At least eight people were injured when a man deliberately drove his car into a crowded Tokyo street filled with people who had gathered for the city's New Year's festivities.
The incident happened shortly after midnight Tuesday on Takeshita Street in the city's popular Harajuku fashion district near the Meiji Shrine.
Police took a man in his 20s into custody and charged him with suspicion of attempted murder.
History shows that cooperation is the best choice for both China and the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump in a congratulatory message Tuesday to mark 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations.
The two countries are currently engaged in a truce in their bitter trade war, holding talks to try and end a dispute that has seen them level increasingly severe tariffs on each others' imports.
In his message to Trump, Xi said China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs and made historic progress over the past four decades, state news agency Xinhua said.
This has brought huge benefits to the two peoples and has contributed greatly to world peace, stability and prosperity, Xi added.
"History has proved that cooperation is the best choice for both sides," Xi said.
Sino-U.S. relations are in an important stage, he added.
"I attach great importance to the development of China-U.S. relations and am willing to work with President Trump to summarize the experience of the development of China-U.S. relations and implement the consensus we have reached in a joint effort to advance China-U.S. relations featuring coordination, cooperation and stability so as to better benefit the two peoples as well as the people of the rest of the world," he said.
This year marks a series of sensitive anniversaries for China, including, in June, 30 years since the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
On Wednesday, Xi will make his first public appearance at an anniversary-related event, giving a speech about self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its sacred territory, on the 40th anniversary of a key policy statement that led to a thaw in relations with the island.
Australia has issued a statement raising concerns about China's detention of two Canadian citizens after foreign policy experts questioned why Canberra had been silent.
The arrests of entrepreneur Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former former diplomat, earlier this month came after Canada detained a Huawei executive in Vancouver at the request of the United States.
There was swift condemnation of the arrest of two Canadians by the European Union, Britain, Germany and France. They were concerned about the apparent political motivation of their detention. China accused Spavor and Kovrig of endangering state security.
Despite the international outcry, Australia — another of Canada's key western allies — stayed silent. There was no official explanation, but a group of 30 academics and former diplomats signed a petition urging Canberra to call for the pair to be freed.
Shoulder-to-shoulder
Rory Medcalf, the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, says Australia must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada.
"If middle-sized democracies do not stand together against offensive behavior by China on the international stage, then one-by-one we will be subjected to similar punishment or bullying on those occasions when our interests clash with China's," Medcalf said.
In response, Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne issued a brief statement, which does not back Canada's call for the two men to be immediately released.
"The Australian government is concerned about the recent detention of two Canadian citizens in China," Payne said. "We would be very concerned if these cases were related to legal proceedings currently under way in Canada involving a Chinese citizen, Ms Meng Wanzhou."
Trading partners
China is Australia's biggest trading partner. But relations have soured in recent times over allegations that Beijing has meddled in Australia's domestic politics, while Canberra has been accused by China of cyber espionage.
Earlier this month, Australia said its companies were among the global victims of an extensive campaign of cyber espionage attacks backed by the Chinese government.
Canberra said cybercrime had "the potential to undermine global economic growth, national security and international stability."
China's factory activity shrank in December for the first time in more than two years, an official survey showed Monday, intensifying pressure on Beijing to reverse an economic slowdown as it enters trade talks with the Trump administration.
The purchasing managers' index of the National Bureau of Statistics and an industry group, the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing, fell to 49.4 from November's 50.0 on a 100-point scale. Any reading below 50 shows that activity is contracting. The December figure was the lowest since February 2016 and the first drop since July 2016.
In the quarter that ended in September, China's economic growth sank to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent compared with a year earlier. The slowdown occurred despite government efforts to stem the downturn by ordering banks to lend more and by boosting spending on public works construction.
Forecasters expect annual growth of about 6.5 percent, down slightly from 2017's 6.7 percent. But some industry segments, including auto and real estate sales, have suffered more serious declines.
"Downward pressure on the economy is still large," economist Zhang Liqun said in a statement issued with the PMI.
Overall orders and exports both contracted, indicating that Chinese factories are suffering from weak demand at home and abroad. Exports to the United States kept growing at double-digit monthly rates through late 2018 despite President Donald Trump's punitive tariffs. But growth in exports to the rest of the world fell sharply in November and forecasters expect American demand to weaken in early 2019.
That adds to complications for Chinese leaders who are trying to reverse a broad economic slowdown and avert politically dangerous job losses.
Chinese and U.S. envoys are due to meet in early January for negotiations that are intended to resolve their economically threatening trade war. Over the weekend, Trump sounded an optimistic note, tweeting that he had spoken with President Xi Jinping by phone.
"Deal is moving along very well," Trump tweeted. "If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made!"
But economists say the 90-day moratorium on new penalties that was agreed to by Trump and Xi on Dec. 1 is likely too little time to resolve their sprawling dispute.
Chinese economic activity already was weakening after Beijing tightened controls on bank lending in late 2017 to cool a debt boom. The downturn was more abrupt than expected, which prompted regulators to shift course and ease credit controls. But they moved gradually to avoid reigniting a rise in debt. Their measures have yet to put a floor under declining growth.
Chinese leaders promised at an annual economic planning meeting in mid-December to shore up growth with tax cuts, easier lending for entrepreneurs and other steps.
China's pace of reforms will not "stagnate" and its door will open wider and wider, President Xi Jinping said on Monday in his New Year message, as he also warned of challenges ahead.
Xi has repeatedly pledged his support for reform this year, as China marks 40 years since landmark economic reforms, amid mounting pressure to accelerate reforms and improve market access for foreign companies as a trade war with the United States weighs on the economy.
In a speech carried by all major state media, Xi said that in 2018 China had pushed more than 100 important reform measures.
"The world has seen a China whose reforms and opening up have gathered speed, and has seen China's determination to follow through with reforms and opening up," Xi said. "Our pace of reforms will not stagnate, and the door to opening up will widen further."
Xi did not make specific mention of the trade war with the United States, noting that 2019 would bring "opportunities and challenges."
"As we open our eyes to look at the world, we are faced with huge changes, changes not seen in 100 years," he added, without elaborating.
"No matter how the international situation changes, China's confidence and determination to safeguard national sovereignty and security will not change. China's sincerity and goodwill for maintaining world peace and promoting common development will not change."
Two people are dead after a bomb went off at the entrance of a shopping mall in the southern Philippines.
More than two dozen others were wounded in the attack in the city of Cotabato Monday. Police later discovered a second bomb that had not detonated in another part of the mall.
No group or individual has claimed credit for the bombing. The southern Philippines has been plagued for decades by a violent insurgency by Muslim separatists that has left thousands of people dead. President Rodrigo Duterte placed much of the region under martial law in 2017 after armed separatists seized control of the city of Marawi for several months that year.
Vietnam has earned a name as the chief haven for multinationals hoping to avoid the Sino-U.S. trade dispute of 2018. The Philippines, another Southeast Asian country that has pushed to pick up foreign investment, aims to follow suit.
The Philippines boasts young workers skilled in English, quick infrastructure upgrades and a tax system overhaul – though fuel prices and periodic political unrest may check progress, people familiar with the country say.
The government approved $17.2 billion in investments, up 47 percent over 2017, the Board of Investments announced on December 24. Those figures “blew past expectations,” the board said.
“We do have a market, a growing middle class and qualified workers, but there are economic and political factors that affect the level of confidence among investors, particularly foreign investors,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.
Perks in the Philippines
The Philippines would attract foreign investment in part because of its $169 billion infrastructure renewal, Atienza said. The rebuilding is set to run through 2022 and get funding partly by money from China and Japan.
“I’m sure the additional financing they’ve been offered is very helpful for them to develop their economy, and the Philippines knows it very much needs infrastructure development to become more competitive,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit.
Though too early to say, new infrastructure might help develop energy sources and lower electricity prices that otherwise deter investors, the professor said.
