstrations, 22 political groups issue da joint call on Jan. 1 for a “new regime.” Al-Bashir declared a nationwide yearlong state of emergency on Feb. 22, also dissolving the federal and provincial governments and appointing army and intelligence officers as provincial governors. Two days later, he swore in a new prime minister as riot police confronted hundreds calling for him to resign. The protests became less regular after the state of emergency, and Bashir on April 4 acknowledged that demonstrators had “legitimate” economic concerns, calling for dialogue. But thousands later marched again in Khartoum, gathering for the first time outside the military headquarters and chanting, “one army, one people.”

history
military
poverty
corruption
protests
sudan
omar al-bashir


Trump calls to congratulate Israel's Netanyahu on re-election

Abstract: LONDON - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump had called him to congratulate him on his re-election for a fifth term. “The two leaders agreed to continue working in the coming years in the closest way for Israel and the United States,” Netanyahu said in the statement on his Twitter account. Trump made the call from Air Force One, the statement said, after Netanyahu won a parliamentary election and looked set to be able to stay in power with the support of religious-rightist parties, despite a strong showing from his main centrist challenger.

u.s .
israel
benjamin netanyahu
elections
donald trump


Peruvian judge orders arrest of ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in bribery probe

Abstract: LIMA - A Peruvian judge ordered the arrest of former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Wednesday while also authorizing a search of several properties as part of a probe into a bribery scheme linked to scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht. Kuczynski, 80, underwent medical exams accompanied by police in the afternoon as part of official procedures prior to an arrest, local media reported. Footage provided by the prosecutors’ office showed Kuczynski speaking quietly as he sat in a waiting room. Along with his secretary and his driver, Kuczynski was ordered detained for a period of 10 days, according to a judicial resolution signed by Judge Jorge Chavez. Kuczynski called the arrest order “draconian” on Twitter. “I’ve never fled justice,” Kuczynski tweeted. “This is a very tough moment for me but I will face it with the fortitude of knowing I only longed for a better country.” A former Wall Street banker who renounced his U.S. citizenship to run for Peru’s presidency, Kuczynski narrowly won the 2016 election but resigned a year ago in the face of near-certain impeachment by the opposition-controlled Congress. Prosecutors have accused Kuczynski of helping Odebrecht win contracts for a highway and an irrigation project when he was a cabinet minister in the government of former President Alejandro Toledo, in exchange for bribes disguised as consulting fees. Kuczynski denies the charges. Odebrecht sparked Latin America’s biggest graft scandal by admitting publicly in late 2016 that it had secured lucrative contracts across the region with bribes. Since then, Peruvian judges have ordered several politicians, including Toledo, to be jailed before trial. Toledo denies wrongdoing and is fighting extradition to Peru from the United States. In Peru, suspects can be jailed without trial for up to three years if prosecutors show they have evidence that would likely lead to a conviction, and that the suspects would likely try to flee or obstruct their work. Critics of the use of so-called “preventive prison” in the Odebrecht probe say it is excessive and violates due process. According to Wednesday’s judicial resolution, Kuczynski is considered a flight risk because he faces more than four years in prison and has no job. Authorities barred Kuczynski from leaving Peru shortly after he resigned the presidency, and later froze his bank accounts. “I’ve cooperated entirely with all the investigations and have arrived punctually for all the summons,” Kuczynski said on Wednesday. Kuczynski’s former vice president, Martin Vizcarra, is now president and has made fighting graft the centerpiece of his government.

corruption
scandals
peru
pedro pablo kuczynski
odebrecht


Yemen holds mass funeral for 14 children killed in Sanaa blast Houthis blame on Saudis

Abstract: SANAA - Yemeni rebels held a mass funeral Wednesday for children killed in an explosion near two schools in the war-torn country’s capital Sanaa. The explosion in the rebel-held capital killed 14 children and wounded 16 others on Sunday, the U..N said. The cause remains unknown. Most of the casualties of the blast in the city’s Saewan district were girls under the age of 9, according to the U.N. The children were buried under the watchful eye of Houthi rebels, who have been at war with a pro-government alliance led by Saudi Arabia. Crowds of men spilled into the streets of the capital where coffins draped with Yemeni flags were lined up. Relatives of the children and schoolboys hoisted the coffins above the crowd and made their way to the cemetery, escorted by a line of ambulances. “What sin have they committed?” asked Essam al-Abed, a local Houthi official and funeral organizer. “Their only sin was carrying backpacks and pens to get an education.” The Houthi rebels have accused the Saudi-led military coalition backing the government of killing the children in an airstrike. The coalition denied conducting any air raids on the capital on Sunday. The United Nations and aid groups have called for an investigation into the explosion but have been unable to determine the cause. The World Health Organization estimates nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since 2015, when Riyadh and its allies intervened to prevent the government’s defeat in the face of rebel advances. Human rights groups say the real death toll is several times higher. The conflict has pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of mass starvation, in what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides stand accused of actions that could amount to war crimes. The coalition has been blacklisted by the U.N. for the killing of children, while Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse the Houthis of using civilians as human shields in densely populated areas.

conflict
religion
yemen
saudi arabia
military
u.n .
iran


A century on, Mexicans divided over legacy of revolutionary Emiliano Zapata

Abstract: CHINAMECA, MEXICO - Protests erupted Wednesday at commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, underlining how divisive the mustachioed peasant leader remains a century later. Zapata, one of the main leaders of the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, was killed in an ambush by a rival revolutionary faction, leaving his struggle for the rights of indigenous Mexicans and peasants unfinished. It remains unfinished to this day, according to many of those who see themselves as his heirs — including the Zapatista National Liberation Army, or Zapatistas, a former rebel group that staged a brief but bitter uprising against the Mexican government in the 1990s. To make their point, the Zapatistas led a noisy protest on the sidelines of the commemorations in Chinameca, the small town where Zapata was assassinated, in the central state of Morelos. Hundreds of protesters shouted anti-government slogans as Zapata-themed floats paraded by and young students marched beside them in the garb of Zapata’s guerrillas: Broad-brimmed sombreros and farmers’ shirts, with red handkerchiefs around their necks and bandoliers of bullets across their chests. The protesters then set up a stage and read out a series of diatribes against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, sees himself as a defender of Zapata’s legacy and has declared 2019 “The Year of Zapata.” But he has alienated the Zapatistas with his plans for mega-infrastructure projects they say will damage the environment and infringe on indigenous land rights, including a railroad across southern Mexico and a new gas-fired power plant in Morelos, Zapata’s home state. “We know this government, like all the country’s previous bad governments, wants to hijack the image of Emiliano Zapata Salazar so his struggle for land rights will die along with him,” said indigenous activist Marichuy Patricio, reading out a message from “Sub-commander Moises,” the current leader of the Zapatistas. If Zapata were alive today, “there would be a huge fight. He would not march alongside” Lopez Obrador, said Irving Sanchez, 30, who bore a long black mustache that he called a tribute to the late revolutionary. Lopez Obrador held a separate event in Cuernavaca, Morelos’ state capital, where he also faced hecklers in the crowd. Thousands of indigenous farmers and Zapatistas protested in the southern state of Chiapas, the ex-rebels’ bastion, blocking roads and demanding the government do more to protect their land. Zapata, who was 39 when he died, arguably ranks just behind Che Guevara on the list of iconic Latin American revolutionaries. As a young man, he worked on a ranch that belonged to the son-in-law of Mexico’s then-dictator, Porfirio Diaz, where he got an up-close look at the extreme inequality dividing the country. Politically active from an early age, Zapata emerged as a key leader of Mexico’s farmers when the anti-Diaz revolution broke out. Along with Pancho Villa, he was among the most radical of the revolutionaries, calling for the large-scale redistribution of land to the country’s poor and indigenous farmers. After Diaz was ousted, infighting broke out among rival revolutionary factions, setting the stage for Zapata’s assassination. In 1919, with rival revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza in power, Zapata was lured to a meeting with a pro-Carranza colonel, Jesus Guajardo, who supposedly wanted to defect. Instead, Guajardo’s men opened fire, killing Zapata in a hail of bullets. The fight over his legacy started almost immediately. The post-revolution government soon claimed him as a national hero, even as his followers cried foul. And the debate continues today. “The people Zapata fought for, their heirs today, are still desperately poor. In rural Mexico, peasant farmers and especially indigenous Mexicans are the most marginalized and impoverished” in the country, said historian Felipe Avila. Meanwhile, Zapata, like Che Guevara, has begun to emerge as an ironically capitalist brand. His descendants have applied to register his name as a trademark, with plans to sell merchandise stamped with his image. On Wednesday Lopez Obrador unveiled lottery tickets bearing Zapata’s picture.

