Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday bowed to criticism of his brief tenure in office but lashed out at the opposition for boycotting key debates in parliament.
“I have faced a lot of criticism. I would like to accept the criticism sincerely and humbly,” Aso told reporters in Peru, where he was attending a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
Aso, who took office in September, most recently came under fire for criticizing the medical profession, saying that many doctors lacked basic common sense. He later apologized.
The outspoken conservative was also forced to retract remarks hinting at a review of privatization of the postal service — a key achievement of former reformist prime minister Junichiro Koizumi — as he had not consulted his party on the sensitive matter.
The Aso government’s approval rating has already plunged below 30 percent, emboldening the opposition, which is pushing him to call snap elections.
But Aso denounced the opposition, which controls one house of parliament, for refusing to begin debate on a bill to allow the government to inject public funds into small banks in the world’s second largest economy.
“How long does the opposition want to refuse to vote?” Aso asked. “The law on strengthening finances is significant. I’m sure the public will see a big impact if they go all the way with the opposition.”
He remained tight-lipped on elections, which must be called by September next year, saying: “I have not yet decided what should be the deciding factor.”
Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955 but has gone through four prime ministers in the past two years amid a string of scandals, a troubled economy and legislative deadlock.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS