JAPAN
Chinese planes fly close
Tokyo scrambled military jets yesterday to counter three Chinese military planes that flew near its airspace, defense officials said. One Y-8 information-gathering plane and two H-6 bombers flew over the East China Sea, traveling in international airspace between southern islands and went to the Pacific Ocean before returning toward China on the same route yesterday morning, a Joint Staff of the Ministry of Defense spokesman said. “They flew above public seas, and there was no violation of our airspace,” he said, declining to release more details about the incident.
SYRIA
Aid groups demand access
Nearly 130 organizations have called for immediate and permanent humanitarian access to civilians to help relieve the immense suffering caused by the country’s civil war. The 128 groups making the appeal include UN agencies and relief organizations from around the world. In a statement released yesterday, the groups urge all sides in the conflict “to listen to the voice of the international community as expressed unanimously through the Security Council.” The UN says more than 9 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance.
CHINA
Yunnan vice governor probed
A province vice governor is being investigated, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) internal disciplinary body announced yesterday, the latest high-ranking official to fall in a high-profile anti-graft campaign. Shen Peiping (沈培平), vice governor of Yunnan, was suspected of “serious disciplinary and legal violations,” the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a one-sentence statement on its Web site. The phrase is usually a euphemism for corruption, an issue which causes widespread public anger. Shen was born in Yunnan and has been vice governor of the province since last year, according to the provincial government Web site.
JAPAN
Tuna quota to be cut
Plans are underway to slash by half the amount of juvenile bluefin tuna taken from the Northern Pacific starting next year, compared to the 2002 to 2004 average, reports said yesterday. The Fisheries Agency has decided to increase protection for bluefin tuna amid international concerns about declining stocks, according to major media, including the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun. Studies have found bluefin tuna stocks, prized by sushi lovers, have fallen dramatically, with juveniles forming the majority of specimens now being caught, pushing the species closer to extinction. Last year, an international conference agreed to cut each nation’s quota for juvenile bluefin tuna this year by more than 15 percent from the 2002 to 2004 average, according to Kyodo News. The plan is aimed at encouraging other nations to adopt bigger cuts in their tuna catch quota, Kyodo said.
JAPAN
Anti-nuclear rally held
Banging on drums and waving “Sayonara nukes” signs, thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park and marched to parliament to demand an end to nuclear power ahead of the third anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster. The demonstration yesterday, planned across the country is one of many such protests that have erupted since the March 11, 2011, nuclear disaster. The government has expressed interest in restarting some of the country’s 48 idled reactors. Oil imports have soared since the disaster, hurting the economy.
IRAN
No guarantee of deal: Ashton
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton yesterday said there is “no guarantee” that talks with the country on its disputed nuclear program will lead to a comprehensive agreement. “This interim agreement is really important, but not as important as a comprehensive agreement [which is] ... difficult, challenging and there is no guarantee that we will succeed,” Ashton told a joint news conference in Tehran with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Javad Zarif. Negotiators are trying to reach a final accord in the coming months.
LEBANON
Domestic violence protested
Protesters took to the streets of Beirut on Saturday on International Women’s Day to demand better protection for women amid an uproar over husbands murdering their wives. The march by about 4,000 women, men and children from the National Museum to the Palace of Justice, was led by mothers and other relatives of women they said had been the victims of domestic violence. Urging parliament to adopt a bill that would set prison terms of up to 25 years with forced labor for men convicted of murdering a female relative, many women wept as they walked. The bill, which has languished after being approved by a parliamentary committee last year, would also create a specialized police agency to deal with abuse and permit women to seek civil damages in abuse cases. The country is viewed as one of the Middle East’s most liberal, but no law protects women from abuse or violence by their fathers, husbands or brothers. Women who do contact the police for help in domestic violence cases are often laughed at.
GERMANY
Tymoshenko treated in Berlin
Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has arrived in Berlin for medical treatment, a hospital official said on Saturday. The face of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004, who suffers from herniated discs, started medical examinations on Saturday morning, said Karl-Max Einhaupl, director of the Charite University Hospital, Berlin. “We have confidence that she will be able to walk freely again,” he said. Tymoshenko, 53, was freed from prison on Feb. 23, having served three years of a seven-year sentence for abuse of power, charges she always denied. Immediately after her release, she appeared in a wheelchair in Kiev’s Independence Square to address protesters in Ukraine’s capital. Tymoshenko also met with Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend on the sidelines of the European People’s Party congress in Dublin.
EGYPT
‘Arab Jon Stewart’ jammed
A Saudi-owned satellite network says the signal of its affiliate in the country was deliberately jammed while it aired the country’s top satirical program. Middle East Broadcasting Center spokesman Mazen Hayek on Saturday said that the network’s satellite carrier identified small satellite transmitters in two Cairo locations as the cause of the jamming during satirist Bassem Youssef’s show, called The Program in Arabic. Hayek said it was not possible to identify who was behind the jamming. He called the jamming of “a form of terrorism.” Youssef, often compared to US comedian Jon Stewart, has faced legal challenges over his skewering of politicians. A private TV station suspended his show last fall. The Saudi broadcaster began airing his show last month.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the