history
mexico
anniversaries
andres manuel lopez obrador
emiliano zapata


Thousands flee Tripoli homes as battle rages on outskirts

Abstract: TRIPOLI - Eastern forces and troops loyal to the Tripoli government battled on the outskirts of Libya’s capital on Wednesday as thousands of residents fled from the fighting. The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar held positions in the suburbs about 11 km (7 miles) south of the center. Steel containers and pickups with mounted machine-guns blocked their way into the city. Residents reported LNA planes buzzing Tripoli as anti-aircraft guns fired at them. On the ground, Haftar’s forces were fighting Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s soldiers at the former international airport, witnesses said. A Reuters reporter in downtown Tripoli could hear the gunfire. The United Nations said at least 4,500 Tripoli residents had been displaced, most moving away from homes in conflict areas to safer districts. Many more were trapped, it said. The LNA forces moved out of their stronghold in east Libya to take the sparsely populated but oil-rich south earlier this year, before heading a week ago toward Tripoli, where the internationally recognized government sits. Libya has been divided and anarchic since the 2011 toppling of then-strongman Moammar Gadhafi. He ruled for more than four decades before falling in a Western-backed revolt. Since then, political and armed factions have vied for power and control of Libya’s oil wealth, and the country split into rival eastern and western administrations linked to shifting military alliances after a battle for Tripoli in 2014. The United Nations wants to bring both sides together to plan an election and way out of the chaos. On its Facebook page, Haftar’s forces published a video purporting to show their seizure of a government base in the Aziziya district of southern Tripoli. The images, which could not be verified, showed a vehicle on fire and soldiers firing in the air, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said it was extremely concerned about the “disproportionate and indiscriminate use” of explosive weapons in densely populated areas. Half a million children were at risk, it added. As well as the humanitarian consequences, renewed conflict in Libya threatens to disrupt oil supplies, increase migration across the Mediterranean to Europe, scupper the U.N. peace plan, and encourage Islamist militants to exploit the chaos. Islamic State killed three people in a remote desert town under LNA control two days ago. In Tripoli, nearly 50 people have died, mainly combatants but also some civilians including two doctors, according to latest U.N. casualty estimates. The toll is expected to rise. Several thousand migrants, detained after trying to use Libya as a staging point for crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, have also been caught up in the crisis. U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday it had relocated more than 150 of them— among several thousand in total — from one detention center in south Tripoli to a facility of its own in a safe zone. One official at that detention center said he flung open the doors on Wednesday and released another 150 migrants for their own safety due to the proximity of clashes. The United Nations, United States, European Union and G7 bloc have appealed for a ceasefire, a return to the U.N. peace plan, and a halt to Haftar’s push. But instead of that, he was moving men and equipment from southern and eastern Libya to a forward base at Gharyan, a town south of Tripoli, according to a foreign diplomatic source observing the deployments. Opponents cast Haftar as a would-be dictator in the mold of Gadhafi, though he projects himself as a champion against extremism striving to restore order to Libya. Haftar was among the officers who helped Gadhafi rise to power in 1969 but fell out with him during a war with Chad in the 1980s. He was taken prisoner by the Chadians, rescued by the CIA, and lived for about 20 years in Virginia before returning in 2011 to join other rebels in the uprising against Gadhafi. Despite the flare-up in conflict, normal life was just about continuing in Tripoli, a city of roughly 1.2 million people, though prices were rising and businesses closing earlier than usual, residents said. “I don’t care who wins or loses, I just want to survive with my family,” said a teacher in Tripoli who hoped to get out.

conflict
u.n .
libya
refugees
islamic state
tripoli
khalifa haftar


U.S. Navy drops criminal charges against USS Fitzgerald officers in case of 2017 fatal collision

Abstract: The U.S. Navy said Wednesday that it will drop charges against two former USS Fitzgerald officers accused of criminal negligence in the warship’s deadly 2017 collision south of Tokyo Bay. Former Fitzgerald commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson and the destroyer’s former tactical action officer Lt. Natalie Combs will instead receive secretarial letters of censure from Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the navy said in a statement. The two were previously dismissed from their jobs and received nonjudicial punishments, the navy said. Benson and Combs had been charged with dereliction in the performance of duties through negligence resulting in death and improper hazarding of a vessel. The June 17, 2017, collision with the ACX Crystal, a massive container ship, left seven sailors dead, and heavily damaged the ship, which at the time had been homeported at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. That collision was followed just over two months later by the second such incident, this one involving the Fitzgerald’s sister ship, the USS John S. McCain, and another container ship off the coast of Singapore and Malaysia. The McCain collision resulted in the deaths of 10 sailors and saw the commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet at the time, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, relieved of his position. Official post-collision reports have pointed to a culture of negligence, exhausted crews and a lack of training and communication as factors in the collisions, according to the navy. In its statement Wednesday, the navy said the “comprehensive program” to improve readiness and training to ensure that accidents like the Fitzgerald and McCain will not recur “remains on track.” “The Navy continues to strive to achieve and maintain a climate of operational excellence,” it said. But a recent media investigation into the nighttime collision of the vessel, reportedly heading toward a secret mission in the disputed South China Sea, revealed several warning signs leading up to the tragic accident. ProPublica, a nonprofit media outlet that produces investigative journalism, published a series of reports in February on the collision that revealed multiple troubling mistakes made by navy leaders — some of which were previously undisclosed — as well as courageous actions and heartbreaking choices by the ship’s crew.

u.s .
accidents
military
uss fitzgerald
uss john s. mccain


Narendra Modi favorite as India kicks off 'biggest election in history'

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India’s gargantuan election, the biggest in history, kicked off Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a second term from the South Asian behemoth’s 900 million voters. Opinion polls put Modi, 68, as the favorite but he faces a tough challenge from not one but two scions of India’s storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty attempting to capitalize on his poor record on jobs and rural poverty. Because of the vastness of India, the election will be held in seven phases, from the tea plantations of Darjeeling to the slums of Mumbai to the tropical Andaman Islands, and everywhere in between. Security forces were on high alert due to the perennial danger of violence at election time, with five people including a local lawmaker killed in an ambush by suspected Maoist rebels this week. Thousands of parties and candidates will run for office between now and May 19 in 543 constituencies across the nation of 1.3 billion people, with results not due until May 23. Some of the 1.1 million electronic voting machines will be transported through jungles and carried up mountains, including to a hamlet near the Chinese border with just one voter. Phase one on Thursday saw some 142 million people — including 7,764 transgender voters, eligible to register as such for the first time — able to cast ballots. Polling stations in the northeast were among the first to open at 7:00 am with others elsewhere set to follow at 8:00 am. “I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise,” Modi said in a tweet just after voting began. “I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers,” he said. Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014 with their famous promise of achhe din (good days), becoming the first party to win an absolute majority in 30 years. Critics say the BJP has since sought to impose a Hindu agenda on India, emboldening attacks on Muslims and low-caste Dalits trading in beef — cows being holy for Hindus — and rewriting school textbooks. Modi has simplified the tax code and made doing business easier but some of his promises have fallen short, particularly in rural areas where thousands of indebted farmers have killed themselves in recent years. Growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy has also been too slow to provide jobs for the roughly 1 million Indians entering the labor market each month, and unemployment is reportedly at its highest since the 1970s. Rahul Gandhi, 48, hoping to become the latest prime minister from his dynasty — and aided by his sister Priyanka — has accused Modi of causing a “national disaster.” Gandhi’s Congress party has profited from voter dissatisfaction, winning in December three key state elections, chipping into Modi’s core support base in the Hindi-speaking heartland of northern India. Gandhi, the great-grandson, grandson and son of three past premiers, has grown in stature since being derided in leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in 2007 as an “empty suit.” Election adverts show him hugging an emaciated peasant woman, while Congress’s manifesto pledges to end abject poverty by 2030 and give cash transfers to 50 million families. But Modi and the BJP’s formidable campaign juggernaut — backed by a savvy social media army — will be no pushover, promising a $1.4 trillion infrastructure blitz. Playing to its Hindu base, the BJP has also committed to building a grand temple in place of a Muslim mosque demolished by Hindu mobs in the northern city of Ayodhya in 1992. But most importantly, India’s latest military altercation with archrival Pakistan in February has allowed Modi to portray himself as the chowkidar (watchman) protecting mother India. “Nationalism is our inspiration and inclusion, and good governance is our mantra,” Modi, whose stern bearded face stares out from ubiquitous posters, said at the launch of his manifesto. But opinion polls are notoriously unreliable in India and much will depend on the BJP’s performance in several key states, in particular Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. “It’s difficult to predict,” said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a veteran journalist and political commentator. “It reminds me of 2004 when (Prime Minister Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and the BJP lost when everyone expected them to win,” he said.

india
religion
elections
narendra modi
bjp


Taxation, climate and inequality to top campaign as Australian PM Scott Morrison calls May 18 poll

Abstract: SYDNEY/MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Australians will go to the polls in a general election on May 18 after Prime Minister Scott Morrison fired the starting gun Thursday on a campaign set to be fought over taxation, climate change and inequality. Morrison and his main opponent, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, both used the Australian phrase “a fair go” to frame their campaigns around a national sense of equality and opportunity, albeit from very different angles. Opinion polls have had center-left Labor well ahead for years and show that the coalition of Morrison’s Liberals and the rural-focused National Party is headed for a resounding defeat. “It’s an enormous mountain to climb,” said political science professor Paul Williams from Griffith University in Brisbane. “If (Morrison) were to pull this off it would be one of the greatest comebacks in political history,” he said. Morrison led his pitch to voters with his conservative coalition’s economic credentials, framing the election as a referendum on its record of managing Australia’s finances. “So the choice to be made by Australians on the 18th of May is like it always is at every election, and that is: Who do you trust to deliver that strong economy which your essential services rely on?” he asked reporters in Canberra. However, Morrison’s coalition governs in minority and must win seats to hold power. It has also had three prime ministers in six years, with leadership instability a major reason for its poor showing in opinion polls. Labor promised higher wages and an end to tax breaks that favor the wealthy under its slogan “A Fair Go for Australia.” “We can manage the economy in the interests of working- and middle-class people,” Shorten told a news conference he called in a suburban backyard in the southern city of Melbourne. “When everyday Australians are getting a fair go, this economy hums.” Asked for his response to Labor’s campaign, Morrison replied: “I believe in a fair go for those who have a go.” The campaign will run for five weeks but the major parties are set to suspend their campaigns on the Easter public holidays and Anzac Day on April 25, a war remembrance day in Australia and New Zealand. Morrison’s pitch comes just as the economy shows signs of beginning to slow. Consumer spending has weakened as home prices fall after a prolonged property boom and high debt levels weigh on sentiment. The International Monetary Fund said overnight stimulus may be needed in Australia and financial markets are fully pricing in the probability of at least one interest rate cut later this year. Markets reacted modestly, with the announcement no surprise for a poll that must be held by the end of May. Morrison’s pre-election budget last week promised tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners, while projecting the first budget surplus in more than a decade. Labor promised to match the tax cuts for middle-income earners and pledged bigger concessions for lower-paid workers. It will fund the income tax cuts by curbing capital gains tax discounts, seeking greater taxes from multinationals and banks, and scrapping a favorable tax program for property investors called negative gearing, the party said. “Labor’s higher tax and regulation agenda may be a negative for Australian assets, but this could be partly offset in the short term by more targeted fiscal stimulus,” said AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver. “The May election presents a starker choice than has been the case since the 1970s and so suggests greater uncertainty for investors than usual,” he said. It will be Morrison’s first election as leader since he replaced former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last August after a party-room revolt. That did little to improve the coalition’s weak poll numbers and the government remains divided over energy and social policies. “I think the zeitgeist is changing a little bit away from fiscal rigor to fairness,” said Mark Triffitt, a public policy lecturer at the University of Melbourne. “There are a lot of people that take that fiscal rigor and budget surplus as very, very fundamental, but I think that’s shifting back into ‘What’s the point of having a budget surplus if I feel like I’m not getting ahead?’ ” he said.

australia
taxes
poverty
elections
climate change
scott morrison
bill shorten


Mike Pompeo wants China to join Russia in START nuclear treaty

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that China should join in the next START treaty on curbing nuclear warheads as Washington prepares for talks on an extension with Russia. The New START treaty, which caps the number of nuclear warheads well below Cold War limits, is set to expire in 2021 at a time of high tensions between Russia and the United States. Pompeo said that Russia and the United States have both shown “large compliance” with New START — unlike the separate INF treaty on medium-range missiles from which Washington this year said it would pull out, accusing Moscow of violations. President Donald Trump “has made very clear that if we can get a good, solid arms control agreement, we ought to get one,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when asked about extending New START. But Pompeo said that the next START — which stands for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — should include China, although he stopped short of describing Beijing’s role as a condition. “We need to make sure that we’ve got all of the parties that are relevant as a component of this as well,” Pompeo said. “It may be that we can’t get there. It may be that we just end up working with the Russians on this. But if we’re talking about a nuclear … capability that presents risks to the United States, it’s very different today in the world,” Pompeo said. Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley if he was referring to China, Pompeo replied in the affirmative and said that the rising Asian power had expanded its nuclear program. Russia denied it was in violation of the INF, or Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, treaty and has described the US withdrawal from the signature Cold War pact as boding ill for extending New START. Pompeo’s hopes for extending New START mark a shift from 2017 when the newly elected Trump denounced it as a “one-sided deal” negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

china
u.s .
russia
donald trump
inf
start
mike pompeo
nuclear warheads


South Korean court strikes down decades-old law banning abortion

Abstract: SEOUL - In a landmark ruling over a law that campaigners say puts women at risk, South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the country’s decades-old abortion ban to be lifted. South Korea remains one of the few industrialized nations that criminalizes abortion, except for instances of rape, incest and when the mother’s health is at risk. But the nine-member bench ruled by seven to two that the 1953 statute, aimed at protecting lives and traditional values, “goes against the constitution” and ordered the law to be revised by the end of next year. “The abortion ban limits women’s rights to pursue their own destinies, and violates their rights to health by limiting their access to safe and timely procedures,” the court said in a statement. “Embryos completely depend on the mother’s body for their survival and development, so it cannot be concluded that they are separate, independent living beings entitled to rights to life.” Bursting into tears of joy and celebrating, hundreds of women — including teenagers and females with disabilities — cheered wildly in front of the court in central Seoul, where the official ruling was announced. “Women deserve to be happy as much as we want to be today,” activist Bae Bok-ju said. “Today’s decision was made because countless women ceaselessly fought for their rights for so many years.” Under the ban, women who undergo the procedure can face up to a year in prison and a fine, while doctors who performed the procedure are given two years in prison. The 1953 law had been widely flouted and rarely resulted in prosecutions, but activists had claimed it left women facing being unable to pay for terminations, unsafe procedures and social ostracization. Under Thursday’s ruling, the ban will be automatically lifted on Jan. 1, 2021, unless new legislation is introduced sooner by the National Assembly to follow the court order. Calls to repeal the law had gained traction as the country’s growing feminist movement gathered momentum, but support for the ban had also been staunch in a country that remains conservative toward female sexuality and is highly influenced by evangelical Christianity. The Constitutional Court last upheld the law in 2012, saying that abortion would “end up running rampant” if not punished. An opinion poll on Wednesday showed 58 percent of the public are in favor of abolishing the law. According to campaigners, the procedure has been commonplace in South Korea and it has unfairly targeted mostly young, unwed women — who are most vulnerable to abortion-related stigma in the country. Teens who fall pregnant are often forced to discontinue their studies or transfer to remotely located educational institutions, according to youth rights groups. Women with disabilities are often forced by family members to undergo abortion — which, according to disability rights campaigners, demonstrates the country’s selective views about which lives matter. Religious belief is widespread in South Korea, and some of its evangelical mega-churches are among those defending the ban. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea expressed “deep regrets” saying, “The ruling denies the rights to life of embryos who do not have the ability to defend themselves.” But activist Kang Min-jin says the hard work begins now. “For one, we have to make sure that the procedure will be covered by the national health insurance,” Kang said. “Without it, many women’s health will continue to be in danger.” One campaigner, Lim — who had kept her abortion experience a secret for more than 25 years — said the court’s ruling will allow women to make their own decisions about their future without the fear of being shamed. “Keeping my abortion a secret has been making me feel unnecessarily guilty for all these years,” said the 50-year-old, who asked for her forename not to be used to protect her anonymity. “I want to see a different future for the next generation.”

pregnancy
family planning
courts
rights
abortion
women
south korea
parenthood


China struggles to ease concerns over 'Belt and Road' initiative as summit looms

Abstract: BEIJING/BRUSSELS - China is struggling to ease worries about President Xi Jinping’s signature plan to build a new Silk Road as it readies for a major summit in late April, especially among Western nations wary about debt, transparency and Chinese influence. While China gained a major victory by convincing Italy to become the first Group of Seven nation to formally sign on to the plan last month during Xi’s visit to Rome, others in the West have been less keen to jump onboard, though many have kept an open mind. The “Belt and Road” initiative, as it is formally called, is aimed at building a vast network of infrastructure connecting China to Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond, much like the ancient Silk Road. Following the first Belt and Road summit two years ago, in a luxuriously appointed convention centre in hills north of Beijing, the second one is scheduled for the same location in late April. China is billing it as the country’s most important diplomatic event of the year. The country’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, said on Saturday that almost 40 foreign leaders would come, and also took a swipe at “prejudiced” critics of the program who seek to besmirch it with concerns like “debt traps.” “The Belt and Road is open, inclusive and transparent. It does not play little geopolitical games,” Yang, who runs the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs committee, told the official People’s Daily. The United States, locked in a bitter trade war with China, has been a particular critic of the Belt and Road, calling it an “infrastructure vanity project” when Italy signed on. Jonathan Cohen, acting permanent representative of the United States at the United Nations, last month slammed China’s attempt to get Belt and Road language into a resolution on Afghanistan, saying it had “known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and lack of transparency.” Wu Haitao, charge d’affaires of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the rebuke was “contrary to the facts and fraught with prejudice.” In 2017, the United States sent White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matt Pottinger to the summit. This time, Washington said it will not dispatch high-level officials due to its concerns about the project. Lower-level staffers, possibly from the U.S. embassy in Beijing, might go to the summit to observe and take notes, sources familiar with the matter said, though a final decision has yet to be made. China says it always welcomes “like-minded countries” to take part in the project. It has not disclosed a full list of the leaders planning to attend the event. But some of Beijing’s closest friends have confirmed they will go, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. The European Union, China’s largest trading partner, has also been in a bind about how to respond. Last week, Europe’s top leaders told Xi they wanted a fairer trading relationship with China, signaling an openness to engage with the project if it meant more access to the Chinese market. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at the EU summit in March, grumbled about Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s decision to join the project, although she said Germany will play an active role in the Belt and Road and called for reciprocity. Conte is due to attend the summit. Rome says signing onto the Belt and Road will bring much-needed investment and boost trade, and has pointed to the fact that a dozen EU countries have already signed memoranda of understanding with China, including Hungary, Poland, Greece and Portugal. The EU last year proposed its own infrastructure scheme, but it has denied it is trying to counter China’s ambitions. “For China it is a question of power projection. China is corrupting what should be a level playing field by offering loans that send country debts soaring and create a culture of economic dependency on Beijing,” one EU official said. German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a Merkel confidant, is attending the summit, along with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, with Altmaier saying they wanted to “safeguard European interests in cooperation with China there.” Several EU officials said the European Commission was still looking at who to send as a replacement for Vice President Jyrki Katainen, who attended 2017’s Belt and Road summit and has cited a calendar clash with the EU-Japan summit for not being able to go this time. China has been on a push to show that the Belt and Road remains popular, despite cooling enthusiasm from governments including those of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Maldives, where new administrations are wary of deals struck with China by their predecessors. The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, who ranks below Yang, last month touted the success of the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a major Belt and Road scheme. Wang said after meeting Pakistan’s foreign minister that less than 20 percent of funding for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor came from Chinese loans, with the rest made up of direct Chinese investment and free grants. The corridor focuses on the interests of ordinary people, Wang said, citing as an example women truck drivers trained to work at a coal mine connected to the project, which he described as a “touching story.” Wang told reporters at March’s annual meeting of parliament that the Belt and Road was about high quality, sustainable, green development. “As President Xi has said, the Belt and Road initiative comes from China, but the achievements belong to the world,” Wang said.

china
pakistan
eu
xi jinping
belt and road
_asia


Can Trump keep Tokyo and Seoul united against North Korea, as Obama did?

Abstract: DINARD, FRANCE - Amid growing uncertainties caused by the breakdown of the second U.S.-North Korea summit, analysts are wondering whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration can foster a cooperative relationship with Japan and South Korea to improve regional stability. Disputes between the two U.S. allies over wartime labor compensation issues and a December incident involving the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the South Korean Navy have hampered rapport in the three-way alliance. The key to moving forward, it seems, is whether Trump will step in to mediate as his predecessor Barack Obama did in the past. “The most important alliance management effort that the United States should be taking right now is working to improve relations between Seoul and Tokyo, which may be at their lowest point since the restoration of relations in 1965,” said Kelly Magsamen, vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank. “This will require consistent, high-level effort by the United States, including at the leader level,” Magsamen said. Such calls are climbing, with Trump scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday in Washington, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this month before the three gather at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. During a two-day foreign ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven in Dinard, France, through Saturday, the G-7 affirmed the international community’s unified front in pushing North Korea to denuclearize, according to Foreign Minister Taro Kono. The affirmation came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha of South Korea, which is not in the G-7, underscored their commitment to trilateral coordination in a meeting late last month in Washington. But since no three-way meeting with Abe and Moon took place on the fringes of the G-20 summit late last year in Buenos Aires, Trump appears to be putting little priority on strengthening cooperation between Japan and South Korea. Trump instead has focused on engaging North Korea, holding two rounds of talks with leader Kim Jong Un. But their second meeting, held in February in Hanoi, was cut short due to disagreements over the scope of Pyongyang’s denuclearization and the level of sanctions relief that could be provided. Trump has also been critical of America’s trade deficits with Japan and South Korea, as well as the cost of stationing U.S. troops in both countries. He has repeatedly referred to the possibility of pulling 28,500 troops out of South Korea, a move that would shift the regional power balance to North Korea and China, a strategic competitor to the United States. In comparison, Obama brokered the first face-to-face talks between Abe and Park Geun-hye, who was then South Korea’s president, by convening a trilateral meeting on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 in The Hague. At the time, Tokyo-Seoul ties were also at a low ebb over the sensitive issue of the “comfort women,” which refers to the Korean females who provided sex — including those against their will — for Japanese troops in Japan’s wartime brothels before and during World War II. The Obama administration played a role in getting the two countries to reach a historic agreement in 2015 to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the long-standing issue, as well as to sign a military intelligence-sharing pact in 2016. “Some are skeptical of whether the Trump administration can address this as skillfully as the Obama administration did,” said Mike Mochizuki, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. “But I think the need to do it this time is even greater than it was during the Obama administration,” Mochizuki said. Together with heightened tensions over compensation for Korean laborers who worked in Japanese companies during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Washington has grown concerned about deterioration in Tokyo-Seoul defense ties — a development that could undermine U.S. efforts to counter China’s military buildup and rising assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. Japanese and South Korean defense authorities have accused each other of endangering each other’s personnel since Japan said in December that a South Korean warship locked its fire-control radar on an MSDF plane in the Sea of Japan. “When I look at who wins from Japan-South Korea tensions, it seems to me it’s Beijing,” said Benjamin Self, vice president of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, a Washington institution dedicated to supporting U.S.-Asia relations.

shinzo abe
north korea
south korea
north korea nuclear crisis
south korea-japan relations
donald trump
moon jae-in


Want to control your weight? Intestinal worms could help, say Japanese researchers

Abstract: If it worked for Maria Callas, maybe it can work for others. Rumor has it that Callas, one of the most influential soprano singers of the 20th century, used tapeworms to maintain her figure, helping her lose around 50 kg in the 1950s. Although the truth about the singer’s diet has never been proven, a group of Japanese researchers has for the first time confirmed that slimy, creepy helminths may help improve metabolism and thus suppress weight gain. In the findings published Monday in the U.S. science journal Infection and Immunity, researchers from Gunma University and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo revealed that intestinal helminths have the ability to increase intestinal cells, which are responsible for the release of neurotransmitters that activate sympathetic nerves and speed up the burning of fat. The researchers put up to 200 mice on a high-fat diet and then infected some of them with a naturally occurring type of gastrointestinal roundworm. After 28 days, the researchers noticed that the worms helped suppress the increase of the infected mice’s body weight by 20 percent, compared to uninfected mice. “To be precise, the worms don’t cause weight loss but can suppress weight gain,” Chikako Shimokawa, the assistant professor at the Department of Parasitology at Gunma University’s Graduate School of Medicine who led the study, told The Japan Times on Thursday. “They help maintain health and prevent putting on excess weight.” Shimokawa laughed off rumors that the researchers were planning to infect humans with parasites and said the study focused on the effects of tapeworms on intestinal cells. “We believe they release a substance that increases intestinal cells and if we manage to determine what it is, we could use it in dietary supplements and medicines” designed to help people lose weight, Shimokawa said. “If the findings help us find a way to increase intestinal cells, we may not need tapeworms to do so.” Shimokawa, who specializes in immunology disorders, said the study was based on a common hypothesis that, due to improved hygiene, tapeworms are no longer lurking in human bodies. It’s a theory that can be closely linked to the rising prevalence of autoimmune diseases, allergies and inflammatory disorders, including obesity, Shimokawa said. “I thought that tapeworms could give us some tips on how to improve the immune system,” Shimokawa said. The Infection and Immunity journal, issued by the American Society for Microbiology, focuses on interactions between bacterial, fungal or parasitic pathogens and their hosts.

obesity
diets
worms
chikako shimokawa
helminth
intestines
parasites


Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo says Osaka pharmaceutical firm short-changed him for cancer drug

Abstract: Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo said Wednesday he is involved in a dispute over license fees under a patent agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., which sells a cancer treatment drug developed based on his research. Honjo and his lawyer told reporters that he refused to accept the company’s offer of about ¥2.6 billion, and instead forwarded the funds to the Legal Affairs Bureau, because he believes the company shortchanged him by giving him an inadequate explanation about his compensation when they signed the agreement in 2006. “I would like to discuss with the company about increasing my remuneration in line with (the drug’s) sales,” he said. The discovery of the protein PD-1 by Honjo and his team in 1992 later led to the development of the drug Opdivo, which triggers the immune system to attack cancer cells. Ono Pharmaceutical started selling it in 2014 and it is usually used to treat skin and lung cancer. “We treat him with respect but (what he says) greatly deviates from the current agreement,” said a spokesman at Osaka-based Ono Pharmaceuticals, though he declined to give details. Honjo said he wished to donate money derived from patent sales to a foundation supporting young researchers set up by Kyoto University, where he is a distinguished professor. He has already done so with the money he received as part of his Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he won last year. This is not the first time that a Japanese Nobel laureate has sparred with a company selling products based on the scientist’s discoveries. Shuji Nakamura, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014, settled a suit with chemical-maker Nichia Corp. in 2005 over patent rights compensation related to his blue light-emitting diode technology.

