How far is North Korea from being able to hit the U.S. with a nuke?

How far is North Korea from being able to hit the U.S. with a nuke?:


North Korea is shaking its fist at the world yet again this week.

Pyongyang is angry at the United Nations for toughening sanctions as punishment for the Hermit Kingdom's launching a long-range missile to carry a satellite into orbit in December. And on Friday, North Korea threatened to attack its democratic neighbor, South Korea, if it goes along with the measures approved by the U.N. Security Council. Also this week, North Korea vowed to test a nuclear device and fire more test missiles toward the U.S., which it called the "sworn enemy" of the Korean people. Such saber rattling is nothing new...

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Labor Standoff at Angkor Temple

Labor Standoff at Angkor Temple:


Cambodian authorities have barred 170 workers involved in restoration work on a temple in the world-renowned Angkor historical site from entering the complex after they threatened to strike over planned job cuts, union members said.

The workers, who were restoring the Ta Phrom temple ruins, one of the country’s tourist treasures, were prevented by police from entering the site when they showed up to work on Thursday morning, workers’ union leader El Saratt said.

They had protested a decision by Indian and Cambodian managers of the preservation project to fire 30 workers and threatened to go on strike unless the jobs were saved.

“We told the project manager that they can’t fire the 30 workers, and if they want to fire them then they will have to fire all the workers,” El Saratt told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“We urge the project to reinstate the workers,” he said, adding that the managers have also refused to pay compensation for the workers upon termination.

On Wednesday, the union filed a complaint to Cambodian Ministry of Labor, which has sent the case to an arbitration council.

'Discriminating against the union'

Ta Phrom, known as the “Tomb Raider” temple for the Hollywood movie filmed among its atmospheric ruin, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is part of the Angkor Archaeological Park that draws millions of global visitors each year.

Archaeological restoration and preservation in the park is run by the domestic Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (Apsara) in cooperation with the Archaeological Survey of India, an Indian government institution.

In December, the union had requested ASI and Apsara to give holiday pay and annual wage increases.
Project managers refused to respond to the request, and seven workers were fired shortly afterward.
Deputy union leader Uy Koy said the restoration managers were unhappy with the workers’ unionizing and threatening to strike.

“The project manager doesn’t like the union and they are discriminating against the union,” he said, warning that all the workers would stop coming to work if the union’s request to keep the jobs isn’t honored.

“We don’t want them to use any workers [if they won’t keep the 30 fired workers] because if we don’t have jobs, we don’t have any income.”

Ta Phrom restoration workers discuss their dispute, Jan 2013. Credit: RFA.

Work winding down

Devendra Singh Sood, ASI archaeological engineer and head of the Ta Phrom project, refused to comment on the case when contacted by RFA, saying that only officials at the Indian Embassy and in the Cambodian government had the authority to resolve the dispute.

Provincial Labor Department Director Chan Sokhomchenda said he had asked officials at the Indian Embassy not to allow the workers to be let go.

He said restoration work at the temple was winding down and fewer workers were needed.
Cambodian rights group ADHOC urged ASI and Apsara’s Ta Phrom project managers to negotiate with the workers.

The group’s Siem Reap provincial coordinator Sous Narin said he had asked the Indian Embassy to organize shifts so that all the workers could keep their jobs.

“I have informed the embassy about the labor law,” he said.

Tourism is a key pillar of Cambodia’s economy and the ruins at Angkor, former capital of the Khmer kingdom, are the country’s star attraction.

The Angkor area reeled in 2.06 million foreign tourists last year, with the most coming from South Korea, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Thailand, according to a recent report by the Siem Reap provincial tourism department.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Presidential Inbox: Integrating Global Health Into the Pivot Strategy

Presidential Inbox: Integrating Global Health Into the Pivot Strategy:

Mr. President, as you begin your second term, you and your Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping both face the challenge of building a mature and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship.  There is no need to belabor the strategic importance of the Sino-American relations for the United States.  Indeed, one may argue that it is precisely the strategic dynamics driven by China’s rise that led to your critical decision to pivot to Asia.

While we are told that a critical element of the U.S. pivot strategy is to nurture partnerships to address important common challenges, our rebalancing efforts thus far have focused almost solely on security and trade.  They are certainly crucial in promoting U.S. economic growth and regional stability, but our relationship with China and other Asian countries has become so multifaceted and complex that other issues, like health and the environment, challenge us to promote jointly the welfare of people in the Asia-Pacific region, which still accounts for a majority of the global disease burden.  As a result of the epidemiological transition, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes are increasingly becoming the dominant cause of mortality.  China, which has surpassed India to become the world’s diabetes capital, also accounts for 20 percent of the world’s total cancer-caused deaths.  By increasing individual and household impoverishment and hindering socioeconomic development, the non-communicable diseases are a major cause of poverty and an urgent development challenge in the region.

In addition to the rising threat of non-communicable diseases, the Asia-Pacific region also faces growing health security threats.  With extensive animal trade and cross-border human movement, the region remains a center of global concern for the emergence of pandemic influenza or a SARS-type novel, zoonotic respiratory virus.  The lowered barriers to entry and reduced costs of bioengineering only increase the risks of accidental or intentional release of dangerous pathogens. In addition, there has been an increase in drug-resistant infections (e.g., artemisinin-resistant malaria and drug-resistant tuberculosis) and vector-borne diseases including dengue and Japanese encephalitis. These infectious diseases threaten U.S. military forces in the region, disturb international trade and travel, and even undermine regional stability.  As you and Senator Lugar wrote in a 2005 New York Times op-ed, a major disease “outbreak could cause millions of deaths, destabilize Southeast Asia…and threaten the security of governments around the world.”  Your concern was recently echoed by Mr. Xi Jinping, who said, “at present, world health problems are in close relationship with international issues, including politics, economy and social development, and have an impact on international relations and foreign policies.”

Building an enhanced global health agenda into the pivot strategy would contribute to a win-win outcome, which is precisely what Beijing hopes to achieve in what it calls a “new major country relationship.” As a Chinese scholar said, the ability to achieve such a relationship depends, among others, on how the two countries “develop their potential” for win-win cooperation.  Health is an area that is politically neutral and about which each side feels strongly.  Indeed, demographic and epidemiological transition and China’s move toward universal health coverage not only generated huge demand for more and better healthcare, but also ushered in forces supporting private and overseas investment in a sector that is traditionally monopolized by government actors.  Given the U.S. comparative advantage in pharmaceutical-related research and development as well as healthcare management and service quality, health system transition in China  would generate more business opportunities for U.S. companies and contribute to the narrowing trade deficit with China.  Equally important, tackling a common health challenge helps countries in the region build trust and reduce tensions around more contentious policy issues such as territorial dispute.  While substantial cooperation over health may provide Beijing an additional reason to focus more on domestic welfare and internal transition, improved U.S.-China relations contributes to regional security, which helps strengthen the United States’ position in the region.

In your first term, Mr. President, your administration was active in conducting health diplomacy by proposing a set of innovative guiding principles and objectives as well as launching new initiatives.  While the results of these programs were mixed, the inclusion of an enhanced global health agenda within the pivot strategy would serve to strengthen your leadership in this area and the administration’s ability to effectively handle health diplomacy.  When integrated into the pivot strategy, such an agenda would include:

1. Actively engaging China’s healthcare sector.  While promoting opportunities for U.S. biopharmaceutical firms, hospital groups, and insurance companies to do business with China, we should also demonstrate our willingness to work with China to address issues of immediate concern to the Chinese people, including their ability to access effective and affordable medicines.
2. Increase U.S.-China military-to-military exchange on health issues, including humanitarian assistance and disease surveillance.  A working relationship, for example, could be established between Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and the Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
3. Jointly launch several major initiatives aimed at strengthening the health system in the region.  Potential areas of cooperation include control of artemisinin-resistant malaria, dual-use research dilemma, and prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.  Doing so is in both countries’ enlightened self-interest because it not only contributes to regional security and development but also allows each side to benefit from improved soft power status.
4. Continue to encourage Beijing to shoulder more global health responsibilities while exploring with it the best practices and institutional requirements of development assistance for heath.

Mr. President, since Beijing is not used to making any major initiatives on the global health front, you should feel free to raise these issues with Mr. Xi at the next summit.  Once you both reach an understanding on these issues, the Strategic & Economic Dialogue would be an ideal venue for moving this agenda forward.  Depending on the issue areas, several government working groups can be established, including officials from the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Health and Human Services, Defense Department, and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, and the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health, the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PLA General Logistics in China.
Forty years ago, when the first batch of American health workers were allowed to visit China, Milo Leavitt, then director of the Fogarty International Center, noted in Medicine and Public Health in the People’s Republic of China that “for those who believe that the universal desire for health and relief from disease and suffering may be the strongest key to peace and international cooperation, it is significant and heartening to observe that physicians were among the first groups granted permission to visit the People’s Republic of China.” If cooperation over health contributed to the opening of China in the early 1970s, now it can and should play a much larger role in building strategic trust and contributing to the success of your pivot strategy.  We look forward to your leadership in shaping this global health agenda.

Western Bloggers Use Google Maps To Expose North Korean Prison Camps

Western Bloggers Use Google Maps To Expose North Korean Prison Camps:

Melissa Block talks to Curtis Melvin, editor of the North Korean Economy Watch blog, about using Google Earth satellite images to identify the locations of North Korean prisons.

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Shandong Evictee Sets Fire to Self

Shandong Evictee Sets Fire to Self:


A man protesting forced eviction from his home in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong set himself on fire on Friday in front of government advisors during a parliamentary meeting, his relatives said.

Tan Shuguang, an evictee from Wenshang county, poured gasoline over himself and set fire to it outside the Shandong Towers building in Jining city, as delegates to the local Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were emerging from the opening session, his brother said.

The flames were doused quickly and he was taken to a hospital in Jining but latest reports said that he had been taken away from the hospital by local ruling Chinese Communist Party officials.

Tan Hongguang said his brother had called their father at around 10:40 a.m. to say he was about to light the gasoline.

"He told our father that none of the delegates cared about our problems, and that they were just dodging and avoiding him," he said.

"The police and the security guards extinguished the flames quite quickly."

Tan said his brother had once previously tried to commit suicide.

"The doctors said his legs were very badly burned, but they didn't say anything about other injuries," he added.

Tan Shuguang was taken to the Jilu Hospital in Jining by officials from his home county of Wenshang.

However, his relatives said his whereabouts were unknown on Friday afternoon.

"He was admitted at about noon and was discharged at 1:30 p.m.," an employee who answered the phone at the hospital said. "According to our records, he is no longer here, but I don't know who took him away."

The employee said Tan Shuguang's condition was unlikely to have been critical, or "he would definitely not have been allowed to leave."

Taken by officials

According to Tan Hongguang, his brother had already been taken away from the hospital by officials from the family's hometown by the time the family arrived at the hospital.

"Maybe they were afraid he would give interviews to the media," he said. "We are in [the provincial capital] Jinan looking for him right now, but we can't find him."

"We called the [ruling Chinese Communist] Party secretary of our township, and he wouldn't admit it at first, but then he did admit [they had him] and told us to come and meet them, but we didn't want to do that," Tan Hongguang said.

"The moment we meet up with them, they will detain us illegally, because they're afraid we'll speak to the foreign media," he added.

An official who answered that phone at the Wenshang county government offices on Friday confirmed the self-immolation had taken place.

"We know about this incident," the official said. "But we don't know where he has been taken to."

But he added: "Our leaders know where he is. This is just the office, so we don't know the details."

Asked if the local government was astir over Tan's protest, he replied: "Yes, that's right."

Years of petitioning

Tan began petitioning the authorities for compensation after his family home was forcibly demolished three years ago. He tried to commit suicide by poisoning himself in Beijing last June after a trip to petition the central government proved unsuccessful, his relatives said.

Shortly afterwards, his father, Tan Jikui, was sent to labor camp, but sent home again after being diagnosed with cancer.

Tan Hongguang said the family was simply asking for the amount of compensation stipulated in the regulations on forced eviction.

"We just want compensation for the 60-some square meters (646 square feet) of our home, and the land it was built on," he said. "They also fired me from my job at a state-run coal mine, and I want it back. These are our three demands."

"Our township Party secretary said he wouldn't do anything because our case hadn't led to loss of life," he said. "My brother really took this to heart."

