Thursday, April 25, 2013
RUSSIA: Vladimir Putin’s Live Q&A Sessions: 10 Facts
President Vladimir Putin is set to hold his 11th question and answer session with the Russian public on Thursday.
JAPAN court rejects demand to evacuate children
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court has rejected a demand that a city affected by the fallout of the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster evacuate its children.
The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling Wednesday.
The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children, who are far more vulnerable than adults.
The lawsuit argued the city of Koriyama had legal responsibility to evacuate children at elementary schools and junior-high schools, which are part of compulsory education under Japanese law.
The court acknowledged radiation in the city exceeded levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. But it said the government shoulders no responsibility for evacuating the schools as demanded — in effect, telling people to leave on their own if they were worried.
Toshio Yanagihara, one of the lawyers, said the ruling was unfair as the children were “victims with absolutely no responsibility for the nuclear accident.”
A lower court threw out the original case in December 2011, but that ruling was appealed. The latest ruling can also be appealed.
Koriyama is a city of 330,000 people located about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which went into multiple meltdowns more than two years ago after a giant tsunami destroyed it cooling system. That set off the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
Thousands of children got cancer after the Chernobyl disaster, but the cases did not surface for several years.
It is unclear whether Fukushima children are equally prone, as cancer has various causes, and radiation affects people differently. Radioactive contamination is complex, tainting not only the air but also getting in the food, soil and water.
Some experts say radiation outside the restricted zone right around Fukushima Dai-ichi is so low the probability of getting cancer is no different from the rest of Japan. But many Fukushima residents are worried and have moved out.
The government’s handling of the Fukushima disaster has led to widespread public distrust. Thousands of people have taken to the streets, demanding a phase-out of atomic power. The government has expressed a desire to restart reactors after checking on their safety.
The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling Wednesday.
The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children, who are far more vulnerable than adults.
The lawsuit argued the city of Koriyama had legal responsibility to evacuate children at elementary schools and junior-high schools, which are part of compulsory education under Japanese law.
The court acknowledged radiation in the city exceeded levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. But it said the government shoulders no responsibility for evacuating the schools as demanded — in effect, telling people to leave on their own if they were worried.
Toshio Yanagihara, one of the lawyers, said the ruling was unfair as the children were “victims with absolutely no responsibility for the nuclear accident.”
A lower court threw out the original case in December 2011, but that ruling was appealed. The latest ruling can also be appealed.
Koriyama is a city of 330,000 people located about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which went into multiple meltdowns more than two years ago after a giant tsunami destroyed it cooling system. That set off the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
Thousands of children got cancer after the Chernobyl disaster, but the cases did not surface for several years.
It is unclear whether Fukushima children are equally prone, as cancer has various causes, and radiation affects people differently. Radioactive contamination is complex, tainting not only the air but also getting in the food, soil and water.
Some experts say radiation outside the restricted zone right around Fukushima Dai-ichi is so low the probability of getting cancer is no different from the rest of Japan. But many Fukushima residents are worried and have moved out.
The government’s handling of the Fukushima disaster has led to widespread public distrust. Thousands of people have taken to the streets, demanding a phase-out of atomic power. The government has expressed a desire to restart reactors after checking on their safety.
KOREA PENINSULA: South Korea Warns North of ‘Grave Measure’ in Factory Dispute
Concerns grow that South Korea could withdraw from a jointly operated industrial complex located in North Korea.
ASEAN makes progress on trade, not on sea disputes
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders were upbeat Thursday about progress made on an ambitious plan to weld the region into a European Union-style economic community as a counterweight to Asian powerhouse China, while efforts were stalling on South China Sea disputes.
Leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Brunei had hoped China would soon agree to start talks on a nonaggression pact to prevent a major clash in the disputed territories that
could smoke out their region’s robust economies.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, left, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, center, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung pose for a group photo session during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Thursday. Pic: AP.
But China has given no clear indication when it would agree to negotiate such a stopgap accord, known in ASEAN parlance as a “Code of Conduct.”
“Everybody is interested in having a peaceful resolution and also in voicing a concern that there have been increasing sea disputes,” Philippine President Benigno Aquino III told reporters after he and the other heads of state sat in a traditional dinner Wednesday.
Although overshadowed by security issues, an ambitious plan by ASEAN to transform itself into an E.U.-like community of more than 600 million people by the end of 2015 has sparked more optimism, with diplomats saying the bloc was on track to meet the deadline.
About 77 percent of the work to turn the bustling region into a single market and production base, first laid out in a 2007 blueprint, have been done, according to a confidential draft statement to be issued after the summit.
Nine leaders in the 10-nation bloc huddled behind closed doors Thursday at a cavernous, stone and marble building Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had ordered built for the annual two-day summit. Absent from the session was Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rasak, who was campaigning for re-election back home.
Carl Thayer, an expert who has extensively studied the territorial conflicts, said ASEAN may have committed a strategic mistake of agreeing to a crucial process that could easily be stalled by China, which would not commit to anything that would restrict its plans.
“ASEAN is stuck in a bureaucratic rut,” Thayer said.
The battle for ownership of potentially oil-rich territories in the South China Sea has settled into an uneasy stand-off since the last fighting, involving China and Vietnam, that killed more than 70 Vietnamese sailors in 1988. The other claimants are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.
New skirmishes, however, have erupted in the last two years, involving Vietnam, the Philippines and China, which claims the busy waterway virtually in its entirety.
Concerns have been exacerbated by China’s deployment of a patrol ship, equipped with a helipad, to guard its claimed areas and establishment last year of what they called Sansha city on a remote island 350 kilometers (220 miles) from southern Hainan to administer areas being contested by rival claimant countries.
A tense standoff erupted last year between Chinese and Filipino ships over the Scarborough Shoal has remained unresolved, prompting the Philippines in January to take a daring legal step that challenged China’s vast claims before a tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China has ignored the move.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said all the five arbiters of the tribunal have been appointed and they could now start looking into the case if they declare they have jurisdiction.
The long-raging disputes have threatened to divide ASEAN. Last year, its foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statement — a first in the bloc’s 45-year history — after Cambodia refused mention of the territorial rifts in the communique, provoking protests from Vietnam and the Philippines.
Cambodia, a known China ally, has towed Beijing’s line that the disputes should not be brought to the international arena. China wants the disputes settled by negotiating one on one with each of the rival claimants, something that will give it advantage because of its sheer size.
During the summit, ASEAN leaders also expressed concern about North Korea’s latest threats.
Leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Brunei had hoped China would soon agree to start talks on a nonaggression pact to prevent a major clash in the disputed territories that
could smoke out their region’s robust economies.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, left, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, center, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung pose for a group photo session during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, Thursday. Pic: AP.
But China has given no clear indication when it would agree to negotiate such a stopgap accord, known in ASEAN parlance as a “Code of Conduct.”
“Everybody is interested in having a peaceful resolution and also in voicing a concern that there have been increasing sea disputes,” Philippine President Benigno Aquino III told reporters after he and the other heads of state sat in a traditional dinner Wednesday.
Although overshadowed by security issues, an ambitious plan by ASEAN to transform itself into an E.U.-like community of more than 600 million people by the end of 2015 has sparked more optimism, with diplomats saying the bloc was on track to meet the deadline.
About 77 percent of the work to turn the bustling region into a single market and production base, first laid out in a 2007 blueprint, have been done, according to a confidential draft statement to be issued after the summit.
Nine leaders in the 10-nation bloc huddled behind closed doors Thursday at a cavernous, stone and marble building Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had ordered built for the annual two-day summit. Absent from the session was Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rasak, who was campaigning for re-election back home.
Carl Thayer, an expert who has extensively studied the territorial conflicts, said ASEAN may have committed a strategic mistake of agreeing to a crucial process that could easily be stalled by China, which would not commit to anything that would restrict its plans.
“ASEAN is stuck in a bureaucratic rut,” Thayer said.
The battle for ownership of potentially oil-rich territories in the South China Sea has settled into an uneasy stand-off since the last fighting, involving China and Vietnam, that killed more than 70 Vietnamese sailors in 1988. The other claimants are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.
New skirmishes, however, have erupted in the last two years, involving Vietnam, the Philippines and China, which claims the busy waterway virtually in its entirety.
Concerns have been exacerbated by China’s deployment of a patrol ship, equipped with a helipad, to guard its claimed areas and establishment last year of what they called Sansha city on a remote island 350 kilometers (220 miles) from southern Hainan to administer areas being contested by rival claimant countries.
A tense standoff erupted last year between Chinese and Filipino ships over the Scarborough Shoal has remained unresolved, prompting the Philippines in January to take a daring legal step that challenged China’s vast claims before a tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China has ignored the move.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said all the five arbiters of the tribunal have been appointed and they could now start looking into the case if they declare they have jurisdiction.
The long-raging disputes have threatened to divide ASEAN. Last year, its foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statement — a first in the bloc’s 45-year history — after Cambodia refused mention of the territorial rifts in the communique, provoking protests from Vietnam and the Philippines.
Cambodia, a known China ally, has towed Beijing’s line that the disputes should not be brought to the international arena. China wants the disputes settled by negotiating one on one with each of the rival claimants, something that will give it advantage because of its sheer size.
During the summit, ASEAN leaders also expressed concern about North Korea’s latest threats.
CHINA: Tibetan monks die after immolations
Two Tibetan monks die after setting themselves alight in a Tibetan area of China's Sichuan province, reports say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