awards
medicine
drugs
cancer
nobel prize
tasuku honjo
opdivo
ono pharmaceutical


Abe sacks gaffe-prone Olympics minister Sakurada after 3/11 remarks and gives predecessor job back

Abstract: After effectively removing gaffe-prone Olympics minister Yoshitaka Sakurada Wednesday night, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed Shunichi Suzuki, Sakurada’s predecessor, as the next Olympics minister Thursday. “I want (Suzuki) to regain trust and bring the Olympics to a success,” Abe told reporters Thursday morning. Sakurada submitted his resignation to Abe Wednesday after coming under increasing pressure over a series of gaffes, including the most recent, which concerned the recovery effort in the quake- and tsunami-damaged Tohoku region. Sakurada quit after saying that a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker from the northeastern region, which was hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, is “more important than the (region’s) recovery,” when he gave a speech Wednesday at the lawmaker’s fundraising party. Speaking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office after meeting Abe on Wednesday night, Sakurada was contrite. “I’m really sorry for making a remark that could offend people suffering from the disasters,” he told reporters. “I felt I had to take responsibility and submitted my resignation.” Sakurada was in charge of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics to be hosted by Tokyo. The gaffe by the 69-year-old Sakurada comes less than a week after a senior vice minister at the land ministry, Ichiro Tsukada, quit following comments suggesting he had acted in the interests of Abe’s constituency over a road project. Sakurada is the eighth Cabinet minister to resign since Abe returned to power in 2012. After accepting his resignation letter on Wednesday night, Abe expressed regret over the situation. “I would like to apologize as prime minister,” Abe said. “I bear the responsibility of appointing him.” Sakurada has made other controversial remarks. In February, he said he was “very disappointed” over swimming gold medal hopeful Rikako Ikee’s diagnosis of leukemia — a comment on the potential absence of the star from the Tokyo Games that elicited a huge backlash. Sakurada, who doubled as the government’s cybersecurity strategy chief, also admitted last November that he does not use a computer.

shinzo abe
olympics
tohoku
3.11
gaffes
yoshitaka sakurada
shunichi suzuki


Poll shows 54% oppose revision of Japan's pacifist Constitution under Abe's watch

Abstract: Just over 40 percent in Japan are supportive of efforts to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the nation’s Constitution, while over half oppose, a poll showed Wednesday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has advocated amending the top law, proposing that a paragraph of Article 9 that bans Japan from possessing a military with “war potential” is retained while stressing the need to clarify the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces. In the mail survey conducted by Kyodo News, which saw valid responses from 1,930 people aged 18 and older, 29 percent said the purpose and character of the country’s defense forces should be clarified with the deletion of the paragraph, while 27 percent said they saw no need to mention the SDF in the article. In response to a more general question of whether the U.S.-drafted Constitution should be amended for the first time ever, 54 percent said they were opposed to it under the Abe administration while 42 percent backed its amendment. Kyodo News conducted the survey ahead of Japan’s annual celebration of Constitution Day, on May 3, seeking input from 3,000 people between February and March of which 64.3 percent gave valid responses. The results show obstacles remain for Abe in securing wider public support and meeting his goal of putting a revised Constitution into effect in 2020. The first paragraph of Article 9 states that the Japanese people forever renounce the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. To accomplish that aim, the second paragraph says land, sea and air forces, as well as other capacities to wage war, will never be maintained. Opinion in the poll was split over whether Article 9 should be revised, with 47 percent believing there is no need, while 45 percent saying a change is necessary. Despite objections from some legal scholars, the government has maintained its position that the SDF is “constitutional” and has interpreted the article as not banning Japan from possessing the “minimum necessary” capability to defend itself. Still, Abe has said it is vital to clarify the legal status of the SDF in the article to put an end to arguments that Japan’s forces are “unconstitutional.” Of those in favor of amending the article in the survey, only 26 percent cited unconstitutionality of the SDF as their rationale while 56 percent highlighted the changing security environment facing Japan amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat and China’s military buildup. In the postwar era, Article 9 has served as the backbone of Japan’s defense and foreign policy. Since Abe returned to power in 2012, Japan has expanded the scope of SDF operations overseas by loosening constraints under the Constitution. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, having long identified constitutional reform as a goal, drew up draft proposals in March last year focusing on what were described as four pillars, including Article 9 and a new emergency clause. Regarding the proposed emergency clause that would allow the Cabinet to exert more power in limiting individual rights during large-scale disasters, 53 percent of those polled expressed opposition while 44 percent gave their support. Regardless of specific issues, 63 percent said that they think amending the Constitution is required or may be necessary, while 36 percent said they did not see the need for it. Amending the Constitution requires approval by two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Diet, followed by majority support in a national referendum. The existing Constitution, which designates the Emperor as the symbol of the state, came into force on May 3, 1947

shinzo abe
constitution
self defense forces
poll