Violent forced evictions, often resulting in deaths and injuries, are continuing to rise in China, as cash-strapped local governments team up with development companies to grab property in a bid to boost revenue, according to a recent report by rights group Amnesty International.

Amnesty International collected reports of 41 cases of self-immolation from 2009 to 2011 alone due to forced evictions. That compares to fewer than 10 cases reported in the entire previous decade.

Nearly half of all rural residents have had land forcibly taken from them, with the number of cases on the rise, according to a 2011 study by the Landesa Rural Development Institute.

Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Thailand’s Lèse Majesté Law Descends Further

Thailand’s Lèse Majesté Law Descends Further:

Yesterday the prominent Thai editor and activist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was sentenced to ten years in jail for publishing articles allegedly offensive to the Thai monarchy, under the draconian lèse majesté laws Thailand has in force. Bangkok-based blogger Saksith Saiyasombut has a fine overview of the scene in the courtroom as the judges read out their verdict, to the protests of several hundred observers, including other rights activists.

There has been extensive media coverage, both inside Thailand and in the global press, of this case, and yet the defendant was given a jail term considered harsh even by the ridiculous standards of the lèse majesté law, which allows anyone—not just the monarch —to file lèse majesté charges against anyone else, and so has turned into the most potent political weapon to use in Thailand today. The fact that all of this international coverage, and observers, made no difference shows how thoroughly Thailand has departed from international norms on freedom of expression, and how little the lèse majesté witch-hunt has changed under the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, despite many Thais’ hopes that the political environment would cool off, at least for a time.

Things We Love About Japan

Things We Love About Japan

I often have my first taste of Japan before takeoff from the States, when the entire cabin crew aboard the ANA or JAL flight bows in unison before the safety announcements. This collective gesture of welcome and appreciation is repeated everywhere: from the attendants putting you on the limousine bus at the airport to the staff of theryokan (inn) as you check out.

What's Up Down Under?

What's Up Down Under?:

Editor's note: More than ever, Cruise Critic is keeping an eye on changes in cruising that affect its increasingly devoted Australia- and New Zealand-based members. Carnival is the first North American-based line this year to create some excitement in the world's top-two countries when it comes to massive growth in interest in this kind of travel. And we're excited, too, about the arrival of Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, Celebrity Solstice and Holland America's Oosterdam -- all new classes for anyone cruising Down Under. We look forward to hearing more interpretations about Aussification.

Chinese Officials Fired Over Sex Scandal

Chinese Officials Fired Over Sex Scandal: The state news media reported details of a sex extortion ring in Chongqing that has led to the dismissals of at least 11 officials of the Communist Party, government or state-owned companies.

Envoy delivers Abe's good wishes letter

Envoy delivers Abe's good wishes letter:

CHINESE leader Xi Jinping received a letter from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday from a senior Japanese envoy in what was the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over the Diaoyu Islands.

The letter sent wishes of good health, spoke of the two countries' "shared responsibility for peace and prosperity" in the region and said that yesterday's meeting was a "valuable opportunity to share views."
Xi's meeting with senior lawmaker Natsuo Yamaguchi in Beijing's Great Hall of the People followed four months of rising friction that included mass protests in China and the scrambling of fighter jets by both countries.

Yamaguchi is leader of the New Komeito party, the smaller party in Abe's ruling coalition, but not a member of the government.

Since the dispute began, both sides have called for dialogue to avoid an armed confrontation, though Japan has rejected China's demand that it acknowledge a sovereignty dispute.

For Chinese, the dispute has reawakened bitter memories of Japan's conquest of Chinese territory beginning in 1895 and its brutal World War II occupation of much of the country.

Japan may shutter world’s largest nuclear plant over earthquake threat

Japan may shutter world’s largest nuclear plant over earthquake threat:
The world’s largest nuclear power plant may be forced to shut down under stricter rules proposed by Japan’s new nuclear watchdog. The measures are intended to safeguard against future natural disasters following the...
Read Full Article at RT.com

Could a Third North Korea Nuclear Test Strain U.S.-South Korea Coordination?

Could a Third North Korea Nuclear Test Strain U.S.-South Korea Coordination?:

By Nicholas Hamisevicz

Earlier this week the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) finally responded to North Korea’s December 12^th rocket launch with a new resolution. Predictably, North Korea reacted angrily with statements, including one attributed to its National Defense Commission (NDC). The NDC statement specifically targeted the United States as a problem and as a threat to North Korea; moreover, it vowed that “a variety of satellites and long-range rockets will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a third nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.” North Korea has conducted nuclear tests in the past after being punished by UN resolutions for launching missiles. If the North Korean leadership tests another nuclear device, it might actually do more to separate U.S.-ROK coordination than the anticipated engagement of North Korea from the incoming Park Geun-hye administration.

This potential nuclear test could disrupt close U.S.-ROK coordination. In the event of a third North Korean nuclear test, the U.S. would have to respond, at least with another trip to the UNSC to maintain some credibility for UN resolutions and to demonstrate an international consensus against North Korea’s actions. Moreover, a successful nuclear test would move North Korea one step closer to being a direct threat to U.S. territory. Two years ago, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that North Korea would be able to hit the continental U.S. within five years with an intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea’s actions suggest they are trying to make that schedule a reality and become a direct threat to the U.S., not just to its troops, citizens, and interests in Asia. These factors could force the Obama administration to push for a firm response from its South Korean ally to the nuclear test rather than supporting its immediate direct outreach.

Even though support for engagement with North Korea inside the U.S. is quite low because of the difficulty in getting a quicker turnaround on a resolution condemning the North Korean rocket launch, the April rocket launch that scuttled the February 29 agreement between the U.S. and North Korea, and North Korean missile and nuclear tests in 2009 that welcomed an incoming President Obama open to engagement, it could still be possible. In President Obama’s second inaugural address he stated that “engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.” Additionally, his likely incoming Secretary of State John Kerry has been perceived as more open to dialogue. Lastly, the U.S. wants to be supportive of South Korea in inter-Korean relations, and would probably look for ways to demonstrate its support for the South Korean government’s engagement efforts. In some ways, a second Obama administration and the more cautious approach to engagement described by the Park Geun-hye team was seen as the best possible combination for maintaining strong U.S.-South Korea relations through difficult early challenges. Thus, the often worrisome divergence in the engagement and containment approaches by the U.S. and South Korea that have caused separation in U.S.-Korea relations in the past could be minimized. But those small possibilities for support and engagement shrink considerably if North Korea tests a nuclear device.

A third nuclear test would put Park Geun-hye in an almost no win situation. If she immediately engages North Korea after a nuclear test, it could be seen as undermining her pledge to present a credible deterrence and seek commensurate actions from North Korea on denuclearization. This is especially the case in light of North Korea’s threat to attack South Korea if it takes part in new UN sanctions. If she pushes for tougher sanctions and doesn’t reach out to North Korea quickly, she could be seen as failing to live up to her campaign pledges and continuing the perceived hard-line policy of President Lee Myung-bak. Park campaigned on a new engagement with North Korea based on trust. A positive action from North Korea would help her argue that South Korea can benefit from engaging North Korea and convince the U.S. to support her policy, but a significant gesture hasn’t happened yet. A last resort for justifying an outreach gesture, especially if North Korea explodes a nuclear device before her inauguration, is to blame the test on President Lee’s perceived failure to engage North Korea.

But with such a direct reference to the U.S., could the Park administration convince President Obama and his team to support South Korea’s outreach to North Korea after a nuclear test? Exploding a nuclear device challenges the ability of the U.S.-Korea alliance’s leaders to coordinate potentially different policies toward North Korea aimed at convincing it not to provoke the U.S. and its neighbors. A third nuclear test could lead to a difference in approaches by Park and Obama administrations toward North Korea and could create that separation amongst allies that North Korea loves to exploit even further.

Nicholas Hamisevicz is the Director of Research and Academic Affairs for the Korea Economic Institute. The views represented here are his own.

Photo from the Secretary of Defense’s photo stream on flickr Creative Commons.

North Korea lashes out at the US and South. How big a threat?

North Korea lashes out at the US and South. How big a threat?:
Renewed threats from North Korea's regime have given rise to questions about how far the North Koreans will go in carrying them out.

Chongqing Journalist Freed Early

Chongqing Journalist Freed Early:
Authorities in the southwestern city of Chongqing have released from jail a top journalist jailed by ousted former city chief Bo Xilai.
Gao Yingpiao, who had written critically of Bo's policies and was sentenced secretly to three years' imprisonment by a Chongqing court in 2010 for "endangering state security," was released on Sunday, his wife Li Danxin said.
"He is out a bit early, and his health is OK," Li said in an interview on Friday.
She said the family was unsure of whether Gao's release was the result of Bo's removal from office on March 15 and subsequent investigation for graft and involvement in the murder of a British businessman.
"We can't say yet," said Li, who only announced Gao's prison sentence in public last April after Bo's removal from office. "We haven't really even adjusted yet, and we haven't talked about it yet."
Gao had already served more than 26 months of the jail term, which was likely the result of a series of blog posts he had made on the popular social media site QQ during 2009 that were highly critical of Bo's high-profile, populist policies.
Lawyers involved in anti-crime campaigns in Chongqing during Bo's tenure have likened his policies to the "struggle" campaigns and kangaroo courts of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), alleging widespread framing of businessmen using torture and forced confessions, with the aim of confiscating their assets.
While the revolutionary song concerts and anti-crime campaigns won political plaudits for Bo at the time, the authorities have now offered an amnesty for police officers who elicited forced confessions, if they cooperate with current investigations into abuse of power in Chongqing.
Keeping quiet
Li said it was "inconvenient" for Gao to give media interviews, in an indication that keeping quiet may have been a condition of his release.
"He wants to thank everyone for their concern, but he apologizes that he won't be giving interviews because everything is still in the process of being sorted out, and his mother is sick," Li said.
"He will probably stay home for a while, because his mother is ill," she said. "He hasn't been able to take care of her these past couple of years, and he felt very guilty about that."
Li said she only found out Gao was being released on Saturday, and the authorities gave no detailed explanation for the move.
Gao, a graduate of the cutting-edge journalism department at Wuhan University in central China, worked as head of editorial at the Asia Pacific Economic Times and later as head of the newsroom at the China Commercial Times.
He first made his name during the 1980s with interviews of two high-ranking Chinese leaders.
Chongqing resident Fang Hong, who was sent to labor camp after writing a satirical poem online about Bo, said Gao's release was definitely linked to the fate of the former rising political star.
"Of course it's related," Fang said. "It's a way of admitting that this was a wrongful conviction."
He added: "It was ridiculous how easy it was to get sent to prison just for saying stuff back then."
Fang said a total of 5,800 people were sent to labor camp in Chongqing in 2011 alone, some for lodging complaints against the authorities, others for alleged gang involvement, and others for saying the wrong thing.
Fang said he was still awaiting judgement in his application for compensation from the authorities for his labor camp sentence.
Fallen political star
China's ruling Communist Party transferred Bo's case to the judiciary earlier this month, marking the beginning of criminal proceedings, although analysts said a trial is not expected soon.
Beijing-based rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said the authorities were keeping most of the details of Bo's case secret.
"They seem to feel there is a need for secrecy," Liu said in a recent interview. "It's possible that this case doesn't involve state secrets, but that they are still treating it as internal [to the Party]."
The Party expelled Bo from its ranks in October, following accusations of corruption and sexual misconduct, later also removing his parliamentary privilege and paving the way for a criminal trial.
Bo was judged to bear "major responsibility" in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, for which his wife Gu Kailai was handed a suspended death sentence on Aug. 20, official media reports said at the time.
His former right-hand man and Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun was jailed for 15 years in September for "bending the law for selfish ends," "abuse of power," and "defection," after his Feb. 6 visit to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu brought the murder scandal to public attention.

Reported by Wen Yuqing and Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Princess Cruises Dramatically Expands Japan Cruise Program in 2014

Princess Cruises Dramatically Expands Japan Cruise Program in 2014: SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (January 23, 2013) – Underscoring its commitment to the growing Japanese cruise market, Carnival Corporation & plc today detailed a substantially expanded 2014 Japan cruise program for the Princess Cruises brand, which brings a second ship to the market, features sailings from three homeports and plans to significantly expand the size of the cruise market in Japan to approximately 100,000 passengers.The Japan-built Diamond Princess will join Sun Princess for a cruise pr...