Multinationals also consider the English language ability and other skills among workers, she said. Another sought-after skill: training in healthcare. Minimum wages for most manufacturers as well as in the service sectors will rise to $9.50 per day, on par with some of China’s lower pay.
“The workforce is still young, so whatever the needs of the new economy will be, the Philippines can provide, given its young workforce,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro.
A tax reform bill, if implemented in Manila, will lead to an “influx” of investment in manufacturing, he said. He was referring to part two of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, which would cut corporate income tax.
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority further helps secure investment by offering “facilitation,” said Carl Baker, director of programs with Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu.
China, Japan try it out
China topped the list of foreign investors in the Philippines in 2018 with $927 million worth of commitments, up from just $10 million a year ago, the government board said. Like multinationals, companies in China are looking to other countries as an export base that will not trip U.S. tariffs.
Japanese companies also expressed particular interest in the past year, Ravelas said.
In 2017, Seiko Epson opened a $143 million plant south of Manila. The plant will make projectors and inkjet printers. Around the same time, Shin-Etsu Magnetic Philippines, which produces magnets for electronic devices, opened its eighth plant in the country.
Foreign investors that produce exports in China face U.S. import tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods, one result of a trade dispute that consumed the past year. U.S. President Donald Trump regards China as an unfair trading partner.
Philippine officials have been drumming up support for foreign investment over the past half-decade as manufacturing costs rise in China.
Deterrents to investment
Investors have kept away from the Philippines because of its archipelagic location – hard for transport – limits on foreign ownership, and utility rates.
Electricity prices, a reflection of underlying energy costs, deter some investors as they top the rest of Southeast Asia except Singapore at $0.11 per kilowatt hour. Government officials are trying to develop new energy sources, including renewables, Ravelas noted. Foreign investors can own no more than 40% cap of land parcels, Philippine-based corporations or public utilities.
Philippine workers are more likely to be unionized than in other Asian countries, Atienza said. They tend to be “more vocal” in demands for higher pay compared to other Southeast Asian countries, she added.
Localized violence that may erupt ahead of midterm elections in May as well as the government’s struggle against Communist rebels in the countryside could put off hopeful investors, she said.
Among south and Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines will “gain the least” from the Sino-U.S. trade dispute, investment bank Natixis said in a research report December 4. It cites “expensive” electricity and “weak” business infrastructure.
Vietnam has earned a name through cheap land and labor, government openness to foreign investment and a growing list of free trade agreements. “There is significant competition from other ASEAN countries for attracting investors looking for an alternative to China-based manufacturing,” Baker said.
Read More Philippines Aims to Attract Investors Hit by Tariffs in Sino-US Trade War : http://bit.ly/2CHry7W
Kim Jong Un will be keeping North Korea watchers busy on New Year's Day, when he is expected to give his annual address laying out the country's top priorities for the year ahead.
The speech, which is normally broadcast on North Korea's state-run television network, is often the best gauge of what the North Korean leadership is focused on and what tone it will take in its dealings with the outside world.
For 2019, it will be parsed carefully for clues about Kim's thinking on denuclearization talks with Washington and a second summit with President Donald Trump, relations with South Korea and Pyongyang's efforts to get out from under international sanctions as it tries to build up its domestic economy.
A look at Kim's plate for the coming year:
The economy
This is Kim's primary concern. He made that clear in his 2018 News Year's address and his government has been hammering it home ever since.
In his first televised speech, at a military parade in 2012, Kim vowed the nation would never again have to tighten its belts, a reference to the economic hardships it has faced, including a disastrous famine in the 1990s.
While they remain isolated and unable to travel or experience foreign media freely, North Koreans are aware of the yawning prosperity gap between themselves, South Korea and China. Kim has tried to address that by initiating infrastructure projects in major cities, building up the capital and allowing — if not overtly supporting — the spread of the market economy. What's not clear is how far he is willing to go with the kind of fundamental, systemic reforms needed to really ensure sustainable growth.
North Korea has hinted it wants to join the World Trade Organization and be more a part of the global economic community. But that would also require some risky moves — like increased transparency and commitment to global rules and norms. A big question is how much control Kim is willing to relinquish in exchange for prosperity.
North Korea is entering the fourth year of a five-year economic plan that Kim announced with great fanfare at a rare congress of his ruling party in 2016. If precedent is any indication, he will go into some detail outlining, sector by sector, the country's successes so far and emphasizing what remains to be done. This part of the speech is usually couched in deliberately vague, broad or aspirational language and is directed at the domestic party leadership.
But if Kim is serious about change, this could be where he drops some important hints.
The nukes
North Korea is still standing firmly behind the agreements it made with Trump at the Singapore summit.
The problem is that North Korea's interpretation of what they agreed to is at odds with that of the Trump administration.
Kim never agreed to unilaterally throw away his hard-won nuclear arsenal, which he maintains is a necessary deterrent to the threat of an attack by the United States. The North's moratorium on nuclear tests and long-range missile launches also isn't part of the summit agreement and there is no explicit promise in the Singapore joint statement that the North won't continue producing or developing its missiles.
So while the missiles have stopped flying for now, there's still a lot up in the air.
Kim agreed the North would “work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” But from the North's perspective, it must include the removal of what it has always claimed is the reason why it has nukes in the first place — the threat of a U.S. nuclear attack. While not directly criticizing Trump, a tactic it is likely to stick with until it sees the overall process as seriously off the rails, the North has tried to play him against his advisers while it pushes for security guarantees and sanctions relief.
The bottom line is that North Korea hasn't given up much since Singapore. And it doesn't think Washington has, either.
Trump has said a second summit could be held soon. The New Year's speech gives Kim a golden opportunity to set the goalposts and to try to further detach Trump from his advisers.
The South
In contrast to Pyongyang's dealings with Washington, relations between North and South Korea have seen a major thaw.
With three leaders' summits in 2018 and dozens of other meetings, the Koreas have opened a liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, created border buffers and no-fly zones to reduce military tensions, and jointly surveyed North Korea's outdated railways and roads with the goal of connecting them with the South. They even vowed to make a bid to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics.
But Seoul cannot proceed without the removal of U.S.-led international sanctions. While President Moon Jae-in sees inter-Korean reconciliation as a crucial part of nuclear diplomacy, his enthusiasm for engagement has caused discomfort in Washington. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has already begun expressing its frustration with the slowdown in inter-Korean projects and demanded that Seoul break from Washington's lead.
Some analysts expect Kim to further try to drive a wedge between the allies with a nationalistic call for stronger inter-Korean cooperation, while painting Washington as a bad-faith actor refusing to take corresponding measures to the North's unilateral dismantlement of a nuclear test site and the suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests.
Read More Kim Jong Un Expected to Ring In 2019 With Big Policy Speech : http://bit.ly/2QcGmyV
An international trade association says on-the-job slayings of journalists and news media staff rose again in 2018 following an overall decline during the past half-dozen years.
The International Federation of Journalists said in an annual report set for release Monday that 94 journalists and media workers died in targeted killings, bomb attacks and conflict crossfire this year, 12 more than in 2017.
Before the declines seen in five of the past six years, 121 people working for news organizations were slain in 2012. Since the federation started its annual count in 1990, the year with the most work-related killings, 155, was 2006.
The deadliest country for people who work in the news media this year was Afghanistan, where 16 of the killings occurred. Mexico was next, with 11. Yemen had nine media slayings and Syria eight in 2018.
Beyond the tragedy of lives lost, such killings affect the pursuit of truth and sharing of information in communities and countries where they happen, the president of the International Federation of Journalists said.
“Journalists are targeted because they are witnesses,” the group's president, Philippe Leruth, told The Associated Press. “And the result of this, when a journalist or many journalists are killed in a country, you see an increase of self-censorship.”
Iraq, where 309 media professionals were killed over the past quarter-century, long topped the federation's annual list. The federation identified a photojournalist as the one victim in the country this year.
While 2018 brought a worldwide increase, the total remained in the double digits for a second year running. The total of 155 in.
