Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe left for a weeklong visit to South and Southeast Asia yesterday and said he plans to reshuffle his beleaguered government's Cabinet upon his return.
The three-nation trip aimed at strengthening bilateral ties comes less than a month after Abe's ruling bloc suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections following a series of gaffes and scandals involving key ministers.
Speaking to reporters at Tokyo's Haneda Airport before his departure, Abe said he was "basically thinking along the lines" of reshuffling his Cabinet and the leadership of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Aug. 27 -- moves he pledged to undertake in response to the electoral setback.
Abe's first stop is Jakarta, where he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to sign a free trade agreement. The deal will ensure oil and gas shipments to Japan and reduce most tariffs on trade between the countries, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
Abe heads to India tomorrow, where he is expected to discuss environmental issues with Indian President Pratibha Patil, as well as address parliament.
In Kuala Lumpur, Abe is set to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and call on the Malaysian king.
Also see stories:
India to seek pact approval during Abe visit
Bureaucrats in Japan celebrate Abe's dwindling power to reform
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS