Japan repatriates hostage crisis victims

Seven survivors and the bodies of nine Japanese slain in a hostage crisis in Algeria returned to Tokyo on a government plane Friday.
The 16 individuals worked for a Yokohama-based engineering company, JGC Corp. at a natural gas plant in the Sahara that was seized by al-Qaida-linked militants last week.
TV footage showed Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the airport tarmac placing flowers on caskets that had been unloaded from the airplane. He and other government and company officials bowed as the caskets were driven away.
Algeria says at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed during four-day standoff at the Ain Amenas plant.
A solemn-looking Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed “deep sorrow” at a morning news conference and said Japan strongly condemned the terrorist actions.
Late Thursday, Japan said it had found the body of a 10th Japanese worker who had been missing. Six non-Japanese employees of JGC also were killed.
JGC President Koichi Kawana, who had gone to Algeria after the crisis and returned on Friday morning’s flight, told a somber news conference the deaths were “extremely painful” for him. He and other company executives bowed to express their condolences.
Kawana said his staff believed that building energy plants contributed to the development of emerging economies such as Algeria. Because of the crisis, he said the company needs to think hard about how to continue to its work while ensuring the safety of their workers.
“This will become our top priority going forward,” he said.

 

Delhi lawmaker tells gun owners to protect women

Delhi’s lieutenant governor has called for gun owners to patrol the city streets and use their weapons to prevent crimes against women, local press reports, following the brutal gang rape of a student aboard a bus in Decem

 

Gun owners should roam the streets at night and use their weapons to prevent crimes against women, Delhi's lieutenant governor has said in the wake of the brutal gang rape and murder of a student in the capital, according to a report Saturday.
Tejendra Khanna, who heads the national capital's police department, on Friday urged gun-owning residents to put their weapons to "social service" and scare away potential molesters, The Indian Express said.
"Gun owners with licences must roam lonely spots like bus stands each night and if they spot someone harassing a woman, they should use their weapon to stop the crime," the federal administrator said in a speech.
"They can at least spend an hour or so every day with their friends in public after nightfall," Khanna said, according to the Indian Express.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party condemned Khanna's remarks, saying "citizens should not be advised to take their law into their own hands in any situation".
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey estimates India is home to 40 million civilian-owned firearms of an estimated 650 million worldwide. Just 6.3 million Indian arms are registered.
Khanna's remarks came as Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in a speech Friday said the December 16 attack on the student who died of massive internal injuries "has left our hearts empty and our minds in turmoil".
Police say rape cases in New Delhi jumped 23.4 percent to 706 in 2012 from a year earlier, highlighting rampant crime against women in the sprawling metropolis of 16 million people.

(AFP)

Chinese stage rare protest over censored newspaper

Hundreds of people gathered outside the offices of a liberal newspaper at the centre of a censorship row in Guangzhou on Monday, in a rare public protest for greater freedom of the press and one that is likely to challenge China’s new leadership.