The IFJ connects some 600,000 media professionals from 187 trade unions and associations in more than 140 countries. The group said the new report showed that journalists face dangers apart from the risks of reporting from war zones and covering extremist movements.
“There were other factors, such as the increasing intolerance to independent reporting, populism, rampant corruption and crime, as well as the breakdown of law and order,” the Brussels-based group said in a statement.
Suddenly high on the list, in sixth place, was the United States with five killings. On June 28, a gunman in Annapolis, Maryland, opened fire in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper and fatally shot four journalists and a sales associate. The man had threatened the newspaper after losing a defamation lawsuit.
The Oct. 2 slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States, had worldwide impact. He went to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to formalize a divorce so he could marry his Turkish fiance, but instead was strangled and dismembered there - allegedly by Saudi agents.
Khashoggi wrote critically of Saudi Arabia's royal regime, and the alleged involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the journalist's slaying has put the governments of other countries under pressure to sever economic and political ties.
“Jamal Khashoggi was a very well-known figure, but you know, the most shocking statistic is that we know that nine of 10 journalist murders remain unpunished in the world,” Leruth said.
At least 22 people have died because of landslides and flooding triggered by a tropical cyclone that brought heavy rains to central Philippines, a disaster agency official said Sunday.
The people, including a 3-year-old boy, were reported dead as of Sunday morning, said disaster agency spokesman Edgar Posadas, after a tropical cyclone barreled through the eastern Visayas and Bicol regions on Saturday.
"The wind was not strong but it caused flooding and landslides," Posadas said.
The number of casualties could rise as rescue and retrieval operations continue. Local media have reported dozens missing or trapped by the landslides.
A regional office of the disaster agency said it was working to confirm the deaths of 38 people in the Bicol region, located south of the main island of Luzon.
Thousands of passengers were stranded at seaports, airports and bus terminals as dozens of inter-island trips were canceled.
The tropical depression, which has since been downgraded to a low pressure area, left the Philippines on Sunday afternoon. About 20 tropical cyclones hit the Philippines every year.
The relationship between United States and China has grown increasingly tense since June, when Washington slapped tariffs on key imports from Beijing, and China returned the gesture. The Trump administration says it is trying to reset the country's economic and strategic relationship with China, to put America first. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports on how the administration has confronted China in 2018.
Read More Trump Trying to Reset Relationship With China : http://bit.ly/2EVTPt6
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he wants to hold more summits with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in next year to achieve the goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Moon’s office said Sunday.
Kim sent a letter to Moon on Sunday to commemorate the dramatic detente they engineered this year, including three summits, after years of confrontation marked by a series of the North’s nuclear and missile tests.
But stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington had an impact on inter-Korean ties, with the South’s plan to host Kim in Seoul this year, as agreed at his summit with President Moon in Pyongyang in September, going unanswered by the North.
Kim vowed to work towards denuclearization at his landmark summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June, but the two sides have since made little progress, struggling to reschedule a high-level meeting abruptly called off in November.
Kim said in the letter that he was sorry his visit to Seoul did not take place, expressing his “strong resolve” to make it happen in the future while monitoring the situation, Moon’s office said.
“Chairman Kim said he is willing to meet often with President Moon next year to move forward discussions on peace and prosperity and resolve the issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Saturday that he had a "long and very good call" with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that a possible trade deal between the United States and China was progressing well.
As a partial shutdown of the U.S. government entered its eighth day, with no quick end in sight, the Republican president was in Washington, sending out tweets attacking Democrats and talking up possibly improved relations with China.
The two nations have been in a trade war for much of 2018 that has seen the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods between the world's two largest economies disrupted by tariffs.
Trump and Xi agreed to a ceasefire in the trade war, agreeing to hold off on imposing more tariffs for 90 days starting Dec. 1 while they negotiate a deal to end the dispute following months of escalating tensions.
"Just had a long and very good call with President Xi of China," Trump wrote. "Deal is moving along very well. If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made!" Chinese state media also said Xi and Trump spoke on Saturday, and quoted Xi as saying that teams from both countries have been working to implement a consensus reached with Trump.
Chinese media also quoted Xi as saying that he hopes both sides can meet each other half way and reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial as soon as possible.
Having canceled his plans to travel to his estate in Florida for the holidays because of the government shutdown that started on Dec. 22, Trump tweeted, "I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal."
The Republican-controlled Congress was closed for the weekend and few lawmakers were in the capital.
The shutdown, affecting about one-quarter of the federal government including 800,000 or so workers, began when funding for several agencies expired.
Congress must pass legislation to restore that funding, but has not done so due to a dispute over Trump's demand that the bill include $5 billion in taxpayer money to help pay for a wall he wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Indonesian researchers say the volcano that erupted and collapsed a week ago has lost both volume and height since the eruption and the resulting deadly tsunami.
Scientists at Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation say Anak Krakatoa is about a quarter of its former size.
The researchers have been unable to get close to the mountain because it is still erupting. Instead they have used radar satellite information to make their estimates.
The center says Anak Krakatoa has a current volume of 40-70 million cubic meters, after losing 150-180 million cubic meters of volume since the eruption Dec. 22.
The crater’s peak was 338 meters high in September, but is now 110 meters high, according to the center.
Anak Krakatoa, which means Child of Krakatoa, is a remnant of Krakatoa, the volcano that erupted in 1883 and triggered a period of global cooling.
An undersea 6.9 magnitude earthquake has struck off the southern Philippines and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says it has a potential to generate a tsunami.
The center initially said “hazardous tsunami waves” were possible within 300 km (186 miles) of the epicenter along the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.
The center later said: “Tsunami waves are forecast to be less than 0.3 meters above the tide level for the coasts of Indonesia, Palau and the Philippines.”
There was no tsunami threat to the U.S. state of Hawaii, it said.
No casualties or damage have been reported immediately Saturday.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake hit at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Davao city in the main southern region of Mindanao.
Reuters news agency contributed to this report.
Canada's government says a Canadian teacher detained in China over a problem with her work permit has been released.
Albertan Sarah McIver was arrested this month, but Global Affairs Canada spokesman Richard Walker said Friday that she had returned home.
McIver's detention followed the arrests of two other Canadians on allegations they were harming China's national security. China detained Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor separately after Canada arrested a top executive for the Chinese technology company Huawei for possible extradition to the U.S.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is sought by the U.S. for allegedly lying to banks as part of an effort to evade sanctions on Iran.
Both China and Canada had said McIver's case differed from those of Kovrig and Spavor.
The Australian government has stripped citizenship from a man it believes is a top recruiter for Islamic State, Australia’s home affairs minister said Saturday.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said in an emailed statement to Reuters that Melbourne-born Neil Prakash has been stripped of his citizenship.
Prakash has been in Turkey on trial for terrorism-related activities since being caught there in October 2016 after leaving Islamic State-controlled territory.
He is wanted in Australia on terrorism-related activities, including an alleged plot to behead a Melbourne police officer on Anzac Day.
Australian citizenship
“My first priority is and always will be the safety and security of all Australians,” Dutton said in his statement. “This government is determined to deal with foreign terrorist fighters as far from our shores as possible.”
Prakash, whose mother was Cambodian and father was Fijian Indian, held both Australian and Fijian citizenship through his father.
Under Australia’s citizenship laws, a dual national can lose their Australian citizenship if they act contrary to their allegiance to Australia by choosing to be involved in terrorism.
Prakash is the 12th person to be stripped of citizenship. Islamic State was declared a terrorist organization in May 2016 for this purpose, the Home Affairs Office said in its statement.
“To be in the service of such a terrorist organization, as Mr Prakash was, is to act inconsistently with your allegiance to Australia, and we will do everything we can to ensure he is brought to account for his crimes,” Dutton said.
Notified by letter
The decision came into effect Dec. 21 when Prakash was notified by letter, and the Fijian government has also been notified according to a source close to the Australian government.
Prakash has been linked to several Australia-based attack plans and has appeared in Islamic State videos and magazines. Australia has alleged that he actively recruited Australian men, women and children and encouraged acts of militancy.
Australia has been pressing Turkey to extradite Prakash since he was first detained, but the request was rejected in July. It will remain in place until the conclusion of his case and any custodial sentence, The Australian newspaper reported.
Canberra canceled Prakash’s passport in 2014 and announced financial sanctions in 2015, including anyone giving him financial assistance, with punishment of up to 10 years in jail.
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Thailand - known for its tough anti-drug trafficking efforts - made history this month as Southeast Asia’s first country to legalize medical marijuana. Steve Sandford report on traditions and new developments in the kingdom. Read More Thailand Legalizes Medical Marijuana : http://bit.ly/2SpnZJ4
The personal information of nearly 1,000 North Koreans who defected to South Korea has been leaked after unknown hackers got access to a resettlement agency's database, the South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said it discovered last week that the names, birth dates and addresses of 997 defectors had been stolen through a computer infected with malicious software at an agency called the Hana center, in the southern city of Gumi.
"The malware was planted through emails sent by an internal address," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the issue, referring to a Hana center email account.
The Hana center is among 25 institutes the ministry runs around the country to help some 32,000 defectors adjust to life in the richer, democratic South by providing jobs, medical and legal support.
Defectors, most of whom risked their lives to flee poverty and political oppression, are a source of shame for North Korea.
Its state media often denounces them as "human scum" and accuses South Korean spies of kidnapping some of them.
The ministry official declined to say if North Korea was believed to have been behind the hack, or what the motive might have been, saying a police investigation was under way to determine who did it.
North Korean hackers have in the past been accused of cyberattacks on South Korean state agencies and businesses.
North Korea stole classified documents from the South's defense ministry and a shipbuilder last year, while a cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy following a cyberattack linked to the North.
North Korean state media has denied those cyberattacks.
The latest data breach comes at a delicate time for the two Koreas which have been rapidly improving their relations after years of confrontation.
The Unification Ministry said it was notifying the affected defectors and there were no reports of any negative impact of the data breach.
"We're sorry this has happened and will make efforts to prevent it from recurring," the ministry official said.
Several defectors, including one who became a South Korean television celebrity, have disappeared in recent years only to turn up later in North Korean state media, criticizing South Korea and the fate of defectors.
Russian aluminium company Rusal said Friday that its board of directors had elected Jean-Pierre Thomas as its new chairman as part of an agreed-upon restructuring in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions.
The previous chairman, Matthias Warnig, stepped down this week after six years at the world's largest aluminium producer outside China. His resignation was a condition of the deal.
Thomas, an independent non-executive director, has been appointed as chairman effective Jan. 1, Rusal said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock market.
The U.S. Treasury said last week it would remove sanctions against Rusal, its parent En+ and power firm EuroSibEnergo if they restructured to reduce the controlling stakes of businessman Oleg Deripaska, who is on Washington's sanctions list.
The deal is subject to a 30-day review in the U.S. Congress. After the restructuring is completed, En+ will retain the right to nominate the producer's chief executive, the U.S. Treasury said earlier.
A graft probe into the luxury watch collection of Thailand's junta number two was dropped Thursday, sparking the ire of the public and political opponents of the military.
The country's anti-corruption agency cited "no grounds" for an investigation into the scandal surrounding Prawit Wongsuwan's penchant for pricey timepieces, which captivated the kingdom earlier this year and drew criticisms in a rare lightning rod of dissent as the Thai public grew weary after four years of military rule.
The 73-year-old was caught last December wearing a luxury watch in a photo, inspiring online sleuths to dig up old photos of at least 22 watches collectively worth $1.2 million on his wrist, including 11 Rolexes, eight Patek Philippes and three Richard Milles.
Questions arose over how a general on a relatively humble public servant's salary could afford items undeclared on his $2.7 million list of assets on taking office, leading the kingdom's anti-graft agency to open a probe into his wrist bling.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) announced Thursday in a press conference its eight-person committee voted 5-3 to dismiss the case.
"This case has no grounds that General Prawit Wongsuwan had intended... to hide the truth or had intended to hide the origins of such assets," said NACC deputy secretary-general Worawit Sukboon.
The investigation found that all the watches adorning Prawit's wrists belonged to his now-deceased friend, wealthy businessman Pattawat Suksriwong.
"He had also lent his luxury watches to his other friends."
Worawit added the NACC is still investigating if the general had breached the commission's rules for accepting assets worth 3,000 baht ($92).
Prawit, who is defense minister, was one of the architects of the 2014 coup toppling the government of then-premier Yingluck Shinawatra.
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the junta's political name, has long wielded its anti-corruption credentials while junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha has voiced an interest in returning to politics as the country looks toward elections slated for February 24.
Thailand's biggest party Pheu Thai — which was headed by deposed premier Yingluck and her brother Thaksin — blasted the anti-graft commission's decision.
"We believe it is a double standard. The fact is that [Prawit's] actions violated laws and his reasons are groundless," said party spokeswoman Ladawan Wongsriwong.
Upstart Future Forward Party called the anti-graft agency a "tool" for the NCPO. "It emphasises the need to get rid of the NCPO and Prayut," spokeswoman Panika Wanich said.
But political analyst Titipol Phakdeewanich told AFP the public's dissatisfaction with the verdict is unlikely to carry in the polls.
"No matter what the public say or how angry the people are, it wouldn't change anything," said Titipol, dean of Ubon Rachathani University's Faculty of Political Science.
"The military still controls everything, every channel of information."
The scandal inspired a round of creative protests. In February, Thai students in a pre-football match ceremony in Bangkok wheeled a series of parade floats that including a puppet with a glittering ring and watch beaming from a massive papier mache hand.
"All 22 watches, all borrowed from a friend — his friend must have a shop selling watches," said a commenter on an online website after Thursday's verdict.
Top Chinese leaders have been forced to undergo a self-criticism session, state media said Thursday, in a further sign of President Xi Jinping's efforts to enforce party loyalty amid signs of internal dissent over his handling of a trade war with the United States.
A tool highly favored by Mao Zedong and taken to extremes during the Cultural Revolution, self-criticism sessions are back in favor under Xi's presidency as he seeks to consolidate power and tighten discipline in the upper party echelons.
Members of the Politburo "were asked to conduct criticism and self-criticism in light of work experience," at a meeting held on Tuesday and Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
They were also questioned on "how they have taken the lead to implement Xi's instructions and key Party regulations and policies," it added.
The center of power in China lies with the 25-member Politburo, though its role has lessened since Xi got the top job in 2012 and started concentrating powers in his own hands.
Analysts however say the president's authority has been contested over the last few months due to an economic slowdown triggered by an ongoing trade war with the US.
Xinhua's report of the meeting does not say what self-criticisms the members of the Politburo were expected to make.
Self-criticisms were regularly carried out during the Cultural Revolution -- a period of intense social and political upheaval launched by Mao from 1966-76 -- and have returned under Xi.
Experts said top officials appear to have wavered from the political line imposed by the strongman president.
Willy Lam, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, described the meeting as "extraordinary" because the leadership is "admitting there is tension within its ranks".
"It means some of the Politburo members have done or said things contrary to Xi Jinping's interests," he added.
According to Xinhua, the leaders "were also urged to study the latest speeches given by Xi" as quickly as possible, and will have to "discipline themselves, their families and close aides at work".
Xi reportedly made a speech at the meeting, during which he lauded "democratic centralism" -- one of the founding principles of Leninism in which the top leadership is all-powerful -- and called for unity within the party.
Since he came to power, Xi has waged a campaign against corruption, punishing more than 1.5 million officials. Some observers however say the crackdown has targeted his internal opponents in particular.
At a new Vietnamese restaurant last week, a diner asked to pay by credit card, so the waitress brought out a card reader she’d never used before. After a minute, she wondered why the machine didn’t ask for a PIN, only to learn that it was not required for credit cards, only debit cards.
Small businesses like the eatery are still learning the ropes, because paying by credit remains a new trend in Vietnam. But it is telling that even an enterprise of that small size is adopting point-of-sales machines, a sign that credit and digital transactions are on the rise at all levels of commerce big and small in the country.
This may present a "dao hai luoi," or a double edge sword. Advancing technology like e-payments can contribute to what is already one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But at the same time, growing reliance on credit to drive consumption -- as in the U.S. consumption-led economy -- increases the risk that Vietnamese will take on more loans than they can bear, or live beyond their means.
Credit trends are good and bad
It’s not just Vietnam. This comes at a time of increasing fears around the world that too much debt might trigger the next global recession -- from the government bonds held by Italy’s banks, to the borrowing spree of China’s local governments, to the increased U.S. interest rates that make it harder for developing countries to pay back loans denominated in dollars.
In Vietnam, data from payments company Visa in September showed that digital transactions jumped 45 percent from June 2017 to June 2018. The numbers were not broken down into credit versus debit payments, but they are an indication that Vietnamese are using more credit cards.
The overall change is good for Vietnam because it makes it easier to track legitimate business activity, according to Truong Minh Ha, who is head of client relationship management at Visa Vietnam and Laos.
“Not all of the shadow economy is illegal but a lot of it is. Smuggling, money laundering,” she said. “It’s not traced or regulated, so government loses in terms of tax revenue, and businesses can’t compete.”
Vietnamese now favor buying on credit
Credit cards are part of a broader shift across the Southeast Asian country, where it used to be more common to pay cash for large purchases, like houses or motorbikes, and for small ones, like e-commerce products. But now Vietnamese increasingly take out loans to buy those goods.
Lending spiked 39 percent in 2017 at FE Credit, according to credit ratings company Moody’s. It said FE Credit enjoys market share of about half of Vietnam's consumer finance sector.
“These strengths are partly offset by the company's exposure to the high credit risk inherent in Vietnam's rapidly growing unsecured consumer finance market,” Moody’s said in September.
But it added that FE Credit’s loan growth came with weaker asset quality and looser underwriting standards. That means borrowers’ financial situations aren’t as strong, raising their chances of default.
Change is afoot in the micro-loan space, too. Instead of waiting until they can afford a cell phone or washing machine, factory workers now have the option of financing the products against their monthly salaries. As with the payday lenders in the U.S., Vietnamese repay the loans by allowing the lender to lay early claim to a piece of their next paycheck.
Too much credit card use can be risky
They take out these micro-loans using a smartphone app, just one of the many ways financial technology is evolving in Vietnam. But the changes could create a mismatch between FinTech – financial technology – and state oversight.
“A lot of things the government do is right, [like] how to protect the consumer,” said Nguyen Manh Tuong, executive vice chair and president of MoMo e-wallet. “The technology changes so fast that all the regulations [have] a big challenge to catch up. I think we can learn the way China [has a] more modern, advanced FinTech sector, more sandboxes.”
He was referring to regulatory sandboxes, which allow startups to experiment with new ideas with limited legal liability.
Countries must communicate
The challenges go beyond Vietnam, according to Nguyen Huynh Phuong Thao, a certified accountant with the Ho Chi Minh City bar association. She said it’s time for global cooperation to regulate all the new ways people are handling and using money.
“When it comes to transactions involving technology, they have a cross-border nature, and so dialogue among countries is needed,” she said. “Countries need to figure out a way to work hand in hand to come up with consistent regulations.”
Read More Vietnam Finds New Ways to Spend, and Pile up Debt : http://bit.ly/2RfiS0N
Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission and resume commercial whaling in July. Wednesday's announcement was met with opposition from animal rights groups, who say that Tokyo is violating international law. Japan says whaling will only be in its own waters and exclusive economic zone. Arash Arabasadi reports.
Read More Japan to Leave International Whaling Commission; Resume Commercial Whaling : http://bit.ly/2Aj58IC
Myanmar youth activist and television host Thinzar Shun Lei Yi would once have called herself one of Aung San Suu Kyi's greatest fans. Now, she is one of her most vocal critics.
The 27-year-old belongs to a small but high-profile group of liberal activists, many former die-hard Suu Kyi supporters, who are growing increasingly disillusioned with the administration they voted into power with sky-high hopes three years ago.
"I lost my idol, I'm confused, frustrated and lost," said Thinzar Shun Lei Yi, who hosts an 'Under 30' talk show on a popular local website.
"Most of the activists and youths are now thinking: 'What is next', 'What will happen?', 'What can we do?' At this stage, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is going her own way and nobody can intervene, and she won't listen to civil society organizations," she said, using the honorific for women in Myanmar.
While Suu Kyi continues to inspire devotion among many ordinary Burmese, the emergence of a dissenting youth movement – driven by anger over her handling of ethnic minorities, including the Muslim Rohingya, as well as curbs on the media and civil society – presents a new challenge for her administration.
At stake is the future of Myanmar's transition towards democracy after years of military rule. With a general election looming in 2020, the country's first civilian government in decades is confronted by growing divisions among activists who once coalesced around her National League for Democracy party.
NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said the party was trying to win over young people, increasing the budget for education and supporting vocational training programs.
"The youth and the people expected a lot from our government," he said. "We couldn't live up to their expectations, we admit. But we are doing our best."
Suu Kyi took power in 2016 after a landslide election win, vowing to continue democratic reforms and end the country's long-running civil wars.
Since then, the administration has come under pressure over its response to a military crackdown against the Rohingya minority that the United Nations has described as "ethnic cleansing" with "genocidal intent", as well as faltering peace talks with ethnic armed groups and a stagnating economy.
Free speech
Activists say the civilian government has also become increasingly authoritarian, failing to use its overwhelming parliamentary majority to scrap colonial-era laws used to stifle dissent, while tightening restrictions on civil society.
In recent months, they have staged several protests, including an anti-war march in the commercial capital of Yangon in May that ended in scuffles. A total of 17 people were charged with unlawful protest, including Thinzar Shun Lei Yi. Their trial is ongoing.
"Sensitive issues are banned, and protesters arrested and beaten," she said. "The National League of Democracy, the party using the name of democracy, must respect democracy and human rights.”
According to free speech organization Athan, which means 'Voice' in Burmese, 44 journalists and 142 activists have faced trial since the Suu Kyi government took power.
They include Reuters reporters Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who were sentenced to seven years in prison in September after being convicted of breaking the colonial era Official Secrets Act.
The journalists are appealing their conviction to the country's High Court, citing evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of a crime. Suu Kyi said in September their jailing had nothing to do with freedom of expression. The government says Myanmar's courts are independent.
Athan's founder, poet and activist Maung Saung Kha, was among the protesters charged alongside Thinzar Shun Lei Yi in May. Four months later, in September, they both helped organize another demonstration, this time for free speech.
Facing the crowd, Maung Saung Kha who is still an NLD member donned the orange shirt traditionally worn by his party's lawmakers and draped a green jacket resembling military garb over it. Armed with a copy of the state-run daily newspaper The Mirror, he began beating journalists gathered nearby.
"The government has failed to use its power to protect people's rights," he told Reuters.
Myo Nyunt, the party spokesman, said the government was cooperating with non-governmental organizations, but their activities needed to be examined case-by-case.
"If it is not related to security or not a divisive issue among ethnics, we accept them," he said. "We are going forward to democracy so we acknowledge the role of NGOs, but we have concerns that NGOs are being influenced by sponsors instead of being independent."
"Acknowledge Rohingya"
While she has no control over the military, Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for failing to defend the Rohingya, more than 730,000 of whom fled a sweeping army crackdown in western Rakhine state in 2017, according to U.N. agencies. The operation was launched in response to insurgent Rohingya attacks on security forces.
Myanmar denies almost all the allegations of atrocities made by refugees, saying the army was carrying out a legitimate campaign against terrorists.
While many among Myanmar's Buddhist majority revile the Rohingya, the young activists offer a rare sympathetic voice.
