Japan to expand antitrust leniency program, under which fines are slashed if firms play ball

Abstract: The government will expand the Fair Trade Commission’s antitrust leniency program, mainly by reducing fines on violators depending on the degree of their cooperation, according to informed sources. Meanwhile, penalties for violating the Antimonopoly Law will be strengthened. The government hopes to adopt a bill to revise the law at a Cabinet meeting in early March and submit it to the current Diet session ending in June if the ruling bloc signs off on it. Under the leniency program, introduced in 2006, companies are granted a reduction or exemption of fines if they report bid-rigging, cartels or other violations of the law. At present, such measures are awarded to up to five companies per case in order of applications. The bill would call for removing this limit. The legislation would also grant an additional cut of up to 40 percent in fines depending on how much applicants cooperate, such as by submitting evidence. The first company to report an antitrust conspiracy would enjoy full exemption, as under the current program. Fines would be reduced by up to 60 percent for the second company, against the current fixed level of 50 percent, and up to 50 percent for the third through fifth companies, against 30 percent. The sixth company and onward, to which no leniency is provided at present, would enjoy a reduction of up to 45 percent. Under the current program, the FTC accepts leniency applications from up to three companies after the start of investigations. There would be no such limit in the envisioned program. Applicants would be eligible for a reduction of 25 to 30 percent. The government hopes the bigger incentives will help the FTC find facts more speedily. To toughen the penalties, the government plans to extend the maximum period of violations the FTC can count to calculate fines to 10 years from the current three years. The FTC would be allowed to calculate fines based on estimated sales if it cannot obtain enough evidence. This rule would also apply to the abuse of a superior bargaining position. Also planned is a rise in the rates of fines for retailers and wholesalers, which are far lower than that for manufacturers. For bid-rigging and cartels, 10 percent of sales would be the basis for calculating fines. The bill won’t include a provision on the protection of communications between companies and their lawyers. But such a rule would be introduced through revisions to FTC and other regulations. Of the materials seized in investigations into bid-rigging and cartels, documents containing advice from lawyers would be returned to companies, so consulting with lawyers would become easier.


Japan is next on U.S. trade talks list after China, likely in April or May before Trump's visit

Abstract: Japan and the United States will likely launch trade talks in April or May, later than initially planned, as Washington needs to focus first on negotiations with Beijing, sources with knowledge of the plan said Monday. Based on an agreement reached last September, the Japan-U.S. talks are expected to be held in Washington before May 26, when President Donald Trump plans to visit Japan, the sources said. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi were initially expected to meet in March. But Lighthizer’s schedule is apparently tight as he is also in charge of the U.S.-China negotiations. As financial markets remain focused on the outcome of trade talks between the world’s two largest economies, Trump said Sunday he will extend the deadline for a trade deal with Beijing beyond Friday while delaying the imposition of additional tariffs on Chinese imports. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump agreed to start bilateral trade talks last September, in a move largely seen as Tokyo acquiescing to Washington. The government has said the negotiations for a trade deal with the U.S. will focus primarily on goods, drawing a line against a more wide-ranging free trade agreement. The first meeting will reportedly determine the scope of negotiations on agriculture and industrial products. As Trump has taken issue with the hefty U.S. trade deficit with major exporters like Japan, the focus would be whether the two nations will take up nontariff measures, such as an import cap on Japanese cars. For such nontariff measures, Japan is seen as hoping to focus on areas where bilateral consultations would be easier, including customs procedures. But speculation has grown that the U.S. will push for a review of regulations on medicine and medical equipment. Abe has been promoting free trade as part of his growth strategy for the export-reliant Japanese economy. While Japan has been bracing for its bilateral talks with the U.S., its key trading partner, a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord and an economic partnership agreement with the European Union have taken effect.

trade
tariffs
u.s.-japan relations
donald trump
trade war


Trump trade truce removes a cloud over global economy — for now

Abstract: HONG KONG - U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to extend the deadline for increasing tariffs on Chinese goods defuses one of the biggest risks hanging over global trade, investment and sentiment. Trump said he will extend the deadline beyond this week, citing “substantial progress” in the latest round of trade talks that wrapped up Sunday in Washington. “The U.S. has made substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues,” Trump said in a Twitter posting Sunday evening. “As a result of these very productive talks, I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.” That spurred a risk-on rally in Asia on Monday, even as a commentary from China’s official Xinhua News Agency cautioned that the talks may face “new uncertainties.” The U.S.-China dispute is just one of a lengthening worry list that threatens to dent global growth. Here’s a look at why the bears won’t be hibernating just yet. Trump is considering whether to impose levies on imported vehicles on the basis they are a threat to national security. Such a move would hurt not just the U.S. economy but big manufacturing ones including Germany, Japan and South Korea too. Higher U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions could jeopardize about $500 billion of trade flows, accounting for 2.8 percent of 2017 global imports, according to Moody’s Investors Service Ltd. The Chinese economy has been struggling to contain a slowdown even as policymakers ramp up their stimulus measures to stoke growth. Much will depend on how durable the trade truce is, given the breadth of concerns that the U.S. has regarding China’s industrial and economic policies. “I don’t see the outlook for business investment globally improving markedly until we see more concrete plans for resolving the various issues between the U.S. and China,” said Tuuli McCully, head of Asia-Pacific economics at Scotiabank in Singapore. While Federal Reserve policymakers see 2019 marking the end of their balance sheet run-off, it may not mean they are done raising interest rates. How Fed policy plays out will be crucial for emerging markets who have enjoyed a respite since Jerome Powell signaled a pause in the central bank’s hiking cycle. Yet the dimming outlook for the world’s biggest economy will drag down the rest of the world, too, as fiscal stimulus fades and data shows signs of weakness. Britain is teetering on the brink of a cliff-edge departure form the European Union that lawmakers, economists and executives warn would spark economic chaos and drag on growth across key trading partners in Europe. Prime Minister Theresa May has set a new deadline of March 12 — just 17 days before Brexit day — for a final vote on her Brexit divorce agreement. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, continues to send mixed signals amid persistent manufacturing weakness and soggy confidence levels. While improving consumption and investment hint at a pickup in coming months, there have been sharp downgrades to the growth outlook. Meanwhile, Italy sank into recession at the end of 2018 and is predicted to barely grow this year, leaving the economy to nurse huge debt, low growth and high unemployment.

trade
tariffs
u.s.-china relations
donald trump


Tech firms scope out Africa surveillance sector at Rabat expo as West tries to balance privacy concerns

Abstract: RABAT - At a security exhibition in Morocco tech companies pushed to convince African officials that their state-of-the-art surveillance tools are the key to stability and development. The ASEC Expo in Rabat, billed by organizers as the first of its kind on the continent, last week brought together firms from across the world looking to conquer new markets in a region marked by rapid urbanization and economic growth. And while Europe has slapped restrictions on an industry eyed with suspicion by many due to civil liberty concerns, African countries with lax legislation make tempting partners. Chinese communications giant Huawei had a large presence at the event, hyping the success of networks already installed in the capitals of Kenya, Cameroon, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire. “When a crime has been committed, thanks to the cameras, we work magic,” said Ghanian security minister Albert Kan-Dapaah in a promotional clip for the company. “My command center is the envy of many of my colleagues.” Huawei has already equipped more than 700 cities in 100 countries, including more than 25 in Africa, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. But the firm is in the spotlight over concerns it could give Beijing a backdoor into sensitive communications and infrastructure, with the United States and Australia to ban its equipment from their future 5G networks. Just a dozen companies run the booming global video surveillance market, a $30 billion industry as of 2017 that research firm Stratistics MRC has forecast will have double digit growth over the next few years. A representative of South Korea’s Hanwha Group said the African market was “very strong … because there is a lot of opportunity for us to supply our products. “We had a lot of sales last year and this year,” particularly in Egypt and South Africa, Yoonboom Choi said. The new high-tech command centers of “safe cities” are capable of instantly detecting anything from everyday crimes and accidents to natural disasters and civil unrest — and to trigger quick responses. With big data and artificial intelligence, crowds are no longer anonymous. Facial recognition algorithms coupled with troves of readily available data online can pinpoint the identity of anyone who passes by a surveillance feed. Vehicles can be identified by their number plates, and ultra-high tech software can even detect human emotions and predict behavior. “We can establish anyone’s identity without knowing him — his first and last name, academic background … his family, what he prefers, where he travels,” Huawei regional representative Chakib Achour said. These data sets are useful to police pursuing criminals and to companies looking for potential customers, advocates say. But the risk of mass surveillance has sparked concerns among civil liberties advocates. Authoritarian regimes across Africa are frequently accused of violating rights to stamp out opposition. In its annual report for 2019 Human Rights Watch singled out Egypt for using counterterrorism measures and security concerns “as a guise to crush all forms of dissent.” Fears over surveillance spurred the European Union in 2018 into enacting a strict new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Europe now has restrictions on “technology that could be developed in the Middle East or Africa,” said Francois Levy, regional director of Brazilian software company Digifort. Morocco, which organized the exhibition, says it needs a strong security policy to fight terrorism and has shown a strong interest in the far-reaching technologies. “Citizen security has always been the focal point” of Morocco’s city planning and “underlies the great project of urban renewal that we continue to lead,” said head of Rabat city council Mohamed Sadiki during a visit to the expo. Marrakesh is working on an app that would allow citizens and tourists alike to “place emergency calls” and send in tips, boasts regional security official Moulay El Hafid Zimirly in a Huawei-sponsored clip. In its commercial material, Huawei openly pushes the “example” set by China, “where all police stations have their own video surveillance unit. The company offers authorities the chance to tap into troves of images taken in taxis, airports, and stadiums, as well as images taken by ordinary citizens with their mobile phones. In its 2019 global report Human Rights Watch detailed how the Chinese government at home increasingly uses mass surveillance to “tighten control over society,” including through the widespread collection of biometric details including DNA and voice samples. “All of these systems are being deployed without effective privacy protections in law or in practice, and often people are unaware that their data is being gathered, or how it is used or stored,” the report said. For Africa, adopting the technology on offer would open up a major pool of data — but also questions. By 2020 more than one out of every two people on the continent will have a smartphone, according to a 2018 study published by Deloitte.

china
africa
tech
privacy
espionage
surveillance
huawei
facial recognition
rabat


Huawei breaks price ceiling with folding 5G smartphone

Abstract: BARCELONA, SPAIN - Huawei Technologies has unveiled a $2,600 (¥290,000) folding smartphone it says is primed for next-generation 5G mobile connections, even as the United States campaigns to bar the Chinese company from such networks over security concerns. Huawei, the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor after Samsung, said Sunday it has taken the lead on developing phones for 5G — which promises superfast internet speeds for consumers and businesses — because it was also involved in developing the networks. “This phone is not only for today for 5G but also for future 5G. On all the benchmarks you can see the performance, the speed is the fastest for 5G in the world,” said Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group. Speaking ahead of the mobile industry’s biggest global event, which kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain, Yu said the Huawei Mate X will have two back-to-back screens that unfold to become an eight-inch (20-centimeter) tablet display. Yu said the Mate X will be able to download a 1-gigabyte movie in three seconds but also be priced at €2,299 ($2,607) when it goes on sale later this year, setting a new upper limit for consumer smartphones. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. last week unveiled its own folding smartphone, priced at nearly $2,000, in a bid to top the technology of Apple Inc. and Chinese rivals and reignite consumer interest amid slumping sales. Huawei, which is also the world’s biggest producer of telecommunications equipment, is under intense scrutiny in the West over U.S.-led allegations of enabling Chinese state espionage, accusations the company denies. Huawei’s chairman said Sunday that recent comments by President Donald Trump that the U.S. needs to get ahead in mobile communications through competition rather than seeking to block technology was “clear and correct.”


Microsoft boosts HoloLens performance and cuts price in hunt for corporate clients

Abstract: SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is introducing an improved version of its HoloLens augmented-reality goggles and lowering the price, as it tries to develop a bigger business selling the devices to corporate customers. At $3,500, the HoloLens 2 with a wider field of view and easier controls than the original is still an expensive piece of gear, but it’s less than the $5,000 cost to commercial users for the first version. The company is also selling the device, which lets users view, move, speak to and interact with 3D holograms, via a monthly subscription along with a related software app. Microsoft is pitching the goggles as a tool for workers rather than consumers, envisioning it for tasks such as visually guiding factory workers as they learn new jobs or helping architects design buildings. Education company Pearson PLC and Koninklijke Philips NV, a health technology provider, are testing the new devices, and the U.S. Army in November awarded Microsoft a $480 million contract to supply HoloLens prototypes. About 50 Microsoft employees on Friday demanded the company abandon the Army contract, saying in a letter to company executives that they “did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.” Philips has been working with Microsoft to coordinate HoloLens with the health company’s Azurion system for guiding surgeons during minimally invasive procedures. Philips makes machines that help surgeons move tools through the body as they make tiny incisions to remove tumors, for example. HoloLens might be used to do things like provide a three-dimensional view of blood vessels, give each member of the surgical team a personalized data screen in their field of view and control the Azurion machine with voice commands. “When you’re driving a car, you want to keep both hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road. When I am working on a patient I want to keep my hands on my instruments and my eyes on the patient,” said Atul Gupta, chief medical officer for image guided therapy at Philips. “Technology like HoloLens 2 has finally caught up with our vision of what we wanted to do with mixed reality or augmented reality.” Microsoft is unveiling the new device Sunday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Customers can pre-order it Sunday as well. Unlike virtual-reality goggles, which block out a user’s surroundings, the augmented-reality HoloLens overlays holograms on a user’s existing environment, letting them see things like digital instructions on complex equipment. Facebook Inc., Magic Leap Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have products for virtual or augmented reality, but it remains to be seen whether anyone can turn the area, which Microsoft refers to as mixed reality, into a big money maker. Microsoft is focusing on corporate customers with HoloLens, and is trying to make the devices more useful right out of the box with prepared applications, rather than require months to write customized programs, said spokesman Greg Sullivan. The company has also added Azure cloud software that can be used to better run augmented-reality features in devices like iPhones and Android phones. That could let Microsoft garner revenue from other companies’ devices and from the consumer market. For example, the company plans to promote the cloud services to video-game creators at the Game Developers Conference in March in San Francisco. HoloLens 2 more than doubles the field of view from the previous version, which many reviews said felt too narrow, causing holograms to disappear partly or completely when users moved their heads. Microsoft’s engineers had to drop LED technology because it cost too much to expand the field of view, Sullivan said. Instead, they invented a new system based on dual quantum well lasers and an oscillating mirror.”People said you couldn’t do it,” Sullivan said about the visual technology. “And the team said ‘hold my beer.’ ” There are now more ways to control the holograms via gesture instead of one, somewhat unnatural, exaggerated finger tap that controlled the previous version. The new model tracks a user’s gaze and lets them trigger actions by looking at a hologram. Users can also grab, rotate and resize the holograms with their hands as the device is powered by a new processor that includes an artificial intelligence chip Microsoft developed. That chip also gives the goggles a better idea of what’s going on in a user’s surroundings, differentiating a sofa from a floor, for example, and glass walls from brick, key information that developers writing apps can employ for better controls and more immersive experiences, Sullivan said. The company also rebalanced the weight of the headset because some users complained the previous version was heavier at the back of the device, a problem given that Microsoft is selling it for factory workers or surgeons who’d wear it for hours at a time.

google
microsoft
facebook
u.s. army
augmented reality
hololens
holograms


The demise of Honda's only U.K. factory sums up Britain's Brexit angst

Abstract: Swindon, famous for its traffic intersections and steam-engine past, feels like Brexit Britain in a nutshell. Like the United Kingdom in general, the city of about 180,000 people boasts a proud industrial heritage stretching back to the 19th century. Current unemployment is low and the local economy has done reasonably well in the past few years. Yet the planned closure of the local Honda Motor Co. factory has dramatically altered the outlook, and residents are on edge. “Honda leaving is like Brexit,” Dimitri Bretti, said through the serving window at Street Cafe, his burger joint just off the main street. “Nobody knows what comes next.” While Brexit wasn’t to blame, according to Honda’s bosses, it will likely make finding a replacement employer all the harder. Companies aren’t willing to put money in the U.K. right now given the uncertainty over the country’s future relationship with Europe. Nationally, investment has fallen for four straight quarters. That’s the worst stretch since the financial crisis, a time when Honda halted local production for four months. Swindon, about 110 kilometers west of London, voted to leave the European Union in 2016 by an almost 55 percent majority. It’s not known for being exceptionally beautiful or cultural — its most famous landmark might be the “magic roundabout” intersection that encompasses six traffic circles in one. The end of the Honda site hits manufacturing links that go back to the Industrial Revolution. It was here that the bulk of locomotives for the famed Great Western Railway were built, and the town took over production of Spitfire fighter jets in World War II after the main plant was bombed. Lifelong resident Neil Toolan said the Honda decision reminds him of the demise of the local train industry in which he worked alongside his father and uncle. The main factory shut down in 1986. “It is difficult, very difficult,” said Toolan, who eventually found a job with Royal Mail. Britain has long been a Japanese hub for European auto production, with Honda, Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. owning three of the country’s six largest factories. In pulling out, Honda cited changing global trends and slowing demand. That’s been evident for a while to the truck drivers who deliver parts to the sprawling complex on Swindon’s northeast edge. “The amount of stuff that’s going in there over the last six to eight months, it’s just been pffff — it’s dropped right off,” says Ron Dunn, who drives his Yusen Logistics truck filled with electronic parts and air conditioning unit radiators from Milton Keynes to replenish the factory warehouses each day. “Some of the guys I was talking to yesterday, they’ve got families, they’ve got mortgages and that. What are they going to do?” Honda’s factory is the size of 280 football fields and employs 3,500 people. Closing it down will be seen as another mark in the decline of British manufacturing. There’s been a wave of bad news for the auto industry. Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s biggest automaker, is scrapping jobs worldwide, many of them in the U.K., and there are questions about the future of facilities run by Ford and Peugeot. Just this month, Nissan scrapped plans to build the X-Trail sport utility vehicle at a plant in Sunderland due to a slump in demand for diesel cars and the unresolved status of U.K. trade after Brexit. Global trade conflicts aren’t helping either, with European automakers bracing for potential U.S. import duties. More than half of the Honda Civic models made in the U.K. are currently exported to North America. Yet in recent years Swindon has fared well economically with its mix of manufacturing and services jobs at big local employers like Nationwide Building Society, a mortgage lender, and stationery retailer WH Smith. Unemployment is low and wages are typical for the country overall. Workers are also more productive than average, official figures show. While the job losses at Honda are a small number compared with the 160,000 jobs created across the U.K. in the last quarter, it’s still a body blow to the town. Truck driver Marcin Kaliniewicz, who estimates that about 90 percent of his current employer Nissin (UK) Ltd.’s contracts are related to the car factory, says he knows Honda workers who had been planning to buy homes in the area, but “everyone is going to change plans now.” According to Lorraine Kardasz, who works at the Swindon Carers Center and knows families where multiple generations work at the Honda plant, the closure is casting a big shadow over the town. “I don’t think there’s a huge amount of job prospects out there for people,” she said, gesturing down the main shopping street. “There’s a lot of families that are going to be relying on that money and when it’s gone they’re really going to struggle.”


Dollar weakens to ¥110.60 in late Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar was weaker around ¥110.60 in late Tokyo trading Monday after early gains fizzled out amid a lack of buying incentives. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.62-63, down from ¥110.74-76 at the same time Friday. The euro was at $1.1355-1355, up from $1.1346-1346, and at ¥125.62-62, down from ¥125.65-66. The dollar rose above ¥110.70 in early trading after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter an extension to Friday’s deadline for a trade deal with China. Supported by the strong opening of the Nikkei 225 stock average, the greenback temporarily rose above ¥110.80 toward midmorning trading. The dollar then fell to around ¥110.60 on selling by Japanese importers for month-end settlements and stayed around that level for the rest of the day amid a dearth of trading pegs, traders said. The dollar-yen pair was supported by dip buying when the greenback approached the psychologically important line of ¥110.50, a currency broker said. “Investors found it difficult to trade actively amid a widespread view that the dollar-yen pair is unlikely to move much,” a foreign exchange margin trading service firm official said. “A wait-and-see mood will likely prevail in the market until investors see the final U.S.-China trade agreement,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said.


Tokyo stocks rebound on China-U.S. trade hopes

Abstract: Stocks bounced back in thin trading Monday, supported by a rise on Wall Street on Friday and continuing hopes for progress in U.S.-China trade talks. The Nikkei 225 average rose 102.72 points, or 0.48 percent, to end at 21,528.23. On Friday, the key market gauge lost 38.72 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, added 11.35 points, or 0.71 percent, to end at 1,620.87 after falling 3.98 points Friday. A wide range of issues attracted purchases from the outset of trading after the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average retook 26,000 on Friday for the first time since Nov. 8. Also behind the Tokyo market’s strength was growing optimism over the trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies, brokers said. “Substantial progress” was made at the U.S.-China minister-level talks through Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter, indicating an extension to the March 1 deadline for a trade deal and a summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. “Progress in trade negotiations between the United States and China is a plus for the global economy,” but investors anticipated such results from recent media reports, an official of a Japanese brokerage firm said, suggesting that a positive impact on stocks may have been limited. The market lacked energy amid a lack of market participants at the start of the week, brokers said. Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd., said a lack of details over the U.S.-China trade negotiations weighed on the dollar against the yen, putting a drag on Tokyo stocks. Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,585 to 467 in the first section, while 78 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.057 billion shares from 988 million Friday. High-tech makers were higher amid the growing U.S.-China trade hopes. Among them, Yaskawa Electric gained 2.72 percent and Nidec 3.52 percent. Clothing retailer Fast Retailing added 0.67 percent, extending its winning streak to a fourth session. Among other winners were Nintendo and Toyota. Meanwhile, Right On dropped 3.06 percent after the casual clothing store operator announced downward earnings revisions for the year to August. Also on the minus side were mobile phone carrier KDDI and advertising agency Dentsu.

stocks
nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
topix


For Japanese insurer Fukoku Mutual Life, this year's main danger is yen surge

Abstract: The U.S. Federal Reserve’s pivot from steady monetary tightening has forced a Japanese insurer to look at a pivot of its own. Facing rock-bottom yields in its home market, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. had ramped up its overseas investments to about 30 percent of its total. The majority of that wasn’t hedged for currency risk — the thinking was that rising U.S. rates would put downward pressure on the yen. But with the Fed’s dovish shift, that tactic’s not looking so hot, and Fukoku’s now set to boost its hedging. “This is the year to brace for yen appreciation as the No. 1 risk,” said Takehiko Watabe, executive officer at Fukoku, which has ¥6.6 trillion ($60 billion) in assets. “We are seeing a turning point in the yen’s weakening trend,” Watabe said in an interview Feb. 20. “Our challenge into the next fiscal year is how to keep hedging costs contained.” He’s skeptical the yen can stay around the 110 per dollar — or weaker — level it’s been trading at for the past couple of weeks. He sees it mostly trading in a 105 to 110 range this year. The yen is down about 1 percent since the start of the year thanks to diminishing demand for the currency as a haven amid a recovery in global stocks. The exchange rate is particularly sensitive for Fukoku, with its ratio of overseas holdings exceeding the shares of larger rivals. Nippon Life Insurance Co. has around 20 percent of its assets abroad, about the same as Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. Fukoku has kept its foreign exchange hedging ratio below 50 percent but plans to gradually raise that this year, using currency forwards or options, Watabe said. For current holdings, it’s looking to lock in forwards while the dollar is hovering around ¥110, he added. The change in hedging practices will in turn affect the insurer’s allocations. Given high hedging costs, U.S. Treasuries and corporate debt aren’t attractive, Watabe said. So Fukoku is turning to longer-maturity sovereign and regional European bonds, where its investments had been limited. Assets with a 1 percent return after hedging may not be as rewarding as 3 percent bonds without a hedge, “but we can manage to stay profitable for one to two years even with this strategy,” he said. On the home front, Japanese government bonds aren’t appealing at current yields, and Fukoku will be avoiding them at least through the end of March, according to Watabe. Stocks could be more interesting, particularly if the Nikkei 225 stock average drops below 20,000. (It closed at 21,528.23 on Monday.) “Looking for individual stocks that seem oversold selectively is more justifiable for our risk-taking,” Watabe said. That could be “a better short-term strategy than taking currency risk over the next year or so,” he said.

u.s. federal reserve
forex
currencies
fx
fukoku mutual life


Five reported killed as India toughens Kashmir crackdown against militants and detains over 160 separatists

Abstract: SRINAGAR, INDIA - Five people were killed in a gun battle between members of a Pakistani militant group and Indian security forces in disputed Kashmir on Sunday as India intensified a security crackdown, including detaining more than 160 separatists this weekend. Three members of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) — the Pakistan-based group that claimed a Feb. 14 suicide car bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police — died in the shootout, as did a senior police officer and an Indian army soldier, according to the Indian military and police. Three more soldiers were wounded in the battle in Turigam, a village in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district, defense and police officials said. Two of the dead militants were from India, and one a foreigner, said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified. Indian authorities have killed at least eight JeM militants and detained around 50 militants, sympathizers and their relatives since the bomb attack, which also sparked the roundup of separatists which India says is needed to head off trouble ahead of a general election to be held by May. Most of those rounded up over the last two days were linked to the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). “Since JeI has a wider network across Kashmir and they are mobilizing anti-India protests, their arrest could help in curbing such protests ahead of elections,” the senior police officer said. One well-known separatist leader, Abdul Gani Bhat, was placed under house arrest, according to his political party. Separatists called a strike to protest against the detentions. Many shops, petrol stations, and businesses closed, with few people and vehicles on streets in sensitive areas, except for troop patrols. In some areas of the main city of Srinagar, the government limited the movement of people and vehicles. “The restrictions have been imposed as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident,” the police said. The government of Jammu and Kashmir said fuel rationing had been introduced in the Kashmir Valley where there was only enough gasoline for one day, diesel for four days and no liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The government said it would seek to increase supplies to the region and that shortages are the result of road blockages after the suicide bomb attack. Indian paramilitary troops in riot gear arrived in strength at first light, said Shakeel Ahmad, a resident of Nowhatta in the Srinagar district. “At places, they have blocked the main roads with steel barricades and concertina wire,” he said. State Gov. Satya Pal Malik called on residents not to believe “rumors of any extreme nature.” The government said an increase in police numbers was to prevent candidates and voters from being intimidated into not standing or voting in the general election. Separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who chairs the Hurriyat Conference of separatist groups, said arbitrary arrests and jailing of leaders, activists and young people for their political beliefs had happened across Kashmir for 30 years. “Intimidating activists and leadership will not deter them from their path, nor will it stop people from demanding the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through self-determination,” he said. Reuters’ telephone calls to the Indian home ministry to seek comment went unanswered. The suicide bomb attack has raised tensions between India and Pakistan which both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. India blames Pakistan for harboring militant groups operating in Kashmir, which Pakistan denies. After the attack, India dropped trade privileges for Pakistan and prepared to send as many as 10,000 more troops to the contested area, according to a home ministry letter seen by Reuters. The Indian army said that early on Sunday evening Pakistan violated the two nations’ ceasefire at the Rajouri area of the border, through shelling from mortars and small arms fire. Defense spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand said the Indian army was “retaliating strongly and effectively. Cease-fire violations are not unusual along the border. A Pakistani security official said Pakistani forces had not initiated any action but had responded to Indian firing. Kashmir is likely to be a key issue in India’s election, distracting from concerns about how Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have managed the economy. Modi has promised a strong response to the attack, saying in a monthly radio broadcast on Sunday that it had caused anguish to all of India. Modi added that the army had vowed to destroy the militants and those who helped them. Islamabad has warned it would respond with “full force” if attacked. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi called on India to show restraint or it would put “the entire region’s peace and security at stake. India’s Supreme Court will hear a case this week seeking to drop a constitutional provision that bars non-residents from moving to the state of Jammu and Kashmir that encompasses the Muslim-majority region. If passed, it could further escalate tensions.


All three aboard killed as cargo jet plunges into shallow Texas bay during landing approach

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A widebody cargo plane hauling packages for Amazon abruptly plunged out of the sky and slammed into a bay on Saturday as it was preparing to land in Houston. All three people on board were killed. The Boeing Co. 767-300, operated by Atlas Air on a flight that had departed from Miami, disappeared from radar and lost radio contact, landing in a bay about 40 miles (64 km) from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, said Robert Sumwalt, the National Transportation Safety Board chairman who’s leading the investigation. The jet fell thousands of feet in seconds after what had been a routine descent, according to Sumwalt and the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24. Human remains were recovered at the scene, the FBI’s Houston office said in a tweet. “The aircraft was in what I would characterize as a normal descent,” Sumwalt said. “When it got to about 6,300 feet, it then began a very, very rapid descent.” Photographs and video of the scene show aircraft debris — including one piece with the Amazon logo — in a marshy bay. Sumwalt said it landed in “very very shallow water, in some cases mud flats.” Air-traffic controllers and the pilots on Atlas Flight 3591 could be heard discussing how to fly around a line of thunderstorms shortly before the crash, according to a recording of radio calls posted on the website LiveATC.net . There was no indication that the pilots made any distress calls or declared an emergency. After the plane disappeared, controllers tried to reach the plane and asked other aircraft to look for wreckage. “Thirty-five ninety-one heavy,” said one controller, using the plane’s call sign, “how do you hear?” There was no reply. Planes flying over the same route were in the clouds and couldn’t see the ground. “See if you can make ground contact,” a controller radioed to another flight. “We’re looking for a lost aircraft.” “No ground contact from here,” a pilot responded. The pilots were members of Teamsters Local Union 1224, which represents Atlas flight crews. “Our focus is on our friends and colleagues who were on that plane, and we are doing everything we can to support their families,” Captain Daniel C. Wells, president of the union, said in a statement. Atlas, which was operating the plane for Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Air, confirmed the deaths and said it’s working with authorities to examine what happened. Atlas Air is a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. and specializes in leasing aircraft complete with pilots and maintenance crew to other companies. The holding company also operates Polar Air Cargo, Titan Aviation and Southern Air, according to its website. The plane’s final seconds were far outside the norm for commercial jets, according to FlightRadar24. After flying level at about 6,000 feet altitude, it began a sudden drop at 12:38 p.m. local time, according to instruments on the plane that were monitored by FlightRadar24. It went from 5,800 feet to about 1,300 feet in about nine seconds, according to the website. After that, no further position reports were received. In the final seconds, it was plummeting at 30,000 feet per minute, far outside a typical flight envelope. One of NTSB’s top priorities will be to recover the plane’s two crash-proof recorders, known as black boxes, Sumwalt said. Investigators are hopeful the recovery will be easier than some underwater crash cases because the water is so shallow, he said. “There is a massive effort underway, led by multiple jurisdictions, to assist the NTSB in the recovery of those boxes,” he said. While U.S. passenger airlines are in the safest period in history, cargo carriers using similar aircraft haven’t had as good a record. There’s been just one fatality on a U.S.-registered passenger airline since Feb. 12, 2009. During the same period, according to NTSB, four cargo jets have crashed, killing 13, not including Saturday’s accident. Before Saturday the most recent cargo jet crash occurred Aug. 14, 2013, when a United Parcel Service Inc. plane hit a hill as it prepared to land in Birmingham, Alabama. Two pilots died in that incident. Boeing said in a tweet on Saturday that it would “provide technical assistance to the NTSB as it investigates the accident.”

u.s .
airlines
boeing
texas
amazon.com
air accidents
atlas air
767


Japan No. 4 healthiest nation as Spain tops list

Abstract: BANGKOK - Maybe it’s something in the gazpacho or paella, as Spain just surpassed Italy to become the world’s healthiest country. That’s according to the 2019 edition of the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, which ranks 169 economies according to factors that contribute to overall health. Spain placed sixth in the previous gauge, published in 2017. Four additional European nations were among the top 10 in 2019: Iceland (No. 3), Switzerland (No. 5), Sweden (No. 6) and Norway (No. 9). Japan was the healthiest Asian nation, jumping three places from the 2017 survey into fourth and replacing Singapore, which dropped to eighth. Australia and Israel rounded out the top 10 at seventh and 10th place. The index grades nations based on variables including life expectancy while imposing penalties on risks such as tobacco use and obesity. It also takes into consideration environmental factors including access to clean water and sanitation. Spain has the highest life expectancy at birth among European Union nations, and trails only Japan and Switzerland globally, United Nations data show. Spain by 2040 is forecast to have the highest lifespan, at almost 86 years, followed by Japan, Singapore and Switzerland, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Primary care is essentially provided by public providers, specialized family doctors and staff nurses, who provide preventive services to children, women and elderly patients, and acute and chronic care,” according to the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies 2018 review of Spain, noting a decline the past decade in cardiovascular diseases and deaths from cancer. Researchers say eating habits may provide clues to health levels enjoyed by Spain and Italy, as a “Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts, had a lower rate of major cardiovascular events than those assigned to a reduced-fat diet,” according to a study led by the University of Navarra Medical School. Meanwhile in North America, Canada’s 16th-place ranking far surpassed the U.S. and Mexico, both of which dropped slightly to 35th and 53rd. Life expectancy in the U.S. has been trending lower due to deaths from drug overdoses and suicides. Cuba placed five spots above the U.S., making it the only nation not classified as “high income” by the World Bank to be ranked that high. One reason for the island nation’s success may be its emphasis on preventative care over the U.S. focus on diagnosing and treating illness, the American Bar Association Health Law Section said in a report last year after vising Cuba. South Korea improved seven spots to 17th while China, home to 1.4 billion people, rose three places to 52nd. Life expectancy in China is on track to surpass the U.S. by 2040, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Sub-Saharan economies accounted for 27 of the 30 unhealthiest nations in the ranking. Haiti, Afghanistan and Yemen were the others. Mauritius was the healthiest in Sub-Sahara, placing 74th globally as it had the lowest death rate by communicable diseases in a region still marred by infectious mortality.


Russians march in memory of assassinated Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov

Abstract: MOSCOW - Several thousand Russians took part in a march in memory of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov on Sunday, four years after he was gunned down in the Russian capital. Ordinary Muscovites and prominent opposition figures, including politician Alexei Navalny, marched through the center of the city. Many carried Russian flags, portraits of Nemtsov and anti-Kremlin banners. Some chanted slogans against President Vladimir Putin. Six thousand people took part, police said in a statement on the interior ministry website. Pro-opposition monitors estimated the turnout at 10,000. “It’s about the future of the country that Putin is taking away from the people,” opposition politician Ilya Yashin told AFP. He said a growing number of young people were taking part in opposition marches. Ivan, a 55-year-old driver who refused to give his last name, told AFP he went along to remember Nemtsov who “was a clean person with democratic principles.” “He was killed because the authorities had had enough of him,” he said. In St. Petersburg, around 800 people gathered to mark the anniversary outside the Finland train station. “I come to this event every year. Unfortunately nothing is changing in the country, and we cannot be silent,” 50-year-old Galina Apraksina told AFP. “We need to show that there are people in the country that do not agree (with the Kremlin’s course) — as long as we still have the possibility to do so,” said 38-year-old Ivan Svishenko, who also wanted to remember Nemtsov. Nemtsov, one of the most vocal Putin critics, was gunned down shortly before midnight on Feb. 27, 2015, walking across a bridge a short distance from the Kremlin. In 2017, a court found a former security force officer from Chechnya guilty of murdering Nemtsov and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Four other men were found guilty of involvement in the killing. But Nemtsov’s family and allies insist the authorities have failed to bring the masterminds to justice. Many point the finger of blame at Chechnya’s Moscow-backed strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, and the Kremlin itself. Smaller commemorative events took place in other cities across Russia.

murder
vladimir putin
russia
alexei navalny
kremlin
boris nemtsov


Rep. Adam Schiff vows lawsuit and subpoena for Robert Mueller report if it's not released

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A top House Democrat threatened Sunday to call special counsel Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill, subpoena documents and take the Trump administration to court if necessary if the full report on the Russia investigation is not made public. Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff told ABC’s “This Week” that his committee will be watching Attorney General William Barr to see if he were “to try to bury any part of this report.” He warns there will be intense scrutiny and pressure on Barr to fully release the report. “We will take it to court if necessary,” Schiff said. “If he were to try to withhold, to try to bury any part of this report, that will be his legacy and it will be a tarnished legacy. So I think there’ll be immense pressure not only on the department, but on the attorney general to be forthcoming.” Mueller is showing signs of wrapping up his nearly two-year-old investigation into possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election. Barr, who oversees the investigation, has said he wants to release as much information as he can about the inquiry. But during his confirmation hearing last month, Barr also made clear that he ultimately will decide what the public sees, and that any report will be in his words, not Mueller’s. On Sunday, Schiff suggested that anything short of Mueller’s full report will not be enough to satisfy Democrats. He pointed to public interest in seeing some of the underlying evidence, such as information gathered from searches conducted on longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman. Schiff has said his committee planned to expand its own investigations by examining, for instance, whether foreign governments have leverage over Trump, his relatives or associates. Stone was charged with lying to Congress about his efforts to coordinate with WikiLeaks to aid Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, while Manafort has been accused of repeatedly lying to investigators, including about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate who the U.S. says has ties to Russian intelligence. “Bill Barr has committed in his testimony to making as much of the report public as he can. And the regulations allow him to make it all. We’re going to insist on it becoming public,” Schiff said. “There’s no other way to get the information that was seized except through the department, and we can’t tell the country fully what happened without it.” Democrats could use Mueller’s findings as the basis of impeachment proceedings. In a letter Friday, the Democrats warned against withholding information on Trump because of Justice Department opinions that the president can’t be indicted. “We are going to get to the bottom of this,” Schiff said. “If the president is serious about all of his claims of exoneration, then he should welcome the publication of this report.” Speculation has swirled that Mueller would be submitting his report to the Justice Department soon, although the department has indicated it’s not expected to happen this week.

u.s .
congress
robert mueller
democrats
donald trump
adam schiff
russia probe
william barr


May threat to delay Brexit deal vote till March 12 sparks fury in Parliament

Abstract: LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May sparked outrage Sunday by suggesting Parliament may not be able to vote on her Brexit deal until March 12, just days before Britain leaves the EU. The decision increases the chances that MPs will move next week to delay Brexit beyond March 29, to avoid a potentially disastrous situation where Britain exits with no agreement at all. May had held out the possibility of a vote this week, but said Sunday she was still discussing with the EU possible amendments to the deal’s arrangements for the Irish border. “As we’re continuing with those talks, we won’t bring a meaningful vote to Parliament this week,” she told reporters as she arrived at a summit of European and Arab leaders in Egypt. “But that will happen by March 12. And we still have it within our grasp to leave the European Union with a deal on March 29.” Since MPs rejected her withdrawal deal last month, May has sought to address their concerns about the text’s “backstop” arrangement, which is designed to keep the border with Ireland free flowing. She is meeting with European Council chief Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the two-day summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, and her team will also return to Brussels on Tuesday. But opposition politicians and pro-European MPs in London reacted with fury at what they believe is a deliberate strategy of delay. Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said her move not to hold a vote this week was “the height of irresponsibility and an admission of failure. “Theresa May is recklessly running down the clock in a desperate attempt to force MPs to choose between her deal and no deal,” he said. “Parliament cannot stand by and allow this to happen.” May has refused to rule out leaving the EU with no deal, despite the risk of huge economic disruption on both sides of the Channel. She says the only way to avoid this scenario is to support her deal — but growing numbers of MPs believe that Brexit should instead be delayed. Three of her cabinet ministers on Saturday warned in a newspaper article that if there was no breakthrough this week then the House of Commons would vote for a delay. “Beyond the next few days, there simply will not be time to agree a deal and complete all the necessary legislation before March 29,” they wrote. May has promised to make a statement in the Commons on Tuesday and allow MPs on Wednesday to debate their own ideas for the way forward. Labour MP Yvette Cooper urged lawmakers to support her cross-party proposal to delay Brexit, saying: “How are businesses, public services and families supposed to plan in this chaos?” Sam Gyimah, who quit as a junior minister in May’s government over her approach to Brexit, said her latest decision was “shocking. “We’ve run out of road. The meaningful vote can is now being kicked against the wall,” he tweeted. After rejecting the EU withdrawal deal that May spent almost two years negotiating, MPs demanded she return seek changes to the Irish backstop. This plan would keep Britain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit if and until another way — for example, a free trade deal — were found to keep open the border with Ireland. The EU has said it will not reopen the text, but is looking at what “guarantees” could be given to reassure MPs that the backstop would be temporary. Earlier, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the government was still discussing various options. “It could be a time limit, it could be a unilateral exit mechanism,” he told the BBC — citing two options Brussels has publicly rejected. He added: “And it could be another legally powerful protocol or addition to the treaty that makes it clear that we would not be bound in the backstop indefinitely against our will.”

eu
u.k .
u.k. parliament
labour
brexit
theresa may


Thousands of Romanians protest judicial changes after decree pares independence of prosecutors

Abstract: BUCHAREST - Thousands of Romanians protested across the country on Sunday after the government passed an emergency decree that critics said chipped away at prosecutors’ independence in one of the European Union’s most corrupt states. The decree, approved without public debate, is the latest in a slew of legislative and personnel changes by the ruling Social Democrats since they took power more than two years ago that have raised concerns over rule of law. The European Commission, U.S. State Department and thousands of magistrates have warned the changes threaten judicial independence. In an unprecedented protest, prosecutors have said they will only work on emergency cases from Monday for three to seven days. Many judges will follow suit. Magistrates declined an invitation to meet Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday to discuss the decree. “The independence of the judiciary is non-negotiable,” a statement signed by magistrates’ associations said. “Any dialogue regarding the approval of the … decree should have been initiated before it was approved, not after. The only solution left now is to revoke the decree in its entirety.” In the capital Bucharest, an estimated 7,000 people protested outside government headquarters, blocking traffic and chanting “Justice, not corruption,” “Magistrates, don’t give up,” and “Shame!” Thousands more rallied in cities across the country. The decree changes the way chief prosecutors are appointed and removes most oversight of a prosecuting unit that investigates magistrates, something critics say was created to intimidate.


His parade plan foiled, Trump announces 'one of the biggest' July 4 events

Abstract: WASHINGTON - After giving up his idea for a huge military parade in Washington, President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a July 4 “Salute to America” that he predicted would be “one of the biggest gatherings” in the city’s history. “HOLD THE DATE” Trump said in one of a series of tweets early Sunday. He said the event would be held at the Lincoln Memorial on the west end of the National Mall and would feature a “major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!” After witnessing the grandeur of the Bastille Day parade in Paris in 2017 in the company of President Emmanuel Macron, Trump had pressed for an equally impressive Veterans Day parade in Washington, with marching troops, convoys of armored vehicles and roaring overflights by squadrons of elite fighter jets. But his military advisers reportedly pushed back, particularly after an estimate surfaced that the event could cost taxpayers as much as $92 million. In retreating from his plan last August, Trump wrote on Twitter: “Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!” The Lincoln Memorial site was, in fact, the scene of one of the largest gatherings in the history of the U.S. capital — the celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It drew an estimated 250,000 people, filling the Mall to overflowing from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.

france
washington
u.s. military
donald trump
lincoln memorial
july 4
bastille day
emmanuel macron


Mike Pompeo dismisses Putin missile threat targeting Western capitals as 'bluster'

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed Sunday a threat by Russian leader Vladimir Putin to deploy new missiles against Western capitals as “bluster” designed to divide Washington and its allies. In a speech last week, Putin warned the U.S. against deploying any new missiles in Europe after the collapse of a key Cold War-era treaty, saying Russia would respond by deploying weapons targeting “decision-making centers.” But in an interview with CNN, Pompeo said Putin’s comments amounted to an empty threat and the Russian leader was trying to divert attention away from Moscow’s violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. “The Russians violated that treaty. … Now it’s time to figure out how to move forward and come up with something the Russians will actually live by,” said Pompeo. “His bluster is aimed at trying to convince the world, to drive a wedge between the United states and Europe when everyone is fully on board. “The Europeans were fully supportive of our decision, and we’ll move forward together in ensuring the security of the United States’ people.” The U.S. announced earlier this month it was withdrawing from the INF treaty, saying Russia had been in breach of the agreement for several years by deploying a new missile system. Russia, which insists the system complies with the INF, said it would pull out too. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said several times in recent weeks that the alliance would not deploy any new land-based nuclear weapons in response to the Russian missiles.

europe
u.s .
vladimir putin
russia
nuclear weapons
missiles
mike pompeo


Observers report dozens killed in Nigeria election violence

Abstract: ABUJA - As many as 39 people were killed in election violence so far in Nigeria, civil society groups said on Sunday, as the country awaits the results of voting in what is forecast to be its tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999. The number of deaths reported by Sunday was below the final death tolls in previous elections in Africa’s most populous country, but in the past most unrest has taken place after results were announced. Voting took place on Saturday, with some polling stations staying open on Sunday and results not expected for several more days. A credible and relatively calm poll would open a new chapter in the checkered political history of Nigeria, where nearly six decades of independence have been tarnished by military coups, endemic corruption and secessionist movements. The death toll during and after the last election in 2015 was around 100 people, according to the International Crisis Group. Four years before that, in the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, 800 people were killed in election violence. The Situation Room — which represents more than 70 civil society groups — gave Sunday’s figure of 39 deaths, citing data from Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence. A spreadsheet provided by SBM Intelligence showed that in one incident, seven people were killed in a shoot-out between Nigerian army troops and a gang in Abonnema, around 14 km (9 miles) west of the main oil industry city of Port Harcourt in the oil hub of Rivers state. A lieutenant was killed and six gunmen died in the firefight, which broke out when the attackers barricaded a major road into the town and laid an ambush on the troops, the acting director of army public relations, Col. Sagir Musa, said. Abdulmajid Ali, deputy inspector general of police, said the highest number of instances where there was reported violence were in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, both in the south. “We are still collating the incidents that happened. We received a lot of reports and are investigating,” he said. Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told election observers and reporters that an electoral official had been shot dead by unknown people in Rivers state. The president’s office declined to comment on the violence, while Atiku said in a statement that “no politician’s ambition is worth the blood of any innocent Nigerian.” Muhammadu Buhari, 76, a former military ruler who is seeking a second term on an anti-corruption platform, faces Atiku Abubakar, 72, a former vice president who has promised to expand the role of the private sector. The election was postponed the previous Saturday just hours before it was due to begin, with the authorities citing logistics. Seventy-three million eligible voters chose from a pool of more than 70 presidential candidates, although only those from the two main parties are seen as having a chance. “Everything is going on well with the count,” said Festus Okoye, an election commission official. “From Tuesday onwards we should have a substantial number of results.” Buhari’s northern Kano state stronghold was one of the key battlegrounds in the closely fought election. “It will be bitter if Atiku wins but we will have to accept it,” Ali Adamu, 50, a driver in Kano said. Henry Okalome, 55, a trader in Kano who voted for Atiku said: “We didn’t expect that the election would be so smooth … we thought people might be dying.” The contest between Buhari and Atiku hinges on revamping an economy struggling to recover from its first recession in 25 years, which it slipped into in 2016 and emerged from in 2017. Nearly a quarter of the workforce is unemployed, while the cost of living has also risen rapidly. Buhari has focused his campaign on rooting out corruption, but critics say there have not been any significant convictions in his first term. Atiku has said he would aim to double the size of the economy to $900 billion by 2025.

conflict
elections
nigeria
muhammadu buhari
atiku abubakar


Iranian hackers got worryingly close to Israel's missile alarm in 2017

Abstract: JERUSALEM - Iranian hackers came worryingly close to Israel’s missile warning system, sending the military scrambling to protect alerts from being compromised, its top cyberdefense chief said. After detecting the hackers in 2017 and monitoring them to discern their intent, the military blocked them when it became clear what their target was, said Noam Shaar, outgoing head of the cyberdefense division in the army’s Cyber Defense Directorate. “We dealt with them and built another barrier and another monitoring system to make sure we could stop them if they tried again,” Shaar said. He called the Islamic Republic’s cyberoffensives the most disturbing trend in cyberspace today, and urged international sanctions similar to those on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. “We can’t wait until Iranian cyber becomes a major, major threat,” said Shaar, who has been involved in developing Israel’s cyberdefense operations for the past 20 years. After tracking attackers for several months, U.S.-based cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc. said in January that Iran could be behind a wave of hacks on government and communications infrastructure across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and North America. Iran’s Information and Communications Technology Ministry and Telecommunications Ministry had no comment on its alleged activities. But Iran has accused Israel of cyberassaults, too, most recently in November when it said it repulsed an Israeli cyberattack on its telecommunications infrastructure. Several years ago, the Stuxnet virus — unleashed against Iran’s nuclear program — was attributed to Israel and the U.S. Israel generally declines to respond to such allegations. Rhea Siers, a former senior official at the U.S. National Security Agency, says Russia is more proficient than Iran at offensive cyberoperations and that China, too, is a skilled player. “The Iranians have been eager ‘to make themselves known’ in the cyber domain and have certainly done so,” Siers said. But “while it is certainly true that Israel is a key Iranian cyber target, that is different than assessing Iran’s strength across the entire cyber domain.” Israel’s cyberdefense strategy largely focuses on combating Iran’s cyber presence, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently saying the country fends off Iranian cyberattacks every day. Iran’s proxies and allies also are involved in cyberassaults on Israel: Last year, the Gaza Strip’s militant Hamas rulers spied on Israeli soldiers with a fake dating app. In another 2018 case, soldiers blocked apparent attempts by Hamas to breach a surveillance camera system, Shaar said. “If they wanted to do cyber network espionage, they’d be able to find out where our troops are, and if they wanted to attack, they could shut down part of the network,” he said.

u.s .
israel
hacking
iran
missiles
fireeye


Guaido urges global community to take 'all measures to free' Venezuela after deadly border clashes

Abstract: TáCHIRA, VENEZUELA - International pressure mounted against Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro on Sunday, with Washington vowing to “take action” after opposition efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country descended into bloody chaos. Self-declared interim president Juan Guaido called on the international community to consider “all measures to free” Venezuela after clashes at the border crossing left at least two people dead. The European Union on Sunday condemned Maduro’s government for its use of violence and armed civilian groups to block the entry of aid. Guaido announced he would participate in Monday’s Lima Group meeting of mostly Latin American countries in Bogota, and called on the international community to be prepared for “all possibilities” regarding Maduro. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will represent Washington at the meeting. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he was confident “Maduro’s days are numbered,” blaming the border violence on armed loyalists known as “colectivos.” “We’re aimed at a singular mission — ensuring the Venezuelan people get the democracy they so richly deserve,” he said on CNN. President Donald Trump has said that Washington is not ruling out armed action. Humanitarian aid, much of it from the United States, has become the centerpiece of the standoff between Maduro and Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly who declared himself acting president one month ago. The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis that has seen poverty soar during a prolonged recession and hyperinflation. Maduro claims the aid is a smokescreen for a U.S. invasion, and has ordered several crossings on Venezuela’s borders with Colombia and Brazil closed. Two people, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in clashes Saturday with Venezuelan security forces that left more than 300 people wounded at various border posts. “We repudiate the use of irregular armed groups to intimidate civilians and lawmakers who have mobilized to distribute assistance,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. She added that the EU was prepared to “scale up” humanitarian and development aid. Guaido had set a Saturday deadline for delivering food and medical aid stockpiled in Colombia and Brazil. Hundreds of Venezuelans, many dressed in white, were frustrated in their attempts to collect the aid at the Colombian border, where they were pinned back by Maduro’s security forces. Trucks with aid were prevented from entering the country, and force was used to keep out Venezuelan nationals trying to cross in from Colombia carrying aid parcels. International aid is also being held on the Caribbean island of Curacao. A ship with aid from Puerto Rico was forced to turn back after receiving a “direct threat of fire” from Venezuela’s military, the governor of the U.S. territory Ricardo Rossello said. He slammed the move as “unacceptable and outrageous.” Protesters in the border towns of Urena and San Antonio were kept at bay by the Venezuelan National Guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Gunshots could be heard in the streets of Urena during hours of rioting. Civil defense officials in Colombia said at least 285 people had been injured in clashes at border bridge crossings. But the most serious incident came hundreds of miles away, at the Santa Elena de Uairen crossing point on the southern border with Brazil where the killings took place. Rights group Foro Penal said 31 people were wounded when Venezuelan troops opened fire on civilians hoping to collect aid across the border with Colombia. Maduro’s supporters also halted and set ablaze two trucks loaded with aid driven through barricades on a border bridge. Some Venezuelan National Guard troops, however, took advantage of the confusion to abandon their posts and cross into Colombia. Guaido has offered amnesty to all security personnel switching sides. Colombia’s immigration service said at least 60 members of the armed forces had deserted the “Maduro dictatorship” by late Saturday. Two more soldiers crossed into Brazil on Sunday asking for asylum. Guaido — recognized as interim leader by more than 50 countries — formally launched a long-planned distribution operation at a warehouse at the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta joined by the presidents of Chile, Colombia and Paraguay. Angered by Colombia’s support for Guaido, socialist leader Maduro announced that Caracas was severing diplomatic ties with Bogota, and gave Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country. “I will never bow down, I will never give in. I will always defend our country with my own life if necessary,” Maduro told a rally of his supporters in Caracas, after thousands had marched through the city under the slogan “Hands off Venezuela.” At a separate Caracas rally thousands of government opponents, mostly dressed in white, marched waving flags outside the La Carlota military airport. As many as 300,000 Venezuelans face death if aid isn’t delivered after years of shortages and malnutrition, according to Guaido, who has accused Maduro of rigging his re-election and is demanding a new vote. United Nations figures show that 2.7 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 and around 5,000 Venezuelans emigrate each day.

u.s .
brazil
venezuela
colombia
nicolas maduro
humanitarian aid
mike pence
mike pompeo
juan guaido


Trump dangles 'major power' carrot as Kim begins trek to summit but Mike Pompeo counsels caution

Abstract: BEIJING - Donald Trump said Kim Jong Un could soon put North Korea on the fast-track to becoming a major power Sunday as his former rival chugged across China in an armored train, heading to their highly anticipated summit in Vietnam. After North Korea’s leader began his 4,000-km epic from Pyongyang to Hanoi on Saturday, the U.S. president flies out of Washington on Monday for their second meeting. Images from North Korean state media showed citizens cheering Kim as he waved from the train at the start of what could be a 60-hour journey to the Vietnamese capital. The train crossed the border city of Dandong later Saturday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and the specialist outlet NK News, although the last leg of his journey could be by road. The train’s crossing into China follows days of speculation over Kim’s travel plans ahead of the talks expected next Wednesday and Thursday. Accompanying the North Korean leader was right-hand man and top general Kim Yong Chol, who met Trump at the White House last month, his sister and close aide, Kim Yo Jong, and other high-ranking officials, the official KCNA news agency said. The Vietnam summit is a follow-up to a meeting in Singapore last June that signaled a dramatic reset in relations between two leaders who had been spent previous months sabre-rattling and trading insults. Although that meeting led to little concrete progress in Trump’s demands for North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, the U.S. leader has changed his tune toward a rival he once ridiculed as “rocket man. While his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, tempered expectations about what could be achieved in Hanoi, Trump said North Korea could become one of the world’s “great economic powers” if it relinquished its nuclear arsenal. “Chairman Kim realizes, perhaps better than anyone else, that without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the world,” Trump wrote on Twitter. But Pompeo said North Korea remained a nuclear threat and that while internationally backed sanctions had helped build pressure on persuading North Korea to denuclearize, it was “a complicated process” and there may have to be another summit after Vietnam. “We may not get everything done this week. We hope we’ll make a substantial step along the way,” he told Fox News. “I hope we can make a real substantive step forward (on denuclearization) this week. It may not happen but I hope that it will.” While Singapore produced a vaguely worded agreement on denuclearization, progress has since stalled, with the two sides disagreeing over what the agreement meant. Observers say tangible progress is needed in Hanoi to avoid the talks being dismissed as a publicity stunt. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a veteran of negotiations with the North Koreans, feared the summit could be “a dud. “I don’t believe it would be a successful summit unless you had some kind of commitment on North Korea’s part on denuclearization, dismantling inspections, missiles, nuclear detonations,” he told ABC television. “It seems the president is deflating expectations, and that’s a concern … I think the president deserves credit for lowering tensions in the region, but in terms of concrete accomplishments, I don’t think this summit’s going to produce.” In his tweets, Trump praised Beijing for falling into line behind the U.S.-led sanctions on Pyongyang, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping had been “very helpful in his support of my meeting” with Kim. “The last thing China wants are large scale nuclear weapons right next door,” he added. Kim has met Xi four times in the past year, briefing his country’s sole major ally before and after his historic summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. There were no signs of heightened security around Beijing railway station on Sunday, indicating Kim’s train likely bypassed the Chinese capital on the nearly 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey to Vietnam. But Kim, who last met Xi in January, could be saving their next meeting for his return trip to debrief the Chinese leader. Although the exact details of Kim’s route remained a tightly-held secret, several sources said Kim was expected to arrive in Vietnam at the Dong Dang station near the China border, then drive to Hanoi. Soldiers were deployed to Dong Dang station and along the road to the capital, according to AFP reporters at the scene. Vietnam has announced that it is closing that 170-km stretch of road for 10 hours on Tuesday while an AFP reporter saw military personnel sweeping for mines along the road. “Vietnam wants to contribute its part to world peace … at this upcoming summit,” Vietnamese Prime Minister Xuan Phuc told reporters on Sunday. Rail travel is a family tradition that was started by Kim’s grandfather, the North’s founder Kim Il Sung, who traveled to Eastern Europe for his longest train ride, in 1984. The journey from China’s frozen northern border to subtropical Vietnam presents a logistical headache and complex security challenges. Justin Hastings, associate professor in international relations at the University of Sydney, said that would be “a pretty major operation. “They would have to clear the tracks, they would have to provide security for basically the entire length of the Chinese eastern seaboard,” he told AFP. But China may view the hassle as a necessary cost to get Kim to the summit. “China wants North Korea to make some steps to denuclearize as much as anyone else,” Hastings said.

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


How North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un went from global pariah to guest of honor

Abstract: SEOUL - Kim Jong Un’s arrival in Vietnam by train this week for a second meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump may be most remarkable for how normal it’s becoming. Since opening talks with South Korea last year, the once-reclusive North Korean leader has turned into one of the most sought-after guests in Asia. At each stop — from Beijing to Singapore and now Hanoi — Kim, 35, is being escorted down red carpets by officials eager to build early ties with the head of one of the world’s last untapped emerging markets. The swing from international pariah to guest of honor is a testament to Kim’s success in wresting power from military chieftains and eliminating rivals since his father died in 2011. It also illustrates his long-held desire to restore an economy drained by decades of famine, state planning and military expansion under his father and grandfather. “If you want to really understand the Kim Jong Un of the present, you have to travel back to his early years,” said Kim Young-hui, who defected from North Korea in 2002 and is now a senior economist at the Korea Development Bank’s Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Research Unit. He wondered why his father, Kim Jong Il, hadn’t traveled overseas much “and why North Korea was so poor,” she said, citing a book by a Japanese chef who worked for the late dictator. “Kim Jong Un was thinking that when he became the leader, he would run the country a lot better than his reclusive father.” Over the past seven years, the Swiss-educated Kim has steered North Korea from his father’s “military first” policy focused on building a nuclear arsenal to one that emphasizes the economy. After successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017, he declared the weapons program “complete,” initiated talks with Trump and announced a new strategy for boosting the economy. The move ended Trump’s threats of war and paved the way for a historic first meeting with the U.S. president in June. It also opened a new world of potential investors from Seoul to Singapore — provided Kim can get Trump to relax international sanctions against his weapons program. In recent months, Kim has railed against the sanctions, which do everything from ban travel by officials to curb its energy imports. North Korea ranks as one of the world’s poorest countries and the sanctions are believed to have helped cause the country’s deepest recession in two decades in 2017, according to South Korean estimates. “When they come to negotiations, it means they are having a tough time internally due to sanctions and Kim feels nervous,” said Thae Yong-ho, who was North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the U.K. before defecting in 2016 and becoming a critic of the regime. Kim left Pyongyang on Saturday afternoon on a train that will take him through China down to Vietnam. He traveled abroad five times last year — more than any North Korean leader in at least two decades — often visiting industrial sites. Kim reportedly plans to do the same in Vietnam ahead of the planned summit, giving him a close-up view of a fellow socialist state that has prospered after easing hostility with the U.S. North Korean officials have been spotted near Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphone plants in Vietnam, the Yonhap news agency reported last week, suggesting Kim may tour South Korean factories. While South Korea is Vietnam’s second-largest trading partner, a North Korean leader hasn’t visited Vietnam since Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, in 1964. Trump himself has repeatedly cited Kim’s development goals while arguing why North Korea would trade its nuclear arsenal away. “Chairman Kim realizes, perhaps better than anyone else, that without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the World,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Because of its location and people (and him), it has more potential for rapid growth than any other nation!” Kim hasn’t secured his control over North Korea by showing weakness. His reign has been marked by ruthless purges and executions, including the killing of his uncle and one-time deputy, Jang Song Thaek, as well as the murder of his older half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. That consolidation of power has given him the space to introduce economic and government reforms once seen as nearly impossible in the insular, one-party state. And it’s allowed him to shake hands with Trump, the leader of a country that North Korean propaganda has spent generations blaming for all of its problems. Even now, the purges appear to be continuing. Kim exiled, imprisoned or executed 50 to 70 members of the country’s political elite last year, including opponents of engagement with the U.S., according to a report published last week by the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based research institution founded by a former defector. “Kim Jong Un has been very skillful in rewarding the friendly, co-opting the neutral and punishing the hostile,” said Moon Chung-in, special adviser on foreign policy to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said in an interview earlier this month. “His longevity is institutionally guaranteed. But at the same time he’s good at consolidating power.” Kim now needs to show the elite back in Pyongyang that his engagement efforts can bring economic opportunity without sacrificing the country’s nuclear deterrent — its “treasured sword.” The regime has a long history of coming to the bargaining table dangling the prospect of cooperation, only to renege on deals after extracting economic concessions. Chun Yungwoo, former chief South Korean envoy to international nuclear negotiations with North Korea, said Kim’s successful consolidation of power requires him to consider what kind of country he wants to rule over for the next 40 to 50 years. “He wants to have a more prosperous country — he wants economic development,” Chun said. “Without giving up nuclear weapons, all he can do is maintain a subsistence-level economy.”

u.s .
north korea
vietnam
kim jong un
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
kim-trump summit
_asia


Vietnam relishes role as peacemaker with Kim-Trump summit as it seeks to balance ties

Abstract: HANOI - While the leaders of North Korea and the United States debate banishing nuclear bombs from the Korean peninsula, the host of their summit this week, Vietnam, is relishing its role as a promoter of peace. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi, hoping to build on their historic summit in Singapore in June that was the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Vietnam’s hosting of the high-stakes talks marks its emergence as a trustworthy, responsible member of the international community that has forged peace with old enemies, and can now help others to do so, Vietnamese officials say. Since emerging from decades of diplomatic isolation in the early 1990s, Vietnam has been eager to improve ties with large powers and the region to help balance its historically thorny relations with giant neighbor, China, which confronts Vietnam over claims to the resource-rich South China Sea. The boost to Vietnam’s international status that the country is likely to see from the summit is in line with that strategy. Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said the United States and North Korea were both keen to hold their summit in Vietnam. “It shows that Vietnam is a responsible and active member of the international community, wanting to contribute to the peace process, and that Vietnam’s policy is to raise the level of multilateral foreign policy,” Trung told reporters last week. Vietnam was at war almost continuously for some 45 years, from the end of World War II through to the early 1990s, battling France, the United States, China and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge. Far off Geneva and Paris hosted negotiations to end those wars, but now Hanoi is a “city for peace,” Trung said. “Vietnam is a nation that is really fond of peace but also had to suffer wars, and usually the wars ended with peace negotiations,” he said. Vietnam seems to be taking to its role of mediator with gusto. The government has pushed the U.S. and North Korean security services to work closely to prepare for the summit, a senior Vietnamese security official told Reuters. Vietnam would also love to see the United States and North Korea sign a declaration of peace to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War, said the official, who declined to be identified. The war ended with an armistice, not a treaty, and North Korea is keen to sign a treaty, though the United States has demanded denuclearization first. Vietnam would also be keen to host a third meeting between the leaders, the official said. A successful summit would enhance Vietnam’s standing, said Nguyen Quy Binh, a former ambassador and permanent representative of Vietnam to the United Nations in Geneva. “Vietnam’s voice will have more weight. A country that acts responsibly and reputably, a country that is trust-worthy, will have a different voice,” said Binh. Binh mentioned the South China Sea dispute as a flash point, and said the United States could help to balance regional powers and ensure stability. “If Vietnam can do this well, its voice and reputation in its relations with other countries will benefit.” Western and Asian diplomats said they expected Vietnam to try to support any reforms in North Korea that the summit bring. Those efforts would be enhanced by Vietnam’s turn as chair of Southeast Asia’s ASEAN grouping next year, and a possible spell as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Secretary Council in 2021. “Hosting such an sensitive event is a step up for Hanoi. In private, Vietnamese officials are pretty happy with the way things are going … it’s a sweet spot for them,” said a senior Western diplomat.

u.s .
north korea
vietnam
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
kim-trump summit
_asia
km jong un


Fake Kim goes as real Kim comes: Vietnam expels North Korean leader lookalike

Abstract: HANOI - An Australian comedian who impersonates North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday authorities were deporting him from Vietnam, some 24 hours before the real Kim was due to arrive for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Kim lookalike, who goes by the name Howard X, popped up in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi on Friday along with his partner who impersonates Trump, drawing crowds and media. The two real leaders are due to meet in Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday for their second nuclear summit. “North Koreans have no sense of humor,” the impersonator told reporters before heading to Hanoi’s airport to leave the country. “Satire is a powerful weapon against any dictatorship.” The impersonator visited Singapore in June, when Trump and Kim held their first summit, and performed satirical stunts. He said he was briefly detained by authorities there. He also showed up at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where he danced in front of an appalled North Korean cheer squad before security hauled him away. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment on Monday. Howard X said earlier authorities had questioned him and warned him not to create any disturbance. Vietnam has tightened security around the capital ahead of the summit. Howard X said his partner, Trump impersonator Russell White, was allowed to stay on in Vietnam, but not allowed to do make any more public appearances. The two hugged and kissed goodbye for the cameras on Monday. “Please no World War III,” Howard X said. “They are scared of a couple of guys that look like real thing.”

u.s .
north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
offbeat
donald trump
kim-trump summit


Farming village aims to restore Fukushima's reputation with hot product: habanero ice cream

Abstract: FUKUSHIMA - A northeastern farming village that saw demand for its produce plunge after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis has found a way to reinvigorate its image — challenging people to try soft-serve ice cream laced with locally grown hot peppers. The village of Hirata, 45 kilometers southwest of the meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 plant, suffered a slump in its sales of asparagus and other vegetables due to radiation-related fears, even though it was not designated an evacuation area by the government. Facing a dire situation, three farmers began growing habaneros after taking a liking to what they described as the “cute” appearance of the little chili pepper and thinking it may appeal to customers, said Tetsuya Kono, who manages a roadside stop that sells foods and other local products to travelers. But it soon turned out that cultivating the bright red plant did not make business sense, as the pepper is generally too hot for Japanese tastes. The habanero, famous for its devilish heat, is usually raised in Latin America. The Hirata farmers tried adding the chili to their miso and retort curry bags, but sales remained sluggish and the peppers piled up. “Is there a product that uses a lot of habaneros?” they asked themselves. That question inspired the creation of habanero-flavored soft-serve ice cream in 2015. The farmers decided to serve up varying levels of pain; customers who can cope with the “hellishly spicy” level are treated to the ice cream for free. As word about the ice cream spread through social media, people willing to take the challenge soon began showing up from other parts of the country. So far, some 330 people have tried the ice cream and 90 percent have finished it — with various reactions. Some, their eyes watering, seem on the verge of crying but stubbornly soldier on. Others seem to relish it. Making the ice cream is somewhat of a trial. Workers wear goggles and masks when sprinkling the chili powder on the ice cream, which is done in a dedicated enclosure made of cardboard boxes. The number of farmers in the area cultivating habaneros has since grown to 12 and producers are now able to sell them for ¥470 ($4.2) per kilogram, compared with ¥250 in 2014. While promoting itself as “the spiciest village in Japan,” asparagus and other vegetables remain the flagship products for Hirata. “Habaneros are merely a way for the village to advertise itself,” Kono said. “We hope this will lead more people to visit Hirata and buying our vegetables.”

fukushima
fukushima no . 1
agriculture
ice cream
hirata
habanero


Nagoya student tracks classical and jazz gigs for music fans across Japan

Abstract: A student at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Information Science has developed an online platform for music fans that keeps them update on classical and jazz concerts by musician and venue. Kanji Toyama, 24, named the service Sonoligo after his startup Sonoligo Inc., which incorporates the words sono (sound) and ligo (connection) from Esperanto. Sonoligo users, after registering for free on his website ( www.sonoligo.com ), can choose the musicians and concert halls they like, resulting in their concert schedules appearing on a customized calendar. They can also receive updates by email. A map feature shows the locations of concerts to be held on a given day. The service is designed to help both fans and musicians. People seeking information on concert schedules, for example, can avoid checking multiple websites and flyers from the halls and clubs, as well the social media accounts of the musicians. At the same time, musicians who don’t belong to major talent agencies gain access to a useful promotional tool. “Everybody had wished there was such a platform, but nobody had come up with it,” said Riko Matsuoka, a 27-year-old harpist studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. By using the platform, musicians will be able to attract new kinds of fans, she said. Recently, many classical and jazz musicians use their individual social media accounts to notify fans of upcoming concerts. But such posts on Twitter and Facebook get buried and become difficult to find after a couple of days. After officially launching in mid-November, Sonoligo has over 300 musicians, nearly 400 users and nearly 30 concert venues registered mainly in Nagoya, Tokyo and Osaka. Toyama came up with the idea of developing Sonoligo while playing saxophone in competitions and concerts during his undergraduate days at Nagoya University. “I felt it would be difficult to attract a wide audience and make a living as a musician,” he said. After moving on to graduate school, he went to study in Germany. There, he was deeply impressed by the music culture, where people casually attended classical concerts after work and went out for drinks afterward. “There are many talented musicians in Japan as well, but there was no platform to provide information on them beyond the genre of music,” said Toyama, who took leave from school after returning to Japan to establish Sonoligo with ¥500,000 in capital. He developed the platform by making use of the computer science skills he had acquired in Germany. He also plans to launch an all-you-can-listen-to service based on a fixed monthly fee that will offer live concerts designated by performers or concert halls. “I want people to experience real music that you can’t feel at sites offering recorded music,” he said.

jazz
social media
classical
apps
concerts
startups
musicians
sonoligo
kanji toyama


Japan scientists win backing for work on potential Nipah virus vaccine at Todai

Abstract: LONDON - A global coalition set up to fight emerging epidemics has struck a $31 million deal with scientists at the University of Tokyo to speed up work on a vaccine against a brain-damaging disease caused by the Nipah virus. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said the University of Tokyo team would receive up to $31 million to advance the development and manufacturing of a shot for the bat-borne disease. Nipah virus was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak of illnesses affecting pig farmers and others in close contact with pigs in Malaysia and Singapore. More than 100 people died in the outbreak, and about a million pigs were killed to try to halt its spread. Nipah is transmitted to humans via direct contact with infected bats, infected pigs or other infected people. At least 17 people were killed in another outbreak of Nipah last year in India, in which 19 cases were reported — giving a case fatality rate of 90 percent. CEPI, which was set up at the start of 2017, aims to dramatically speed up the development of vaccines against new and unknown diseases — collectively known as “Disease X.” “There is an urgent need for accelerated research and development for the Nipah virus,” Richard Hatchett, CEPI’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Not only is the case fatality rate for this disease high … there is a serious risk (it) could become a threat to global health security.” Nipah is on the World Health Organization’s research and development “priority pathogen” list alongside Ebola, Zika, MERS, Lassa and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. The Tokyo team’s experimental vaccine is designed using a weakened measles viral vaccine with Nipah virus genes inserted into it. CEPI said its funding would support advancement of the potential vaccine candidate through midstage trials in humans, with a view to its being manufactured and stockpiled for investigational use.

medicine
disease
university of tokyo
nipah virus


Japanese fishing boat crew detained by Russia may be released this week

Abstract: The crew members of a Japanese crab fishing boat detained by Russian authorities in late January are likely to be released, along with their vessel, this week, according to sources in both governments. The 10-member crew of the Nishino Maru No. 68 has been fined for fishing illegally in Russia’s exclusive economic zone. The captain has admitted to doing so without the necessary documentation. Russian authorities claimed the illegal fishing caused economic damage of at least 39 million rubles (about ¥66.2 million) and filed a complaint with a court calling for an administrative measure. The boat’s operator has paid a bond equivalent to the amount of alleged damage. Russian authorities are expected to start procedures to free the crew after payment is confirmed. A Japanese Foreign Ministry source said the release may take place within the week. The boat left port in Sakaiminato, Shimane Prefecture, on Jan. 26. It was seized Jan. 30 in the Sea of Japan and taken to Nakhodka in the Russian Far East. A crab fishing boat from the same port was seized by Russian authorities in January 2009. All 10 crew members were released in early February that year after making a payment to Russian authorities.

russia
shimane prefecture
fisheries
nishino maru