A laser light display of ghostly human forms by renowned French artist Laurent Francois was shown in fountains of the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul on Monday. Wally Santana/Associated Press
Monday, June 14, 2010
THE KOREAS: UN hears Korea warship testimony
The warship row has intensified tensions on the Korean peninsula
Page last updated at 01:25 GMT, Tuesday, 15 June 2010 02:25 UK
North and South Korea have presented their cases to the UN in a dispute over the sinking of a Southern warship.
Seoul asked the UN to take "timely and appropriate measures", blaming Pyongyang for March's sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.
But the North denied involvement and said it was the victim.
After hearing separate submissions from both sides, UN officials said they had "grave concern" over the issue and needed to debate it further.
"The Security Council makes a strong call to the parties to refrain from any act that could escalate tensions in the region," the council said in a statement.
The BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN headquarters in New York, says the South Koreans presented evidence, including a Powerpoint presentation, which they said showed their warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.
"We hope that on the basis of this finding the Security Council will take timely and appropriate measures against North Korea," said South Korean delegate Yoon Duk-yong.
UN diplomats said the North Koreans demanded an opportunity to visit the site of the explosion, and once again rejected South Korea's allegations as forgery and fraud.
"We are just a victim, we would like to make our position clear here, we will inform our position, concerning that issue," said Pak Tok-hun, the North's deputy UN ambassador.
Our correspondent says there is still no agreement on what to do.
Security Council members China - North Korea's strongest ally - and Russia have not yet commented on the investigation.
The warship row has left inter-Korean relations highly tense. Seoul has suspended inter-Korean trade and Pyongyang responded by cutting all ties.
JAPAN: Memo From Tokyo: After Parade of Prime Ministers, Japan Is Still Hoping for a Recovery
Left to right, top to bottom: Junichiro Koizumi in 2001; Shinzo Abe in 2006; Yasuo Fukuda in 2007; Taro Aso in 2008; Yukio Hatoyama in 2009; Naoto Kan in 2010; Chronological, Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images; David Guttenfelder/AP; Franck Robichon/EPA; Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg; Pool Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno; Issei Kato/Reuters
June 14, 2010
TOKYO — Just a week into office, Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, has already broken with politics as usual here by making unusually frank warnings about the nation’s growing social inequalities, unsustainable national debt and need for painful tax increases.
The question now is whether Mr. Kan, a plain-spoken former civic activist, can further defy precedent by lasting more than a year in office.
He seems off to a good start. Japan’s recession-weary voters have already embraced his tough talk, giving his governing Democratic Party a larger-than-expected bounce in the polls.
Political experts say a straight-talking prime minister is exactly what Japan wants, after years of ineffective leaders who seemed hopelessly out of touch with voters’ concerns and unable to restore a sense of direction to this rudderless nation.
What they want, many here say, is the next Junichiro Koizumi, who energized the public between 2001 and 2006 with his calls for Reagan-style economic deregulation and small government. His quirky charisma and willingness to defy entrenched interests made him the most popular prime minister in modern times, say experts, and changed Japan’s expectations for its leaders.
“Japan is starved for strong leadership,” said Satoshi Machidori, a politics professor at Kyoto University. “Voters understand they need someone to lead Japan out of its long stagnation.”
Yet despite Japan’s severe problems, its political system has given its people a string of short-lived, weak leaders. In the last four years, it has gone through four prime ministers in rapid succession, with Mr. Kan now the nation’s fifth new leader since 2006.
His immediate predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama, lasted just eight months. He was driven out by plunging approval ratings after breaking campaign promises and seeming to fritter away the Democrats’ historic election mandate.
Stretch the time frame back to 1990, the approximate beginning of Japan’s stubborn economic funk, and the ailing Asian economic giant has had 13 prime ministers come and go before Mr. Kan. Even Japanese political scientists feel hard pressed to name them all.
“We are competing with Italy to create forgettable leaders,” said Mayumi Itoh, the author of the book “The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations,” referring to the string of colorless leaders who preceded the current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr. Kan’s ability to fare better than his predecessors will largely depend on how well he grasps the reasons that drove them from office, Ms. Itoh and other experts say. And while experts cite a host of factors, from outmoded political parties to the emergence of an ingrown leadership class, most agree that the underlying problem seems to be a growing gap in expectations between the public and its political leaders.
What voters want, say political experts, is a leader who both understands their concerns and offers the vision and courage to point a way out. Too often, they have suffered instead with prime ministers who worry only about internal party politics, consensus-building and mollifying the nation’s many interest groups, experts say.
Most of Japan’s recent prime ministers have been second-, third- and even fourth-generation politicians who proved too far removed from average voters and were quick to quit when their approval ratings fell.
“Japan has gone through 20 years of economic stagnation, and there is a lot of pain out there, so voters are much more impatient for dramatic reform than politicians realize,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Japanese politics at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo.
Voters have responded to their tone-deaf leaders by rejecting each, often in striking style. Approval ratings for Mr. Hatoyama, who took office in September after the Democrats ended a half-century of virtual one-party rule, plummeted to the high teens from more than 70 percent, dragged down by his seemingly terminal indecisiveness.
Political experts say that Japanese voters might be more forgiving if Japan were somehow incapable of producing strong leaders, either for cultural reasons or because of the limited executive powers of the prime minister’s office, as some have argued. But in fact, the nation has produced numerous visionaries, going back to the samurai who put Meiji-period Japan on its march to industrialization in the late 19th century.
The most recent such leader was Mr. Koizumi. When members of his own party tried to block his plan to privatize the nation’s enormous postal savings system, he took his cause directly to the voters by calling a snap election, an act of political brinkmanship that few other Japanese prime ministers would dare. Mr. Koizumi and his supporters won that 2005 election by a landslide.
While Mr. Koizumi’s market-oriented agenda has fallen out of popularity, he has left a more enduring legacy: changing what voters expect of their leaders.
Japan can no longer go back to the colorless insiders who ruled by brokering backroom deals between party factions, experts say. After Mr. Koizumi, political leaders must be more television-friendly personalities capable of reaching out directly to the public, and particularly to undecided swing voters.
Mr. Koizumi also whetted Japan’s appetite for more decisive leaders unafraid to make tough choices. Experts say his successors failed because they lapsed into Japan’s consensus-driven politics, appeasing interest groups while seeming to ignore the nation’s enormous problems.
“After Koizumi, voters don’t want consensus-makers anymore,” said Jun Iio, a professor of government at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. “Koizumi set a high bar for leadership that his successors have failed miserably to meet.”
The question now, Mr. Iio and others say, is whether Mr. Kan fully grasps this shift to a more populist style of politics.
Mr. Kan will face his first political test in the July 11 parliamentary elections. In the longer run, experts say, he will succeed only if he can show voters that he is working in their interests, something Mr. Hatoyama failed to do.
“Mr. Hatoyama is a classic example of a prime minister who needed to set a course for Japan, but couldn’t,” said Kyoto University’s Mr. Machidori. “Mr. Kan must show he has learned the Koizumi lesson.”
JAPAN: Struggling Japan edge out Cameroon
Japan 1-0 Cameroon
By Marc Vesty
Japan edged out Cameroon in a dour encounter at Bloemfontein's Free State Stadium which produced little in the way of goalmouth action.
A far from capacity crowd witnessed two out-of-form teams struggle to find any inspiration in another tepid World Cup encounter.
After a dire opening half-hour the Japan took the lead against the run of play when Daisuke Matsui's cross looped over Stephane Mbia and was met by Keisuke Honda, who fired in coolly at the back post.
Japan almost doubled the lead when Makoto Hasebe crashed an effort towards goal but it was well saved by Souleymanou Hamidou before the offside Shinji Okazaki clattered the post as he followed up.
Cameroon finally found some urgency in the closing stages as Mbia rattled the crossbar from 25 yards but the well-drilled Japan side were able to hold on and go level with the Netherlands at the top of Group E.
The Blue Samurai, who had lost four straight games in their World Cup build-up before drawing 0-0 with Zimbabwe, set out so defensively it seemed they would be happy with a point from the opening whistle.
And although Cameroon showed more endeavour, the fact that star striker Samuel Eto'o was played wide on the right and was often found lurking very deep, they lacked any sort of cutting edge.
A 37th-minute shot from Eyong Enoh was the first goalmouth action of the game and, although it was comfortably collected by Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, it did finally suggest Cameroon may start to find gaps in the Japanese defence.
But the opposite was true as, despite their lack of attacking intent, Japan took a surprise lead one minute later.
Matsui's deep left-footed cross was completely missed by the Cameroon defenders and Honda had time to control the ball before passing into the net.
The Indomitable Lions are the most successful African side in World Cup history having qualified for the World Cup six times, but the pride and passion shown by previous incarnations was sadly lacking in this first tournament on their own continent.
Immediately after half time however, it suddenly seemed Cameroon had roused themselves from their slumber.
Three-time African Footballer of the Year Eto'o finally showed a glimpse of his ability when he picked the ball up on the right and beat two men on his way into the area before squaring to Maxim Choupo-Moting but the striker could not control his finish and blasted over the bar.
But that impetus was not to last and it was not until the 85th minute that Cameroon found two efforts which could have stolen them a point.
In a moment of inspiration totally out keeping with the rest of the game, Mbia hammered a stunning effort towards goal from 25 yards which crashed off the crossbar and following that Kawashima saved from Pierre Webo in injury time.
In fairness to Japan the Asian side's tactics worked almost perfectly as they defended solidly but on this evidence the Netherlands and Denmark will have little to worry about going into the tournament's second week.
CHINA: Food-Inspection Group Banned From Working in China
By SCOTT KILMAN
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday it is banning an organic-food inspection group from operating in China nearly two years after the department proposed the ban.
According to the USDA, which certifies private organizations to inspect organic farms, a nonprofit Lincoln, Neb., group called Organic Crop Improvement Association improperly used Chinese government employees to inspect Chinese farms that use state-owned land to grow crops for export to the U.S. bearing the USDA's organic seal.
Under the USDA's eight-year-old organic program, farm visits are supposed to be conducted by independent, third-party inspectors to avoid any conflict of interest.
Amanda Brewster, interim executive director of OCIA, which once was one of the largest organic-food inspection agencies in China, declined to comment in an email message. OCIA can continue to inspect food for compliance with U.S. organic standards in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, among other countries.
The USDA's ban isn't expected to disrupt the flow of organic products from China to U.S. supermarkets. The USDA's long spat with the Nebraska group had already prompted many Chinese farmers to arrange for periodic visits from other inspection groups accredited by the USDA.
According to the USDA, OCIA largely stopped its farm inspection work in China last year. The USDA didn't levy any fines against OCIA, which can apply for re-accreditation in China after one year.
The USDA began trying to revoke OCIA's authority to operate in China after a 2007 audit uncovered the use of Chinese government employees as farm inspectors. OCIA appealed the move.
The New York Times earlier reported the USDA's ban on OCIA on its website.
View article...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday it is banning an organic-food inspection group from operating in China nearly two years after the department proposed the ban.
According to the USDA, which certifies private organizations to inspect organic farms, a nonprofit Lincoln, Neb., group called Organic Crop Improvement Association improperly used Chinese government employees to inspect Chinese farms that use state-owned land to grow crops for export to the U.S. bearing the USDA's organic seal.
Under the USDA's eight-year-old organic program, farm visits are supposed to be conducted by independent, third-party inspectors to avoid any conflict of interest.
Amanda Brewster, interim executive director of OCIA, which once was one of the largest organic-food inspection agencies in China, declined to comment in an email message. OCIA can continue to inspect food for compliance with U.S. organic standards in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, among other countries.
The USDA's ban isn't expected to disrupt the flow of organic products from China to U.S. supermarkets. The USDA's long spat with the Nebraska group had already prompted many Chinese farmers to arrange for periodic visits from other inspection groups accredited by the USDA.
According to the USDA, OCIA largely stopped its farm inspection work in China last year. The USDA didn't levy any fines against OCIA, which can apply for re-accreditation in China after one year.
The USDA began trying to revoke OCIA's authority to operate in China after a 2007 audit uncovered the use of Chinese government employees as farm inspectors. OCIA appealed the move.
The New York Times earlier reported the USDA's ban on OCIA on its website.
View article...
S. KOREA: Korea summit backs biodiversity body
So far, nations have failed to halt the rate of biodiversity loss
Page last updated at 10:30 GMT, Monday, 14 June 2010 11:30 UK
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
An international meeting has given the green light to the formation of a global "science policy" panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Proponents say the new body will "bridge the gulf" between scientific research and urgent political action needed to halt biodiversity loss.
More than 230 delegates from 85 nations backed the proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea.
The international panel is expected to be formally endorsed in 2011.
Among the main roles of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be to carry out peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with "gold standard" reports.
It is expected that the IPBES will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which plays a major role in shaping global climate policy.
'Historic agreement'
"The dream of many scientists in both developed and developing countries has been made a reality," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep).
"Indeed, IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that generate multi-trillion dollar services that underpin all life - including economic life - on Earth."
The meeting's chairman Chan-Woo Kim, director-general of South Korea's environment ministry, said the "historic agreement" laid the foundations for a full scientific assessment of the challenges facing the world.
"The essence of this vision is to ensure environmental sustainability while pursuing development," he explained.
"For this to be realised, it is crucial to have a credible, legitimate and policy-relevant understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services."
The "Busan Outcome" reached in Korea is the culmination of negotiations that began in Paris back in 2006.
The idea to establish the IPBES followed the publication of the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, which concluded that human activities threatened the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the UK's environment department and one of the meeting's vice chairmen, said it was "absolutely critical" to address global biodiversity loss.
"There has been an urgent need to strengthen the legitimacy and credibility of scientific research in this field," he observed.
"IPBES has the potential to now raise global understanding of the threats we face... and empower governments to make policies to counter them, based on solid and integral scientific evidence."
Plans to set up the IPBES are set to be formally established by the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, which opens in September.
They will then be presented to environment ministers for endorsement at Unep's global ministerial meeting in February 2011.
ASIA: Video of Kyrgyz Unrest on YouTube
June 14, 2010, 8:09 am
Video of the city of Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, posted on YouTube on Monday, showing security forces on the streets and some aid distribution.
As my colleague Michael Schwirtz reports from Kyrgyzstan, the southern city of Osh is mostly quiet on Monday morning, “after four days of violence left swaths of the country’s ethnically mixed south in ruins.”
Video showing the aftermath of deadly clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek citizens in and around Osh has been posted on YouTube and collected on the video-sharing service’s CitizenTube blog. Some of the images of dead or badly wounded people posted on the blog are very hard to watch.
This clip, posted within the past hour, seems to show security forces on the streets of the city on Monday:
The same YouTube channel also includes this video, apparently shot on Sunday, which has images of the city shot from the air during what looks like a helicopter patrol by the security forces:
The same user, jshekelman, had also uploaded another video on Saturday showing some of the damage done to buildings in the city:
This video, apparently shot on Saturday in Osh and uploaded to the Web by a user named Oshlik1206, shows a desperate scramble to get medical treatment for some of those wounded in the unrest:
Another YouTube channel, maintained by a user named IlhomDju, includes more images of the wounded, and this clip, apparently shot on a cellphone and uploaded on Saturday, shows burned-out buildings in the city:
ASIA: Uzbek refugees flee Kyrgyzstan violence
Page last updated at 21:54 GMT, Monday, 14 June 2010 22:54 UK
Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have massed at the Uzbekistan border in an attempt to escape violence in Kyrgyzstan which has left at least 138 dead.
Reports suggest that Uzbekistan is considering closing its borders as the build-up continues, despite requests by the UN to keep it open.
The United States has called for a "co-ordinated international response" to the violence.
At least 1,761 people have been injured in four days of clashes.
The unrest - which broke out overnight Thursday between Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad - is the worst ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan in 20 years.
The south of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.5 million people, is home to an ethnic Uzbek minority of almost one million.
It is unclear what has sparked the violence, which comes two months after ex-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a violent uprising.
Kyrgyzstan has appealed to Russia for military support, and the UN Security Council is also being briefed on the situation, according to officials.
British authorities have meanwhile arrested Mr Bakiyev's son, who is wanted by the Kyrgyz interim government for alleged corruption.
Refugee camps
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier said that an estimated 80,000 Uzbeks have crossed into Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan, while about 15,000 are waiting on the border.
Camps have been set up in Uzbekistan to cope with the influx of refugees.
Most were women, children and the elderly, many of whom reportedly had gunshot wounds.
The UN refugee agency says it is providing aid to about 75,000 people.
Earlier on Monday, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a regional grouping of former Soviet states, reached an outline agreement on measures to take as a response to the crisis.
I've overheard them say that they will burn the buildings and shoot us when we flee
Gulnara, Osh
No details have been released of the plans, but a Russian official has told the BBC that Moscow would not rule out sending peacekeeping troops.
Kyrgyzstan has asked Russia for troops, but it has so far refused. Correspondents say Moscow is reluctant to act unilaterally, although it has sent at least 150 paratroopers to protect its military facilities in the north of Kyrgyzstan.
Both the US and Russia have military bases in the north of Kyrgyzstan, and the country is also an important transit point for Nato troops en route to Afghanistan.
Mr Bakiyev, who was ousted in April, has called on the CSTO to send forces, claiming that Kyrgyzstan's interim government had been ineffective.
Separately, the ousted president's son, Maxim Bakiyev, has reportedly been arrested in the UK on an Interpol warrant, the AFP news agency cited Kyrgyz officials as saying.
Keneshbek Duyichebayev, the chief of Kyrgyzstan national security council, told local TV that Maxim Bakiyev was detained on his arrival at Farnborough airport.
The Home Office in London has declined to comment.
Deaths 'under-estimated'
In Kyrgyzstan, sporadic attacks continued on Monday in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad, amid further accusations that Kyrgyzstan troops in some areas had supported anti-Uzbek mobs over the weekend.
Several planes containing medical supplies from the World Health Organisation have begun to arrive at Osh's airport.
The BBC's Rayhan Demytrie in Osh says that many ethnic Uzbeks in the city are trapped in their homes - fearing attacks from mobs on the streets if they leave - and are in urgent need of food and supplies.
There were reports of bodies lying in the streets and in smouldering buildings, and of mass burials being carried out. Whole streets had been burned down.
Osh Police Chief Kursan Asanov said that 950 foreigners - mostly Russians, Pakistanis, Indians and Africans - had been evacuated, according to AP news agency.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has called on the Kyrgyz authorities to end the fighting, adding that there was evidence of indiscriminate killings - including of children - and of rapes.
Uzbek refugees allege that, during the clashes, armoured vehicles in Osh drove through Uzbek streets shooting at civilians and clearing the way for gangs following behind.
Pascale Meige Wagner, from the International Committee for the Red Cross, said the death toll was an underestimate.
"We hear about bodies not being recovered in Osh and Jalalabad. We do believe that once the situation is bit quieter in those two towns we'll have a better idea of the dimension of this crisis," she said.
Mr Bakiyev, living in exile in Belarus, still has supporters in the south of the country, and there have been concerns that his overthrow might have exacerbated historical tensions between the ethnic groups.
Kubatbek Baibolov, commandant in Jalalabad, said the unrest was "nothing other than an attempt by Bakiyev's supporters and relatives to seize power".
Mr Bakiyev denies any involvement.
The interim government said a "well-known person" was arrested in Jalalabad on Monday on suspicion of being behind the unrest, Reuters reported. No further details on the alleged arrest were available.
JAPAN: Japan producers 'more upbeat'
Japanese manufacturers have proved resilient
Page last updated at 10:35 GMT, Monday, 14 June 2010 11:35 UK
Optimism among big Japanese manufacturers has grown in the past three months, a study said.
The results suggested large manufacturers had shaken off fears of the euro debt crisis and the strengthening yen, according to analysts.
However the outlook for the Japanese economy remains uncertain.
Last week Japan's new prime minister said the country was at "risk of collapse" under its huge debts.
Naoto Kan, in his first major speech since taking over, said Japan needed a financial restructuring to avert a Greece-style crisis.
Later this week, Japan's central bank is expected to announce a new loan scheme aimed at redirecting money to industries with growth potential.
Asia demand
The business survey index (BSI) of sentiment at large producers rose to 10 in the April-to-June period, from 4.3 in the previous quarter, a joint survey by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office's Economic and Social Research Institute showed.
The index measures the percentage of firms that expect the business environment to improve from the previous quarter, minus the percentage that expect it to worsen.
Firms also raised their capital expenditure plans, which observers said was a sign that corporations were showing greater appetite to spend.
"Sentiment is gradually improving both for underlying conditions and the outlook," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist for the Norinchukin Research Institute.
"The euro's decline triggered by the Greek debt crisis doesn't seem to have had much impact, at least for now."
Strong demand from Asia has meant that, so far at least, demand for Japanese exports has recovered despite weakness in other markets such as Europe and the US.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