"We acknowledge Rohingya. We totally denounce the fact that they are referred to as 'Bengali'," said Maung Saung Kha, referring to a term commonly used in Myanmar to imply the Rohingya are interlopers from Bangladesh, despite a long history in the country.
"We haven't seen any acknowledgement or punishment for the things that happened," he said. "The refugees will not come backas long as these people think of them as less than humans, and that it is not a crime to kill them."
Khin Sandar, another young activist facing unlawful protest charges, spent months campaigning for the NLD ahead of the 2015 election but lost faith in Suu Kyi over her handling of the Rakhine crisis.
Her family was affected in a wave of communal violence in 2012, when not only Rohingya but members of the Kaman Muslim minority, who also face discrimination but unlike the Rohingya are considered Myanmar citizens, were driven from their homes.
They live in crowded internal displacement camps outside the Rakhine state capital Sittwe and are subjected to severe restrictions on movement.
In a speech after last year's violence, Suu Kyi said all residents of Rakhine "have access to education and healthcare services without discrimination."
"My own nephew and nieces are still living in the Sittwe camps and they don't have those rights," said Khin Sandar. "I was shocked. How can she say that in her speech?" Afterwards, she said, she quit her job as researcher for an NLD lawmaker.
While the youth activists represent only a small segment of Myanmar society they are increasingly influential in the grassroots activism scene, while their protests and public comments have attracted significant attention from media and from their vast social media followings.
Mostly in their 20s and 30s, they highlight the gulf between Myanmar's young population the median age is 27 and its aging leadership, comprised of mostly men in their 60s and 70s.
"Myanmar is a very conservative country, these young people especially from Yangon are now challenging that," said Myat Thu, a political analyst from the Yangon School of Political Science.
"In order to have a revolution of ideas, not many people need to know. They will spread it gradually."
Read More Lost Idol: New Wave of Myanmar Youth Activists Look Beyond Suu Kyi : http://bit.ly/2SilPdX
A Chinese court will try a Canadian citizen on drug charges on Saturday, a government-run news portal said, in a case that could further test already difficult relations between Beijing and Ottawa.
The two countries have sparred over the fate of two Canadian citizens detained in China on suspicion of endangering state security, and of Canada's arrest of a high-ranking Chinese executive at the request of the United States.
The high court in the northeastern province of Liaoning said on Wednesday a man it identified as Robert Lloyd Schellenberg would be tried on drugs smuggling charges in Dalian on Saturday.
A Dalian government news portal said late on Wednesday Schellenberg was a Canadian citizen and that this was an appeal hearing after he was found by an earlier ruling to have smuggled "an enormous amount of drugs" into China.
There was no immediate response from the Canadian government.
Drug offenses are routinely punished severely in China. China executed a Briton caught smuggling heroin in 2009, prompting a British outcry over what it said was the lack of any mental health assessment.
Canada has pressed for the release of the two Canadians who China detained earlier this month.
The two were detained after Canadian police arrested Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, on Dec. 1. Neither country has drawn a direct connection between the cases.
China has demanded Canada free Meng, who is fighting extradition to the United States.
Canada arrested Meng at the request of the United States, which is engaged in a trade war with China. Meng faces extradition to the United States to face fraud charges that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years jail for each charge.
Chinese police detained a well-known Marxist student activist at a top university on Wednesday, a witness said, for attempting to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Mao Zedong, whose legacy in China remains controversial.
A student eyewitness told AFP that Qiu Zhanxuan, the head of Peking University's Marxist society, was forced into a black car by seven or eight plain-clothes officers near the subway station outside the university's east gate.
Qiu was "screaming and resisting arrest," the student said, declining to be named due to the sensitive nature of the issue. "I heard him say I am Qiu Zhanxuan... I did not break the law. Why are you taking me away? What are you doing?"
The eyewitness said police showed their "public security department documents," when questioned by onlookers.
Peking University and the Ministry of Public Security did not respond to requests for comment.
Considered China's most prestigious university, Peking University has a history of student activism with its alumni playing a key role in the pro-democracy Tiananmen protests in 1989.
But campus activism has been quashed under President Xi Jinping.
In August, a police raid swept up student activists at several universities, beating some of them and confiscating their phones for supporting a labor rights movement.
The Jasic Workers Solidarity group rose to prominence this summer when student activists backed its efforts to form a workers' union at Jasic Technology, a welding machinery company in southern Guangdong province.
In April, Peking University faculty tried to silence another student, Yue Xin, who co-authored a petition demanding details of a sexual abuse case at the school.
"I believe it's ridiculous. Is there anything wrong with commemorating Mao?" the eyewitness, also a member of the campus Marxist society, said.
"The faculty has always prevented activities by the Marxist society... It's difficult to spread information, posts on online campus bulletin boards would be deleted and WeChat [messaging] accounts would be blocked... Information about the arrest was strictly blocked by the school."
The Communist party in recent years has tried to distance itself from the legacy of Mao. Once hailed as China's "great helmsman", there were no official events to mark his 125th birth anniversary Wednesday.
Despite Qiu's arrest, Marxist students from across Beijing gathered at an undisclosed location to organize a "flash-mob style event" Wednesday afternoon, a labor rights NGO worker in close contact with Marxist student groups told AFP.
Another group of students, who traveled to Mao's home village Shaoshan in central China's Hunan province, posted a video of them singing revolutionary songs on social media.
Chinese police locked down a courthouse on Wednesday at the start of the trial of a prominent rights lawyer who is accused of subverting state power and whose case has attracted widespread concern in Western capitals.
Wang Quanzhang, who took on sensitive cases of complaints of police torture and defended practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, went missing in August 2015 during a sweeping crackdown on rights activists.
Most cases from that summer, known as the 709 cases for the first day of detentions on July 9, 2015, have concluded. Wang, however, was incommunicado for more than 1,000 days.
An investigation said he had "for a long time been influenced by infiltrating anti-China forces" and had been trained by overseas groups and accepted their funding, according to a copy of the indictment seen by Reuters.
Police outside the court in the northern city of Tianjin told reporters they could not get near the building because it was a closed trial.
The indictment says Wang worked with Peter Dahlin, a Swedish rights worker who was detained in China for three weeks before being deported in 2016, and others to "train hostile forces," as well as actively providing investigative reports overseas.
It also says Wang had hyped up and distorted the facts in his online statements about the case of a policeman who killed a petitioner in Heilongjiang in 2014 and of "cults" that he had defended.
Dahlin, now in Madrid, said on Twitter they had kept all documentation dating back to 2009 "and will release anything needed to dispel that it constitutes subverting state power."
Calls to the court seeking comment went unanswered. The trial could last just a single day, although a verdict may not come immediately.
Western diplomats were expected to be outside the courthouse.
Wang's wife, Li Wenzu, says she has been unable to visit her husband since he went missing. She said seven lawyers she appointed to try to represent Wang had also been unable to visit him.
Li said in a statement sent to Reuters state security agents had followed her when she left her Beijing home and blocked off the six entrances to her compound.
She decided she would be unable to go to Tianjin after more than an hour spent trying to leave, she said.
It was not possible to reach the State Security Ministry for comment because it has no website or publicly available telephone number.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has strengthened efforts to quash dissent since coming to power six years ago, with hundreds of rights lawyers and activists detained and dozens jailed.
China routinely rejects foreign criticism of its human rights record, saying all Chinese are treated equally in accordance with the law and that foreign countries have no right to interfere.
Japan is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whaling next year, a government spokesman said Wednesday, in a move expected to spark international criticism.
"We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year," top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
"Commercial whaling to be resumed from July next year will be limited to Japan's territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. We will not hunt in the Antarctic waters or in the southern hemisphere," Suga added.
The announcement had been widely expected and comes after Japan failed in a bid earlier this year to convince the IWC to allow it to resume commercial whaling.
Tokyo has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the body, and has been regularly criticized for catching hundreds of whales a year for "scientific research" despite being a signatory to a moratorium on hunting the animals.
Suga said Japan would officially inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, which will mean the withdrawal comes into effect by June 30.
Leaving the IWC means Japanese whalers will be able to resume hunting in Japanese coastal waters of minke and other whales currently protected by the IWC.
But Japan will not be able to continue the so-called scientific research hunts in the Antarctic that has been exceptionally allowed as an IWC member under the Antarctic Treaty.
The withdrawal means Japan joins Iceland and Norway in openly defying the IWC's ban on commercial whale hunting.
It is certain to infuriate conservationists and anti-whaling countries such as Australia and New Zealand, and deepen the divide between anti- and pro-whaling countries.
Japan has hunted whales for centuries, and their meat was a key source of protein in the immediate post-World War II years when the country was desperately poor.
But consumption has declined significantly in recent decades, with much of the population saying they rarely or never eat whale meat.
More than 750,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled military attacks in Myanmar remain in Bangladesh camps as future repatriation and resettlement plans remain unclear. Steve Sandford reports on the challenges that lie ahead for the Rohingya in the coming year.
Read More Rohingya End Hard Year Still in Limbo : http://bit.ly/2Ri5XuX
Former Nissan Motor Co. executive Greg Kelly was released from jail in Japan Tuesday after a Tokyo court rejected prosecutors' request to continue to detain him.
The Tokyo District Court granted his release after setting bail at $636,000.
Kelly had been detained for 37 days after being arrested and charged with underreporting the pay of his boss, ousted Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, by $44 million.
Ghosn was also arrested along with Kelly on November 19 on suspicion of conspiring to understate Ghosn's pay. Ghosn remains in custody.
The charge is part of a wider effort by Japanese prosecutors and the auto company to show that Ghosn leveraged his position for personal gain.
The court set restrictions on Kelly's release. Kelly is prohibited from traveling outside Japan without the court's permission and from meeting with people linked to the case against him.
Shares on Japan's key stock exchange plummeted Tuesday, highlighting investor fears about political turmoil in Washington and this month's massive losses on Wall Street.
The Nikkei lost 1,000 points -- five percent of its value --to close Tuesday at 19,155.14, finishing under 20,000 points for the first time since September 2017. Tuesday's closing numbers are down 21 percent from its October high.
China's Shanghai index finished nearly one percent lower Tuesday.Markets in Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, the U.S. and Europe were all closed in observance of Christmas.
The losses on the Nikkei were a spillover from Monday's down day in the U.S., where the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all lost more than two percent, continuing this month's run of near-daily losses, putting U.S. markets on track for its worst December since 1931, during the height of the Great Depression.
The U.S. Christmas Eve selloff was triggered in part by President Donald Trump's Twitter attacks on the central bank, the Federal Reserve, and its chairman, Jerome Powell, for a recent decisions to raise interest rates, as well the partial shutdown of the U.S. government.Investors were also rattled by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's phone calls to the heads of the nation's six largest banks on Sunday to determine if they had enough capital on hand to continue operating normally.
Thailand’s legislature on Tuesday agreed to amend the country’s drug law to allow the licensed medical use of marijuana, as well as kratom, a locally grown plant traditionally used as a stimulant and painkiller.
Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to take such action, which is also under consideration in neighboring Malaysia. New Zealand’s government earlier this month enacted a law liberalizing the medical use of marijuana, which had previously been tightly restricted.
The Thai legislation passed its final reading at the National Legislative Assembly by a vote of 166-0 with 13 abstentions.
The changes, which become law when published in the Royal Gazette, legalize the production, import, export, possession and use of marijuana and kratom products for medical purposes.
Purveyors, producers and researchers will need licenses to handle the drugs, while end-users will need prescriptions.
Recreational use of the drugs remains illegal and subject to prison terms and fines commensurate with the quantities involved.
Public hearings showed overwhelming support for the measure.
The bill introducing the legislative changes had noted that recent studies have shown that marijuana extract has medicinal benefits, which has prompted “many countries around the world to ease their laws by enacting legal amendments to allow their citizens to legally use kratom and marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.”
It added that despite being classified as an illegal drug, many patients have used marijuana to treat their diseases.
At least five people were killed and 21 injured after a hijacked bus crashed into pedestrians in east China's Fujian province on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported.
A hijacker carrying a knife has been detained and is being investigated by local police, state television CGTN reported.
The incident happened at about 3:20 pm in the city of Longyan, the local Minxi Ribao newspaper reported. A policeman was among the five confirmed dead.
In a video posted by Duowei news, a Chinese media outlet based in the US, several injured people were lying on the street near a crashed bus, its front badly damaged.
It also showed police wrestling a person to the ground.
Blood could also be seen on the steps of the bus, which had been stopped in the middle of a road.
The hijacker had attacked a female passenger before taking control of the bus, Duowei reported.
The suspect has not been identified and Longyan public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
China has suffered a spate of similar incidents this year.
In late November, a car ploughed into a group of children crossing a street in front of an elementary school in the northeastern Liaoning province, killing five people and injuring at least 19.
The driver said he "chose his victims at random" and had reportedly been contemplating suicide due to domestic troubles before the tragedy occurred.
In October, three people were killed when a man fleeing after committing a stabbing drove into a crowd and attacked onlookers in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
The month before, a man ploughed a truck into a crowd in Hunan province and went on a rampage, attacking onlookers with knives and a shovel. Eleven died and 44 were injured.
Before Facebook, Vu Kim Chi thought something was lacking in her job, which is to promote the economy in and around Vietnam's famed Ha Long Bay. Posting updates to her department's website, or photocopying missives to send to constituents, she said, was mostly one-sided.
But after she set up an official Facebook page for Quang Ninh province, the conversations started to flow in both directions, between Chi and the local residents or businesses. That's why, when it comes to social media, she thinks more civil servants need to catch up with the rest of the country.
"Social media, especially the Facebook application, is really used a lot in Vietnam," said Chi, who is deputy head of the province's investment promotion and support office. "But for public agencies that use it as a tool to interact with people and businesses, it's still not necessarily used a lot."
Facebook on charm offensive
Even as governments around the world are demanding more accountability and transparency from Facebook, public officials in Vietnam are looking for more ways to use the website. And Facebook is happy to oblige.
The company is on something of a charm offensive in Vietnam, where it has roughly 42 million members, nearly half the country. Besides sending top officials to visit Vietnam last year, Facebook has been instructing small businesses on how to sell their products on the site, and now it is giving civil servants like Chi advice for engaging with the public.
The chance to win some good will in Vietnam comes at a time when pressures are piling up on Facebook both inside the country and abroad. Globally, it has been accused of complicity in plots to convince voters to vote for Brexit or for candidate Donald Trump, as well as in what the United Nations calls ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The company reportedly paid for research that could damage its critics' and competitors' reputations, as well as gave users' data to dozens of other firms without consent.
New cyber law
In Vietnam, the government told advertisers to boycott Facebook and other sites in response to users' postings that criticized the one-party state. Next month, the country will enact a cyber law requiring firms to store data domestically, which Facebook opposes.
But those troubles were not front and center at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City this month where a company representative gave bureaucrats tips on making a Facebook page.
"We have to understand and put more attention to the social aspect of the platform," said Noudhy Valdryno, who handles government outreach for Facebook. "That means you have to understand your followers, who are they, where do they live, what are their interests? Then you can formulate an accurate strategy to engage with your followers."
The workshop included suggestions for government officials, such as posting updates on Facebook at regular intervals, shooting videos vertically to retain the attention of mobile users, and encouraging conversations among followers on the page.
Tech companies welcome
The event was an example of how Vietnamese officials are open to working with the tech company. It is so ubiquitous in the Southeast Asian country that when Vietnamese people say "social media" they mean Facebook, and when asked what newspapers they read, they give the answer: Facebook.
"What we're talking about is effective use of technology in this day and age to achieve our goals," said Le Quoc Cuong, vice director of the Ho Chi Minh City department of information and communications. "What we're looking for is being effective, being engaging and enhancing cooperation between the government and the people."
Chi says more Facebook data would help her better engage with residents around Quang Ninh, a northeastern province that hugs the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Chinese border on another. She would like regular reports, perhaps every month, with information to help analyze the province's fan page, from key words to number of "likes." So as many people worldwide have begun to decry tech companies for abusing and cashing in on users' data, there are those who still continue to see untapped potential in gathering further data.
Read More Scandal-Plagued Facebook Goes on Charm Offensive in Vietnam : http://bit.ly/2EPreq2
A federal judge on Monday ordered North Korea to pay more than $500 million in a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died shortly after being released from that country.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell harshly condemned North Korea for “barbaric mistreatment” of Warmbier in agreeing with his family that the isolated nation should be held liable for his death last year. She awarded punitive damages and payments covering medical expenses, economic loss and pain and suffering to Fred and Cindy Warmbier, who alleged that their son had been held hostage and tortured.
Warmbier was a University of Virginia student who was visiting North Korea with a tour group when he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 on suspicion of stealing a propaganda poster. He died in June 2017, shortly after he returned to the U.S. in a coma and showing apparent signs of torture while in custody.
In holding the North Korean government liable, Howell accused the government of seizing Warmbier for “use as a pawn in that totalitarian state’s global shenanigans and face-off with the United States.”
“Before Otto traveled with a tour group on a five-day trip to North Korea, he was a healthy, athletic student of economics and business in his junior year at the University of Virginia, with ‘big dreams’ and both the smarts and people skills to make him his high school class salutatorian, homecoming king, and prom king,” the judge wrote. “He was blind, deaf, and brain dead when North Korea turned him over to U.S. government officials for his final trip home.”
The arrest and death of Warmbier came during a time of heightened tension between the U.S. and North Korea over the country’s nuclear weapons program. President Donald Trump held a first-of-its-kind summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018 and plans another next year.
The judgment may be mostly a symbolic victory since North Korea has yet to respond to any of the allegations in court and there’s no practical mechanism to force it do so. But the family may nonetheless be able to recoup damages through a Justice Department-administered fund for victims of state-sponsored acts of terrorism, and may look to seize other assets held by the country outside of North Korea.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier, who are from a suburb of Cincinnati, said they were thankful the court found the government of Kim Jong Un “legally and morally” responsible for their son’s death.
“We put ourselves and our family through the ordeal of a lawsuit and public trial because we promised Otto that we will never rest until we have justice for him,” they said in a statement. “Today’s thoughtful opinion by Chief Judge Howell is a significant step on our journey.”
The lawsuit, filed in April, describes in horrific detail the physical abuse Warmbier endured in North Korean custody.
When his parents boarded a plane to see him upon arrival in the U.S., they were “stunned to see his condition,” court documents say.
The 22-year-old was blind and deaf, his arms were curled and mangled and he was jerking violently and howling, completely unresponsive to his family’s attempts to comfort him. His once straight teeth were misaligned, and he had an unexplained scarred on his foot. An expert said in court papers that the injuries suggested he had been tortured with electric shock.
A neurologist later concluded that the college student suffered brain damage, probably from a loss of blood flow to the brain for five to 20 minutes.
North Korea has denied that Warmbier was tortured and has said he contracted botulism in custody, though medical experts said there was no evidence of that.
The complaint also said Warmbier was pressed to make a televised confession, then convicted of subversion after a short trial. He was denied communication with his family. In June 2017, his parents were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.
Though foreign nations are generally immune from being sued in U.S. courts, Howell cited several exceptions that she said allowed the case to move forward and for her to hold North Korea liable. Those include the fact that North Korea has been designated by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, that the Warmbiers are U.S. citizens and that North Koreans’ conduct amounts to torture and hostage taking.
The penalty awarded by Howell to the Warmbiers and to Otto Warmbier’s estate includes punitive damages as well as damages for economic losses, pain and suffering and medical expenses.
The lawsuit was brought on the Warmbiers’ behalf by Richard Cullen, a prominent Virginia lawyer and former U.S. attorney. He told The Associated Press that while “nothing will ever bring Otto back to the Warmbiers or erase their memories of his horrid last 18 months,” the judge’s order was “very good news for his family and friends.”
Read More US Judge Orders North Korea to Pay $500M in Student’s Death : http://bit.ly/2Rld99O
China's legislature is considering a law to ban local governments from forcing foreign companies to hand over technology, an issue that helped to spark Washington's tariff war with Beijing.
Beijing has long denied companies are required to trade technology for market access. But officials including Premier Li Keqiang promised this year to crack down as tensions with Washington heated up.
The official Xinhua News Agency said a proposed foreign investment law taken up Sunday by the national legislature would make clear officials cannot "force the transfer of technology" as a condition of business ventures.
Washington and Beijing have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each other's goods in a dispute over American complaints China's industry plans are based on theft of technology and violate its market-opening obligations.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Vietnam twice this year and suggested in October stronger relations as China bears down on Vietnamese maritime claims. In the Philippines a month later, Mattis swore to uphold a decades-old military alliance that helps Manila resist China. A U.S. naval ship passes through the South China Sea every couple of months or so as support for keeping the resource-rich waterway open, not just for Chinese use.
Moments like these raised Southeast Asia’s confidence in U.S. support after some nervousness when President Donald Trump took office in 2017. Mattis will quit January 1, in turn shaking that confidence.
Beijing has drilled for oil, built up islands or passed ships in South China Sea waters claimed as well by Vietnam, the Philippines and three other Asian governments. Weaker than China, the Southeast Asian states hoped the United States would help. Mattis advocated close relations with allies to resist authoritarian states.
“I suspect many leaders, be they in Southeast Asia or elsewhere, will just roll their eyes and think, ‘here we go again’” after Mattis leaves, said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. “Mattis is different, as he…holds such a critical life-and-death cabinet post and is a firm believer in America's alliances, as evidenced in his resignation letter to Trump.”
The U.S. Asia alliance spans democracies from Japan through South Korea and Taiwan into Southeast Asia. Many of those countries are trying to pare back the influence of China.
Sudden resignation
“It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model — gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions — to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies,” the 68-year-old ex-Marine Corps general wrote in his resignation letter to Trump.
“That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense,” the December 20 letter says.
Asian leaders found “reliability” in Mattis’s ties with Asia, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. The defense secretary made a particular impression by attending the Shangri-la Dialogue twice, telling Asia’s major annual defense summit in 2018 that the U.S. government would help its “partners” improve protection of their maritime interests.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan dispute Chinese expansion in the resource-rich South China Sea. Taiwan and Japan vie with Beijing separately over control of the East China Sea.
“He played a sort of force of reliability because at least as defense chief he did what he said and then when he made contact with every other country he was steady, giving them a sense of reliability, so other people’s trust in the United States won’t fall so fast,” Huang said.
Mattis quit a day after Trump announced the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, a move opposed by the defense department. European allies France, Sweden and the U.K. have already voiced concern about the resignation.
Among countries that claim the South China Sea, Vietnam will probably “miss” Mattis the most, King said. Vietnam has stood firmest against Beijing, he said, while other Asian maritime claimants look to the United States for security but to China for economic support.
Wait-and-watch phase
The U.S. withdrawal from Syria could show that Trump and his eventual new defense chief will later isolate Washington from its Asian allies, King said. China, he said, “would fill the vacuum.”
For the short term, expect leaders in Asia to wait nervously again as they did after Trump’s inauguration, analysts suggest.
“President Trump is playing demolition derby with his own cabinet and he's going to be distracted and this is not the time to mount any significant foreign policy initiatives,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
“If there’s any more restrained member of Trump’s cabinet left, now is not that time, because a whimsical management team would pull the rug from under their feet at any time,” he said. “So I think things will remain static.”
Trump will probably look for a new defense chief “who will listen to him,” Huang said.
Trump has said he would appoint Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan as acting secretary on January 1 to replace Mattis.
Read More US Defense Chief’s Resignation Stirs Doubts in Asia about Help Resisting China : http://bit.ly/2BFzdlDIt is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations o...