A dispute over censorship at a Chinese newspaper known for edgy reporting evolved Monday into a political challenge for China’s new leadership as prominent scholars demanded a censor’s dismissal and hundreds of protesters called for democratic reforms.
The scholars and protesters were acting in support of the Southern Weekly in its confrontation with a top censor after the publication was forced to change a New Year’s editorial calling for political reform into a tribute praising the ruling Communist Party. Rumors circulated that at least one of the newspaper’s news departments was going on strike, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
Protesters, including middle school students and white-collar workers, gathered outside the offices of the newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou to lay flowers at the gate, hold signs and shout slogans calling for freedom of speech, political reform, constitutional governance and democracy.
“I feel that the ordinary people must awaken,” said one of the protesters, Yuan Fengchu, who was reached by phone. “The people are starting to realize that their rights have been taken away by the Communist Party and they are feeling that they are being constantly oppressed.”
Political expression in the public sphere is often viewed as risky in China, where the authoritarian government frequently harasses and even jails dissidents for pro-democracy calls.
Another protester, Guangzhou writer and activist Wu Wei, who goes by the pen name Ye Du, said the protest marked a rare instance in which people were making overt calls for political freedom since large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in a military crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
“In other cities, we’ve seen people march, but most of the time they are protesting environmental pollution or people’s livelihood issues,” Wu said. “Here they are asking for political rights, the right to protest. The Southern Weekly incident has provided an opportunity for citizens to voice their desires.”
The protest came as 18 Chinese academics signed an open letter calling for the dismissal of Tuo Zhen, a provincial propaganda minister blamed for the censorship. The scholars included legal professors, liberal economists, historians and writers.
Peking University law professor He Weifang, who was among the signers, said the newspaper’s good work needed to be defended from censorship.
“Southern Weekly is known as a newspaper that exposes the truth, but after Tuo Zhen arrived in Guangdong, he constantly pressured the paper. We need to let him know that he can’t do this,” He said. “This incident is a test to see if the new leadership is determined to push political reform.”
Six weeks ago, China installed a new generation of Communist Party leaders for the next five years, with current Vice President Xi Jinping at the helm. Some of Xi’s announcements for a trimmed-down style of leadership, with reduced waste and fewer unnecessary meetings, have raised hopes in some quarters that he might favor deeper reforms in the political system to mollify a public long frustrated by local corruption.
The Guangdong provincial propaganda department did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions. But the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that no Chinese media outlet should fool itself into thinking that it could occupy a “political special zone” in which it is free from government control.
“Regardless of whether these people are willing or unwilling, common sense says: In China’s current social political reality, there cannot be the kind of ‘free media’ that these people hope in their hearts for,” the editorial said.
China’s media in recent years have become increasingly freewheeling in some kinds of coverage, including lurid reports on celebrities and sports figures. Still, censorship of political issues remains tight – although government officials typically claim there is no censorship at all – and the restrictions have drawn increasingly vocal criticism from journalists and members of the public.

N Korea remains defiant on nuclear tests

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed “substantial and high-profile important measures” at a meeting with top security officials, state media said on Sunday, days after announcing a third nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.


North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures,” state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.
The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang’s defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.
Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea’s Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test - or face “significant action.”
North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.
It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.
Kim’s order for strong action and the recent series of strong statements indicate he intends to conduct a nuclear test in the near future to show “he is a young yet powerful leader both domestically and internationally,” said Chin Hee-gwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Inje University.
North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.
North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country’s nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.
However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.
Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.
South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.
Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.
Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kim could order a nuclear test ahead of the Feb. 16th birthday of his late father and former leader Kim Jong Il to “create a festive mood,” Chin predicted. Kim Jong Il died at age 69 in December 2011.
The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country’s international isolation.
After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has accused the U.S. and South Korea of leading the push for the U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sunday’s KCNA dispatch said the U.N. punishment indicates U.S. hostility toward North Korea has reached its highest point. North Korea also warned South Korea on Friday of “strong physical countermeasures” if Seoul takes part in the U.N. sanctions.

(Phillip Sherrod) North Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'

North Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'

Sky News – Sun, Dec 23, 2012

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• Enlarge PhotoNorth Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'

The long-range rocket fired by North Korea could have reached the US and eastern Europe, according to the South Korean defence ministry.

The launch was effectively the test of a ballistic missile capable of flying more than 10,000km (6,200) miles with a half-tonne payload, according to their scientists' analysis of the rocket's wreckage.
Its range covers the whole of Asia, eastern Europe, western Africa, Alaska and a large part of the US west coast including San Fransisco.
The estimates have been based on analysis of a container recovered from the rocket's first-stage splashdown site.
"Based on our analysis and simulation, the missile is capable of flying more than 10,000km with a warhead of 500-600 kilograms," a defence ministry official said.
However, without any debris from the second and third stages to analyse, the official said it could not be determined if the rocket had re-entry capability, which is a key element of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology.
North Korea maintains the launch of the Unha-3 was not a missile test but simply designed to put the country's first satellite in space.
However, most of the rest of the world saw the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test in contravention of the UN resolutions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
South Korea is now analysing further wreckage from the rocket, including a fuel tank, a combustion chamber and an engine connection rod.
"As additional pieces have been salvaged, we will be able to look deeper into the function and structure of North Korea's long-range rocket," said the defence ministry official.
The read-out from the South Koreans comes after North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un made his first explicit call for the advancement of his country's long-range rocket programme.
On Friday, he gathered his rocket scientists together for a banquet in Pyongyang to urge them to build more powerful rockets. (Phillip Sherrod)

(Phillip Sherrod) Shenzhen: police officer gets 14 years in prison for his pro-democracy activity

» 01/03/2013 14:30
CHINA
Shenzhen: police officer gets 14 years in prison for his pro-democracy activity
After eight months in jail without trial, Wang Dengchao, a police officer in favour of democratic reforms in China gets a harsh sentence after being convicted by a court in Luohu. Afraid that the military might join the people in the fight for freedom, the Communist party is using an iron fist against any form of unrest.


Beijing (AsiaNews) - Opposition to China's Communist regime is now developing within its security forces. The latter have the task of maintaining the existing system by any means, violence included. For example, a court in Luohu recently sentenced a Shenzhen policeman to 14 years in prison after convicting him for "embezzlement" and "disrupting official business". In reality, the officer, Wang Dengchao, wanted to take part in a rally for democratic reforms.

Arrested in March 2012, the 38-year-old Wang had been involved with pro-democracy groups and websites. Two days after he was taken into custody, he was set to take part in a rally in a Shenzhen park. Instead, he was held for eight months without trial and convicted on 26 November on trumped-up charges.

A university graduate, Wang had been involved in pro-democracy activity for some time. His arrest and harsh sentence confirm two important facts. First, even within the security forces people are disinclined to go along uncritically with the government's repression. Second, the regime's rulers are showing signs of fear so much so that they are willing to squash rapidly and violently any sign of disaffection within the police and the military.

Both outgoing President Hu Jintao and his successor Xi Jinping, who in March will be president, party general secretary and chairman of the military commission, have used the strongest terms to describe the security forces as the "only barrier against the forces that want to destroy China". (Phillip Sherrod)

(Phillip Sherrod) Pyongyang in the streets weeps for Kim Jong-il (and the failures of Kim Jong-un)

» 12/17/2012 14:51
NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang in the streets weeps for Kim Jong-il (and the failures of Kim Jong-un)
The regime requires the Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go to the embassy to bow to the funeral altar of the late "Beloved Leader". A statue erected of the former dictator as high as that of the father of the country, Kim Il-sung. A source: "The people cry because they lack food and homes, not for the death of the old man."


Seoul (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of thousands of people have paid tribute this morning to the memory of Kim Jong-il, the "Beloved Leader" of North Korea who died a year ago. After nine bows (the customary "kowtows" with which one pays tribute to a deceased person), the crowd gathered in the central square in Pyongyang wept openly and showed its desperation for the "death of the great hero of the revolution." However, as pointed out by several sources, "those present, and all North Koreans, cried also because of the failures of the regime."

The mourning lasted 3 days. The government in Pyongyang has also imposed on the North Koreans abroad "not to be seen in public" and to go instead to their country's embassies "to cry with all the great Korean people." In Dandong, China, the various merchants who come from Pyongyang have disappeared from the streets; in all the embassies there has been erected a memorial altar for the late dictator.

Instead, in the capital, a statue was erected of the "Beloved Leader" as high as that of his father, Kim Il-sung: a way to emphasize the "equal contribution" that the two have made to the "development" of the country. Making the comparison was the President of Parliament, Kim Young-nam, who spoke in the place of the new dictator Jong-un, "too emotional" to pronounce his speech.

Kim said "the whole life of Kim Jong-il has proven to be exceptional. His superhuman energy and his enormous revolutionary spirit have held high the red flag over our glorious nation, and his patriotic commitment have defended it against the enormous threats that surround it." The reference is to the nuclear missile program that Pyongyang continues to carry on despite the enormous cost in economic, human, social and diplomatic terms.

The launch of the Unha-3, the "weather" missile that has successfully reached the Earth's atmosphere, was celebrated as a success of the Kim family: every day since its launch last week, "spontaneous" demonstrations have been held to celebrate it. With the money spent to build and run it, the regime could have bought 5.8 million tonnes of maize, enough to feed 20 million people for 19 months.

A source pointed out: "In addition to the death of Jong-il, North Korea also commemorates a year since the new dictator has taken over. He had re-launched, after his father's funeral, the slogan of his grandfather, "will we feed the people with rice and meat soup". Well, in the past 12 months things have gotten worse for everyone: even the military has little to eat, while the government's ranks have been purged almost every month. That is why the North Koreans mourn, not for the death of the old Kim." (JYL)